Latest on the Corona Virus

[bsm2]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

The stimulus checks for due to covid, dummy.

The one your going to ReturnRight Dummy

[bsm2]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

(CNN)The Biden administration is hoping to resurrect a proposal from the Trump administration to mail face masks to every American in an attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Thursday.

"This was an idea that really came up last year in the Trump administration -- the public health agencies recommended it, President Trump vetoed it for some reason," Klain told NBC's Lester Holt. "We want to get this back on track. I hope in the next few days, or next week, we may be able to announce some progress on this."

The US Postal Service had planned to distribute 650 million face coverings for the Trump administration last April, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN in September. A senior administration official told The Washington Post at the time that the plan was scrapped by the White House as some advisers were worried that it could create "concern or panic."


The Biden administration's professed amenability to the proposal comes after US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky appeared to cast doubt on whether sending Americans masks would necessarily convince those who did not already wear them to do so. When asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper last week if it made sense for the federal government to send masks to American households, she replied that "it's not entirely clear to me that the reason people aren't wearing masks is because they don't have access to them."

"Certainly, I would highly advocate for those in areas where they're under-resourced and they can't purchase masks or they don't have access to masks, we need to make sure that people have the protection," Walensky continued. 'But it's not entirely clear in my mind that the challenge of mask wearing has been one of access."

On Thursday, Klain again defended the administration's target of getting 100 million people vaccinated for Covid-19 in its first 100 days, telling Holt that "we're trying to ramp up vaccine production and vaccine distribution -- we'll have more to say about the targets that come after."

President Joe Biden said last week that he expects the US will soon be able to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day, raising the bar by roughly 500,000 more vaccinations than its target of 1 million per day in his first 100 days in office. He said the US could surpass that initial target in about three weeks.

Klain rebuffed Holt's point that the Trump administration managed to hit 1 million doses of vaccine administered per day, asserting that "the Trump administration hit a million shots a day one day out of 40."

According to data from the CDC, vaccine administration first hit 1 million per day on January 7, and while it seesawed under and over 1 million a day in the final two weeks of Donald Trump's presidency, the trend line clearly grew.

Klain also addressed negotiations over Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid relief proposal vs. Senate Republicans' much more modest package, expressing openness to more targeted disbursement of relief checks to families in need.

"A question's been raised about whether or not these checks should go to people who make $200,000, $300,000," Klain said. "I think if Congress has ideas on how to focus this to make sure that working people, middle-class people, in this country get these checks, we're fine with that idea."

"What we're not going to do is leave out large swaths of the middle class, and we're certainly not going to compromise and reduce the amount of these checks," he added.

The GOP plan would provide $1,000 stimulus checks to those making up to $40,000 a year, and would cut off individuals earning more than $50,000 a year and couples earning more than $100,000, according to a fact sheet provided by the office of Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who rolled out the proposal Sunday with nine other Republicans.

Under the Biden proposal, people earning less than $75,000 would receive $1,400 stimulus checks and double that for couples earning less than $150,000, and payments would gradually phase out. That would cover 99% of tax filers earning between $77,100 and $110,700, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation -- while just 8% of filers in that bracket would qualify under the GOP plan.

About 78% of families would qualify for relief payments under the Republican proposal, while 95% would be eligible under Biden's proposal, according to analysts at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, who warned that the figures are preliminary since no formal legislative text is available yet.

[Phil B.]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

During Pandemic, China Sent Millions of Counterfeit Masks, Test Kits to US: Customs Data

China accounted for about 51 percent of counterfeit or substandard COVID-19-related products seized by U.S. customs officials from October 2019 to Sept. 30 last year, according to a newly-released report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Among the products seized by U.S. customs officials were over 12.7 million counterfeit masks, 177,356 COVID-19 test kits prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and 38,098 FDA-prohibited chloroquine tablets.
The effectiveness of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and its closely-related chloroquine in treating symptoms of COVID-19, which is caused by the CCP virus (commonly known as the novel coronavirus), is of much debate.
The FDA initially issued an emergency use authorization for the two drugs, but later revokedstudy showed hydroxychloroquine lowered the death rate of COVID-19 patients, while another study demonstrated a drug cocktail containing hydroxychloroquine could lower the hospitalization and death rate of patients infected by the virus.
The FDA currently has a database listing fraudulent COVID-19 products, including test kits. The list contains company names and the names of their products.
according toseized 6,080 fake 3M masks in freight from Hong Kong on Dec. 6, 2020.
Another seizure took place in Chicago in September last year, when local customs officials stopped a shipment containing 500,000 counterfeit N95 masks. These masks were determined to have an estimated retail price of $474,905, if genuine. The shipment originated from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and was destined for a company in Manalapan, New Jersey.

The CBP report also mentioned that customs officials issued a record number of 13 new withhold release ordersissueddetainedfined $575,000 for importing stevia powder and derivatives there were made by prison labor in China. Several months later, in October, CBP askedactive findingsintellectual property rightsseized three cargo shipments from China containing counterfeit products that could be worth over $32 million. Among the seized fake products were one million knockoff Viagra pills, footwear, belts, purses, and headphones.
Counterfeit toys from China that could be worth about $1.3 million were also seized at the Port of New York/Newark, the CBP announced on Dec. 21 last year.

[bsm2]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

During Pandemic, China Sent Millions of Counterfeit Masks, Test Kits to US: Customs Data

China accounted for about 51 percent of counterfeit or substandard COVID-19-related products seized by U.S. customs officials from October 2019 to Sept. 30 last year, according to a newly-released report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Among the products seized by U.S. customs officials were over 12.7 million counterfeit masks, 177,356 COVID-19 test kits prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and 38,098 FDA-prohibited chloroquine tablets.
The effectiveness of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and its closely-related chloroquine in treating symptoms of COVID-19, which is caused by the CCP virus (commonly known as the novel coronavirus), is of much debate.
The FDA initially issued an emergency use authorization for the two drugs, but later revoked the authorization in June last year, saying that they were “unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19.”
However, there have been studies showing their effectiveness: one study showed hydroxychloroquine lowered the death rate of COVID-19 patients, while another study demonstrated a drug cocktail containing hydroxychloroquine could lower the hospitalization and death rate of patients infected by the virus.
The FDA currently has a database listing fraudulent COVID-19 products, including test kits. The list contains company names and the names of their products.
In December last year, customs officials in Cincinnati seized 10,080 counterfeit surgical masks, which were labeled “3M Mask Model 1860,” in a shipment originating from China, according to a press release. The boxes containing the masks were fraudulently labeled as “Made in the USA.”
If genuine, these fake 3M masks would have an estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $65,520.

Counterfeit masks were also arriving in the United States from Hong Kong. Customs officials in Cincinnati seized 6,080 fake 3M masks in freight from Hong Kong on Dec. 6, 2020.
Another seizure took place in Chicago in September last year, when local customs officials stopped a shipment containing 500,000 counterfeit N95 masks. These masks were determined to have an estimated retail price of $474,905, if genuine. The shipment originated from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and was destined for a company in Manalapan, New Jersey.

The CBP report also mentioned that customs officials issued a record number of 13 new withhold release orders, banning the imports of products made with forced labor, in the 12-month period that ended on Sept. 30, 2020.
Most of these targeted products—including disposable gloves, seafood, and cotton—originated from China. Together, these products were valued at nearly $50 million, according to the report.
On Jan. 13, the CBP issued a new withhold release order banning all imports of cotton, apparel, textiles, and tomato products from far-western China’s Xinjiang region.
Beijing has detained more than one million ethnic Muslims, including Uyghurs, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz people, in internment camps in Xinjiang. Detainees are subject to forced labor, torture, and political indoctrination sessions. Beijing claims these camps are “vocational training centers.”
In August last year, a U.S. company was fined $575,000 for importing stevia powder and derivatives there were made by prison labor in China. Several months later, in October, CBP asked all U.S. ports to seize stevia products made by an Inner Mongolia-based company, after evidence showed the company used convict, forced, or indentured labor to manufacture the products.
“Currently, CBP is enforcing 44 active withhold release orders and seven active findings,” according to the report.
Finally, the report concluded that CBP officials seized a total of 26,503 shipments with products found to have violated U.S. intellectual property rights, with China being the “top source” of such seizures. These products would have a total estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of over $1.3 billion.

In December last year, customs officials in Los Angeles seized three cargo shipments from China containing counterfeit products that could be worth over $32 million. Among the seized fake products were one million knockoff Viagra pills, footwear, belts, purses, and headphones.
Counterfeit toys from China that could be worth about $1.3 million were also seized at the Port of New York/Newark, the CBP announced on Dec. 21 last year.

Still with the BS on hydroxychloroquine thanks for Pointing that out e

[Phil B.]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

All under the Trump Administration Thanks for Point that out e

Trump didn't buy that shit...

now greusome and cuomo on the other hand were KNOWN to have purchased those items.

[Phil B.]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

WHO Adviser: I'm '85%' Sure COVID Came from a Lab

Our remarkably incurious media!
Does anyone remember when Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, had the audacity to suggest that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China? He was condemned by liberal media outlets like The Washington Postresearch lab in Wuhan.
Metzl is a highly credible figure. He held a variety of senior positions during the Clinton administration and served as the senior deputy staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under then-Senator Joe Biden, who chaired the committee from 2001-2003.

Metzl is currently a memberAtlantic Council, a liberal think tank involved in foreign affairs.
On April 16, 2020, Metzl published an article Chinese labhereCNNSky Newsall the lies from Chinese officials and the agency that provided coverThe Daily Mail450,000 livesnational media cartel

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

WHO Adviser: I'm '85%' Sure COVID Came from a Lab


Our remarkably incurious media!
Does anyone remember when Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, had the audacity to suggest that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China? He was condemned by liberal media outlets like The Washington Post as a conspiracy theorist.
The left’s talking point, that blaming China for this virus was racist and xenophobic, quickly became the Democratic Party-approved narrative.

Therefore, it came as a surprise when Democratic foreign affairs expert Jamie Metzl announced he is “85 percent” sure that the coronavirus came from a research lab in Wuhan.
Metzl is a highly credible figure. He held a variety of senior positions during the Clinton administration and served as the senior deputy staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under then-Senator Joe Biden, who chaired the committee from 2001-2003.

Metzl is currently a member of the World Health Organization’s advisory committee on developing global standards for governance and oversight of human genome editing as well as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a liberal think tank involved in foreign affairs.
On April 16, 2020, Metzl published an article in which he asserted “the most likely starting point of the coronavirus crisis is an accidental leak from one of the Chinese virology institutes in Wuhan.” He has updated this report as new information has become available. The most recent update was on Jan. 15.

It’s important to note that his conclusion has remained the same: That the outbreak started in a Chinese lab. Metzl writes that he’s “been making this claim consistently since January 2020 and will continue to do so until this issue gets the attention it deserves.”
“Let me be clear,” Metzl informs his readers, “I do not believe this was likely a genome edited virus (although this paper suggests how it could have been and we should not discount this possibility), just that it had very likely been isolated and cultured in one of the Wuhan labs (the Wuhan CDC or, more likely, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, WIV).”

He also emphasizes that, “this is only highly informed inference based on publicly available information and my application of Occam’s razor (and mathematical probabilities). I have no definitive way of proving this thesis but the evidence is, in my view, extremely convincing. If forced to place odds on the confidence of my hypothesis, I would say there’s an 85% chance the pandemic started with an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or Wuhan CDC and a 15% chance it began in some other way (in fairness, here is an article making the case for a zoonotic jump ‘in the wild’).”
“If China keeps preventing a full and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of the pandemic, I believe it is fair to deny Beijing the benefit of the doubt,” Metzl writes.
Metzl then presents his evidence “so that readers can come to their own conclusions” and states that he does not have a political agenda.

Citing 51 sources including The Lancet medical journal, The Wall Street Journal, other news outlets and many scientific research publications, Metzl prepared an intensely detailed timeline of events.
In the meantime, a team of scientists from the World Health Organization began an investigation into the origins of the virus last week in the city of Wuhan and arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab on Wednesday, according to CNN.

Predictably, CNN refers to the lab as “the focus of conspiracies and speculation about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.” The writers’ skepticism that the virus may have escaped from the lab is obvious throughout the article. They write, “Although the stridently anti-China Trump administration suggested this could have taken place in Wuhan, most experts disagree.” Their strong bias, in my opinion, renders the entire piece suspect.
Given that over a year has elapsed since the pandemic began, expectations about what the team will learn are mixed.

Dr. Peter Daszak, a British zoologist on the WHO team, told Sky News, “They are sharing data with us that we have not seen before – that no one has seen before. They are talking with us openly about every possible pathway. We really are getting somewhere and I think every member of the team would say that.”
Still, after all the lies from Chinese officials and the agency that provided cover for them, it’s difficult to entirely believe that.
The Daily Mail includes a comparison of China’s official timeline, which shows Dec. 8, 2019, as the “earliest date that China has acknowledged an infection,” versus new evidence that indicates the virus was present months earlier than China admits. The Daily Mail reports that in September 2019, “blood samples” were “taken in a lung cancer screening trial in Italy which later test[ed] positive for coronavirus.”
COVID-19 is an equal opportunity offender. It doesn’t discriminate based on one’s political affiliation. Rather than immediately becoming a political football, it should have remained a medical/humanitarian issue.

This virus has turned the world upside down in the past year. In the United States, it has (arguably) claimed about 450,000 lives and brought our economy to a screeching halt. It has killed jobs and kept our children out of school for nearly a year. And, although it cannot be proven, is almost certainly responsible for President Joe Biden’s unfortunate victory.
Why isn’t our media concerned about finding out about its origins? Why do so many members of our national media cartel call us “racist” for advancing very plausible theories about where it came from? Most importantly, why are so many Democrats so beholden to China?
The truth is the truth, and if this theory is the truth, then it shouldn’t matter whom it hurts.

... blaming another country for America's woes is not going to fix anything today nor is compensation likely ever to be rec'd. It just distracts from the serious tasks at hand.

The Chinese Communist party will not even admit to it's own citizens the severity of the problem within the country.

You can live in the past or you can plan for a brighter future with better pandemic safeguards in place.

It was the ex President who made the bad decision to shut down the nation's Pandemic response team in the years prior to COVID-19.

[bsm2]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

WHO Adviser: I'm '85%' Sure COVID Came from a Lab

Our remarkably incurious media!
Does anyone remember when Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, had the audacity to suggest that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China? He was condemned by liberal media outlets like The Washington Post as a conspiracy theorist.
The left’s talking point, that blaming China for this virus was racist and xenophobic, quickly became the Democratic Party-approved narrative.

Therefore, it came as a surprise when Democratic foreign affairs expert Jamie Metzl announced he is “85 percent” sure that the coronavirus came from a research lab in Wuhan.
Metzl is a highly credible figure. He held a variety of senior positions during the Clinton administration and served as the senior deputy staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under then-Senator Joe Biden, who chaired the committee from 2001-2003.

Metzl is currently a member of the World Health Organization’s advisory committee on developing global standards for governance and oversight of human genome editing as well as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a liberal think tank involved in foreign affairs.
On April 16, 2020, Metzl published an article in which he asserted “the most likely starting point of the coronavirus crisis is an accidental leak from one of the Chinese virology institutes in Wuhan.” He has updated this report as new information has become available. The most recent update was on Jan. 15.

It’s important to note that his conclusion has remained the same: That the outbreak started in a Chinese lab. Metzl writes that he’s “been making this claim consistently since January 2020 and will continue to do so until this issue gets the attention it deserves.”
“Let me be clear,” Metzl informs his readers, “I do not believe this was likely a genome edited virus (although this paper suggests how it could have been and we should not discount this possibility), just that it had very likely been isolated and cultured in one of the Wuhan labs (the Wuhan CDC or, more likely, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, WIV).”

He also emphasizes that, “this is only highly informed inference based on publicly available information and my application of Occam’s razor (and mathematical probabilities). I have no definitive way of proving this thesis but the evidence is, in my view, extremely convincing. If forced to place odds on the confidence of my hypothesis, I would say there’s an 85% chance the pandemic started with an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or Wuhan CDC and a 15% chance it began in some other way (in fairness, here is an article making the case for a zoonotic jump ‘in the wild’).”
“If China keeps preventing a full and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of the pandemic, I believe it is fair to deny Beijing the benefit of the doubt,” Metzl writes.
Metzl then presents his evidence “so that readers can come to their own conclusions” and states that he does not have a political agenda.

Citing 51 sources including The Lancet medical journal, The Wall Street Journal, other news outlets and many scientific research publications, Metzl prepared an intensely detailed timeline of events.
In the meantime, a team of scientists from the World Health Organization began an investigation into the origins of the virus last week in the city of Wuhan and arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab on Wednesday, according to CNN.

Predictably, CNN refers to the lab as “the focus of conspiracies and speculation about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.” The writers’ skepticism that the virus may have escaped from the lab is obvious throughout the article. They write, “Although the stridently anti-China Trump administration suggested this could have taken place in Wuhan, most experts disagree.” Their strong bias, in my opinion, renders the entire piece suspect.
Given that over a year has elapsed since the pandemic began, expectations about what the team will learn are mixed.

Dr. Peter Daszak, a British zoologist on the WHO team, told Sky News, “They are sharing data with us that we have not seen before – that no one has seen before. They are talking with us openly about every possible pathway. We really are getting somewhere and I think every member of the team would say that.”
Still, after all the lies from Chinese officials and the agency that provided cover for them, it’s difficult to entirely believe that.
The Daily Mail includes a comparison of China’s official timeline, which shows Dec. 8, 2019, as the “earliest date that China has acknowledged an infection,” versus new evidence that indicates the virus was present months earlier than China admits. The Daily Mail reports that in September 2019, “blood samples” were “taken in a lung cancer screening trial in Italy which later test[ed] positive for coronavirus.”
COVID-19 is an equal opportunity offender. It doesn’t discriminate based on one’s political affiliation. Rather than immediately becoming a political football, it should have remained a medical/humanitarian issue.

This virus has turned the world upside down in the past year. In the United States, it has (arguably) claimed about 450,000 lives and brought our economy to a screeching halt. It has killed jobs and kept our children out of school for nearly a year. And, although it cannot be proven, is almost certainly responsible for President Joe Biden’s unfortunate victory.
Why isn’t our media concerned about finding out about its origins? Why do so many members of our national media cartel call us “racist” for advancing very plausible theories about where it came from? Most importantly, why are so many Democrats so beholden to China?
The truth is the truth, and if this theory is the truth, then it shouldn’t matter whom it hurts.

Nope :rolleyes All BS Conspiracy Theories

[slimslob]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

the J&J vaccine can only be described as a "medical miracle" considering that it will be delivered in approx one year from the first reported infection.

Wow that is amazing. Lets see, the first officially reported case was in China in December 2019. The first reported case in the US was in January 2020.

[bsm2]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

Woof! First lady Jill Biden and dogs Champ and Major star in face mask PSA for Puppy Bowl

No doubt about it, all signs are pointing to Champ and Major Biden as breakout video stars of the Biden administration.


First lady Jill Biden first dogs Champ Major star mask PSA Puppy Bowl

[bsm2]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

Mask mandates can work, CDC researchers say
By Lauren Mascarenhas and Virginia Langmaid, CNN
Updated 2:59 PM EST, Fri February 05, 2021

(CNN)Mask mandates can work, according to research released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday.

One new study showed that, in places where state and local governments required mask use, fewer people ended up in the hospital with coronavirus. A second showed college students, at least, will overwhelmingly wear masks if there's a mandate in place.

Researchers from the CDC and University of Nevada, Las Vegas examined 10 sites in states that implemented mask mandates between March and October. They found the hospitalization rates fell in places where local leaders requires mask use.


Hospitalization growth rates declined by 5.5 percentage points among 18- to 64-year-olds in sites across California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Oregon, the team said in the CDC's weekly report.

The sites began to see a significant decline in hospitalization rates among 40- to 64-year-olds less than three weeks after the mandates were implemented. Beyond three weeks, the declines were seen across 18- to 64-year-olds.

"Because COVID-19 can lead to prolonged illness and require long-term treatment, the expected savings associated with the decline in hospitalization rates could be much higher than these reduced hospital costs associated with COVID-19," they wrote.

The team noted that the study did not control for other factors that could have impacted hospitalization rates.

But they said their findings support community masking to reduce Covid-19 transmission and hospitalization, noting that the practice likely has a direct effect on coronavirus related illness and death.

The US may soon have its first standards for consumer face masks. Are they strict enough?
The US may soon have its first standards for consumer face masks. Are they strict enough?
States and jurisdictions have individually implemented mask mandates at various points throughout the coronavirus pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden's first executive order after he took office last month was to require mask use on federal property. He later extended the mandate to most forms of public transportation.

In an effort to reduce on campus coronavirus transmission, some universities have also told their students and faculty that they must wear masks.

University mask mandates
The students will comply with such orders, a second study released Friday found. Researchers from the CDC and several US universities looked at six universities and found that more than 85% of people wore face masks when a mask mandate was in place. Nearly 90% wore their masks correctly, covering both their mouth and nose completely, the team reported.

Correct mask use varied based on the type of mask worn. People who wore N95-type masks, cloth masks or surgical masks, wore their mask correctly more than 90% of the time. People wearing bandanas, scarves or similar face coverings wore their masks correctly just under 80% of the time.

The CDC team watched and recorded more than 17,000 people at universities and surrounding communities that mandated indoor mask use, and outdoor mask use when social distancing could not be achieved.

They found mask use was "significantly more common indoors than outdoors" at these universities. More than 90% of people wore some form of face covering indoors. This dropped to 67% outdoors.


People were slightly more compliant on campus. Off-campus indoor mask use trailed on-campus indoor mask use by just four percentage points, but remained over 90% in both environments."

The team suggests that universities conduct their own observational research on mask compliance to improve their safety messaging and policies.

"These data provide evidence that adherence to university mask mandates is high," the researchers wrote. "Mask mandates have been shown to decrease SARS-CoV-2 case transmission, and widespread mask use is a core intervention for curbing the COVID-19 pandemic."

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

Wow that is amazing. Lets see, the first officially reported case was in China in December 2019. The first reported case in the US was in January 2020.

From the mouth of the Chief Financial Officer of Johnson & Johnson, Joe Wolk at the 3:10 mark of the interview.

"I will classify this as a medical miracle"

Quest Means Business - J&J CFO: Vaccinations are best way to stop new COVID variants | Facebook

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

Will we need a new COVID-19 vaccine every few years? Here’s what we know


It looks like Canadians won’t need an annual jab to keep up protections from the coronavirus, Health Canada says, but it’s still possible that booster shots will be required every couple of years to keep our bodies in full fighting form.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7539613/coronavirus-vaccine-booster-lasting-effectiveness-canada-moderna-pfizer/

Studies are currently underway to determine how frequently, if at all, these repeat injections will need to take place.
“We’ve got very, very stable viruses like the measles virus that doesn’t change very often at all. [Then] we have viruses like the influenza virus that we know changes very frequently and you have to get vaccines every year,” explained Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical advisor with the regulatory branch of Health Canada, at a Wednesday press conference.

“This group of viruses is somewhere in between. So at this point in time, I think we’re still looking for evidence.”

She said that the early evidence seems to indicate that COVID-19 isn’t as good at mutating itself as influenza – which means it’s extremely unlikely we’d need an annual jab. However, so far, it doesn’t seem to be as stable as the measles virus. That means booster shots might be needed – but, Sharma warned, it’s “a bit early to tell.”

If researchers do find a booster shot is needed, they’d also have to determine how often they’re required – whether it’s every two years, three years, or beyond.

“This is all the types of information that we’re going to be continuing to collect, working internationally to collect that information and monitoring not only the virus, but obviously these vaccines and how we move forward,” Sharma said.

Meanwhile, in addition to questions about the long-term effectiveness of vaccines, there have also been concerns about whether the jabs will continue to be effective against the already-emerging mutations of the vaccine – some of which have prompted Canada to implement a temporary ban on flights from the U.K., where the new faster-spreading virus variant is circulating.

The WHO confirmed on Monday that the mutation is unlikely to impact the effectiveness of existing COVID-19 vaccines, and variants cropping up don’t necessarily mean the virus is getting more dangerous.

This means that even if the virus changes, the vaccine should remain effective. Sharma added that changes to approved vaccines would require new information to be submitted to Health Canada for study – though the extent of the new information required depends on the significance of the change.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

NFL tells White House it's ready to make every stadium a vaccination site


Every NFL team will make its stadium available as a mass vaccination site, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden dated Thursday.

The offer comes as the Biden administration has promised the opening of mass vaccination sites as part of its push to ramp up the pace of Covid inoculations.

"This is currently being done at seven NFL stadiums today," Goodell wrote. "We can expand our efforts to stadiums across the nation more effectively because many of our clubs have offered their facilities previously as COVID testing centers as well as election sites over the past several months."

According to an NFL spokesman, the seven clubs that have already activated vaccination sites "at or near their stadium" are Arizona (State Farm Stadium), Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium), Baltimore (M&T Bank Stadium), Carolina (Bank of America Stadium), Houston (NRG Park), Miami (Hard Rock Stadium) and New England (Gillette Stadium).

The NFL has also been in communication with the White House regarding coronavirus response efforts on another front -- Sunday's Super Bowl. CNN reported earlier Thursday that the President and first lady Jill Biden have taped a video message thanking health care workers that will be shown before the game, according to a source familiar with the plans.

An administration official told CNN that the White House also hoped to use Sunday's event to combat vaccine hesitancy and speak to the African American, Latino and White, rural "non-mask-wearing" communities in particular. The Super Bowl presents "an interesting opportunity to reach all three of those audiences," the official said.

The White House has been in touch with the NFL and other brands involved in the Super Bowl on ways to integrate pro-mask and pro-vaccine messaging in the highly watched event, one White House official said. The official declined to elaborate further on the extent of the White House's collaboration with the league or specific companies.

The NFL, for its part, has consulted with public health officials in preparation for the weekend and announced a set of protocols including mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing to prevent the spread of Covid at this weekend's game.

Goodell referenced in the letter to Biden that the league has also invited 7,500 vaccinated health care workers to the game "who will attend as our guests in gratitude for their heroic service and to highlight the importance of vaccinations as our country recovers from the pandemic."

According to the NFL, some 14,500 people will be in attendance through general admission, and another 2,700 fans will be in stadium suites.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Latest on the Corona Virus

NFL tells White House it's ready to make every stadium a vaccination site

Considering that Canada ranks near the very bottom, Canada should do something like this. Has there been any talk of doing something similar?