Northern Europe during Pandemic -- Summers 2020 & 2021 & onwards

[Zippee]

I can't speak with complete confidence here, but in my city we have 3 major hospital systems. Since it would be impossible to completely relocate established floors, equipment and personnel what they have done is to designate complete floors to Covid or non-Covid. They also try to keep the same personnel (tested) on the same floors, with some rotation (also tested) to be fair to them as well.

For example I had to be admitted for 3 days - following a negative test I was assigned to a non-Covid floor. Believe me, even then I was concerned and made sure to stay masked 24/7.

[Greg K]

Originally Posted by Zippee

The "Naked Emperor" site seems to be largely anti-vax, featuring articles doubting most headlines. The article cited is full of hedges underlying its many bold conclusions, for example admitting "...This only has a small dataset (1,701 positive individuals, of which 115 tested positive compatible with Omicron) so should be viewed with caution ... Due to the small dataset, this is only a modelled likelihood ... ".

Two short but very important hedges hidden behind a blizzard of strong anti-vaxx opined conclusions. It's fair to say that we all can find almost any opinion we favor on the net, but we owe it to each other to attempt to cite the best large, well-constructed and published, peer-reviewed sources we can.

In my opinion the "Naked Emperor" is wearing no robes, lol...

I think your comments on this article are rather unfair and myopic. Whether an author is for or against the vaccines is irrelevant to this discussion as long as the argument has merit and the evidence is presented with integrity. This article meets both criteria, and this author should , indeed, be commended for clearly pointing out the weakness of the data he presented and the speculative nature of his argument.

Also, in defense of his argument, I would add that he does include links to others' research which supports the speculation that OAS may indeed be what's going on. Alex Berenson's post on a similar phenomenon happening in Ontario, Canada is one such link https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/...ilure/comments Of course, still too early to tell, but as more data comes in the next few weeks from around the world, it may be worth giving consideration to what is being suggested about OAS.

Would you rather that only vaccine supporters' views and comments be considered for discussion as seems to be the case in the echo chamber otherwise known as the Canadian Covid thread where most folks there put their hands over their eyes and ears and pretend that no valid opposition to the vaccines exists regardless of the merit of any argument one my make? Is that the intellectual level of discussion you would prefer for us to have here also?

[Montanan]

Get boosted!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/med...?ocid=msedgntp

The Johnson & Johnson booster could play a key role in cutting coronavirus hospitalizations, according to preliminary results from a South African study that reviewed over 69,000 health-care workers who received a second dose.

The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, looked at hospital admissions from mid-November to mid-December, as the country experienced a wave of omicron infections, and compared the boosted health-care workers with people who had not been vaccinated. It found that the booster was about 85 percent effective in preventing hospital admissions from covid-19, one to two months after the second dose.

In a statement shared Thursday, Johnson & Johnson said that the preliminary findings demonstrated the booster’s effectiveness in the face of a highly transmissible omicron variant of the virus, which is now dominant in South Africa.

[Montanan]

Omicron cannot escape body's second-line defense - T cells

A key part of the immune system's second-line defense - its T cells - are highly effective at recognizing and attacking the Omicron variant, thereby preventing most infections from progressing to critical illness, a new study shows.

SARS-CoV-2 spike T cell responses induced upon vaccination or infection remain robust against Omicron

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....26.21268380v1



Get boosted to aid in protecting your home mates. It is not JUST ABOUT YOU, you have a responsibility to protect others.

Boosters reduce risk of Omicron household transmission

The odds that vaccinated people will catch the virus if a household member becomes infected are nearly three to four times higher with Omicron than with Delta, but booster doses reduce that risk, new findings suggest.

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VOC Transmission in Danish Households
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....27.21268278v1

"We found an increased transmission for unvaccinated individuals, and a reduced transmission for booster-vaccinated individuals, compared to fully vaccinated individuals."

[laird]

Originally Posted by boatman61

If its got nicotine its...

I managed to quit over one year ago using Nordic Spirit pouches ,no cigarettes ,just addicted to these pouches now ,I do feel a lot fitter

[Montanan]

More than 87,500 people with COVID-19 died in Russia in November, the highest monthly tally since the start of the pandemic, the state statistics agency reported Thursday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...?ocid=msedgntp

A report by Rosstat brought the overall number of virus-linked deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 to nearly 626,000 — more than twice the widely-cited toll reported by Russia’s state coronavirus task force to date. Rosstat uses broader criteria in its tallying system compared to the task force. According to the Rosstat report, 71,187 deaths were caused directly by confirmed COVID-19, 8,939 deaths were likely caused by the virus but it wasn't confirmed by a test, in 1,477 cases the virus significantly exacerbated fatal complications of other diseases and 5,924 people tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.

Russia's population shrank by about 945,100 in January-November and the decline could top 1 million this year.

[laird]

Originally Posted by boatman61

To my mind the biggest failure by the UK and other countries lies in the way Covid patients are hospitalised..
At the moment in the UK they are once again putting up the Nightingale hospitals for surge patients.
They should have put all Covid patients in these the first time they were built and continued using them solely for Covid patient instead of a part of General Hospitals across the country with all the risks of cross contamination that exist even pre Covid..
EG...https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-59322416

Here in Portugal if I contract Covid and complications arise I don't get whisked to the General hospital a couple of miles away, I am instead taken to a hospital dedicated solely to Covid patients.. away from the general populaces 'normal' maladies.. result less than 19K deaths since this started.

I work for the NHS ,our tier one hospitals have been dealing worth covid ,it's very difficult to transport the icu,s and medical staff to these nightingale units and maintain standards

I think that the UK made a decision based along the lines of the experiences of WW1 and 2,

The amount of money that has been overspent is stunning ,we were running around setting up porta cabins to deal specifically with covid , I worked on 3 of the units and not one has been used to change as much as a band aid ,the nightingale units are an insurance against overwhelming the system

The queuing today was very busy ,I visited two centres that had the people standing for around 250 metres ,the other centre that I visited is a covid unit ,there were no patients with covid present

[goboatingnow]

for peoples information, France has forbidden UK nationals from travelling across france by land without a compelling reason. Its not a compelling reason to merely use France as a bridge to another country . This may effect anyone driving back to their boat after christmas.

hopefully its a short term measure

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

for peoples information, France has forbidden UK nationals from travelling across france by land without a compelling reason. Its not a compelling reason to merely use France as a bridge to another country . This may effect anyone driving back to their boat after christmas.

hopefully its a short term measure

Indeed a very short measure. The transit ban has been rescinded.

UK nationals will be allowed to travel through France if they are going to their home in an EU country during the festive period.

France suspended its Covid restriction after UK travellers faced difficulties reaching their country of residence.

Eurotunnel, which had earlier issued warnings to customers, said it was "delighted" by the move.

People from the UK are still largely banned from going to France unless they have a compelling reason.

Earlier this month, French ministers tightened travel rules for the UK, citing concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant.

Since 18 December, British citizens have needed an essential reason to travel to France, with some exemptions in place.


It had been thought that exemptions covered those crossing France in order to get to their home in another EU country.

However on Wednesday, both P&O and Eurotunnel said the French government had issued new rules meaning British people could "no longer transit France by road to reach their country of residence in the EU" unless they hold French residency. The British government said it was "urgently" seeking clarification about any new restrictions that would affect UK nationals.

In response, the French government insisted that UK nationals who reside in another EU country are deemed to be "third country nationals" and are therefore not allowed to cross France to get home under the current Covid rules. However, it noted that "a large number of British nationals residing in an EU country have travelled in good faith to the UK for the festive season and are experiencing difficulties in reaching their country of residence".

"Faced with this situation, instructions of tolerance have been sent to police officers at the borders with the United Kingdom, in order to allow these nationals to transit through France to reach their residence in a country of the European Union". The French Ministry of the Interior added that, unlike UK citizens, EU nationals coming from the UK to their residence in the EU were not impacted by the transit ban and were free to travel through France.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics...mpaign=KARANGA

[goboatingnow]

It hasn’t been rescinded , the border police have been told to apply forebearsnce to people that travelled to the U.K. before 28 Dec , and now wish to return.

[Montanan]

The risk of hospitalisation with the Omicron variant of coronavirus is about one-third that of the Delta variant, according to British analysis of more than a million cases of both types in recent weeks.

The analysis was published by the UK Health Security Agency, after it worked alongside Cambridge University MRC Biostatistics unit to analyse 528,176 Omicron cases and 573,012 Delta cases.

It also found that vaccines can work well against Omicron.

"In this analysis, the risk of hospitalisation is lower for Omicron cases with symptomatic or asymptomatic infection after 2 and 3 doses of vaccine, with an 81% ... reduction in the risk of hospitalisation after 3 doses compared to unvaccinated Omicron cases," the UKHSA said. Friday's daily data update showed 12,395 patients in hospital in England with COVID-19, up from 11,542 on Thursday and continuing a steeply rising trend. However, the figure is well below a peak of more than 34,000 in January.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/hospitali...143102507.html

The study found that a single vaccine dose reduced the risk of needing hospital treatment by 52%. Adding the second dose increased the protection to 72%, although after 25 weeks that protection had faded to 52%. And two weeks after getting a third dose, that protection against hospitalisation was boosted to 88%.

The UKHSA report said there was not enough data yet to work out how long this protection would last but it is expected to last longer than protection against developing symptoms.

In people who already had symptoms, protection after each dose was slightly lower and reduced to 68% after a booster compared to unvaccinated people.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59840524

[Montanan]

'We don’t really know what Omicron is going to do in terms of long-COVID,' doctor explains

The implications of Covid go far beyond mere hospitalizations and deaths.

An estimated 15.7 million Americans are struggling with long COVID, according to the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR), which uses a model that assumes 30% of all COVID-19 surviving cases result in the chronic condition. As of July 2021, long COVID is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Furthermore, even those who had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic have reported long-term effects.

“One thing that was surprising to us was the large percentage of asymptomatic patients that are in that category of long Covid,”

A study published in The Lancet in August looked at long COVID patients from 56 different countries, including the U.S., and found that 96% of the participants still had symptoms 90 days after testing positive. Most common symptoms involved fatigue, post-exertional malaise, and cognitive dysfunction. About 45% of those patients had to reduce their work schedule as a result while 22.3% had to stop working altogether. "We need to start thinking of [COVID] as a systemic virus that may clear in some people, but in others may persist for weeks or months and produce long COVID — a multifaceted systemic disorder,"

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/o...141440430.html

[Montanan]

The omicron-fueled surge that is sending COVID-19 cases rocketing in the U.S. is putting children in the hospital in close to record numbers, and experts lament that most of the youngsters are not vaccinated.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us...?ocid=msedgntp

Two months after vaccinations were approved in the USA for 5- to 11-year-olds, about 14% are fully protected, CDC data shows. The rate is higher for 12- to 17-year-olds, at about 53%.

The issue is timing in many cases, said Dr. Albert Ko, professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at the Yale School of Public Health. Younger children were not approved for the vaccine until November, and many are only now coming up on their second dose, he said.

Offit said none of the vaccine-eligible children receiving care at his hospital about a week ago had been vaccinated, even though two-thirds had underlying conditions that put them at risk — either chronic lung disease or, more commonly, obesity. Only one was under the vaccination age of 5.
The scenes are heart-wrenching. “They're struggling to breathe, coughing, coughing, coughing,” Offit said. “A handful were sent to the ICU to be sedated. We put the attachment down their throat that's attached to a ventilator, and the parents are crying.” None of the parents or siblings was vaccinated either, he said.

The next four to six weeks are going to be rough, he said: “This is a virus that thrives in the winter.”

[goboatingnow]

Omicron is a disease of the unvaccinated everyone can contact it but the boosted are largely protected from serious illness. Those that decided to not get the vaccine for non medical reasons , ie ideology or from listening to nonsense could pay very dearly with their health compromised

[Dockhead]

I've been sailing without any communications as the sat system was down. We just arrived in Las Palmas in the Canaries last evening from Gibraltar.

This thing is developing so fast that I hardly recognize the numbers.








If we ever hoped that Omicron gives exclusively mild cases, I think we can lose that hope now.

Death rates are now clearly increasing -- over 2 already in the UK and even in Denmark. Only Sweden in under 1, and my guess is that this won't last long.

Interesting that case rates continue to fall in Germany. Don't know what that means. Maybe they're not testing much? Denmark has broken 3000 daily cases per million -- something I've never seen anywhere at any time. Crazy numbers. UK is headed there too at over 2500. Sweden is over 500.

Hospitalization are up sharply in the US and UK.

So much for the "end of the pandemic", which I felt sure we had reached, at least in Western and Northern Europe, a couple of months ago. I was wrong.