📍DEMAND TO KEEP TESTING FREE—Leading experts from @IndependentSage are condemning 🇬🇧 govt’s reported decision to end free testing. We need to demand free testing as long as the pandemic is still raging—COVID19 still very much worldwide.🧵 #CovidIsNotOver independentsage.org/ending-of-free…
2) Our concerns about removing access to free tests include:
a) increased risk of spread of Omicron and any subsequent variants, leading to more illness, death and burden on the NHS and more risk of new variants emerging;
3) b) a disproportionate impact on many of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in society, especially those in public facing jobs that bring them into frequent contact with large numbers of people and those who cannot choose to isolate;
4) c) loss of the reassurance provided by lateral flow tests to those considering the safety of meeting with others, especially isolated elderly friends and relatives;
d) loss of ability to determine if you have Covid and then voluntarily self-isolate;
5) e) loss of ability to determine when you are no longer infectious if you do fall ill with Covid;
f) reduced ability to make the early diagnosis needed to enable those who might benefit from the new antivirals to receive them rapidly, when they are most effective;
6) g) reduced access to care for long covid if no proof from a positive test;
h) reduced volumes of samples sent for genetic sequencing, thereby limiting our ability to detect and track newly emerging variants;
i) loss of intelligence on the continuing course of the pandemic;
7) j) widening inequalities, as those able to afford tests will continue to get them while people on low incomes will not.
k) A disproportionate and adverse effect upon the ability of clinically vulnerable people to safely engage with society.
8) @IndependentSage calls on the Government to publish, immediately, the scientific evidence and risk assessments on which it has based this decision. It further calls on the devolved administrations not to follow this path until they have seen convincing evidence that it is safe
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📍1,000,000 EXCESS DEATHS—sobering—“All-cause excess mortality is one of the most reliable & unbiased ways to look at the effect of #COVID19 pandemic. Why? ➡️Excess deaths does not rely on how many tests or on *subjective cause of death* designations.” 🧵 theguardian.com/world/2022/feb…
2) There have been more than 1m excess deaths in the US during the pandemic, according to CDC. The deaths are mainly attributable to Covid-19, ➡️as well as **conditions that may have resulted from delayed medical care and overwhelmed health systems***.
3) You literally can’t arguing against total excess deaths. And excess is above historical average of 6 years pre pandemic from 2014-2019. And it is seasonally accounted excess. Excess means the pandemic truly had a real impact. 📍Deniers cannot skirt using “with COVID” excuse.
📍FDA issues recall of 3 infant formula brands after 4 babies became sick & hospitalized with bacterial infections after consuming select Similac, Alimentum & EleCare formulas produced in Michigan with product digits 22 through 37, & contains K8, SH or Z2. nytimes.com/2022/02/18/us/…
2) The FDA had posted a recommendation on Thursday to parents warning them about the products after illnesses in Minnesota, Ohio & Texas resulted in the hospitalization of four infants. The bacterium may have contributed to a death in one case, FDA says. fda.gov/news-events/pr…
3) FDA initiated an inspection of the plant in which environmental samples tested positive for Cronobacter. Inspectors also uncovered potential manufacturing problems, and a review of records revealed the company’s past destruction of product because of bacterial contamination.
⚠️Worrisome—New lab experiments from Japan show that #BA2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants–including Delta! And yet as evasive as old #Omicron cousin BA1. #BA2 🌍 surging—needs upgrade to VOC asap @WHO! cnn.com/2022/02/17/hea…
2) BA2 is seriously bad news. It’s both faster transmission than BA2 and if it’s truly more severe and as evasive against prior immunity including BA1 old #Omicron immunity— then it’d be the worse of 4 worlds. 👀
⚠️DEATHS INCREASING—new data shows both Danish🇩🇰 excess deaths & deaths “due to (caused by) COVID” increasing—surging by ⬆️34% for total COVID deaths, & ⬆️26.6% for deaths “caused by COVID” in one week. 📍Most COVID+ deaths due to COVID. (This is 🇩🇰CDC own table) #CovidIsNotOver
2) How does the total COVID mortality situation look like in Denmark? Not good. And they just released almost all mitigations.
Million dollar question—did the tree 🌳 fall over “because of the storm”, or just merely fall “with the storm”? But but but… ➡️Danish 🇩🇰’s CDC @SSI_dk would adamantly insist trees fall all the time—this tree totally would have fallen that day anyway!🤦🏻♂️
2) Other arguments the tree totally was gonna die — “the tree 🌲 was getting old with aging risk factors” — totally deserve to die / don’t deserve protection. It’s just total coincidence it toppled that day. 🤷🏻♂️
3) or even more heartless— “the tree 🌲 was lazy all its life and it is its own fault it had such wide girth and frail”. 🤦🏻♂️
DEER TICK VIRUS—a Pennsylvania site recently found a record high 92% of ticks carrying a variant of potentially fatal Powassan virus called deer-tick virus (DTV). It can also cause lasting neurological effects. Officials fear it may become more common. livescience.com/ticks-carry-de…
2) “Powassan virus is transmitted to humans bitten by infected female black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis). Between 2008 and 2017, most of the cases were diagnosed in and around the Great Lakes.
The virus, with 2 lineages — one of which is DTV — was first identified in 1952.”
3) “While many cases of Powassan virus are asymptomatic, those symptomatic can be deadly, says CDC. Initial symptoms include headache, fever and vomiting, with the most severe cases involving neurological complications such as encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) & meningitis