Coronavirus around the world

There are 1,097 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 149,740 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.

    UK:

    Millions of people are likely to need a third vaccine dose this year, as ministers step up plans for booster jabs against new variants of coronavirus.

    NHS chiefs hope that the extra doses can be given at the same time as winter flu jabs as the government accepts that a top-up campaign increasingly looks necessary.


    WORLD:

    Twitter has been warned that it must "clamp down hard" on anti-vaccine content after accepting payment to promote a conspiracy theory. A series of posts wrongly stating that mRNA vaccines, such as the Pfizer and Moderna jabs, would result in organ failure and death were marked as "promoted".



    The Times


    February 8, 2021

    Quote from Rice

    A series of posts wrongly stating that mRNA vaccines, such as the Pfizer and Moderna jabs, would result in organ failure and death

    Rice ...The number of people here who refuse to get the vaccine, is quite alarming. Rather than be safe, they chose to

    believe covid doesn't exist, when people are dying all around.

    • Official Post

    The UK 'Red List' of banned countries still contains Argentina and most of South America, so we still have no idea when we will be able to see my family.

    Furthermore, the UK government has said that those who have to quarantine in a hotel will have to fork out £1750 for the cost of the stay, transport and testing.

    No win.

    Quote from daniel

    Rice ...The number of people here who refuse to get the vaccine, is quite alarming. Rather than be safe, they chose to

    believe covid doesn't exist, when people are dying all around.

    In our politically-charged atmosphere, there seems to be a correlation between leaders who deny the existence of the virus and refuse the vaccine, and the people who look up to them, and also refuse it. Self-defeating and bizarre, but there it is. Maybe if more sports heros and pop culture stars could be enlisted to encourage people?


    We have a home bound friend who relies of home healthcare. The woman who is with him 6 days a week “hasn’t decided if she’s going to get the vaccine,” which of course means “HAYULL NO, I’m not taking it.” Out friend’s immune system is compromised because of chemotherapy: if she gets it, then he is extremely vulnerable.


    Makes us CRAZY.

    Brazil and Mexico now have the second- and third-highest death totals in the world — higher even than in India, which has more than six times the population of Brazil and 10 times the population of Mexico.

    Mexico is suffering from a severe shortage of oxygen tanks, which has led to a thriving black market. Organized criminal groups have been hijacking trucks filled with oxygen tanks, or stealing them at gunpoint from hospitals, according to media reports.

    NYT February 9, 2021

    Edited once, last by Rice: Merged a post created by Rice into this post. ().

    The coronavirus was in France in the autumn of 2019, weeks before officials say it was detected for the first time in China, researchers have claimed. The study of 9,144 blood samples from last autumn suggested as many as one in 1000 French had the virus before it first broke out in Wuhan.


    The Times, February 11, 2021.



    Strict lockdowns last year prompted
    speculation that birth rates would soar. Instead of a baby boom, France is seeing a significant decline in births amid economic stress.


    NYT, February 11, 2021

    In the US, vaccines are being delivered and made available, but people who are immunocompromised and are afraid to wait, are sometimes driving great distances in order to be vaccinated as soon as possible (“Vaccine Tourism”).


    Simultaneously, many more people aren’t taking the shot because of “Vaccine Skepticism.”


    About one-third of members of the U.S. military have declined vaccine shots. When shots first became available to Ohio nursing-home workers, about 60 percent said no. Some N.B.A. stars are wary of appearing in public-services ads encouraging vaccination.

    Nationwide, nearly half of Americans would refuse a shot if offered one immediately, polls suggest. Vaccination skepticism is even higher among Black and Hispanic people, white people without a college degree, registered Republicans and lower-income households.

    NYT. February 19, 2021

    • Official Post

    According to the NCBI-NIH, both the US and Italy do agree on this:


    Quote from NCBI-NHI


    According to a survey among ovulation and pregnancy test kit customers (n = 132) in the USA, many couples have expressed reluctance to conceive babies in such adversity (13). The survey also reported that the supply of ovulation and pregnancy test kits decreased and the demand of emergency contraception increased in May 2020, whereas, there was a spike in the demand of pregnancy and ovulation test kits early in March 2020 (13) suggesting that less individuals are trying to become pregnant. Though the survey in the USA, which included only a limited number of participants, may not accurately represent all the actual scenarios, another survey in Italy involving highly educated participants (~64% graduate) found that most of them were not planning to conceive during the COVID-19 crisis (14). Their sex lives as well as planning for parenthood have been substantially influenced during COVID-19 pandemic (14) by a number of reasons like worries about future economic difficulties, fear of getting infected, complications during pregnancy, shortage of healthcare workers, and disease clusters in hospitals. Conversely, a minority of individuals may be more inclined to conceive during the lockdown (14). This is likely due to enhanced couple intimacy opportunities in the context of working from home or furlough during lockdown, emergent desire to bring about a change in their life, and the need for positive emotional support during the COVID-19 pandemic (15). Again, the study also revealed that the desire for parenthood during the pandemic was more prevalent among the higher age group (31–46 years) which may be another reason for the fluctuation of fertility rates.

    Israel secretly agreed to buy thousands of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines for use in Syria in order to secure the release of one of its citizens in a prisoner swap last week, according to local media reports.


    The Times, February 22, 2021

    Back to Coronavirus Around The World - here's a tragic story from this morning's Times:


    "An American woman contracted Covid-19 and died after she received a double lung transplant whose donor was infected with the virus, despite testing negative. The University of Michigan Medical School believes that it is the first case where coronavirus has been transmitted through an organ transplant."