WHO Media Briefing: 'A World in Disorder' (and vid)
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1306975949255135233
The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board's 2020 report. GPMB is an independent monitoring and accountability body to ensure preparedness for global crises. On COVID-19: 'We are all interconnected. Your security - their security, depends on our collective security. None of us are safe until all of us are safe..."
"In the last 24 hours, two more LTC residents died of COVID-19. There remain 22 active Ontario LTC home outbreaks. Andrew Harris MD has challenged me to say what must be done to get this under control. Here it is (a thread)."
Coronavirus: Canada Updates 9/15/2020
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/
Dr John Campbell, Coronavirus Update: 9/15/2020
https://youtu.be/MDT8q2qxgj0
"Coronavirus, US and Africa..."
Let me guess: the country that hit their peak in case numbers two to three months after the rest of Europe?
Trump Says “Herd Mentality” Will Make COVID-19 “Go Away”
The United States reported over 1,400 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday — the highest daily total in over a month. The U.S. death toll is nearing 196,000. During a town hall event hosted by ABC on Tuesday, President Trump repeated his claim that the coronavirus would “go away.”
President Trump appeared to be referencing herd immunity. Epidemiologists don’t know how many millions more people would need to be infected for the United States to reach herd immunity — or even if herd immunity is possible for the novel coronavirus. By one count, adopting a herd immunity approach could lead to the deaths of over 2 million people in the U.S.
What percent of people being tested for covid are testing positive? The World Health Organization has flagged anything being over 5% as being unsafe. Here in Manitoba, even in the worst spikes, we never had more than 3% of the tests come back positive.
The Virus is Mutating (and vid)
https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1306262660854550529
"Millions have already been affected and while it is less deadly it is more infectious says MOATS medic Ranjeet Brar..."
The death cult mentality writ large
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs
US Billionaire Critic of COVID-19 Restrictions Says Ottawa Let Her Skip 14-Day Quarantine
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/billionaire-covid-quarantine-exemption-1....
"A top Donald Trump donor who has publicly campaigned against COVID-19 restrictions was granted a special entry exemption into Canada last month, allowing her to skip the country's mandatory 14-day quarantine for foreign travellers, a CBC News investigation has learned.
Through a spokesperson, Liz Uihlein insisted that the three Americans were granted formal exemptions from the two-week self-isolation period that has been in place since last March. Under a federal order in council, only 4 cabinet members - Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair, Member of Health Patty Hadju, Minister of Immigration Marco Mendicino - and Chief Public Health Officer, Dr Theresa Lam, have the power to issue such free passes.
But none of their departments will admit to having signed off on the three quarantine exemptions, and the company refuses to say who approved their applications. Uhlein, along with her husband Richard, ranks as the biggest donor to the Republican Party..."
"So pretty much one set of rules for the rich and powerful and the other set of rules for the rest of us"?
https://twitter.com/davidpugliese/status/1306424125611626499
This citizen wishes to know which surrender-monkey minister broke Canada's covid rules for an obnoxious, American billionaire and why? Surely a gift task for any opposition politician. Anybody else?
[email protected]
[email protected]
The Uihleins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Uihlein
"Uihlein has been a Republican donor for decades and increased his political giving after Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. He has been a longtime donor to Republicans who share his anti-union, anti-tax and pro-deregulation views. He has a history of supporting far-right and hard-right candidates and has often supported efforts in opposition to gay and transgender rights.
Uihlein spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 2011 Wisconsin Senate recall elections, in support of state senators facing recall over their support for legislation to end collective bargaining for public employees and also backed litigation against public employee unions.
During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States, Liz Uihlen declared the pandemic 'overhyped' and was an outspoken critic of stay-at-home directives issued to combat the spread of the virus. In columns in the company catalog Liz Uihlein frequently writes on the couple's political views, ranging from 'the dangers of Chinese compeition' to the negative effects of marijuana use..."
Classic yanqui ruling class trash. So who let em in?
Is a mild flu season correlated with a high covid death rate?
"There's a lot to fear right now. Our physical, material, social and economic health as a society is being challenged with a complexity that is historically, unprecedented. There is every reason to take this seriously and regard it as a real threat to us all 2/thread
https://twitter.com/SharkawyMD/status/1305903691602554884
Oxfam: Wealthy Nations Bought Up More Than Half of World’s Coronavirus Vaccine Contenders
Globally, confirmed coronavirus cases are rapidly approaching 30 million, with over 940,000 recorded deaths from COVID-19. India recorded nearly 98,000 positive cases over the last 24 hours, the highest one-day toll for any country since the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Oxfam reports a small group of wealthy nations — representing just 13% of the world’s population — has secured contracts for more than half of the world’s future supply of coronavirus vaccine. Oxfam warns this could leave two-thirds of the world’s population without access to a vaccine until at least 2022.
HHS Spokesperson on Medical Leave After Rant About Left-Wing Militants Preparing for Insurrection
Michael Caputo, the top spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, has announced he will take a 60-day leave of absence for medical reasons. Caputo has faced calls to resign after accusing government scientists of “sedition,” claiming there was a “resistance unit” inside the CDC attempting to undermine Trump. Caputo is a longtime associate of Roger Stone and was appointed to his post at HHS despite having no healthcare background.
66 per cent of Ottawa's COVID-19 cases are from racialized communities
The Somerset West Community Health Centre says a community strategy to address the high risks faced by racialized communities in Ottawa during the COVID-19 pandemic must go beyond priority testing.
During a technical briefing with City of Ottawa officials, SWCHC Executive Director Naini Cloutier said that early reports show 66 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in Ottawa are from racialized communities.
In Toronto, 83 per cent of COVID-19 cases are from racialized communities.
Cloutier said the Somerset West Community Health Centre is proposing a "more holistic approach" to address the COVID-19 risks for racialized communities.
"We are saying the intervention needs to happen more than testing. There needs to be more protection in place. There needs to be an approach where the social determinates of health, employment, transportation, access to food, access to social distancing, housing, are all important."
There are three components to the strategy.
Doesn't matter. That the wealthy are regularly privileged is a side issue. I wouldn't give a hoot about it if everyone lived well above the poverty line.
What I find more chilling is the ability of the far right to twist it into an argument that everyone should have the same right to travel without restriction.
It matters to me and I want to know who did it.
Coronavirus in Canada: Updates
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/
"The City of Toronto has stopped tracking deaths of homeless people during COVID-19 pandemic.
https://buff.ly/3c6cxwp
"At least 4 people have died of COVID. Surely this is urgent information that begs attention."
Dr John Campbell, Coronavirus Updates: 9/17/2020
https://youtu.be/uZZN2hNJhEA
"UK, US and Canada..."
While we are nervously watching the numbers here in Canada with schools re-opening, let's remember that Iran, one of the first global covid hotspots, has never had a cooling off period at all. They have consistently recorded thousands of new cases per day for the last few months. Probably a result of Trump Administration sanctions.
I think now is a great time to push for a more humane foreign policy regarding Iran.
*Edit* posted in wrong thread
Thanks.
White House Scuttled Plan to Mail 650 Million Face Masks to U.S. Households
The White House scuttled a plan to distribute 650 million cloth face masks to every residence in the United States during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic — that’s according to The Washington Post, which reports Vice President Pence and other officials rejected the proposal because “receiving masks might create concern or panic.” A draft press release about the plan from the U.S. Postal Service reads, “The first shipments are expected to reach U.S. households as early as April xx” — with the date left incomplete. One study by the Center for Economic Policy Research found widespread mask use across the United States would have saved 40,000 lives in the months of April and May alone.
...
CDC Watered Down Coronavirus Testing Guidelines Over Objections of Scientists
The New York Times reports a recommendation by the CDC to radically scale back coronavirus testing was not written by scientists and was published over their strenuous objections. Last month, the CDC’s website quietly changed its guidance to recommend that people without symptoms should not be tested — even if they’ve been in close contact with an infected person. The new CDC guidelines contain basic scientific errors, suggesting they were drafted by a political operative rather than an expert in infectious diseases. One unnamed federal official told The New York Times, “That was a doc that came from the top down, from [Health and Human Services] and the [White House] task force.”
...
WHO Warns of “Alarming” Coronavirus Transmission Rates Across Europe
Globally, confirmed cases of coronavirus have topped 30 million. India recorded another 96,000 new cases over the last 24 hours, putting the nation of 1.3 billion on track to surpass the United States within weeks as the country with the highest number of infections.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is warning of a new wave of coronavirus cases across Europe, with more than 300,000 new infections in the last week alone. The WHO says the surge reflects not only more comprehensive testing but alarming rates of community spread across the continent.
...
Trump Coronavirus Adviser Threatens to Sue Stanford Doctors over Criticism
President Trump’s personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz has threatened to sue scores of Stanford professors and researchers after they published an open letter denouncing the qualifications of Scott Atlas, a colleague at Stanford who is now advising Trump on the pandemic. Atlas is a neuroradiologist with no expertise in infectious diseases. The Washington Post recently reported Atlas is pushing Trump to promote a controversial herd immunity strategy which could result in the deaths of millions of more Americans.
In an open letter, the Stanford doctors wrote of Dr. Atlas, “The guidance he is giving to the White House does not reflect sound epidemiological reasoning, nor is it consistent with the current body of scientific knowledge about COVID-19.”
Attorney Marc Kasowitz, who is now representing Atlas, has threatened to sue signatories of the open letter and has demanded a retraction, saying the letter “maliciously defames” his client.
Stanford professor Michael Fischbach responded to the threat by writing on Twitter, “I stand by everything we said. More facts, more science. Less Kasowitz.
COVID-19 in Ontario [Sept 18]
https://twitter.com/jkwan_md/status/1306967020379013120
401 new cases...
things are looking up.
This happened in every country except Sweden, and in all countries the number of deaths is dramatically lower than it was in the spring. European countries have advanced health care systems that can handle this, much more so than many other parts of the world. Why is the WHO sounding the alarm about Europe when other countries have worse problems, or you have places like Iran that never entered a true downswing in the number of cases?
Deaths are dramatically lower because people are still taking extrodinary precautions not to catch it. Sweden did not and isn't doing what you are proposing.
They still banned gatherings over 50. People are voluntarily working from home. Schools were closed for over 16s.
Sweden has a population of 10 million ~40% of which live alone. Only ~15% of Canadians live alone.
Conditions vary around the world and we are still learning about the behavior of Covid 19. It does not seem as though there is anywhere in the world in which no one is taking precautions be they required or voluntary.
One reason is that they have to rely on data collected from the countries themselves. That is, WHO doesn't do the testing. The other reason is that all international organizations are Western world centric.