Profit of Doom
Dismember
Happyhappyjoyjoy.
CORONA Main Coronavirus thread
- Thread starter Heliobas Disciple
- Start date
-
- Tags
- coronavirus
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
Lack of info on China's COVID-19 surge stirs global concern
Moves by several countries to mandate COVID-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly enough. There have been no reports of new...
Lack of info on China's COVID-19 surge stirs global concern
KEN MORITSUGU and HUIZHONG WU
Thu, December 29, 2022, 12:08 AM EST
BEIJING (AP) — Moves by several countries to mandate COVID-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly enough.
There have been no reports of new variants to date, but China has been accused of not being forthcoming about the virus since it first surfaced in the country in late 2019. The worry is that it may not be sharing data now on any signs of evolving strains that could spark fresh outbreaks elsewhere.
The U.S., Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Italy have announced testing requirements for passengers from China. The U.S. cited both the surge in infections and what it said was a lack of information, including genomic sequencing of the virus strains in the country.
Authorities in Taiwan and Japan have expressed similar concern.
“Right now the pandemic situation in China is not transparent," Wang Pi-Sheng, the head of Taiwan’s epidemic command center, told The Associated Press. "We have a very limited grasp on its information, and it’s not very accurate.”
The island will start testing everyone arriving from China on Jan. 1, ahead of the expected return of about 30,000 Taiwanese for the Lunar New Year holiday later in the month. The new Japanese rules, which restrict flights from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao to designated airports beginning Friday, are already disrupting holiday travel plans.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin noted Thursday that many countries have not changed their policies for travelers from China and said that any measures should treat people from all countries equally.
Every new infection offers a chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and it is spreading rapidly in China. Scientists can't say whether that means the surge will unleash a new mutant on the world — but they worry that might happen.
Chinese health officials have said the current outbreak is being driven by versions of the omicron variant that have also been detected elsewhere, and a surveillance system has been set up to identify any potentially worrisome new versions of the virus. Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at China's Center for Disease Control, said Thursday that China has always reported the virus strains it has found in a timely way.
“We keep nothing secret,” he said. "All work is shared with the world.”
Italy’s health minister told the Senate that sequencing indicates that the variants detected in passengers arriving from China are already in circulation in Europe. “This is the most important and reassuring news,? Orazio Schillaci said.
That squares with what the European Union's executive branch has said. The EU refrained Thursday from immediately following member Italy in requiring tests for visitors from China, but is assessing the situation.
More broadly, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the body needs more information on the severity of the outbreak in China, particularly on hospital and ICU admissions, “in order to make a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation on the ground."
China rolled back many of its tough pandemic restrictions earlier this month, allowing the virus to spread rapidly in a country that had seen relatively few infections since an initial devastating outbreak in the city of Wuhan. Spiraling infections have led to shortages of cold medicine, long lines at fever clinics, and at-capacity emergency rooms turning away patients. Cremations have risen several-fold, with a request from overburdened funeral homes in one city for families to postpone funeral services until next month.
Chinese state media has not reported the fallout from the surge widely and government officials have blamed Western media for hyping up the situation.
The global concerns, tinged with anger, are a direct result of the ruling Communist Party’s sudden exit from some of the world's most stringent anti-virus policies, said Miles Yu, director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
“You can’t conduct the lunacy of ‘zero-COVID’ lockdowns for such a long period of time … and then suddenly unleash a multitude of the infected from a caged China to the world," risking major outbreaks elsewhere, Yu said in an email.
Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the move by the U.S. may be more about increasing pressure on China to share more information than stopping a new variant from entering the country.
China has been accused of masking the virus situation in the country before. An AP investigation found that the government sat on the release of genetic information about the virus for more than a week after decoding it, frustrating WHO officials.
The government also tightly controlled the dissemination of Chinese research on the virus, impeding cooperation with international scientists.
Research into the origins of the virus has also been stymied. A WHO expert group said in a report this year that “key pieces of data” were missing on the how the pandemic began and called for a more in-depth investigation.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
EU doesn't follow Italy with COVID checks on China arrivals
The European Union is assessing Beijing’s rollback of its strict anti-infection controls but has refrained from immediately following EU member Italy in requiring coronavirus tests for airline passengers coming from China.
apnews.com
EU doesn’t follow Italy with COVID checks on China arrivals
By RAF CASERT
Dec 29 2022
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is assessing Beijing’s rollback of its strict anti-infection controls but refrained Thursday from immediately following EU member Italy in requiring coronavirus tests for airline passengers coming from China.
Health officials from the 27-member bloc promised to continue talks on seeking a common approach to travel rules. However, the EU’s executive arm said the BF.7 omicron variant prevalent in China was already circulating in Europe and that its threat had not significantly grown.
“However, we remain vigilant and will be ready to use the emergency brake if necessary,” the European Commission said in a statement.
Even though virus experts in the EU have played down the immediate danger, Italy made coronavirus tests mandatory for all airline passengers arriving from China. More than 50% of people screened upon arrival at Milan’s Malpensa airport in recent days tested positive for the virus.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Thursday increased pressure on the EU to join Italy’s approach. She said requiring COVID tests of all passengers from China “is only effective if it is taken at the European level,” noting that many arrive in Italy on connecting flights through other European countries.
Considering the reluctance from several EU nations and experts, the EU’s health security committee said in a statement after meeting Thursday that “we need to act jointly and will continue our discussions.”
Holding off was certainly something Germany wanted. “There is no indication that a more dangerous variant has developed in this outbreak in China ... which would bring corresponding travel restrictions,” Health Ministry spokesman Sebastian Guelde said.
A coordinated EU approach is necessary since almost all EU member nations are part of Europe’s visa-free Schengen Area. The unrestricted travel means that testing in one nation would not be very effective since travelers from China could enter from another EU nation and spread the virus.
After strict travel restrictions at the height of the pandemic, the EU returned to a pre-pandemic system of free travel this fall, but member nations agreed that an “emergency brake” could be activated at short notice to meet an unexpected challenge.
“At a scientific level, there is no reason at this stage to reimpose specific border controls,” Professor Brigitte Autran, a vaccines expert for France’s health ministry, told Radio Classique on Thursday.
And even Italy’s health minister came with some good news Thursday. Orazio Schillaci told the Senate in Rome that sequencing indicates the variants detected in passengers arriving from China are already in circulation in Europe, somewhat easing fears that a new variant from China could start running amok in Europe.
“This is the most important and reassuring news,? Schillaci said.
The United States announced new COVID-19 testing requirements Wednesday for all travelers from China, joining some Asian nations that had imposed restrictions because of a surge of infections.
Japan will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from China, and Malaysia announced new tracking and surveillance measures. India, South Korea and Taiwan are requiring virus tests for visitors from China.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
EU Declining to Impose Curbs Amid China’s COVID Surge Is ‘Huge Gamble’: Expert
When Milan started testing arrivals from China for COVID amid the country’s explosive virus spread, it found that ...
www.theepochtimes.com
EU Declining to Impose Curbs Amid China’s COVID Surge Is ‘Huge Gamble’: Expert
Chinese Communist Party should not be trusted, warns expert
By Eva Fu
December 29, 2022
When Milan started testing arrivals from China for COVID amid the country’s explosive virus spread, it found that about half of the travelers on two flights had the virus.
That prompted Italy, the first European country to be hit hard by the pandemic in 2020, to impose mandatory COVID testing on all passengers from China and sequence the Milan tests to screen for possible new variants.
But Italy hit a wall when it tried to pressure the European Union (EU) to follow its approach.
The 27-member bloc couldn’t agree on a course of action when it held talks on Thursday morning, but promised to continue discussions for a common action.
“From a scientific point of view, there is no reason at this stage to bring back controls at the borders,” said Brigitte Autran, head of the French health risk assessment committee COVARS.
That view was shared by other nations such as Germany, Portugal, and the UK, with Austria stressing the economic gains from the impending return of Chinese tourists, who from Jan. 8 will be allowed to travel overseas after almost three years of being confined within the country’s borders.
“We likely have several hundred thousand people getting COVID in Norway every week now,” Professor Preben Aavitsland of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health wrote on Twitter. “A few hundred extra cases among travelers from China would be a drop in the ocean.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a press conference urged other fellow EU members to take action.
The mandatory COVID testing “is only effective if it is taken at the European level,” Meloni said, noting that many China-origin visitors arrive in Italy on connecting flights through other European countries.
Transparency Lacking
Doubts over the official data from China and the scale of the outbreak have propelled its neighbors, including Japan, India, South Korea, and Taiwan to adopt COVID testing requirements for travelers from the country, an action that the United States followed on Wednesday.
“There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing COVID-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, being reported from the PRC,” an unnamed U.S. official said in a written media statement earlier in the week, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Without such data, the official added, “it is becoming increasingly difficult for public health officials to ensure that they will be able to identify any potential new variants and take prompt measures to reduce the spread.”
Facing international criticism, China’s health officials on Thursday continued to insist that the regime has been transparent and following the international standard on reporting COVID deaths, even though the negligible official death toll of 11 flies in the face of mounting accounts by funeral home workers and healthcare staff of high fatality numbers across the country.
China’s top health body estimated that almost 250 million residents had contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December, according to a memo leaked online.
‘A Huge Gamble’
The problem with the EU system, said virologist Sean Lin, former lab director at the viral disease branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, is that the transnational body can’t make quick decisions even when urgent action is necessary.
Over the weekend, China announced it was opening its borders from Jan. 8 and is encouraging a rebound in tourism after suspending travel for much of the past three years. After all this time living under the strict zero-COVID policy, he said, many Chinese people would “rush out using this limited time window” as the policy may change at any time with this evolving situation.
“You will face a huge influx of Chinese population in a short period of time,” Lin told The Epoch Times.
Screening arrivals from China for COVID infections should be the bare minimum policy adopted by countries around the world, according to Lin.
Germany’s Health Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Guelde said they are monitoring the situation but have seen “no indication that a more dangerous variant has developed in this outbreak in China.” Lin described this statement as “plain stupid.”
“It’s a huge gamble,” he said. “You are still trusting the Communist Party in this kind of situation.”
“The Chinese government is playing word games with the whole world, and the zero COVID policy that in the last two or three years is against science itself.”
He pointed to the severe pulmonary symptoms that emerged in China’s COVID wave that hasn’t appeared elsewhere, which he said indicates the virus in circulation may not be the regular Omicron virus that the Chinese officials have claimed.
Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, on Thursday said officials have sequenced half of the samples from the visitors from China tested, and all showed the Omicron strain.
“This is quite reassuring,” she said at a press conference Thursday. “The situation in Italy is under control, and there are no immediate concerns.”
But Lin is far from optimistic.
With the Chinese border reopened, the situation now is similar to early 2020, when Beijing locked down the virus epicenter Wuhan but allowed people to travel freely to the rest of the world, bringing the virus with them.
The border reopening amounts to letting the virus, which could have mutated, freely transmit worldwide, which Lin described as imposing “a disaster to the whole world.”
“I think this may be even worse than 2020.”
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
CDC Raises Alert on China, Urges Americans to Reconsider Travel
www.theepochtimes.com
CDC Raises Alert on China, Urges Americans to Reconsider Travel
By Eva Fu
December 29, 2022
U.S. health officials are telling Americans to “reconsider travel” to Chinese territory due to the soaring infections in the country.
In a travel alert released on Dec. 28, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) flagged China’s mainland, Hong Kong, and Macao as regions where U.S. travelers need to “practice enhanced precaution.”
Since the regime dropped the years-long zero-COVID policy in December, China has seen a rapid spread of the virus. A recent internal memo estimated an infection of nearly 250 million in the first 20 days of the month, the equivalent of about three-quarters of the U.S. population.
Reports of rising severe cases, overwhelmed systems, limited access to health care, along with the risk of new variants emerging are all points of concern for Americans planning a China visit, the agency said. It now recommends travelers to China prepare a travel health kit with items such as fever-reducing medicines and don a mask while indoors in public there.
The CDC the same day also imposed mandatory COVID testing on all passengers flying from China. Beginning Jan. 5, all air passengers over two years old, including those on a connecting flight through the United States, are to show airlines a negative test result within two days before their departure, or alternatively present proof of recovery from COVID-19 if they tested positive 10 days prior to the flight.
The action will take effect three days before China opens borders allowing nationals to travel abroad.
“CDC is announcing this step to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the United States during the surge in COVID-19 cases in the PRC given the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being reported from the PRC,” the CDC said in a press release, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
Those transiting Incheon International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, and Vancouver International Airport will also need to provide a negative COVID-19 test to enter the United States if they have been to China in the last 10 days.
“These three transit hubs cover the overwhelming majority of passengers with travel originating in the PRC and the Special Administrative Regions. We will continue to monitor travel patterns, adjust our approach as needed, and keep Americans informed in a timely manner,” the CDC said.
Officials told reporters on Wednesday that they are holding off the measure until the next week to allow airlines to implement the program, as “it does take some effort by the airlines to update their data systems to put this all in place.”
Aside from the United States, countries that have imposed stricter travel rules for travelers from China action include Italy, Japan, India, South Korea, and Malaysia.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
Exclusive-U.S. considers airline wastewater testing as COVID surges in China
As COVID-19 infections surge in China, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering sampling wastewater taken from international aircraft to track any emerging new variants, the agency told Reuters. Such a policy would offer a better solution to tracking the virus and...
Exclusive-U.S. considers airline wastewater testing as COVID surges in China
Julie Steenhuysen and Nancy Lapid
Thu, December 29, 2022, 8:36 PM EST
CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - As COVID-19 infections surge in China, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering sampling wastewater taken from international aircraft to track any emerging new variants, the agency told Reuters.
Such a policy would offer a better solution to tracking the virus and slowing its entry into the United States than new travel restrictions announced this week by the U.S. and other countries, which require mandatory negative COVID tests for travelers from China, three infectious disease experts told Reuters.
Travel restrictions, such as mandatory testing, have so far failed to significantly curb the spread of COVID and function largely as optics, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.
"They seem to be essential from a political standpoint. I think each government feels like they will be accused of not doing enough to protect their citizens if they don't do these," he said.
The United States this week also expanded its voluntary genomic sequencing program at airports, adding Seattle and Los Angeles to the program. That brings the total number of airports gathering information from positive tests to seven.
But experts said that may not provide a meaningful sample size.
A better solution would be testing wastewater from airlines, which would offer a clearer picture of how the virus is mutating, given China's lack of data transparency, said Dr Eric Topol, a genomics expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California.
Getting wastewater off planes from China "would be a very good tactic," Topol said, adding that it's important that the United States upgrade its surveillance tactics "because of China being so unwilling to share its genomic data."
China has said criticism of its COVID statistics is groundless, and downplayed the risk of new variants, saying it expects mutations to be more infectious but less severe. Still, doubts over official Chinese data have prompted many places, including the United States, Italy and Japan, to impose new testing rules on Chinese visitors as Beijing lifted travel controls.
Airplane wastewater analysis is among several options the CDC is considering to help slow the introduction of new variants into the United States from other countries, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said in an email.
The agency is grappling with a lack of transparency about COVID in China after the country of 1.4 billion people abruptly lifted strict COVID lockdowns and testing policies, unleashing the virus into an undervaccinated and previously unexposed population.
"Previous COVID-19 wastewater surveillance has shown to be a valuable tool and airplane wastewater surveillance could potentially be an option," she wrote.
French researchers reported in July that airplane wastewater tests showed requiring negative COVID tests before international flights does not protect countries from the spread of new variants. They found the Omicron variant in wastewater from two commercial airplanes that flew from Ethiopia to France in December 2021 even though passengers had been required to take COVID tests before boarding.
California researchers reported in July that sampling of community wastewater in San Diego detected the presence of the Alpha, Delta, Epsilon and Omicron variants up to 14 days before they started showing up on nasal swabs.
Osterholm and others said mandatory testing before travel to the United States is unlikely to keep new variants out of the country.
"Border closures or border testing really makes very little difference. Maybe it slows it down by a few days," he said, because the virus is likely to spread worldwide, and could infect people in Europe or elsewhere who may then bring it to the United States.
David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said increasing genomic surveillance is important, and wastewater sampling could be helpful, but the testing takes time.
"I think we should be cautious in how much we expect those data will be able to truly inform our ability to respond," he said.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
China’s COVID Outbreak Linked to Worldwide Shortage of Over-the-Counter Drugs
News Analysis Amid China's major COVID-19 outbreak, panic buying of pain relievers and fever medicines has led to ...
www.theepochtimes.com
China’s COVID Outbreak Linked to Worldwide Shortage of Over-the-Counter Drugs
Rapid infections in China may breed new variants and threaten the global population, experts say
By Jenny Li and Sean Tseng
December 29, 2022
Amid China’s major COVID-19 outbreak, panic buying of pain relievers and fever medicines has led to shortages in the country and abroad. Experts say the current rate of infections could breed new virus variants and threaten the international community.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) sudden move to abandon its zero-COVID policy without a plan forward left the medical system with little time to prepare. Most patients in this new wave of infections show more severe symptoms—high fever, cough, and lung infections—than the mild symptoms usually associated with Omicron coronavirus variants.
On Dec. 7, the Chinese State Council issued the “New Ten Rules” on epidemic control, abruptly ending pandemic measures it had strictly enforced for the past three years. The rules include relaxing measures such as allowing self-isolation at home and no longer requiring negative PCR tests and health codes for cross-regional travel.
However, the CCP still doesn’t have a clear roadmap for “coexisting with the virus,” nor has it allocated sufficient medical resources to cope with the predicted massive wave of infections.
People weren’t warned in advance to prepare for at-home COVID treatment and have flooded local pharmacies, seeking fever and cold medicines.
Chinese Authorities Limit Drug Purchases
Pharmacies in China were ordered to ban or control the sale of cold and flu medication under the zero-COVID policy to prevent residents from using over-the-counter drugs to reduce or mask fevers and avoid illness detection. This is also due to people not wanting to be forced into PCR tests or sent to centralized quarantine facilities.
Many pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies that made and sold the drugs went bankrupt because of the restrictions. The remaining factories weren’t given advance notice to prepare for a sudden increase in demand after the restrictions were lifted.
As clinics and pharmacies across China report long queues and a shortage of ibuprofen, paracetamol, and other fever-reducing medications, local governments are pledging to procure more drugs and distribute them to pharmacies.
Officials in Nanjing City announced that they would add 2 million tablets of fever medicine to the market each day, starting on Dec. 18. However, the pharmacies were instructed to stretch out supplies by unsealing the packages and selling the tablets individually. The purchase limit is six tablets per person.
Likewise, pharmacies in Zhuhai City were also instructed by authorities to unseal packages of ibuprofen and sell the tablets individually, and the retail price per tablet was 1 yuan (about $0.14). Residents are limited to six tablets per seven days.
Despite being the world’s largest producer of the raw materials of ibuprofen, China is experiencing a severe shortage of fever-reducing medication.
The combined production capacity of the country’s top two leading pharmaceutical companies for ibuprofen raw materials is about 13,500 tons, of which Guangxinhua Pharmaceuticals accounts for 40 percent of the global production capacity.
Several Chinese sources criticized the CCP’s lack of communication with pharmaceutical companies before ending its zero-COVID policy abruptly, leaving the pharmaceuticals unable to expand production to meet the current demand.
An employee at the Chinese pharmaceutical giant Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine told The Epoch Times that the company only started to increase production in December.
“If pharmaceutical companies could be notified one to two months in advance, they wouldn’t be so passive now,” an unnamed pharmaceutical employee told The Paper, a Chinese state-owned media.
Huang Mei (pseudonym), the daughter of a retired senior official in Beijing, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 20 that the CCP’s sudden move to lift COVID restrictions left many people unprepared.
“No one expected [the authorities] would abandon the zero-clearing policy, and nothing was prepared at home. If I had known earlier, I would have stocked up on some antipyretics! And now I can’t buy them anywhere,” she said.
Panic Buying of OTC Drugs
China’s nationwide shortage of fever-reducing medications has resulted in the panic buying of pain relievers and fever medicines, and the wave of panic buying has quickly spread overseas, according to various media reports.
Tylenol’s local brand, Panadol, a fever-reducing drug, has been sold out for weeks at five pharmacies in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai business district, according to a CNN report.
Likewise, in Macau, stores had empty shelves of cold and fever medicines. As a result, the local government imposed restrictions on purchasing painkillers, fever-reducing drugs, and antigen test kits.
Taiwanese Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Wang Pi-sheng said on Dec. 19 that Taiwan’s Panadol is in short supply. Wang urged the Taiwanese not to buy large quantities of fever-related medications and send them abroad.
Chinese customers also hoard large quantities of flu medicines and painkillers in Bangkok, Thailand.
“We have a lot of buyers, including foreigners and Chinese customers. But the most obvious are Chinese. They would grab as much as they can,” a pharmacy manager in Bangkok told Reuters.
In the United States, Canada, Australia, and France, Chinese purchasing agents have removed boxes of cold and fever medications from Costco and various pharmacies, forcing some stores to implement purchase restrictions, according to BackChina, an online news and communication portal targeting overseas Chinese.
‘The Virus Is Just Too Transmissible’
As many as 37 million people are contracting COVID in a single day in China, according to leaked minutes from a meeting of the country’s top health body confirmed by multiple news outlets.
The cumulative number of infections in the first 20 days of December likely reached 248 million—nearly 18 percent of the population—officials said during the National Health Commission’s internal meeting on Dec. 21, only 13 days after the regime rolled back some of its toughest anti-COVID measures.
The figure is exponentially higher than the regime’s official virus tally, and if accurate, it would mean that China’s outbreak is the largest in the world.
The leaked minutes also said Beijing and Sichuan Province in the southwest were the hardest hit among the 31 provincial-level administrative regions, with cumulative infection rates of the residents exceeding 50 percent. Meanwhile, the infection rates of Tianjin city, Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Anhui, Gansu, and Hebei provinces range from 20 to 50 percent.
Chen Qin, the chief economist at data consultancy MetroDataTech, predicts China’s COVID wave will peak in most Chinese cities from mid-December to late January, based on an analysis of online keyword searches, according to Bloomberg. His model suggests Beijing’s unchecked reopening is already responsible for tens of millions of daily infections, with cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Chongqing having the largest case counts.
British epidemiologist Benjamin Cowling told NPR that the virus is spreading faster in China than anywhere else during the pandemic. And that it appears to be particularly contagious in the Chinese population.
In epidemiology, scientists often use the “R number” to evaluate the virus’s transmissibility. It represents the number of people one infected person will pass on a virus to, on average.
In early 2020, the R number was around 2 or 3, Cowling said, while during the Omicron surge in the United States last winter, the R number jumped to about 10 or 11, according to studies.
However, scientists at China’s National Health Commission estimated the R number in the current surge is “a whopping 16.”
“That’s why China couldn’t keep their zero-COVID policy going. The virus is just too transmissible even for them,” Cowling told NPR.
He added that last winter, cases doubled in the United States every three days or so, but currently, in China, “the doubling time is like hours,” and that “even if [China] manage to slow it down a bit, it’s still going to be doubling very, very quickly.”
A previous forecast model provided by macroeconomic consulting group Wigram Capital Advisors showed that China’s death toll due to the virus might exceed 1 million in the coming winter months, the Financial Times reported.
The model predicts that by mid-March next year, the country’s daily death toll may reach 20,000. Meanwhile, the demand for intensive care units will peak at 10 times capacity by late March, with daily admissions exceeding 70,000.
The aforementioned Huang told The Epoch Times on Dec. 20 that her father was hospitalized due to underlying diseases. On the ninth day after the Chinese authorities lifted the pandemic measures, her father tested positive for COVID.
“The sight of the hospital is tragic. Even the working doctors and nurses seem ill. Because of the many elderly people and COVID-positive patients, [the medical staff] are also infected,” Huang said.
Experts: Potential for New Variants Threatens the World
Some experts estimate that about 60 percent of China’s 1.4 billion population, or roughly 10 percent of the global population, could become infected with COVID in the coming months, according to German state-owned media Deutsche Welle (DW). The experts worry that the virus’s rapid spread in China may breed new variants.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a briefing on Dec. 20 that as long as the virus spreads “in the wild, it has the potential to mutate and pose a threat to people [all around the world].”
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
Japan tests all China arrivals for COVID amid surging cases
TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Friday started requiring COVID-19 tests for all passengers arriving from China as an emergency measure against surging infections there and as Japan faces rising case numbers and record-level deaths at home.
apnews.com
Japan tests all China arrivals for COVID amid surging cases
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Dec 30 2022
TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Friday started requiring COVID-19 tests for all passengers arriving from China as an emergency measure against surging infections there and as Japan faces rising case numbers and record-level deaths at home.
Japan reported a record 420 new coronavirus deaths on Thursday, one day after reaching an earlier single-day record of 415 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.
The numbers are higher than the daily deaths at the peak of an earlier wave in August, when they exceeded 300. Experts say the reason for the latest increase is unclear but could be linked to deaths from the worsening of chronic illnesses among elderly patients.
Japan tightened its border measures on Friday, making the antigen test that was already conducted on entrants suspected of having COVID-19 mandatory for all people arriving from mainland China. Those who test positive will be quarantined for up to seven days at designated facilities and their samples will be used for genome analysis.
The measures began ahead of the New Year holidays marked by travel and parties. Direct flights between China and Japan will be limited to four major Japanese airports for now, government officials said.
Japan earlier this year stopped requiring COVID-19 tests for entrants who had at least three shots — part of the country’s careful easing of measures after virtually closing its borders to foreign tourists for about two years. This year’s holiday season is the first without virus restrictions other than recommendations for mask wearing and testing.
The country is now reporting about 200,000 known daily cases.
At a meeting earlier this week, experts cautioned that the rapid spread of influenza this winter also has the potential to add pressure to medical systems.
China recently reversed its anti-virus controls that kept the country in isolation for nearly three years and announced this week plans to reissue passports and visas for overseas trips. This could send many Chinese abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday in January, raising concerns about the possible spread of the virus.
India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan have also responded to the Chinese wave of infections by requiring virus tests for visitors from China. The United States said Wednesday it would require testing of all travelers from China beginning Jan. 5.
South Korea on Friday announced that it will also require travelers from China to show negative PCR test results within 48 hours or rapid antigen tests within 24 hours of their departures, beginning Jan. 5.
Effective Monday, all visitors from China will be also required to take PCR tests within a day of arriving in South Korea, said Jee Youngmee, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. South Korea will also restrict the number of flights from China and restrict short-term visas for Chinese nationals, except for those visiting for diplomatic, essential business or humanitarian reasons, at least until the end of February.
China had stopped issuing visas to foreigners and passports to its own people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
Zoner
Veteran Member
I'm sorry. I like John the person but he's been on the wrong side this whole time. Yes, he is now saying stop the vaxing, but it's too little too late. People have already died and been hurt for life. Now he's on the wrong side again on what is happening in China imho. How does he know what variants are in China? And what is he saying about the UK and Ireland breakouts?
Zoner
Veteran Member
Israel thinks it's on the cutting edge of Science and they used their people as guinea pigs for Pfizer. So sad.(fair use applies)
End of the Pandemic: Israel to Downgrade Coronavirus to Flu Status
Israel will declare the coronavirus pandemic officially over next month, with the viral disease being downgraded to the status of the flu.www.breitbart.com
End of the Pandemic: Israel to Downgrade Coronavirus to Flu Status
Deborah Brand
29 Dec 20220
Israel will declare the coronavirus pandemic officially over next month, with the viral disease being downgraded to the status of the flu.
As of Jan. 18, the country’s civilian health system will be handed responsibility for all Covid-related treatment and testing, taking over from the Home Front Command.
On the last day of January, the coronavirus will be categorized alongside influenza. The pandemic control center will be shuttered, and Covid patients will no longer require isolation.
According to Professor Cyrille Cohen, a member of the Health Ministry’s advisory council for clinical Covid vaccine trials, the goal was to get the virus to an “endemic” stage, with the disease spreading at an expected rate.
“We’re hoping that our health care system can cope with these winter infections, including Covid,” Cohen told i24NEWS.
Israel announced this week unvaccinated tourists will be allowed entry from March 1, as the country begins rolling back most coronavirus restrictions. Israel to Allow Unvaccinated Tourists into the Country— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 21, 2022
“We are more in a scenario where we are behaving like any other viral disease in the winter,” he added, noting that most of the public had moved on from the pandemic with less mask-wearing and many people not getting tested.
Meanwhile, the former head of the Israel Institute for Biological Research, the government institution behind Israel’s failed coronavirus vaccine-attempt, this week drew outrage after tweeting he made a mistake by allowing himself to be vaccinated by the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine.
“I erred three times: when I received the first dose, the second dose and the third dose,” Prof. Shmuel Shapira posted this week.
After a coronavirus-related delay, Israel’s navy is preparing for the long-awaited arrival of its next generation of missile boats. Israeli Navy Prepares for Arrival of New Upgraded Warships— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 4, 2020
In an interview with Channel 12 News last week, Shapira said he sought to “warn against those who say it saved many lives in Israel. It has many severe side effects, and apparently people have lost their lives because of it. They’re trying to paper this over a bit.”
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz called Shapira’s remarks “ridiculous and damaging,” adding that he’s “joining the conspiratorial wave of COVID-deniers damaging the public’s trust in the health system. His behavior is shameful.”
Zoner
Veteran Member
Are you listening John Campbell? Are you listening world?(fair use applies)Lack of info on China's COVID-19 surge stirs global concern
Moves by several countries to mandate COVID-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly enough. There have been no reports of new...news.yahoo.com
Lack of info on China's COVID-19 surge stirs global concern
KEN MORITSUGU and HUIZHONG WU
Thu, December 29, 2022, 12:08 AM EST
BEIJING (AP) — Moves by several countries to mandate COVID-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly enough.
There have been no reports of new variants to date, but China has been accused of not being forthcoming about the virus since it first surfaced in the country in late 2019. The worry is that it may not be sharing data now on any signs of evolving strains that could spark fresh outbreaks elsewhere.
The U.S., Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Italy have announced testing requirements for passengers from China. The U.S. cited both the surge in infections and what it said was a lack of information, including genomic sequencing of the virus strains in the country.
Authorities in Taiwan and Japan have expressed similar concern.
“Right now the pandemic situation in China is not transparent," Wang Pi-Sheng, the head of Taiwan’s epidemic command center, told The Associated Press. "We have a very limited grasp on its information, and it’s not very accurate.”
The island will start testing everyone arriving from China on Jan. 1, ahead of the expected return of about 30,000 Taiwanese for the Lunar New Year holiday later in the month. The new Japanese rules, which restrict flights from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao to designated airports beginning Friday, are already disrupting holiday travel plans.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin noted Thursday that many countries have not changed their policies for travelers from China and said that any measures should treat people from all countries equally.
Every new infection offers a chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and it is spreading rapidly in China. Scientists can't say whether that means the surge will unleash a new mutant on the world — but they worry that might happen.
Chinese health officials have said the current outbreak is being driven by versions of the omicron variant that have also been detected elsewhere, and a surveillance system has been set up to identify any potentially worrisome new versions of the virus. Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at China's Center for Disease Control, said Thursday that China has always reported the virus strains it has found in a timely way.
“We keep nothing secret,” he said. "All work is shared with the world.”
Italy’s health minister told the Senate that sequencing indicates that the variants detected in passengers arriving from China are already in circulation in Europe. “This is the most important and reassuring news,? Orazio Schillaci said.
That squares with what the European Union's executive branch has said. The EU refrained Thursday from immediately following member Italy in requiring tests for visitors from China, but is assessing the situation.
More broadly, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the body needs more information on the severity of the outbreak in China, particularly on hospital and ICU admissions, “in order to make a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation on the ground."
China rolled back many of its tough pandemic restrictions earlier this month, allowing the virus to spread rapidly in a country that had seen relatively few infections since an initial devastating outbreak in the city of Wuhan. Spiraling infections have led to shortages of cold medicine, long lines at fever clinics, and at-capacity emergency rooms turning away patients. Cremations have risen several-fold, with a request from overburdened funeral homes in one city for families to postpone funeral services until next month.
Chinese state media has not reported the fallout from the surge widely and government officials have blamed Western media for hyping up the situation.
The global concerns, tinged with anger, are a direct result of the ruling Communist Party’s sudden exit from some of the world's most stringent anti-virus policies, said Miles Yu, director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
“You can’t conduct the lunacy of ‘zero-COVID’ lockdowns for such a long period of time … and then suddenly unleash a multitude of the infected from a caged China to the world," risking major outbreaks elsewhere, Yu said in an email.
Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the move by the U.S. may be more about increasing pressure on China to share more information than stopping a new variant from entering the country.
China has been accused of masking the virus situation in the country before. An AP investigation found that the government sat on the release of genetic information about the virus for more than a week after decoding it, frustrating WHO officials.
The government also tightly controlled the dissemination of Chinese research on the virus, impeding cooperation with international scientists.
Research into the origins of the virus has also been stymied. A WHO expert group said in a report this year that “key pieces of data” were missing on the how the pandemic began and called for a more in-depth investigation.
Zoner
Veteran Member
Dr. Dowd is really good. Short video.
“There were 61,000 excess millennial deaths. Basically, millennials experienced a Vietnam War in the second half of 2021.”
“This is what we call democide, death by government.”
View: https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1608546298403201026?s=20&t=XNu0Z3lMmKlqaa7bLx9-Eg
“There were 61,000 excess millennial deaths. Basically, millennials experienced a Vietnam War in the second half of 2021.”
“This is what we call democide, death by government.”
View: https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1608546298403201026?s=20&t=XNu0Z3lMmKlqaa7bLx9-Eg
Zoner
Veteran Member
This is quite the story. Evidently the Trump WH knew the vaccines were causing strokes and injuries and authorized EUAs anyway! Did Trump know?
View: https://twitter.com/RWMaloneMD/status/1608555400894509056?s=20&t=DCKrbdBAv5vKyR6Zyzf56g
View: https://twitter.com/RWMaloneMD/status/1608555400894509056?s=20&t=DCKrbdBAv5vKyR6Zyzf56g
Zoner
Veteran Member
Geert in 2 minute video explains the final stage.
View: https://twitter.com/ZombyWoof2022/status/1608193342751346694?s=20&t=7vo3YF5g0ujsNzO3qTpL2g
View: https://twitter.com/ZombyWoof2022/status/1608193342751346694?s=20&t=7vo3YF5g0ujsNzO3qTpL2g
Zoner
Veteran Member
YES!
Zoner
Veteran Member
That means be careful of saliva and blood of the vaxxed.
JMG91
Veteran Member
That’s what I personally think is causing all this new hubbub—the vax. Doctors like Carrie Madej were warning people that, when the vaxxed come in contact with their next virus, their body will overreact and essentially start destroying itself.
Zoner
Veteran Member
And they are simply calling it flu because the Covid test comes back negative.
View: https://twitter.com/EnemyInAState/status/1608825162849476610?s=20&t=5p8CyWa5PH8cCL7-eIPv6w
Typically that's always a good practice whether related to vaccines or not.
Displaced hillbilly
Veteran Member
She is unvaccinated.
Profit of Doom
Dismember
Once you’ve identified the new variant, what do you change about “reducing the spread?” It would seem to be the smart thing to utilize the strongest FLCCC protocol, immediately.
Oh, and get vaccinated. (
Profit of Doom
Dismember
Not what’s in my kit.
Profit of Doom
Dismember
Besides the protocol meds, what should we have in the OTC for pain and fever use?
Zoner
Veteran Member
Key word "typically"
naegling62
Veteran Member
naegling62
Veteran Member
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I’m confused, so apologies
Is this OLD data from last January and if so why are you posting that now? It looks like it is, unless I’m looking at it wrong
If so, why are you posting it?
If it’s new then I get it. Thanks!
naegling62
Veteran Member
It's new data. The reference point starts at Jan 1st 2022. Japan is currently in a very bad way. I would suspect New York won't be far behind.
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
I think this also explains the data coming out of NY for hospitalizations posted by naegling62.
New variant XBB.1.5 now more than a quarter of U.S. cases
XBB.1.5's prevalence remains highest in the Northeast, according to the CDC's latest estimates.
CDC tracking rise of new XBB.1.5 COVID variant
Alexander Tin - CBS News
Fri, December 30, 2022, 1:53 PM EST
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it is tracking a new variant of concern dubbed XBB.1.5. According to new figures published Friday, it estimates XBB.1.5 makes up 40.5% of new infections across the country.
XBB.1.5's ascent is overtaking other Omicron variant cousins BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which had dominated a wave of infections over the fall. Scientists believe its recent growth could be driven by key mutations on top of what was already one of the more immune evasive strains of Omicron to date.
"We're projecting that it's going to be the dominant variant in the Northeast region of the country and that it's going to increase in all regions of the country," said Dr. Barbara Mahon, director of the CDC's proposed Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, in an interview with CBS News.
Mahon said the agency had not listed XBB.1.5 separately in its earlier projections because the strain had not cleared a minimum threshold in the underlying sequences collected by the agency.
The agency's 40.5% figure is only a projection, Mahon stressed, with a probability interval ranging right now from 22.7% to 61.0%.
XBB.1.5's prevalence is largest in the Northeast, the agency estimates. Most of the earliest cases from XBB.1.5 recorded in global databases through early November were sequenced around New York and Massachusetts.
More than 70% of infections in the regions spanning New Jersey through New England are now from XBB.1.5, the agency is projecting.
An increase in hospitalizations
The ascent of XBB.1.5 comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations have accelerated across the U.S. in recent weeks. The pace of new admissions is now worse than this past summer's peak in several regions, but still lower than at this time last winter.
"There's no suggestion at this point that XBB.1.5 is more severe. But I think it is a really good time for people to do the things that we have been saying for quite a while are the best ways to protect themselves," said Mahon.
This month, the Northeast has recorded some of the worst COVID-19 hospital admission rates out of any region in the country. In New England, the CDC says new hospitalizations among Americans 70 and older have climbed to the highest levels seen since early February.
Around 13% of Americans are currently living in areas of "high" COVID-19 Community Levels, where the agency currently urges masking. Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City rank among the biggest counties now at these levels.
Mahon said XBB.1.5's mutations could be part of driving the increase where XBB had failed to gain a foothold. But she added that other factors, like the higher risk posed by respiratory viruses during the winter holiday season, could also be playing a factor.
Mahon cited the agency's recommendations to seek out updated COVID booster shots, as well as taking other precautions like improving ventilation, testing before gathering, or masking in high COVID areas.
"So that advice doesn't change at all. And this time of year is a really good time to be following that advice," said Mahon.
Ungrouping XBB.1.5 from XBB
The XBB.1.5 strain is a spinoff of the XBB variant, itself a "recombinant" blend of two prior Omicron strains, which drove a wave of infections overseas earlier this year.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration had voiced optimism that XBB was unlikely to dominate infections in the country. South Asian nations like Singapore reported that strain appeared to pose a lower risk of hospitalization relative to earlier Omicron variants.
After it was first spotted in the country, XBB had made up a small fraction of U.S. cases for several weeks despite appearing in a growing share of variants from arriving international travelers.
Then over the past month, XBB's prevalence began to swell in the CDC's estimates. These figures are released weekly in "Nowcast" projections based on the sequences that authorities have gathered so far.
Now, the CDC says that increase was driven largely by XBB.1.5. After ungrouping XBB.1.5, the agency estimates all other XBB infections currently make up just 3% of cases nationwide.
Beyond its parent, XBB.1.5 has an additional change called S486P. Chinese scientists have reported the mutation appears to offer a "greatly enhanced" ability to bind to cells, which could be helping drive its spread.
"We've been tracking XBB for weeks as I said, and it was XBB and XBB.1, and they really weren't taking off. They weren't increasing rapidly in proportion," said Mahon.
Vaccines, treatments, and tests
Before evolving into XBB.1.5, XBB had already ranked among the strains with the largest immune-evasion relative to earlier major Omicron strains. Scientists in Japan reported this week that XBB appeared to be "the most profoundly resistant variant" to antibodies from breakthrough infections of any lineage they had tested.
Like BQ.1, XBB is resistant to a roster of monoclonal antibody drugs that doctors had relied on earlier in the pandemic before they were sidelined by new variants.
Data from a team of federally-backed researchers earlier this year found the current batch of updated bivalent boosters appear to offer better "neutralizing activity" Omicron variants, including XBB, when testing antibodies in the blood of people who got the updated booster compared to after only the original vaccines.
"We expect that the bivalent booster will provide protection against XBB.1.5 as it has against other Omicron subvariants. And if people haven't gotten it yet, this is a great time to do it," Mahon said.
However, antibody responses in that study were also worse for XBB compared to the other strains they studied.
"The XBB.1.5 variant would look similar to the XBB we tested in our study. The R346T/I mutation within the spike increases the ability of the virus to evade antibodies more efficiently," Emory University's Mehul Suthar told CBS News in an email.
For antiviral drugs like Pfizer's Paxlovid, data from another team of scientists in Japan suggest they will retain efficacy against XBB.
"With what we know so far, XBB.1.5 has not acquired any new mutations in the viral protein targeted by Paxlovid. The susceptibility of XBB.1.5 against Paxlovid should not change given the current data," the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Peter Halfmann, one of that study's authors, told CBS News in an email.
And for tests, the Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday on its website that one home collection kit — DxTerity's saliva test for the virus — had been discovered to have "significantly reduced sensitivity" to variants with XBB's mutations.
"We will update the page when significant new information becomes available, including when the FDA's analyses identify tests for which performance may be impacted for known SARS-CoV-2 variants," Jim McKinney, a spokesperson for the regulator, said in a statement.
Last edited:
Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
More on the XBB.1.5 variant:
igorchudov.substack.com
(fair use applies)
The XBB.1.5 Variant Is The Next Big COVID Thing
A grandson of Ba.2 is taking over unusually rapidly
Igor Chudov
3 hr ago
For the last six months or so, we have had a lot of Covid infections everywhere, and the dominant variant was Omicron Ba.5. This changed recently within about four weeks when a new clade called XBB.1.5 showed up and became the largest circulating variant nearly overnight. Per CDC variant tracker:
In the Northeastern regions of the US, which usually lead with new variants, XBB.1.5 is already fully dominant and comprises 75% of cases:
Hospitalizations, sadly, follow this variant as well. New York hospitalizations are up significantly:
Hospitalizations are also up in Massachusetts, way past summer levels:
Cases are up also, per MA wastewater report for Boston:
Note that, coincidentally, US Northeast is a very highly vaccinated region - and yet it is home to another outbreak that is already outstripping the Ba.5 wave. Another victory of safe and effective COVID vaccines! (just kidding)
The officials did not expect this surge, but it is here:
XBB.1.5 is an offshoot of Ba.2
XBB variant is an offshoot of Ba.2, which went through the USA this spring and has now returned.
Despite promises of “miltilayered hybrid immunity” from vaccinations and multiple reinfections, there is no immunity in sight. This is already the seventh wave of Covid in New York.
The chart below shows that XBB.1.5 is the sneakiest variant ever to evade vaccinated immunity (an oxymoron by now). It also has a great affinity to ACE2, so very likely it will be able to infect the lungs and the cardiovascular system with worse outcomes than previous Omicron variants.
Overall, it feels like we are entering another major Covid wave. It will prove worse than last summer’s wave, and the most frustrating part here is that Covid is not going away.
The authorities are predictable:
New York is experiencing its seventh wave of Covid, despite (and actually because of) its draconian COVID vaccination mandates that created a perfect breeding ground of people who cannot develop immunity to Covid, reinfecting each other.
Soon XBB.1.5 will be coming to a neighborhood near you.
Some of you would say, who cares, it is just a cold. If Covid was mild for you, congratulations. It was relatively mild for me, also. However, it was not just a cold for many people I know personally, and it was not just a cold for many of my subscribers, also. This was also serious to this Twitter user:
If I could suggest how to stay healthy, it would be to get exercise, get some sunlight if possible, take reasonable vitamins, and stock up on proper Covid medications in advance. This is all that we can do.
Any other health suggestions?
If any of your associates had Covid recently, how did it go? Is Ivermectin still useful?
Please share but be mindful of people’s privacy!
The XBB.1.5 Variant Is The Next Big COVID Thing
A grandson of Ba.2 is taking over unusually rapidly
igorchudov.substack.com
The XBB.1.5 Variant Is The Next Big COVID Thing
A grandson of Ba.2 is taking over unusually rapidly
Igor Chudov
3 hr ago
For the last six months or so, we have had a lot of Covid infections everywhere, and the dominant variant was Omicron Ba.5. This changed recently within about four weeks when a new clade called XBB.1.5 showed up and became the largest circulating variant nearly overnight. Per CDC variant tracker:
In the Northeastern regions of the US, which usually lead with new variants, XBB.1.5 is already fully dominant and comprises 75% of cases:
Hospitalizations, sadly, follow this variant as well. New York hospitalizations are up significantly:
Hospitalizations are also up in Massachusetts, way past summer levels:
Cases are up also, per MA wastewater report for Boston:
Note that, coincidentally, US Northeast is a very highly vaccinated region - and yet it is home to another outbreak that is already outstripping the Ba.5 wave. Another victory of safe and effective COVID vaccines! (just kidding)
The officials did not expect this surge, but it is here:
XBB.1.5 is an offshoot of Ba.2
XBB variant is an offshoot of Ba.2, which went through the USA this spring and has now returned.
Despite promises of “miltilayered hybrid immunity” from vaccinations and multiple reinfections, there is no immunity in sight. This is already the seventh wave of Covid in New York.
The chart below shows that XBB.1.5 is the sneakiest variant ever to evade vaccinated immunity (an oxymoron by now). It also has a great affinity to ACE2, so very likely it will be able to infect the lungs and the cardiovascular system with worse outcomes than previous Omicron variants.
Overall, it feels like we are entering another major Covid wave. It will prove worse than last summer’s wave, and the most frustrating part here is that Covid is not going away.
The authorities are predictable:
New York is experiencing its seventh wave of Covid, despite (and actually because of) its draconian COVID vaccination mandates that created a perfect breeding ground of people who cannot develop immunity to Covid, reinfecting each other.
Soon XBB.1.5 will be coming to a neighborhood near you.
Some of you would say, who cares, it is just a cold. If Covid was mild for you, congratulations. It was relatively mild for me, also. However, it was not just a cold for many people I know personally, and it was not just a cold for many of my subscribers, also. This was also serious to this Twitter user:
If I could suggest how to stay healthy, it would be to get exercise, get some sunlight if possible, take reasonable vitamins, and stock up on proper Covid medications in advance. This is all that we can do.
Any other health suggestions?
If any of your associates had Covid recently, how did it go? Is Ivermectin still useful?
Please share but be mindful of people’s privacy!