Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[alfred russel]

The Spanish consulate in Shanghai is warning that China is forcefully hospitalizing foreign residents in the country upon their arrival for 3-4 days if they show that their level of Covid-19 antibodies exceeds a certain limit (checked via blood test in the airport), and during the time in hospital they're performed a series of invasive tests, as well as having to pay for their own supplies during their stay. The whole time they're never provided an explanation, and they're made to sign documents in Chinese without translation.

I've checked for a piece of news on this but couldn't find anything. You guys with contacts over there have heard about this?

My previous boss took a position in Shanghai earlier this year...he had to quarantine upon arrival for like 4 weeks in a government approved hotel...I think he arrived ~April/May. What sucks for him is that they aren't approving spousal visas so his wife can't join him.

Nothing about invasive procedures.

[Sheilbh]

2020 was the first year since 1976 when deaths outnumbered live births - and you can see that covid caused a significant spike:

[Valmy]

How is that possible? Is the population really so similar to 1900 that you can more deaths and births in 2020 than you had in 1900?

[Richard Hakluyt]

The population of the UK was about 41m in 1900 and is now at least 66m; the fairly horizontal lines (especially for deaths) are a consequence of increasing life expectancy and fewer births per woman.

[Zanza]

We had more deaths than life births since the 1970s or so.

[Josquius]

2020 was the first year since 1976 when deaths outnumbered live births - and you can see that covid caused a significant spike:

And oddly in ww2 only 1939 (1940?) did.


My anecdotal analysis is that the birth rate will pick up a fair bit in the second half of the year. Loads of people I know seem to be expecting.

[Sheilbh]

Armed forces deaths aren't registered in the UK - so that one big spike in WW2 is, I assume, the Blitz.

I thought there would be a baby boom with covid, which hasn't happened yet but maybe it will come afterwards.

[Legbiter]

Effective tomorrow all domestic control measures, mask wearing, etc are abolished. The border will be strictly monitored with regard to unvaccinated travelers but that's it really.

[Duque de Bragança]

Effective tomorrow all domestic control measures, mask wearing, etc are abolished. The border will be strictly monitored with regard to unvaccinated travelers but that's it really.

Too soon?

[Josquius]

I would say so. Read today about Israel backtracking on doing away with masks.
Though I suppose Iceland is in a better place with a much smaller and more dispersed population and I presume fewer visitors.

[Legbiter]

Too soon?

No it makes good sense I think. So many people have been vaccinated here that it's been over a month since we found a local infection. The chains of transmission for the virus are broken because of widespread population immunity. The only issue I see is the new hyper contagious varieties potentially cropping up in children and teens when school begins again in the fall. But we'll deal with it when/if we get there.

[Duque de Bragança]

Alles klar.

[celedhring]

Barcelona's incidence data by age group.



It's exploding on the unvaccinated young, while quietly dying on the vaccinated cohorts.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah - we had very similar patterns here.

Seeing lots of stuff about walk-in centres doing second jabs and lots of people queuing up for them, which is great.

At the minute the UK as a whole is at 84% of the adult population have had one dose - but Wales had a slightly different strategy in the last few months and they're at around 90% already. Basically they didn't slow down first doses while they were giving out second doses (which could have gone really badly wrong if there was any supply issue, but there wasn't). It looks like Wales is now starting to plateau at about that level. But given that I think I'd now expect the UK to have 90% take-up from people who are eligible - which is I think is good news and at the top-end of what we could have expected.

Obviously still work to do to make sure there's no big differences with minority groups and to keep the community outreach going to try and get as many of those 10% as possible. But I imagine that 10% will include pregnant women, people with serious allergies or other conditions that means they can't get the vaccine as well as anti-vaxxers.

Also - I found this really interesting because it's basically the opposite of what I expected. Maybe I was underestimating the impact of shielding which I imagine was a bigger thing for the elderly, plus people in more office-y jobs like working from home/feel they have better work-life balance because you can just turn off your PC. Surprising


Edit: And separately - Wimbledon had invited Professor Sarah Gilbert who's the Oxford researcher behind the AZ vaccine and NHS workers as guests to centre court and they got a massive standing ovation which is very sweet/moving - and deserved.

[Josquius]

Guidance says not to get vaccinated if you currently have corona.
Obviously this is so you don't spread it to everyone in the vaccine centre.
But I wonder, what would this do for the person with the disease? Nothing? Help the corona? Work as normal as a vaccine against getting it again in addition to the protection their body builds?