Wuhan virus 2020

[Skybird]

Sweden's chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has said the Swedish strategy designed by him has worked for more deaths than necessary. There were obviously "too many deaths", he said. He explained it with homes for the elderly having been unable to keep the virus out. He nevertheless also said that the Swedish strategy has not failed in total. A matter of perspective, I would say.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52903717

Last time I read comparing numbers, a week or ten days ago, the mortality rate in Sweden was three times as high as in its Scandinavian neighbours and 3.5 or 3.8 times higher than in Germany.

[August]

Governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company

Surgisphere, whose employees appear to include a sci-fi writer and adult content model, provided database behind Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine hydroxychloroquine studies

Questions surrounding Surgisphere have been growing in the medical community for the past few weeks.
On 22 May the Lancet published a blockbuster peer-reviewed study which found the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been promoted by Donald Trump, was associated with a higher mortality rate in Covid-19 patients and increased heart problems.
Trump, much to the dismay of the scientific community, had publicly touted hydroxychloroquine as a “wonder drug” despite no evidence of its efficacy for treating Covid-19.
The Lancet study, which listed Desai as one of the co-authors, claimed to have analysed Surgisphere data collected from nearly 15,000 patients with Covid-19, admitted to 1,200 hospitals around the world, who received hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with antibiotics.
The negative findings made global news and prompted the WHO to halt the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global trials.
But only days later Guardian Australia revealed glaring errors in the Australian data included in the study. The study said researchers gained access to data through Surgisphere from five hospitals, recording 600 Australian Covid-19 patients and 73 Australian deaths as of 21 April.
But data from Johns Hopkins University shows only 67 deaths from Covid-19 had been recorded in Australia by 21 April. The number did not rise to 73 until 23 April. Desai said one Asian hospital had accidentally been included in the Australian data, leading to an overestimate of cases there. The Lancet published a small retraction related to the Australian findings after the Guardian’s story, its only amendment to the study so far.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...oxychloroquine

[Skybird]

If it works, why not:

Originally Posted by https://www.focus.de/gesundheit/news/hans-lehrach-im-gespraech-genomforscher-koennen-coronavirus-auch-ohne-impfstoff-in-wenigen-wochen-eliminieren_id_12061099.html

Interview with Hans Lehrach: Genome researchers: "Can eliminate coronavirus in a few weeks even without a vaccine"

According to genome researcher Hans Lehrach, no vaccine is necessary to reduce the R value of Sars-CoV-2 to zero. Instead, he developed another strategy to stop the virus - testing millions of people a day. He explains how this can work in an interview with FOCUS Online.

131 research projects, over 40 participating countries. Never before has the development of a vaccine been at top speed as in the fight against the corona virus. Because there is great hope in this material to curb the spread of the pathogen and finally return to normal.

Processes that used to be staggered in time are now running in parallel. What used to take ten to 20 years is now to be achieved within one year. However, it is not yet clear when the vaccine will actually be available, when we can get vaccinated.

Genome researcher Hans Lehrach therefore takes a different approach. He says: We can stop the corona pandemic without a vaccine - and within a few weeks.
About the expert

Hans Lehrach is a specialist in gene sequencing, director of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin and founder of Alacris Theranostics, which has registered patents for the use of sequencing in the Covid 19 pandemic. Together with genetic engineer George Church from Harvard Medical School, he is committed to strengthening genome research.

FOCUS Online: Mr. Lehrach, you have developed a strategy to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A vaccine doesn't matter - what does your method look like instead?

Hans Lehrach: Well, in theory it is actually quite simple: we have to systematically interrupt the infection cycle. Around 80 million people live in Germany and around 400 million in the European Schengen area. If you were to test all these people in a closed room, i.e. the national or Schengen borders, you would have a clear picture of the infection process.

Infected people would then have to remain in quarantine for at least 14 days, until they are no longer contagious. The number of reproductions would drop to zero within a very short time. We would have eliminated the virus within four to five weeks.

FOCUS Online: How exactly could this strategy be implemented?

Lehrach: My suggestion would be to send people kits with several tubes with which they can carry out multiple tests themselves. For example, once a week for five weeks. The person puts some saliva in one of the test tubes and takes it to a collection point, for example in the pharmacy.

The tubes are then collected and sent to a test center, further processed by machines and analyzed using certain techniques.

FOCUS Online: Which technology is it exactly?

Lehrach: Our strategy is to make use of DNA sequencing technology, i.e. the determination of the components that make up the genetic material. The process is as follows: First, people are provided with sample tubes that are marked with a barcode.
Germany - your chances

We see the epochal opportunities of the Corona crisis: in Germany's largest future think tank, doers and visionaries are rethinking our society.
Click here for the think tank

These tubes are clearly identified by a barcode. However, they also contain a molecular barcode: a short DNA sequence that uniquely identifies the test tube to the person who performed the test. The person's information is then linked to the DNA sequence that represents the test result.

It is therefore only a small part of the test that actually has to be carried out on the sample itself. In the case of Germany, around 80 million samples. This process would have to be automated. We can then pour all the samples together, process and analyze them using high-performance machines. This can be done very quickly, in a single sequencing run that may take a day, we could test the entire European population.
With the smartphone in the Corona crisis: How to protect your children on the Internet!

FOCUS Online: And then you determine whether a person has been infected with Sars-CoV-2?

Lehrach: Exactly, we are investigating whether and how many virus genomes are in the saliva sample - i.e. how concentrated the pathogen is in the human body.

However, we could also find other health information in the same samples, we could test the sample for other viruses, or we could determine certain molecular characteristics of the test person that could be important for the treatment.



FOCUS Online: If it's actually that simple - why haven't we been pursuing this strategy for a long time?

Lehrach: Well, of course there are very big logistical problems at the beginning. There are organizational and technical hurdles, and capacities have to be created to carry out millions of tests every day. But in the end there were and were such hurdles. They were also there to send a person to the moon and bring them back - and yet we mastered them. Then we'll do it too.

FOCUS Online: Above all, money is necessary to create these capacities ...

Lehrach: That's right, a lot of money would have to be spent on these tests. However, if you compare this sum with the financial resources that are spent on short-time work for the rescue of companies - then it is very small.

A test probably only costs a few euros per person. No matter whether two or five euros - it is still cheaper than financing a lockdown for months. If 500 million Europeans sit at home for months, it costs a lot more money than testing them all.

FOCUS Online: Others may have other objections, for example do not want to be tested.

Lehrach: There are people who see a test as an interference with their personality. In practice, however, only the health authorities know which person is behind a test. The information that is derived from whether a person is infected or not is no longer valid after a few weeks.

After the quarantine, the person is no longer sick, no longer contagious - and this information is irrelevant. So people shouldn't see this as an encroachment on their personal rights.

FOCUS Online: Suppose there is the technical infrastructure, you carry out these tests, quarantine everyone infected. What would happen to the virus?

Lehrach: If the logistical problems were solved, we could eliminate the virus - or at least reduce it to a really trivial number of cases. We can reduce the R-factor to zero in a single period - in a few weeks.

FOCUS Online: So this method would anticipate a vaccine months.

Lehrach: If not years. Developing a vaccine to be used by the entire world population that is safe for everyone - it takes time. In addition: this is certainly not the last pandemic. Maybe the next one will come next year. Maybe the next virus is much more dangerous.

Then a Sars CoV-2 vaccine won't help us. Then we need infrastructure and technology to contain it. To get it under control before it threatens the whole world. Because the population-wide test approach that we propose for Covid-19 can be adapted to other, new viruses in a very short time. We have to master these technical challenges at an early stage - and I think there are already a few good ideas for this.

I only think he underestmates the irrationality and brutal nacrcissim of some people who will object to getting tested. That cannot be overcome by rational arguments.

[Skybird]

Meanwhile the WHO once again weasel around and reocmmnded further trials of Hydroxychloroquine, abandoning further fears it might raise mortality rates amongst Covid 19 patients.

https://www.bbc.com/news/51980731

https://zenodo.org/record/3862789#.XtDHxflKipr

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...oxychloroquine

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...s-for-covid-19

I found that claim dubious form beginning on. The drug and two related drugs have been given out to US sodliers over years, hundreds of thosuands if not millions have taken it during the Vietnam war and before - kortality never was a topic for dabte back then or since then. My quarrel with the debate around Hydroxychloroquine always was that an effectiveness of it was claimed by unknowing laymen that in no way was scientifcally founded or cinfirmed in trials. We simply still do not know whether it works or not. So nobody should already claim that it does work.

[vienna]

The problem with Hydroxychloroquine is, although it has been used for many years for a number of conditions, it seems to have either very, very little effect on Covid-19 in comparison with other treatments and seems to have an aggravating effect on soe patients with accompanying underlying conditions leading to an increased risk of mortality; even in its other uses as a treatment, Hydroxychloroquine is used with great care given the many side-effects known to the drug- it is not a casual use medication like an OTC drug...

Remember, Hydroxychloroquine and other quinine based derivatives were created because the source drug, quinine, was found to have so many unpleasant and even dangerous side effects and the various derivatives aren't really much better at side effect mitigation; of all the derivatives, I can't think of any, nor have I been able to find not of one, that produce the benefits of quinine without any of the bad side effects...

Yes, it has been used for years and even been administered to soldiers, but it has also been found to be so risky its use is most often a sort of 'remedy of last resort' situation where the cure may not be of the best but the untreated malady is even worse...

I also have some doubt s about the claim made by Trump of his use of Hydroxychloroquine; consider this: you are a President's doctor, one of the very most high profile medical positions in the world and your healthy patient demands you to administer to him/her a drug that could have severe health detriments; by the nature of your profession and the moral and ethical standard of "Do No Harm", it goes against that to needlessly and with risk to comply with the demand, and there is also a legal and professional risk if the 'treatment' goes awry; essentially poisoning or maiming the POTUS does not look very good on your CV and the debacle could led to you losing your license to practice medicine; add to this the possibility/probability of civil legal action and/or criminal action for your decision to comply given "you should have known better" as a basis for the legal actions; now, not complying also means you very well might find yourself out of a very prestigious job and having a bit of a black mark on your CV, not to mention another MD, with less moral and ethical consideration may just actually give POTUS the Hydroxychloroquine...

If it were me, I'd give the POTUS a treatment, but I would substitute, in secret, the Hydroxychloroquine with something like, say, a Vitamin-B shot, so the net effect is the POTUS is unharmed and the possibility that, if I didn't 'comply', some less ethical medico would actually risk harm to one of my patients...




<O>

[Jimbuna]

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ry=dr+campbell

[Jimbuna]

Mexico reports more than 1,000 daily deaths for the first time.

Brazil sets a new record of 1,349 daily deaths.

In the UK, Business Secretary Alok Sharma is self-isolating.

Prince Charles says he "got away quite lightly" when diagnosed in March.

Austria is reopening almost all its borders on Thursday.

Globally there have been 6.4m infections since the outbreak began, and 383,000 deaths.

[Jimbuna]

New figures show that, over the past week, 1.8 million people made unemployment claims in the US. The rate of increase in joblessness has slowed down, but the number of people out of work still remains very high – since late March 42 million people have filed for benefits.

Public faith in Swedish authorities has dropped significantly, as the coronavirus crisis continues, according to a new survey by major pollsters Novus.

The Republic of Ireland is set to move to the next phase of its relaxation of Covid-19 measures on Monday.

The coronavirus infection rate in Scotland has reduced slightly since last week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.
She said the R number - the measure of how many new people are infected by each case - is now between 0.7 and 0.9.
Last week, it was said to be 0.7 to 1.

A virtual vaccine summit hosted by the UK is getting under way, bringing political leaders from about 50 countries together with some of the world's wealthiest individuals and firms.

Another 3,574 cases have been confirmed in Iran - the highest daily figure since the outbreak began in February.

Health officials in Hong Kong have begun evacuating residents from a public housing estate that's believed to be the site of a cluster of new cases.

In Argentina, President Alberto Fernández is expected to announce an extension of the lockdown until 21 June. The worst affected region is the capital, Buenos Aires, and the metropolitan area surrounding it. Out of the 949 new cases registered in the past day, all but 40 were in this area.

Some good news from Peru, where a 50-year-old woman who has Covid-19 has given birth to healthy twins. However, the situation in the country's hospitals is becoming increasingly critical with shortages of oxygen becoming more acute.

In Paraguay, a congressman took off his shirt in a parliamentary session in protest at the continuing closure of the border with Brazil. Bare-chested, Congressman Jorge Antonio Brítez said the bridge linking the area he represents with Brazil should reopen as trade provided a key income to many. Brazil has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Latin America, and Paraguay closed its borders in mid-March to prevent the virus's spread.

Turkey plans to resume flights to 40 countries this month - and has reached provisional reciprocal agreements with 15 countries.

[Mr Quatro]

How long do you think it will take before the world finds out which countries have been lying about the Covid-19 cases and deaths from and patients healed?

I bet my country has been the most honest or at least more honest than China, Japan and of course Russia.

[Jimbuna]

Don't forget Iran.

[Jimbuna]

Transport secretary announces face coverings will be mandatory on public transport in England from 15 June.

Grant Shapps says people who don't comply while using buses, trains or aircraft will be refused travel, and could be fined.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma has tested negative for the virus after appearing to show symptoms in parliament.

France cancels its famous military parade for Bastille Day on 14 July as a health precaution.

The picture worsens in Latin America - Mexico for first time reports more than 1,000 daily deaths while Brazil announces a record 1,349 new deaths.

[mapuc]

Well they are grown-up most of them, my niece is only 15 years old.

My Mom, my elderly sister, my little sister and my niece have decided to take a trip to Sweden and visit some of our families and friends.

Said to my Mom yesterday. Think not twice but think over it several times.
Sweden is what I would consider as "Do not touch"

They will take care she said to me.

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Sweden is what I would consider as "Do not touch"

Yes indeed. Surströmming.

[Catfish]

^ i fear the north wind.

[Jeff-Groves]

Our Company got the Grant so for several weeks We got full pay even though not on a job site.

Now that things are getting started back up?
Those same employees want over time if on a job site over 40 hours!

Never mind you got paid for sitting on your arses for weeks!
I am more then happy to trim the weeds in our Company!

They can go get in line for benefits then.