30 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – November 5 2021”

  1. Thanks TK.

    Biden’s new vaccination deadline:

    January 4, 2022

    Is that just for federal employees or for private businesses as well?

      1. Thanks Joshua as always. No doubt our health outside of Covid has been disrupted since the pandemic began.

  2. I’m frustrated with folks like Topol and Gottlieb. Here’s Topol’s latest tweet: https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1456458156469407747

    While I agree, we’ve known this would happen; well, anyone with even a modicum of observational skills. Somehow this seems to surprise Topol? Oh well.

    But, Gottlieb’s statements declaring “the end of the pandemic is near” on the shows this morning are worse. He – like many Americans – has a technology fetish. The latest news on Merck and now Pfizer’s Covid-19 pills IS good news. No question about it. And even though I’m cautious and reserve judgment about the vaccine for 5-11 year olds, I think it could be a good thing. BUT, the pandemic ain’t over yet, by a long stretch. Technologies may help, but some of these haven’t even been approved yet. We need to be cautious in the meantime. That should be the message right now.

    1. Will this pandemic ever be TRULY over Joshua? Is Covid-19 going to be with us on this planet throughout eternity? 🙁

    2. Wait …WHAT? Gotlieb said this morning that the end is near. How many times has he said this since June? How horrifically irresponsible.

  3. Our pediatrician told me this week that in the medical community they are eyeing February or March for the end of the pandemic. She indicated it will be treated very similar to the flu by then. With the vaccine roll out for the 5-11 and the therapeutics out here. My 12 year old is vaccinated ant my younger one is tomorrow. Ready to move on and be back to a normal life. Covid isn’t going anywhere and we are going to have to face that. This can’t go on endlessly.

    1. I have 4 siblings who are all doctors. Two of them say what your pediatrician is saying. The other two do not. I feel like this small sample of four is suggestive of the lack of consensus nationwide among doctors on where we’re heading. There’s also a lack of consensus among epidemiologists.

      Agree with you that Covid isn’t going to disappear or be eliminated. But, I believe that in the past 20 months we’ve clearly failed as a nation to do more to lower transmission and prevent deaths, but also morbidity from Covid. Not all hospitalizations or deaths are preventable. But, a significant portion is.

    2. I assume she meant that we all will be vaccinated for COVID-19 annually like the flu. When I hit the streets I go completely maskless.

  4. In the Netherlands, places of worship, such as churches, mosques, and synagogues, are exempted from the green pass system (proof of negative test or vaccination). But, a number of protestant churches have begun implementing green pass systems voluntarily. Quite a number of congregations – protestant and catholic – have been asking their churches to do so.

  5. My 10 year old got dose 1 today. Dose 2 day after Thanksgiving. A major step to ensuring minimal disruptions to school as once fully vaccinated kids are except from testing and quarantine unless they get sick.

  6. Below is a Dutch article, which I translated, on the critical issue of health system capacity, which is under strain already as the surge intensifies.

    Ambulance service under pressure due to transport of Covid-19 patients.

    It takes so long to find a place in a hospital for Covid-19 patients that ambulance service for other emergencies is seriously jeopardized, said Hans Janssen, director of the ambulance service in South Holland. “Soon we will no longer be able to help someone with a heart attack.”

    The ambulance staff has to call more and more hospitals to find a place for a Covid-19 patient. And when a hospital is found, it can take a long time before the patient is admitted, because the emergency room is full. In the meantime, the ambulance is not available for other emergencies.

    The pressure on the ambulance service is the result of the pressure on the hospitals. “The capacity of hospitals in the region to admit Covid patients is already severely limited. If there are no beds available in the area, the ambulances have to take the patients to a hospital outside the region. Sometimes they’re on the road for hours doing so.”

    1. Thank you for sending.

      Although I think highly of Gottlieb, his conflict of interest – on the board at Pfizer – may sometimes get the better of him.

      I can tell you that in other countries that would disqualify a person from being the go-to expert on TV. It would be considered unseemly in the Netherlands, for example.

      Our country is different. I recognize that. Business interests pervade everything from universities, hospitals, media, to government, in ways unthinkable in most other Western democracies. It’s not always a bad thing, either. Clearly, our universities, for example, have benefited from close financial ties to the industry. Nevertheless, it does make it harder to find objective voices, even at universities (their bread is buttered by industry, after all).

      1. Ohhhhh that explains a lot. We know spouses of a good number in DC have pfeizer stock also. I’ve always thought it was why it kept getting approval faster

Comments are closed.