Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[viper37]

BC is apparently introducing vaccine passports, with an announcement today.

Quebec was the outlier, once.  No one thought of bringing this forward.  Now, only Ontario is standing still?  Or maybe Alberta too?

[Legbiter]

Was in the vaccination queue today with my son when a protester showed up and starting screeching at the kids and adults waiting that the vaccine was a chemical weapon. A chemical weapon! Got so annoying a burly dad up ahead of me shoved him away with expletives and got in his face. He backed down and was then taken away by 2 policemen without incident. He was lucky he wasn't beaten up.

[Jacob]

Good for burly dad

[Grey Fox]

BC is apparently introducing vaccine passports, with an announcement today.

Quebec was the outlier, once.  No one thought of bringing this forward.  Now, only Ontario is standing still?  Or maybe Alberta too?

You forgot Saskatchewan.

[jimmy olsen]

 

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1430713745538490369

U.S. COVID update: Number in hospital reaches 100,000

- New cases: 186,782
- Average: 155,995 (+1,714)
- In hospital: 100,592 (+1,918)
- In ICU: 25,268 (+234)
- New deaths: 1,340

[Valmy]

What are "new deaths"? Today? This week? This month?

[DGuller]

Given the magnitude, it looks like a daily number.  We're not at the post-Christmas level of 3000+ yet, but where there's a will there is a way.

[Sheilbh]

Further reports of growing frustration within UK governments about not vaccinating children - they are particularly concerned ahead of schools re-opening (or as they are in Scotland) and that we're more and more of an outlier on this.

JCVI apparently not changing their stance - their view is that while they are being very cautious they do not want to risk jeopardising public trust on this or future vaccination campaigns and in their view the risk/benefit analysis still isn't there to justify jabbing kids.

It's an odd - I totally get the governments' frustrations and I am worried that we're taking such a different approach. Flip-side is the JCVI are the independent expert regulators and I am really loath to not follow their line.

Having said that - this was shared separately and before that story broke - but this is from a paediatric registrar based on government stats. This is the other risk to kids - we are basically experiencing an RSV wave that is at winter levels in the summer (while schools are away ) because social/herd immunity levels are so low after quite limited mixing over the last 18 months:


And the ONS covid prevalence survey estimates that 1 in 50 2-11 year olds have covid and around 1-30 12-16 year olds have it. So there's understood to be very widespread prevalence among kids but it's still quite low impact. My understanding is the risk profile is a little different though, in general if they get it bad RSV is worse for the under-10s while covid is worse for the over-10s.

Also interesting - from the same guy - there doesn't seem to be a follow on wave of that multi-system inflammatory issues with some kids after covid. No-one really knows why but it just hasn't happened in the UK with the delta wave - it did in earlier waves and it seems to be observed in the US and the Netherlands with delta too so it's a bit of a mystery

[The Larch]

Please somebody tell me this is not true. 

Greece fines asylum-seekers with €5,000 for arriving without Covid-test UPD

[Duque de Bragança]

Please somebody tell me this is not true. 

Greece fines asylum-seekers with €5,000 for arriving without Covid-test UPD

I have better:

A French court has handed a 10-month suspended jail sentence to an Afghan man for violating a surveillance order days after France evacuated him from Taliban-controlled Kabul, intensifying a domestic political row over suspected links between at least one evacuee and the Taliban.

The man, Ahmat M., is one of five people who were placed under surveillance after their arrival in France as part of an investigation into possible links with the Taliban.

Another man, not Ahmat M, is suspected of working for the Taliban despite helping France evacuate nationals and Afghans in danger. He and four others deemed close to him, including Ahmat M., were placed under surveillance earlier this week.

The surveillance order included strict limits on movements and Ahmat M., who arrived at the weekend, was convicted by a court late on Wednesday for straying outside of this zone.

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210826-french-court-convicts-afghan-just-days-after-kabul-evacuation

Air bridge seems to be a success, since people suspected of being pro-Taliban managed to be evacuated. 

[Legbiter]

2 people have died here from covid in the last couple of days. Both were foreign tourists who fell ill while in-country. One was in his 70's, vaccinated, the other in his 60's, unvaccinated. I suspect they were both from that Israeli tour group.

[Sheilbh]

Interesting - comparative data from Bahrain. I think this is the first info I've seen on how Sputnik deals with delta (very good) and Sinopharm too (good):


Particularly important good sign given the number of people who will be getting or have had Sinopharm globally.

Still don't get why there's been so few studies of Sinopharm and Sputnik by the countries that are using them.

[viper37]

BC is apparently introducing vaccine passports, with an announcement today.

Quebec was the outlier, once.  No one thought of bringing this forward.  Now, only Ontario is standing still?  Or maybe Alberta too?

BC is apparently introducing vaccine passports, with an announcement today.

Quebec was the outlier, once.  No one thought of bringing this forward.  Now, only Ontario is standing still?  Or maybe Alberta too?

You forgot Saskatchewan.

So, Ontario is apparently going to announce a vaccine passport by next week.

We'll see how long the Prairies last, alone and isolated on this front.

[mongers]

Russian state statistics bureau reports Covid-19 death toll is more than double the official total, at around 270,000 victims.   

[DGuller]

Even official numbers show Russians dying at the greatest rate since the start of the pandemic, at almost a 1000 a day.  All that anti-vaccine propaganda came back at them with dividends.