‘Out of control’: Brazil’s COVID surge sparks regional fears

Brazil’s crisis is now being felt well beyond its borders. The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) reported that the P1 variant has been found to be driving the second wave in at least 15 nations in the Americas.

Once championed as Latin America’s COVID poster child, Uruguay is now grappling with an explosive surge in deaths. According to government data, the 121 COVID deaths recorded in April has exceeded last year’s total COVID deaths.

“Uruguay is a good example of how things could get bad quickly,” said the Argentinian virologist Debat, who is monitoring the genome sequences of variants of concern.

The P1 variant has also been detected in Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru and Chile, as well as Canada and the United States.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/4/10/out-of-control-brazils-covid-surge-sparks-regional-fears

Herd immunity may take 4.6 years due to vaccine nationalism

Vaccine access and vaccination rates are high in high-to-upper-income countries but remain low to nonexistent among lower-income and lower-resource countries.

At current global vaccination rates, it will take 4.6 years to achieve worldwide herd immunity against COVID-19. This lengthy time gap will likely allow variants of the virus to develop and spread, potentially rendering current vaccines ineffective.

Treating vaccines as public goods rather than market commodities is the way to improve vaccine equity. This may involve scaling up existing vaccination distribution programs, developing new ones, and temporarily waiving vaccine patent protections.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/herd-immunity-may-take-4-6-years-due-to-vaccine-nationalism

Critically Sick Covid-19 Cases Rising In Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 – Critical Covid-19 cases in Malaysia have been increasing since the middle of March, reaching a third of intensive care unit (ICU) beds on average this week.

Based on seven-day averages, the proportion of ICU beds occupied by Covid-19 patients rose from 28.2 per cent on March 16 to 32.81 per cent on April 7. The percentage figures were based on 543 ICU beds allocated for Covid-19 patients, as revealed by Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.

This rise of nearly 5 percentage points came at the heels of a downward trend from the height of a near 60 per cent ICU bed occupancy rate due to Covid-19 at the end of January this year. Some six weeks later, the number of Covid-19 ICU cases increased from 152 patients on March 16 by about 28 per cent to 194 patients on April 7.

Based on seven-day averages, the number of Covid-19 patients in ICU on ventilator support rose from about 61 individuals on March 23 to 85 people on April 7.

https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2021/04/09/critically-sick-covid-19-cases-rising-in-malaysia/

New COVID variants have changed the game, and vaccines will not be enough. We need global 'maximum suppression'

At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels without further societal disruption or significant numbers of deaths.

But since then, new “variants of concern” have emerged and spread worldwide, putting current pandemic control efforts, including vaccination, at risk of being derailed.

Put simply, the game has changed, and a successful global rollout of current vaccines by itself is no longer a guarantee of victory.

No one is truly safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe. We are in a race against time to get global transmission rates low enough to prevent the emergence and spread of new variants. The danger is that variants will arise that can overcome the immunity conferred by vaccinations or prior infection.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/new-covid-variants-have-changed-the-game-and-vaccines-will-not-be-enough-we-need-global-maximum-suppression-157870

Highly contagious mutations grip Europe in ‘whole new pandemic’

As Europe struggles in its battle with coronavirus, a host of highly contagious mutations of COVID-19 are acting like “a whole new pandemic” across the continent.
Up to 75 per cent of coronavirus cases in continental Europe are now, according to genomic analysts, the more contagious variant which originated in Kent, UK, The London Telegraphreported.

Around three per cent have been identified as the South African and Brazilian strains which scientists fear could be more resistant to coronavirus vaccines. The Brazilian strain is also thought to be causing more deaths among 18 to 45-year-olds, according to data coming out of the South American nation.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.news.com.au/world/europe/highly-contagious-mutations-grip-europe-in-whole-new-pandemic/news-story/e929f70cbb826adb3fac8a96f29a5660

In measurable ways, Americans are winning the war against the coronavirus. Powerful vaccines and an accelerating rollout all but guarantee an eventual return to normalcy — to backyard barbecues, summer camps and sleepovers.

But it is increasingly clear that the next few months will be painful. So-called variants are spreading, carrying mutations that make the coronavirus both more contagious and in some cases more deadly.

Even as vaccines were authorized late last year, illuminating a path to the pandemic’s end, variants were trouncing Britain, South Africa and Brazil. New variants have continued to pop up — in California one week, in New York and Oregon the next. As they take root, these new versions of the coronavirus threaten to postpone an end to the pandemic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/health/coronavirus-variants-vaccines.html

NOT OVER YET Covid ‘super mutation’ may cause ‘devastating’ new outbreak & beat vaccines if we leave lockdown too soon, experts warn

COVID could mutate into a new super variant which could beat vaccines, make people sicker and reinfect victims in a devastating new outbreak, leading experts have warned.

Scientists told The Sun Online about the need to vaccinate as many people as possible and stick to the lockdown rules as it is feared the rapidly changing virus could overwhelm our current arsenal of vaccines.

And they warned possible new variants in the future could make people sicker and re-infect people who had already developed antibodies in a "very, very scary" new outbreak.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/14509332/covid-super-mutation-beat-vaccines-lockdown/amp/

Despite Chile’s Speedy Covid-19 Vaccination Drive, Cases Soar

Experts say Chile’s government eased restrictions on travel, business and schools much too early, creating a false sense of confidence that the worst of the pandemic was over.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/world/americas/chile-vaccination-cases-surge.amp.html

Covid Isn’t Over, and the Next Wave May Be Worse

It’s way too early to talk about the coronavirus in the past tense, even with more widespread vaccinations. The worst outbreaks are accelerating in places least equipped to deal with them.

While we’re increasingly talking about the coronavirus in the past tense, the worst may still be ahead of us. Infections worldwide rose 47% during March from a lull in late February. At about 600,000 new cases a day, the rate today is higher than it was for most of last year.

Worse still, while previous waves have broken primarily in Western Europe and the U.S., many of the areas where Covid is now growing most rapidly are in South America and South Asia, the Middle East and other emerging economies. Mostly lacking the first-class public health infrastructure found in the global north, they’re less equipped to cope with the virus. That’s especially the case if new variants, like those identified in the U.K. or the Brazilian city of Manaus, cause more problems for younger people.

Many of the nations where Covid has been spreading fastest recently are ones where current rates of vaccine rollout won’t result in herd immunity for years, or even decades, based on Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-31/global-covid-cases-rapidly-rise-as-the-world-fears-a-fourth-wave

Beware of Optimism Bias in the Context of the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Optimism bias refers to the mistaken belief that our chances of experiencing negative events are lower than predicted or than those faced by our peers. Such optimism can be beneficial by reducing stress, controlling anxiety, and promoting physical health.

However, dealing with the pandemic requires behavioral changes, adherence to precautions, and adoption of personal hygiene practices that may be uncomfortable and cumbersome. Similarly, early acceptance of vaccine harbors some uncertainties.

Individuals with excessive optimism bias are less likely to follow such recommendations if they perceive their individual risk to be low, which not only puts them, but all of us in danger.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.26001

Asymmetrical vaccine distribution could promote vaccine evading mutations in SARS-CoV-2

The development of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mutants that evade antibodies generated by the current vaccines is a major concern, and several groups around the world have identified increasingly evasion-prone strains towards vaccine-induced antibodies, facilitated by changes to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and spike protein that the vaccine emulate.

Some viruses, such as polio or measles, are very well controlled by vaccines, and escape mutants rarely occur. Influenza, and some evidence indicates coronaviruses also, frequently exhibit immune escape by a process known as antigenic drift, and therefore require regularly updated vaccines.

https://www.news-medical.net/amp/news/20210331/Asymmetrical-vaccine-distribution-could-promote-vaccine-evading-mutations-in-SARS-CoV-2.aspx

Current COVID vaccines could be ineffective by next year: epidemiologists

Two-thirds of epidemiologists who took part in a recent global survey have predicted it will be less than a year before SARS-CoV-2 mutates to such an extent that the majority of first generation COVID vaccines are rendered ineffective and new or modified candidates are required.

Commissioned by The People’s Vaccine Alliance, it also revealed that the overwhelming majority of the 77 epidemiologists surveyed (88%) believe that persistent low-vaccine coverage in many countries will make it more likely for vaccine-resistant mutations to appear.

Variants of concern have already emerged in South Africa, the US, India and Brazil, and Yale University’s Associate Professor Gregg Gonsalves said the fact that millions of people around the world are still contracting the disease means new mutations will arise every day.

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/current-covid-vaccines-could-be-ineffective-by-nex

Two-thirds of epidemiologists warn mutations could render current COVID vaccines ineffective in a year or less; New survey from People’s Vaccine Alliance shows urgency of vaccinating all countries

Epidemiologists from some of the world’s leading academic institutions delivered a stark warning today of the risk the world is taking by failing to ensure all countries have sufficient vaccines to protect people from COVID-19. In a survey of 77 epidemiologists from 28 countries, carried out by The People’s Vaccine Alliance, two-thirds thought that we had a year or less before the virus mutates to the extent that the majority of first-generation vaccines are rendered ineffective and new or modified vaccines are required. Of those surveyed, almost a third gave a timeframe of nine months or less. Fewer than one in eight said they believed that mutations would never render the current vaccines ineffective.

The overwhelming majority - 88 per cent - said that persistent low vaccine coverage in many countries would make it more likely for vaccine resistant mutations to appear.

https://reliefweb.int/report/world/two-thirds-epidemiologists-warn-mutations-could-render-current-covid-vaccines

TORONTO -- While patios reopen in hotspots across Ontario and vaccines roll out nationwide, doctors are bracing for the impact of a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Ontario doctor isn’t surprised to have seen the number of infections tick back up as restrictions loosened in the province in February,and once the variants took hold he felt it was only a matter of time until a third wave of the pandemic. Now, he says this wave could be the worst yet.

“I think it's impossible to avoid a third wave that's likely going to be worse than the first two,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkawy told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday.

“Many of us felt that this was an inevitability,” he said. “This is pretty much the trap that this pandemic has proven its ability to present to us. That's why we call them waves, you get lulled into a sense of complacency and then cases start picking up.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/national/coronavirus/2021/3/24/1_5360167.html

Inequity of COVID-19 vaccines grows ‘more grotesque every day’ – WHO chief

“The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage, it’s also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating”, he said, pointing out that some nations are vaccinating low risk, younger people at the cost of “health workers, older people and other at-risk groups in other countries”.

And because more transmissions mean more variants, Tedros upheld that the imbalance in jabs only provides “a false sense of security” as “the more variants that emerge, the more likely it is that they will evade vaccines”.

“As long as the virus continues to circulate anywhere, people will continue to die, trade and travel will continue to be disrupted, and the economic recovery will be further delayed”, he spelled out.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1087992

Europe’s third Covid wave ‘perfect breeding ground’ for new variants, Sage member warns.

The third Covid-19 wave sweeping parts of Europe is the “perfect breeding ground” for new variants, a leading scientist warned today.

Calum Semple, Professor of Outbreak Medicine and Child Health at Liverpool University, also stressed it was “inevitable” that there would be a rise in coronavirus cases in the UK, possibly in July or August, after lockdown has been lifted.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-third-wave-europe-new-variants-sage-b925692.html%3famp

Germany is “in a new pandemic” in which the British Covid variant is dominant, Angela Merkel has said, as she announced a strict shutdown over Easter to halt soaring infection rates.

Merkel said the country was in a “very serious” situation and was racing to get vaccinations done. Social gatherings would be limited over Easter, with 1 - 5 April designated “quiet days” when no more than five adults from two households will be able to meet at home at once.

“We are now basically in a new pandemic. The British mutation has become dominant,” Merkel said at a news conference on Monday night.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/23/merkel-germany-covid-british-variant-easter-lockdown

The UK could soon be hit by a third wave of infections, says Boris Johnson

UK prime minister Boris Johnson has warned that the UK could soon be hit by a third wave of coronavirus infections similar to that currently being experienced by other European countries, including France, Italy and Germany. France reported more than 35,000 new coronavirus cases on 18 March, compared to just 6303 reported in the UK on the same day. “Previous experience has taught us that when a wave hits our friends, it, I’m afraid, washes up on our shores as well and I expect that we will feel those effects in due course,” Johnson told reporters on 22 March.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-news-europes-third-wave-could-hit-uk-says-prime-minister/#ixzz6puzO1xpC

CDC director warns coronavirus variants could spark another avoidable surge

(CNN)Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday that she's worried the US could see "another avoidable surge" of Covid-19 if mitigation measures -- such as mask-wearing, physical distancing and avoiding crowds or travel -- are not followed.

"As I've stated before, the continued relaxation of prevention measures while cases are still high and while concerning variants are spreading rapidly throughout the United States is a serious threat to the progress we have made as a nation," Walensky said at a White House briefing.

"Increasingly, states are seeing a growing proportion of their Covid-19 cases attributed to variants," Walensky said. She said two newly identified variants -- B.1427 and B.1429 -- are estimated to account for 52% of cases in California, 41% in Nevada and 25% in Arizona.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/03/22/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

Pfizer vaccine less effective against South African variant, Israeli study finds

Inoculation highly effective against British strain, offers more protection than does recovery from COVID-19, Ben Gurion scientists say

The vaccine only moderately neutralized the South African variant, however. It was also less effective against strains that had attributes of both the British and the South African variants.

“Our study validates the clinical efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine, but raises concerns regarding its efficacy against specific SARS-CoV-2 circulating variants,” the authors wrote. “Overall, these results call for a close attention of variant spread, and a [possibility] for new vaccines with improved neutralizing potency against SARS-CoV-2 variants

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pfizer-vaccine-less-effective-against-south-african-variant-israeli-study-finds/

Can the UK avoid a third wave of Covid?
Analysis: as lockdown restrictions ease, the country now faces a race between vaccination and infection

This was always going to be a balancing act. The UK vaccination strategy of prioritising the most vulnerable people and moving down the age groups is intended to save lives first and slow transmission second. This means that as the country unlocks, infections are likely to rise, primarily in younger people who have more social contacts and have not yet been vaccinated. Hospitalisations and deaths are expected to rise too, though not as sharply: even though vaccine coverage has been high in vulnerable groups and older people, not everyone has the vaccine and it will not protect all those who do.

Dr Anne Cori of Imperial College London, who is modelling the coronavirus outbreak, said what happens in the coming weeks is uncertain, but with the dominant Kent variant so transmissible, we can inspect the epidemic to grow as Britain comes out of lockdown. “We would expect more cases, but also more hospitalisations and deaths as we unlock,” she said. All the modelling has highlighted the importance of reaching high vaccine coverage before relaxing restrictions, she said, “to keep this ‘third wave’ to a minimal level.” If a slow down in vaccine rollout is not countered by slower relaxation, we can expect more hospitalisations and deaths. Imperial modelling suggests the UK can expect a further 30,000 coronavirus deaths by next June.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/22/can-the-uk-avoid-a-third-wave-of-covid

Virologist: ‘We Are Going to Pay Huge Price’ for COVID Mass Vaccination Campaign

In an open letter to WHO and in a follow-up video interview, Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, says that by vaccinating everyone with a vaccine that doesn’t prevent transmission, we are destroying people’s immune systems, and setting the stage for a global health disaster.

Geert Vanden Bossche, DMV, Ph.D., has nothing against vaccines. In fact, the independent virologist formerly worked for Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bossche says the COVID vaccines approved so far have been developed by “just brilliant” people and he has no criticism of them But, as he tells Dr. Phillip McMillan in an interview, “please use the right vaccine at the right place. And don’t use it in the heat of a pandemic on millions of millions of people.”

Bossche says that a mass vaccination campaign in the middle of a pandemic, with vaccines that don’t prevent transmission, is disastrous at an individual — and at a global — level:

“We are going to pay a huge price for this. And I’m becoming emotional because I’m thinking of my children, of the younger generation. I mean, it’s just impossible what we are doing. We don’t understand the pandemic
______________________________________________

I think we are very close to vaccine resistance right now. And it’s not for nothing that already people start developing, you know, new vaccines against the strains, et cetera.

But what I was saying is that, okay, if you miss the shoot, okay, you could say nothing has happened. No. You are at the same time losing the most precious part of your immune system that you could ever imagine.

And that is your innate immune system, because the innate antibodies, the natural antibodies, the secretary IGMs will be out-competed by these antigen-specific antibodies for binding to the virus. And that will be long lived. That is a long lived suppression.

And you lose every protection against any viral variant or coronavirus variant, et cetera. So this means that you are left just with no single immune response with your, you know, it’s none, your immunity has become nil.

It’s all gone. The antibodies don’t work anymore. And your your innate immunity has been completely bypassed and this while highly infectious strains are circulating.

So, I mean, if that isn’t clear enough, I really don’t get it. And people please do read my, you know, what I posted because it’s science, it’s pure science, pure science. And as everybody knows, I’m a highly passionate vaccine guy, right?

And I’ve no criticism on the vaccines, but please use the right vaccine at the right place. And don’t use it in the heat of a pandemic on millions of millions of people.

We are going to pay a huge price for this. And I’m becoming emotional because I’m thinking of my children, of the younger generation. I mean, it’s just impossible what we are doing. We don’t understand the pandemic.

We have been turning it into an artificial pandemic.

Who can explain where all of a sudden, all these highly infectious strains come from? Nobody can explain this.

I can explain it. But we have not been seeing this during previous pandemics, during natural pandemics. We have not been seeing it. Because at every single time, the immunity was low enough so that the virus didn’t need to escape. So back at the end of the pandemic, when things calmed down and it was herd immunity, it was still the same virus circulating.

What we are now doing is that we are really chasing this virus and it becomes all, you know, increasingly infectious. And I mean, this is just a situation that is completely, completely completely out of control.

So it’s also, we are now getting plenty of asymptomatic shedders. People who shed the virus because if they are vaccinated or they have even antibodies from previous disease, they can no longer control these highly infectious variants.

So how does that come? Does anybody still understand the curves? I see all these top scientists looking at this curve, at its waves. Like somebody else is looking at the currency rates at the stock market.

All they can say is, Oh, it goes up, it’s stabilizing. It may go down, may go up, et cetera. I mean, that is not science. They don’t have any clue.

They don’t even know whether the curve is gonna go up exponentially or whether it’s gonna go down or whatever. They’re completely lost. And that is extremely scary. That has been the point where I said, okay, guy, you have to analyze. You have to, but you know, these people are not listening. That is the problem.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/virologist-huge-price-covid-mass-vaccination/

Escape Artist: Study shows how mutations in SARS-CoV-2 allow the virus to evade immune system defenses

The vast majority of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 clear the virus, but those with compromised immunity—such as individuals receiving immune-suppressive drugs for autoimmune diseases—can become chronically infected. As a result, their weakened immune defenses continue to attack the virus without being able to eradicate it fully.

This physiological tug-of-war between human host and pathogen offers a valuable opportunity to understand how SARS-CoV-2 can survive under immune pressure and adapt to it.

Now, a new study led by Harvard Medical School scientists offers a look into this interplay, shedding light on the ways in which compromised immunity may render SARS-CoV-2 fitter and capable of evading the immune system.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/escape-artist

SARS-CoV-2 Mutations Allow Virus to Escape Immune Defenses

A recent study conducted by investigators from Harvard Medical School has shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is capable of mutating and evading naturally occurring and lab-made antibodies, demonstrating how COVID-19 survives under immune pressures. Results from the study were published in the journal Cell.

https://www.contagionlive.com/view/sars-cov-2-mutations-allow-virus-to-escape-immune-defenses

When the pandemic began last year, scientists went looking for the origins of the coronavirus. Right away, they made a huge discovery. It looked like the virus jumped from a bat into humans.

Now, scientists are worried that another coronavirus will strike again, from either a bat or some other animal. So they've gone hunting for potential sources — and the news is a bit concerning.

"Coronaviruses are under our feet in rodents. They are above our heads in bats. We live in a kind of coronavirus world," says virologist Edward Holmes at the University of Sydney.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/19/979314118/next-pandemic-scientists-fear-another-coronavirus-could-jump-from-animals-to-human

A new SARS-CoV-2 variant has emerged once again, this time in the Philippines. The new variant bears a resemblance to the recently discovered Japanese variant (B.1.1.248) and the infamous Brazilian variant (P.1), known for its dangerous immune-escape capabilities. B.1.1.248 and the Philippine Variant (P.3) seem to be second and third-generation descendants of P.1

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/03/18/third-generation-covid-19-variant-described-in-the-philippines/amp/

Speculators aka gamblers are only able to observe the price of the frame but real investors will discover the value of the whole picture.

When is this finally going to end? That’s the question on many minds after a year of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.

But public health experts say we do have an answer, and you’re not going to like it: COVID-19 is never going to end. It now seems poised to become an endemic disease — one that is always a part of our environment, no matter what we do.

“We’ve been told that this virus will disappear. But it will not,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and medical director of the National Foundation For Infectious Diseases, tells CBS News.

“We need to control it. We need to diminish its impact. But it’s going to be around hassling us for the foreseeable future. And by that I mean — years.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wbtv.com/2021/03/15/when-will-covid-end-year-into-pandemic-public-health-experts-say-never/%3foutputType=amp

Political instability certainly will make glove stocks with visible profit as safe-haven investment. Foreign funds and smart money are flowing in. Recovery hype is going to end soon.

Covid-19 Reinfections Are Real And Serious—All The More Reason To Be Vaccinated

Emerging news from Brazil on Covid-19 reinfection is a potential warning for all of us on the danger SARS-CoV-2 variants pose, both to those who have already been infected and, very likely, to those who have been vaccinated.

Natural infections do not seem to protect against reinfection, yet vaccines remain to be seen. While Faria found that antibodies derived from the CoronaVac vaccine in Brazil were less effective at stopping the P.1 variant, little data is yet available on reinfections after vaccine administration.

We know that antibodies fade over time and data suggests that you lose tremendous antibody potency six to eight months after natural infections. It is possible that vaccine protection wanes six months to a year after administration, but that data will not be available for many months.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/03/10/covid-19-reinfections-are-real-and-serious-all-the-more-reason-to-be-vaccinated/amp/

The end of the pandemic? More like the rebirth of the pandemic age

It is tempting to think it will soon be over.

Vaccines are here. The real-world evidence suggests they work amazingly well. Soon we will have our jabs, and in the days and weeks after billions of tiny antibodies will emerge. We will be immune, and life will return to normal. International travel. Parties. Global citizens in a free and open world.

Sadly, that rosy view is not supported by the evidence.

COVID-19 is likely not a one-in-one-100-year event. It may not even be a once-in-a-generation pandemic, experts say.

This is “the rebirth of the pandemic age,” Professor Doherty says. “We need to treat COVID-19, painful though it is, as a trial run.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/national/the-end-of-the-pandemic-more-like-the-rebirth-of-the-pandemic-age-20210311-p579wo.html

Health officials told The Jerusalem Post that remarks made by the prime minister such as COVID-19 is “behind us” are dangerous and could send Israel back to lockdown.

They said that while the nature of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel has changed, the virus has not left the country – and certainly not the world.

“We have not finished with coronavirus, and it will be with us for a lot longer,” stressed Herzog Medical Center director-general Dr. Jacob Haviv. “Coronavirus will be with us every day and every hour, for sure for at least the next year.”

He pointed out that Israel continues to have thousands of new cases per day, not dozens or even hundreds, although the number of new daily cases is on the decline and on average less than 4% of people screened are testing positive. On Wednesday, only 2.9% of people tested positive, the Health Ministry showed. Last month, Israel had days where 10% of people tested positive.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.com/health-science/is-the-covid-19-pandemic-really-over-for-israel-661739/amp

(CNN)Covid-19 numbers may be on the decline in the United States after a year of collective grief. But with tens of thousands of deaths expected over the next few months, experts are warning Americans not to drop their guard just yet.

"I think we are going to get fooled," Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said Thursday. "I think what's going to happen is you're going to see that as we enter the summer months, numbers are going to go down, people will think great, we're good."

He added: "And then, if we don't get to what I think is going to be at least 80% population immunity from natural infection or immunization, when the winter comes, you're going to see a surge again."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/03/12/health/us-coronavirus-friday/index.html

Good tactic, clever move... Hehehe

One year into COVID-19, a look at when and where the next pandemic could emerge

In December, the head of the World Health Organization‘s (WHO) emergencies program Dr. Mark Ryan, warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is “not necessarily the big one,” but rather a “wake-up call.”

He said we need to “get ready for something which may be more severe in the future.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/7640285/coronavirus-anniversary-next-pandemic/amp/

The UK has recorded 181 COVID deaths and 6,753 cases in the latest 24-hour period.

The number of deaths is 61 fewer than last Thursday (4 March), when 242 were reported.

Positive coronavirus tests have risen slightly, week-on-week, by 180.

However, the amount of testing has risen substantially since children returned to school in England on Monday.

Across the UK, 1,554,080 tests were carried out yesterday, compared to 863,658 the week before.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-uk-records-181-coronavirus-deaths-and-6-753-cases-in-last-24-hours-12242930

Transportation minister Kazuyoshi Akaba says Japan will tighten border controls and limit the number of entrants to up to 2,000 per day to guard against the more contagious variants of the coronavirus.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.euronews.com/amp/2021/03/12/japan-tightens-border-controls-over-rise-in-new-covid-19-variant-cases

A highly infectious variant of COVID-19 that has spread around the world since it was first discovered in Britain late last year is between 30% and 100% more deadly than previous dominant variants, researchers said on Wednesday.

In a study that compared death rates among people in Britain infected with the new SARS-CoV-2 variant - known as B.1.1.7 - against those infected with other variants of the COVID-19-causing virus, scientists said the new variant's mortality rate was "significantly higher".

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSL1N2L80S5

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit further extended its weakness at the opening against the US dollar Tuesday on firmer buying support for the greenback on elevated US bond yields, analysts said.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2021/03/09/ringgit-extends-weakness-against-us-dollar-at-opening/

Public health experts encouraged Americans to continue social distancing and wearing masks at a potentially critical inflection point in the pandemic – one in which highly effective vaccines could provide relief, but fervor to reopen public life could unintentionally spread new Covid-19 variants.

Coronavirus cases have declined across much of the United States since mid-January, a point when the peak of the third wave saw upwards of 4,000 Covid-19 deaths a day. However, cases remain “extremely high” according to data watchers, and could plateau at a point equivalent to the peak of summer 2020.

“Everybody’s focused on the big declines in the number of cases, pretending the plateau is not really substantive, and oblivious to the impact of B117,” a highly transmissible variant first identified in the UK, said Dr Peter Hotez, a vaccine researchers and dean for the national school of tropical medicine at College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/05/new-covid-variants-us-states-reopening-fourth-wave

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danrunkevicius/2021/02/17/the-economic-recovery-will-crash-the-stock-market/?sh=1125936a5700

Value stocks are well-established businesses that don’t borrow as much as growth stocks. That means they are more immune to borrowing costs (interest rates) and downturns.

JPMorgan data shows that value stocks often outperform growth stocks in times of rising interest rates. Plus, value stocks have lagged growth stocks for over a decade now, and analysts think the tide is turning.

As the vaccine rollout begins, health authorities in the Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine and Greece have also reported spikes in new coronavirus infections.

Late last year, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) special Covid-19 envoy warned of such an event, predicting Europe could face a third wave of the pandemic if governments repeated the mistakes that had led to the second.

"(Governments) missed building up the necessary infrastructure during the summer months, after they brought the first wave under the control," the WHO's David Nabarro said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Solothurner Zeitung.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-europe-hit-by-third-wave-as-vaccine-rollout-begins/BWS2RTBMCQK5GEMBN7MOPHC5QU/

A new form of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in New York City, and it carries a worrisome mutation that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, two teams of researchers have found.

The new variant, called B.1.526, first appeared in samples collected in the city in November. By the middle of this month, it accounted for about one in four viral sequences appearing in a database shared by scientists.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/health/coronavirus-variant-nyc.amp.html

THE WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has an alert list of diseases which could the biggest threat to mankind as scientists have warned we need to prepare for the "Big One".

Covid-19 is currently public enemy number one as it continues to ravage the world, so far killing almost 2.5million people and infecting more than 112million.

But the other eight diseases on WHO's list for research and development are also deadly and could pose a major threat unless action is taken against them.

The horror infections can make your brain swell, leave you bleeding out of your eyes, trigger shrunken head birth defects, and or even cause deafness.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/14138224/nipah-zika-who-alert-list-pandemic/amp/

Even as the number of global Covid-19 infections drops across the world, leading U.S. health officials are warning of a coming wave of infections as new, more contagious — and possibly more deadly — variants of the virus take hold in the U.S.

Scientists aren't surprised by the emergence of the new variants and have reiterated that the currently available vaccines should still work against them — albeit, a bit less effective than as against the original, "wild" strain. However, top U.S. health officials and infectious disease experts worry that these highly contagious variants, particularly the B.1.1.7 strain that emerged in the U.K., could reverse the current downward trajectory in infections in the U.S. and delay the country's recovery from the pandemic.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/02/23/covid-variants-heres-everything-you-need-to-know.html

Germany is in a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers in her conservative party, two sources at the meeting told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We are now in the third wave," they quoted her as saying and said she warned that any easing of lockdown measures introduced late last year and extended until March 7 would have to be done carefully and gradually.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2AN1M3

Secondary school and college pupils will be routinely tested for Covid twice a week the government has confirmed.

Unveiling his roadmap out of lockdown in the House of Commons this afternoon, when the Prime Minister announced that schools will fully reopen on March 8, he said that the return to face-to-face teaching will be 'supported by twice weekly tests in secondary schools'.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/secondary-school-college-pupils-routinely-19889691.amp

Based on what we know of the virus that causes Covid-19, I believe we can expect the disease to return in waves each year. Long-lasting population or herd immunity like what we have for polio or the measles is not, in my opinion, a possibility for Covid-19, even with a vaccine. What we can expect instead is seasonal population immunity, with patterns of infection and reinfection that mirrors what we see with the flu.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/02/22/beware-the-next-wave-what-to-expect-from-covid-19/?sh=170b45a8277b

Six Indian states have seen a surge of COVID-19 cases and have been asked to regularly monitor new strains through testing and genome sequencing, a federal health ministry bulletin said on Sunday.

The latest spike in cases has raised concerns that new mutations of the virus may lead to a fresh wave of the pandemic after a substantial slowdown of the virus' spread between September and January.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/au.news.yahoo.com/amphtml/india-fears-virus-wave-italy-183908419.html

History tells us that despite the global vaccine rollout, the end of the COVID-19 pandemic will be slow – and many new public health measures will become permanent. We may also have to live with the disease forever.

https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/february-2021/How-will-the-COVID-19-pandemic-end