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News Roundup for April 23, 2024
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Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 (nCoV-2019)

afransen said:
So far, the second wave has been a lot less severe when it comes to deaths/severe cases. Hopefully that continues. It seems that viral load has some influence on how hard COVID hits you, so maybe some of the infections coming from modest viral loads (reduced due to distancing, masks, etc.) don't result in as severe cases. It is also likely that we are getting a higher proportion of the cases than earlier this year when testing was not widely available. The other theory is that cases are less severe in the warmer months than they are in the winter, due to changes in humidity and how that affects the respiratory tract. In which case, maybe we should be relaxing distancing more in summer. It might also help to explain why the first wave was relatively modest in Australia and NZ when it hit during their summer/fall, but the second wave was much worse during their winter.
Click to expand...
I heard an ER doc interviewed a few weeks back. She was working on a study that to that point did show decreased severity of illness amongst mask wearers.
 
afransen said:
So far, the second wave has been a lot less severe when it comes to deaths/severe cases. Hopefully that continues. It seems that viral load has some influence on how hard COVID hits you, so maybe some of the infections coming from modest viral loads (reduced due to distancing, masks, etc.) don't result in as severe cases. It is also likely that we are getting a higher proportion of the cases than earlier this year when testing was not widely available. The other theory is that cases are less severe in the warmer months than they are in the winter, due to changes in humidity and how that affects the respiratory tract. In which case, maybe we should be relaxing distancing more in summer. It might also help to explain why the first wave was relatively modest in Australia and NZ when it hit during their summer/fall, but the second wave was much worse during their winter.
Click to expand...

Age distribution also matters - it takes time for the wave to move through to higher risk groups (i.e. what's happening now). I don't know the full details in Australia - but I think the severity of their second wave also had to do with an undetected cluster having the time to spread before being detected.

AoD
 
Justin Trudeau: Canada-US border will stay closed until America gets COVID-19 under control

From link.

Don't bet on the U.S.-Canadian border reopening after the closure agreement expires Oct. 21.

In an interview Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country is committed to keeping the border closed until the United States gets control of COVID-19.

"The U.S. is not in a place where we would feel comfortable reopening those borders," he told the hosts of "Smart Start," which airs on Canada's Global Television Network. “We will continue to make sure that Canadian safety is top of mind when we move forward. We see the cases in the United States and elsewhere around the world, and we need to continue to keep these border controls in place."
Click to expand...

In the past week, 13 states – including Alaska, Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota, which border Canada – topped their own records for new cases in a seven-day period. North Dakota, which shares a 310-mile-long border with its northern neighbor, reports cases at a speed one-third faster on a per capita basis than any U.S. state experienced in the worst of the spring or summer surges.

An otherwise healthy 25-year-old Nevada man became the first American to contract COVID-19 twice, casting further doubt on the viability of the herd immunity strategy espoused by the White House. In his case, the second infection prompted stronger symptoms than the first. There have been more than 20 confirmed cases of reinfection worldwide.

Although its COVID-19 infection rate is far lower than that of the USA, Canada has not been immune from a second wave of cases.

According to the Canadian government, the country reported nearly 31,000 new cases and 372 deaths in the past two weeks. Cumulatively, it has had more than 193,000 cases and almost 9,750 deaths. The provinces of Quebec, which reported more than 7,000 new cases in the past week, and Ontario, which counted nearly 5,500, are in the worst shape, according to New York Times data.

"I think this second wave is really exhausting," Trudeau acknowledged. "It's frustrating for everyone to have to keep going through this. We showed that we can pull together and get through this, as we did in the spring. Then people got used to the slow burn in the summer. Now that cases are spiking again – with the approach of winter, with the approach of flu season – we need to get things back under control."

The upside, he said, is that "we know how to do it in a more targeted way now than in the spring. We know what kinds of businesses are more likely to spread COVID-19, what kinds of activities."

That approach, he said, "allows us to do the right things medically and keep us safe while not totally ruining people's economies."

Trudeau warned Canadian snowbirds to resist the urge to travel south in search of warmer climes.

"I know there's a lot of people worried about what's happening south of the border in Florida, Arizona, California and other places where the virus is not under control or less under control than we are here," he said. "The challenges around the health care system being overloaded down there and access to health insurance – making sure you have coverage in case something does happen – are a lot more difficult."

He said a travel advisory is as far as the government is willing to go.

"Ultimately, if someone chooses to travel, we're not going to keep them imprisoned in Canada. There's freedom of movement in this country," he said. "Still, people have to recognize they're putting themselves at risk, putting their loved ones at risk. And they may not have the right kind of health insurance or repatriation flights that we did early on if they choose to leave the country."
Click to expand...
 
W. K. Lis said:
Justin Trudeau: Canada-US border will stay closed until America gets COVID-19 under control
...
"Ultimately, if someone chooses to travel, we're not going to keep them imprisoned in Canada. There's freedom of movement in this country," he said. "Still, people have to recognize they're putting themselves at risk, putting their loved ones at risk. And they may not have the right kind of health insurance or repatriation flights that we did early on if they choose to leave the country."
Click to expand...

I don't give two hoots about these individuals putting themselves at risk - what they do not have the freedom to do is to put others at risk. They clearly did not recognize that.

AoD
 
This is pretty disruptive... a lot of business travel happens between Canada and US.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Justin Trudeau: Canada-US border will stay closed until America gets COVID-19 under control

From link.
Click to expand...

Yeah that won't be anytime soon.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1313903335318188033


Things are so bad they had to build a field hospital in Wisconsin.

nypost.com

Wisconsin opens field hospital amid massive coronavirus surge

Wisconsin opened a 530-bed emergency field hospital this week after a record surge in coronavirus cases left the state’s health system in “crisis,” officials said. The cavernous f…
nypost.com nypost.com
 
Bayer said:
Ford's endless finger-wagging is always annoying, but with his latest warning to food delivery services to reduce their rates, I'm fed up. Is there a politician around here who is capable of making a decision without pondering it endlessly? Just get on with it!
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Speak a lot, do little seems to be the mantra of our politicians.

AoD
 
Another day of 700+ new cases; one small positive is that the total number of active cases actually shrank a bit.

But the hospitalization numbers continue to climb, as to the ICU/Vents numbers. While well within what the system can handle..........so far.......the growth rate needs to be curtailed.

1602859979331.png


Outbreaks are also shooting up in LTCs again: (up to 71 LTCs vs a low of 13)

1602860282638.png
 
From HuffPo:

www.huffingtonpost.ca

Ontario Ministry Passed Buck To Long-Term Care Homes Ahead Of COVID-19 2nd Wave

Ontario’s government told long-term care homes that staffing was on them.
www.huffingtonpost.ca www.huffingtonpost.ca

And yep, the rising outbreaks in LTC once again point to the difficulty of isolating these homes - rhetoric notwithstanding, "only the younger ones" are getting it notwithstanding, the "iron wall around our homes" notwithstanding, it's happening again.

AoD
 
Last edited:
AlvinofDiaspar said:
From HuffPo:

www.huffingtonpost.ca

Ontario Ministry Passed Buck To Long-Term Care Homes Ahead Of COVID-19 2nd Wave

Ontario’s government told long-term care homes that staffing was on them.
www.huffingtonpost.ca www.huffingtonpost.ca

And yep, the rising outbreaks in LTC once again point to the difficulty of isolating these homes - rhetoric notwithstanding, "only the younger ones" are getting it notwithstanding, the "iron wall around our homes" notwithstanding, it's happening again.

AoD
Click to expand...

Must be the wild overflowing parties they have at the LTC.
 
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