Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[The Larch]

Is there any theory why those regions?

I know in Germany it was meatpacking, in England it was the fast fashion sweatshops. Something similar there, or is it less clear?

Fruit pickers.

[celedhring]

Is there any theory why those regions?

I know in Germany it was meatpacking, in England it was the fast fashion sweatshops. Something similar there, or is it less clear?

It is clear. The outbreak started among immigrant labor working the fruit harvest. These pickers usually move around a lot working in different farms, and live in overcrowded hostels, so they created a "super spreader" event. There's also another large outbreak in a meatpacking plant in the area (one of the largest in Spain).

[Tamas]

The UK government have gone through their usual phases of public self-debate on masks in stores.

The stages, as usual, were:

1. No
2. Well, not really
3. Possibly
4. People should but we won't force it
5. We are forcing it.


Stages 3 to 5 were in a space of a single week.

[Sheilbh]

It's been so annoying - now I think on masking there have been other issues such as the number of credentialed people who've come out really strongly against masks. I remember the Advertising Standards Agency going after companies advertising masks as protective and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer (and indeed WHO) saying the evidence wasn't there that they are beneficial.

But the government's been a shambles on this. I don't really like having to force and I think common sense could work - but that would require ministers wearing masks when they're doing things, consistent public messaging at every opportunity that people should wear masks, ads on TV/radio about it. If all of that's in place I think there's the possibility you don't need to force it, but they've done none of that and now it needs to be forced.

I mean I remember that the photo ops of Rishi Sunak waiting tables in Wagamama (maskless) and the guidance that people should wear masks in enclosed spaces were within days of each other. Again for a government that is made up of people who are above all else good at comms and good at campaigns it's mind-boggling how poor they've been.

[garbon]

Police have already noted that the order is unenforceable and government is appealing to shops to manage...

[alfred russel]

Do we know for sure that Covid parties actually exist?  The sociopathic stupidity described sounds a little too perfect to be true, and more like a useful cautionary tale, but I've seen a story or two claiming that they do exist.  I haven't been able to find a fact check on that.  Does anyone know if someone did fact check this?

My girlfriend's brother goes to Clemson, and around the beginning of June he went to a party where a couple of confirmed positive covid cases showed up. Apparently everyone thought it was funny and the party went on with the covid people. After the party, a bunch of people that were there tested positive (there were some football players at the party, and in the month of June, 37 players tested positive, which is almost half the team). His girlfriend tested positive, but he didn't.

That is anecdotal of course, and it isn't a true covid party, but it is close enough.

[The Brain]

Having any kind of party now seems bizarre to me. And it's hard to grasp the thought processes of a person who has tested positive and goes to a party.

[DGuller]

Do we know for sure that Covid parties actually exist?  The sociopathic stupidity described sounds a little too perfect to be true, and more like a useful cautionary tale, but I've seen a story or two claiming that they do exist.  I haven't been able to find a fact check on that.  Does anyone know if someone did fact check this?

My girlfriend's brother goes to Clemson, and around the beginning of June he went to a party where a couple of confirmed positive covid cases showed up. Apparently everyone thought it was funny and the party went on with the covid people. After the party, a bunch of people that were there tested positive (there were some football players at the party, and in the month of June, 37 players tested positive, which is almost half the team). His girlfriend tested positive, but he didn't.

That is anecdotal of course, and it isn't a true covid party, but it is close enough.

Maybe we need to legalize euthanasia.  There seems to be a lot of pent up demand for it, we should allow people to go responsibly rather than having them work on it as a DIY project.

[The Larch]

Tangentially related to covid.

A Teenager Didn't Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention.
A 15-year-old in Michigan was incarcerated during the coronavirus pandemic after a judge ruled that not completing her schoolwork violated her probation. "It just doesn't make any sense," said the girl's mother.

PONTIAC, Mich. — One afternoon in mid-June, Charisse* drove up to the checkpoint at the Children's Village juvenile detention center in suburban Detroit, desperate to be near her daughter. It had been a month since she had last seen her, when a judge found the girl had violated probation and sent her to the facility during the pandemic.

The girl, Grace, hadn't broken the law again. The 15-year-old wasn't in trouble for fighting with her mother or stealing, the issues that had gotten her placed on probation in the first place.

She was incarcerated in May for violating her probation by not completing her online coursework when her school in Beverly Hills switched to remote learning.

Because of the confidentiality of juvenile court cases, it's impossible to determine how unusual Grace's situation is. But attorneys and advocates in Michigan and elsewhere say they are unaware of any other case involving the detention of a child for failing to meet academic requirements after schools closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

The decision, they say, flies in the face of recommendations from the legal and education communities that have urged leniency and a prioritization of children's health and safety amid the crisis. The case may also reflect, some experts and Grace's mother believe, systemic racial bias. Grace is Black in a predominantly white community and in a county where a disproportionate percentage of Black youth are involved with the juvenile justice system.

Across the country, teachers, parents and students have struggled with the upheaval caused by monthslong school closures. School districts have documented tens of thousands of students who failed to log in or complete their schoolwork: 15,000 high school students in Los Angeles, one-third of the students in Minneapolis Public Schools and about a quarter of Chicago Public Schools students.

Students with special needs are especially vulnerable without the face-to-face guidance from teachers, social workers and others. Grace, who has ADHD, said she felt unmotivated and overwhelmed when online learning began April 15, about a month after schools closed. Without much live instruction or structure, she got easily distracted and had difficulty keeping herself on track, she said.

"Who can even be a good student right now?" said Ricky Watson Jr., executive director of the National Juvenile Justice Network. "Unless there is an urgent need, I don't understand why you would be sending a kid to any facility right now and taking them away from their families with all that we are dealing with right now."

In many places, juvenile courts have attempted to keep children out of detention except in the most serious cases, and they have worked to release those who were already there, experts say. A survey of juvenile justice agencies in 30 states found that the number of youths in secure detention fell by 24% in March, largely due to a steep decline in placements.

In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order in March that temporarily suspended the confinement of juveniles who violate probation unless directed by a court order and encouraged eliminating any form of detention or residential placement unless a young person posed a "substantial and immediate safety risk to others." Acting on Whitmer's order, which was extended until late May, the Michigan Supreme Court told juvenile court judges to determine which juveniles could be returned home.

Judge Mary Ellen Brennan, the presiding judge of the Oakland County Family Court Division, declined through a court administrator to comment on Grace's case. In her ruling, she found Grace "guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school" and called Grace a "threat to (the) community," citing the assault and theft charges that led to her probation.

"She hasn't fulfilled the expectation with regard to school performance," Brennan said as she sentenced Grace. "I told her she was on thin ice and I told her that I was going to hold her to the letter, to the order, of the probation."

That June afternoon, a month after the sentencing, Charisse left Children's Village without seeing Grace, but she did pick up a shopping bag of clothes and toiletries she had delivered days earlier. She said officials had rejected them because they violated facility rules: underwear that wasn't briefs; face wipes that contained alcohol; a pair of jeans deemed too tight.

Charisse counts each day they're apart, and that was day No. 33. Another month has since passed, and there could still be months to go before they are at home together again.

Driving home, Charisse had to pull over soon after she turned onto the road leading away from the complex. She sat in a parking lot, sobbing.

"It just doesn't make any sense," she said. She shook her head as tears dampened the disposable blue face mask pulled down to her chin.

"Every day I go to bed thinking, and wake up thinking, 'How is this a better situation for her?'"

Full, longm sad story, in the following link: https://www.propublica.org/article/a-teenager-didnt-do-her-online-schoolwork-so-a-judge-sent-her-to-juvenile-detention

[Tamas]

But the government's been a shambles on this.

[Sheilbh]

But the government's been a shambles on this.

Also I know it's my bugbear but there's no UK government on this. In England masks are compulsory on transport and in shops from next Friday; in Scotland they're compulsory in shops and transport; in Wales they're compulsory on transport only from 27 July; in Northern Ireland they're complusory on transport only.

[Legbiter]

Chief Medical Officer here has been up his own ass about mask usage. They're hardly mentioned except dismissively despite their low cost and obvious utility. I guess we can afford his eccentricities because there doesn't seem to be any ongoing general transmission of the virus here but in different circumstances he'd be an enormous liability. 

[alfred russel]

Merck CEO Frazier says COVID-19 vaccine hype a 'grave disservice' to the public

Politicians, government officials and pharma executives alike have been predicting a COVID-19 vaccine debut by year's end, but Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier doubts that's possible—and Merck has enough vaccine experience to know the obstacles ahead.

Instead, those who are promising vaccines later this year could be hurting the overall fight against the pandemic, Frazier figures.

In an interview with Tsedal Neeley, the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Kenneth Frazier said officials are doing a "grave disservice" to the public by talking up the potential for vaccines later this year. There are massive scientific and logistical obstacles to achieving such a feat, he said.

"What worries me the most is that the public is so hungry, is so desperate to go back to normalcy, that they are pushing us to move things faster and faster," Frazier said. "Ultimately, if you are going to use a vaccine in billions of people, you'd better know what that vaccine does."

On the scientific front, Frazier brought up the fact that it typically takes several years or longer to develop vaccines. Merck won approval for its mumps vaccine after four years of research and development, a record, and it took five and a half years to score an approval for Merck's Ebola vaccine.

SPECIAL REPORT: The top 15 pharma companies by 2026 sales — Merck & Co.

In the last 25 years, pharma companies worldwide have developed seven "truly new" vaccines. Merck was responsible for four of them, he said. Scientists have been working on an HIV vaccine for decades to no avail, he added.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/vaccines/merck-ceo-frazier-says-covid-19-vaccine-hype-a-grave-disservice-to-public

Didn't quote the whole article, but some pessimism on the vaccine front.

[The Brain]

Someone is looking to pick up some stock before the big breakthrough announcement. I know it!

[viper37]

In Quebec, masks will be mandatory in public enclosed spaces as of July 18th (Saturday).

In other news, arround the world.
Coronavirus: Argentina stumped as sailors catch Covid-19 after 35 days at sea

Argentina is trying to solve a medical mystery after 57 sailors were infected with the coronavirus after 35 days at sea, despite the entire crew testing negative before leaving port.
The Echizen Maru fishing trawler returned to port after some of its crew began exhibiting symptoms typical of Covid-19, the health ministry for the southern Tierra del Fuego province said Monday.
According to the ministry, 57 of the 61 crew members were diagnosed with the virus after taking a new test.
However, all of the crew members had undergone 14 days of mandatory quarantine at a hotel in the city of Ushuaia. Prior to that, they had received negative results, the ministry said in a statement.
Two have tested negative and two others are awaiting test results, the province's emergency operations committee said.

Two sailors were hospitalised.

That is mind buggling.  35 days incubation?  I hope there's another explanation.



Unborn child contracts covid-19 inside the womb from mother

Doctors in France have reported the first known confirmed case of an unborn baby contracting COVID-19 from their mother while still in the womb.
The case was published on Tuesday in Nature Communications journal.
The authors said the baby's brain bore evidence of inflammation caused by the coronavirus. They also said they found sufficient evidence that it had crossed into the baby through the placenta.
[...]