Coronavirus, Monkeypox, and Other Contagious Diseases

[LFC]

Who could have seen THIS coming. I'm shocked. Shocked I say.

Missouri—where less than half of the population over the age of 18 has been fully inoculated—has emerged as the U.S. hot spot for the Delta strain, which officials say is fueling the alarming surge in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations that the state has experienced in recent weeks even as cases decline in the U.S. as a whole. Missouri currently has the highest rate of new Covid-19 infections in the country.

"It's nearly 100% of the people hospitalized with Covid pneumonia are unvaccinated," said Dr. Robin Trotman, an infectious disease expert at CoxHealth, a six-hospital nonprofit healthcare system headquartered in Springfield. "Now we do have vaccinated people who test positive, but they don't get severely ill."

CNN reported Thursday that "more than half of those admitted to the two major hospitals in the Springfield area are from surrounding counties with limited health clinics."

"Those counties each have fully vaccinated rates below 20%," the outlet noted. "The national average is more than twice that figure, at 46%."

According to the Associated Press, the coronavirus surge in Missouri is "happening largely in a politically conservative farming region in the northern part of the state and in the southwestern corner, which includes Springfield and Branson, the country music mecca in the Ozark Mountains where big crowds are gathering again at the city's theaters and other attractions."

[LFC]

Ron Johnson is doing his best to keep up America's infection and death rates.

On Monday, the Milwaukee Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson slammed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) at a press conference for an event he hosted casting doubt on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Senator Ron Johnson, who publicly confirmed he is unvaccinated, has used his platform today to raise misleading concerns regarding the COVID-19 vaccine," said the commissioner. "The scientific facts about the COVID-19 vaccine remain: it is safe, it is effective, and complications are extremely rare ... We urge Milwaukeeans to talk to people they love and trust, listen to the experts and science, discuss questions and concerns with licensed medical or health professionals, and continue to get vaccinated to save lives in our community."

[Traveler]

This new study about mRNA vaccines is quite encouraging.  

The vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna set off a persistent immune reaction in the body that may protect against the coronavirus for years, scientists reported on Monday.



The findings add to growing evidence that most people immunized with the mRNA vaccines may not need boosters, so long as the virus and its variants do not evolve much beyond their current forms — which is not guaranteed. People who recovered from Covid-19 before being vaccinated may not need boosters even if the virus does make a significant transformation.

[indy]

Also, Moderna (which is the vaccine I received) claims its vaccine should work against the Delta and other variants: www.businessinsider.com/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-delta-variant-2021-6

[Traveler]

That is some good news for us that got Moderna. Here is some more info on the antibody titers to go along with the memory B cells I shared above.  The counts go down for epsilon and gamma though.  Seems to me that maybe we should get an AZ or J&J for the mixed coverage that seems to really work well.  

[Traveler]

Jun 28, 2021 23:53:16 GMT LFC said:

Who could have seen THIS coming. I'm shocked. Shocked I say.

Missouri—where less than half of the population over the age of 18 has been fully inoculated—has emerged as the U.S. hot spot for the Delta strain, which officials say is fueling the alarming surge in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations that the state has experienced in recent weeks even as cases decline in the U.S. as a whole. Missouri currently has the highest rate of new Covid-19 infections in the country.

"It's nearly 100% of the people hospitalized with Covid pneumonia are unvaccinated," said Dr. Robin Trotman, an infectious disease expert at CoxHealth, a six-hospital nonprofit healthcare system headquartered in Springfield. "Now we do have vaccinated people who test positive, but they don't get severely ill."

CNN reported Thursday that "more than half of those admitted to the two major hospitals in the Springfield area are from surrounding counties with limited health clinics."

"Those counties each have fully vaccinated rates below 20%," the outlet noted. "The national average is more than twice that figure, at 46%."

According to the Associated Press, the coronavirus surge in Missouri is "happening largely in a politically conservative farming region in the northern part of the state and in the southwestern corner, which includes Springfield and Branson, the country music mecca in the Ozark Mountains where big crowds are gathering again at the city's theaters and other attractions."

As Delta spreads, watch the idiots die.   

Polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that about 13% of Americans plan to avoid the vaccine no matter what, while another 12% say they are waiting before making a decision and 7% will get vaccinated only if required. Among the most hesitant groups, according to KFF, are Republicans, people of color, young people, and rural residents — similar to Bloomberg’s analysis.

Of course, it's not their fault. 

Christopher Martin, an expert in public health at West Virginia University, said that many of the places where people are most likely to be hesitant about vaccines are also the places where it’s least convenient to find one.

“We know vaccine hesitancy is more prominent in rural areas.” But those places also often health deserts with limited access to care. “We’re expecting vaccine-hesitant people to get up and travel distances in rural areas to get a vaccine.”

Those places and others like them are making slow progress. In the month of June so far, the bottom fifth of counties improved their vaccination rate by only 1.5 percentage points, on average, falling further behind the rest of the country.

Gonna be interesting to watch this play out.  Wonder if trends like the MS hospitalization will make any sort of dent in their obstinancy.  

[RichTBikkies]

Apr 20, 2021 15:50:52 GMT Rue Bella said:

www.newsweek.com/ted-nugent-tests-positive-covid-thought-dying-pandemic-1584973

(bold mine) 

Pandemic Denier Ted Nugent Tests Positive for COVID: 'I Thought I Was Dying'


Pandemic denier Ted Nugent has revealed he has tested positive for COVID-19, four months after he said said the coronavirus crisis was "not a real pandemic."

The musician, 72, said on Monday that at one point he "could hardly crawl out of bed" after being struck with harsh symptoms of the disease.

In a Facebook Live broadcast, the "Wango Tango" singer said: "Everybody told me that I should not announce this.

Boo hoo... 

Well, to take a broader view, we're all dying. 

[LFC]

Hospitals in SW Missouri are now turning away patients. Way to go anti-vax idiots!

Mercy Springfield reported it had hospitalized 104 COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, said Mercy Springfield president Craig McCoy; Cox reported roughly 100 for the day, said system president Steve Edwards.

The numbers are just part of a tapestry of facts that show how the pandemic has evolved since its winter peak, when COVID-19 patient census numbers sometimes reached 170. On Jan. 20, Edwards noted on Twitter that Cox accepted a patient transfer from Louisiana. About a month later, he said Cox was able to vacate its emergency COVID-19 intensive care unit.

But now, things have changed.

"For the first time, we've been on COVID diversion," Edwards said Tuesday.

"On diversion," he explained, is a status that can switch rapidly from on to off and back again. It means that at a given moment, a hospital "feels that their capacity to handle a particular type of patients is limited to the extent that they're telling the referring hospitals and the ambulances to not send them patients of that type."

In recent times four Cox patients have been transferred to BJC HealthCare, St. Louis-area health system with 14 hospitals including Barnes-Jewish, a big teaching hospital tied to Washington University's medical school. A BJC spokesperson confirmed the number of patients Tuesday.

Another four Cox patients have been transferred to St. Luke's Health System in Kansas City, Edwards said. (After two attempts, the News-Leader was not able to reach St. Luke's officials for comment by deadline on Tuesday.)

Edwards cited internal Cox data showing 47 COVID patients transferred into Cox facilities from June 1 to 21, many of them from hospitals in smaller communities such as Lebanon and Mountain View, while 23 transferred out.

[Deleted]

Jun 30, 2021 6:50:38 GMT RichTBikkies said:

Apr 20, 2021 15:50:52 GMT Rue Bella said:

www.newsweek.com/ted-nugent-tests-positive-covid-thought-dying-pandemic-1584973

(bold mine) 
Boo hoo... 

Well, to take a broader view, we're all dying. 

The combinations are, not the constituents.

[Bact PhD]

Aaaannnd, Tuckums strikes again.

This whistleblower has evidently appeared before, judging from a search of Fox News' site. I haven't compared this year's offering to what she was saying a year ago, so this may be a mere warmed-over (re)hash of the bioweapon claims.

A Chinese coronavirus whistleblower claims her husband is helping the Chinese Communist Party make her "disappear" for exposing the origins of COVID-19 during a bombshell interview in the latest episode of Fox Nation’s "Tucker Carlson Today."

Virologist and medical doctor Li-Meng Yan told Carlson that according to I-94 records, her husband has entered the United States with an HB-1 visa for two years and may be planning to harm her with the assistance of the CCP and some within the U.S.

Prior to her escape from China in April of 2020, Yan claimed that her husband attempted to "harm" her in a variety of ways, including poisoning, in order to stop her from fleeing the country.

Yan, who was working at a World Health Organization reference lab in Hong Kong during the onset of the pandemic, was assigned as a secret investigator to probe COVID-19, which was being called the "Wuhan pneumonia" at the time. However, she said she was warned by her supervisor, Dr. Leo Poon, not to ask too many questions.

She was told not to touch the "red-line" or else face the consequences from the CCP.

"Don't touch the red line-- that means ‘invisible principle,’" Yan said. "Don't break it. If not, I have to be responsible for that. It means the invisible things that China's government won't be happy [about]."

Utilizing her network of contacts – which included Chinese lab researchers, CDC-involved military, and civilian locations -- Yan soon noticed "abnormal" actions being taken by the CCP.

The new wrinkle may be the purported involvement of her husband with the CCP's supposed efforts to "make her disappear".

How she was able to find all of the stuff she claims out, ya got me.

[andydp]

Jun 30, 2021 18:55:56 GMT Bact PhD said:

Aaaannnd, Tuckums strikes again.

This whistleblower has evidently appeared before, judging from a search of Fox News' site. I haven't compared this year's offering to what she was saying a year ago, so this may be a mere warmed-over (re)hash of the bioweapon claims.

A Chinese coronavirus whistleblower claims her husband is helping the Chinese Communist Party make her "disappear" for exposing the origins of COVID-19 during a bombshell interview in the latest episode of Fox Nation’s "Tucker Carlson Today."

Virologist and medical doctor Li-Meng Yan told Carlson that according to I-94 records, her husband has entered the United States with an HB-1 visa for two years and may be planning to harm her with the assistance of the CCP and some within the U.S.

Prior to her escape from China in April of 2020, Yan claimed that her husband attempted to "harm" her in a variety of ways, including poisoning, in order to stop her from fleeing the country.

Yan, who was working at a World Health Organization reference lab in Hong Kong during the onset of the pandemic, was assigned as a secret investigator to probe COVID-19, which was being called the "Wuhan pneumonia" at the time. However, she said she was warned by her supervisor, Dr. Leo Poon, not to ask too many questions.

She was told not to touch the "red-line" or else face the consequences from the CCP.

"Don't touch the red line-- that means ‘invisible principle,’" Yan said. "Don't break it. If not, I have to be responsible for that. It means the invisible things that China's government won't be happy [about]."


Utilizing her network of contacts – which included Chinese lab researchers, CDC-involved military, and civilian locations -- Yan soon noticed "abnormal" actions being taken by the CCP.

The new wrinkle may be the purported involvement of her husband with the CCP's supposed efforts to "make her disappear".

How she was able to find all of the stuff she claims out, ya got me.

Looks like the reason why the NSA was looking into Tuckies' E Mails.

[LFC]

Jun 30, 2021 18:55:56 GMT Bact PhD said:

How she was able to find all of the stuff she claims out, ya got me.

Now, now. No reason to spoil the story with question like how this one person could have found out all this. Just leave your mouth open, bob your head, and accept.

[LFC]

The U.S. is behind on sane action ... again.

The European Union’s digital COVID-19 certificate officially launched today. The certificate allows people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, a recent negative test result, or a past COVID-19 infection.

The certificate, which includes a QR code and digital signature, can either be displayed on a digital device or printed out. People who have the certificate should not have to get an additional COVID-19 test or quarantine when traveling in the EU. The certificate only recognizes COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the EU — that includes the AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson shots.

Some countries in the EU have already been issuing and recognizing the certificate. Germany, for example, said in mid-June that it had already issued 5 million certificates. There will be a six-week phase-in period to get the rest of the EU member countries online.

Countries not in the EU, like the UK, have started rolling out their own systems. England has its own COVID-19 pass through the National Health Service (NHS), which can also show proof of vaccination, recent test result, or past infection. People in Scotland and Wales can get a paper version. The EU does not currently recognize the NHS pass, although some individual countries within the EU do, and that could change as countries work to make the systems compatible.

Some states in the United States (like New York) have their own COVID-19 vaccine certificates. Walmart rolled out a digital record for people who were vaccinated at its stores. But there isn’t a nationwide system in the US. In March, the Biden administration was working on plans to organize and streamline the various certificate projects. Google announced yesterday it was adding support for vaccine cards to Android.

It's good to see that Biden is at least trying but expect Republicans to howl, screech, and obstruct at every turn.

[LFC]

Now it's Arkansas's turn to face the consequences of having a stupid population.

Arkansas is reporting its highest one-day coronavirus case spike in the last four months in a state that has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

The state had 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the highest number since it reported 726 cases in February, The Associated Press reported. Hospitalizations increased to 325 as the total number of deaths went up to 5,909 from the virus.

Arkansas has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, according to the AP, as the world deals with yet another variant of the virus.

“The high number of cases today makes it clear that the Delta Variant is increasing the spread of the virus,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) tweeted on Wednesday.

[goldenvalley]

Jul 1, 2021 19:22:44 GMT LFC said:

The U.S. is behind on sane action ... again.

The European Union’s digital COVID-19 certificate officially launched today. The certificate allows people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, a recent negative test result, or a past COVID-19 infection.

The certificate, which includes a QR code and digital signature, can either be displayed on a digital device or printed out. People who have the certificate should not have to get an additional COVID-19 test or quarantine when traveling in the EU. The certificate only recognizes COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the EU — that includes the AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson shots.

Some countries in the EU have already been issuing and recognizing the certificate. Germany, for example, said in mid-June that it had already issued 5 million certificates. There will be a six-week phase-in period to get the rest of the EU member countries online.

Countries not in the EU, like the UK, have started rolling out their own systems. England has its own COVID-19 pass through the National Health Service (NHS), which can also show proof of vaccination, recent test result, or past infection. People in Scotland and Wales can get a paper version. The EU does not currently recognize the NHS pass, although some individual countries within the EU do, and that could change as countries work to make the systems compatible.

Some states in the United States (like New York) have their own COVID-19 vaccine certificates. Walmart rolled out a digital record for people who were vaccinated at its stores. But there isn’t a nationwide system in the US. In March, the Biden administration was working on plans to organize and streamline the various certificate projects. Google announced yesterday it was adding support for vaccine cards to Android.

It's good to see that Biden is at least trying but expect Republicans to howl, screech, and obstruct at every turn.

California created a version of that.  

[LFC]

Jul 1, 2021 20:01:11 GMT goldenvalley said:

California created a version of that.

And Republican governors are tripping over each other to ban the use of them. [heavy sigh]

[andydp]

Jul 1, 2021 21:39:35 GMT LFC said:

Jul 1, 2021 20:01:11 GMT goldenvalley said:

California created a version of that.

And Republican governors are tripping over each other to ban the use of them. [heavy sigh]

NYS has an electronic pass.  Purely voluntary.

[pnwguy]

Jul 1, 2021 19:26:14 GMT LFC said:

Now it's Arkansas's turn to face the consequences of having a stupid population.

Arkansas is reporting its highest one-day coronavirus case spike in the last four months in a state that has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

The state had 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the highest number since it reported 726 cases in February, The Associated Press reported. Hospitalizations increased to 325 as the total number of deaths went up to 5,909 from the virus.

Arkansas has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, according to the AP, as the world deals with yet another variant of the virus.

“The high number of cases today makes it clear that the Delta Variant is increasing the spread of the virus,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) tweeted on Wednesday.

Future governor Suckabee can help pray away the Covid, make sure no business can require vaccination, and help keep Arkansas in a race to the bottom.

[LFC]

Arkansas’s new motto can be “Watch out Mississippi, we’re comin’ for you!”

[Traveler]

An interesting take on what is going on in Israel. 

Speaking to The Times of Israel on Thursday, as the extra-infectious Delta variant pushed the number of citizens confirmed COVID-positive close to 2,000, Ran Balicer, chief innovation officer at Clalit Health Services, said: “If we weren’t so well vaccinated, a lockdown would now be looming in our future, and we certainly wouldn’t be able to take such mild decisions.”

Despite having a large population 12 years old and younger who cannot currently receive shots, Israel is upholding its reputation as the world leader in inoculation against the coronavirus, with 60 percent of the population fully vaccinated.

Still, Israel’s current infection numbers are a real problem for officials, who have reinstituted mask-wearing indoors, tightened border controls, and delayed the relaunch of large-scale incoming tourism. In mid-June, there were under 20 new cases per day. Now, there are around 300 and the number is expected to rise to 500 next week.

However, the spike isn’t translating into an increase in serious cases. If a virus spike results in serious cases, it normally takes a week to ten days for the effect to be felt in hospitals, which would mean that patient numbers should now be rising. They aren’t.

I think I may have gotten Delta.  Have had a nasty and persistent head cold since Tuesday after attending a wedding in NYC.  But nothing worse than that. Will know on Monday when I get tested. Daily cases here are down to less than 1/100,000 , so likely not a local thing.  But back to wearing masks until i know. 

[LFC]

F***ing morons.

20% of Americans say they definitely won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine, and another 9% say they’re unlikely to get it, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.

[pnwguy]

Jul 6, 2021 14:52:04 GMT LFC said:

F***ing morons.

20% of Americans say they definitely won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine, and another 9% say they’re unlikely to get it, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll

I'm about at the point where they can die off in mass if they want to remain so idiotic.

[LFC]

Jul 6, 2021 15:26:42 GMT pnwguy said:

Jul 6, 2021 14:52:04 GMT LFC said:

F***ing morons.

I'm about at the point where they can die off in mass if they want to remain so idiotic.

I'm well past that point but even though the vaccine is highly effective I still fear that they're going to hurt others, especially children and especially with this new variant.

[LFC]

Why we can't have nice things, Chapter 2,541.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted Saturday that members of the U.S. military have contacted him saying they will 'quit' if forced to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The tweet, which had more than 7,000 likes by Monday, has caused controversy on Twitter as others on the platform informed Massie that members of the armed forces cannot simply "quit" the military.

Massie wrote in the tweet, "I've been contacted by members of our voluntary military who say they will quit if the COVID vaccine is mandated."

Massie wrote the tweet in support of H.R. 3860, a bill he introduce to the U.S. House June 14 that would prohibit the government from requiring that members of the armed forces receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

[goldenvalley]

Life as a nurse in Covid Denial Land. 

The pandemic had hit late but hard in the Appalachian highlands — the mountainous region that includes Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee — and over the winter many of its victims had ended up on ventilators tended by Boucher and her fellow nurses at Johnston Memorial Hospital.

They were enduring the traumas known to ICU workers across the world: days filled with death, nights ruined by dreams in which they found themselves at infected patients’ bedsides without masks. But they were also enduring a trauma that many doctors and nurses elsewhere were not: the suspicion and derision of those they risked their lives to protect.

Conspiracy theories about the pandemic and lies recited on social media — or at White House news conferences — had penetrated deep into their community. When refrigerated trailers were brought in to relieve local hospitals’ overflowing morgues, people said they were stage props. Agitated and unmasked relatives stood outside the ICU insisting that their intubated relatives only had the flu. Many believed the doctors and nurses hailed elsewhere for their sacrifices were conspiring to make money by falsifying covid-19 diagnoses.

I understand the impulse to say that some folks shouldn't be treated for COVID when they insist it isn't real, but public health concerns are more important than psychic vengeance.