Coronavirus Impact III

TheDingo said:
With some of the hydroxychloroquine trials the amount of the drug used was at toxic levels, when the appropriate dose should have been much lower.

What amazes me is how the mainstream news has almost completely ignored the drug Ivermectin, but there are some YouTube channels that have been covering it.

Discussing Ivermectin And COVID-19 With 4 Experts

NY Judge Orders Hospital To Use Ivermectin, Woman Recovers
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My vet prescribed ivermectin a few times about 16 years ago to treat demodex with one of my dogs when she was a pup.
 
Run&Gun said:
My vet prescribed ivermectin a few times about 16 years ago to treat demodex with one of my dogs when she was a pup.
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Yes, over 3 billion doses of Ivermectin has been used to treat human parasites around the world over the past 30 years. It's also used to treat parasites in animals. The inventor of Ivermectin won the nobel peace prize in 2015.
 
Let the vaccination perks begin! CDC says you dont need to quarantine after covid exposure if you've had your shots

https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...-dont-need-to-quarantine-after-covid-exposure

Also I saw an article about an anti-inflammatory drug improving hospital outcomes.

Some people are talking about a "new pandemic normal." I call BS. We'll be back to the old normal in a matter of months (at least in the wealthy countries that can afford vaccines...)
 
TheDingo said:
Yes, over 3 billion doses of Ivermectin has been used to treat human parasites around the world over the past 30 years. It's also used to treat parasites in animals. The inventor of Ivermectin won the nobel peace prize in 2015.
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We have a big vial of it we use to treat the goats, rabbits, and dogs (except our BC, because it can be toxic to some BC). Available at most any farm supply store.

Know what you're doing before trying to use it, use only as directed, etc etc.
 
Your link doesn't work on my phone, so I googled wsj makary and got this - https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/well-have-herd-immunity-by-april-11613669731

Amid the dire Covid warnings, one crucial fact has been largely ignored: Cases are down 77% over the past six weeks. If a medication slashed cases by 77%, we’d call it a miracle pill. Why is the number of cases plummeting much faster than experts predicted?

In large part because natural immunity from prior infection is far more common than can be measured by testing. Testing has been capturing only from 10% to 25% of infections, depending on when during the pandemic someone got the virus. Applying a time-weighted case capture average of 1 in 6.5 to the cumulative 28 million confirmed cases would mean about 55% of Americans have natural immunity.

Now add people getting vaccinated. As of this week, 15% of Americans have received the vaccine, and the figure is rising fast. Former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb estimates 250 million doses will have been delivered to some 150 million people by the end of March.

There is reason to think the country is racing toward an extremely low level of infection. As more people have been infected, most of whom have mild or no symptoms, there are fewer Americans left to be infected. At the current trajectory, I expect Covid will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life.
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There are 2 things I agree with and 1 big thing I think he's missing.

I agree that there is a large number of naturally immune recovered patients that give us a head start to herd immunity, although the figures I've seen quoted were lower than his estimates.

I also agree that the end of this pandemic may happen more abruptly (in rich countries) than people realize because the vaccine will quickly put an end to it but we've conditioned ourselves to bad news and have overadjusted our expectations about the virus after initially thinking we were invulnerable.

But there's 1 big thing he's missing - and it's that covid cases started dropping exactly 2 weeks after christmas. Which suggests to me that a big cause of the build-up late last year was all the end-of-year social activities. And because people (at least in my state) are more likely to hunker down come January and venture out less (which is even more true right now with all this snow), there is probably a lot more natural quarantining and social distancing going on right now.

Which doesn't mean that he's wrong, just that he might be reading too much into how fast cases are declining is and assuming that we're reaching herd immunity maybe a month or two earlier than we actually do. If I'm right.

One cool thing - wsj also reported that Pfizer is pretty effective after a single dose and can last a couple weeks in a regular freezer.
 
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ahalpert said:
I also agree that the end of this pandemic may happen more abruptly (in rich countries) than people realize because the vaccine will quickly put an end to it
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The poor countries will really get screwed. The Gates Foundation is doing some great work, but that's one institution...

ahalpert said:
covid cases started dropping exactly 2 weeks after christmas.
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I read that's a documented thing- the holiday bump and subsequent decline that's just started.

ahalpert said:
One cool thing - wsj also reported that Pfizer is pretty effective after a single dose and can last a couple weeks in a regular freezer.
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And there could be good news with the J&J vax- modest refrigeration needs, long shelf life, and there's a good chance a double dose will improve their efficacy numbers.
 
filmguy123 said:
2. His calculation based on "testing has been capturing only from 10% to 25% of infections" and thus "applying a time-weighted case capture average of 1 in 6.5 to the cumulative 28 million confirmed cases would mean about 55% of Americans have natural immunity." This assumes that behaviors amongst non-COVID tested people mirrors COVID tested people, but it might stand to reason the people coming in for tests are also the people most exposed. So to extrapolate positive test rates from that biased sample slice to all people seems to be an error? Or perhaps the data does account for that and it's more robust?
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I'm also not sure where he's getting his fatality rate estimate from. But I think that the fatality rate has come down with better treatment, certainly way down from when NYC got torn apart last March.

So, the final population fatality rate would probably be a weighted average of the fatality rate over time and we would end up higher than his .23% average?

So yeah, I think some of his numbers may be sloppy and erring on the side of optimism.

But aside from wild card new variants (and honestly I haven't personally learned much about the UK and South Africa variants out there), I think we'll all be out sneezing in our friend's faces and French-kissing strangers by the end of summer at the latest. Or maybe by May, in time for me to shoot the mother of all wedding seasons.

PS - haven't seen this one before

20210222_054544.jpg
 
From new york times:
In Australia, Hollywood Stars Have Found an Escape From the Virus. Who’s Jealous?
Dozens of international film productions have been lured to the country, where cases of the coronavirus are few. In turn, actors have found almost paradise.

MELBOURNE, Australia — In the photo posted to Instagram, the actors Chris Hemsworth, Idris Elba and Matt Damon, all wearing 1980s-style sweats, embrace. They are maskless. Touching. Happy, even. The caption reads: “A little 80s themed party never did any harm!”

Their fans, indignant, peppered the post with comments. What of the pandemic? Social distancing? Masks? We are still, after all, suffering through a pandemic that has all but crippled the travel industry and blocked most people from casually taking off for vacation in paradise.

But the Hollywood brigade was in Australia, a country that has effectively stamped out the coronavirus, allowing officials to ease restrictions for most gatherings, including parties (with dancing and finger food). As a result of the near-absence of the virus, plus generous subsidies from the Australian government, the country’s film industry has been humming along at an enviable pace for months compared to other locales.

Australia has managed to lure several Hollywood directors and actors to continue film production. In effect, many celebrities, including Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Melissa McCarthy, have found freedom from the pandemic there.

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As one person wrote on Mr. Hemsworth’s Instagram post: “Before you comment, remember that not everyone lives in America.”

Refer someone to The Times.
Though the quickened pace of vaccinations in the United States has raised hope of returning to some semblance of normalcy by the summer, the country still leads the world in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. Movie theaters reopened only last week in New York City. Some fans are cautiously creeping back, while others are still wary of contracting the virus.

But thousands of miles away, many stars who appear on the big screens can be seen frolicking, or filming, on location in Australia. (Mr. Hemsworth is himself a permanent fixture — he moved back to Australia in 2017 after several years of living in Los Angeles.) In the United States, where hundreds are still dying every day, some fans have looked on with envy.

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“These Hollywood stars have been transported to another world where the problems of this world aren’t,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University in New York. He added that the temporary exodus from the United States revealed a further crumbling of the myth that Hollywood was the endgame for celebrities.

Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Australia.
Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Australia. Credit... Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
Australia has become the “hip place” where “fabulous people want to go,” Professor Thompson said. “When you’re trying to be a star, you’ve got to go out to the West Coast to make your bones.” When you become “a really big star,” you buy property somewhere exotic, like Australia, he added.

“It definitely feels like a time machine,” Ms. Portman, calling in from Sydney, told the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in December. “It’s so different, all the animals are different, all the trees are different, I mean even the birds, like, there’s like multicolored parrots flying around like pigeons,” she added. “It’s wild.”

A spokeswoman said the government had helped 22 international productions inject hundreds of millions into the local economy. Paul Fletcher, the federal minister for communications, said, “There’s no doubt it’s a very significant spike on previous levels of activity.”

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But even as celebrities preen and pose on social media, some Australians grumble that the country’s strategy for stamping out the virus has left tens of thousands of citizens stranded overseas. The strict border measures have also contributed to a shortage of farm labor.

Exceptions were made for tennis players competing in the Australian Open last month, as well as the staff members who run the tournament. The presence of Hollywood’s rich and famous has further angered critics, who see a clear bending of the rules for those with money and power.

“Everyone knows there’s a separate set of rules, it seems, for everyone that’s a celebrity or has money,” said Daniel Tusia, an Australian who was stuck overseas with his family for several months last year. “There are still plenty of people who haven’t been able to get home, who don’t fall into that category, who are still stranded,” he added.

In an emailed statement, the Australian Border Force said that travel exemptions for film and television productions were “considered where there is evidence of the economic benefit the production will bring to Australia and support from the relevant state authority.”

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A year ago, Tom Hanks, Hollywood’s everyman, made all-too-real the threat of the pandemic when he and his wife, Rita Wilson, tested positive for the coronavirus in Queensland, Australia, while he was filming an unnamed Elvis biopic. Their illness made personal a threat whose seriousness was only beginning to become crystallized at the time.

The actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles last year. They tested positive for the coronavirus in Queensland, Australia, about a month later.
The actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles last year. They tested positive for the coronavirus in Queensland, Australia, about a month later. Credit... Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
But by May, Australia appeared to be on track to quashing the first wave of the virus, and the soap opera “Neighbors” became one of the world’s first scripted TV series to resume production. The federal government has committed more than $400 million to international productions, which, together with existing subsidies, provides film and television producers with a rebate of up to 30 percent to shoot in the country.

More than 20 international productions, including “Thor: Love and Thunder,” a Marvel film starring Mr. Hemsworth, Mr. Damon, Ms. Portman, Taika Waititi, Tessa Thompson and Mr. Bale; “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” a fantasy romance starring Mr. Elba and Tilda Swinton; and “Joe Exotic,” a spinoff of the podcast made following the popular Netflix series “Tiger King,” starring the “Saturday Night Live” actress Kate McKinnon as the big-cat enthusiast Carole Baskin, are all either in production or set to be filmed in the coming year.

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Ron Howard is directing “Thirteen Lives,” a dramatization of the 2018 Thai rescue of a soccer team from a cave, in Queensland (the coast of Australia makes a good stand-in for the tropics). And later this year, Julia Roberts and George Clooney are set to arrive in the same state to shoot “Ticket to Paradise,” a romantic comedy.

Though a number of American stars have landed in the country for temporary work, some like Ms. McCarthy, originally in Australia to work on “Nine Perfect Strangers,” have decided to stay on to shoot other projects, said those in the industry. “Oh, the birds!” she gushed in a YouTube video. “I love that I’ve seen a spider the size of my head.”

Others, like Zac Efron, appear to have settled here permanently.

Zac Efron has been spotted all over Australia.
Zac Efron has been spotted all over Australia. Credit... Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
His Instagram is flush with Australiana: Here he is in a hammock, in the red-earth desert, appearing to participate in an Indigenous ceremony or wearing the Australian cowboy hat, an Akubra. Last year, Mr. Efron even got what an Adelaide hairdresser described as a “mullet,” a much-maligned hairstyle popular in Australia.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/...html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
 
American actors moving to Australia, please tell me there is a behind the scenes deal to send Pauly Shore, Rob Schneider and Carrot Top down under. Point me to the go fund me page.
 
The weather here is great, so I walked to Publix and back. The store has a hands sanitation stand. As does our building. So, I've rubbed so much alcohol into my hands, my hands are now drunk.

But I can still post.
 
DLD said:
The weather here is great, so I walked to Publix and back. The store has a hands sanitation stand. As does our building. So, I've rubbed so much alcohol into my hands, my hands are now drunk.

But I can still post.
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I’ve literally used more hand sanitizer in the last 10-12 months than in my entire life, previously.

My Mom received her second shot several weeks ago and was completely fine. Talked to my Dad last week and he said he was a little sick for a day or two after his second shot. One of my audio guys got his first one earlier this week, I believe. And another one of our guys was diagnosed with COVID last weekend, the day before he was scheduled to receive his first shot.
 
Run&Gun said:
I’ve literally used more hand sanitizer in the last 10-12 months than in my entire life, previously.

My Mom received her second shot several weeks ago and was completely fine. Talked to my Dad last week and he said he was a little sick for a day or two after his second shot. One of my audio guys got his first one earlier this week, I believe. And another one of our guys was diagnosed with COVID last weekend, the day before he was scheduled to receive his first shot.
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I'll be getting my 2nd shot on the 26th. Unfortunately, it's the 2nd shot that is more likely to give you symptoms, and I have all day shoots on the 27th and 28th, with a lot of gimbal work planned, so we'll see how that goes.
 
Run&Gun said:
I’ve literally used more hand sanitizer in the last 10-12 months than in my entire life, previously...
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There are a lot of young children in our building now, so I try not to touch anything anyway. If I have to ride in an elevator, I use my elbows. And I have began to carry a paper towel square that is doused with a disinfectant, so if I do touch something, I can wipe my hands right away.

I began doing this when the whole thing started . The disinfectant has some sort of lilac/spring flowers smell. It still leaves your hands sticky. It is ammonia based, so inhalation is not recommended. I read recently it was as effective as alcohol but doesn't cause anyone to suddenly start speaking Russian. Надеюсь что все у всех хорошо.
 
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