2019 Novel Coronavirus Covid-19 Discussion

Forums › Health and fitness › 2019 Novel Coronavirus Covid-19 Discussion

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1070 posts

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#2946571 26-Jul-2022 15:52

Stuff reporting todays cases:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/129380530/covid19-9256-new-case-numbers-822-hospitalisations

From the article there is no mention of deaths in the last 24 hours.

"The Ministry of Health has reported 9256 new community cases of Covid-19 and 822 current hospitalisations, including 24 in intensive care or high dependency units.

In the past seven days there have been an average of 17 deaths confirmed each day as being attributable to Covid-19."

However, the health site at https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-current-cases

has the following table:

Confusingly, at least for me they also say "Of the 38 people whose deaths we are reporting today". So yes the 7 day average is ticking up but not reporting the actual death figures in Stuff really undermines the impact of what is happening in the short term.

mclean

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#2946573 26-Jul-2022 15:54

I think that for most Food Control Plans in the food service industry, the emphasis is on hand-washing, not wearing gloves. And it's not washing per customer, it's after touching anything dirty, like face, hair, dirty clothes, rubbish, etc. Touching clean food or containers isn't generally seen as a risk.

As far as Covid goes, restaurant food service is a lottery. I know that's where I caught it, along with two others in the group I was with. I'd say if you're uneasy about other people touching your food/plates/utensils then stay away from restaurants and fast-food outlets.

quickymart

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#2946574 26-Jul-2022 15:56

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/why-people-keep-avoiding-covid-ba5-rcna39442

I must be lucky, I haven't had it - yet (neither has anyone in my household).

elpenguino

3419 posts

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#2947523 28-Jul-2022 18:10

mclean:

I think that for most Food Control Plans in the food service industry, the emphasis is on hand-washing, not wearing gloves. And it's not washing per customer, it's after touching anything dirty, like face, hair, dirty clothes, rubbish, etc. Touching clean food or containers isn't generally seen as a risk.

As far as Covid goes, restaurant food service is a lottery. I know that's where I caught it, along with two others in the group I was with. I'd say if you're uneasy about other people touching your food/plates/utensils then stay away from restaurants and fast-food outlets.

This is where the merits of deep fried food are shown :-) And no utensils needed either, usually.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

Batman

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#2947524 28-Jul-2022 18:11

mkissin:

Batman:

do we have data on the current situation (not historical not overall, only current deaths)

- how much are the vaccines delevoped for original strain protecting from death, severe illness, hospitalizations etc for the current situation?

That data will get harder and harder to get, as you need a population of unvaccinated people to compare against. I believe it's still reasonable (as in, you're better off vaccinated than not) but don't have any data to hand.

watching yesterday's 1 news

Dr AB says if had 0-1 doses of vaccine 6 times more likely to die vs 2 doses or more

shk292

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#2947526 28-Jul-2022 18:24

mclean:

I think that for most Food Control Plans in the food service industry, the emphasis is on hand-washing, not wearing gloves. And it's not washing per customer, it's after touching anything dirty, like face, hair, dirty clothes, rubbish, etc. Touching clean food or containers isn't generally seen as a risk.

As far as Covid goes, restaurant food service is a lottery. I know that's where I caught it, along with two others in the group I was with. I'd say if you're uneasy about other people touching your food/plates/utensils then stay away from restaurants and fast-food outlets.

I don't believe there have been any confirmed cases of transmission by means other than airborne transmission, so food handling practice seems completely irrelevant to COVID https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/safety/Pages/Can-COVID-19-be-transmitted-by-food-or-food-packaging.aspx

freitasm

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#2953765 12-Aug-2022 10:30

CDC ends social distancing and contact quarantining Covid recommendations | Coronavirus | The Guardian

The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday relaxed its Covid-19 guidelines, dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said people no longer need to stay at least 6ft (about 2 metres) away from others.

The changes are driven by a recognition that more than two and a half years since the start of the pandemic an estimated 95% of Americans ages 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected, agency officials said.

“The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years,” said the CDC’s Greta Massetti, an author of the guidelines.

The CDC recommendations apply to everyone in the US, but the changes could be particularly important for schools, which resume classes this month in many parts of the country.

Perhaps the biggest education-related change is the end of the recommendation that schools do routine daily testing, although that practice can be reinstated in certain situations during a surge in infections, officials said.

The CDC also dropped a “test-to-stay” recommendation, which said students exposed to Covid-19 could regularly test instead of quarantining at home to keep attending school. With no quarantine recommendation, the testing option disappeared too.

Masks continue to be recommended only in areas where community transmission is deemed high, or if a person is considered at high risk of severe illness.

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freitasm

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#2956168 18-Aug-2022 16:33

One for All? | Harvard Medical School

An antibody developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital now seems to fit the bill.

In lab tests, it neutralized all currently known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including all omicron variants.

“We hope this antibody will prove to be as effective in patients as it has been in preclinical evaluations thus far,” said Frederick Alt, the HMS Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s, professor of genetics at HMS, and a senior investigator on the study.

“If it does,” he added, “it might provide a new therapeutic and also contribute to new vaccine strategies.”

Oblivian

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#2956968 20-Aug-2022 14:41

Doesn't take long for new variants to wildfire their way to the top

The research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research shows BA.5, which was first identified in travellers in late April 2022, is now at 91 per cent and has overtaken the previous Omicron variant BA.2.

According to the ESR data, BA.2 now only represents three per cent of cases.

ezbee

2405 posts

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#2957283 21-Aug-2022 15:32

So many things wrong with this its hard to know where to start. Testing live freshly caught fish ?

Covid in China: Fish tested amid Xiamen outbreak
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-62593217

""
In recent weeks, Xiamen's Jimei Maritime Pandemic Control district committee issued a notice saying that when fishermen return to their ports "both fishermen and their seafood must be tested".

The result has been that amid this latest outbreak, video footage has appeared on multiple social media platforms including Douyin - China's local version of TikTok - showing medical workers giving live fish and crabs Covid-19 PCR tests.
""
While this might look unusual, this is not the first time that live fish have been tested for Covid-19.

An employee at the Xiamen Municipal Oceanic Development Bureau told the South China Morning Post newspaper: "We've taken lessons from Hainan, which is witnessing a severe outbreak.
"

cddt

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#2958597 24-Aug-2022 11:11

Oblivian:

Doesn't take long for new variants to wildfire their way to the top

The research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research shows BA.5, which was first identified in travellers in late April 2022, is now at 91 per cent and has overtaken the previous Omicron variant BA.2.

According to the ESR data, BA.2 now only represents three per cent of cases.

I know a few people now who are on their second round of covid. Had their first during the BA.2 wave in March, now have had what is presumably a BA.5 infection. Unlucky sods.

freitasm

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#2958744 24-Aug-2022 13:02

For those complaining about our measures.

The Covid-19 experience in Aotearoa New Zealand and other comparable high-income jurisdictions and implications for managing the next pandemic phase – Public Health Expert, University of Otago, New Zealand

Commentary from NZ Herald:

South Korea had experienced the year's largest wave, reaching about 7814 cases per million of population in mid-March.

That compared with 4,213 per million in Australia's January surge and 4294 per million in the peak of New Zealand's first Omicron outbreak.

When the researchers looked at deaths, they found South Korea and Taiwan recorded the highest peaks, with rolling seven-day averages that respectively reached seven and eight per million, in late March and early June.

Smaller mortality peaks were seen throughout the pandemic period in Japan and Singapore – but to a lesser extent in Australia and New Zealand, which only just recorded its deadliest week for Covid-19.

In terms of cumulative Covid-19 deaths, Australia and South Korea reported the highest totals, at 516 and 504 per million respectively.

But the researchers stressed that reporting of deaths and cases varied across countries - and cumulative testing rates in Japan and Taiwan, for instance, were lower compared with New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.

A perhaps cleaner measure for comparison was "excess mortality" – or the difference between how many people died throughout the pandemic from any cause, and how many would've been expected otherwise.

That allowed them to view the effects of shutting borders and squashing transmission: something that temporarily also crushed influenza on both sides of the Tasman, dramatically lowering winter death rates over 2020 and 2021.

It also enabled a glimpse at what Omicron-stretched hospitals may have meant for healthcare for other illnesses.

While they found patterns of excess mortality had fluctuated heavily with Omicron, as at last month, only New Zealand had maintained a reduced rate.

Across the entire pandemic period, New Zealand had minus 215 excess deaths per million, which equated to around 1103 fewer people dying than in a scenario in which the Covid-19 crisis never happened.

If we'd experienced a similar per capita excess mortality rate with other jurisdictions, then the country may have seen 1856 extra deaths (Japan), or 2127 (Taiwan), 2577 (Australia), 3798 (Singapore) or 5167 (South Korea).

Remarkably, there were only nine jurisdictions on the planet which had recorded negative cumulative excess mortality for the pandemic period, of which New Zealand was the largest.

quickymart

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#2958748 24-Aug-2022 13:08

Could this be a sign of hope for one-size-fits-all-variants vaccine?

https://bigthink.com/health/universal-coronavirus-vaccine/

alasta

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#2958806 24-Aug-2022 14:57

quickymart:

Could this be a sign of hope for one-size-fits-all-variants vaccine?

https://bigthink.com/health/universal-coronavirus-vaccine/

I often hear it said that the four existing endemic coronaviruses are 'just another common cold virus' but I have never seen any evidence that they are actually less severe than a typical rhinovirus. In particular, there seems to be mounting evidence to suggest that coronavirus OC43 caused the so-called 'Russian Flu' pandemic of 1889-90 which killed a lot of people globally.

If a pan-coronavirus vaccine really is feasible then it could have huge implications.

wellygary

8312 posts

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#2958813 24-Aug-2022 15:15

freitasm:

For those complaining about our measures.

The Covid-19 experience in Aotearoa New Zealand and other comparable high-income jurisdictions and implications for managing the next pandemic phase – Public Health Expert, University of Otago, New Zealand

Commentary from NZ Herald:

They do like to bang their heads on the brick wall thou .... the Govt is gonna nod knowingly and then ignore pretty much all of it

"develop a range of strategies to maximise the uptake and effectiveness of mask-wearing in educational facilities (for students, staff, and visitors), such as schools (from Year 1 upwards), colleges and universities, along with wider mandates for indoor facilities and health care facilities. "

"Other aspects of the Covid-19 response could also be strengthened by developing a robust Covid-19 Action Plan for Schools (as described in our previous blog)."

The earlier blog talk about basically reintroducing close contact isolation for schools, which would likely see classes isolate if one student tests +ve, along with thresholds for school circuit breaker lockdowns with on line learning,

+dumping blue surgical masks and requiring N95s for everyone....

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