Collection Includes 450 Web Archives Documenting COVID-19 Pandemic – “After collecting a wide variety of web content documenting the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, the Library of Congress is now making its growing Coronavirus Web Archive available to the public.
I can’t imagine a much more defeating quote from the head of America’s fight against COVID-19. Here is Dr. Anthony Fauci’s direct quote:
Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody. Those who have been vaccinated … and boosted would get exposed. Some, maybe a lot of them, will get infected but will very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well in the sense of not having hospitalization and death.
His comments echo those of acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, who said that while most people could catch the virus, the focus now should be on making sure hospitals and essential services function. In other words, it seems, the big push is to treat infections — because everyone is probably going to get infected.
How the Omicron wave smashed hospitals Healthcare workers are desperate for the public to know what’s been happening in our hospitals. As the Omicron wave peaked in Sydney last month, Background Briefing was following them. These are their stories* — in their words — about what they saw in January
The two doses, they're not enough for omicron," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said
Two years into a pandemic that turned us all into amateur virologists, we’ve learned that the best-spreading coronavirus variant will outcompete any slowpokes.
Like thousands of Australians, I caught COVID this summer. We were on holiday in a sleepy beachside town when my youngest daughter developed a fever. When we finally tracked down a rapid antigen test and swabbed her little nostril, we saw the tell-tale double pink lines confirming she was COVID positive.
Having two extended lockdowns under my belt, I figured seven days of isolation would be a breeze. It turns out I was mistaken. In a lockdown, you can still pop to the shops for milk and walk the dog to escape the confines of the house. Isolation is seven days of captivity – with bored kids added to the mix.
Fortunately, family, friends and neighbours chimed in to help. Their combined generosity provided practical assistance in the form of deliveries of groceries, medicine, cooked meals and activities for the kids, all of which helped lift our morale. A friend dropping a honey drink and your favourite mag on your doorstep is the virtual hug you need when you’re sick and stuck at home.
When Dr Eric Levi’s 13-year-old son returned a positive COVID test in January, the family of five duly went into isolation. Levi, a specialist surgeon based in Melbourne, recounted the experience in a Twitter thread, describing how friends and family dropped off groceries and treats for the kids. “We relied on the kindness of others.”
He says that if you learn a friend or relative has come down with COVID, the first thing you should do is reach out to ask them if there’s anything they need. “It’s a time for the community to support each other,” he says.
Some people will happily accept offers of assistance, while others might feel uncomfortable asking for help – even if they need it. Here are some practical ways to support a friend or relative with COVID.
“Adults with a mild case of COVID-19 can treat their symptoms at home,” says Dr Nirvana Luckraj, chief medical officer at Healthdirect Australia. Those symptoms can include a runny nose, sore throat, fever, dry cough, headache, loss of appetite or nausea, or loss of taste or smell.Patients with COVID should stay hydrated, says Luckraj. Add electrolyte drinks or a box of tea with soothing ingredients like honey and chamomile to your care package.
Food and drink delivery
Wise people among us have already prepped their pantry with long-life milk, packets of pasta and tins of lentils in readiness for a COVID-positive result. Everyone else – me included – will embark on their seven days of isolation with a half-empty bottle of milk in the fridge and some sad bananas slowly going black in the fruit bowl.
A delivery of essentials like bread, milk and coffee can be a lifeline during isolation. Cooked meals are particularly handy to have in the fridge or freezer, especially at the peak of an illness when the idea of preparing a meal is too hard. It doesn’t have to be homemade – if you’re short on time, there are plenty of businesses that can deliver pre-prepared meals. In a pinch, send a voucher for a food delivery service like Uber Eats or DoorDash.
Being in isolation is an unfamiliar experience for most people,” says Luckraj. “It is difficult to be separated from our loved ones and lose our usual social connections due to the pandemic. People can feel isolated or struggle to cope.”
Some people may worry about their COVID infection’s impact on work, finances or housing. Others “may be dealing with family-related issues such as difficult living situations, risk of domestic abuse or worries about loved ones’ safety,” Luckraj says.
Keep in touch with family or friends who are in isolation via phone, video calls or social media. Check up on them each day to ensure their health and wellbeing is not deteriorating.”
My kids loved playing games of Kahoots via Zoom with their buddies during last year’s lockdown, while I found doing the weekend quiz with friends over a video call almost as good as in-person (almost!). During our isolation in January, friends and family dropped off books, art and craft supplies and jigsaw puzzles to help wile away the time and coax the kids away from Minecraft.
Levi organised Zoom catch-ups between his kids and their friends during their week of isolation. “Staying at home with the family for seven straight days was hard,” he says. “Having that social engagement broke the monotony.”
If you are concerned about someone’s mental health, point them in the direction of COVID-19 mental health resources and support services, which you can find at Healthdirect’s COVID-19 and mental healthwebpage.
Those dying from it cannot live with Covid. They have been denied the chance to do so. The prime minister wants to remove the data that shows this was at his choice.
Covid Sightings: Omicron Reinfections, Brain Effects, Shabby US Performance, Western Australia Border Controls
There’s enough new Covid news as to merit some focus on the bigger developments…so have at it!
If You Think You Have COVID But Your Rapid Test Is Negative, Here’s Why
Can you test negative for COVID but still have it? This is why it seems to take so long for a rapid test to turn positive.
What We Can Learn From How the 1918 Pandemic Ended NYT. “The only thing certain is that future variants, if they are to be successful, will elude immune protection. They could become more dangerous. That was the case not only in 1920 with the last gasp of the 1918 virus, but also in the 1957, 1968 and 2009 influenza pandemics.” Let ‘er rip!
The Covid Vaccine We Need Now May Not Be a Shot NYT. Nasal vaccines. One more thing that should have been done a year ago.
Covid-19 news: 119 people test positive at Beijing Winter Olympics.
Scarcity of a Covid drug sends patients on a ‘Hunger Games hunt’ STAT
‘I wanted my art to resonate’: The Zimbabwean sculptor responding to Covid with creativityGuardian
‘Mark of the Antichrist’: Greek holy men sow vaccine mistrust France24 . We warned of the Mark of the Beast concerns…but the objection among US evangelicals is not to vaccines but mandates…This is much broader.
Economic Survey Glosses Over 2021 COVID-19 Horror, Key Details on Health Schemes The Wire
Study on long COVID finds hidden lung abnormalities not detected in routine testsTimes of Israel
Mild COVID-19 cases still lead to attention and memory issues: study Reuters
A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality(PDF) Studies in Applied Economics (Re Silc). “Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel….
More specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. [Shelter-In-Place Orders] were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average. Specific NPI studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality.” That definition of “lockdown” seems a little tendentious to me. The authors are interesting. Propagated instantly.
When is it safe to socialise after recovering from COVID-19? Here's what the experts say
Omicron may not provide the mass immunity we’re hoping for
Quartz: “The omicron variant of covid-19, which has replaced delta as the most common strain, is still spreading around the world. While it’s much more contagious than previous covid-19 variants, omicron carries two possible silver linings: It appears to be less likely to cause severe illness and its spread raised some hopes that it could help create herd immunity in areas of low vaccination rates. This, for instance, is what prompted the World Health Organization’s European office to publish a statement saying omicron might open a new phase in the pandemic, with widespread immunity reached through a combination of vaccinations and infections. Yet new research published Jan. 26 by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco shows the long-term effect of omicron-induced immunization might be highly overrated…”
From Johns Hopkins … A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON COVID-19 MORTALITY.
While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.
As a former medical editor, this does not surprise me. The reporting on Covid is some of the worst I have ever seen.