News Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread IV

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The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January.

Mu, known scientifically as B. 1.621, has been classified as a “variant of interest”, the global health body said on Tuesday (local time) in its weekly pandemic bulletin.

The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to better understand it.

“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the bulletin said.

There is widespread concern over the emergence of new virus mutations as infection rates are ticking up globally again, with the highly transmissible Delta variant taking hold — especially among the unvaccinated — and in regions where anti-virus measures have been relaxed.

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19, mutate over time and most mutations have little or no effect on the properties of the virus.

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giantroo said:
The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January.

Mu, known scientifically as B. 1.621, has been classified as a “variant of interest”, the global health body said on Tuesday (local time) in its weekly pandemic bulletin.

The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to better understand it.

“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the bulletin said.

There is widespread concern over the emergence of new virus mutations as infection rates are ticking up globally again, with the highly transmissible Delta variant taking hold — especially among the unvaccinated — and in regions where anti-virus measures have been relaxed.

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19, mutate over time and most mutations have little or no effect on the properties of the virus.

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COWVID 19
 

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ferball said:
His argument was that Pfizer is better (ie more effective,) and even tho it won't be available till next week she will have had both shots faster than if she had AZ this week. Technically he is right about the last bit and maybe about the first ... and we haven't even had cases in our LGA yet so .... I can see his point I guess. I'll have the AZ next week, when I'm booked, anyway.
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By the time you have two doses, there is almost no difference in effectiveness between AZ and Pfizer. The first dose of Pfizer gives more protection but that may be a function of timing differentials as well.

There is some data out of the UK that suggests the AZ immunity stays higher for longer.
 
Themanbun said:
The right say he's not encouraging enforcement due to wanting to be sensitive to cultural issues, or politically correct.

The left say he sic'd a racist police force onto migrants in the towers.
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I know you live in the area so it is not easy to hear but in the suburbs where people have largely done the right thing and cases have been at a minimum, there is a genuine perception that the North-Western suburbs have continuously ****ed us over during Covid. Whether that is fair or not it is perception. And specifically, people think it is the Islamic community that have refused to stop congregating for prayers and large family gatherings that are the biggest problem. That there have been two outbreaks associated with Al Taqwa and incidents like the family in Queensland today feeds into those suspicions.
 
Themanbun said:
The right say he's not encouraging enforcement due to wanting to be sensitive to cultural issues, or politically correct.

The left say he sic'd a racist police force onto migrants in the towers.
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Every single attendee at the Jewish engagement party got fined $5k. Has there been an equivalent example in the heartland suburbs?
 
7577969923 said:
I know you live in the area so it is not easy to hear but in the suburbs where people have largely done the right thing and cases have been at a minimum, there is a genuine perception that the North-Western suburbs have continuously f’ed us over during Covid. Whether that is fair or not it is perception. And specifically, people think it is the Islamic community that have refused to stop congregating for prayers and large family gatherings that are the biggest problem. That there have been two outbreaks associated with Al Taqwa and incidents like the family in Queensland today feeds into those suspicions.
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Those perceptions/suspicions are, in my opinion, wrong. As I've been whinging about since day one, people of all creeds here don't seem to give a flying **** about restrictions, social distancing, hygiene, etc.

I used the example of people I know around here who are blaming Muslims as having their own large gatherings, without even a second of a thought that they're doing the same thing they're criticising these people of. I'm not kidding, I know at least 25 people involved in these things.

It ain't a race thing around these parts. It's a low education/ stupidity thing.

On my local community page we have a Muslim doctor who frequently posts the benefits of vaccines, the benefits of social distancing, etc. He faces barrages of abuse from people of all types, some of it racist abuse, each and every post he makes.

7577969923 said:
Every single attendee at the Jewish engagement party got fined $5k. Has there been an equivalent example in the heartland suburbs?
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I believe there has. Seen a bit around the old bookface.

Hume and Dandenong have also had the highest number of fines issued last time I checked the stats a few months ago.
 
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TennisPlayerAndy said:
sh*t’s getting heated on a Thursday night in here.
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Lot of people understandably at the end of their tether at the moment and I guess it's easier to abuse(?) an anon on the internet who you see as part of the other side in this increasingly divided society. Take a breath and maybe sit on the post for ten mins guys.
 
When you’ve done Quarantine, almost
run out of food, had two tests, and know first hand of how destructive Delta is, you start to long for your return to Lockdown.

It was all shitz and gigs when we went out of Lockdown 6 and the City stayed in it, but don’t anyone on here think that it won’t happen in your neighbourhood, because we too all thought it would not happen to us.
 

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Themanbun said:
The last 18 months legit just feels like one long day. I was in my mid twenties when this sh*t started 😂
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yeah it has and we've become neurotic over this virus, it is owns our lives . It is forefront to all we do. Peeps can't wait to get on here and post someone died from covid. neurotic I tell ya.

If we behave and on Sept 23 if we're 70% vaccinated we will be able to travel 10k's and spend an extra hour outside. Now that's a great thing to look forward to.
 
This thread is a lot like a schoolies camping trip. Every so often it gets too f***ing in tents.
 
7577969923 said:
By the time you have two doses, there is almost no difference in effectiveness between AZ and Pfizer. The first dose of Pfizer gives more protection but that may be a function of timing differentials as well.

There is some data out of the UK that suggests the AZ immunity stays higher for longer.
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Yeah there seems to be.

I think she'll have both doses before I do even if we get the first at the same time.
 
Reagan Smash said:
Labour v Libs
Gladys v Dan
Low Class v Upper Class
Fear v Hope

What a sh*t show.
Enjoy another ten weeks of your Short Sharp Lockdown Melbournians
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Ease Up. This is just a circuit breaker. :stern look
 
B4Bear said:
He is scared of another nursing home outbreak.

‘If you don’t think that dominates his thoughts, then you have’t been paying attention.

What losses are you willing to see the state take? You are big on whining, but short on detail.

So what losses should the community be expected to bear for your freedoms?
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Now that my friend is the real conversation we should be having as a community. How many deaths and hospital admissions are acceptable? On one hand the math is easy you could calculate a fair estimate based on available beds and morgue space and refrigerated trucks and staff capacity then draw a line at the % of pop vaccinated it takes to hit that number. The math is relatively simple the human outcomes about who gets sick and who dies once we agree on a set target is far more complex. Politicians at a federal level can bang on about QLDs premier being unrealistic regarding the vaccination of children but you can be sure you won’t a peep from them when the first kid under 12 dies of Covid in Queensland or any other state. Sometimes I wonder how the people banging on about freedom being shackled by lockdown in Australia would fare in Kabul right now 🤔
 
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Wow this thread has galloped along at a startling pace since I last had a look and may I say by and large it seems to have taken a rather serious and unpleasant turn for the worse. Perhaps we should all just "cool our jets" a little.

I don't want to enter the debate as to how horrible this whole lockdown thing is, because all of us have different situations and different issues to cope with. For me, being in lockdown is no big problem. From my perspective, the most important thing is to achieve three things at this stage, being, minimising the spread of covid, maximising the daily number of vaccinations and most importantly fighting hard to save the lives of everyone. If that means we are in lockdown for several months, then personally I'm up for that journey, because a bit of inconvenience for a period of time is well worthwhile if it saves even just one life.

And in saying that I am okay with a little bit of inconvenience, I am reminded of all of the activities that we can do today, in our own homes, to occupy our minds and bodies while we are "locked up". Things that back in the days of the pre-Salk vaccine, people were unable to do in the last major Poliomyelitis epidemic in the 1950's. I reflect on this because as I have written here before, my older sister contracted Polio in that time and for her and our family, it was not a pleasant journey in any way shape or form.

My sister caught Polio in the early 1950's when I was very young. I talked to her again yesterday about what it was like and she reminded me of the fact that our mother was her major carer, a job she did magnificently insofar as that unlike many others, my sister came through the disease, without any noticeable physical disabilities. Most sufferers, if they did not succumb to the disease, recovered with some limb deformity or deformities, such as weakened arms or legs, some arms/legs shorter than the other arm/leg, plus some long term internal damage, which my sister grapples with on a daily basis today.

What made life tougher for my mother back then was the fact that, her own sister contracted a very serious complaint called Bright's Disease and could not look after her youngest son, so our mother took over his care living with us for several months. This extra responsibility at a time when much of her attention had to be on making sure that my sister followed all of the exercise rules directed to be done daily by the treating doctor, Dame Jean McNamara, punctuated with 150 mile trips to Melbourne for treatments, she had to take on looking after another little child. All this on a dairy farm, with no electricity - it never arrived in our area until 1958 - where medical facilities were substantially less than we have today and accessible on mainly gravel roads, unlike the roads we travel on today.

The key message that my sister had for me yesterday, was that our mother never once complained about what she had to cope with at that time.

And make no mistake, they were pretty tough times, even without having to care for a little girl suffering from a different but arguably just as deadly a disease as covid-19.

In lockdown today, we still have a level of entertainment to help wile away the hours, that our parents would never have even dreamt would be available. Farm work obviously soaks up much of the daylight hours, but in those days, an evenings entertainment was most likely to be playing cards around a kerosene lamp (although we did have what dad used to euphemistically call a "lighting plant", which was comprised of a cantankerous Villiers engine, a small generator and several 12 volt batteries under the house). With no electricity there were no other electrical appliances. If you didn't play cards then you read the paper, in those days the Argus, or read a book.

Leaving aside the obvious financial pressures some will be experiencing in the current situation, I hope we can perhaps try to reflect on what I believe to be much more comfortable times to be living in, when it comes to entertaining ourselves during lockdown, being grateful for what the internet has done to allow so many people to be able to work from home and to try to be a little more tolerant of one another, knowing that in other times, other eras, many of those who are no longer with us today, also had to endure much hardship, and dare I say it, with a level of stoicism, that might not be showing up in some of us today.

Let's try to stop being angry with one another. Remember that we are all North Melbourne people, we will hopefully all get through this and while there may be many months of restrictions that none of us want, eventually we will one day be back at Marvel, roaring our lungs out and "joining in the chorus", as the boys run out to play, in the mighty Royal Blue and White. Go North.
 
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danj said:
If you live in Australia you’re part of the top 5% of all people on the planet in terms of privilege. Health care, education, peace, food, water, human rights, representative government by any measure all of us living here are rich.
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Don't wanna quibble but there's people in remote communities – who might well end up dead in jail for something a cop would fine a white person for – and people in places like Braybrook or Mt.Druitt who might not entirely agree. Take your point in general though.
 
Horace said:
Wow this thread has galloped along at a startling pace since I last had a look and may I say by and large it seems to have taken a rather serious and unpleasant turn for the worse. Perhaps we should all just "cool our jets" a little.

I don't want to enter the debate as to how horrible this whole lockdown thing is, because all of us have different situations and different issues to cope with. For me, being in lockdown is no big problem. From my perspective, the most important thing is to achieve three things at this stage, being, minimising the spread of covid, maximising the daily number of vaccinations and most importantly fighting hard to save the lives of everyone. If that means we are in lockdown for several months, then personally I'm up for that journey, because a bit of inconvenience for a period of time is well worthwhile if it saves even just one life.

And in saying that I am okay with a little bit of inconvenience, I am reminded of all of the activities that we can do today, in our own homes, to occupy our minds and bodies while we are "locked up". Things that back in the days of the pre-Salk vaccine, people were unable to do in the last major Poliomyelitis epidemic in the 1950's. I reflect on this because as I have written here before, my older sister contracted Polio in that time and for her and our family, it was not a pleasant journey in any way shape or form.

My sister caught Polio in the early 1950's when I was very young. I talked to her again yesterday about what it was like and she reminded me of the fact that our mother was her major carer, a job she did magnificently insofar as that unlike many others, my sister came through the disease, without any noticeable physical disabilities. Most sufferers, if they did not succumb to the disease, recovered with some limb deformity or deformities, such as weakened arms or legs, some arms/legs shorter than the other arm/leg, plus some long term internal damage, which my sister grapples with on a daily basis today.

What made life tougher for my mother back then was the fact that, her own sister contracted a very serious complaint called Bright's Disease and could not look after her youngest son, so our mother took over his care living with us for several month. This extra responsibility at a time when much of her attention had to be on making sure that my sister followed all of the exercise rules directed to be done daily by the treating, doctor, Dame Jean McNamara, punctuated with 150 mile trips to Melbourne for treatments, she had to take on looking after another little child. All this on a dairy farm, with no electricity - it never arrived in our area until 1958 - where medical facilities were substantially less than we have today and accessible on mainly gravel roads, unlike the roads we travel on today.

The key message that my sister had for me yesterday, was that our mother never once complained about what she had to cope with at that time.

And make no mistake, they were pretty tough times, even without having to care for a little girl suffering from a different but arguably just as deadly a disease as covid-19.

In lockdown today, we still have a level of entertainment to help wile away the hours, that our parents would never have even dreamt would be available. Farm work obviously soaks up much of the daylight hours, but in those days, an evenings entertainment was most likely to be playing cards around a kerosene lamp (although we did have what dad used to euphemistically call a "lighting plant", which was comprised of a cantankerous Villiers engine, a small generator and several 12 volt batteries under the house). With no electricity there were no other electrical appliances. If you didn't play cards then you read the paper, in those days the Argus, or read a book.

Leaving aside the obvious financial pressures some will be experiencing in the current situation, I hope we can perhaps try to reflect on what I believe to be much more comfortable times to be living in, when it comes to entertaining ourselves during lockdown, being grateful for what the internet has done to allow so many people to be able to work from home and to try to be a little more tolerant of one another, knowing that in other times, other eras, many of those who are no longer with us today, also had to endure much hardship, and dare I say it, with a level of stoicism, that might not be showing up in some of us today.

Let's try to stop being angry with one another. Remember that we are all North Melbourne people, we will hopefully all get through this and while there may be many months of restrictions that none of us want, eventually we will one day be back at Marvel, roaring our lungs out and "joining in the chorus", as the boys run out to play, in the mighty Royal Blue and White. Go North.
Click to expand...
POTY
 
danj said:
If you live in Australia you’re part of the top 5% of all people on the planet in terms of privilege. Health care, education, peace, food, water, human rights, representative government by any measure all of us living here are rich.
Click to expand...
I understand your facts, but not the response to the post. People in Australia should put up with being called 'lower class scumbags' because others have it worse? That discounts the advantages of the people making the statement, who have also benefited greatly from living in Australia.
 
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