Which color has few cases and which color has many cases?
Do states with many unvaccinated people have many hospital cases?
Do states with many vaccinated people have their cases with minor symptoms?
Do states with many cases have many people who recently visited Africa?

The first graphic was Hot Spots
Darker is more cases/etc ....

Hospitalized.

All of the data visuals are in the NYTimes link.

It's too early for Omicron to have much effect on US cases but it will be interesting to see if spreading Omicron infections breaks the current US North vs South case barrier. Delta seems to be in a steady low ebb below a moving north wave. SA was in much the same low case condition before Omicron.

 

In Canada the case counts are rising because they opened up crowds too soon.
There was a rodeo and a few ball games with too many people passing the virus around.
Too many international flights.
There were large weddings with too many people passing the virus around.
Too many people in "places of worship" passing the virus around.
Some people had fake vaccine passports.

 

In Canada the case counts are rising because they opened up crowds too soon.
There was a rodeo and a few ball games with too many people passing the virus around.
Too many international flights.
There were large weddings with too many people passing the virus around.
Too many people in "places of worship" passing the virus around.
Some people had fake vaccine passports.

Ok while that all makes very good sense enter the very large problem. We have people whose lives or more important livelihoods were not affected in the least mandating shutdowns and lockdowns. These lockdowns have already destroyed many small businesses. This in return has destroyed many tax bases. So while many can sit warm and smug many are experiencing hardships and government funded giveaways only last so long. We are already seeing massive inflation and you can't shut down a country indefinitely. While shutdowns do not seriously effect people like myself and my wife, there are others losing everything while people with nothing at all to lose dictate mandates. Must be nice to only be concerned about yourself. Wow, I see where our neighbors to the North had to dig into their maple syrup reserves. This is getting serious. Try real hard to come up with workable solutions other than continuing to shut everything down.

Ron

 

Travelling, rodeos, ball games and places of worship can all be done at home on TV then the people do not pass the virus around.
Weddings can happen but the huge parties can happen later.
I helped a few restaurants by ordering take-out food to eat at home.

I am retired and am fully vaccinated so mandates do not affect me. My son and daughter and their spouses are fully vaccinated so they are still working.

 

I am retired and am fully vaccinated so mandates do not affect me. My son and daughter and their spouses are fully vaccinated so they are still working.

Yes and as are myself and my wife. Fortunately our children have managed to work through it all also. That said, many small businesses are gone forever as well as their tax base support. Like I mentioned those with nothing to lose will mandate shutdowns. Ohio currently has a governor who keeps overstepping his bounds. He will end up a one term governor with opposition from his own party. Politicians with well feathered nest making decisions about lock downs and shutdowns is not a solution to anything. Matter of fact my current view is this virus is going to run its course lockdowns or not.

Ron

 

Man in Italy uses fake silicone arm to try to get vaccine certificate


​

A 50-year-old man tried to pass off a silicone arm as his own at a Covid-19 vaccination clinic in northern Italy, in an attempt to get a vaccine certificate without actually getting inoculated.

 

Even though there is not much known about the Omicron variant, and we are told it will be several weeks before there is any new information, we are seeing almost hourly news reports, most of them saying something to the effect of "We do not understand it yet but EVERYBODY!!! GET A BOOSTER NOW!!!!"

From the early news it seems that this latest thing to worry about is mild, not causing any noted severe conditions yet, may be protective against the more virulent strains, and readily spreads among people. This might be the one I've been hoping for - a no-cost, needle-free, self-spreading vaccination against Covid-19, but I imagine that if this turns out to be the case, the pharmaceutical companies with vaccines on the market will go to extreme measures to kill off this variant before it cuts too deeply into their remaining profits.

Yes, I have just accused the pharma companies of an action I have only imagined so far.

Based on some early reports, it they are correct, this might be part of the virus's reversion to being a benign irritant like the common cold.

 

Scientists say the new South African variant formed in unvaccinated people and it has at least 30 mutations. Few people in South Africa are vaccinated so the mutations keep forming. The experts have not yet determined which ones and how many of the mutations are Very Bad.

All the cases here of the Omicron variant are in people who travelled there and brought it back.
Why did they go there since everybody knows that there are few vaccinated people there and a new variant will be forming??

The guy charged with getting a vaccination in a fake arm so that he could get a vaccination passport is a Dentist. How can people determine if their dentist or doctor is vaccinated?
The majority of people in Canada support mandates because they do not want unvaccinated people anywhere near them,

 

My son and daughter and their spouses are fully vaccinated so they are still working.

At a time when lists are made of words that cannot be said because they "trigger" people, this statement is so wrong on so many levels.

Scientists say the new South African variant formed in unvaccinated people and it has at least 30 mutations. Few people in South Africa are vaccinated so the mutations keep forming. The experts have not yet determined which ones and how many of the mutations are Very Bad.

All the cases here of the Omicron variant are in people who travelled there and brought it back.
Why did they go there since everybody knows that there are few vaccinated people there and a new variant will be forming??

The guy charged with getting a vaccination in a fake arm so that he could get a vaccination passport is a Dentist. How can people determine if their dentist or doctor is vaccinated?
The majority of people in Canada support mandates because they do not want unvaccinated people anywhere near them,

People travelled because they did what the governement told them and fullfulled the duty to get their "freedom" back.

Also, as you do not seem to be one of those "people", i will explain - Canada is a country of immigrants. Many are from South Asia, eastern Europe, Phillipines etc. Many of these people are in support and service industry, a lot of them are in healthcare industry including doctors (all of our doctors here are in fact from South Africa). Why would they dare to travel back home after not seeing their families for 2 years I cannot imagine.

I have not seen my grandmothers for over 2 and 3 years. One of them lost most of her eyesight since my last visit.

 

Scientists say the new South African variant formed in unvaccinated people and it has at least 30 mutations. Few people in South Africa are vaccinated so the mutations keep forming.

The trigger for high mutations in SA seems to be HIV and severely immunocompromised people in general.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/health/covid-variant-south-africa-hiv.html

When people with H.I.V. are prescribed an effective antiretroviral and take it consistently, their bodies almost completely suppress the virus. But if people with H.I.V. aren’t diagnosed, haven’t been prescribed treatment, or don’t, or can’t, take their medicines consistently each day, H.I.V. weakens their immune systems. And then, if they catch the coronavirus, it can take weeks or months before the new virus is cleared from their bodies.

When the coronavirus lives that long in their systems, it has the chance to mutate and mutate and mutate again. And, if they pass the mutated virus on, a new variant is in circulation.
“We have reasons to believe that some of the variants that are emerging in South Africa could potentially be associated directly with H.I.V.,” said Tulio de Oliveira, the principal investigator of the national genetic monitoring network.

Researchers at KRISP have shown that this has happened at least twice. Last year, they traced a virus sample to a 36-year-old woman with H.I.V. who was on an ineffective treatment regimen and who was not being helped to find drugs that she could tolerate. She took 216 days to clear the coronavirus from her system; in that time inside her body, the viruses acquired 32 different mutations.
...
Above all, the answer to ending the variant threat is to stifle coronavirus transmission. “Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate the population of Africa,” he said. “My worry is the vaccine nationalism or the hoarding of the vaccine.” People with H.I.V. should be prioritized for vaccine boosters, to maximize the effectiveness of their immune responses, he added.

So far, South Africa’s efforts to tackle the variant issue, and be transparent about it, have come at a steep price, in the form of flight bans and global isolation.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/coronavirus-variant-tracker.html

 

Based on some early reports, it they are correct, this might be part of the virus's reversion to being a benign irritant like the common cold.

I really hope that's true.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...common-cold-coronavirus-study-says/ar-AARscA9

The omicron variant is likely to have picked up genetic material from another virus that causes the common cold in humans, according to a new preliminary study, prompting one of its authors to suggest omicron could have greater transmissibility but lower virulence than other variants of the coronavirus.

Pre-print
https://osf.io/f7txy/

 

I have not had a common cold for decades.
I never got the Covid-19 virus, but I am fully vaccinated so maybe I had it or have it now with no symptoms.

Hey, I travelled only a little. Is that why I am a healthy old geezer??

 

You are just too ornery to be anything else.

 

When my age group for a Covid vaccination was announced then I ran from the parking lot to the clinic door. But almost everyone else were very old in wheelchairs. I asked a few of them why didn't they come when their older age group was announced and most of them were younger than me.
My age is more than the average lifetime of a USA man and I have many years to go.

 

Good.

 

A company that is probably not very thrilled with the new Virus name!

 

A company that is probably not very thrilled with the new Virus name!

View attachment 254233

Like how people stopped buying Corona beer.

Ron

 

Like how people stopped buying Corona beer.

Ron

 

https://www.samrc.ac.za/news/tshwane-district-omicron-variant-patient-profile-early-features

It is essential to recognize that the patient information presented here only represents the first two weeks of the Omicron wave in Tshwane. The clinical profile of admitted patients could change significantly over the next two weeks, by which time we can draw conclusions about the severity of disease with greater precision.

A snapshot of 42 patients in the ward on 2 December 2021 reveals that 29 (70%) are not oxygen dependent. These patients are saturating well on room air and do not present with any respiratory symptoms. These are the patients that we would call ‘incidental COVID admissions’, having had another medical or surgical reason for admission. Thirteen (13) patients are dependent on supplemental oxygen of which nine (21%) have a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia based on a combination of symptoms, clinical signs, CXR and inflammatory markers. All are being prescribed steroids as the mainstay of therapy. The remaining 4 patients are on oxygen for other medical reasons (2 previously on home oxygen, 1 in heart failure and 1 with a confirmed diagnosis of Pneumocystis Pneumonia).
This is a picture that has not been seen in previous waves. In the beginning of all three previous waves and throughout the course of these waves, there has always only been a sprinkling of patients on room air in the COVID ward and these patients have usually been in the recovery phase waiting for the resolution of a co-morbidity prior to discharge. The COVID ward was recognizable by the majority of patients being on some form of oxygen supplementation with the incessant sound of high flow nasal oxygen machines, or beeping ventilator alarms.

There are only 4 patients in high care and one in the ICU. The numbers of patients in high care on double oxygen, High Flow Nasal Oxygen or non-invasive ventilation (NIV) were noticeably higher in previous waves. This is anecdotal but confirmed by numerous clinicians who have previously worked in the COVID wards in the hospital complex.

Of 38 adults in the COVID wards on 2 December 2021, 6 were vaccinated, 24 were unvaccinated and 8 had unknown vaccination status. Of 9 patients with COVID pneumonia 8 are unvaccinated, 1 is a child. Only a single patient on oxygen was fully vaccinated but the reason for the oxygen was Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

 

Like how people stopped buying Corona beer.

Ron

Actually, the sales of Corona skyrocketed during the pandemic... I guess people are just weird