Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) outbreak discussion

[sptrawler]

It sounds as though this Indian strain of covid, is worrying the authorities.

'GLOBAL CONCERN': Highly-infectious Covid variant prompts WHO warning

The mutant Covid variant believed to be fuelling India's pandemic crisis is now considered to be of 'global concern'.

au.news.yahoo.com

From the article:
A Covid variant that is believed to be fuelling India's pandemic crisis and one that continues to spread globally has been identified by the World Health Organisation as a variant of global concern.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on Covid-19, said there was evidence now to suggest the strain, which has pushed India's daily Covid-19 infections beyond 400,000 in recent days, is more infectious than others.

"There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility," she told a briefing on Monday (local time).

"We are classifying this as a variant of concern at a global level."

The B.1.617 variant is the fourth variant to be designated as being of global concern and requiring heightened tracking and analysis. The others are those first detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil.

 

[sptrawler]

Well it would appear that Morrison was right calling for an immediate investigation into the source of the virus, the independent review committee appears to agree.

‘There is no time to waste’: WHO needs new powers to control future outbreaks, report says

The report also urges world governments to allow WHO infection experts immediate access to inspect outbreaks anywhere in the world in an effort to prevent future cover-ups and delays.

www.smh.com.au

From the article:
Governments must urgently give the World Health Organisation the power to announce new disease outbreaks without first getting permission from the host country if future pandemics are to be avoided, according to an expert panel that has spent a year investigating the coronavirus outbreak.

Even as the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, it needs to set up a stronger system to prevent the next global pandemic “because a novel pathogen can emerge at any time”.
The report of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response also urges world governments to allow WHO infection experts immediate access to inspect outbreaks anywhere in the world in an effort to prevent future cover-ups and delays.

“Another zoonotic disease emerging is inevitable. The question is whether we have the tools in place for aggressive containment,” Ms Clark told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The international panel of 13 eminent clinicians and former leaders calls on world leaders to meet at the United Nations General Assembly in September to start the process.

 

[sptrawler]

Unusual for the SMH to give ScoMo a wrap.

Scott Morrison vindicated for wanting health inspectors to have more power

An independent global expert panel says that if the world wants to prevent another pandemic, it needs international health inspectors with powers like those of international weapons inspectors. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Scott Morrison made the same recommendation over a year ago.

www.smh.com.au

From the article:
An independent global expert panel says that if the world wants to prevent another pandemic, it needs international health inspectors with powers like those of international weapons inspectors.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Scott Morrison made the same recommendation over a year ago. Beijing damned him for it as an impertinent interference in its internal affairs, so it’s too hot for the independent panel to use the same language.

The panel’s report calls on all world leaders urgently to join to create a powerful new system to prevent future pandemics. So it needs all the great powers on board and that includes China.

“Do we want to learn the lessons of the pandemic, or shrug our shoulders and say, ‘Oh well,’ and blunder on?” poses the co-chair of the panel, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark.

“All world leaders on earth have been blindsided for a year. If we don’t learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them.”
And a critical lesson is that the initial delays and cover-ups of COVID-19 must not be repeated, according to the new report by theIndependent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, set up by the world health ministers a year ago.

 

[pozindustrial]

Given the complete mess that WHO has made of things I think it needs to be fed to the guillotine. It appears to me to be a puppet of whoever funds it the most or whichever lobby group has the most sway over it.

 

[rederob]

Without evidence @pozindustrial states "Given the complete mess that WHO has made of things I think it needs to be fed to the guillotine. It appears to me to be a puppet of whoever funds it the most or whichever lobby group has the most sway over it."

Had he taken the time to read the Report he would have noted points like this:

• Years of warnings of an inevitable pandemic threat were not acted on
• Clinicians in Wuhan, China, were quick to spot unusual clusters of pneumonia of unknown origin in late December 2019. The formal notification and emergency declaration procedures under the International Health Regulations, however, were much too slow
• For the month following the declaration of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020, too many countries took a ‘wait and see’ approach rather than enacting an aggressive containment strategy
• Coordinated, global leadership was absent. Global tensions undermined multilateral institutions and cooperative action.
• Preparedness was under-funded and response funding was too slow. Dedicated financing at the scale required was not available to supply medical equipment, kick-start the search for diagnostics and therapeutics, or ensure vaccines would be available to all.
• International financing was too little, too late

The Report makes clear that the WHO lacks the power, mechanisms and funding to effectively deal with viruses like SARS-CoV-2. By the same token those nations which followed the science and health advice, and developed a coordinated pandemic response strategy, fared comparatively well in containing or eliminating spread.

 

[SirRumpole]

Increasing evidence that covid originated in a lab.

Gottlieb says there's growing circumstantial evidence that Covid may have originated in a lab

With other coronaviruses, SARS and MERS, researchers were able to identify the animal those diseases emerged from at this point in those outbreaks.

www.cnbc.com

 

[rederob]

Increasing evidence that covid originated in a lab.

Gottlieb says there's growing circumstantial evidence that Covid may have originated in a lab

With other coronaviruses, SARS and MERS, researchers were able to identify the animal those diseases emerged from at this point in those outbreaks.

www.cnbc.com

There is presently no more evidence about this than there was at any time in the past 18 months.
The experts have clearly said this is "extremely unlikely".
Your idea of evidence is a dream!

 

[SirRumpole]

There is presently no more evidence about this than there was at any time in the past 18 months.
The experts have clearly said this is "extremely unlikely".
Your idea of evidence is a dream!

Don't kill the messenger rob, an eminent virologist was quoted.

If you have more qualification than him in this area, please let us know.

 

[Belli]

Rather than citing a media report as being evidence, it may be better to refer to it as an opinion and leave it as that.

Same thing happens with media here when the headlines go "Expert says..." but the view doesn't coincide with the investigations and research of the vast majority of others in the field.

 

[rederob]

Don't kill the messenger rob, an eminent virologist was quoted.

If you have more qualification than him in this area, please let us know.

Sorry @SirRumpole, but when you use the word "evidence" and there is none, it really does not matter who the person is.
Does it?

 

[SirRumpole]

Sorry @SirRumpole, but when you use the word "evidence" and there is none, it really does not matter who the person is.
Does it?

Are you interested in "beyond reasonable doubt" or "reasonable suspicion" standard of evidence ?

 

[rederob]

Are you interested in "beyond reasonable doubt" or "reasonable suspicion" standard of evidence ?

This is about (medical) science.
Is there evidence of a lab leak?
No.
Has the amount of evidence changed?
No - there was never any evidence.
Science is about what is most probable.
That's why a panel of world experts came to a conclusion that the lab leak theory was extremely unlikely.

The logic of theistic belief starts with their being a god.
There is no evidence that a god exists.
Many people believe in god/s.

The logic of a lab leak hypothesis starts with SARS-CoV-2 existing in a Wuhan lab.
Despite there being no evidence, it further surmises there was a subsequent leak, despite their being no evidence.
Many people believe what they choose to.

 

[SirRumpole]

Many people believe what they choose to.

They do indeed.

 

[sptrawler]

Sounds as though getting rid of Trump, hasn't got rid of the concerns about the source of the covid 19 virus.

Covid: Biden orders investigation into virus origin as lab leak theory debated

US intelligence is divided on whether the virus came from a Chinese lab or animal-to-human contact.

www.bbc.com

 

[basilio]

Morrison Offers Condolences To Victorians Going Into Lockdown:
‘I Know What It’s Like To Do Absolutely xucking Nothing’

Scott Morrison has offered words of support to those in Melbourne facing at least a week in lockdown, saying he knows what it’s like to do absolutely nothing at all.

In a Facebook video this afternoon, Mr Morrison said he stood with all Melburnians.

“To those of you not able to turn up to work, I know what it’s like. I haven’t turned up to work since 2008.

“To those of you who can’t tick off that to-do list this weekend anymore, I’m with you. Although I find it’s generally easier to not have a to-do list in the first place and then you won’t be held accountable when things don’t get done.

“To those of you who have no idea what you’re going to do, neither to I. And that’s got nothing to do with lockdown”.

https://www.theshovel.com.au/2021/0...bsolutely_fucking_nothing&utm_term=2021-05-27

 

[basilio]

India orders removal of content referring to ‘Indian variant’​

Government says ‘false’ coronavirus claim is circulating on social media and should be taken down

Sensitive xucking souls. It's this sort of aggressive denial insanity that has powered the explosion of the lastest Indian COVID variant across the sub continent and around the world.

There was no disrespect in scientists identifying the latest COVID strains from where they have appeared to originated. We have Britain, Brazil and South Africa strains. Meanwhile India burns.

India orders removal of content referring to ‘Indian variant’

Government says ‘false’ coronavirus claim is circulating on social media and should be taken down

www.theguardian.com

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

India orders removal of content referring to ‘Indian variant’​

Government says ‘false’ coronavirus claim is circulating on social media and should be taken down

Sensitive xucking souls. It's this sort of aggressive denial insanity that has powered the explosion of the lastest Indian COVID variant across the sub continent and around the world.

There was no disrespect in scientists identifying the latest COVID strains from where they have appeared to originated. We have Britain, Brazil and South Africa strains. Meanwhile India burns.

India orders removal of content referring to ‘Indian variant’

Government says ‘false’ coronavirus claim is circulating on social media and should be taken down

www.theguardian.com

Yes indeed, @basilio .

Unfortunately most spread of Coronavirus has occurred under right wing governments with varying levels of "Democratic governance".

It appears that autocracies such as China seem better equipped to control pandemics.

India is a shocker at present. Religion !

gg

 

[sptrawler]

Yes indeed, @basilio .

Unfortunately most spread of Coronavirus has occurred under right wing governments with varying levels of "Democratic governance".

It appears that autocracies such as China seem better equipped to control pandemics.

India is a shocker at present. Religion !

gg

Absolutely GG, we would be much better served under an authoritarian government, led by chairman Scott. Or at the least a Republic led by President Scott.?
Apparently the South Africa, want their stain , sorry strain removed, as do the U.K.?

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Absolutely GG, we would be much better served under an authoritarian government, led by chairman Scott. Or at the least a Republic led by President Scott.?
Apparently the South Africa, want their stain , sorry strain removed, as do the U.K.?

I must say I would put the Dalai Modi and the Dalai Morrison in to the same boat. Spin and onions.

It appears to me that it is by much luck and distance that we have avoided the full ravages of the pandemic. The Hotel Quarantine is a ticking time bomb which is trigger set to go off as we speak.

gg

 

[pozindustrial]

Has anyone considered the time-bomb of vaccinated individuals thinking they are bullet-proof by travelling and bringing back the virus under the impression that they cannot get infected?
They can and do get infected, and they can spread it while infected. The shot only guarantees that a percentage of people will have less symptoms. This article glosses over the fact that vaccinated persons still get Covid and it says that nobody knows the level of infection that is needed to transmit it.

Do Covid-19 vaccines prevent infection and transmission?

Studies in widely vaccinated populations, such as those in Israel and the UK, have confirmed in vivo the protection promised by different vaccines. The

scienceblog.com

The media in general still say you are protected from Covid if you are vaccinated. This is a lie. So what happens when a planeful of passport holders brings back and spreads Covid?