But aren't you peddling the same 'China virus' crap as him?
Coronavirus: what Canadians need to know
Sun, 2021-05-23 22:07
#2652
Mon, 2021-05-24 14:04
#2653
Canada may see COVID-19 resurgence despite full vaccinations, experts say
https://globalnews.ca/news/7883901/covid-19-resurgence-full-vaccination/
"Canada could see a resurgence of COVID-19 cases even if the country manages to fully vaccinate a majority of its population, according to experts. University of Saskatchewan epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine told Global News on friday that the possibility of new or existing variants of COVID-19 spreading throughout Canada could lead to a possible resurgence in new cases..."
I'm sure Big Pharma will be only too eager to offer solutions.
Thu, 2021-05-27 06:04
#2654
The coronavirus is now spreading faster in Manitoba than in any other province or state in Canada, the United States or Mexico, with Indigenous people and people of color hit disproportionately hard.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/27/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-mask
Thu, 2021-05-27 12:45
#2655
The coronavirus is now spreading faster in Manitoba than in any other province or state in Canada, the United States or Mexico, with Indigenous people and people of color hit disproportionately hard.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/27/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-mask
Manitoba is the most racist province in the country and likely outdoes all US states as well. Of course indigenous people are dying.
Thu, 2021-05-27 20:00
#2656
laine lowe
It's shocking how bad things are in Manitoba. The death of a 31 year old mother of two enroute to an medi-vac flight to Ottawa (put in an induced coma for the flight and subject to cardiac resuscitation at least once on the tarmac and maybe a second time on the return the the Brandon hospital) - well she is the poster child of the travesty of our handling of the pandemic. I hope with all my heart that there was no systemic or overt racism at play in the decisions made in this young woman's care.
Fri, 2021-05-28 05:28
#2657
Tracking the coronavirus pandemic and vaccine rollouts (updating)
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/maps-and-graphics/2021/coronavirus-hu...
"Vaccine inequality, health systems under pressure, socio-economic fallout."
Sat, 2021-05-29 21:40
#2658
Hybrid of UK and Indian coronavirus variants found in Vietnam - health minister
"A new mutation of the coronavirus with characteristics of both the UK and the Indian variant was detected in Vietnam, the country's top health official has announced, adding that the government would soon 'announce the new coronavirus variant on the global genome map."
Sun, 2021-05-30 10:38
#2659
How Ontario's re-opening plans compare with other provinces (radio)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-193-fresh-air/clip/15846070-how-o...
"Colin Furness is an infection control epidemiologist and an assistant professor at the faculty of information at the University of Toronto."
Sun, 2021-05-30 10:49
#2660
Canada Covid Updates: 5/30/2021
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus
- Ontario reports just over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases, 18 additional deaths
- Kingston's top doctor to replace retiring Dr David Williams as OCMOH
- Schools can reopen safely on a regional basis: Ont covid-19 science table
- National vaccine panel now says second shots should be given 'asap'.
Tue, 2021-06-01 14:18
#2661
Vietnam's 'very dangerous' new hybrid variant may be fueling its worst outbreak so far (see thread)
https://twitter.com/i/events/1399759406317846529
"The WHO is investigating reports of a mutation that spreads extremely quickly..."
Tue, 2021-06-01 15:04
#2662
On US Memorial Day: American ruling class declares pandemic 'over' as 500 die every day
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/01/pers-j01.html
"...Memorial Day 2021 had an additional and equally sinister purpose. It was an effort at promoting mass amnesia about COVID-19, encouraging the population to forget about the coronavirus pandemic - the 600,000 or more dead, the 500 dying every day, the 100,000 new cases a month - in favor of a round of celebrations and speeches that will themselves worsen the pandemic, creating super-spreader events that could potentially infect tens if not hundreds of thousands more. 'America is roaring back!' declared NBC.
Biden has portrayed the rollout of vaccinations in the US as a public health miracle, while implicitly blaming his predecessor for the massive death toll. He never acknowledges the likelihood that sometime later this year, particularly if there is a fall or winter surge, COVID-19 will have killed more Americans under his administration than under that of Donald Trump.
Globally, more than 10,000 are dying each day worldwide, mainly in regions where a small faction of the population have received the vaccine because of the hoarding taking place among high-income nations pursuing the policy of vaccine nationalism. Though the official global estimate indicates there have been 3.5 million deaths, new studies place the excess death toll at over ten million.
The truth is, there can be no return to normal in any country so long as the coronavirus has free reign to infect, kill and mutate in a population of billions around the world..."
PS: note to Justin Trudeau. Do NOT succumb to US pressure and drop restrictions on the border. Canada's COVID problem came from there not China.
Wed, 2021-06-02 21:47
#2663
B.1.617: The coronavirus 'delta variant' that could spark a fourth wave
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/b-617-the-coronavirus-delta-va...
"The latest coronavirus variant of concern, which experts say appears to be more transmissible and cause more severe symptoms than other variants, could become the dominant strain of the virus in Ontario within weeks, one region's top public health official warned Wednesday..."
Sat, 2021-06-05 09:37
#2664
Covid Canada Update: 6/5/2021
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/
- Ontario's uptick in COVID-19 cases could put an early move to Step 1 in jeopardy, top official says
- US shares vaccines, including with Canada, as Ottawa pushed to give doses to COVAX
- These countries are vaccinating children against COVID-19
- Heart reaction probed by US health authorities as possible rare vaccine link in teens.
Sat, 2021-06-05 10:01
#2665
Dr John Campbell, Coronavirus updates
Vaccine disparities & international implications
Vaccine trials and Long Covid
Virus Confirmed early March 2019
Detected in Barcelona waste-water 9 months before 'Wuhan Lab' leak.
Sun, 2021-06-06 02:59
#2666
Dr John Campbell, Coronavirus updates
Virus Confirmed early March 2019
Detected in Barcelona waste-water 9 months before 'Wuhan Lab' leak.
interesting.
in only one sample, though apparently 2x ~reliable tests.
but, of course, this wouldn't preclude a "lab leak"; gain-of-function work had been ongoing for years.
dr campbell is pretty adament - overly, i thought, racist i thought - that the covid originated out of wuhan, and was being spread by chinese, "agricultural workers, informal, probobly cash" and such, generally travelling around the world, bespoiling our sewer systems. which may all be the case, but something about the way he said it; i found way more problematic than the articles which queried the big players like scientists fucking with things they shouldn't be, and governments.
so, the wild vs help-from-a-lab question remains... a question.
campell also added something at the end to the effect that the 2019-20 flue might have been partly covid, we'll never know... wtf?
i generally like dr campbell take on things, as far as it goes.
Sun, 2021-06-06 13:05
#2667
We need an inquiry into the origins of the pandemic
https://gowans.blog/2021/06/05/we-need-an-inquiry-into-the-origins-of-th...
"...The cause of the pandemic, not the original outbreak, but the development of a potentially controllable zoonosis into an outbreak of global reach, is already known: It was the failure of the United States and its allies to take quick and decisive action in February 2020 at a time the catastrophe in embryo could have been aborted.
Rather than mobilize public health measures to extinguish small fires and prevent their spread, as Beijing did, the United States and countries that followed its lead, did precious little, unwilling to disrupt business activity and the continued tranquil digestion of profits. It is US and allied non-feasance - that is, human inaction - that transformed a preventable catastrophe into a full blown calamity that has so far produced over 3.7 million deaths.
As the editor of the British medical journal The Lancet, Richard Horton, recalled, 'The United States of America wasted the whole of February and March before they acted. That is the human tragedy of COVID-19. Thanks to the work of Chinese doctors and scientists working in international collaboration, all of this info [showing a deadly virus had emerged that had no treatment and could be passed between people] was known in January but for reasons that are difficult to understand, the world did not pay attention..."
Mon, 2021-06-07 20:59
#2668
Scientists and doctors issue warnings as UK infections continue to rise
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/08/couk-j01.html
"Cases of COVID-19 are growing exponentially in the UK, driven by the more infectious Delta variant and made possible by the government's lifting of public health restrictions. 5,683 cases were recorded yesterday, the fifth day in a row with more than 5,000 cases. A total of 35,796 cases have been recorded in the last seven days, 52.9% more than the previous week.
Scientists are warning that the government's planned removal of all public health restrictions on June 21 must not go ahead..."
Mon, 2021-06-07 21:14
#2669
"We have an octogenarian husband and wife in hospital who acquired covid 2-months after Pfizer #1. Their shot #2 isn't scheduled for > 1 month from now. Those with high-risk for severe disease and higher exposure risk need timely access to shot #2."
Tue, 2021-06-08 03:46
#2670
Dr John Campbell, Coronavirus updates
Virus Confirmed early March 2019
Detected in Barcelona waste-water 9 months before 'Wuhan Lab' leak.
interesting.
in only one sample, though apparently 2x ~reliable tests.
but, of course, this wouldn't preclude a "lab leak"; gain-of-function work had been ongoing for years.....
You would think Dr Campbell, and others, would have followed the links to the actual paper
Which comes with the caution:
"This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice."
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.13.20129627v1
If that was not cautionary enough, Dr Campbell could have looked at the comment on that same page from this June 2, which helpfully supplies another link:
"The authors of the paper have now published a second study that states their earliest positive sewage sample is from January 15th 2020 and does not make any reference to this preprint":
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/AEM.02750-20
Tue, 2021-06-08 20:39
#2671
Thu, 2021-06-10 14:22
#2672
"At the time many essential workers got shot#1, they received an mRNA vaccine...so 21/28 days is the longest they should be waiting."
Sun, 2021-06-13 11:52
#2673
Dr John Campbell, Coronavirus updates:
Delta variant, 60% more infectious
Vaccine news: side effects
Sun, 2021-06-13 11:56
#2674
COVID Canada Update: 6/13/2021
https://ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/
- Canada donating 13m surplus covid-19 vax doses to developing countries
- Ont reports +500 new covid-19 cases for 4th straight day
- Mask-wearing after covid-19: some cdns see lasting benefits
Sun, 2021-06-13 12:00
#2675
COVID-19 Pandemic LIVE: World Map/Count
(Updating)
Always remember there is a world out there...
Sun, 2021-06-13 12:30
#2676
The Forever Virus
"Global herd immunity is now unreachable. How should governments' strategy in the fight against COVID-19 change in response.
'The world will not reach the point where enough people are immune before the emergence of dangerous variants - ones that are more transmissible, vaccine resistant and even able to evade current diagnostic tests.
Such supervariants could bring the world back to square one. It might be 2020 all over again. Rather than die out, the virus will likely ping-pong back and forth across the globe for years to come..."
And Big Pharma is smiling.
Tue, 2021-06-15 13:46
#2677
The G7 was a Failure on COVID-19 and a Fiasco for the UK
https://rabble.ca/columnists/2021/g7-was-failure-covid-19-and-fiasco-uk
"...Millions will go unvaccinated, thousands will die,' was the response of former UK prime minister Gordon Brown who pointed out that 11 billion doses of vaccine were needed, and $50 billion in cash, not the measly one billion doses and $5 billion offered up by the G7 leaders.
What was an 'unforgivable moral failure' for Brown was for Max Lawson, head of policy at OXFAM, a G7 Summit 'that will live on in infamy', for failing to address 'the biggest health emergency in a century'..."
So much for the 'rules based international order'. Alas, most wealthy western concerns usually stop at their own borders and their own priority Pfizer jabs, so unlikely to see anything but empty virtue-signalling from that quarter.
Tue, 2021-06-15 18:12
#2678
That was a good column NDPP. I also liked his second point about Brexit and the UK's sausage war.
As part of Brexit, shipments of chilled meats from Britain to Northern Ireland need to pass EU border inspection.
The single EU market arrangement that applies to both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland requires that -- for the purpose of the commercial arrangement -- Northern Ireland be treated as a foreign country by the U.K.
Of course this makes a mockery of Johnson's claim that by leaving the EU, the U.K. regained all the sovereign powers it had conceded as an EU member.
Because Johnson gave every indication he was unwilling to abide by the terms of the Brexit agreement as they applied to Northern Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy decided to make this contentious issue their focus at the G7 summit, spoiling Johnson's imagined return of the U.K. as a top global power.
Since the single market agreement for Ireland is seen as an important support for the Good Friday accord between the Republic of Ireland and the U.K., the U.S. president -- a believer in the accord designed to end tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland -- added his weight to the European case for respecting the Brexit Agreement.
As host, Boris Johnson emerged from the summit as a leader unable to control the agenda of his own meeting. As the Guardian put it, Johnson let the sausage wars derail his aspirations on the world stage.
Wed, 2021-06-16 15:07
#2679
US Coronavirus Cases: 34,353,450, Deaths: 615,781, New: 11,000+
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
DON'T Open the Canada/US border.
Sat, 2021-06-19 12:39
#2680
As Covid-19 variant continues to spread WHO warns 'we expect things to only get worse'
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/19/covi-j19.html
"The emergence of the Delta variant as dominant is even more concerning given how dangerous it has shown itself to be. It is up to 60% more infectious than the Alpha variant, and thus up to 2.5 times more infectious than the original mild variant. It also causes more than 4 times as many hospitalizations as the wild variant...There is no shortage of warnings about just how bad the pandemic could become."
Unfortunately, we can expect little or no concern or assistance for the covid agonies of the global south beyond the usual virtue-signalling from a rich and vaccinated west.
Sat, 2021-06-19 14:30
#2681
The west is not safe from the Delta variant and future dangerous variants. It would be a miracle if worse variants stop at Delta. We are extremely vulnerable to supply chain problems. Who will make up for the shortfalls caused by NA droughs. We won't starve but the food chain is being impacted aside from all the production of goods that is being impacted by lack of parts sourced from China and other low-wage countries. We couldn't produce PPEs for ourselves. Shortages are getting worse not better. We are very dependent on low-wage countries.
Sat, 2021-06-19 15:34
#2682
Brazil says that more than 500,000 people in the country are confirmed to have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
The nation of 210 million people has been reporting an average of more than 2,000 daily deaths in recent days. Brazil’s reported death toll is second only to that of the US, where the number of lives lost has topped 600,000.
Sun, 2021-06-20 00:33
#2683
laine lowe
Those are shocking numbers. I get a strong sense that there is going to be a 4th wave of the delta variant in Canada. Hopefully, enough people will be vaccinated to fend off the worst outcomes but damn it the vaccine roll-out isn't a total communications disaster. It certainly is in Manitoba. Hard to combat vaccine hesitancy when the health advice and rules for immunization change every few days.
Sun, 2021-06-20 12:59
#2684
COVID Canada Updates: 6/20/2021
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/
- Public health agency reports spike in confirmed cases of Delta v
- Businesses, US legislators fume as Canada extends travel ban
- Canada hits important target with 20% now fully vaccinated
Sun, 2021-06-20 13:04
#2685
Dr John Campbell: Coronavirus update
General global update: Delta dramatic rise and vaccine escape noted
Sun, 2021-06-20 13:32
#2686
Trudeau makes global pledge but how committed is Canada
https://twitter.com/dimitrilascaris/status/1406581595134476290
"Canada has secured enough vaccines to fully protect every resident 7 times over, but a recent poll found 61% of Canadians believe it is 'morally wrong that people living in richer countries have access to vaccines before those in poorer countries."
Sun, 2021-06-20 13:41
#2687
"Unfortunately increasing R0 and decreasing efficacy of vaccines with delta variant are making it more challenging to get to herd immunity, the point where R is < 1 even without intervention. [Thread]
Mon, 2021-06-21 16:24
#2688
Forced Labor US Style (and vid)
https://twitter.com/profwolff/status/1406659107264729096
"1/2 the states are going to force people back to work by depriving them of the money they needed to get through a combo of an economic crash and the worst public health disaster in a century in the US. Shame is not a strong enough word."
Tue, 2021-06-22 23:44
#2689
https://www.9news.com.au/world/gamma-variant-thousands-of-children-dying...
On top of the rising number of child deaths, researchers in Sao Paulo believe the P1 variant, also known as the Gamma variant, is killing an unusually high number of pregnant women and unborn babies....
Current figures show 42 pregnant women are dying every week from COVID-19, up from 10 each week last year.
From the information here https://cmajnews.com/2021/06/18/covid-variants-1095949/ Gamma will likely be crowded out by alpha and delta but variant will continue to develop.
Wed, 2021-06-23 19:51
#2690
Power, Wealth and Justice in the time of COVID-19
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/23/power-wealth-and-justice-in-the
"...The concentration of wealth and power globally has enabled rich countries to all but monopolize available vaccine doses. For the citizens of low-income and poor countries to have long-term pandemic security, especially the 46% of the world's population who survive on less than $5.50 a day, this inequality must end, rapidly - but don't hold your breath.
Amid the unknowns, this much is clear: for all the talk about global governance and collective action taken against threats that don't respect borders, the response to this pandemic has been driven by vaccine nationalism. That's indefensible, both ethically and on the grounds of self-interest."
'Big fish eat little fish': proverb
Wed, 2021-06-23 19:53
#2691
COVID-19 Pandemic LIVE: World Map/Count
(Updating)
Always remember there is a world out there...
Thu, 2021-06-24 11:27
#2692
Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalist nations bailed out banks while skimping on funding to vaccinate humanity
"More than 2.6 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, but many countries have yet to see a single shot amid mounting infections..."
Capitalism is killing us.
Fri, 2021-06-25 10:22
#2693
Capitalism isn't killing us. Powerful people are making decisions in what they percieve to be their own best interests. The masses have allowed it and continue to allow it. Capitalism isn't forcing us to vote for Trudeau. Capitalism isn't preventing people from supporting Dimitri Lascaris.
Canada and the EU are standing in the way of lifting patents on Covid-19 vaccines. Nobody seems terribly excited about it even here. That is not the fault of capitalism.
We are failing to convince the masses to rise up not against capitalism but against the actual people controlling government. People with names like Galen West and and David Thomson. Trudeau is a replaceable puppet.
Sat, 2021-06-26 11:48
#2694
Covid Canada update: 65/26/2021
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/
- Public Health Canada reviews guidance on what fully vaccinated can do
- Ontario registers nearly 350 new cases, 13 additional deaths
- 'A life of choice': Will pandemic habits have staying power
Sat, 2021-06-26 11:50
#2695
Mon, 2021-06-28 23:45
#2696
What about the other lab leak theory?
It is worth noting that many media outlets in the US-led Western world, which hyped the lab-leak theory, are only willing to focus on the Chinese labs though they have been thoroughly investigated by the World Health Organization (WHO), while turning a blind eye to the more suspicious American biological research institutions, such as the infamous US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
The USAMRIID was temporarily shut down in 2019 after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) inspection. Although this mysterious lab reported the reason for the closure as "ongoing infrastructure issues with wastewater decontamination," the explanation was not persuasive enough. The Global Times found that the lab's failure to control toxins seemed to have alarmed the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction related institutions in the US.
...
While the US is solely focused on Chinese labs, the US seldom pays attention to the fault in its own domestic labs, some of which have even triggered virus-related accidents before. According to an August 2020 article by ProPublica, an independent newsroom that produces investigative journalism, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported 28 lab incidents involving genetically engineered organisms to safety officials at the National Institutes of Health between January 2015 and June 2020. "Six of the incidents involved various types of lab-created coronaviruses," ProPublica said in the article. "Many were engineered to allow the study of the virus in mice."
Weirdly, very few US mainstream media outlets have raised the question whether there is the possibility that COVID-19 was leaked from US labs, said the Chinese virologist. "They dare not ask that," he said.
...
The US has many bio-labs in 25 countries and regions across the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union states, with 16 in Ukraine alone. Some of these labs have seen large-scale outbreaks of measles and other dangerous infectious diseases, according to media reports.
The international community has frequently expressed concern over US' biological militarization activities in other countries.
Why are we doing this kind of reseasrch again? Given how easily things can go wrong, is this really a risk worth taking?
Tue, 2021-06-29 10:47
#2697
Lots and lots and lots and lots of things are possible but there is no indication that it has happened. You can't prove a negative so these "theories" are just baseless speculation.
The US lab leak theory is in response to the Wuhan lab leak theory. Maybe it was a Russian Lab leak. Maybe it started with raccoons in Canada who bit someone from Wuhan who then went home and became a silent carrier.
So far we know for absolute certainty that new viruses hitting humans coming from animals is a natural occurance that we can expect to happen more and more frequently and we can't always trace the original contact in terms of absolute proof.
Sars, Mers, and Covid are just the beginning so we need to learn how to deal when we first hear of the next one.
Tue, 2021-06-29 11:07
#2698
Edzell
Pondernig says animal to human virus transmission will become motre frequent; and it does seem to have begun. What is known about this and the reasons for it?
Tue, 2021-06-29 11:21
#2699
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7662085/
Zoonotic infectious diseases are situated at this nexus between environmental change, ecosystems, and health. Zoonotic pathogens and parasites are maintained in an animal reservoir and regularly or sporadically spill over to cause disease in humans,3 sometimes leading to sustained human-to-human or vectorborne epidemics (eg, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses (SARS-CoV), Ebola, plague) but more commonly to endemic or sporadic disease (eg, leptospirosis, helminthiases, Lyme disease, hantavirus diseases).
Animal-to-human transmission (spillover) is influenced by environmental and socioeconomic processes that reshape reservoir host communities and bring people and livestock into contact with wildlife, such as shifts in land use and food systems, deforestation, and climate change. As these pressures have escalated worldwide in the past half century, zoonoses from wildlife have been emerging at an increasing rate.4
Indeed, 2020 will be remembered for several zoonotic crises, including the global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, two concurrent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the highest ever Lassa fever surge in Nigeria. Severe outbreaks like these profoundly affect public health, societies, and economies, which is why zoonoses are often viewed through the lens of pandemic preparedness.
However, such high profile events occur against a backdrop of a substantial burden of endemic disease that has long term effects on structurally vulnerable communities in low and middle income countries.5 Many of these communities are also disproportionately exposed to hazards associated with rapid environmental change (eg, deforestation, urbanization, extreme weather).6 7 Since global climate mitigation efforts currently seem unlikely to prevent significant warming,8 regional and national adaptation strategies will be crucial to protect public health and build resilience to future zoonotic risks. Perspectives from ecology can inform efforts to prevent and respond to specific diseases and support disease management within a broader ecosystems context.
Tue, 2021-06-29 11:21
#2700
elimination of natural habitat is a big one.
FAIR: US media given new respect for lab leak theory though evidence is as lacking as ever
https://fair.org/home/us-media-give-new-respect-to-lab-leak-theory-thoug...
"Despite the sudden media enthusiasm for the lab leak theory, there remains as little compelling evidence that the virus escaped from a Chinese lab as there has always been."
Funny. When Trump and Pompeo first said it, it was racist trash. Once Biden and the Dems chimed in on the self-same tune it suddenly became a real thing...
Tue, 2021-06-29 11:22
#2701
I'm no expert, but what I've read is that animal to human virus transmission has always happened, but may be increasing in frequency because as human settlements penetrate more deeply into previously wilderness territories, we come into closer contact with the non-human inhabitants and their resident virus population.