Due to problems with the interface between WordPress and Twitter, front-pagers have been asked to keep the number of tweets-per-post to ten or fewer. Since screenshots, I’m informed, don’t have those issues, today’s hodgepodge posting is a mixture of screenshots & embedded tweets, saving the embeds for higher-tier items, since I quail at the idea of sorting out more than one of these update posts per night. Yes, it’s ugly, but I’ve already spent twice as long as usual putting this together, and we’re all on a learning curve here…
When it comes to Covid, the United States specializes in denialism. Deny the human-to-human transmission of the virus when China’s first cases were publicized in late 2019. Deny that the virus is airborne. Deny the need for boosters across all adult age groups. There are many more examples, but now one stands out – learning from other countries…
In the past couple of weeks, the UK and several countries in Europe, including Germany, France and Switzerland, are experiencing a new wave. At least 12 countries, geographically extending from Finland to Greece, are experiencing new increases in cases, some quite marked, such as Austria exceeding its pandemic peak, and Finland with an 85% increase from the prior week. Many of these countries are also showing a rise in hospital admissions.
This is the sixth warning from the UK and Europe to the United States.
Indications within the United States support the idea that new wave is already getting started. Wastewater surveillance is relatively sparse in the United States, but 15% of the 410 sites where it was conducted between 24 February to 10 March 2022 showed a greater than 1000% increase compared with the prior 15-day period. Also, the BA.2 variant is gaining steam in the United States and is now accounting for more than 30% of new cases…
Not only is there a gaping hole in our immunity wall, but the $58bn budget of the American Pandemic Prepared Plan (AP3), advanced by the White House to comprehensively address the deficiencies, was gutted by the Senate and reduced to just $2bn. Under threat are the order of more than 9.2m Paxlovid pills, the Test-to Treat program announced at the State of the Union address, better data, wastewater surveillance, efforts to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine, research on long Covid, and many other critical public health measures.
We haven’t even seen a new, major variant yet, but there are too many reasons to believe that is likely in the months ahead, owing to extensive animal reservoirs and documented cases of spillover to humans, a large number of immunocompromised people in whom the virus can undergo accelerated evolution, rare but increasingly seen co-infections, and lack of containment of the virus globally. That, in itself, requires preparedness. Unfortunately, we have a mindset that the pandemic is over, which couldn’t be further than the truth, as I wrote about in the epidemic of Covid complacency…
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Figures showing a global rise in COVID-19 cases could herald a much bigger problem as some countries also report a drop in testing rates, the WHO said on Tuesday, warning nations to remain vigilant against the virus. https://t.co/IlVFbPmVgP
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) March 16, 2022
China's local COVID cases decline for 2nd day as Jilin outbreak grows at slower pace https://t.co/PnaNbl2R1C pic.twitter.com/9juLfcuiXq
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 17, 2022
As the Omicron variant continues to spread across China in the biggest wave of COVID-19 cases since the 2020 Wuhan outbreak, it is pushing the country’s strict zero-COVID policy to the brink https://t.co/X2k6x0gfqz pic.twitter.com/DF4CDzSiY7
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 17, 2022
COVID-19 infections and pandemic restrictions have sucked much of the energy out of Hong Kong. As store shelves empty and the government sends mixed messages about plans for mass testing, it’s hard for residents to know what’s next. https://t.co/TFR0ALrJJ6 pic.twitter.com/RmpBIJnuAP
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 16, 2022
South Korea reached another daily record in COVID-19 deaths on Thursday as health officials reported more than 621,000 new infections. The massive omicron surge has been worse than feared and threatens to buckle an over-stretched hospital system. https://t.co/GJUIYFws4f
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 17, 2022
When South Korea, a model country for the pandemic, has >400,000 new cases in a day, leading the world per capita, you take notice. Tests 4X the US with <1/6th the population. BA.2 is 26% as of this week's report.
Very high 2-shot vaxx 87%, 3-shot 63%. The pandemic isn't over. pic.twitter.com/X3JKQqvi9S— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) March 16, 2022
It's been a while since I posted this chart but the recent surge in cases has catapulted all Australian states into the most infectious Covid-19 infection rates per million of the population in the world. I for one will be wearing my mask and continuing to social distance. pic.twitter.com/yoqph6e0wf
— Frank Turner (@FrancisTurner11) March 17, 2022
The #Covid surge in Western Europe has US public health experts bracing for a new wave. Germany, a nation of 83M saw more than 250k new cases & 249 deaths Friday. The health minister called the situation critical. Most Covid protections there end Sunday https://t.co/m38mMOuPbl
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 16, 2022
In Africa, a mix of shots is driving an uncertain #Covid vaccination campaign. Supplies are more plentiful now but they're unpredictable & often a jumble of brands. Many places can’t meet WHO’s recommended dosing schedules https://t.co/hZDCKaPQi3 pic.twitter.com/70kKqoW34W
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 16, 2022
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… Croup, which causes a distinctive barking-like cough and high-pitched sounds when patients inhale, happens when viruses cause swelling in the respiratory tract that makes it hard to breathe. From the start of the pandemic until mid-January 2022, emergency physicians at Boston Children’s Hospital treated 75 children with croup, all but one of whom had COVID infections. Eighty percent of those cases occurred after Omicron began circulating in December 2021, they reported in Pediatrics. Most of the children were treated with steroids and sent home, but some required hospitalization. Overall, the children required more medication doses compared to children with croup caused by other viruses, the doctors found…
Tuberculosis vaccine improves immune response to coronavirus
… Early in the pandemic, studies began to suggest that people who received the so-called BCG vaccine as children had lower rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Research in hamsters now shows that animals vaccinated with BCG had less pneumonia due to COVID-19 and lower levels of the coronavirus in their lungs. Doctors at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found important differences in lung cells between animals infected with SARS-CoV-2 who did or did not get the BCG vaccine, they reported on Tuesday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review. Upon infection with the coronavirus, for the BCG-treated animals, antibodies came to lung cells much faster, lung repair mechanisms got underway much more quickly, and tissue-damaging inflammation was blunted, said coauthor Dr. William Bishai. Earlier this month, researchers in India reported on the effects of BCG in recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca (AZN.L) in a small study. The 21 subjects who had received the TB vaccine showed significantly “more robust” antibody- and T-cell attacks against the coronavirus than the 13 people who had not, they reported on Research Square ahead of peer review. Combining BCG vaccines with COVID-19 vaccines “may offer synergistic protection,” the Johns Hopkins team said. Clinical trials testing BCG vaccines for protection against COVID-19 are underway…
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Two years of #Covid have created a 2nd much more silent pandemic—one of grief. And yes, grief is hard to quantify https://t.co/lLr1lkHgME pic.twitter.com/9ipbDH8ubQ
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 16, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/ Thursday, March 16-17Post + Comments (73)