Chaos Reigns on U.K. Film and TV Sets as COVID-19 Cases Soar

Corona UK

Netflix's 'Bridgerton' and HBO's 'House of Dragon' are among the major shoots closed down as the U.K. becomes a global hotspot for the delta variant:
"On too many productions, COVID supervisors are not listened to and their advice is ignored."

“Freedom Day has turned into closure day.”

So lamented Andrew Lloyd Webber as he revealed on Monday — the very day that all remaining lockdown restrictions were lifted across England — that he was shuttering his West End musical Cinderella after a castmember tested positive for COVID-19. The theater impresario pulled no punches in laying the blame squarely at the feet of the British government, which he said created the “impossible conditions” that forced him to indefinitely close the show on the eve of its official opening.

With infection rates soaring across the country due to the highly contagious delta variant of the virus, the decision to remove the final set of lockdown restrictions, mostly affecting social gatherings, while also making mask-wearing voluntary, has been a deeply contentious one — praised by elements of the conservative media (which followed the government’s line in dubbing it “Freedom Day”), but heavily criticized by the scientific community in the U.K. and around the globe. On Monday alone, almost 40,000 new cases were recorded, the highest single-day tally since Jan. 11, with experts predicting that daily infections will soon top those seen during the deadly second wave at the start of the year. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself spent his own “Freedom Day” in quarantine, having been pinged by the NHS’s special track and trace COVID-19 app, which notifies all users who have been within 2 meters of anyone who tests positive for the virus for 15 minutes or more and asks them to quarantine for 10 days. BBC Radio reported Tuesday that 1.8 million people in the country were currently isolating in a mass quarantine that has hit businesses across almost all sectors.

As it happens, the U.K. becoming one of the world’s leading hotspots for the most virulent strain of COVID-19 has coincided with it also becoming one of the world’s leading film and TV hotspots. After already enjoying a pre-pandemic boom thanks to a healthy tax credits system, major investments from studios and streamers, and a strong dollar against the pound, the added bottleneck that arose due to the lockdown in 2020 and subsequent rising demand for content has seen production levels skyrocket. “I haven’t seen it this busy in my entire career,” one film producer tells The Hollywood Reporter. And across these bustling creative industries, much like Lloyd Webber’s musical where social distancing simply isn’t an option, “Freedom Day” proved — for many sector workers — to be anything but. In the days leading up to July 19, a sudden flurry of major productions were hit by what the media has called the “pingdemic.” Shooting on the second season of Netflix’ hit period drama Bridgerton halted for a second time recently following a positive COVID-19 test and has reportedly paused indefinitely while the streamer and producer, Shondaland, create a timetable for return. Netflix’s feature-length musical adaptation of Matilda with Working Title was also disrupted following a coronavirus outbreak, with the first filming unit forced to stop work and isolate. And then there’s HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, shooting across several stages at Warner Bros. Leavesdon, which shut down for two days on Monday after a production member tested positive. But these are merely the shoots known about. According to another filmmaker, for every production that creates a headline, “there are another two or three that shut down and don’t become news.”

While Netflix is known to have strict COVID-19 procedures in place and carries out proactive testing on its series — which is why it has already identified cases and acted accordingly — others are less vigilant. THR has heard reports of one British feature film where the DoP and camera crew became infected after refusing to wear masks on set. “On too many productions, COVID supervisors are not listened to and their advice is ignored,” says veteran Brit producer Jonathan Weissler of Balagan Production. “Quite often these supervisors are relatively junior production people who now have this job title but no actual authority. When a director or DoP refuses to wear masks, what message does that pass on to the rest of the crew?” Weissler also suggests that many productions “cover up” their COVID problems, simply plugging gaps with crew, only for more people to become infected the next day. But with COVID delays now written into insurance policies, such corner cutting could affect any compensation that might be due when a production is hit. “If they don’t stick to [the guidelines], they might lose the compensation they get when production is delayed, and they are sort of incentivized to stick to those,” says Enders Analysis COO and director of TV Gill Hind. “If you are not actually sticking to the guidelines, you probably lose that compensation.” With most people on productions likely to be at least partly vaccinated, few people on sets are likely to become “badly ill,” she adds. “So people are going to be able to come back to work pretty quickly. And if you are immediately off, then your colleagues don’t get infected with it. So I think the industry has done pretty well.” Adds Hill: “We are probably likely to see a few shutdowns. But it is not like everything is going to suddenly stop. I think the sector has been as careful as it can be.”

Despite the bumps felt by Bridgerton, Matilda, House of the Dragon and probably many more to come, the latest chaos emanating from the U.K. is unlikely to have any impact at all on the level of production, which appears to be only going in one direction. The lockdown days of spring/summer 2020, when studios were forced to close their doors and projects were left in mothballed for months, have well and truly passed. That said, the anger leveled at the government for its overall handling of the pandemic — not least the decision to remove all restrictions entirely amid a surge in infections and, as Lloyd Webber argued, its “blunt instrument” isolation guidance — isn’t likely to dissipate soon. “I think our government has got blood on its hands. Not only have they caused so many COVID deaths by acting so slowly and clumsily during the initial lockdowns, but they’re now removing the mask policy when we are exploding with new cases,” says Weissler. “I have no problem wearing a mask if thats what it takes. It seems like a small price to pay, but our government have called removing masks ‘Freedom Day,’ and that messaging has made masks so political at a time when it gives us the best chance of living with COVID until we get better treatment, or the virus mutates into something less lethal.”

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Not good.

[www.cnbc.com]

Music festival in the Netherlands leads to over 1,000 Covid infections

A festival in the Netherlands has shocked officials after 1,000 coronavirus infections were linked to the event despite it requiring a “test for entry.”

The Verknipt outdoor festival, which took place in Utrecht in early July, was attended by 20,000 people over two days. Everyone who attended had to show a QR code that demonstrated that they were vaccinated, had recently had a Covid infection or had a negative Covid test.

Organizers have insisted the event was carefully planned and controlled but despite this, 1,050 people who attended the festival have since tested positive for Covid, according to Utrecht’s regional heath board.

“We cannot say that all these people were infected at the festival itself; it could also be possible that they’ve been infected while travelling to the festival or in the evening before going to the festival or having an after-party. So they’re (the cases) all linked to the festival but we can’t 100% say they were infected at the festival,” Lennart van Trigt, a spokesman for the Utrecht health board, or GGD, said.

Nonetheless, he said that the amount of cases was “quite staggering” and could increase slightly in the coming days.

The event highlighted problems in the “test for entry” process, van Trigt added, with people allowed to do Covid tests as much as 40 hours before the event, allowing the possibility of getting infected with Covid in the meantime.

“We’ve found out now that this period is too long. We should have had a 24 hour [period], that would be a lot better because in 40 hours people can do a lot of things like visiting friends and going to bars and clubs. So in a period of 24 hours people can do less things and it’s safer,” he said

Another problem was that people in the Netherlands could get a Covid pass for the festival immediately after being vaccinated, when in reality it takes several weeks for immunity to build following a Covid vaccine.

“We were a bit too trigger happy,” van Trigt said, noting that lessons had been learnt.

Utrecht’s Mayor Sharon Dijksma has come in for particular condemnation as she attended the ill-fated festival.

The Netherlands has seen a staggering rise in Covid cases in the last few weeks, particularly after it lifted restrictions on bars and clubs at the end of June and Covid surged among younger people as a result.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Health Minister Hugo de Jonge apologized on Monday, saying the government had made an “error of judgement” in lifting restrictions too early.

De Jonge further apologized for his “dansen met Janssen” (“dancing with Janssen”) campaign which had promoted the one-shot Janssen Covid vaccine to young people so they could go out partying.

Having acknowledged that “the coronavirus infection rate in the Netherlands has increased much faster than expected since society reopened almost completely on 26 June,” the government announced last Friday that nightclubs and live performances would once again close until at least August 13.

The country’s “R” number now stands at 2.17, meaning that every one person with Covid-19 is likely to infect at least two other people.

On Wednesday, a further 10,492 cases were reported in the country, higher than the average number of daily cases (8,395) over the past seven days. The majority of new cases are among people aged between 20-29 years.

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bleedingman
Interesting that Newsmax and Fox seem to be getting in line with advocating vaccines and even praising Joe Biden's taking the baton from Trump:

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy Gushes Over Biden in Pro-Vaccine Op-Ed

[www.yahoo.com]

Suddenly, Sean Hannity and other Fox Hosts are urging their viewers to get COVID-19 vaccines

[news.yahoo.com]

Money talks. They don't want their crack base to die off.

For those that have opined that the death rate is really low in Africa and other 3rd World countries, speculating that is because of the relatively younger populations, could also be the issue of underreporting...case in point:

[www.cbc.ca]

Pretty horrific:

India's COVID-19 death toll could be 10 times the official count, research suggests

'True deaths are likely to be in the several millions not hundreds of thousands,' a new report says
The Associated Press · Posted: Jul 20, 2021 2:00 PM ET | Last Updated: 6 hours ago


India's excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India's worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the South Asian country.

Most experts believe India's official toll of more than 414,000 dead is a vast undercount, but the government has dismissed those concerns as exaggerated and misleading.

The difficulty of vaccinating the world against COVID-19 is enormous
The report released Tuesday estimated excess deaths — the gap between those recorded and those that would have been expected — to be 3.4 million to 4.7 million between January 2020 and June 2021. It said an accurate figure may "prove elusive" but the true death toll "is likely to be an order of magnitude greater than the official count."

The report was published by Arvind Subramanian, the Indian government's former chief economic adviser, and two other researchers at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, and Harvard University.

It said the count could have missed deaths that occurred in overwhelmed hospitals or while health care was disrupted, particularly during the devastating virus surge earlier this year.

Worst tragedy since Partition of India
"True deaths are likely to be in the several millions not hundreds of thousands, making this arguably India's worst human tragedy since Partition and independence," the report said.

The Partition of the British-ruled Indian subcontinent into independent India and Pakistan in 1947 led to the killing of up to 1 million people as gangs of Hindus and Muslims slaughtered each other.

As Canada reopens, about 88 per cent of the world hasn’t had a single COVID-19 shot and experts warn the glaring inequality is a threat to everyone trying to escape the pandemic. 7:26
One Canadian expert said the report's overall conclusions are likely right, but its methodology is problematic.

"They did the best they can," Prabhat Jha, a doctor and epidemiologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, said in an interview with CBC News. "They end up with a big number, well over 3 million deaths, but they end up with [the] somewhat implausible idea that the first viral wave, which was in September of last year, was bigger than the current viral wave, which was in April to May or April to June."

He said that the researchers included data from unreliable sources, which will lead to pushback from the Indian government about their findings.


Dr. Prabhat Jha is the director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital, and professor of epidemiology at University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. (Unity Health Toronto)
Still, Jha said he agreed that India's death toll is much greater than 400,000, which he said would mean the country had a death rate about one-eighth of the death rate in the United States.

"No one really seriously believes that the Indian death rates from the infection are so low."

The report on India's virus toll used three calculation methods: data from the civil registration system that records births and deaths across seven states, blood tests showing the prevalence of the virus in India alongside global COVID-19 fatality rates, and an economic survey of nearly 900,000 people done thrice a year.

Researchers did caution that each method had weaknesses, such as the economic survey omitting the causes of death.

So the researchers also looked at deaths from all causes and compared that data to mortality in previous years.

Researchers also cautioned that virus prevalence and COVID-19 deaths in the seven states they studied may not translate to all of India, since the virus could have spread more in urban versus rural states and since health care quality varies greatly around India.


Other nations are also believed to have undercounted deaths in the pandemic. But India is thought to have a greater gap due to having the world's second highest population of 1.4 billion and because not all deaths were recorded even before the pandemic.

The health ministry did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the report.

Dr. Jacob John, who studies viruses at the Christian Medical College at Vellore in southern India and was not part of the research, reviewed the report for the AP and said it underscores the devastating impact COVID-19 had on the country's underprepared health system.

"This analysis reiterates the observations of other fearless investigative journalists that have highlighted the massive undercounting of deaths," Jacob said.

'Collective complacency'
The report also estimated that nearly 2 million Indians died during the first surge in infections last year and said not "grasping the scale of the tragedy in real time" may have "bred collective complacency that led to the horrors" of the surge earlier this year.

Over the last few months, some Indian states have increased their COVID-19 death toll after finding thousands of previously unreported cases, raising concerns that many more fatalities were not officially recorded.

Several Indian journalists have also published higher numbers from some states using government data. Scientists say this new information is helping them better understand how COVID-19 spread in India.


Health-care workers attend to a patient at the Nesco Jumbo COVID-19 center in Mumbai on July 5, 2021. (Rafiq Maqbool/The Associated Press)
Murad Banaji, who studies mathematics at Middlesex University and has been looking at India's COVID-19 mortality figures, said the recent data has confirmed some of the suspicions about undercounting. Banaji said the new data also shows the virus wasn't restricted to urban centres, as contemporary reports had indicated, and that India's villages were also badly impacted.

"A question we should ask is if some of those deaths were avoidable," he said.

ICMR sero survey says two-thirds of Indians exposed to Covid

[www.bbc.com]

Considering such massive exposure and currently dropping death toll, India seems on a good track. That's like 1 billion infections. Is the death toll really that high there then? Let's assume (pessimistically) the death toll was 10 times larger at 4 million. That gives 0.4%, much lower than the normally seen 2%.

Is that because they used invermectin?

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skytrench
ICMR sero survey says two-thirds of Indians exposed to Covid

[www.bbc.com]

Considering such massive exposure and currently dropping death toll, India seems on a good track. That's like 1 billion infections. Is the death toll really that high there then? Let's assume (pessimistically) the death toll was 10 times larger at 4 million. That gives 0.4%, much lower than the normally seen 2%.

Comparing apples to oranges and just making numbers up. Furthermore the death rate is not the only number. Take into account all those with serious long term side effects and the damage is even worse. My guess is you never actually had Covid.

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Rocktiludrop

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GasLightStreet

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Midnight Toker
If masks and vaccines worked, people would not be contracting the virus at all.

Uh... you forget you're not on Fox News?

I watch Fox news, why is it seen as Fake news on iorr, trying to work out why places like CNN are a better source of information.
I'm not the brightest spark but could your conclusions be politically based.

Also why are sources of information ( covid ) only considered facts when they are presented by MSM who are owned by a few billionaires who have doubled their fortunes since covid.

I agree. It's estimated 80-90% of journalists are liberal, therefore the same ratio of news reported by mainstream media might be assumed to be slanted in that direction so of course they're going to be biased against the other 10-20%; though that's far from the makeup of the country.

I had a conversation with a buddy of mine, and to be fully transparent here I am fiscally conservative though socially liberal, but we even agreed we believe nothing from no source until corroborated from other sources, which is what journalists used to do for you! But in this age of trying to beat everyone to the story using unnamed sources there's a ton of false information that makes it's way into the 'news', not to mention trying to fill a 24X7 news cycle sort of sets up channels to start chasing such stories.

The old 30-60 minute daily world news didn't seem to find it worth spending time on such stuff because of limited time on air, which in retrospect may have been a blessing.

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daspyknows
All the anti-vaxxer Covid deniers who think the election was stolen account for most of the BS. If they choose not to get vaccinated nature will take its course.

Those vaccinated (me included) will get the hammer of mother nature anyway. The vaccines are just a plaster. From a logistic point of view the vaccines are a lost race against the mutants, due to our behaviour in the world. And Covid is just small part of the misery.

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TheflyingDutchman

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daspyknows
All the anti-vaxxer Covid deniers who think the election was stolen account for most of the BS. If they choose not to get vaccinated nature will take its course.

Those vaccinated (me included) will get the hammer of mother nature anyway. The vaccines are just a plaster. From a logistic point of view the vaccines are a lost race against the mutants, due to our behaviour in the world. And Covid is just small part of the misery.

From my understanding tweaking the mRNA vaccines and using them like flu shots (annual boosters) is how we can ultimately stay ahead of Covid. Unfortunately this is not scalable for the entire planet given that many will refuse to take it and many cannot afford it. Mother nature is ultimately going to win because humans have proven to be stupid in many ways.

Can we have some cheer in this thread, please? Jesus! Crack-open a few cold ones, stick on the Stones and chill-out!

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daspyknows

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Nikkei

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daspyknows
All the anti-vaxxer Covid deniers who think the election was stolen account for most of the BS. If they choose not to get vaccinated nature will take its course.

They're absolutely deluded and a problem for democracy but you seem to rely on them in order to whip yourself into a frenzy. How many more times will you post the same thing

I will post it as often as those on the other side spew their nonsense. Until an unless they stop I will not so there is the alternate (and true) viewpoint otherwise it will sound like Faux News.

If it's nature taking its course, you (being fully vaccinated) might as well lean back and watch it happen. If someone is determined not to get your point, it won't help repeating it endlessly.

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Nikkei

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daspyknows

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Nikkei

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daspyknows
All the anti-vaxxer Covid deniers who think the election was stolen account for most of the BS. If they choose not to get vaccinated nature will take its course.

They're absolutely deluded and a problem for democracy but you seem to rely on them in order to whip yourself into a frenzy. How many more times will you post the same thing

I will post it as often as those on the other side spew their nonsense. Until an unless they stop I will not so there is the alternate (and true) viewpoint otherwise it will sound like Faux News.

If it's nature taking its course, you (being fully vaccinated) might as well lean back and watch it happen. If someone is determined not to get your point, it won't help repeating it endlessly.

Right but the same people are posting their anti vaccine nonsense over and over again. Others who might be on the fence will only see anti-vaccine, pro Covid nonsense. Not trying to convince the flat earth crowd. They will never learn anyway.

'It's a nightmare': Covid Delta variant rocks a recovering Capitol complex
The variant's arrival on the Hill has shaken its slow return to normalcy.

Corona USA

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s trip to Israel got postponed. Nearly half of House members are masked on the floor again. One Senate Democrat even floated a “proof of vaccination” card to enter the Capitol. As Covid infections have crept back onto the Hill, they've shattered the sense of calm that had just begun to settle across the complex after the deadly pandemic and insurrection. After a weekslong trudge toward normalcy, fears are now spiking over the highly contagious Delta variant, which the Capitol physician confirmed Tuesday has been reported in Capitol office buildings. Several fully vaccinated individuals on the Hill have tested positive for the virus — including the first known member of Congress since January — spurring a heightened sense of unease for the thousands of people who traverse the Capitol complex each day. “It's a nightmare,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who said he saw about half of members — including himself — wear their masks on the crowded House floor on Tuesday. "The mood is one of frustration and concern. ... It's a disappointing turn of events." “I’m feeling a lot more anxiety about it,” added Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), who said she has decided to start wearing her mask with the Delta variant spreading. “This is nothing to be messed around with.”

For now, Capitol doctor Brian Monahan said he is not reinstating a mask mandate for the House and Senate office buildings. But in a letter to Hill offices on Tuesday, Monahan warned the Delta variant is “much more contagious” and poses “a dire health risk to unvaccinated individuals.” Already, some offices started to cancel or downsize public events. Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said GOP leaders have now decided to forgo a planned trip to Israel in August. “We were going to Israel, leading all the freshmen and it just got canceled because of the Delta variant,” McCaul said, adding that one of his top concerns is whether he needs a booster shot for continued protection. “The question is ... does this Delta pose a risk to even those who got vaccinated?” McCaul said, noting that he had just spoken to Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), who tested positive for the virus but had already been vaccinated.

At least one top Democrat, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, didn’t rule out a return to mask mandates in the Capitol, which were lifted two months ago: “We’re going to have to talk about whether we’re going back to masks.” Hoyer added that Monahan is actively monitoring the cases in the Capitol and is in close communication with congressional leaders about whether to update the guidance. Another senior Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), floated possibly requiring "proof of vaccination" to enter the Capitol — a scenario that would be highly unlikely but illustrates the level of anxiety across the sprawling campus. “You might need proof of vaccination to get in,” Reed said, citing data that people who are becoming seriously ill are now almost all unvaccinated. As leader of the Senate’s funding panel that oversees the legislative branch, Reed added that the variant would be a major consideration as the Capitol inches towards normalcy and a full reopening. While the vast majority of members, staff and visitors in the House and Senate ditched masks weeks ago, that began to change dramatically this week. In hallways and hearing rooms this week, many lawmakers and aides are again donning face coverings. That’s particularly true in the House, where there are hundreds more members and thousands more staffers sharing the same cafeterias and hallways.

The rise in cases among vaccinated people — including a senior aide in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and a White House official on Tuesday — spooked many members and staffers whose offices have only just returned to full capacity. Many flocked to the Capitol’s free coronavirus testing site on Tuesday, some for the first time in months. For many Democrats in the House, there’s a sense of acute frustration at GOP lawmakers who have refused vaccines but also go mask-less in public areas. At least one Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has received his first dose of the vaccine in the last several days, citing the Delta variant. But dozens of House Republicans have told reporters they have refused to get vaccinated. “We don’t even know if all our colleagues are vaccinated on the other side of the aisle,” said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), who is fully vaccinated but said she is still avoiding large public settings, such as committee hearings, where some of her GOP colleagues have forgone vaccines. “Every workplace in the country is trying to sort this out right now, and we are setting a terrible example,” Kuster said. In the upper chamber, where every Senate Democrat and nearly all Senate Republicans have said they’ve been vaccinated, fewer people were wearing masks on Tuesday. Still, the transition has been slow: The Senate Democratic Caucus only recently returned to in-person lunches and meetings. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, urged people to get vaccinated “as rapidly as possible” at a press conference Tuesday, “or we're gonna be back in a situation in the fall that we don't yearn for, that we went through last year.”

At least some of the Hill’s coronavirus cases appeared to stem from a visit from a group of Democrats from the Texas state legislature, three of whom later tested positive for the virus over the weekend. By Tuesday morning, a senior spokesperson for Pelosi and a White House official tested positive after coming into contact with the group. Many in the Capitol were just beginning to breathe a sigh of relief as security measures — related to both the coronavirus outbreak and the violent riot on Jan. 6. — had begun to recede. The massive fence surrounding the Capitol grounds had just come down last week. House office buildings are now fully reopened to staff and official guests, including gyms, though the building is expected to remain closed to public tours for the near future. But several lawmakers and aides, particularly Democrats, say their offices are taking more precautions. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), for instance, said he will wear a mask in an upcoming meeting with a visitor from his district, who has also been directed to wear a mask. “There may be another variant, there may be a lot more,” Pocan said, noting he’s not sure how long his office policies will hold. “We’re all living through the history of it. But I think what we’re seeing is that we have to reinforce careful behavior.”

Not all lawmakers say they’re concerned about the spread in the Capitol, noting that most members are vaccinated. “I don’t see this as a major problem, but obviously if something develops and we need to do something different, we will,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said. “I’ll do what the House physician tells me to do.” Still, several aides privately complained there is little guidance across the Capitol on the level of risk in the building or how often they should get tested if they are already vaccinated. The uncertainty is particularly high for vaccinated adults with unvaccinated children, who say there is little certainty about whether they can spread the virus at home. Reed noted that even with official business visits allowed, the volume of people flowing through the Capitol and office buildings is still much, much lower than it was before the pandemic. "It's not like prior to Covid when trade groups would come down, they had the Monday through Wednesday group and the Wednesday through Friday group," said Reed. "We're probably not going to do that until the fall or maybe next spring," said the Rhode Island Democrat.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

"U.S. life expectancy fell by 1.5 years last year, due to COVID-19", as reported on MSNBC just now.

First time since WWII, according to the story.

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treaclefingers
"U.S. life expectancy fell by 1.5 years last year, due to COVID-19", as reported on MSNBC just now.

First time since WWII, according to the story.

You just beat me to that one TF. I wonder what it’s gonna take to convince some folks. Three years without a tour isn’t doing it.

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treaclefingers
"U.S. life expectancy fell by 1.5 years last year, due to COVID-19", as reported on MSNBC just now.

First time since WWII, according to the story.

The average American adult consumes 3000+ calories per-day and averages only 4000 steps, too. That’s abysmal. Poor lifestyle is also a major contributor to one’s ability to effectively fight infection, also. The U.S. government should be trying to entice Americans to get more exercise and change their dietary habits as well.

COVID-19: 100,000 will die of coronavirus globally between now and end of the Olympics, WHO chief predicts

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that anyone who thinks the pandemic is over because cases are under control in their country is living in "a fool's paradise".

Coronavirus

More than 100,000 people will die from COVID-19 around the world between now and the end of the Olympic Games, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has predicted.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Tokyo that "the pandemic is a test and the world is failing". He also warned that anyone who thinks the pandemic is over because cases are under control in their country is living in "a fool's paradise". Dr Tedros also said that it is a "horrifying injustice" that 75% of the vaccine shots delivered globally so far were in just 10 countries. He added: "More than four million people have died and more continue to die. Already this year, the number of deaths is more than double last year's total. "In the time it takes me to make these remarks, more than 100 people will lose their lives to COVID-19. "And by the time the Olympic flame is extinguished on 8 August, more than 100,000 more people will perish."

The WHO is urging governments to come together to reach a target of vaccinating 70% of people in every country by the middle of 2022. Estimates suggest that the world will need to produce 11 billion doses next year. During his speech, Dr Tedros added: "The pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it. It is in our hands." He also warned that a global failure to share vaccines, tests and treatments - including oxygen - is fuelling a "two-track pandemic" where the haves are easing restrictions, while the have-nots are returning to lockdowns. "The longer this discrepancy persists, the longer the pandemic will drag on, and so will the social and economic turmoil it brings," Dr Tedros said. Despite his dire predictions, the WHO chief said the Tokyo Olympics should go ahead in order to demonstrate to the world what can be achieved with the right plan and sufficient measures. Dr Tedros said the world needs the Games - which were delayed for a year because of the pandemic - as a "celebration of hope". He added that it is his sincere hope that the Games succeed, telling IOC members: "The Olympics have the power to bring the world together, to inspire, to show what's possible. "May the rays of hope from this land illuminate a new dawn for a healthy, safer and fairer world." About 34% of Japan's population have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and some officials are concerned that the Olympics could become a super-spreader event.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

More incentive to get vaccinated and keep our guards up.

"Vaccinated people: Your odds of a COVID 'breakthrough' infection have gone up. That doesn't mean you need to panic."

New York Yankees, Texas wedding guests, and Vegas partygoers are part of an unlucky but growing minority.

They are fully vaccinated people who've got cases of COVID-19, as the more contagious Delta variant spreads quickly around the world.

Their illnesses are a reminder that this pandemic is not over, and we urgently need more shots in arms — globally.

Vaccinated people: A shot does not catapult you into a post-pandemic dream world. Don't be shocked if you go out and socialize unmasked and then later test positive for COVID-19.

It's nothing to fret about too much: If you get a "breakthrough" infection, it may feel like a cold or be completely asymptomatic.

But with the far more contagious Delta variant at play, your odds of infection are up, and you could also hurt others by spreading an infection around.

"Plague amnesia is going to cause a massive crisis in the United States if people want to forget that we are still in the midst of a pandemic," said Charity Dean, a former top-tier official at the California Department of Public Health and a key character in Michael Lewis' new book about the pandemic.


Fully vaccinated people have been given license to party by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said that people who are fully vaccinated can go maskless indoors pretty much everywhere, even in public spaces. (Almost half of the US is fully vaccinated, the CDC said.)

"This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said during a White House briefing on Friday.

That is the CDC's take-home message in a nutshell: If you are vaccinated, this virus is no longer your concern.

But the reality is, now that the Delta variant dominates, everyone's odds of getting sick have ticked up, especially as more people are mask-free as they mingle with other households.

Delta is about twice as contagious as Alpha, which is in turn about twice as contagious as the original virus identified in Wuhan, China. (Public Health England found the Delta variant was 60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which was already deemed "50% more transmissible than current variants" by the CDC.)

Fully vaccinated people who've recently said that they tested positive for COVID-19 include Miami County Commissioner Jose Diaz (who'd been working alongside first responders at the Surfside building collapse), reporter Catt Sadler, comedian Gabriel Iglesias, six Texas lawmakers, and the UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

Christopher Murray, the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which the White House has leaned on for COVID-19 projections, told Insider the Delta variant is driving up cases across the US — including among the vaccinated.

"The vaccines, especially for the Delta variant, are better at preventing severe disease and death than they are at preventing infections," Murray told Insider.

Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King's College London, told Insider there is nothing to suggest Delta is more lethal, but it is more infectious, and "because of that extra stickiness, it's going to still keep breaking through the vaccine group."

The good news is that even with the more contagious Delta variant around, COVID-19 appears to be milder in vaccinated people, who may suffer symptoms such as coughs, headaches, temporary loss of taste and smell, and sore throats. Fully vaccinated people also tend to carry less virus in the back of their nose and throat, meaning they are probably less likely to spread COVID-19 to others, compared to unvaccinated people who are ill.


Hilary Young, a branding consultant in Philadelphia who's been fully vaccinated for more than two months, is another person who recently tested positive for COVID-19. She said her symptoms included a mild sore throat, congestion, headache, dizziness, fatigue, insomnia, and the loss of taste and smell.

"My worst fear happened, we survived it, and I think that's a direct result of being vaccinated," she said. "It wasn't that bad for me. I didn't end up in the hospital. I wasn't totally knocked out."

Her story tracks with the data. In the US, unvaccinated people now account for 97% of COVID-19-related hospitalizations, the CDC said.

But many fully vaccinated health experts still remain cautious when they're out and about, knowing they could contract a mild case of the virus.

"I realize I'm not likely to die if infected," Professor Don Milton from the University of Maryland, a leading expert on airborne viruses, recently told Insider, explaining his choice to wear an N95 mask when he goes shopping in suburban Maryland.

"I could still get ill, miss work, screw up my vacation, and [there's] a small risk that I'd have long-term effects. Why take the risk?" he said.

Young agreed.

"I will continue to wear a mask indoors," she said. "I think, at the very least, that's something that people should be encouraged to do — especially if you're at CVS, where people are shopping for what they think is cold medication."

No vaccine has ever been capable of preventing every single case of an illness.

We know this already because each year scientists develop new flu vaccines, which are at best about 60% effective at keeping people flu-free.

Like COVID-19 vaccines, flu vaccines are worth getting because they teach your body how to better fight off future infections, likely making a case of the virus milder if you catch it. Ideally, if enough people get vaccines, the amount of virus circulating in a community would be lower, so that fewer vulnerable people would get sick and die.

Conversely, low vaccination rates, coupled with a far more contagious viral variant such as Delta, put everyone at greater risk of an infection.

So wearing masks and limiting exposure to people who may be infected should still be critical components of communitywide disease prevention. Though it's less likely than it would be if they remained unvaccinated, vaccinated people could also spread COVID-19 to immunocompromised people and to children under 12, as well as their families.

"The bottom line is, we are dealing with a formidable variant in the Delta variant," Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, said during a White House briefing on Friday. He added that "the message loud and clear that we need to reiterate" is that the vaccines continue to offer "strong protection."
We have to accept that the odds of infection have changed for vaccinated people
disney world coronavirus
Wearing masks and limiting exposure to people who may be infected should still be critical components of communitywide disease prevention. Matt Stroshane/Walt Disney World Resort via Getty Images

The CDC doesn't encourage any of the 160 million vaccinated people across the US who are exposed to COVID-19 to get tested for it, unless they go on to develop symptoms.

Instead, the country relies on data from the UK and Israel to figure out how well COVID-19 can dodge our vaccines.

This puts the US at a disadvantage as the virus continues to morph, doing its best to survive. With Delta around, we know vaccinated people are not as well protected as they once were. Now, we risk missing the signals of a more dangerous variant — something that our existing vaccines would barely combat.

Young is frustrated that the data on her own breakthrough case — which was detected with an at-home test — won't be recorded anywhere by the CDC. Young said her doctor didn't encourage her to seek out confirmation with a laboratory test. Instead they said, "You just have to quarantine, and you should be fine."

Dean said, given the low level of testing and sequencing being done on fully vaccinated people right now, there's no way the US can keep tabs on the virus well enough. If we want to know how decent the vaccine protection of the country really is, Dean said, we need to know when vaccinated people are getting infected, what variant they have, and how severe their case is.

"It's very concerning to me that we're 20 months into the pandemic and we don't have that capability yet," she said. "The technology has to move faster than the pathogen."

[www.businessinsider.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2021-07-22 01:19 by bleedingman.

Covid this...Covid that...F-Covid.

Quote
Big Al
Can we have some cheer in this thread, please? Jesus! Crack-open a few cold ones, stick on the Stones and chill-out!

LOL...you want the pandemic thread to be cheery!

I agree, let's crack a few cold ones and meander over to another thread!

Quote
shadooby
Covid this...Covid that...F-Covid.

Ummm... Isn't it a COVID thread

There are plenty of other threads

Quote
grzegorz67

Quote
shadooby
Covid this...Covid that...F-Covid.

Ummm... Isn't it a COVID thread

There are plenty of other threads

This is the Copy & Paste thread.

The best is very own covid expert is assuming she had it. She was never even tested.

The Rolling Stones are hitting the States in a couple months.
Time to close this thread.
Not sure what a couple of you are going to do with your time now lol.

Quote
nellcote'71
The Rolling Stones are hitting the States in a couple months.
Time to close this thread.
Not sure what a couple of you are going to do with your time now lol.

Are you saying that the Stones have officially declared the pandemic is over? That is indeed great news!

^ Yes, it's official.

Still amazing how many people on this thread talked about covid day after day how depressing.see you at the show well most of you..

For thos who think the pandemic is over.....

‘I think people are underestimating how bad this is going to get’: Dr. Ashish Jha on the delta variant
PUBLISHED THU, JUL 22 20218:03 PM EDTUPDATED AN HOUR AGO

The dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health warned about the tough months ahead across the U.S. due to Covid, as new data shows the delta strain can carry up to 1,000 times more virus in their nasal passages than those infected with the original strain.

“I think people are underestimating how bad this is going to get,” said Dr. Ashish Jha. “We are in for a very tough August, probably a very tough September before this really turns around.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters at a briefing Thursday that the delta variant “is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of, and that I have seen in my 20 year career.”

Jha told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith,” that the infection rate could be worse if it were winter, and predicted the delta spike could peak within two months.

“It might peak in September, but we are far away from the peak, right now we are doing 40,000 cases a day, it’s going to go substantially higher before it peaks,” Jha said.

The delta variant has spread rapidly through the U.S., accounting for more than 83% of sequenced cases in the U.S. right now, up from 50% the week of July 3, according to the CDC.

^

Looking bleak...far from over...will be interesting to see what the future holds...

20% of COVID infections in June occurred among vaccinated, LA County health says

Coronavirus

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- A relentless surge of COVID-19 cases continued Thursday in Los Angeles County as another 2,700 cases were reported, with the percentage of infections occurring among fully vaccinated residents steadily rising. In fact, during the month of June, 20% of all newly reported COVID infections in the county occurred among people who had been fully vaccinated. That was up from 11% in May and 5% in April. But Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the increase is normal given the continued rise in the number of people who are getting fully vaccinated. She also stressed that fully vaccinated people who become infected generally have extremely mild cases -- a benefit the vaccines have always promised. "Very few of them ended up hospitalized, and even smaller numbers ended up passing away,'' Ferrer said. "So yes, if you are fully vaccinated you have a lot of protection, which is what the vaccines have always been best at -- protecting people from serious illness and death. And these vaccines, even with the Delta variant, are holding up really well.'' She said the fact that people who are fully vaccinated are still getting infected should not be viewed as the shots being ineffective, and should not be used as an excuse for people to avoid getting the shots. "While seat belts don't prevent every bad thing that can happen during a car accident, they do provide excellent protection, so much so that we all use them routinely,'' she said. "It wouldn't really make sense to not use a seat belt just because it doesn't prevent all injuries from car accidents. Rejecting a COVID vaccine because they don't offer 100% protection really ignores the powerful benefits we've experienced from those people who have gotten vaccinated." She noted that when the vaccination program began, the primary benefit cited was their ability to prevent people from ending up hospitalized or dying from the virus. With the county seeing rising infections -- the vast majority among those who are unvaccinated -- infections are expected to occur among some who have gotten the shots. And she noted that absent the vaccines, infection numbers would be much higher. "When we went into this, the vaccines really promised us they would prevent illness and death, and there were big question marks about how much fully vaccinated people would be prevented from getting the virus,'' Ferrer said. "There is still so much protection for people who are fully vaccinated, especially in comparison to those who have no protection at all because they're not vaccinated.''


According to the county, among roughly 4.85 million fully vaccinated residents from Jan. 19 through Tuesday, 6,520 tested positive for the virus, for a rate of 0.13%. That's up from a rate of 0.09% last week. Of the fully vaccinated people in that period who tested positive, only 287 were hospitalized, for a rate of 0.0059% of the vaccinated population, up from 0.0045% last week. There were 30 vaccinated people who died, a rate of 0.0006%. The most recent figures provided by the county Thursday show that 5.3 million of the county's roughly 10.3 million residents are fully vaccinated, a rate of roughly 52%. About 1.3 million county residents are ineligible for shots because they are under age 12.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......