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World’s first nationwide lockdown for the unvaxxed approved
14 Nov, 2021 11:43
© Georg Hochmuth/APA/AFP
Austria will impose new curbs on the unvaccinated starting from Monday. The measure aims to ease pressure on hospitals and ICUs.
The lockdown will come into effect at midnight and will apply to people aged 12 and older who have not been vaccinated and have not recently recovered from Covid-19.
“This step was not easy to take, but it is necessary,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said. “The risk for the unvaccinated people is much higher. Therefore, we are forced to take this difficult step to reduce the number of contacts.”
I wonder if Kurz would have authorized this?
Schallenberg said the fourth wave of infections had hit the country with “full force.”
The chancellor once again urged people to get vaccinated in order to “break” the wave. “Otherwise we’ll never escape this vicious cycle.”
Two of the hardest-hit regions, Upper Austria and Salzburg, were the first to announce they would impose a lockdown on Monday.
Interior Minister Karl Nehammer earlier said lockdown violators would face hefty fines. Customers may be punished with a fine of up to €500 ($573) for flouting restrictions while businesses may be slapped with a penalty of up to €30,000 ($34,354).
“For those who keep to all the measures, it’s more than unfair if there are people who think they can simply circumvent or even fool health authorities, the health ministry and experts’ guidelines,” the minister explained.
The idea of a lockdown exclusively targeting the unvaccinated was first floated by the government in September as a response to a nightmare scenario in which 30% of ICU beds would be occupied by Covid-19 patients. That figure currently stands at 20% and is rising. Health officials have grown increasingly alarmed that hospitals will become overcrowded amid what they call “the pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
President Alexander Van der Bellen warned on Saturday that the situation in some hospitals and ICUs was “unbearable,” and could deteriorate further unless strong action is taken.
Roughly 65% of Austria's nine-million population have been fully vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in Europe, according to Reuters. The Austrian government warned that around 83% of symptomatic cases recorded between January and September of this year involved unvaccinated people.
New Covid-19 strain found with altered spike protein – reports
15 Nov, 2021 14:11
A new Covid strain with unprecedented changes in its spike protein has reportedly been discovered in the northwestern French region of Brittany, according to local media.
The new strain was reportedly detected in people who contracted the virus back in mid-October. It infected a total of 24 people in France, including 18 children attending the same school and six adults who had contact with them, French media reported.
The new strain, however, was so unlike all previously known Covid-19 variants that it took scientists a long time to identify it. “This delay was a mistake,” a health official told media outlets after the discovery was first reported by Le Telegramme newspaper on November 11.
Analysis of this strain “did not correspond to anything” previously known, the official said, adding that it resembled neither the profile of the widespread Delta variant, nor those of other Covid-19 strains of concern.
The variant, which has since been called B.1.640, is reportedly missing part of its spike protein. This protein is normally used by the virus to enter human cells and spread the infection through the body. It is unclear if this mutation makes the virus more or less contagious.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) added the new strain to its list of “variants under monitoring” on November 11. Authorities in Brittany said they had successfully traced all those infected with the variant, adding that the last reported case was discovered on October 26.
France’s Regional Health Agency told Le Telegramme that its investigations indicate “the virus was imported … from abroad.” According to some media reports, a resident of Nantes who had been traveling in Africa brought the new strain to the town of Bannalec, where it was subsequently detected.
So, the virus may be running rampant in Africa, who knows. But it appears to be under control in France.
Pfizer, BioNTech & Moderna raking in $1,000 every second
from Covid-19 vaccine – research
16 Nov, 2021 19:55
The top three Covid-19 vaccine makers are making around $65,000 per minute as wealthy nations snap up their products, while plans to offer the jab to poorer nations at a discount have largely fallen through, new research reveals.
“It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour, while just two percent of people in low income countries have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus,” the African Alliance and People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa declared on Tuesday.
Why, do you actually think Big Pharma cares one bit about saving lives or reducing suffering? Don't be absurd!
Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna are making $65,000 every minute off the sale of their blockbuster Covid-19 vaccines, the organizations revealed on Tuesday, noting that the firms have off-loaded the majority of their jabs to wealthy countries. The pharma trio will have realized $34 billion between them, the NGOs calculate, with sums that work out to $1,000 per second or $93.5 million per day.
Despite these prodigious profits, a whopping 98% of people in low-income countries remain unvaccinated, according to People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa (PVA) and the African Alliance. The organization added that while Pfizer and BioNTech had delivered less than 1% of their supply to low income nations, Moderna had done even worse, meting out just 0.2% of its own supplies to low-income nations.
“Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have used their monopolies to prioritize the most profitable contracts with the richest governments, leaving low-income countries out in the cold,” the African Alliance’s Maaza Seyoum told MedicalXpress on Tuesday. While AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson were more successful in distributing their jabs on a not-for-profit basis, they plan to wind down that arrangement in the near future, foreseeing an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.
AZ and J&J distributed their vaccines to poorer countries because many wealthy countries didn't want them.
The PVA has called for Big Pharma to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights regarding Covid-19 vaccines, waiving intellectual property rights under a World Trade Organization agreement, but wealthy nations like Germany and the UK have blocked that move.
Wonder whose pockets the governments of Germany and UK are in? Can you guess?
However, It probably matters not as vaccinations don't seem to be making a huge difference.
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Apparently, Santa's vaccination has worn off!
'Most vaccinated' place on earth cancels Christmas
16 Nov, 2021 15:03
Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, Gibraltar has canceled official Christmas events and “strongly” discouraged people from hosting private gatherings for four weeks. Gibraltar’s entire eligible population is vaccinated.
The government of Gibraltar recently announced that “official Christmas parties, official receptions and similar gatherings” have been canceled, and advised the public to avoid social events and parties for the next four weeks. Outdoor spaces are recommended over indoor ones, touching and hugging is discouraged, and mask wearing is advised.
“The drastic increase in the numbers of people testing positive for Covid-19 in recent days is a stark reminder that the virus is still very prevalent in our community and that it is the responsibility of us all to take every reasonable precaution to protect ourselves and our loved ones,” Health Minister Samantha Sacramento said.
Gibraltar, a tiny British Overseas Territory sharing a land border with Spain, has seen an average of 56 Covid-19 cases per day over the last seven days, up from fewer than 10 per day in September. The rise in cases, described by the government as “exponential,” comes despite Gibraltar having the highest vaccination rate in the world.
More than 118% of Gibraltar’s population are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with this figure stretching beyond 100% due to doses given to Spaniards who cross the border to work or visit the territory every day. Gibraltar’s entire adult population has been fully vaccinated since March, and masks are still required in shops and on public transport.
One would think that this would be scientific proof that vaccines don't work! That getting everyone vaccinated is not the solution to Covid-19, just a few more billions of dollars for Big Pharma.
Gibraltar is currently doling out booster doses to the over-40s, healthcare workers, and other “vulnerable groups,” and administering vaccines to children aged between five and 12.
Similarly well-vaccinated countries have also reported surges in Covid-19 infections recently. In Singapore, where 94% of the eligible population have been inoculated, cases and deaths soared to record highs at the end of October, and have since subsided slightly. In Ireland, where around 92% of the adult population is fully vaccinated, cases of Covid-19 and deaths from the virus have roughly doubled since August.
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