Apocalyptic Virus Or Not?

[alexora]

Meanwhile, in South Africa:

‘Mistakes need to be dealt with’: anger
in South Africa as third wave hits

Cyril Ramaphosa’s government has been criticised for its slow reaction and faltering vaccination programme

Governments across Africa are scrambling to reinforce health systems and accelerate vaccine drives as a third wave of Covid-19 infections threatens to overwhelm hospitals and kill tens of thousands of people.

South Africa, the worst-hit country in the continent, has reported a doubling of new daily cases over the past two weeks, with no sign of the rise slowing.

Gauteng province – home to a quarter of the country’s population of 60 million as well as the administrative capital, Pretoria, and financial hub Johannesburg – is the centre of the latest outbreak, accounting for about 60% of the latest national daily increase.

Hospitals and health workers are close to being overwhelmed. One large hospital was shut earlier this year after a fire and other big facilities are closed because of a lack of trained staff. Doctors are making dozens of phone calls to secure a bed for critically ill patients.

South Africa has suffered two major waves already, pushing its official death toll to 60,000, though excess mortality figures reveal that at least another 100,000 people are likely to have died in the pandemic.

Last week, Cyril Ramaphosa, the president, imposed light restrictions that most experts have said are unlikely to make much difference.

Expectations of the government are low, with much anger at a series of corruption scandals involving Covid-19 spending. Earlier this month, the health minister, Zweli Mkhize, was forced to step down while allegations of impropriety in the awarding of Covid-19 response contracts were investigated.

The 60 or so inhabitants of Union Street, a narrow alley in Soweto, said they have learned the hard way not to hope for too much. “All the times were bad. It has always been tough here. But this is really worse. We have orphans in our church now,” said Leonard Magrwanya, 74.

“I trust in God. I have faith in God. One day Covid will be finished and we can go back to normal, but that lies only in the power of God,” he said.

South Africa had many advantages over other African countries before the Covid crisis: a greater ability to borrow money, a more extensive public health system reinforced by a large private sector, world-class scientists and long experience of dealing with pandemics.

Yet after a much-lauded early response, the authorities have struggled. The economic damage wrought by the pandemic has already been severe.

Tasneena Sylvester, 35, who has lived on Union Street for 11 years, lost her job as a cleaner, and her husband was laid off by the construction firm that had employed him for years during the hard lockdown in March and April last year.

Now the couple and their three children live on government handouts, and spend their days watching television and pirated Netflix films traded on USB drives.

“I want education for my children, and a job to survive. But there is nothing now,” she said.

At the tiny shack that is the headquarters of the Soweto Kliptown Youth organisation, Bob Nameng, the 51-year-old founder, accused the government of mishandling the crisis.

“There is too much corruption. The rich are benefiting from the tears of the poor. The poor are weeping. The rich are dancing,” he said.

Nameng said he believed the ruling African National Congress, in power since 1994, had “become the opposite of what the people of Soweto fought for” during the long battle against the racist, repressive apartheid regime.

“They don’t care about anyone but themselves. We supported the ANC but we won’t for ever. They have lost a lot of votes. A hungry man is an angry man,” he said.

South Africa’s faltering vaccination campaign has yet to reach more than one in 30 of the population, after a series of missteps and misfortunes were compounded by bad decision-making, critics say.

Officials were slow to initiate discussions with manufacturers, and the talks were then held up by bureaucracy and internal factional battles.

The UN-backed Covax programme delivered a million AstraZeneca jabs, which were retjected once it became clear they were less effective against the new local variant.

Finally, a consignment of 2m Johnson & Johnson vaccines had to be destroyed when regulators decided it might have been contaminated after breaches of safety and sanitary rules in a factory in the US.

With wealthy nations in the west buying up millions of doses for their populations, it has been hard to secure supplies for South Africa.

“What has constrained us has been the lack of vaccines. All the provinces and private sector have been champing at the bit to open additional sites,” said Nicholas Crisp, the deputy director general of the health department.

The vaccination campaign has also been suspended at weekends to allow health workers to rest, and because there is “no overtime budget”.

In a media briefing last week, the acting health minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, promised the campaign would accelerate, as sufficient shots finally began to arrive, and said army medics would be brought in to reinforce the health system in Gauteng.

One big problem is vaccine hesitancy. In a recent survey, 67% said they would definitely take the vaccine, with 18% saying they would not. The survey found that those who think Ramaphosa and his government are doing a bad job are much less likely to accept a vaccine.

On Union Street, some even doubt the existence of Covid-19.

“I think it is all made up. They want us to believe there is Covid and follow their instructions. And I’ve heard the vaccines shut down your body systems,” said Jemima Dtadegane, 54.

Officials say they are aware of the problem and will try to communicate better in the future. After extensive interaction in early months of the pandemic, ministers and government specialists have rarely given briefings. Ramaphosa has limited interventions to infrequent televised speeches.

Alex van den Heever, professor of public administration at Wits University, Johannesburg, said the failure to acknowledge the true death toll in the pandemic, as revealed by excess mortality figures rather than recorded hospital deaths, stemmed from a “political decision made early on”.

“They wanted to make sure the pandemic management was seen as being done by the ANC, and negative issues minimised. That is an improper intent. The information must be made public, mistakes need to be dealt with and any questions answered,” he said. “The reality is we have had a severe, severe epidemic.”

Most residents of Union Street have seen images from the US or Europe, and are aware that the pandemic is ebbing there.

“In the rich countries, they are going out and working. They have better governments, I think,” Rebecca Mfungquza, 23. “Maybe they could help us a bit. We need it.”

Source:

http://theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/21/mistakes-need-to-be-dealt-with-anger-in-south-africa-as-third-wave-hits

Make sure y'all drink in the fear porn and bolt your face diapers back on.....

WHO urges fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks as delta Covid variant spreads

http://cnbc.com/2021/06/25/delta-who-urges-fully-vaccinated-people-to-continue-to-wear-masks-as-variant-spreads.html

[HiTrack99]

Last week we had 10k now we have 18k in the UK, they can't all be not vaccinated surely?

[LongTimeLu]

Originally Posted by HiTrack99

Last week we had 10k now we have 18k in the UK, they can't all be not vaccinated surely?

People who are vaccinated can catch it and show positive but are less likely to pass it on and few have to go to hospital.
Also lots of kids are testing positive who also don't end up in hospital.

The UK test data by age is published here:

http://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/download

Some may be 'false positives'

A school has sent a warning message to parents after children "discovered" using fruit juice created a false positive on coronavirus tests.

Gateacre School in Belle Vale sent out an email to parents on Wednesday, June 24, warning them to be "vigilant" whilst their children are taking lateral flow Covid tests.

The email was sent after it came to the attention of teachers, pupils had "discovered" placing droplets of orange juice or other fruit juice on a lateral flow test gave a false positive result.

Headteacher Gareth Jones insisted the message was sent after they were made aware of students in "other schools in the country" obtaining void or positive results by pouring orange juice onto Covid tests.

http://liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/schools-warning-children-using-fruit-20896618

[Fallon]

Originally Posted by HiTrack99

Last week we had 10k now we have 18k in the UK, they can't all be not vaccinated surely?

The problem with the fast spread of the Delta variant in the UK might be that most people there have been vaccinated with the AZ vaccine.

Some days ago I read that AZ only shows a 66% efficiency against Delta, whereas the mRNA-based vaccines like BionTech/Pfizer are at around 90%.

[LongTimeLu]

Why most people who now die with Covid in England have been vaccinated

A MailOnline headline on 13 June read: “Study shows 29% of the 42 people who have died after catching the new strain had BOTH vaccinations.” In Public Health England’s technical briefing on 25 June, that figure had risen to 43% (50 of 117), with the majority (60%) having received at least one dose.

It could sound worrying that the majority of people dying in England with the now-dominant Delta (B.1.617.2) variant have been vaccinated. Does this mean the vaccines are ineffective? Far from it, it’s what we would expect from an effective but imperfect vaccine, a risk profile that varies hugely by age and the way the vaccines have been rolled out.

The vaccines are not perfect. PHE estimates two-dose effectiveness against hospital admission with the Delta infections at around 94%. We can perhaps assume there is at least 95% protection against Covid-19 death, which means the lethal risk is reduced to less than a twentieth of its usual value. This means that someone aged 80 who is fully vaccinated essentially takes on the risk of an unvaccinated person of around 50 – much lower, but still not nothing, and so we can expect some deaths.

http://theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/jun/27/why-most-people-who-now-die-with-covid-have-been-vaccinated

[HiTrack99]

The media would love us to believe it's all non-vaccinated people dying too.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by HiTrack99

The media would love us to believe it's all non-vaccinated people dying too.

That depends on which media outlet we read/watch/listen.

My advice to all, is read as many reports as you can, from as many sources possible, including those with opposing views.

[SynchroDub]

Originally Posted by HiTrack99

The media would love us to believe it's all non-vaccinated people dying too.

Yeah, indeed.

Right now, here in Italy, they even started to make ads about the vaccination program, featuring well-known Italian people from the showbiz, as well even the coach of our National Football Club, talking about getting back to live a normal life and other crap (thanks to the vaccines), which might probably not going to happen for at least another 2 years.

3 millions of people have still yet to get vaccinated. And they're trying so hard to get al these people vaccinated ASAP, even with all these TV ads, before the vaccination program ends.

If this is not a form of dictatorship, I don't know what else is.

Even in Israel, where they started getting people vaccinated earlier than most countries, have started to report cases of the Delta variant between vaccinated people. Same in Russia.

People are starting to see that all of this running to get vaccinated was a total bullshit. Even those who strongly believed in the efficiency of the vaccines, are starting to see the other side of the coin.

Right from tomorrow, people will not be obligated to wear masks in public, here in Italy.
I'm pretty sure that in a month or so, we will be in another lockdown situation, as it happened last Summer.

It's a never-ending story, this pandemic.

[alexora]

Meanwhile, in Bangladesh:

Covid-19: Crowds flee Dhaka ahead of strict Bangladesh lockdown

Crowds have flocked to Dhaka's ferry terminals for a second day to get out of the city before a strict national lockdown comes into force.

For seven days from Thursday, no one in Bangladesh will be allowed to leave their homes unless in an emergency.

As a result, people are fleeing the busy capital city for their homes in towns and villages.

Covid cases in the country have surged, many linked to the Delta variant first identified in neighbouring India.

The latest wave of the virus in Bangladesh began about six weeks ago. On 15 May there were 261 new cases and 22 deaths reported. On Friday there were 5,869 new cases and 108 deaths - the country's second-highest daily death toll of the whole pandemic.

Many hospitals are overwhelmed with patients and are struggling to cope, particularly those on the border with India.

The lockdown was originally due to begin on Monday, but has now been postponed until Thursday - though officials said some restrictions will still come into force on Monday.

Because of the sharp rise in cases, rail and bus services are already suspended, with an exception for emergency services.

People hoping to leave the city have resorted to hiring private hire vehicles, or even walking, because of the transport closures.

'Unmanageable' situation

Low-income workers and day labourers will be among the worst hit by the stringent lockdown, BBC South Asia editor Jill McGivering reports. Many of the people fleeing are migrant workers trying to get home.

Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported that there were thousands of people at just one ferry terminal, with little to no space between them.

Local traffic police chief Zakir Hossain told the paper that Shimulia terminal was much busier on Sunday than it was on Saturday, and that "no one is following Covid-19 safety protocols".

AFP news agency reports that tens of thousands of people in total are trying to leave. It quotes a senior Bangladesh water official saying that at least 50,000 people had left the city on ferries on Sunday alone.

The situation, he added, had become "unmanageable".

Some ferry services have been running 24 hours a day, with more than 1,000 passengers crammed onto each trip.

Police sub-inspector Mohammad Raza told AFP: "We don't want them to overcrowd the ferry, but they don't listen. There is a mad rush of people."



A statement released by Bangladesh's Press Information Department (PID) said all offices, including government, semi-government and private offices, would also shut in the lockdown.

Health department spokesman Robed Amin told AFP police and border guards would be deployed to enforce the lockdown and stop people from leaving their homes.

He added that the army could also be deployed if needed.

"It is a dangerous and alarming situation," he said. "If we don't contain it now, we will face an India-like situation."

A second wave of Covid infections, driven largely by the Delta variant, devastated India in April and May. Although the country is beginning to reopen, experts have warned it could see a third wave in the next few months.

Source:

http://bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-57624557