Covid: Lucky 13

This confirms what I’ve said and contradicted what you said.

 

The problems with masks were described on a few pages and I said the link didn''t contradict him.

"I didn't see a study on the long term effects of breathing thru masks related specifically to particles getting sucked inside."

you quoted that and then accused me of trying to hide it.

From the link:

How does that contradict me?

now Gorbles will show up to accuse me of cherry picking quotes

 

If people seriously think wearing masks outweighs not wearing them they will continue to wear them. There will be a subset of people who continue to wear masks for a variety of reasons (feel safer physically, feel safer emotionally, strong fear of diseases, etc.). It's a free country, people should be allowed to do whatever they feel like to make themselves feel safe as long as they aren't infringing on the rights of others.

 

Yep. And asbestos is the miracle insulator. And people think Roundup causes cancer. There's lots of fun stuff like that.

 

Those reasons are kinda dismissive - one could just wear a mask because of a dislike of being sick, and their legitimate protective value. Some people have lives that are amenable to this. (i.e. they don't have activities that extensively put them in public contact, so wearing a mask when they are in public isn't much of a burden.)

That being said, for that, you practically need to wear an N95/N99/P100 mask. I see a ton of people wearing masks that are effectively not useful for disease prevention. I expect the reasons for that are generally, in descending order: ignorance of the relative effectiveness of masks, theatrics, trolling. (I mean really, what reason other than trolling is there to wear a mask that doesn't cover your nose if there's no mask mandate?)

Personally, I have "compliance" masks, that are comfortable linen that I don't expect are particularly effective at filtration, and a 3M half facepiece respirator that I use with P100 filters (and that doesn't filter exhalation) for use in situations where I actually care about my air being filtered.

 

The Ancient Greeks Knew of the dangers of Asbestos
Thats why they used slaves to mine that stuff as they died like flies

 

Well, it's not like mining asbestos has stopped even if they don't hand it out for science experiments in middle school like they did with dad.

 

Want to prevent pandemics? Stop spillovers

What can we do to stop zoonotic (from animals) pandemics in the future?

1. First, the G20 group of the world’s 20 largest economies provisionally agreed last month to create a global fund for pandemics.
   
2. Second, commercial markets and trade of live wild animals that pose a public-health risk must be banned or strictly regulated, both domestically and internationally.
3. Third, biosecurity must be improved when dealing with farmed animals. Among other measures, this could be achieved through better veterinary care, enhanced surveillance for animal disease, improvements to feeding and housing animals, and quarantines to limit pathogen spread.
4. Fourth, particularly in hotspots for the emergence of infectious diseases, people’s health and economic security should be improved.

 

I read your link.

Sadly I fear most of the proposals won't work in practice.

I suspect the best that can be managed is detecting it
earlier and then applying more effective containment.

The problem is that is contrary to the main thrust of the
article which is about containing this bad from globalisation
that is itself globalization by centrally imposing more rules.

 

yes but what about the masks

 

They are in her emails. Catch on, man!

 

I haven't been on in a while.

My Mum caught COVID-19 last week after I helped her with a RAT and she tested positive. Somehow, after 5 negative RATs, I have not caught COVID-19 from my Mum.

Looking at Worldometer stats, I am starting to see the end of COVID-19. Case numbers are back to where they were before Omicron and the daily death rate is the lowest it has been since March 2020.

 

Best Korea, always looking to beat USA!

North Korea on brink of Covid-19 catastrophe, say experts
Number to have fallen ill reportedly at almost 1.5 million as country grapples with what it calls ‘fever’

North Korea stands on the brink of a Covid-19 catastrophe unless swift action is taken to provide vaccines and drug treatments, experts have said, as the number of people reported to have fallen ill rose to almost 1.5 million.

Spoiler :

The isolated country reported another big rise in new cases of what it continues to refer to as “fever” on Tuesday, days after it admitted it had identified Covid-19 infections for the first time since the start of the global pandemic.

It recorded 269,510 additional cases and six more deaths, bringing the total number killed to 56 since late last month. About 1.48 million people have become ill with the virus since the first case was reported last Thursday and at least 663,910 people were in quarantine, according to official figures. The outbreak is almost certainly greater than the official tally, given a lack of tests and resources to monitor and treat the sick.

A significant Covid-19 outbreak could unleash a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, where the economy has been battered by the pandemic-enforced closure of its border with China – its main trading partner – natural disasters, and years of international sanctions imposed in response to ballistic missile tests.

The regime is not thought to have vaccinated any of its population and does not have access to antiviral drugs that have been used to treat Covid-19 in other countries. Its hospitals have few intensive-care resources to treat severe cases, and widespread malnourishment has made the population of 26 million more susceptible to serious illness.

“It looks really bad,” said Owen Miller, a lecturer in Korean studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. “They are facing the rampant spread of Omicron without protection from vaccines, without much – if any – immunity in the population and without access to most of the drugs that have been used to treat Covid elsewhere.”

Offers of outside help have so far been met with silence. Instead, there is concern that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, may be willing to accept a large but “manageable” number of cases and deaths to avoid opening his country up to international scrutiny.

Since it reported its first cases last week, North Korea’s propaganda machine has portrayed the virus as an enemy that can be defeated through lockdowns, quarantine and greater vigilance. The state-run KCNA news agency has reported the delivery of unspecified drugs – “the elixir of life” – to pharmacies by army medical units, and public health campaigns calling for mask-wearing and social distancing.

But testing levels are far below what is needed to form an accurate picture of the outbreak and to quickly identify and isolate patients. Some observers speculated that authorities were deliberately underreporting cases to ease the pressure on Kim.

North Korea has tested just 64,200 people since the start of the pandemic’s start, according to the World Health Organization, compared with 172 million in the neighbouring South.

“We were talking about a 0.1% fatality rate for Omicron in South Korea, but that’s going to be significantly higher in North Korea, possibly even reaching 1%, although it’s difficult to make accurate predictions at this point,” said Jung Jae-hun, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University.

Kim, who says the outbreak is causing “great turmoil”, finds himself having to balance public health measures with efforts to revive the crumbling economy.

A ruling party member in North Hamgyong province said people were still going to work and markets remained open, reported the Japan-based Asia Press. “There are no bans on going outside. However, we’ve been ordered to double mask,” the unidentified official told the website, which receives information from citizen journalists equipped with contraband Chinese mobile phones.

“People are going to factories and to their places of work as normal. The authorities don’t want work to be disrupted. People get fever checks when they go to and from work.” The official said people were more concerned about being locked down and prevented from working than catching Covid-19. “People are worried about how to survive.”

Some initially interpreted North Korea’s admission that it was battling the virus – after two years of denying it had found a single case – as a plea for help. But it has already refused millions of vaccine doses via the UN-backed Covax scheme, while South Korea says it has yet to receive a response to its offer this week of vaccines, drugs and medical staff.

“I’m sure the North Koreans will still be very wary of accepting major international aid and going back to the situation of the 1990s, when there were multiple different aid agencies operating in the country and this was felt by the leadership to be humiliating and potentially destabilising,” Miller said, adding that the regime was more likely to turn to China for medical aid.

The Omicron variant has caused significantly fewer deaths and serious cases than previous strains in countries with high vaccination rates, proper medical services and previous exposure to Covid-19.

But that pattern is unlikely to be repeated in North Korea, said Kim Sin-gon, a professor at Korea University College of Medicine in Seoul. “North Korea has many vulnerable people who don’t have strong immune systems,” he said. “Its official inoculation rate is zero and it has no Covid-19 treatment pills.”

Without urgent international help, Kim added, “North Korea may end up with the pandemic’s worst death and infection rates in the world for its population size.”

 

@Takhisis I saw this in the Japanese news yesterday:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/ea6cea26d5a6a9ad4f1544fd504f7214781dc183

A few parts:

17日付の「労働新聞」は金正恩総書記の命令で、平壌での医薬品の供給を安定化させるため、16日、朝鮮人民軍が投入されたと伝えました。
The Rodong Sinmun (state newspaper) on the 17th said that General Secretary Kim Jong-un ordered on the 16th the Korean People’s Army to Pyongyang in order to stabilize the supply of medical equipment to the city.

国営テレビは16日に続き、17日も通常より早い午前9時から放送を開始しました。「メディアを活用しオミクロン株に対する教育を大々的に行う」としていて、市民に対策を呼びかけています。
Following the 16th, state television began broadcasting early from 9am on the 17th, “using the media to educate on the omicron variant” and to call for the populace to take precaution.

韓国メディアは北朝鮮の航空機が17日にかけて複数、中国の瀋陽に入り、医薬品を運んだとみられると伝えています。
(South) Korean media reports the 17th that multiple North Korean planes have landed in Shenyang, China, appearing to load up medical supplies for the country.

 

At the risk of sounding callous it will be an interesting test case to see if Coronavirus Fast-Acting will really be less dangerous than Coronavirus Classic or Coronavirus Plus.