Wuhan virus 2020

[Jimbuna]

A door-to-door testing blitz is under way in what the health secretary calls a bid to find "every single case" of the variant in England.

Matt Hancock is updating MPs after 105 cases of the South African coronavirus variant are found in the UK

Meanwhile, the Kent variant appears to be undergoing some worrying new genetic changes, say scientists.

Interest on student loans in England should be scrapped for 15 months to cover lockdown periods, a group of universities says.

Captain Sir Tom Moore's family are with him in hospital after the 100-year-old fundraiser was admitted with coronavirus.

An online memorial to commemorate Indian victims of Covid-19 is launched by a group of doctors and social workers.

[Jimbuna]

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has defended the EU’s vaccine strategy insisting it's at the beginning of “a marathon”. Under fire for her handling of the AstraZeneca row last week, she says the EU has made a “good choice” of vaccines and is on track to get 70% of Europeans vaccinated by the summer. “It is true that other countries started earlier, but we preferred safety to shortcuts,” she told La Repubblica.

Germany’s Angela Merkel has also defended the EU’s approach on approving vaccines: “True the path was slower, but I think we had good reasons for it to be slower”. German health authorities have reported a slight fall in cases per 100,000 people to 90. Another 6,114 cases have been reported in the past 24 hours.

Austrians will be able to relax their lockdown on 8 February but under strict conditions that require the wearing of FFP2 masks in shops. Museums, hairdressers and zoos will be allowed to reopen. Schools in some areas will be allowed to reopen with regular Covid testing.

Denmark will also start reopening schools for the youngest children up to Year 4 from next Monday, although officials are prepared for an increase in cases. They’ve been out of class since 21 December.

Latest infection figures from Spain show the first fall in weekend cases since the start of December, down below 80,000 new cases. There’s been a slight fall in incidence rate to 865 per 100,000 people.

There's bad news for ski enthusiasts in France. Ski lifts won’t be starting up in February because of the pandemic. The government has promised to maintain state aid for resorts – but other winter activities that don’t require the ski-lifts are still allowed.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Catlin Doughty, hosts a YouTube channel called "Ask a Mortician". Normally her videos are educational, entertaining, and rather funny. I recommend checking out her channel.


However, this video is not funny. In this video she is discussing the impact of COVID-19 from the mortuary industry viewpoint. It is not a happy video and you can tell that she is barely able to keep her emotions under control. She does get a little preachy concerning the California/LA government, but I can't say that I disagree about what she is saying.


It is an interesting viewpoint.

$4,000 for cremation just what the hell causes that kind of price? I know for a fact cremation in Florida the price at a reputable funeral home ranges from $1100 to $1400. Maybe more big government will help huh? I heard they had 60 million surplus for just such contingencies anyone have an idea where that 60 million dollars went? California

[Platapus]

I assume that the price goes up when the demand for funerals increases more than the supply can handle. Capitalism.



Generally speaking you can get a simple cremation for about a grand and often a little lower.



The key, of course, is to shop around which few people feel comfortable doing in these situations.



It was awkward when my father died suddenly. The fact that the funeral director was trying to up sell did not help.

[Jimbuna]

Captain Sir Tom Moore has lost his fight with this bloody awful virus.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...herts-55881753

RIP Sir

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Platapus

I assume that the price goes up when the demand for funerals increases more than the supply can handle. Capitalism.



Generally speaking you can get a simple cremation for about a grand and often a little lower.



The key, of course, is to shop around which few people feel comfortable doing in these situations.




It was awkward when my father died suddenly. The fact that the funeral director was trying to up sell did not help.

I'm sorry to hear of your experience.


The cremation in Florida was last October impacts from COVID were already having an effect there as well. Fortunately the person who answered at the first funeral home called was everything one could hope for. All the cost plans were made available each explained, no pressure. Just call back with a decision and they would handle it from there. Like putting it on autopilot.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Captain Sir Tom Moore has lost his fight with this bloody awful virus.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...herts-55881753

RIP Sir

RIP Sir Moore.

[Platapus]

Mortuaries are for profit businesses so on one hand I can't blame them for trying to make a larger profit.


It is the fact that they are trying to make a profit off of the grief of people is what I struggle with.



When I was a youngling, I was thinking of becoming a mortician, but when I read some books on it, especially "The American Way of Death" by Mitford and after talking with a mortician I worked for one summer, I found that the selling aspect of the business was not for me.


(edit: anyone know why my posts always seem to have extra line feeds? They look good when I write them)

[Catfish]

I heard about Sir Tom Moore a few hours ago. While a hundred years is a ripe age, very sad to hear this. He did some good things in his life. May you rest in peace.



OT:

Originally Posted by Platapus

[...] (edit: anyone know why my posts always seem to have extra line feeds? They look good when I write them)

This, this and this. Been saying this since years. Edit and re-edit and again, to erase obvious invisible hard returns, and make proper one-line paragraphs.. no idea what causes this

[vienna]

Since no one else ever reported the "extra line" effect before, I just presumed it was something to do with my machine and/or its software; I've been dealing with the same problem for a very long time, having to do at least two "Preview Post" iterations, one to remove the extra lines, and a second to affirm the extras are, indeed, gone; I wonder just how widespread the issue really is...




<O>

[Platapus]

Glad it is not just me

[Skybird]

Sorry to hear about your story, Platapus, it reminds me of something I experienced thirty years ago. I understand these kind fo feelings and doubts. And I am still angry.

---------

German media said today that swcientists proved that B.117 has mutated again and that that mutation lowers the efficiency of the existing vaccines.

Germany chief virologist Drosten already a week ago warned of that the more we vaccinate, the more and the earlier mutations there will be.

[Skybird]

While more and more concerns about the latest mutation of the British B.117 strain get voiced, Russia has a study in The Lancet with a phase-3 trial and 20000 people, rating the efficiency of Sputnik-V with 91.6%. Thats a very good value, comparable to the Moderna and Biontech/Pfizer jabs.

Germany establishes a two-class vaccination regime. The expensive but more efficient Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech vaccines shall be reserved for the elder, the less efficient but cheaper AZ jabs should be given to the masses.

Interesting where they do not count billions that they throw out the window, and where they count millions as if these were what makes the whole desaster expensive.

And a cold-blooded rational: is it really sensible to give the best and most expensive ressources to people who are older than 80 and who have lived their lives, and leaving younger people who still do work and have relevant functions to fulfill, to cheaper, less efficient vaccines? Shouldn't it be the other way around? We know sopcieties where the elder, when they become a burden for the tribe's ongoing trek, were left behind, or voluntarily moved out for their last trip, into the wilderness, onto the ice, whatever. When the best ressources are left for the used and overaged and weakest and unproductive - what ressources then support the future chances of a society in form of active, younger, "system-relevant" people?

Sorry, but I think these sort of questions are relevant, and must be asked. Maximum moralising absolutes do not solve the dilemma there.

Heck, my mother was it who raised this quesiton in our family. She's 72, my father is 76 and agrees. And yes, I would terirbly miss them if somehtign ahppens to them. But that does not change the relevance of the question asked.

What I have no unbderstandinf ro is that the Germans want to vaccinate their hospital staff too with just the inferior vaccine. While many of that staff refuse to get iunjected the AZ vaccine, and insist in getting the more efficjent, expensive ones, since they have to face the lion's share of the risk and burden.

My priorities look slightly different. I refuse to prefer the cheaper but less efficient vaccine for monetarian reasons - not with billions of Euros readly being wasted like crazy. Compared to that, the costs for the vaccines are peanuts. A prioritizing is only acceptable in the time of lacking supplies in vaccines. And then the doctors, hospital nurses, nurses for the elder, must get prioritized, next kindergarden personnel and school teachers. Also parents with kids, at least the mum or dad bringing home the biggest part of the household income.

I'm sorry to say, but the elder have no priority for me. Ecopnomically, they are ballast, thats bitter to sak,y but thats how it is. The mums and dads and nurses and dcotors and policemen and fiorefighters all are more relevant and important for the survival of a society. As long as there is not sufficient amounts of the best vaccines, they must take the second-best vaccine only. The better protection is needed elsewhere. So that kids m,ust not grow up in poverty or without a parent, since the mum or dad died form Covid. The fight is fought by the health system staff. And they should get the best protection available, for they take the highest risks. Fear sits on their shoulders every damn hour of their shifts. And they could spread easier than many others.

[Skybird]

Super-Uschi continues to do what she has always excelled in throughout her whole career: blaming others for her own failures.

Von der Leyen makes a serious mistake - and is now blaming colleagues for it.

Ursula von der Leyen does not cut a good figure in the vaccination disaster in the EU. Now she is apparently resorting to an old method: passing on her own mistakes to others. Because their latest faux pas is supposed to be blamed on a completely different one.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tries to blame her Foreign Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis for a serious mistake. This is reported by the "Spiegel" . For the latest farce in the vaccination disaster, von der Leyen could not do anything, a commission spokesman said on Monday. "This regulation is the responsibility of Mr Dombrovskis and his cabinet and of course the Commission services who work for him," the spokesman said.

It was about the controversial regulation from the weekend, according to which the EU Commission wanted to oblige pharmaceutical companies to register the export of vaccines. The EU blocked the export of vaccine from Belgium to Great Britain. This angered Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who made von der Leyen collapse in two urgent phone calls. Johnson was especially angry because a first draft regulation gave the impression that there should be controls again at the Irish-Northern Irish border for export controls. On the outer edge of the EU where the Brexit deal almost failed.

The decision is said to have been made in von der Leyen's closest circle of power

Von der Leyen rowed back after the phone call with Johnson. And then had Dombrovskis accused. But as the "Spiegel" reports, the real situation is different. On the one hand, Dombrovskis, of all people, is a strict opponent of such trade restrictions. Second, the export mechanism was driven by von der Leyen's team.

Particularly explosive: According to "Spiegel", it was von der Leyen's team that inserted the "protective measures from the Northern Ireland Protocol" into the regulation. The decision is said to have come directly from von der Leyen's closest circle of power.

"Rule number one: never publicly blame your team"

The fact that von der Leyen is now pushing the blame away does not go down well overall. The CDU MEP Elmar Brok says, for example, that no one has any experience with Corona . "This is why mistakes are made for which the Commission President should also take responsibility." It should not "fall into old patterns", said Brok - an allusion to earlier incidents of this kind.

And the former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb is also not very amused: "Rule number one for every manager: If your authority makes a mistake, never publicly blame your team. If the **** hits the fan, you take it on yourself."

And von der Leyen? According to "Spiegel", she was internally "contrite". The Ireland-Northern Ireland paragraph should never have appeared in the regulation. Publicly, however, there was nothing new about the latest accusations.


https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland..._12938568.html

In the end she is just an empty-headed girly who only rose in politics due to her father's political legacy, who had a great name and was a ministre president.
Not having a lot in her head, but she compensates that with an expensive coiffeur. Oh how much I love her.

[Skybird]

Astrazeneca's vaccine apparently not only protects against the disease itself, but also to a large extent against the spread of the virus. This was the result of a study by the University of Oxford. The vaccine offers 76 percent protection against the transmission of the virus, they say. After taking the second dose after three months, the protection increases to 82.4 percent. In 67 percent of the cases examined, fewer positive smears were taken than before taking the vaccine. The question of whether or not vaccinated people can pass the virus on is an important issue when considering herd immunity. The better the protection, the fewer vaccinated people are needed to achieve this herd immunity.