NON_POLITICAL China Coronavirus THREAD

[Muse]

I sincerely hope you are correct.

I think he's living in his own universe, a character in a Fellini film.

 

[Ajay]

I just returned from my daughter's high school graduation ceremony. There were couple thousand people gathered at the event. I would say about 80-90% of the people did not wear a mask. We did.not wear our masks. It felt right. As far as I'm concerned, this pandemic is over. Today was a good day!

It's not over by a long shot. You have to look at the situation in the whole world to understand that. Given the 100s of millions** that will be infected over the next couple of years, it's very possible that variants that are more infectious, and possibly more virulent, will emerge. In the US, we have a robust system of creating vaccine boosters available to maintain low infection rates (relatively). No so amongst the billions of others, especially in 3rd world countries.

** Covid infection rates are likely grossly underestimated, as many countries simply don't have the healthcare infrastructure to keep track; in addition to other problems. Hell, we don't have accurate data in the US!

 

[Zorba]

I'm pretty sure I heard that Ebola is zoonotic in bats and that people can and do get it by eating "windfalls" that are actually due to a bat partially eating fruit. IIRC, Zika is well know to be carried by mosquitos and their bites transfer it.

Zika is vectored by mosquitos, they don't know where it originally came from.

From what I've read recently bats are assumed to be the reservoir for Ebola, but the exact virus has not actually been found in bats.

Ebola - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ponyo]

My family and I are vaccinated. As far as I'm concerned, this covid thing is over for us. I refuse to live in constant fear now that I'm vaccinated. The whole point of getting vaccinated was so I could resume living a normal life. Life precovid. It's going to take sometime for everything to go back to normal since we're still in the early innings of global vaccine rollout but we'll get there. I'm aware of that. But if you're vaccinated, it's time to start living normal and stop living in state of constant fear. Some of you guys are so afraid and suffer from covid PTSD. You'll eventually come around. The world will be waiting for you.

 

[Torn Mind]

That article isn't more than "people are saying".

The lab leak hypothesis will prevail in the end despite the wretched level of weak proof some scientists tried to pass over to the public. "In-the-box" thinkers who fancy themselves intelligent bought that story hook line and sinker.

If a police botches a murder investigation by burning down their own crime lab, grounds remain for suspicion that the suspect murdered someone. If scientists make a rapid consensus statement merely months into a new crisis with barely any proper research, somehow that meets the standard of "reasonable doubt".

Donald McNeil apparently changed his tune: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...D-leaked-Wuhan-lab-considerably-stronger.html

 

[Muse]

My family and I are vaccinated. As far as I'm concerned, this covid thing is over for us. I refuse to live in constant fear now that I'm vaccinated. The whole point of getting vaccinated was so I could resume living a normal life. Life precovid. It's going to take sometime for everything to go back to normal since we're still in the early innings of global vaccine rollout but we'll get there. I'm aware of that. But if you're vaccinated, it's time to start living normal and stop living in state of constant fear. Some of you guys are so afraid and suffer from covid PTSD. You'll eventually come around. The world will be waiting for you.

I'm not living in fear. In fact, I figure I'm immune. Well, maybe if I receive a massive viral dose I'd regret it. But "normal?" I'm fond of quotations, pithy wisdom and one I like is this:

Normal is a fixation concept, pure and simple. - Henry Miller, IIRC from his long essay "The Wisdom of the Heart," his tribute to E. Graham Howe, a wonderful book:

** Free PDF The Wisdom of the Heart, by Henry Miller

Free PDF The Wisdom of the Heart, by Henry Miller If you ally need such a referred The Wisdom Of The Heart, By Henry Miller publication tha...

yeopshire.blogspot.com

I hear way too much about "return to normal" these days. It smacks of reactionaries.

 

[Svnla]

The reason I got vaccinated was so I wouldn't have to worry about the "honor system" and other people who's possibly sick. This virus is not going away and even a year from now, there are going to be sick people running around without masks. Are you going to live in your protective bubble forever? At some point, you have to evaluate your odds and start living your normal life. I feel like certain percentage of people in this thread have been conditioned to live in fear forever. We now know lot more about this virus than when this thread first started. And now we have couple highly effective vaccines. If you been vaccinated, your risk from this virus is extremely minimal. Stop living in fear.

Living in fear? I go on living my life as normal (grocery stores, work, shopping, etc.), just a mask on for a little longer while in public area with people around. I just don't trust fools with nasty hygiene habits or rather lack of good hygiene practice.

 

[Svnla]

As I said previously, countries that were doing well with the virus previously are not doing well right now. Taiwan is in trouble with the new surge.

Taiwan battles surge in domestic COVID-19 cases | Video - CNA (channelnewsasia.com)

and now Vietnam is having its highest infection ever.

444: daily Covid-19 tally rises to all time high in Vietnam - VnExpress International

.

 

[Muse]

My family and I are vaccinated. As far as I'm concerned, this covid thing is over for us. I refuse to live in constant fear now that I'm vaccinated. The whole point of getting vaccinated was so I could resume living a normal life. Life precovid. It's going to take sometime for everything to go back to normal since we're still in the early innings of global vaccine rollout but we'll get there. I'm aware of that. But if you're vaccinated, it's time to start living normal and stop living in state of constant fear. Some of you guys are so afraid and suffer from covid PTSD. You'll eventually come around. The world will be waiting for you.

Here's something for you to think about. It's a comment in a New York Times article on their front page today (online). The article is discussing immunity from the vaccines.

Dr Kathleen Weber
Houston TX
- - - -
"The vaccines were tested to prove that they protected against serious illness and death, but it has not yet been demonstrated that they prevent long-term Covid (chronic fatigue and brain fog) which have resulted from even mild Covid cases. Until it is clear how well vaccination protects against long-term Covid illness I will wear my mask indoors while sharing air with strangers."
- - - -
If you've paid much attention you should know that long-term covid can have multifarious debilitating effects. This is not over. Pretend it is at your own risk (of course being cavalier about this endangers everybody).

 

[ponyo]

Here's something for you to think about. It's a comment in a New York Times article on their front page today (online). The article is discussing immunity from the vaccines.

Dr Kathleen Weber
Houston TX
- - - -
"The vaccines were tested to prove that they protected against serious illness and death, but it has not yet been demonstrated that they prevent long-term Covid (chronic fatigue and brain fog) which have resulted from even mild Covid cases. Until it is clear how well vaccination protects against long-term Covid illness I will wear my mask indoors while sharing air with strangers."
- - - -
If you've paid much attention you should know that long-term covid can have multifarious debilitating effects. This is not over. Pretend it is at your own risk (of course being cavalier about this endangers everybody).

That's just risk everyone have to take. Just like there's risk of taking the vaccine and developing blood clots, joint pains, and other vaccine related symptoms. Risk of catching covid will be here next year, the year after, and pretty much forever. But I'm very comfortable with the odds that nothing bad will happen even if I get covid. You can continue to be scared. I'm not scared.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Too early to tell, but it seems really odd that since the vaccinations ramped up the cases have been going up exponentially. I think because people know the vaccine is out and being given, people are letting their guard down whether or not they themselves are vaccinated. It's also possible to still get it while vaccinated and spread it I think. Though I do agree at some point we just need to start going back to normal. If most people are vaccinated even if there are still cases they will hopefully be mild cases and it won't be a big deal anymore.

When the pandemic hit full throttle in the USA in about March, my favorite restaurants closed like everything else. As soon as they re-opened, the wife and I were back in them, only a weekly basis, not wearing masks and never contracting COVID-19. Right before we finally started seeing the opportunity to get vaccinated, though, we went and had ourselves tested. We never felt ill so we wondered that we either never caught COVID, or we had and were asymptomatic. Results were we never had COVID-19. Two days later I got my first shot and two weeks after that the wife got hers. We're fully vaccinated, still no signs of illness--only the regular summer allergies we've both dealt with for decades.

I would conclude the chances of me or the wife contracting COVID-19, being asymptomatic and potentially passing it on to other by not wearing a mask is a lot less likely than the smucks not wearing masks and refusing the vaccine. BTW, our favorite restaurant has had several employees that we know personally that got COVID-19, got through it and returned to work and still we never got it. Jesus (not religious), I should sell my blood.

 

[Muse]

That's just risk everyone have to take. Just like there's risk of taking the vaccine and developing blood clots, joint pains, and other vaccine related symptoms. Risk of catching covid will be here next year, the year after, and pretty much forever. But I'm very comfortable with the odds that nothing bad will happen even if I get covid. You can continue to be scared. I'm not scared.

You're not scared, but you are foolhardy burnishing that attitude. BTW, I never said I was scared. I'm certainly not.

 

[mooncancook]

Of course. We'll likely never get proof.

That's why the world is furstrated because a government does not cooperate and hides information, restricts access to the source until the source has been cleaned up and hardly traceable

 

[manly]

Here's something for you to think about. It's a comment in a New York Times article on their front page today (online). The article is discussing immunity from the vaccines.

Dr Kathleen Weber
Houston TX
- - - -
"The vaccines were tested to prove that they protected against serious illness and death, but it has not yet been demonstrated that they prevent long-term Covid (chronic fatigue and brain fog) which have resulted from even mild Covid cases. Until it is clear how well vaccination protects against long-term Covid illness I will wear my mask indoors while sharing air with strangers."
- - - -
If you've paid much attention you should know that long-term covid can have multifarious debilitating effects. This is not over. Pretend it is at your own risk (of course being cavalier about this endangers everybody).

This comment is a couple months outdated. We now know from Israeli data that the Pfizer vaccine is highly effective against transmission of the virus itself, and I would extrapolate this to include Moderna's vaccine as well. You can't get long-haul Covid-19 if you don't get infected, period. The CDC has also studied the underlying data, and essentially they agreed when they announced fully vaccinated people can drop mask-wearing in most environments.*

We still don't quite know how durable immunity is, but Australian researchers published a study comparing the efficacy of the various vaccines:

Researchers show neutralizing antibodies correlate with COVID protection

Antibodies produced by vaccines and infections declined at roughly similar rates.

arstechnica.com

If I understand their chart correctly, the two mRNA vaccines and the Novavax vaccine are very good, and quite honestly the rest of the bunch are fairly mediocre at producing neutralizing antibodies.

* Obviously breakthrough infections can occur, but statistically they are incredibly rare. The efficacy of the mRNA vaccines is nothing short of outstanding.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow well this hits close to home. My sister got covid, and there's a possibility one of my nephews has it too. No sense of taste or smell for him. He works in a public setting so going to guess he got it first then my sister got it. I tend to go visit them quite often but it just so happens I have not in a while. The whole family does need to get tested so that's pending.

As a side note, any more concrete studies on if dogs can get it? I know there was talk about that in the early days.

 

[Svnla]

Latest news, from my friends and business associates in Asia -

Japan - will extend the restrictions for a few more weeks and the Olympics will be in July. Not sure if they can make it work.

Malaysia - with over 9,000 new cases (highest ever) and will have a nationwide lockdown from June 1 to June 15 (subject to change to make it longer).

Vietnam - has more new cases, the most worrisome is the new "variant" of the UK and Indian strains. Shut down a few places and no inbound international flights (with very few exceptions) until further notice but no nationwide lockdown, yet.

Australia - Victoria state will have another lock down (4th one) shortly.

Taiwan (level 3), Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, and other places have their hands full with all the flareups recently.

Mainland china - new surge of virus in Guangzhou.

And of course, India is still fighting the huge fire of virus cases.

 

[MrSquished]

Just went to Costco in Northern NJ in the burbs. I wore no mask. 99% of people were wearing masks.

Team Pfizer!

 

[Red Squirrel]

This is getting insane, 41 cases today, alone. We're at well over 1,000 total now since the start. We're basically the hot spot now, how the tables have turned. We were doing so well, but think we just got too complacent. Most cases are travel and work related. Mostly work related I think.

 

[Spacehead]

Just went to Costco in Northern NJ in the burbs. I wore no mask. 99% of people were wearing masks.

Team Pfizer!

Yeah, i went into a Dollar General yesterday maskless. Sign on the door said no mask needed if vaccinated. To be honest i was surprised to see everyone in the store wearing a mask other than the cashiers.

Team Pfizer!

This is getting insane, 41 cases today, alone. We're at well over 1,000 total now since the start. We're basically the hot spot now, how the tables have turned. We were doing so well, but think we just got too complacent. Most cases are travel and work related. Mostly work related I think.

We're still getting 10-20 cases a day around here, some days less but still too many.

Careful up there Red Squirrel & i hope your sister, nephew & family are ok too.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah so far it's basically like a flu for them. Luckily they have been vaccinated for a few weeks now so at least that's probably helping them somewhat. I am as well, and as of tomorrow it will be 2 weeks. They've really been trying to get more vaccines here because of how bad things are.

 

[Zorba]

Wow well this hits close to home. My sister got covid, and there's a possibility one of my nephews has it too. No sense of taste or smell for him. He works in a public setting so going to guess he got it first then my sister got it. I tend to go visit them quite often but it just so happens I have not in a while. The whole family does need to get tested so that's pending.

As a side note, any more concrete studies on if dogs can get it? I know there was talk about that in the early days.

I'm sorry to hear that. Just remember the vast majority end up okay.

Last I heard on dogs was no, but that was a long time ago.

 

[Captante]

That's just risk everyone have to take.

You are 100% incorrect on this point.

What it is, is a risk you and many others are free to take just as MANY others are free to avoid it and will continue to do so.

Time will tell who is right (I'm pulling for you!) ... but given the number of science-denying TOTAL and COMPLETE morons out walking around I suspect we're in for a bad time.

 

[snoopy7548]

I went grocery shopping yesterday (MA) and was surprised to see almost half of people not wearing masks, including the store workers. Last weekend, 100% of people had a mask on.

 

[Muse]

This comment is a couple months outdated. We now know from Israeli data that the Pfizer vaccine is highly effective against transmission of the virus itself, and I would extrapolate this to include Moderna's vaccine as well. You can't get long-haul Covid-19 if you don't get infected, period.

I have seen no sources reputable (or otherwise) asserting that the mRNA vaccines prevent you from getting covid-19. They say that data confirms that you're virtually assured of not needing hospitalization if you do get a "case" of it, much less die clearly from that case. That's certainly not the same thing. And, as the quotation from that female Texas doctor says, there's no evidence at all (and I have seen no assertions) that you can't suffer a case after full vaccination that leads to long-covid complications.

Dr Kathleen Weber
Houston TX
- - - -
"The vaccines were tested to prove that they protected against serious illness and death, but it has not yet been demonstrated that they prevent long-term Covid (chronic fatigue and brain fog) which have resulted from even mild Covid cases. Until it is clear how well vaccination protects against long-term Covid illness I will wear my mask indoors while sharing air with strangers."

I went grocery shopping yesterday (MA) and was surprised to see almost half of people not wearing masks, including the store workers. Last weekend, 100% of people had a mask on.

Welcome to the new abnormal.

I have yet to not wear a mask indoors with strangers around. I'm not itching to do so. Restrictions melt away completely (or something like that) June 15 in CA. I don't expect everyone to suddenly cast aside their masks... won't happen.

 

[Annisman*]

No vaccine for me and living life as normal, went to packed movie theatre yesterday with the wife and took the kid to the movies a week ago. Shopping, seeing friends and family, working. Live your life and don't be scared guys.