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

[Exile]

Originally Posted by Zippee

Excellent post, thank you. The only proviso I'd add - all above is factual - but it is well to understand that both/all parties are typically funded by a handful of mega-corporations, with a non-stop revolving door connecting them so as to become a unity. As in the 30's chaos is either exploited or sometimes incentivized, as the same puts the people at odds, and desperate or vulnerable to an authoritarian leader.

In truth it would behoove the people to work together for common cause, today meaning against Covid, climate change, and the chaos enhancing redistribution of money to the top 1% and especially to the top 0.1%.

Excuse me while I fund my observation rocket so I'll have a good seat, lol...

I can't disagree with your first paragraph, at least with regard to the corrupting influence of money in US politics.

As for your second, I don't take issue with your own political priorities and those of many of your countrymen. That would hardly be civil or "nice." But your understanding of what constitutes "common cause" amongst another huge chunk of your countrymen is misplaced, either in its own right or how such policies are being implemented. Nobody wants Covid or detrimental effects to the environment from fossil fuel emissions, and most agree that extreme wealth disparity is unhealthy for a society. But people's prioritization of such issues -- to say nothing of how our govt goes about addressing them -- varies greatly. Resolving them starts with respecting others' different viewpoints, and that respect in turn starts with not dismissing their sincerely held views. Or worse, as we see all too often these days, cancelling the message by disparaging the people who are the messengers.

A good start would be to assume that the Canadian truckers are protesting exactly what they say they're protesting, namely cross-border vaccine mandates which they view as govt overreach and a threat to their personal freedoms and livelihoods. Reasonable people can certainly disagree about the merits of such mandates as well as the truckers' means of protesting, but attributing unsubstantiated, nefarious motives -- for example suggesting they're in league with the Jan. 6th protesters, etc., etc. -- will only make hostilities deepen long after the convoy is cleared. The grounds for this protest is hardly new, btw, and appears to be spreading through much of the world. Indeed, it is a healthy and necessary function of any democracy, one of the "costs" of freedom if you will, provided it doesn't become violent or overly disruptive of other peoples' freedoms and rights.

Once upon a time, not so long ago actually, progressive/liberal movements & parties stood up for workers and their grievances, and disdained attempts to thwart them, either by govts, corps or "scabs." Unlike the US, Canada has a vaccination rate of well over 80%. New cases, ICU admissions and deaths are all in decline. And while vaccination was an obvious choice for myself and most others around the world, they are not without risk according to

the science. So why not give hard-working truckers' grievances -- and other working people who are indispensable to our consumer-driven economies -- a fair hearing and not immediately follow the "party line" which ascribes nefarious and conspiratorial motives?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by poiu

I'm all for keeping politics out of things and nice in theory, but it is not possible to debate most issues involving the pandemic without government responses being discussed and most government decisions in a democracy are to a substantial degree driven by politics.

The trouble with people protesting for a better democracy is that it’s “ their” version of “ better”. The other side has a “ better “ version.

Just as every side in a war believes their God on inside too.

A better democracy is where the democratic process is itself used to effect change overthrowing that process, however well intentioned is just as tyrannical as any other method.

The other thing is that “ moral equivalence “ has been used as an instrument of tyranny since time begin. Sure our response ( atrocity) was nothing compared to their atrocity etc

This has justified occupying powers engage in heinous acts of retaliation for example.

[goboatingnow]

It should be pointed out that protests are only occurring selectively in certain countries largely the ones where Covid has been politicised , in many other nations , there is no public backlash.

Here people are just happy to be more or less back to normal and dreaming up plans to spend all that saved up money this summer.

Truckers here just drive trucks.

[CatNewBee]

Finally people overcome the fears and stand up for their rights where they were deprived off and opressed.

It is just a pushback on govt overreach, so a good thing in a democracy. In countries with reasonable legislations there is no need for this protests to bring the government back on duty to serve the people instead of opressing the people.

It is time for a freedom day everywhere.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

It should be pointed out that protests are only occurring selectively in certain countries largely the ones where Covid has been politicised , in many other nations , there is no public backlash.

Here people are just happy to be more or less back to normal and dreaming up plans to spend all that saved up money this summer.

Truckers here just drive trucks.

Well, in Finland, of all places, there was a "Convoy Finland" protest, modeled on the Canadian one.





Their demands were: Resignation of the government, reduction of fuel prices by 50%, and end of all pandemic restrictions.


End of all pandemic restrictions? We have had possibly the lightest restrictions in the civilized world. The average Stringency Index for Finland is less than Sweden's. They are protesting against recommendations? Go figure.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Finally people overcome the fears and stand up for their rights where they were deprived off and opressed.

It is just a pushback on govt overreach, so a good thing in a democracy. In countries with reasonable legislations there is no need for this protests to bring the government back on duty to serve the people instead of opressing the people.

It is time for a freedom day everywhere.

It’s not that, unfortunately people are quite stupid or lazy. They get manipulated . These protests are where a public health issue was politicitised , this is hugely the case in the US. In other countries people may have complained but they retained their basic faith in the processes of their state.

One has to be very careful these days. Social media , 24 hour media and unscrupulous popularist politicians are a very dangerous combination

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The pandemic is over? No it's not. Today I am grieving for the latest person of my acquaintance who died from COVID. Mārtinš Rītinš, Latvia's most famous chef and a giant of the culinary world of Northern Europe, with a personality as extraordinary as his cooking, died today from COVID. He cooked at Vincent's in Riga, my favorite restaurant in Europe, serving some of the most creative and exquisite food I've ever had, a Michelin-star worthy menu but with more creative twists, and at reasonable cost, no one made any money from this, it was all done for the love of the culinary arts.


The last time I was at Vincents, Mārtinš served us himself. After we chose some wine, he brought a "compliment of the chef" -- two cans of Soviet sprats served on white plates. You know, the kind packed it what tastes like motor oil? What the hell? With the little key to open them. We did and -- there were no sprats inside, but some exquisitely delicate little bite of something. He was always playing jokes like this.

Some idea of his personality can be gotten from his YouTube videos, like this one:
………

He was apparently healthy, was vaccinated, so full of life the last time I saw him. This accursed, accursed pandemic. RIP.

I extend my condolences. He seemed to be a “larger than life” personality, radiating joy and that wonderful sense that despite his skills he did not take himself too seriously. His passing will be a loss to all who knew him.

SWL

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

It’s not that, unfortunately people are quite stupid or lazy. They get manipulated . These protests are where a public health issue was politicitised , this is hugely the case in the US. In other countries people may have complained but they retained their basic faith in the processes of their state.

One has to be very careful these days. Social media , 24 hour media and unscrupulous popularist politicians are a very dangerous combination

Yes, this all reminds me of a Skinner Box experiment where we are being conditioned in confinement to ever increasing levels of fear and anxiety, the source of which varies with the media message of du jour .

[Dockhead]

Situation today in Northern Europe:


Attachment 253070


Attachment 253071


The Omicron Wave continues to sicken and kill people around the region.


Cases are down a little, but there has not been the dramatic decline like in the U.S., not yet, except perhaps in Sweden, where cases are down 4x in two weeks.



Death rates are the highest they've been in more than a year. Denmark has broken 5 per million. Sweden has just under 5 per million, a very high rate for the country which had the lowest death rate in Europe for much of last year. This is not like last year, when some countries saw over 20 per million deaths every day, but 5 per million is a significant death rate, wholly unlike what we saw during most of last year.


Nordic countries seemed determined to gut it out, however. Next week in Finland is Winter Break, a week long break from school and big family holiday. The City of Helsinki is hosting dozens of events just like before the pandemic, with huge mask-free parties and other celebrations. See: https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland...er-break.html; and https://nuorten.helsinki/talviloma/. Ironically the infection rate in Finland is by far the highest now as it's ever been during the entire pandemic, and the death rate is near the highest levels ever too. The people seem to be really determined that it's time for normal life, whatever the cost.

[Montanan]

Nature: 16 February 2022

COVID reinfections surge during Omicron onslaught

Immunity acquired through previous infection is less effective against Omicron than against other variants, but the risk of severe COVID-19 remains low.

Covid-19 Again: Immune evasion.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d415...0726c-45326354

In England, more than 650,000 people have probably been infected twice; most of them were reinfected in the past two months, according to data collected by the UK Health Security Agency (see ‘Rising reinfections’). The agency considers an infection a ‘possible reinfection’ if it took place at least three months after a previous one, but does not confirm that these are separate instances through genetic sequencing of the virus. Before mid-November, reinfections accounted for about 1% of reported cases of COVID-19, but the rate has now increased to around 10%.

The UK Office for National Statistics in Newport has also seen a sharp increase in possible reinfections in recent months, as part of its random sampling of households across the country. The survey counts a possible reinfection if four months have passed since the previous one. The reinfection risk was 16 times higher between mid-December last year and early January this year when Omicron dominated, than in the 7 months leading up to December when Delta was the dominant variant.

Such surveys could be underestimating the true rate of reinfection because some infections go undiagnosed, and some could have happened sooner after the first infection — especially in countries where cases of Omicron quickly followed a Delta wave

[Montanan]

The BA.2 virus -- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant -- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests.

New lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta.

And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely.

BA.2 is also resistant to some treatments, including sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that's currently being used against Omicron.

The findings were posted Wednesday as a preprint study on the bioRxiv server, before peer review. Normally, before a study is published in medical journal, it is scrutinized by independent experts. Preprints allow research to be shared more quickly, but they are posted before that additional layer of review.

Virological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2 variant
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...335v1.full.pdf

"It might be, from a human's perspective, a worse virus than BA.1 and might be able to transmit better and cause worse disease," says Dr. Daniel Rhoads, section head of microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Rhoads reviewed the study but was not involved in the research.


Abstract
86 Soon after the emergence and global spread of a new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron lineage, BA.1 (ref1,2
87 ), another
88 Omicron lineage, BA.2, has initiated outcompeting BA.1. Statistical analysis
89 shows that the effective reproduction number of BA.2 is 1.4-fold higher than that
90 of BA.1. Neutralisation experiments show that the vaccine-induced humoral
91 immunity fails to function against BA.2 like BA.1, and notably, the antigenicity of
92 BA.2 is different from BA.1. Cell culture experiments show that BA.2 is more
93 replicative in human nasal epithelial cells and more fusogenic than BA.1.
94 Furthermore, infection experiments using hamsters show that BA.2 is more
95 pathogenic than BA.1. Our multiscale investigations suggest that the risk of BA.2
96 for global health is potentially higher than that of BA.1.

[Montanan]

The Closest Comparison for People Who Won’t Get Vaccinated? Smokers.
Tanner Garrity -

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

Snipet:

As The Atlantic details in a recent feature, the closest comparison for anti-vaxxers is now smokers. A public health professor says the worst-case scenario moving forward, as COVID-19 potentially morphs into a seasonal, flu-like virus, is that a few hundred thousand unvaccinated Americans will die each year. (There’s some depressing irony somewhere in there, considering many of today’s anti-vaxxers were the ones falsely calling the coronavirus a “flu” nearly two years ago.)

That death toll would be similar to the number that claims Americans from cigarette smoking each year, but more importantly, the circumstances that precipitate those deaths are awfully similar. They’re behavioral. Smoking is a conscious choice with zero proven health benefits. You wouldn’t find a single medical professional worth their salt that would prescribe a box of Newports. How is refusing a life-saving vaccine any different?

Consider this: You’re up to 30 times more likely to die from lung cancer if you smoke cigarettes. If you’re unvaccinated, you’re 68 times more likely to die from COVID than people who are boosted.

If there’s one key difference here, it’s the addictive power of nicotine. Vaccine-hesitancy doesn’t have an equivalent. You could make a case for the internet, where anti-vaxxers tend to find like-minded people who share misinformation. It’s possible that can fill up the reward center of a confused brain. But if anything, the lack of a clear addiction makes the decision all the more disheartening. It’s willful ignorance, on a mass scale. At least smokers are trying. According to the CDC, 68% of adult smokers want to quit.

When a lifelong smoker dies from lung cancer, we may nod, or whisper, “He’d smoked since I was a kid,” but rarely do we hold it against them. There’s more sadness than scorn. At the moment, that doesn’t seem to be the case for unnecessary COVID deaths.

[Zippee]

Originally Posted by Montanan

The BA.2 virus -- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant -- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests.

New lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta.

And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely.

BA.2 is also resistant to some treatments, including sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that's currently being used against Omicron.

The findings were posted Wednesday as a preprint study on the bioRxiv server, before peer review. Normally, before a study is published in medical journal, it is scrutinized by independent experts. Preprints allow research to be shared more quickly, but they are posted before that additional layer of review.

Virological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2 variant
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...335v1.full.pdf

"It might be, from a human's perspective, a worse virus than BA.1 and might be able to transmit better and cause worse disease," says Dr. Daniel Rhoads, section head of microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Rhoads reviewed the study but was not involved in the research.


Abstract
86 Soon after the emergence and global spread of a new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron lineage, BA.1 (ref1,2
87 ), another
88 Omicron lineage, BA.2, has initiated outcompeting BA.1. Statistical analysis
89 shows that the effective reproduction number of BA.2 is 1.4-fold higher than that
90 of BA.1. Neutralisation experiments show that the vaccine-induced humoral
91 immunity fails to function against BA.2 like BA.1, and notably, the antigenicity of
92 BA.2 is different from BA.1. Cell culture experiments show that BA.2 is more
93 replicative in human nasal epithelial cells and more fusogenic than BA.1.
94 Furthermore, infection experiments using hamsters show that BA.2 is more
95 pathogenic than BA.1. Our multiscale investigations suggest that the risk of BA.2
96 for global health is potentially higher than that of BA.1.

Weasel words emphasized.


I hope that by now that there are literally tens of thousands of preprints referencing Covid. It is fair to say that one could find support for almost any position in papers that never earn the respect of their peers, are never peer reviewed and that never are followed up. Does this mean this 52 page pre-print has no merit? It's impossible to say, just as drawing the conclusion that this one of thousands does have merit, and is worth losing sleep over.

Or not.

A growing problem in the scholarly and scientific community is a population of opportunists who try to use preprint servers as a place to post crackpot pseudo-science and misleading public health information, all under the flag of scholarly “publishing.” They submit articles to preprint servers in the hope of publicizing them, counting on both an uninformed public and a too-credulous press to treat the reports as if they were vetted and peer-reviewed science published in a venue that is willing to accept responsibility for them. Just as predatory publishers have recognized in the APC funding model an opportunity to lie and make money, mendacious authors have recognized in the preprint-dissemination model an opportunity to lie and achieve political goals or professional advancement.rn the respect of their peers, are never peer reviewed and that never are followed up.

https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/...ccountability/

[boatman61]

You sure you don't hold a ton of Pfizer stocks..

[Zippee]

Originally Posted by boatman61

You sure you don't hold a ton of Pfizer stocks..

Type size envy.