Coronavirus thread

[Madiel]

In the last two years WHO made lots of contradictory statements from the very beginning. They have zero credibility in my book.

You really don't understand how science works, do you?

You, or anyone else who complains when the available information changes.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

AP:  "Chief Justice James Allsop and Justices James Besanko and David O'Callaghan on Thursday released a 27-page explanation of why they rejected Djokovic's challenge."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/judges-didnt-consider-wisdom-of-deporting-novak-djokovic/ar-AASY7rR

Meanwhile, certain sources (who?) apparently have spoken to Novak's agent, Edoardo Artladi, that Novak is in talks with his lawyers about possibly suing the Australian government for 3.2 million pounds for "ill treatment".

And I also found out that besides being the tournament director of the Australian Open, Craig Tiley is also head of Tennis Australia....though there is also a board of directors too.  And he's not stepping down.  I wonder how involved they were in terms of the whole mess?

Who paid for Novak's defense?  I've seen various articles, some of which say that it will be the Australian people--the taxpayers--through money from TA, but others say that that isn't true.  Anyone here know?  Madiel? TA has apparently denied it.  Since Novak lost, would he have to pay for all of the costs?  Not just his lawyers, but also cover all of the prosecution's costs--which add up.

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I should also include this recent news:  https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/djokovic-buys-80-danish-biotech-developing-covid-19-treatment-ceo-2022-01-19/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter

Novak and his wife Jelena bought 80% of a Danish company which is trying to come up with a treatment for Covid (Note:  not a vaccine)....apparently, they purchased their parts of it back in June of 2020.

PD

[Karl Henning]

In another encouraging sign that Omicron may be loosening its grip on the state, the amount of coronavirus detected in Eastern Massachusetts waste water has continued its dizzying decline in recent days, according to data released Thursday by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

The numbers have dropped to less than a quarter of their Omicron-fueled peaks early this month, though they are remain higher than they were during last winter's surge.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

In another encouraging sign that Omicron may be loosening its grip on the state, the amount of coronavirus detected in Eastern Massachusetts waste water has continued its dizzying decline in recent days, according to data released Thursday by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

The numbers have dropped to less than a quarter of their Omicron-fueled peaks early this month, though they are remain higher than they were during last winter's surge.

Good news for you Karl!  Happy to hear it...and may it continue. 

PD

[Karl Henning]

Thanks, PD. Waiting for more signs of the ebb, before resuming church choir. Meanwhile, we worry that our mask-averse sister has bronchitis or worse now, but we are having trouble getting her to see a doctor to check her out.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Thanks, PD. Waiting for more signs of the ebb, before resuming church choir. Meanwhile, we worry that our mask-averse sister has bronchitis or worse now, but we are having trouble getting her to see a doctor to check her out.

Oh, dear!  Sorry to hear that.  Has she done any at-home tests?  And is it a case that she hates or has issues with seeing a doctor? 

PD

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

 "Novak is Serbia, Serbia is Novak." Hyper-nationalism and delusion in Serbia.
Serbian prime minister preaches what democracy is.
It would be fair to say that I saw a similar thing in the USA at the time of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/20/sport/djokovic-serbia-national-hero-intl-spt/index.html

[Karl Henning]

Oh, dear!  Sorry to hear that.  Has she done any at-home tests?  And is it a case that she hates or has issues with seeing a doctor? 

PD

Her "issue" is that she's been convinced by her rubbishy sources that "masks are bad for you," and since even in Tennessee one must wear a mask to go to a doctor, she refuses.

[MusicTurner]

(A guess would be then that a whole bunch of people advising her directly and repeatedly, including maybe the doctor, would perhaps be the best solution ... )

[Karl Henning]

COVID-19 cases have peaked in Massachusetts

The data indicate Massachusetts is headed toward a respite, and the United States also will see cases decline, said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. But he cautioned that "every expectation with this virus comes with a caveat because it's always making us look silly."

[Karl Henning]

What happens after Omicron? Some experts predict a lull but say the virus could have more tricks up its sleeve

By Martin Finucane Globe Staff, Updated January 20, 2022, 1 hour ago

The surge fueled by the Omicron variant will likely fade in the weeks ahead in the United States, experts say, and encouraging case declines have already emerged in Massachusetts and other states in the Northeast.

But what comes after that? Some experts are expecting a lull in the pandemic followed by a decline in the severity of future waves. But many also warn that it's hard to predict where the pandemic will go next — and a new variant could throw everything into doubt.

"I want to emphasize that we don't know what comes after Omicron," said Dr. Jake Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-leader of the viral variants program at the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness.

"I think we should be optimistic about where we are, because we have learned a lot about vaccines, we have new drugs that are available, and we have now public health tools that we know work well," he said in a media briefing Tuesday. "But the pandemic has been incredibly humbling in that, you know, it's impossible really to predict with certainty what is going to happen."

One possible scenario is that the Omicron surge will subside and be followed by a pandemic hiatus of sorts, because of the large number of people who will have been infected, vaccinated, or both.

"I think we're going to go through a pretty quiet period," said Matthew Fox, a professor of epidemiology and global health at Boston University School of Public Health, with previous infections and vaccinations creating a "wall" against the virus. It's the "most likely pattern," he said.

"I think we will have a relative lull," Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told STAT News this week.

Once it's swept past, the Omicron surge could also make future pandemic waves less intense, some experts argue.

"By infecting large numbers of people quickly, [Omicron] is also generating immunity quickly. And that counts toward making Covid-19 a more manageable illness, since the layers of immunity may provide protection against future waves and variants," William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-director of its Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, suggested Wednesday in a New York Times op-ed.

"No one should confidently assert that Omicron signals the end of the pandemic, but we should be confident that future surges of infections, whether with Omicron or whatever variant comes next, will make fewer of us seriously ill than they would have before," he asserted.

Christopher H. Murray, director of the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, sounded an even more optimistic note Wednesday in a commentary in the journal The Lancet. "After the omicron wave, COVID-19 will return but the pandemic will not," he said.

The future health impacts of the spread of the coronavirus "will be less because of broad previous exposure to the virus, regularly adapted vaccines to new antigens or variants, the advent of antivirals, and the knowledge that the vulnerable can protect themselves during future waves when needed by using high-quality masks and physical distancing," he said.

"COVID-19 will become another recurrent disease that health systems and societies will have to manage," he said.

But others aren't quite as confident, worrying about the possible rise of a new variant that could circumvent existing immunity.

"The biggest threat would be the emergence of a new strain resistant to prior infection and vaccination," said Fox.

Lemieux said, "I do think things will get better. But we're going to have to keep a really close eye on the evolution of this virus because that has continued to be a major factor in the pandemic to date and I don't expect that to change."

Paul Bieniasz, head of the laboratory of retrovirology at Rockefeller University, said the optimistic outlook, which is "completely plausible," is that the coronavirus will one day join other coronaviruses, such as those that cause the common cold, in causing only mild disease.

"But that is not inevitable. It's not a given that that's going to happen," he said.

"What keeps me awake at night is thinking about what the properties of the next variant will be," he said Thursday. "The notion of whether there will be another variant — that's not in doubt. There will be. What is in doubt is what its properties will be and how effectively our immune systems will be able to deal with it."

Some experts have even warned of the nightmare scenario of a new variant that would be just as transmissible as Omicron while at the same time causing disease as severe as the Delta variant that it replaced.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, warned Tuesday in a tweet that the immunity generated by Omicron might fade fast, opening the door to a variant as soon as this spring.

"There's no consensus, but I feel that omicron will not produce long lasting or durable protection and we'll be vulnerable to a new variant this spring/summer," he said.

Experts say that as long as there are large groups of unvaccinated people worldwide, the virus can infect people, replicate, and continue to mutate, producing new variants.[emphasis mine—kh] And they've called for using the post-Omicron window to vaccinate places that currently have little protection, such as Africa, where only a small fraction of people have gotten shots.

"The biggest thing we could do to minimize the likelihood" of another variant emerging is "to get vaccinations around the world," Fox said. "That's got to be a huge focus."

"Vaccinating the world has always been important," said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medical College. "For the past two years, scientists have been warning that variants arise and cross borders."

Moore emphasized that no one knows for sure what will happen next. "Who saw the Delta wave? Who saw the Omicron wave?" he said. "We don't know what's going to happen. ... Crystal ball-gazing by people in the scientific community doesn't have a perfect record."

[prémont]

What happens after Omicron? Some experts predict a lull but say the virus could have more tricks up its sleeve

Thanks for posting this. I'm afraid, that much of the predictions in the article will come true. We have during the last two years witnessed four SARS-2 variants - that's one each half year (Wuhan, alfa, delta and now omikron), which all have spread worldwide in a very short time and taken the lead one after the other. It is only a matter of - I think relatively short - time before we will see the next variant which probably won't become detected before it has spread rather much (like the omikron did), at least if it has it's origin in a country which doesn't do many tests - not to talk about sequence-analyzing. The parts of the third world, where the omikron is prevalent fit the description suitably.  It is only to hope, that it won't cause more disease than omikron.

[Madiel]

Who paid for Novak's defense?  I've seen various articles, some of which say that it will be the Australian people--the taxpayers--through money from TA, but others say that that isn't true.  Anyone here know?  Madiel? TA has apparently denied it.  Since Novak lost, would he have to pay for all of the costs?  Not just his lawyers, but also cover all of the prosecution's costs--which add up.

PD

It's purely rumours that Tennis Australia paid anything, and given they've denied it I'd believe them. There's no particular reason that they would as far as I can see. Not least because Djokovic would have sufficient funds.

And yes, he'd have to pay the costs of the other side. I'm fairly sure the standard costs order was made.

[Mirror Image]

Both of my parents have COVID as they tested positive today. Thankfully, both have been vaccinated (but dad is due for his booster next month and mom needs to get hers, ASAP). I believe I had COVID earlier in the month (not too long after New Year's) and I obviously gave it to them. I took the COVID test when I got home from work tonight and tested negative. Anyway, it's that pesky Omicron variant that's been going around --- I had chest congestion, back ache, low-grade fever and a sore throat (not to mention a cough, but it wasn't as severe as the muscle aches I experienced). Please wish us well as this is the last thing we need in our lives.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Both of my parents have COVID as they tested positive today.

My prayer for your parents, John. The back pain and muscle pain sound like Omicron. Glad you recovered quickly. Since your parents are vaccinated, they will recover soon. Hope they will get well ASAP.

[Madiel]

Both of my parents have COVID as they tested positive today. Thankfully, both have been vaccinated (but dad is due for his booster next month and mom needs to get hers, ASAP). I believe I had COVID earlier in the month (not too long after New Year's) and I obviously gave it to them. I took the COVID test when I got home from work tonight and tested negative. Anyway, it's that pesky Omicron variant that's been going around --- I had chest congestion, back ache, low-grade fever and a sore throat (not to mention a cough, but it wasn't as severe as the muscle aches I experienced). Please wish us well as this is the last thing we need in our lives.

Sorry to hear. Hopefully the vaccination will help minimise the impacts - there's good evidence that it improves the course of the infection even when it doesn't prevent it.  All the very best wishes for your parents.

[MusicTurner]

Sorry to hear. Hopefully the vaccination will help minimise the impacts - there's good evidence that it improves the course of the infection even when it doesn't prevent it.  All the very best wishes for your parents.

+1 from here.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Both of my parents have COVID as they tested positive today. Thankfully, both have been vaccinated (but dad is due for his booster next month and mom needs to get hers, ASAP). I believe I had COVID earlier in the month (not too long after New Year's) and I obviously gave it to them. I took the COVID test when I got home from work tonight and tested negative. Anyway, it's that pesky Omicron variant that's been going around --- I had chest congestion, back ache, low-grade fever and a sore throat (not to mention a cough, but it wasn't as severe as the muscle aches I experienced). Please wish us well as this is the last thing we need in our lives.

Wishing you all good health!

PD

[Florestan]

Wishing you all good health!

PD

+ 1