The Reality of Living in Australia and Covid

[JPA Cate]

Actually, I think luck has nothing to do with it, but perhaps experience does. We first had to deal with the Mexican Army inspections, wherein one had 15 yr. old soldier in black boots who wouldn't leave his automatic rifle with another soldier, kept it on his back , with the possibility of scratching things, and getting hung up...and our Spanish is poor.

Our reaction has been to be as friendly as we can to all officialdom. And, over the years, it has worked well. It did fail miserably with AQIS one time, though, so it isn't 100%. But 98% ain't bad. If you go in with a chip on your shoulder, you will have a different experience from ours; or with an "entitled" demeanor. Those people you deal with are like everybody else: sometimes they have down days, or they had a fight that morning with their spouse or teenager. All the normal things that make for bad days affect them, too.

But, I really think teething on a problem for us that was a normality for them was an eye opener.

In the big cities in Oz, they actually have had an assigned "small boat officer"--don't know if that is still the case--and we had a very pleasant relationship with one of them. He also processed ship cruises, not enough work for a full time proposition.

Ann
"As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

PS. That communication was during the change, and it is possible that a different type is being attracted to the job, these days.

[Montanan]

The Reality of Living after being hospitalized with Covid may be significantly enhanced.

A new drug could be a godsend for patients hospitalized with COVID, and help save the most critical cases.


Veru’s Novel COVID-19 Drug Candidate Reduces Deaths by 55% in Hospitalized Patients in Interim Analysis of Phase 3 Study; Independent Data Monitoring Committee Halts Study Early for Overwhelming Efficacy

Company to Meet with FDA to Seek Emergency Use Authorization —
https://verupharma.com/news/verus-no...r-overwhelmin/

A recent doubleblind study that ended last week showed that sabizabulin, a new oral medication from pharmaceutical company Veru, Inc., has the potential to cut the virus’ mortality rate in half for moderate and severe cases. It was so successful, in fact, that researchers stopped the trial early.
“What that implies is that it’s unethical to continue treating people with placebo,” Mitchell Steiner, chairman, president and CEO of Veru.

While the study was originally meant to involve around 210 patients hospitalized with COVID, an early analysis of the first 150 patients showed such overwhelming success that the study’s independent data monitoring committee recommended halting it. The group of people who took the placebo pill had a 45% mortality rate, while the sabizabulin-treated group had a mortality rate of just 20%.

Sabizabulin functions both as an anti-viral and anti-inflammatory drug that targets cellular infrastructure known as microtubules. The coronavirus uses that infrastructure to travel into cells where it replicates before traveling out again to spread. “We disrupt that,” says Steiner, adding that sabizabulin blocks both the virus and its associated inflammatory proteins.

Steiner says that the 45% mortality rate seen in the placebo group of the sabizabulin trial has been largely consistent for patients with severe COVID since the start of the pandemic. “That's scary to think that by the time you get into the hospital and you're on oxygen you have a 50-50 chance of surviving,” says Steiner. “This takes some of the scariness out of going to the hospital.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/med...523a278fb8315d

[Montanan]

BA.2 has knocked another monoclonal antibody treatment, used in case of serious condition from the virus, off the table,

Sotrovimab, from GSK and Vir Biotechnology, was effective against previous variants, but not BA.2,

https://www.yahoo.com/news/covid-var...111800677.html

There are still multiple treatments for COVID-19 for those facing a serious bout of the virus, but the point is to avoid coming down with a severe bout of the illness in the first place, according to Rossheim.

That’s where the layered mitigation strategies of vaccination, social distancing, frequent handwashing and masking can come into play, he said.
“Vaccination is our best defense,” Rossheim said.

Unvaccinated Virginians got COVID-19 3.4 times more often than fully vaccinated people and only 3.3% of vaccinated Virginians have developed a case of the virus, with less than 1 out of 10,000 being hospitalized and 0.036% of those vaccinated dying from the virus, according to VDH data.

[HankOnthewater]

Originally Posted by Montanan

BA.2 has knocked another monoclonal antibody treatment, used in case of serious condition from the virus, off the table,

Sotrovimab, from GSK and Vir Biotechnology, was effective against previous variants, but not BA.2,

https://www.yahoo.com/news/covid-var...111800677.html

There are still multiple treatments for COVID-19 for those facing a serious bout of the virus, but the point is to avoid coming down with a severe bout of the illness in the first place, according to Rossheim.
----snip

Hmmm, in Oz the BA.2 strain or sub-variant seems to be dominant as well, but I do not know figures of that. 80%? 90%? More?

We still give Sotrovimab, but we do not check always (?never) what variant of covid or what strain of Omicron they have been infected with. That genome testing would take an extra few days.
However since early April the Oz TGA approved a double dose if infection with Omicron BA.2 was suspected. https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release...ron-sublineage

[Montanan]

The lineage of COVID that is prevalent changes very quickly, the original strains have essentially been displaced. The issue is that as new strains evolve they often will require different vaccines and different therapeutics.

The newest strains are incredibly more infectious than the original wild type and the early versions. Fortunately the newer strains do not seem to be more virulent and most people ride through the acute stage with modest illness; albeit it is very evident that there even with mild cases there is often long covid harm inflicted which will often degrade both quality of life and / or longevity of life. The most infectious variant or subvariant will quickly outpace a prior less infectious strain and thus become dominate in short order.

It is a bugger that we will be dealing with Covid for our lifetimes.

The recommendations and authorizations for use of treatments will also evolve along with the change of the predominate variants, as evidenced by the US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorizations, snipets of which I have copied below:

FDA updates Sotrovimab emergency use authorization


Update [4/5/2022] Sotrovimab is no longer authorized to treat COVID-19 in any U.S. region due to increases in the proportion of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant

This statement updates the statements below.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Nowcast data from April 5, 2022, estimates that the proportion of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron BA.2 variant is above 50% in all Health and Human Services (HHS) U.S. regions. Data included in the health care provider fact sheet show the authorized dose of sotrovimab is unlikely to be effective against the BA.2 sub-variant. Due to these data, sotrovimab is not authorized in any U.S. state or territory at this time.

Health care providers should use other approved or authorized products as they choose appropriate treatment options for patients.

FDA will continue to monitor BA.2 in all U.S. regions and will provide follow-up communication when appropriate.



Update [3/30/2022] FDA limits use of Sotrovimab to treat COVID-19 in additional U.S. regions due to the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant

This statement updates the statements below.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Nowcast data from March 29, 2022 estimates that the proportion of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron BA.2 variant is above 50% in three additional Health and Human Services (HHS) regions (5, 9, and 10). Due to these data, FDA has added these regions to the list of states and territories where sotrovimab is not authorized at this time.

Sotrovimab is not authorized at this time in the following states and territories:

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont (Region 1) (as of 3/25/2022)
New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (Region 2) (as of 3/25/2022)
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin (Region 5) (as of 3/30/2022)
Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau (Region 9) (as of 3/30/2022)
Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington (Region 10) (as of 3/30/2022)
Sotrovimab remains authorized in U.S. regions where the CDC Nowcast point estimate for the proportion of the Omicron BA.2 variant remains below 50%. FDA will continue to monitor BA.2 in all U.S. regions and may revise the authorization further to ensure that patients with COVID-19 have effective treatments available. Health care providers in regions where sotrovimab remains authorized should strongly consider the use of other approved or authorized products, and monitor the frequency of BA.2 in their region as they choose appropriate treatment options for patients.


Snipets regarding Omicron and its linage:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...ovid-rcna25069

The omicron variant of the coronavirus has been dominant in the U.S. since December, but the version of omicron [BA.1] that drove the major infection surge during the winter now accounts for less than 7 percent of new cases.
A more transmissible subvariant, BA.2, accounts for around three-quarters of U.S. cases. And BA.2, in turn, has spawned its own sublineage, BA.2.12.1, which appears to be gaining steam: It rose from 7 percent of U.S. cases in early April to 19 percent last week.

So far, the key difference between the newer versions of omicron and the one that previously rocketed through the U.S. is transmissibility. The White House’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has estimated that BA.2 is 50 percent more transmissible than the original omicron lineage. The newer subvariants of BA.2 are even more transmissible than the original BA.2, basically becoming rather similar to the massive transmissibility of measles.
But the coldlike symptoms vaccinated and boosted people feel as a result of an omicron infection are mostly the same regardless of the subvariant. "The omicron symptoms have been pretty consistent. There's less incidence of people losing their sense of taste and smell. In a lot of ways, it's a bad cold, a lot of respiratory symptoms, stuffy nose, coughing, body aches and fatigue,"

BA.1 and BA.2 are about as genetically similar as delta was to alpha, experts said. Differences between the subvariants could influence the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody treatments. "We know even with BA.1 and BA.2, which are both subtypes of omicron, that different monoclonal antibodies work for one but don’t work for the other,"


What about those who haven't yet gotten Covid?
BA.2.12.1 isn't the only version of BA.2 that has caught scientists' attention. Another sublineage, BA.2.12, also seems to be pushing up cases in New York, and several more are circulating in other parts of the world.
"What I’m actually more concerned about is the number of subvariants of BA.2 that are showing some signs of spread," Montefiori said. "It's as though the virus is trying to find a way to punch a hole through the immunity that’s built up in the population."

Still, vaccinations, masks, testing and social distancing can help control the spread of the prevailing omicron strains

Tests are still being reasonably accurate with the new variants.
Rapid tests, meanwhile, easily pick up BA.2, although they're generally less sensitive to omicron than they were to delta. Data from the Zoe COVID Symptom Study showed that at-home tests were 85 percent sensitive to delta and 80 percent sensitive to omicron. "These home tests are still doing pretty well to get 80 percent accuracy," Spector said. "They're not giving false positives, either."

The variants that become dominate are inherently the ones that can escape the effectiveness of vaccinations. "With these first-generation mRNA vaccines, it’s hard to get anything more than protection against severe disease over a longer period of time because of the evolution of variants like omicron,"

[El Pinguino]

Meanwhile back in Australia.

Can we call the pandemic over when more people are dying of influenza?
https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...28-p5ah0f.html

While here in Ecuador effective of today masks are no longer required except in hospitals and health care facilities.

And down in Chile all land and sea borders open at the end of the monrh.

[Montanan]

Geez, there seems to be a never ending number of new and more contagious SARS-CoV-2 variants which now seem to have the ability to induce reinfection of those that have already had Covid-19 [erhhh, 20, or 21, or 22 . . . ] and which are breaking through the former protection of vaccinations and can start a new wave of infections.

Now this bit of news as to the newest BA # variants.

Gets to be like counting sheep, BA, BA, BA, BA.

New omicron sublineages show an ability to evade antibodies from earlier infection and vaccination, a South African laboratory study has found.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...b67590aa27df1b

The findings could signal a fresh wave of infections by the BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages of the omicron variant that were discovered this month in South Africa.

Blood samples from people who had been infected with the original omicron variant saw an almost eightfold drop in neutralizing antibody production when tested against the BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages, the study, led by the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa, showed.

Samples from people who were vaccinated showed about a threefold decrease, according to the study.

“The low absolute neutralization levels for BA.4 and BA.5, particularly in the unvaccinated group, are unlikely to protect well against symptomatic infection,” the researchers said in the study, which is yet to be peer reviewed. “This may indicate that, based on neutralization escape, BA.4 and BA.5 have potential to result in a new infection wave.”

[El Pinguino]

I am now about as worried about new covid variants as I am about new influenza variants.

Meanwhile the blackshirts strike again!

Despite WA's - and the commonwealth's - rules saying international 'Travellers who do not meet the vaccination requirements will be required to complete 7 days of hotel quarantine at their own expense.' the blackshirts have just deported a pair of Irish grandparents after a ten hour interrogation .
https://www.theage.com.au/national/w...03-p5ai0e.html
Fascist plicks.

[Montanan]

The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, according to a preprint version of a large U.S. study that counters assumptions in other studies that it was more transmissible but less severe. The findings, which estimated Omicron's severity after accounting for the impact of vaccines, should reinforce the importance of inoculations and booster shots, experts said. Vaccines helped keep hospitalizations and deaths relatively low during the Omicron surge compared with previous variants.

The study, which is undergoing peer review at Nature Portfolio, was posted on Research Square on May 2. The authors, from Massachusetts General Hospital, Minerva University and Harvard Medical School, declined to comment until peer review is completed.

"We found that the risks of hospitalization and mortality were nearly identical" between the Omicron era and times in the past two years when different variants were dominant

https://www.yahoo.com/news/omicron-s...033029234.html

[El Pinguino]

Meanwhile here in Ecuador the mask mandate was lifted last week. Despite that 99% of people are still wearing them in malls, supermercados, etc. But not on motorbikes.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Montanan

The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, according to a preprint version of a large U.S. study that counters assumptions in other studies that it was more transmissible but less severe. The findings, which estimated Omicron's severity after accounting for the impact of vaccines, should reinforce the importance of inoculations and booster shots, experts said. Vaccines helped keep hospitalizations and deaths relatively low during the Omicron surge compared with previous variants...

The Pre-Print Study:
“SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant is as Deadly as Previous Waves After Adjusting for Vaccinations, Demographics, and Comorbidities” ~ by Zachary Strasser; Aboozar Hadavand; Shawn Murphy; Hossein Estiri
➥ https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1601788/v1

[El Pinguino]

I see the blackshirts and their goons still have the DPD requirement for inbound Australians and others. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/covid...er-declaration
I just wasted two hours filling it in.
Dopey buggers don't even seem to realise that one can have more than one stop over en route to 'straya.
What really gave me the irrits is that they already have access to all that information. I shouldn't have to type in date of every vax and what vaxx it was. All I should have to give them is my pasaporte number and my flight details.
Struth when I leave the country the Border Blackshirts are quick enough to let Centrelink know I have left the building so they can stop all my benefits.
I'm now a bit worried that they may actually read my feedback.

[RaymondR]

If you did your yachting in Queensland like sane people do you would not have to suffer al that frustration.

[El Pinguino]

Talk about jobsworth at double time and a half.
Having electronically filed my DPD ( Digital Passenger Declaration) earlier in the week I received a confirmation email from Home Affairs at 0600 EST today.
Touched down at Tulla 0705.
Stuck my passport in the reader to get the card that I get to stick in the machine at the gate to get hassle free entry. Rejected - says to go to service desk. Ask some bloke ( not a black shirt ) and he tells me to get in the queue with all the aliens. Some considerable time later - 'wher've ya come from?' 'Ecuador' 'Show us your yellow fever vaccination certificate' - first time ever asked to show that even though I always write Ecuador on the passenger card they give you on the plane. 'Go down there' she says - sending me off right to a room with a short queue of people and maybe a dozen goons and four tables.
My turn - show me your DPD. I open lid of my laptop - kaching - PDF. 'Wait here' - off he goes to have a leak or consult with his boss about what else he can do to stuff up my day. Comes backsome minutes later 'OK- on your way'.
So where was the logic in all this - they are checking maybe one in 500 arrivals and the DPD has no information that they don't already have.

My Tulla experience was nicely rounded out by standing by a baggage carousel that had 2 x A380s worth of baggage only to find that mine wasn't there but was somewhere between Honolulu and Samoa at 40000 feet on its way to Sydney.
Four transits of the US this year - baggage gone adrift twice.
Coupled with the other sh1t that went down while there I swear I shall never ever transit through the US again.
Thankfully flights AU/NZ to Santiago resume in a month or so.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Talk about jobsworth at double time and a half.
Having electronically filed my DPD ( Digital Passenger Declaration) earlier in the week I received a confirmation email from Home Affairs at 0600 EST today.
Touched down at Tulla 0705.
Stuck my passport in the reader to get the card that I get to stick in the machine at the gate to get hassle free entry. Rejected - says to go to service desk. Ask some bloke ( not a black shirt ) and he tells me to get in the queue with all the aliens. Some considerable time later - 'wher've ya come from?' 'Ecuador' 'Show us your yellow fever vaccination certificate' - first time ever asked to show that even though I always write Ecuador on the passenger card they give you on the plane. 'Go down there' she says - sending me off right to a room with a short queue of people and maybe a dozen goons and four tables.
My turn - show me your DPD. I open lid of my laptop - kaching - PDF. 'Wait here' - off he goes to have a leak or consult with his boss about what else he can do to stuff up my day. Comes backsome minutes later 'OK- on your way'.
So where was the logic in all this - they are checking maybe one in 500 arrivals and the DPD has no information that they don't already have.

My Tulla experience was nicely rounded out by standing by a baggage carousel that had 2 x A380s worth of baggage only to find that mine wasn't there but was somewhere between Honolulu and Samoa at 40000 feet on its way to Sydney.
Four transits of the US this year - baggage gone adrift twice.
Coupled with the other sh1t that went down while there I swear I shall never ever transit through the US again.
Thankfully flights AU/NZ to Santiago resume in a month or so.

Another happy camper I see. You have to admit, they really can stuff up the travelling experience without really trying.