The Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

[ZoWie]

I would have voted against Adams, but since I don't vote in New York, I had to watch from the sidelines with a grim sense of foreboding. I must say that this guy has not exactly covered himself with glory in his first months, and unfortunately in New York the mayor actually has some real power.

Hopefully he'll rise to the occasion at some point. Fingers crossed.

[carmenjonze]

Yes, BA.2, or ‘stealth’ omicron, subvariant is now dominant in the U.S. - WXIA

So much for being stealth.

BA.2, informally referred to as “stealth” omicron, now accounts for more than half of U.S. COVID-19 cases, according to CDC estimates.


Multiple news reports are attributing a surge in COVID-19 cases in some countries to the omicron subvariant BA.2. It’s often informally referred to as “stealth" omicron because it has genetic mutations that could make it more difficult to distinguish from the delta variant through testing.

Some medical experts are worried about another potential uptick in U.S. COVID-19 cases as news headlines claim the omicron subvariant has become dominant.

During a briefing on March 14, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that BA.2 has “circulated in the United States for some time.”

From March 20-26, BA.2 accounted for nearly 55% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s compared to about 40% of cases attributed to BA.1, the original version of omicron.

Two weeks earlier, from March 6-12, BA.2 accounted for an estimated 28% of U.S. cases, compared to about 61% of cases attributed to BA.1.

Health departments in some U.S. states, including Washington and New York, are also reporting that BA.2 has become the dominant strain.

The latest genomic sequencing of positive COVID-19 cases in Washington state shows that more than 51% were caused by the BA.2 subvariant from March 13-19. The New York State Department of Health reports that BA.2 accounted for nearly 60% of the state’s cases from March 13-26.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on March 22 that BA.2 made up 86% of cases reported to the global public health agency between Feb. 16 and March 17.

[Libertas]

Yes, BA.2, or ‘stealth’ omicron, subvariant is now dominant in the U.S. - WXIA

So much for being stealth.

Get your 2nd booster now...I think everyone can.

[Motor City]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWYZUK-YogM

Calls Grow for Medicare for All; Uninsured & Communities of Color Hurt Most by End of COVID-19 Funds

With COVID-19 coverage ending for the uninsured, we look at how uninsured people and communities of color will bear the impact of the end to free COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccines, and how the pandemic has led to a renewed push for Medicare for All. We are joined by Dr. Oni Blackstock, primary care and HIV physician and founder and executive director of Health Justice, and Dr. Adam Gaffney, critical care physician, professor at Harvard Medical School and immediate past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

[ap215]

CDC, under fire for covid response, announces plans to revamp agency

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky announced plans Monday to revamp the agency that has come under blistering criticism for its performance leading the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying, “it is time to step back and strategically position CDC to support the future of public health.”

In an agencywide email sent shortly after 1 p.m., Walensky said she has hired a senior federal health official outside of the Atlanta-based agency to conduct a one-month review to “kick off an evaluation of CDC’s structure, systems, and processes.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... N9yKpQrR2Q

[Number6]

The UK Health Security Agency has added nine new symptom of COVID. Along with fever, new contagious cough, and loss of sense of smell and taste the new symptoms include: shortness of breath, feeling tired or exhausted, aching body, headache, sore throat, blocked or runny nose, loss of appetite, diarrhea, feeling sick or being sick.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60982070

[marindem01]

The UK Health Security Agency has added nine new symptom of COVID. Along with fever, new contagious cough, and loss of sense of smell and taste the new symptoms include: shortness of breath, feeling tired or exhausted, aching body, headache, sore throat, blocked or runny nose, loss of appetite, diarrhea, feeling sick or being sick.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60982070

Shortness of breathe or coughing - I have Asthma.

Dizziness - I have Benign Paroxysmal Vertigo.

No sense of smell - I have TWO surgeries for Sinus Polyps. I have no sense of smell.

I've had three COVID Tests, each negative.

But I have symptoms of COVID, I live with them everyday.

[marindem01]

The Iconic Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant To Close.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/SF ... 069430.php.

At nearly 100 years old, the landmark Sicilian seafood establishment Alioto’s Restaurant will permanently close its doors, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The institution has a rich, storied history in the famous port of San Francisco — and its closure marks the end of a family legacy.

Founded by Italian immigrant Nunzio Alioto in 1925 — and before it became known as a landmark seafood restaurant — Alioto’s was just a humble fish stand. Eventually, it moved into Stall No. 8 at Fisherman’s Wharf and sold lunch to Italian laborers, hence the illuminated No. 8 on the facade of the building. As business flourished in the 1930s, Alioto combined his fish stand with a seafood bar, selling shrimp and crab cocktails and fresh Dungeness crab. It was the very first building on the wharf.

Even after his death in 1933, his family members carried on the restaurant’s legacy: His surviving wife, Rose, stepped in, becoming the first businesswoman on Fisherman’s Wharf. Once she expanded the restaurant in 1938 and established it as a formal restaurant, it became Alioto’s, the institution that proudly served “the freshest seafood, family Italian recipes, and the finest views” for decades to come. It survived a devastating fire in 1957 and served soldiers in World War II, but it hasn’t been able to reopen its doors since March 2020.

Their Shrimp Cocktail was treat. Sad to see them fold.

[Libertas]

Alioto's cousin Laurie Lazio and my dad were friends. Lazio owned a famous restaurant that we did business with other than eating.

When Joe Alioto ran for gov my dad was his No Cal campaign manager, but he didnt do a lot as I recall.

We did have an event for him in our town, it was interesting to be part of it. I was young, I worked parking cars I think.

[ap215]

FDA authorizes first COVID-19 breathalyzer test

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized the first COVID-19 test that uses breath samples.

The InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer test has to be done by a trained operator, but the FDA said it can provide a result in around three minutes.

https://www.today.com/health/1st-covid- ... tdb_220406

[ap215]

Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle Appointed By Donald Trump

Florida court overturns CDC mask mandate for planes and trains, calling it 'unlawful'

A federal judge on Monday struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's rule that all travelers must wear masks on airplanes, buses, trains and other modes of public transportation, calling it "unlawful."

The ruling, from U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, Florida, said the CDC had overstepped its legal authority by imposing the mandate in February 2021.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fl ... -rcna24853

[Libertas]

Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle Appointed By Donald Trump

Florida court overturns CDC mask mandate for planes and trains, calling it 'unlawful'

A federal judge on Monday struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's rule that all travelers must wear masks on airplanes, buses, trains and other modes of public transportation, calling it "unlawful."

The ruling, from U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, Florida, said the CDC had overstepped its legal authority by imposing the mandate in February 2021.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fl ... -rcna24853

Yet another MAGA judge that doesnt belong anywhere near a court or law book.

If not reversed I wont be able to go to my sons wedding. Cons are violent mass murderers. I could not hate you more, and eventually everyone will hate you the way I do and you will deserve that outcome. Fuck each of you to hell, if there was one.

This is the judge, as unqualified as you can get


https://www.wonkette.com/33-year-old-federal-judge

Yesterday, a 33-year-old woman who has never tried a case was given a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. She has only been out of law school for eight years.

With this confirmation, Mitch McConnell upended a 123-year-old Senate tradition of declining to confirm appointments by a president who lost reelection.

One legal observer said her opinion looked like a teenager wrote it. This is MAGA America...I cant travel now, cant go to my sons wedding.

I hate everyone of you in ways I didnt think I could...I hope soon EVEYRONE feels the way I do..

Oh and I just saw that this idiot judge's husband works for Jared Kushner. Chad Mizelle, formerly with DHS, now working for Jared's Affinity Investment that just got 2B Saudi money.

America is broken folks. (seen on DU)

[carmenjonze]

Dr. Thrasher
@thrasherxy

Covid is over to all major American branches of government, political parties, businesses and regulatory agencies.

We are entering an even darker period, of forced amnesia and forgetting—a time not unlike 1996 w HIV, before MOST ppl had yet to die of AIDS (despite drugs).



To riff on Carlin, there is an illussion of choice.

You have no choice.

You have no choice of airlines, they’re all pro Covid.

You have no choice of political parties—they’re all pro Covid and pro death.

The fix is in.



Delta is right about one thing — SARS-CoV-2 is now a seasonal illness.

It is bc it will be disregarded just as biz & govt disregard influenza.

Unfortunately, it’s always Covid season, and Covid is more dangerous.



Delta needn’t be epidemiogists to make Covid a seasonal virus — science & technology studies shows us how the social world and scientific understanding affect what we understand the world to be. If @DLeonhardt @DrLeanaWenm & @Delta say it’s a seasonal virus, that’s what it’ll be



If this seasonal virus culls people they don’t like from the earth, well so be it, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1 ... 7559666688

[carmenjonze]

Ronak K. Kapadia
@ProfKapadia

Hard to feel surprised by the news that people cheered the mask mandates lifting mid~flight on planes today given that the US populace is partially comprised of blood-thirsty violence-guzzling fools who are intentionally ill-informed on a range of fronts. Still gutting though.

https://twitter.com/ProfKapadia/status/ ... 6285516800

__________

The same people listen to Alex Jones about supplements, Tucker Carlson on testosterone, and GOP authoritarians on physical and medical autonomy for women and trans children.

[carmenjonze]

U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle

Never tried a case.

None of these WNs demanded to see her LSAT scores.

[ap215]

White House Global Covid-19 Summit to be held in May

The White House announced Monday that its Global Covid-19 Summit, which it hopes will bring new funding and coordination for global pandemic responses, will be held May 12.

The summit will be co-hosted by Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal — CARICOM chair, leader of the G-7, leader of the G-20 and African Union chair, respectively.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/1 ... y-00025823

[Libertas]

Never tried a case.

None of these WNs demanded to see her LSAT scores.

Legal observers say her decision looks like it was written by a teenager.

Cant go to my sons wedding now. Or I can and maybe die.

Non refundable first class tix, I should have gotten refundable but the cost was relatively low so I figured no big deal either way...

YOU FUCKERS are MY PHYSICAL ENEMY...

[carmenjonze]

YOU FUCKERS are MY PHYSICAL ENEMY...

Conservatism is an existential threat.

And conservatives have every intention of it being so.

[marindem01]

Conservatism is an existential threat.

And conservatives have every intention of it being so.

Careful Carmen, the Troll will accuse you of being "Arrogant".

[carmenjonze]

Careful Carmen, the Troll will accuse you of being "Arrogant".

The things he calls me are only the crap he can get away with without getting banned. :problem:

[marindem01]

The things he calls me are only the crap he can get away with without getting banned. :problem:

It can be pathetic at times, watching the Troll trying prove how he is NOT racist. The irony is, all he does is succeed in proving how racist he really is.

[Libertas]

I dont use the N word (anymore anyway), therefore I am not racist. Sure I vote for people who will do everything in their power to stop Black people from voting, but as long as I dont use that word, I'm good.

etc

[Motor City]

This is kind of interesting history of pandemics and planetary alignments. says another one will likely come in 2036

The Astrology of Pandemics

Astrologists attempt to draw a connection between planetary alignment and historical pandemics in order to predict future worldwide health events.

[ProfX]

Astrology, Motor. Really?

[Motor City]

Astrology, Motor. Really?

yea thats what its about also has a history of the worst pandemics, it makes the point that 3 particular planets are always interacting when the deadliest pandemics occur Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn.