Coronavirus Open Thread 2022

Well he may well have done that last June when he organised that Tour in the Balkans, which resulted in several players, including himself, testing positive.

Those naughty Canucks…love the comments

Escape from Canada! Life under Trudeau forces alphas to escape cages.
‘Shocking footage of the trip from Montreal to Cancun include vaping, drinking and dancing.’ When did Canada turn into an old folks home? Canada’s national motto: get off my lawn

Canadian government opens probe into airborne party aboard Sunwing flight from Montreal to Cancun | Daily Mail Online

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You guys are so special that a single nation exemption (which Taiwan has not done for any nation) is merited?

I suppose you could call this a bold approach. :thinking:

Guy

Party animals from Montreal are not “canucks.”

The good folk of Montreal—unambiguously the party capital of Canada—are a special breed. :grin:

Guy

Not sure that is the best example, Norwegians currently pissed off at work from home and closed down pubs and restaurants.

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But Norway IS shut down to a large degree. Bars and restaurants going bankrupt.

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Norway has open bars, without alcohol. Same for restaurants. If you consider no alcohol in bars a lockdown, then well long way to go Vs rest of Europe.
Masks only have to be worn if distance cannot be kept. So it’s up to you to decide if you can keep social distance…
Gatherings are limited to 10 people private, 50 public.

That’s a very reasonable approach. Most super spreading events involved (lots of) alcohol

There are pretty much zero bars in bingedrinking Norway that are open with no alcohol. Obviously will lose big money by staying open. Ditto for many restaurants, which choose to close rather run at a loss, since alcohol sales are a significant part of their profit margin.

In Germany around 80% of all traceable infections outside of a family setting were traced to Bars and Clubs.
Alcohol decreases your immune resistance - even with one glass. But binge drinking severely brings it down.
The smartest choice in any anti coronavirus measure is not mask wearing - but forbidding public alcohol consumption.
The next move then would be mask indoors - but FFP2 or N95 - and maybe forbidding private gatherings with alcohol (but it’s hard to control - best bet is to forbid alcohol sales overall).
At the same level of importance as masks I would rate vaccinating the 50+ population plus anyone younger who is obese or has other underlying health problems.
I actually guess that the above measures are enough to avoid any coronavirus related crisis.

But yeah your assumption = no alcohol = no restaurants/bars approach is what fucked up Europe greatly vs Norway and partly Sweden. Because only Norway and Sweden took that no alcohol step before full lockdown while the rest of Europe did not manage to open bars or restaurants without alcohol as an intermediary step.

With low alcohol consumption in Taiwan - compared to Europe - this could have played a major role in “being lucky”. And yeah those special tea houses where there was superspreading in Taiwan. I kinda bet there is actually quite a lot of alcohol consumption going on too.
Before ridiculous measures like wearing masks outdoors, you should forbid public alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption or being drunk should only be allowed if you can keep 10m distance from others when numbers have to be kept down.
Especially as a step of fairness towards the youngest generation not drinking alcohol and suffering under lockdown that is only needed because of alcohol related superspreading events.

What are you talking about here? It sounds made up. There’s no such thing as “immune resistance” as a single parameter - you could possibly talk about differential WBC counts (5-6 things) or the effects of alcohol on GI epithelia and inflammatory responses, especially in the case of binge drinking, but the underlying mechanisms are extremely complex and I can’t imagine that “one glass” is having the effect you suggest. If more infections are happening in bars/clubs, I suspect it’d be sufficient to attribute that to behavioral (being closer together, socializing, shouting) and physical (ventilation) aspects in those places.

On the other hand, moderate alcohol consumption (up to three to four drinks per day) has been associated with either no risk or a decreased risk for upper respiratory infections. Since moderate alcohol consumption has been suggested to have a beneficial impact on the immune system compared to alcohol abuse or abstinence, the link between alcohol consumption, immune response, as well as infectious and inflammatory processes remains controversial and not yet completely understood.

There are several mechanisms by which alcohol can affect immunity. Alcohol seems to impair the ability of white blood cells to migrate to sites of injury and infection, to induce functional abnormalities of T and B lymphocytes, natural killer cells and monocytes/macrophages, and to alter cytokine production. However, despite the fact that both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses have been shown to be depleted in high-dose consumers of alcohol, studies in humans and experimental animals suggest that low-doses of ethanol may enhance the immune response. In humans, a moderate intake of alcohol in individuals exposed to rhinoviruses was associated with a decreased risk of developing the common cold, suggesting that moderate consumption of alcohol may enhance the immune response, resulting in a more effective host defence. This enhancing effect might depend on the type of beverage (whether it is fermented or distilled), as well as on the amount and duration of ethanol intake.

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The discrepancy in Germany showed between bars/clubs and restaurants. Restaurants had very little events. You can read up about influenza and alcohol, there is some research and it looks bad for alcohol.

Plus when they were still able to trace stuff, loads of spreading events related to alcohol. E.g. Europe’s first traced superspreading in Ischgl, the après ski capital. I write known as there must have been quite some events before in Italy. Nowhere reached such levels as Ischgl however were returning people were infected at around 2/3 of them.

Perhaps the Mods could head that off by moving the non-Taiwan related posts to the place they belong.

Which ones? There’s bound to be a bit of comparative discussion.

Nevermind vaccines. I suggest the UN needs to arrange an emergency shipment of balls to countries like Canada. Perhaps also some ramrods of a suitable gauge for inserting up backsides.

Instead of speculating about what Canada allegedly needs, how about listening to folks who are actually there?

Here’s one account, by Niigaan Sinclair, an Indigenous scholar working at the University of Manitoba and a regular columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, who describes his experience with COVID after making a dumb decision—attending a hockey game in the United States.

Guy

Virus delivers harsh lessons

Niigaan Sinclair

Posted: 2:01 AM CST Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022

Summary

(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Ytjwjc9cFqpbu6HHGTWJRO3iye6RCOo99Vnx0gFAHZZqTjknyRI19CArZKGSpPjfK7InEV1otHIHvWiu2UKweBe_6S8bWXRfYtDl7oyDgA6YHkJquNibZFyuRC2Df4efCtKs-XRQSA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/180529_NIIGAAN_SINCLAIR_0002_25461351.jpg)By: Niigaan Sinclair
Posted: 2:01 AM CST Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022
Last Modified: 6:12 AM CST Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 | Updates

The first symptoms of COVID-19 emerged on Christmas Eve.

I caught the virus while travelling in the United States, probably at a hockey game. I don’t know if it was the Omicron variant, but all signs point to it.

I tested negative twice before entering Canada. The morning after I arrived home, there the sickness was. I finally tested positive on Dec. 26.

Frankly, I don’t know how anyone doesn’t catch coronavirus in the U.S. Mask mandates were barely enforced where I went. Watching tourists from Texas and Florida tell security guards off after being told to put masks on was a true highlight of this pandemic.

The next three days were a mixture of delirious fever, coughing, and more phlegm than I knew a body could produce. Cough medicine became my only friend. I hardly left bed.

My main thought during those days was how lucky I was that I had a place to isolate and not infect others. My daughter stayed with her mother. The rest of my family dropped off soup and medicine and steered clear.

My case of COVID-19 made the sickness very real for people around me, though. All remaining holiday visiting was cancelled. Zoom dinners and visits were scheduled. Gifts were dropped off instead of opened in person.

I realize coronavirus is to blame, but it’s hard not to feel responsible for ruining the holidays. I didn’t have to travel. I just wanted to see friends I hadn’t seen in two years. Later, I had to phone them and say: “Great visit, sorry I might have infected you.”

I am triple-vaxxed, so my bout with COVID-19 was really just a bad flu. I had breathing problems and couldn’t sleep but luckily didn’t have to go to the hospital.

Still, I couldn’t do anything for a week. Walking or moving around much wasn’t an option. I carried Kleenex and a garbage bag everywhere. I slept 12 hours a day and was constantly dizzy from coughing and choking up phlegm.

I could not think clearly, never mind work, for a lengthy amount of time. I did, however, read a lot of science.

I learned the Omicron variant spreads six times faster and multiplies 70 times faster inside human respiratory tissue than any other form of coronavirus (such as Delta).

Basically, the latest version of coronavirus is extremely hard to avoid after exposure, especially without medical masks and proper ventilation.

I learned the Omicron variant has affected young people more than any other version of coronavirus to date and that the more vaccine shots you get, the better protected you are (up to 90 per cent, depending on the study).

I also learned that, while still early in the research phase, scientists suggest the Omicron variant has less severe symptoms.

I also read all of the “other science” and nope, it’s not convincing.

By the time my symptoms left and I emerged from isolation on Jan. 3, Manitoba had recorded more than 5,400 cases on the first weekend of the new year, including a record 1,721 cases on Monday. Seventy per cent (1,204) of those are in Winnipeg and 15,318 are considered active cases in the province. Of that, 228 people are in hospital, or 1.5 per cent.

Thankfully, I am no longer one of those people.

But, I have learned a simple fact: COVID-19 is real and, unless you hit the jackpot and are asymptomatic, it knocks you off your feet. In some rare but real cases, your life is in danger.

Now, though, I face the reality of my daughter going back to school next week. While provinces like Ontario have pushed back the return to classes for weeks, Manitoba is slow to make a decision.

My daughter — like virtually every student in Manitoba — is not as protected as me. Still, she’s as protected as is legally allowed: double-vaccinated.

I’m not just worried about her being in class or the hallway. She’s in choir, plays the flute, and is in a half-dozen after-school groups.

I went to one large public gathering and caught the coronavirus: a hockey game. She’s literally in five or six of those situations a day.

I’m hardly alone when it comes to being anxious. It’s clear that when someone contracts COVID-19 it takes up to three days to show symptoms and even days more to test positive.

All it takes is one student, one teacher, or one principal to infect dozens — maybe hundreds — of others, most of whom won’t even know it.

When students get infected (note I didn’t say “if”), they are out for up to two weeks.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society has asked the province to move schools to remote learning in January.

Every teacher I spoke to has endorsed this idea, but said they need to know sooner rather than later to change their lesson plans and get ready for Monday.

So, what is Manitoba waiting for?

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Keir Starmer has tested positive again, just before PMQs.

It’s clear Labour are keeping him out of view and hoping that Johnson is so incompetent he buggers himself, which he is doing.

What leaders we have.

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Yes some are extremely active.

Never stopped anybody posting here.

LOL. Clearly the poor guy’s testicles never dropped.

It’s lucky his three vaccines worked so well, isn’t it? Incidentally, these two assertions are not just mutually incompatible, but are not even close to being true:

All it takes is one student, one teacher, or one principal to infect dozens — maybe hundreds — of others, most of whom won’t even know it.

When students get infected (note I didn’t say “if”), they are out for up to two weeks.

  • R0 for omicron is apparently somewhere around 8-10, not “maybe hundreds”.
  • Nobody has been able to validate this “asymptomatic spreading” thing.
  • Students would of course be well advised to stay “out” if they are coughing and snivelling over everyone, but my experience in the UK (where absolutely everyone was getting COVID) was that they’d be mildly ill for a few days and then back to normal, and the literature states something similar.
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There’s no need for suggestions like this, leave this kind of stuff out of it please.