I was the same. I had my first booster (3rd shot) in January and had a mild case of Covid in May, and got my 4th shot last week. I'm growing weary of the shots. I don't get flu shots because I seldom get the flu, and I don't feel I'm the demographic that it's lethal. The last bad one I had was in 2009.
Basically I'm not against vaccines, I've had a lot. If I think something has the potential to do me permanent harm I'll get vaccinated, but most other stuff I take my chances. So I'm starting to wonder with Covid.. is tcell memory enough now that even with mutations if you get it, is the odds of it being lethal or life damaging pretty slim, as your body has a good template to fireup the immunue system and attack the virus.
I guess I'm wondering if Covid is still as dangerous as it was.. or with the tcell memory from vaccines and infection enough that your body sort of remembers how to fight it, and thus covid's lethality is forever crippled kind of thing (at least in those that have had some vaccines and/or prior infection).
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,996
Boston establishing 11 wastewater COVID-19 testing sites
1 hour ago
BOSTON (AP) — Boston is planning to establish 11 wastewater testing sites across the city to help monitor for spikes in the COVID-19 virus.
The head of the Boston Public Health Commission said the city is partnering with vendors to create the sites as COVID-19 levels in wastewater across the region have begun rising.
Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Boston's public health commissioner, said the city will be sampling water from the sites on a weekly basis. Ojikutu said the testing will also help the city monitor for the appearance of new variants of the disease.
The city is currently receiving information pulled together from Boston and 22 other nearby locations. City health officials hope the Boston testing sites will help them understand what's happening at a neighborhood level.
The city is tapping $3.9 million in federal funding to pay for the project.
Coronavirus levels in Eastern Massachusetts wastewater have been on the uptick in recent weeks.
Tracking levels of the virus in wastewaster can serve as a kind of early warning signal, detecting changes even before people are able to be tested and the results reported to public health officials.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
Apparently. Because, like, Covid is real?
Why the fuck go sideways about something and when you get it go scurrying back?
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
Apparently. Because, like, Covid is real?
Why the fuck go sideways about something and when you get it go scurrying back?
Well, seeing how we in the US were told that we were acting like we were living in China during the "lockdowns," maybe a 'Murican can explain it? Maybe their vaccine is less effective? Maybe they have a low vaccination rate? Maybe they're seeing people drop like flies? The CNN article I linked has some theories as to why things are the way they are but as I said, who really knows?
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
Apparently. Because, like, Covid is real?
Why the fuck go sideways about something and when you get it go scurrying back?
Well, seeing how we in the US were told that we were acting like we were living in China during the "lockdowns," maybe a 'Murican can explain it? Maybe their vaccine is less effective? Maybe they have a low vaccination rate? Maybe they're seeing people drop like flies? The CNN article I linked has some theories as to why things are the way they are but as I said, who really knows?
It makes zero sense. That's coming from a "Murican.
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
Apparently. Because, like, Covid is real?
Why the fuck go sideways about something and when you get it go scurrying back?
Well, seeing how we in the US were told that we were acting like we were living in China during the "lockdowns," maybe a 'Murican can explain it? Maybe their vaccine is less effective? Maybe they have a low vaccination rate? Maybe they're seeing people drop like flies? The CNN article I linked has some theories as to why things are the way they are but as I said, who really knows?
It makes zero sense. That's coming from a "Murican.
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
Apparently. Because, like, Covid is real?
Why the fuck go sideways about something and when you get it go scurrying back?
Well, seeing how we in the US were told that we were acting like we were living in China during the "lockdowns," maybe a 'Murican can explain it? Maybe their vaccine is less effective? Maybe they have a low vaccination rate? Maybe they're seeing people drop like flies? The CNN article I linked has some theories as to why things are the way they are but as I said, who really knows?
It makes zero sense. That's coming from a "Murican.
Does anything make sense? Q knows.
lol I was just going to post that, hahahahah!
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,996
So China has done a 180 after their people started storming the streets. You don't think that the government got scared? From lockdowns to held up quarantines to business as usual?
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
Yea, from government imposed lockdowns to self-imposed lockdowns. I guess they’re free?
Did everyone get sick from protesting? There were literally thousands upon thousands in the streets 10 days ago.
They’re seeing so many new cases that they’ve stopped counting and organizations are not providing services because most of the staff is out. But who really knows?
The country was in an uproar at the lockdowns but people are getting positive tests now and everyone goes into hiding?
Apparently. Because, like, Covid is real?
Why the fuck go sideways about something and when you get it go scurrying back?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,996
White House reveals winter COVID-19 plans, more free tests
By ZEKE MILLER
25 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is again making some free COVID-19 tests available to all U.S. households as it unveils its contingency plans for potential coronavirus surges this winter.
After a three-month hiatus, the administration is making four rapid virus tests available through covidtests.gov starting Thursday, a senior administration official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the program. COVID-19 cases have shown a marked increase after the Thanksgiving holiday, and further increases are projected from indoor gathering and travel around Christmas and New Year's.
The administration is putting personnel and equipment on standby should they be needed to help overwhelmed hospitals and nursing homes, as was necessary in earlier waves of the virus. So far, there have been no requests for assistance, but surge teams, ventilators and personal protective equipment are ready, the official said.
The Biden administration is also urging states and local governments to do more to encourage people to get the updated bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, which scientists say are more effective at protecting against serious illness and death from the currently circulating variants. The administration is reiterating best practices to nursing homes and long-term care facilities for virus prevention and treatment and is urging administrators as well as governments to encourage vulnerable populations to get the new shots.
The planning comes as the administration has struggled to persuade most Americans to get the updated boosters as cases and deaths have declined from pandemic highs and most people have embraced a return to most of their pre-pandemic activities.
The official said funding for the new tests has been reallocated from other virus programs while the White House struggles to get congressional buy-in for additional COVID-19 emergency funding. The official declined to detail how much is being spent on the new tests or from which programs they were diverted.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
More than just about covid. I blame Pat Blewcannon and Newt the Beaut. "A war for the soul of 'Murica," and the "Contract with 'Murica." Still waiting for that healthcare plan bigger, better and more beautiful than Obamacare.
Can politics kill you? Research says the answer increasingly is yes.
As the coronavirus pandemic approaches its third full winter, two studies reveal an uncomfortable truth: The toxicity of partisan politics is fueling an overall increase in mortality rates for working-age Americans.
In one study, researchers concluded that people living in more-conservative parts of the United States disproportionately bore the burden of illness and death linked to covid-19. The other, which looked at health outcomes more broadly, found that the more conservative a state’s policies, the shorter the lives of working-age people.
The reasons are many, but, increasingly, it is state — and not just federal — policies thathave begun to shape the economic, family, environmental and behavioral circumstances that affect people’s well-being. Some states have expanded their social safety nets, raising minimum wages and offering earned income tax credits while using excise taxes to discourage behaviors — such assmoking — that have deleterious health consequences. Other stateshave moved in the opposite direction.
Researchers say the result of this growing polarization is clear: The nation’s overall health profile is going from bad to worse. Americans can expect to live as long as they did in 1996 — 76.1 years, with life spans truncated by higher rates of chronic illnesses, deaths in childbirth and covid.
“I’m not doing this research to be partisan, simplistically supporting one party or another,” said Nancy Krieger, a social epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author on one of the two studies. “This is about looking at the behavior of different actors, some of whom have a lot more power than others to set standards, make demands and allocate resources.”
Krieger said it is fair for people to ask their elected officials, “Are you doing what you should to protect our health?”
Harvard researchers analyzed data on covid-19 mortality rates and the stress on hospital intensive care units across all 435 congressional districts from April 2021 to March 2022. They also examined congressional members’ overall voting records, how they voted on four coronavirus relief bills, and whether the governor’s office and legislature of a state were controlled by one party.
The study, published this month in the Lancet Regional Health-Americas, found that the more conservative the voting records of members of Congress and state legislators, the higher the age-adjusted covid mortality rates — even after taking into account the racial, education and income characteristics of each congressional district along with vaccination rates.
Covid death rates were 11 percent higher in states with Republican-controlled governments and 26 percent higher in areas where voters lean conservative. Similar results emerged about hospital ICU capacity when the concentration of political power in a state was conservative.
The findings cannot be explained away as features of the economic and social conditions of the people who live in various congressional districts, Krieger said. This is “somehow above and beyond the demographics of the district [that members] represent. It’s suggesting that there is something going on through political processes associated with the political voting patterns of elected officials,” she said.
Public policies — along with public opinions about masks and vaccines and a constellation of other factors — helped change the nation’s pattern of covid mortality.
A Washington Post analysis of covid data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the age-adjusted death rates for covid shifted. Early in the pandemic, communities of color — especially Black people — disproportionately bore the burden. But by mid-October 2021, that pattern had shifted, with the death rate for White Americans, who form the core of the Republican base, sometimes eclipsing that of other groups.
And still, the unequal burden of death and disease transcends covid: A chasm of inequality puts communities of color at higher risk of chronic conditions that leave immune systems vulnerable — a reflection of systemic racism, public health experts say.
“Too often, public health and medical behavior is understood to be individual-level behavior. Politicians behave. Institutions behave,” Krieger said. “If your congressional representative is encouraging you to wear masks or not wear masks, those are very different messages.”
The division in American politics has grown increasingly caustic and polarized, but it wasn’t always this way.
From the 1930s to the 1970s, there were major investments to improve the lives of vulnerable people nationwide. The Social Security Act of 1935. Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Before these federal programs, the nation was a hodgepodge of state programs that varied widely, said University of Washington political scientistJake Grumbach, a co-author of a study on the effects of state policy on the mortality of working-age adults published in October in the journal PLOS One.
Everyone saw benefits, but the federal legislation from earlier decades “pulled the poorer states up faster,” Grumbach said, adding that “you saw a convergence between states” in terms of health outcomes.
Then came the breakdown of the New Deal coalition. The nationalization of media. Increased money in politics. And the social upheaval of the 1960s and ’70s — the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the sexual revolution, environmentalism.
“All of those things contributed to polarization,” Grumbach said, adding that the rupture began “kicking up in the ’90s” and has really taken hold since 2010, an era that “saw the real radicalization of the Republican Party … that culminated with Trump.”
The gridlock and lack of productivity that polarization causes mean that “if you want to do anything, you have to do it at the state level,” he said.
Of the 36 gubernatorial elections, Democrats flipped three seats that were up for grabs and Republicans flipped one, so that now, the nation’s governors are almost evenly split along party lines. And voters in six states passed ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights and to expand access to health care, including in three states where Republicans control the legislature and hadopposed taking action on those measures on their own.
“People will hold their nose and vote for a candidate that represents their party, but they don’t have to hold their nose when they’re voting on a policy issue,” said Erin O’Brien, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
That’s because conservative politics is as much about identity as it is about issues of concern — even as health care remains critically important, O’Brien said. “But how that broad concern can be manipulated, framed, used in politics is different,” she said.
So, while Grumbach’s recent study suggests “if you want people to live longer and more healthy you should implement policies that are associated with the Democratic Party but for marijuana,” O’Brien said she wonders “how would a libertarian or a real conservative read that?”
A sense of liberty informed by a fatalistic acceptance that hardships happen in life is bedrock in many conservative areas, she said. “If liberty means you’ve got guns and that gun is accessible when you’re having a depressive episode, they’re not there to coddle other citizens,” O’Brien said.
The October report found that if all states implemented liberal policies on the environment, gun safety, criminal justice, health and welfare, labor, marijuana, and economic and tobacco taxes, more than 170,000 lives would have been saved in 2019. On the flip side, if states went with conservative versions of those policies, there would have been about 217,000 more deaths that year — “the equivalent of a 600-passenger airplane crashing every day of the year,” the study said.
The largest projected number of lives saved — about 201,000 — came from a more mixed menu of ideologies, with conservative marijuana policies and liberal policies on everything else, according to the report. The study noted that the emergence of more-conservative state policies and shifts in population to states governed by these policies only partially explains why U.S. life expectancy is abysmal compared with other high-income nations.
Jennifer Karas Montez, the director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies at Syracuse University and lead author of the October study, said the findings show “state policy knobs are a lever that we could use to really turn this country around and stop this alarming — just horrible when you think about it — increase in the risk of dying before age 65.”
Midterm ballot initiatives showed the direct role voters can play in determining state health policy. South Dakota voters passed a measure to expand Medicaid, joining voters in six other states who previously insisted a wider pool of people be eligible for health insurance than allowed under the Affordable Care Act.
Despite there being 11 holdout states that refuse to expand Medicaid and ongoing legal challenges, Jennifer Young, a Republican health policy expert, said the issue is becoming “a little bit less politicized” and awareness is increasing that people’s access to health insurance is being harmed and states are leaving money on the table.
“The fact that these states are continuing to have ballot initiatives that kind of forced the decision makes those states who have not yet done so” reflect on their actions, Young said during a Kaiser Family Foundation panel discussion. “I wouldn’t want to be naive or Pollyanna-ish, but I think it’s more of a reasonable topic to discuss today than it was five years ago.”
Another issue caused Republicans consternation during the midterm elections: abortion rights, which were on the ballot in five states after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June.
California, Michigan and Vermont enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions, and voters in Kentucky and Montana rejected antiabortion measures.
“We saw states step back from the brink of the most aggressive interventions, and I do hope that’s a lesson that the party takes seriously,” Young said, adding she doubts House Republicans will abandon their “aggressive positioning on abortion.”
But, she said, “that’s not what voters are saying to us.”
Withabortion services no longer legal nationwide, university researchers have estimated that maternal deaths could increase by up to 25 to 30 percent, worsening the nation’s maternal mortality and morbidity crisis. Americans live shorter lives than people in peer nations, in part because it is the worst place among high-income countries to give birth.
The nation is entering a period that some political scientists say is certain to be fractious and gridlocked on the federal level. Still, they predict some movement in the lame-duck congressional session on a handful of issues possessing bipartisan appeal.
One reason Democrats retained the Senate is that voters were motivated by “the fear of losing protections that people care about, whether it was electoral or whether it’s abortion, or frankly, health care in general,” said Chris Jennings, a Democratic health policy strategist. “Democrats feel somewhat reaffirmed by both their advocacy of policy and their positioning to protect those rights.”
Health care is a priority agenda item, “for good or for bad,” Jennings said, cautioning that “sometimes we have to lower our expectations of how big and broad” policy accomplishments will look. “There’s bipartisan interest in coverage for post-incarceration populations in the Medicaid program. There’s real interest in postpartum care.”
Political scientists also say there could be bipartisan movement on extending telehealth flexibilities, including those that made it easier for doctors to be reimbursed for the virtual appointments, and improving care for mental health and substance abuse.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Jennings said during the same Kaiser Family Foundation panel. “It’s not going to be comprehensive, but there will be developments of progress.”
China's COVID-19 surge raises odds of new coronavirus mutant
By LAURA UNGAR and ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL
2 hours ago
Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world?
Scientists don’t know but worry that might happen. It could be similar to omicron variants circulating there now. It could be a combination of strains. Or something entirely different, they say.
“China has a population that is very large and there’s limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant," said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.
Every new infection offers a chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and the virus is spreading rapidly in China. The country of 1.4 billion has largely abandoned its “zero COVID” policy. Though overall reported vaccination rates are high, booster levels are lower, especially among older people. Domestic vaccines have proven less effective against serious infection than Western-made messenger RNA versions. Many were given more than a year ago, meaning immunity has waned.
The result? Fertile ground for the virus to change.
“When we’ve seen big waves of infection, it’s often followed by new variants being generated,” Ray said.
About three years ago, the original version of the coronavirus spread from China to the rest of the world and was eventually replaced by the delta variant, then omicron and its descendants, which continue plaguing the world today.
Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, who studies viruses at Ohio State University, said many existing omicron variants have been detected in China, including BF.7, which is extremely adept at evading immunity and is believed to be driving the current surge.
Experts said a partially immune population like China’s puts particular pressure on the virus to change. Ray compared the virus to a boxer that “learns to evade the skills that you have and adapt to get around those.”
One big unknown is whether a new variant will cause more severe disease. Experts say there’s no inherent biological reason the virus has to become milder over time.
“Much of the mildness we’ve experienced over the past six to 12 months in many parts of the world has been due to accumulated immunity either through vaccination or infection, not because the virus has changed" in severity, Ray said.
In China, most people have never been exposed to the coronavirus. China's vaccines rely on an older technology producing fewer antibodies than messenger RNA vaccines.
Given those realities, Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, said it remains to be seen if the virus will follow the same pattern of evolution in China as it has in the rest of the world after vaccines came out. “Or," she asked, “will the pattern of evolution be completely different?”
Recently, the World Health Organization expressed concern about reports of severe disease in China. Around the cities of Baoding and Langfang outside Beijing, hospitals have run out of intensive care beds and staff as severe cases surge.
China’s plan to track the virus centers around three city hospitals in each province, where samples will be collected from walk-in patients who are very sick and all those who die every week, Xu Wenbo of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a briefing Tuesday.
He said 50 of the 130 omicron versions detected in China had resulted in outbreaks. The country is creating a national genetic database “to monitor in real time” how different strains were evolving and the potential implications for public health, he said.
At this point, however, there’s limited information about genetic viral sequencing coming out of China, said Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
“We don’t know all of what’s going on,” Luban said. But clearly, "the pandemic is not over.”
___
AP video producer Olivia Zhang and reporter Dake Kang in Beijing contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
No offence meant here, but you might want to post some of the pertinent sections of the links you’re posting. I don’t know about others, but I don’t click links I don’t recognize/look suspect.
China races to vaccinate elderly, but many are reluctant
By JOE McDONALD
Today
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are going door to door and paying people older than 60 to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But even as cases surge, 64-year-old Li Liansheng said his friends are alarmed by stories of fevers, blood clots and other side effects.
“When people hear about such incidents, they may not be willing to take the vaccines,” said Li, who had been vaccinated before he caught COVID-19. A few days after his 10-day bout with the virus, Li is nursing a sore throat and cough. He said it was like a “normal cold” with a mild fever.
China has joined other countries in treating cases instead of trying to stamp out virus transmission by dropping or easing rules on testing, quarantines and movement as it tries to reverse an economic slump. But the shift has flooded hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients.
The National Health Commission announced a campaign Nov. 29 to raise the vaccination rate among older Chinese, which health experts say is crucial to avoiding a health care crisis. It's also the biggest hurdle before the ruling Communist Party can lift the last of the world’s most stringent antivirus restrictions.
China kept case numbers low for two years with a “zero-COVID” strategy that isolated cities and confined millions of people to their homes. Now, as it backs off that approach, it is facing the widespread outbreaks that other countries have already gone through.
The health commission has recorded only six COVID-19 fatalities this month, bringing the country’s official toll to 5,241. That is despite multiple reports by families of relatives dying.
China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 toll, a health official said last week. That unusually narrow definition excludes many deaths other countries would attribute to COVID-19.
Experts have forecast 1 to 2 million deaths in China through the end of 2023.
Li, who was exercising at the leafy grounds of central Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, said he is considering getting a second booster due to the publicity campaign: “As long as we know the vaccine won’t cause big side effects, we should take it.”
Neighborhood committees that form the lowest level of government have been ordered to find everyone 65 and older and keep track of their health. They are doing what state media call the “ideological work” of lobbying residents to persuade elderly relatives to get vaccinated.
In Beijing, the Chinese capital, the Liulidun neighborhood is promising people over 60 up to 500 yuan ($70) to get a two-dose vaccination course and one booster.
The National Health Commission announced Dec. 23 the number of people being vaccinated daily had more than doubled to 3.5 million nationwide. But that still is a small fraction of the tens of millions of shots that were being administered every day in early 2021.
Older people are put off by potential side effects of Chinese-made vaccines, for which the government hasn't announced results of testing on people in their 60s and older.
Li said a 55-year-old friend suffered fevers and blood clots after being vaccinated. He said they can’t be sure the shot was to blame, but his friend is reluctant to get another.
“It’s also said the virus keeps mutating,” Li said. “How do we know if the vaccines we take are useful?”
Some are reluctant because they have diabetes, heart problems and other health complications, despite warnings from experts that it is even more urgent for them to be vaccinated because the risks of COVID-19 are more serious than potential vaccine side effects in almost everyone.
A 76-year-old man taking his daily walk around the Temple of Heaven with the aid of a stick said he wants to be vaccinated but has diabetes and high blood pressure. The man, who would give only his surname, Fu, said he wears masks and tries to avoid crowds.
Older people also felt little urgency because low case numbers before the latest surge meant few faced risk of infection. That earlier lack of infections, however, left China with few people who have developed antibodies against the virus.
“Now, the families and relatives of the elderly people should make it clear to them that an infection can cause serious illness and even death,” said Jiang Shibo of the Fudan University medical school in Shanghai.
More than 90% of people in China have been vaccinated but only about two-thirds of those over 80, according to the National Health Commission. According to its 2020 census, China has 191 million people aged 65 and over — a group that, on its own, would be the eighth most populous country, ahead of Bangladesh.
“Coverage rates for people aged over 80 still need to be improved,” the Shanghai news outlet The Paper said. “The elderly are at high risk.”
Du Ming's son arranged to have the 100-year-old vaccinated, according to his caretaker, Li Zhuqing, who was pushing a face-mask-clad Du through a park in a wheelchair. Li agreed with that approach because none of the family members have been infected, which means they'd be more likely to bring the disease home to Du if they were exposed.
Health officials declined requests by reporters to visit vaccination centers. Two who briefly entered centers were ordered to leave when employees found out who they were.
___
AP researcher Yu Bing and video producers Olivia Zhang and Wayne Zhang contributed.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
seeing a load of studies being published about the long effects of covid, even on mild cases. heart issues, organ issues, brain matter loss. it's insane.
and recently saw a "friend" retweeted some nutbar that says the vaccines are going to be injected into livestock next. viewed 1.4 million times. people are fucked.
seeing a load of studies being published about the long effects of covid, even on mild cases. heart issues, organ issues, brain matter loss. it's insane.
and recently saw a "friend" retweeted some nutbar that says the vaccines are going to be injected into livestock next. viewed 1.4 million times. people are fucked.
I haven't bothered paying attention, has there been published reports of heart issues AFTER covid w and without the vaccine?
Comments
Basically I'm not against vaccines, I've had a lot. If I think something has the potential to do me permanent harm I'll get vaccinated, but most other stuff I take my chances. So I'm starting to wonder with Covid.. is tcell memory enough now that even with mutations if you get it, is the odds of it being lethal or life damaging pretty slim, as your body has a good template to fireup the immunue system and attack the virus.
I guess I'm wondering if Covid is still as dangerous as it was.. or with the tcell memory from vaccines and infection enough that your body sort of remembers how to fight it, and thus covid's lethality is forever crippled kind of thing (at least in those that have had some vaccines and/or prior infection).
BOSTON (AP) — Boston is planning to establish 11 wastewater testing sites across the city to help monitor for spikes in the COVID-19 virus.
The head of the Boston Public Health Commission said the city is partnering with vendors to create the sites as COVID-19 levels in wastewater across the region have begun rising.
Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Boston's public health commissioner, said the city will be sampling water from the sites on a weekly basis. Ojikutu said the testing will also help the city monitor for the appearance of new variants of the disease.
Ojikutu made the comments during a Boston City Council meeting Monday according to The Boston Globe.
The city is currently receiving information pulled together from Boston and 22 other nearby locations. City health officials hope the Boston testing sites will help them understand what's happening at a neighborhood level.
The city is tapping $3.9 million in federal funding to pay for the project.
Coronavirus levels in Eastern Massachusetts wastewater have been on the uptick in recent weeks.
Tracking levels of the virus in wastewaster can serve as a kind of early warning signal, detecting changes even before people are able to be tested and the results reported to public health officials.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.politico.eu/article/pfizer-coronavirus-albert-bourla-europea-union-refuses-testify/
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
Wow. Those people can make some serious change over there if they want. Holy cow.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/china/beijing-zero-covid-easing-streets-impact-intl-hnk-mic/index.html
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Brilliantati©
different when its a choice, no?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is again making some free COVID-19 tests available to all U.S. households as it unveils its contingency plans for potential coronavirus surges this winter.
After a three-month hiatus, the administration is making four rapid virus tests available through covidtests.gov starting Thursday, a senior administration official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the program. COVID-19 cases have shown a marked increase after the Thanksgiving holiday, and further increases are projected from indoor gathering and travel around Christmas and New Year's.
The administration is putting personnel and equipment on standby should they be needed to help overwhelmed hospitals and nursing homes, as was necessary in earlier waves of the virus. So far, there have been no requests for assistance, but surge teams, ventilators and personal protective equipment are ready, the official said.
The Biden administration is also urging states and local governments to do more to encourage people to get the updated bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, which scientists say are more effective at protecting against serious illness and death from the currently circulating variants. The administration is reiterating best practices to nursing homes and long-term care facilities for virus prevention and treatment and is urging administrators as well as governments to encourage vulnerable populations to get the new shots.
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The planning comes as the administration has struggled to persuade most Americans to get the updated boosters as cases and deaths have declined from pandemic highs and most people have embraced a return to most of their pre-pandemic activities.
The official said funding for the new tests has been reallocated from other virus programs while the White House struggles to get congressional buy-in for additional COVID-19 emergency funding. The official declined to detail how much is being spent on the new tests or from which programs they were diverted.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Can politics kill you? Research says the answer increasingly is yes.
As the coronavirus pandemic approaches its third full winter, two studies reveal an uncomfortable truth: The toxicity of partisan politics is fueling an overall increase in mortality rates for working-age Americans.
In one study, researchers concluded that people living in more-conservative parts of the United States disproportionately bore the burden of illness and death linked to covid-19. The other, which looked at health outcomes more broadly, found that the more conservative a state’s policies, the shorter the lives of working-age people.
The reasons are many, but, increasingly, it is state — and not just federal — policies that have begun to shape the economic, family, environmental and behavioral circumstances that affect people’s well-being. Some states have expanded their social safety nets, raising minimum wages and offering earned income tax credits while using excise taxes to discourage behaviors — such as smoking — that have deleterious health consequences. Other states have moved in the opposite direction.
Researchers say the result of this growing polarization is clear: The nation’s overall health profile is going from bad to worse. Americans can expect to live as long as they did in 1996 — 76.1 years, with life spans truncated by higher rates of chronic illnesses, deaths in childbirth and covid.
“I’m not doing this research to be partisan, simplistically supporting one party or another,” said Nancy Krieger, a social epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author on one of the two studies. “This is about looking at the behavior of different actors, some of whom have a lot more power than others to set standards, make demands and allocate resources.”
Krieger said it is fair for people to ask their elected officials, “Are you doing what you should to protect our health?”
Harvard researchers analyzed data on covid-19 mortality rates and the stress on hospital intensive care units across all 435 congressional districts from April 2021 to March 2022. They also examined congressional members’ overall voting records, how they voted on four coronavirus relief bills, and whether the governor’s office and legislature of a state were controlled by one party.
The study, published this month in the Lancet Regional Health-Americas, found that the more conservative the voting records of members of Congress and state legislators, the higher the age-adjusted covid mortality rates — even after taking into account the racial, education and income characteristics of each congressional district along with vaccination rates.
Covid death rates were 11 percent higher in states with Republican-controlled governments and 26 percent higher in areas where voters lean conservative. Similar results emerged about hospital ICU capacity when the concentration of political power in a state was conservative.
The findings cannot be explained away as features of the economic and social conditions of the people who live in various congressional districts, Krieger said. This is “somehow above and beyond the demographics of the district [that members] represent. It’s suggesting that there is something going on through political processes associated with the political voting patterns of elected officials,” she said.
Public policies — along with public opinions about masks and vaccines and a constellation of other factors — helped change the nation’s pattern of covid mortality.
A Washington Post analysis of covid data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the age-adjusted death rates for covid shifted. Early in the pandemic, communities of color — especially Black people — disproportionately bore the burden. But by mid-October 2021, that pattern had shifted, with the death rate for White Americans, who form the core of the Republican base, sometimes eclipsing that of other groups.
And still, the unequal burden of death and disease transcends covid: A chasm of inequality puts communities of color at higher risk of chronic conditions that leave immune systems vulnerable — a reflection of systemic racism, public health experts say.
“Too often, public health and medical behavior is understood to be individual-level behavior. Politicians behave. Institutions behave,” Krieger said. “If your congressional representative is encouraging you to wear masks or not wear masks, those are very different messages.”
The division in American politics has grown increasingly caustic and polarized, but it wasn’t always this way.
From the 1930s to the 1970s, there were major investments to improve the lives of vulnerable people nationwide. The Social Security Act of 1935. Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Before these federal programs, the nation was a hodgepodge of state programs that varied widely, said University of Washington political scientist Jake Grumbach, a co-author of a study on the effects of state policy on the mortality of working-age adults published in October in the journal PLOS One.
Everyone saw benefits, but the federal legislation from earlier decades “pulled the poorer states up faster,” Grumbach said, adding that “you saw a convergence between states” in terms of health outcomes.
Then came the breakdown of the New Deal coalition. The nationalization of media. Increased money in politics. And the social upheaval of the 1960s and ’70s — the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the sexual revolution, environmentalism.
“All of those things contributed to polarization,” Grumbach said, adding that the rupture began “kicking up in the ’90s” and has really taken hold since 2010, an era that “saw the real radicalization of the Republican Party … that culminated with Trump.”
The gridlock and lack of productivity that polarization causes mean that “if you want to do anything, you have to do it at the state level,” he said.
State elections were battlegrounds during the 2022 midterm elections, which didn’t produce the red wave that was forecast.
Of the 36 gubernatorial elections, Democrats flipped three seats that were up for grabs and Republicans flipped one, so that now, the nation’s governors are almost evenly split along party lines. And voters in six states passed ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights and to expand access to health care, including in three states where Republicans control the legislature and had opposed taking action on those measures on their own.
“People will hold their nose and vote for a candidate that represents their party, but they don’t have to hold their nose when they’re voting on a policy issue,” said Erin O’Brien, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
That’s because conservative politics is as much about identity as it is about issues of concern — even as health care remains critically important, O’Brien said. “But how that broad concern can be manipulated, framed, used in politics is different,” she said.
So, while Grumbach’s recent study suggests “if you want people to live longer and more healthy you should implement policies that are associated with the Democratic Party but for marijuana,” O’Brien said she wonders “how would a libertarian or a real conservative read that?”
A sense of liberty informed by a fatalistic acceptance that hardships happen in life is bedrock in many conservative areas, she said. “If liberty means you’ve got guns and that gun is accessible when you’re having a depressive episode, they’re not there to coddle other citizens,” O’Brien said.
The October report found that if all states implemented liberal policies on the environment, gun safety, criminal justice, health and welfare, labor, marijuana, and economic and tobacco taxes, more than 170,000 lives would have been saved in 2019. On the flip side, if states went with conservative versions of those policies, there would have been about 217,000 more deaths that year — “the equivalent of a 600-passenger airplane crashing every day of the year,” the study said.
The largest projected number of lives saved — about 201,000 — came from a more mixed menu of ideologies, with conservative marijuana policies and liberal policies on everything else, according to the report. The study noted that the emergence of more-conservative state policies and shifts in population to states governed by these policies only partially explains why U.S. life expectancy is abysmal compared with other high-income nations.
Jennifer Karas Montez, the director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies at Syracuse University and lead author of the October study, said the findings show “state policy knobs are a lever that we could use to really turn this country around and stop this alarming — just horrible when you think about it — increase in the risk of dying before age 65.”
Midterm ballot initiatives showed the direct role voters can play in determining state health policy. South Dakota voters passed a measure to expand Medicaid, joining voters in six other states who previously insisted a wider pool of people be eligible for health insurance than allowed under the Affordable Care Act.
Despite there being 11 holdout states that refuse to expand Medicaid and ongoing legal challenges, Jennifer Young, a Republican health policy expert, said the issue is becoming “a little bit less politicized” and awareness is increasing that people’s access to health insurance is being harmed and states are leaving money on the table.
“The fact that these states are continuing to have ballot initiatives that kind of forced the decision makes those states who have not yet done so” reflect on their actions, Young said during a Kaiser Family Foundation panel discussion. “I wouldn’t want to be naive or Pollyanna-ish, but I think it’s more of a reasonable topic to discuss today than it was five years ago.”
Another issue caused Republicans consternation during the midterm elections: abortion rights, which were on the ballot in five states after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June.
California, Michigan and Vermont enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions, and voters in Kentucky and Montana rejected antiabortion measures.
“We saw states step back from the brink of the most aggressive interventions, and I do hope that’s a lesson that the party takes seriously,” Young said, adding she doubts House Republicans will abandon their “aggressive positioning on abortion.”
But, she said, “that’s not what voters are saying to us.”
With abortion services no longer legal nationwide, university researchers have estimated that maternal deaths could increase by up to 25 to 30 percent, worsening the nation’s maternal mortality and morbidity crisis. Americans live shorter lives than people in peer nations, in part because it is the worst place among high-income countries to give birth.
The nation is entering a period that some political scientists say is certain to be fractious and gridlocked on the federal level. Still, they predict some movement in the lame-duck congressional session on a handful of issues possessing bipartisan appeal.
One reason Democrats retained the Senate is that voters were motivated by “the fear of losing protections that people care about, whether it was electoral or whether it’s abortion, or frankly, health care in general,” said Chris Jennings, a Democratic health policy strategist. “Democrats feel somewhat reaffirmed by both their advocacy of policy and their positioning to protect those rights.”
Health care is a priority agenda item, “for good or for bad,” Jennings said, cautioning that “sometimes we have to lower our expectations of how big and broad” policy accomplishments will look. “There’s bipartisan interest in coverage for post-incarceration populations in the Medicaid program. There’s real interest in postpartum care.”
Political scientists also say there could be bipartisan movement on extending telehealth flexibilities, including those that made it easier for doctors to be reimbursed for the virtual appointments, and improving care for mental health and substance abuse.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Jennings said during the same Kaiser Family Foundation panel. “It’s not going to be comprehensive, but there will be developments of progress.”
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/dr-kerryn-phelps-reveals-devastating-covid-vaccine-injury-says-doctors-have-been-censored/news-story/0c1fa02818c99a5ff65f5bf852a382cf
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
https://germany.detailzero.com/covid-19/261499/Bundestag-Vice-Kubicki-calls-for-autopsies-of-those-who-died-shortly-after-the-Covid-vaccination.html
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world?
Scientists don’t know but worry that might happen. It could be similar to omicron variants circulating there now. It could be a combination of strains. Or something entirely different, they say.
“China has a population that is very large and there’s limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant," said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.
Every new infection offers a chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and the virus is spreading rapidly in China. The country of 1.4 billion has largely abandoned its “zero COVID” policy. Though overall reported vaccination rates are high, booster levels are lower, especially among older people. Domestic vaccines have proven less effective against serious infection than Western-made messenger RNA versions. Many were given more than a year ago, meaning immunity has waned.
The result? Fertile ground for the virus to change.
“When we’ve seen big waves of infection, it’s often followed by new variants being generated,” Ray said.
About three years ago, the original version of the coronavirus spread from China to the rest of the world and was eventually replaced by the delta variant, then omicron and its descendants, which continue plaguing the world today.
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Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, who studies viruses at Ohio State University, said many existing omicron variants have been detected in China, including BF.7, which is extremely adept at evading immunity and is believed to be driving the current surge.
Experts said a partially immune population like China’s puts particular pressure on the virus to change. Ray compared the virus to a boxer that “learns to evade the skills that you have and adapt to get around those.”
One big unknown is whether a new variant will cause more severe disease. Experts say there’s no inherent biological reason the virus has to become milder over time.
“Much of the mildness we’ve experienced over the past six to 12 months in many parts of the world has been due to accumulated immunity either through vaccination or infection, not because the virus has changed" in severity, Ray said.
In China, most people have never been exposed to the coronavirus. China's vaccines rely on an older technology producing fewer antibodies than messenger RNA vaccines.
Given those realities, Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, said it remains to be seen if the virus will follow the same pattern of evolution in China as it has in the rest of the world after vaccines came out. “Or," she asked, “will the pattern of evolution be completely different?”
Recently, the World Health Organization expressed concern about reports of severe disease in China. Around the cities of Baoding and Langfang outside Beijing, hospitals have run out of intensive care beds and staff as severe cases surge.
China’s plan to track the virus centers around three city hospitals in each province, where samples will be collected from walk-in patients who are very sick and all those who die every week, Xu Wenbo of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a briefing Tuesday.
He said 50 of the 130 omicron versions detected in China had resulted in outbreaks. The country is creating a national genetic database “to monitor in real time” how different strains were evolving and the potential implications for public health, he said.
At this point, however, there’s limited information about genetic viral sequencing coming out of China, said Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
“We don’t know all of what’s going on,” Luban said. But clearly, "the pandemic is not over.”
___
AP video producer Olivia Zhang and reporter Dake Kang in Beijing contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.thedesertreview.com/white-house-covid-czar-admits-masks-dont-work/article_8ffc2d7e-82ec-11ed-b3fe-379aa32369df.html
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
www.headstonesband.com
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are going door to door and paying people older than 60 to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But even as cases surge, 64-year-old Li Liansheng said his friends are alarmed by stories of fevers, blood clots and other side effects.
“When people hear about such incidents, they may not be willing to take the vaccines,” said Li, who had been vaccinated before he caught COVID-19. A few days after his 10-day bout with the virus, Li is nursing a sore throat and cough. He said it was like a “normal cold” with a mild fever.
China has joined other countries in treating cases instead of trying to stamp out virus transmission by dropping or easing rules on testing, quarantines and movement as it tries to reverse an economic slump. But the shift has flooded hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients.
The National Health Commission announced a campaign Nov. 29 to raise the vaccination rate among older Chinese, which health experts say is crucial to avoiding a health care crisis. It's also the biggest hurdle before the ruling Communist Party can lift the last of the world’s most stringent antivirus restrictions.
China kept case numbers low for two years with a “zero-COVID” strategy that isolated cities and confined millions of people to their homes. Now, as it backs off that approach, it is facing the widespread outbreaks that other countries have already gone through.
The health commission has recorded only six COVID-19 fatalities this month, bringing the country’s official toll to 5,241. That is despite multiple reports by families of relatives dying.
China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 toll, a health official said last week. That unusually narrow definition excludes many deaths other countries would attribute to COVID-19.
Experts have forecast 1 to 2 million deaths in China through the end of 2023.
Li, who was exercising at the leafy grounds of central Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, said he is considering getting a second booster due to the publicity campaign: “As long as we know the vaccine won’t cause big side effects, we should take it.”
Neighborhood committees that form the lowest level of government have been ordered to find everyone 65 and older and keep track of their health. They are doing what state media call the “ideological work” of lobbying residents to persuade elderly relatives to get vaccinated.
In Beijing, the Chinese capital, the Liulidun neighborhood is promising people over 60 up to 500 yuan ($70) to get a two-dose vaccination course and one booster.
The National Health Commission announced Dec. 23 the number of people being vaccinated daily had more than doubled to 3.5 million nationwide. But that still is a small fraction of the tens of millions of shots that were being administered every day in early 2021.
Older people are put off by potential side effects of Chinese-made vaccines, for which the government hasn't announced results of testing on people in their 60s and older.
Li said a 55-year-old friend suffered fevers and blood clots after being vaccinated. He said they can’t be sure the shot was to blame, but his friend is reluctant to get another.
“It’s also said the virus keeps mutating,” Li said. “How do we know if the vaccines we take are useful?”
Some are reluctant because they have diabetes, heart problems and other health complications, despite warnings from experts that it is even more urgent for them to be vaccinated because the risks of COVID-19 are more serious than potential vaccine side effects in almost everyone.
A 76-year-old man taking his daily walk around the Temple of Heaven with the aid of a stick said he wants to be vaccinated but has diabetes and high blood pressure. The man, who would give only his surname, Fu, said he wears masks and tries to avoid crowds.
Older people also felt little urgency because low case numbers before the latest surge meant few faced risk of infection. That earlier lack of infections, however, left China with few people who have developed antibodies against the virus.
“Now, the families and relatives of the elderly people should make it clear to them that an infection can cause serious illness and even death,” said Jiang Shibo of the Fudan University medical school in Shanghai.
More than 90% of people in China have been vaccinated but only about two-thirds of those over 80, according to the National Health Commission. According to its 2020 census, China has 191 million people aged 65 and over — a group that, on its own, would be the eighth most populous country, ahead of Bangladesh.
“Coverage rates for people aged over 80 still need to be improved,” the Shanghai news outlet The Paper said. “The elderly are at high risk.”
Du Ming's son arranged to have the 100-year-old vaccinated, according to his caretaker, Li Zhuqing, who was pushing a face-mask-clad Du through a park in a wheelchair. Li agreed with that approach because none of the family members have been infected, which means they'd be more likely to bring the disease home to Du if they were exposed.
Health officials declined requests by reporters to visit vaccination centers. Two who briefly entered centers were ordered to leave when employees found out who they were.
___
AP researcher Yu Bing and video producers Olivia Zhang and Wayne Zhang contributed.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
and recently saw a "friend" retweeted some nutbar that says the vaccines are going to be injected into livestock next. viewed 1.4 million times. people are fucked.
www.headstonesband.com
astoria 06
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this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -