news COVID-19 [Day 1600]

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

Thread bans and WPs were flying here a year and a half ago for accusations of vaccine nationalism. Now we're seeing in real-time it was just the data. Data doesn't lie. As for how long it properly lasts before having the start the yearly system (as opposed to 3-6 months each time) is something everyone's still working out.

 

 

[Espresso]

Oh god........  

 

 

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

Good data on one of the more recent monoclonal antibodies  

 

 

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

Cross U.S. politics

 

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

 

[Espresso]

 

 

 

[Jotham]

[Jotham]

[Espresso]

 

[Communion]

10 hours ago, Espresso said:

Thread bans and WPs were flying here a year and a half ago for accusations of vaccine nationalism.

This doesn't recount what happened properly; people were issued WPs (based on who complained) for saying things like: "Of course Chinese vaccines are junk and do nothing - all Chinese medicine is kitchen sink'd". There were even "jokes" about how anything China does is just "poorly made intellectual property theft". 

The issue being that Sinopharm (etc.) don't have lowered efficacy against more evasive variants because they're made by Chinese (as others, not you, suggested); they and all non-mRNA vaccines like America's J&J show lower efficacy because it just-so happened that the mRNA technology ended up most effective.

 

I don't imagine there's been much pushback to mRNA's effectiveness; I think such distracts from the issue that refusal to share the tech needed not only to develop but transport and store is costing lives. 

 

I'm old enough to remember when American officials explicitly said the US wouldn't waive their patent rights and share tech for mRNA vaccines with China because "it'd be a national security risk". 

 

So now Fosun Pharma sits with BioNTech's mRNA technology and other Chinese vaccine developers are trialing mRNA vaccines yet none can be put into production yet because of various issues:

- The luck of the draw that China didn't have much R&D into mRNA and quite literally have to play catch-up

- The lack of cooperation to share tech with China in the first place due to actual vaccine nationalism

- I wouldn't be shocked if cold storage concerns are playing some part - if places like Shanghai don't have cold storage systems good enough to transport fresh produce without expiring on the road, how can a vaccine that requires being stored below freezing be effectively distributed?

 

Not all criticisms are valid observations; see: a member saying that China was "killing its people" by struggling to develop an mRNA vaccine while literally advocating against sharing the tech with China. 

 

China should move to mRNA vaccines or find a way to quicken the trial process for the ones being developed, but China and countries like India and others would always suffer due to the sheer physical limitations of the infrastructure of what they have. It's why questions on when China should abandon Zero COVID have been silly since the real question is if they physically even can without resulting in mass deaths.

 

Of course there's room for nuance and criticism of where local governments make logistical failures - and these criticisms are good in that they must be addressed to help ensure compliance - but if people are paranoid and think China's "real death" count already mirrors India's estimated true death count, they should wait and see what happens if China ever decides to "let it rip!" with the limitations it has. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Communion

[Cloröx]

Amurican simply can't catch a break. From winter wave to summer wave 

 

 

 

[Jotham]

[Genius1111]

 

UK patient had COVID-19 for 505 days straight, study shows | AP News

 

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The person with the longest known infection tested positive in early 2020, was treated with the antiviral drug remdesiver and died sometime in 2021. Researchers declined to name the cause of death and said the person had several other illnesses.

 

Five patients survived. Two cleared the infection without treatment, two cleared it after treatment and one still has COVID-19. At the last follow-up earlier this year, that patient’s infection had lasted 412 days.

 

This is persistent COVID, not long COVID. 

[Cloröx]

 

 

[Genius1111]

 

 

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In most countries, including the United States, guidelines stipulate that any death where COVID-19 is a factor or contributor is counted as a COVID-related death.

But in China, health authorities count only those who died directly from COVID-19, excluding those, like Lu, whose underlying conditions were worsened by the virus, said Zhang Zuo-Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“If the deaths could be ascribed to underlying disease, they will always report it as such and will not count it as a COVID-related death, that’s their pattern for many years,” said Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong’s medical school.

That narrower criteria means China’s COVID-19 death toll will always be significantly lower than those of many other nations.

Both Jin and Zhang said this has been China’s practice since the beginning of the pandemic and is not proof of a deliberate attempt to underreport the death count.

However, Shanghai authorities have quietly changed other standards behind the scenes, in ways that have violated China’s own regulations and muddied the virus’ true toll.

During this outbreak, Shanghai health authorities have only considered virus cases where lung scans show a patient with evidence of pneumonia as “symptomatic,” three people, including a Chinese public health official, told the AP. All other patients are considered “asymptomatic” even if they test positive and have other typical COVID-19 symptoms like sneezing, coughing or headaches.

This way of classifying asymptomatic cases conflicts with China’s past national guidelines. It’s also a sharp change from January, when Wu Fan, a member of Shanghai’s epidemic prevention expert group, said that those with even the slightest symptoms, like fatigue or a sore throat, would be “strictly” classified as a symptomatic case.

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Statements from the authorities are little comfort to the relatives of the dead. Chinese internet users, doubting the official figures, have built a virtual archive of the deaths that have occurred since Shanghai’s lockdown based on firsthand information posted online. They have recorded 170 deaths so far.

 

[Genius1111]

 

 

 

 

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[Genius1111]

 

 

 

 

 

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But the pandemic is not the only thing driving this new wave of immigration.

 

As BBC Mundo's Mar Pichel has been finding out, many of the new arrivals say they have become immigrants in Paraguay - because they are uncomfortable with Muslim immigrants at home.

 

[Genius1111]

 

A reminder that Macau still has fewer than 100 cases since the start of the pandemic.