COVID Dystopia: Tanks Attack

Posted on by Thor


This shot from COVID Dystopia has tanks on the streets of New York City firing up the invading virus’ as they float down the side streets. I like how the shot is working.

The entire film was altered to get rid of he snap zoom effects between shots. Those snap zooms were the original reason I wanted to create the film but I am realizing the intensity and speed need to be dialed back a bit for the average audience to have any chance of digesting all that is being thrown at them.

A random Facebook message from a follower in South Africa convinced me to slow things down a touch. He said his wife kept asking him to freeze frame the movie so she could see all the details in each shot. I recognize that people might miss many details, but that is true to the times where the 24 hour news cycle keeps churning out viewpoint weather true or not and the internet further distorts simple truths.

This film has had a 17% success rate in getting into festivals. Those are slim pickings. The list of rejections is immense. I had tow festivals reject the film yesterday. Facing so much rejection eventually wears you down. But when I get a rejection I research a new festival that might accept the message and I also refine and improve shots. I hope I am polishing a gem and not something that everyone hates. From curse words in the lyrics to very adult themed images, I know I am facing an uphill battle. The audience is out there however I just need to find them. This will be a year of patience and perseverance.

In two days I fly to the Cleveland International Film Festival where COVID Dystopia will screen at 9:50pm. This is the first Academy Award qualifying festival that the film has been accepted into. Hoping to make the most of that 17% acceptance rate.

 

COVID Caught a Cold

Posted on by Thor

A gene sequence from the common cold virus has worked its way into the Omicron variant of COVID-19. This gene sequence was not in any of the previous mutations of the virus (Alpha, Beta, Delta).

This happened through a process known as switching. The COVID virus invaded a cell and at the same time a common cold virus invaded the same cell. The genes of the two viruses then get mixed up together. This new combination makes the virus more competitive and virulent.

The virus became far more transmissible but perhaps less pathogenic. Patients in South Africa are nor requiring as much oxygen as was needed for patients suffering from Delta.

Omicron is evading vaccines and people who have been infected in the past are being re-infected. Pfizer-BioNTech,  has announced that three doses of vaccine are needed to combat Omicron. Research has shown that a third vaccine shot increases antibodies by 25%. They did not say how long those antibodies last. The company is rushing to develop an Omicron specific version of the vaccine which should be available by March 2022.

Omicron is the most transmissible of all the variants of COVID-19 to date. It is 4 times more transmissible than Delta. It has now been detected in 57 countries. Those numbers change by the hour. It will dominate the world stage in several weeks time. We will all be exposed to this variant. Symptoms include, Body aches and pains, muscle pain, headache, tiredness (1 to 2 days), and a slight sore throat. People are not getting a severe cough, or runny nose. These symptoms are consistent with my everyday existence for the past 20 months. A loss of smell or taste is no longer a symptom with Omicron. The fact is that many people will not realize that they have COVID-19 with these symptoms. Most will not go to hospitals and will recover at home. It is important to note however that there has been an slight increase in hospitalizations in South Africa, but it has not been a huge spike consistent with the amazing exponential growth in infections.

Though Omicron looms in the near future, the fact is that Delta is causing a huge spike in hospitalizations and death in states like Michigan and Minnesota. Despite these rising cases and deaths, most Americans are done with the pandemic and have returned to pre-pandemic life styles. Thanksgiving travel rivaled pre-pandemic travel and cases that resulted from all that mingling are just now reaching their peak. People have let their guard down and the virus will take full advantage of that weakness.

Children are the new victims of the virus. 132,000 children have been reported with infections in the last week across the country. Children will be infected by the Omicron variant at an increased rate. Children need to be vaccinated and even boosted if they are eligible. In South Africa 80% of the patients admitted to hospitals and diagnosed with COVID were under the age of 50. This is a younger age profile than existed with the Delta surge.

Memory of a Goldfish

Posted on by Thor

Americans have the memory of a goldfish. We will all be exposed to Omicron by Christmas. It is doubling every day and a half which is faster that any of the previous waves. Because of America and the world’s failed response to the virus, herd Immunity is off the table.

It is like we have returned to the first weeks of the pandemic. Superspreader events crop up faster than I can document them. A Norwegian cruise ship is again acting as a petri dish for spreading disease.

When death numbers fall a bit, Americans are in a mad rush to return to “life as normal.” They rush to crushing crowds at concerts and celebrate holidays with as many people as they can in enclosed spaces. Mindless selfishness is the norm. The virus has come to its senses and realized that it makes no sense to kill off it’s human host so quickly. It is best to keep the human host alive to incubate new and more exotic variants.

Do not panic. Early cases of Omicron though spreading faster, are presenting as less severe that previous waves. The numbers of hospitalizations and people needing oxygen are not rising exponentially in South Africa. However with so many people becoming infected around the world all at once, even a small percentage of deadly infections could be a horrifyingly high number. The good news is that this tsunami of infections, if not severe, could infect and thus give anti bodies to those that have refused to get vaccinated. The previously infected will be re-infected. This could create some semblance of normalcy as we learn to live with the virus, but future mutations could be more deadly.

Omicron Beats Delta

Posted on by Thor

Experts believe that the Omicron Variant of COVID-19 will be more transmissible that Delta. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 38 countries across the world have reported cases of the highly mutated omicron Covid-19 variant so far.

The virus spike proteins have  32 mutations which make it easier for the virus to spread and infect humans. For comparison, Delta had 9 mutations. The Omicron variant might also evade COVID-19 vaccines, but it could take some time to see if that’s true or not. The Omicron variant may also cause more re-infections.

More children are being admitted into hospitals with COVID infections in South Africa where the variant was first reported. Last month in South Africa, 74% of genomes sequenced were Omicron. Within two weeks, Omicron has replaced Delta in South Africa. 56 countries have imposed travel bans but the virus has already spread world wide. Thousands of people have flown into the United States from South Africa and other infected countries since the variant was first reported and when the flight restrictions finally began. Omicron can reinfect people who have had COVID-19. Since it can reinfect people the pool of potential hosts makes for exponential growth in infections. Omicron will become the main variant in the world.

At the moment, the only data scientists have to estimate omicron’s transmissibility comes largely from the cluster of cases at a university in Pretoria, South Africa. The rapid rise in cases there could be due, in part, to a superspreading event.With only 4% of the population vaccinated, thousands of people took to the streets to protest in a “Superspreader March.” It was a “March to Save Lives” but may have instead been the perfect way to spread the new variant.

Cases of Omicron in America have been reported in 5 states so far but it is likely fare more wide spread. The only reason we don’t know more, is that the United States has a very poor record of genomic analysis compared to other countries. The first case discovered in America had been fully vaccinated but had not gotten a booster yet.

Basic health measure that have been promoted since the start off the pandemic still work. Wear a good quality mask, social distance and wash your hands often.

The good news is the early cases have been mild so far. However cases usually get worse in the second and third week of infection, so we will see how deadly the virus  mutation is soon. If it turns out that it produces only mild cases that do not require hospitalization, then that could be very good news. Time will tell.

State of Emergency

Posted on by Thor

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) declared a state of emergency to prepare for a new coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa. Her declaration on November 26, 2021 is one of the first emergency steps taken by a state in the U.S. against the new variant, known as Omicron, whose discovery was announced November 25, 2021.

“We continue to see warning signs of spikes in COVID-19 this winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it’s coming,” Hochul said in a tweet.

The executive order, in effect until at least Jan. 15, 2022 allows nonessential procedures to be postponed in hospitals in order to increase hospital capacity. This is one of the few examples of a politician acting proactively rather than re-actively to the pandemic.

President Joe Biden has already restricted travel from several countries in southern Africa in order to mitigate the spread of Omicron. However those travel restrictions do not come into effect until November 28, 2021. That allows hundreds or thousands of passengers to fly into the United States before the restrictions take effect.The president also issued a proclamation that people entering the United States must be vaccinated. However there is a huge loophole. The proclamation only apples to US citizens returning to the states.

Two flights out of South Africa to Amsterdam landed with 60 passengers infected with COVID-19. It has not yet been established how many of those were the Omicron strain. Had those same passengers landed in Orlando International airport, they would already be in Disney World busy infecting others. In Johannesburg, South Africa, holiday travelers rushed back to the airport and stood in long lines to fly back home from vacations before the ban came into effect.

Despite the bans, the new variant has already been found in at least a dozen countries. Most of the cases detected have been in travelers returning from the region.

Omicron

Posted on by Thor

A new variant has shown up in South Africa and the World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled it Omicron. This variant has been spreading faster than the Delta variant which Europe, Northern American states and the world in it’s grip.

“Initially it looked like some cluster outbreaks, but from yesterday, the indication came from our scientists from the Network of Genomic Surveillance that they were observing a new variant,” Minister of Health Joe Phaahla said, stressing that it is currently unclear where the variant first emerged.

Initially given the number, B.1.1.529, it was rumored that t might be called Nu, the 13th letter in the Greek alphabet but they called it instead Omicron after the 15th letter of the Greek Alphabet. I had already started my painting of Gnu’s, which are like wildebeests,  stampeding, and since I was close to finishing I stayed the course.

Omicron has an unusually high number of mutations, with more than 30 in the key spike protein. It is believed that it is infecting the vaccinated as well as the unvacinated. Only about 21% of the population has gotten the jab. Many scientists have been warning that there should be a concerted effort to vaccinate the entire population of the world, but rich countries have instead been focused on providing third booster shots with the vaccines that they have hoarded for their own populations. By hoarding vaccines new mutations are able to develop in countries where much of the population is unprotected. Even so, half of the population in countries like America have refused to get vaccinated.

UK officials announced that six African countries will be added to England’s travel “red list” after the UK Health Security Agency flagged concern over the variant.The United States as always is slow to react. The United States will restrict travel from South Africa and neighboring countries effective November 29, 2021, a senior Biden administration official said. With air travel open for several more days over the Thanksgiving holiday it is very likely the Omicron virus has already arrived in America. The financial markets have begun to tumble, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 2.5%, its worst day since late October 2020.

COVID-19 Air

Posted on by Thor

The U.S. lifted restrictions November 8, 2021 on travel from 33 countries, including the U.K., (9,333,891 COVID cases) South Africa, (2,924,072 COVID cases) Brazil, (21,886,077 COVID cases) Mexico, (3,827,596 COVID cases) Canada, (1,735,017 COVID cases) and most of Europe. In Europe there is a surge in COVID-19  infections, alarming health officials and sparking fears that the continent could be engulfed by a new wave of the pandemic this winter.

Travelers must show proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test. I am certain that Florida‘s Governor Ron DeathSantis will take issue with these vaccination passports and will fight these airlines insisting every unvaccinated person in the world should  be allowed into the state. He has already been fighting tooth and nail with the cruise industry. But he lost that lawsuit.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) the U.S. will accept travelers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, (WHO) not just those in use in the U.S. That means that the AstraZeneca vaccine, widely used in Canada, will be accepted. Though vaccinations are required, there are exemptions for travelers under age 18 and passengers from countries with low vaccination availability. In other words, if the country hasn’t vaccinated many people, then hey, come on in anyway, and don’t bother taking any precautions because this is “Merica.”