COVID-19 Dodgeball

Posted on by Thor

CNN reported that Covid-19 cases in children are up 32% from two weeks ago, according to new numbers published November 22, 2021 by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). For the week ending November 18, 2021 there were at least 141,905 new cases among children, with children making up a disproportionate share of the cases, representing more than a quarter of all new Covid-19 cases for the past week.

Early in the pandemic, kids accounted for fewer than 3% of confirmed cases. That is because parents helped to keep them at home, socially isolated.  Now parents are glad to have the kids out from underfoot and back in school. Some schools are trying to keep the kids protected with masks and some form of social distancing, but some state governors are doing everything in there power to keep the kids unmasked so the virus can spread unchecked.

Cases have dropped since a horrific summer surge in the south, but now the cases are rising again as winter sets in. The number of children with Covid-19 is still considered “extremely high,” the AAP report said. This marks the 15th week in a row that child Covid-19 cases are higher than 100,000. But 939 children have died from Covid-19 in the United States since the start of the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Children ages 5 and older are now eligible to get Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. A study conducted by Pfizer showed that its vaccine efficacy was more than 90% against symptomatic disease. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that two-thirds of parents want to wait and see, or are refusing to vaccinate their children. Misinformation, mistrust and insanity are resulting in plenty of children that the virus can burn through. Those kids return home and infect the parents and grand parents and the dynamic dance of death continues.

One Third Test Positive

Posted on by Thor

The Wall Street Journal reported that a flight from Deli, India to Hong Kong was packed tight like sardines in a tin can. All passengers had to stay at a quarantine hotel upon arrival. More than a third of the passengers on flight UK6395, 52 so far — have tested positive for COVID-19. They had all tested negative before the flight.

One passenger, Mrs. Fathima said she feared her family picked up the infections on the April 3, 2021 journey, despite wearing masks almost the entire time and avoiding using the restrooms on board. Some passengers — including one in the same row — coughed repeatedly during the six-hour flight, people took masks off to eat, and some parents walked their crying children up and down the aisle, she said.

There is a debate as to weather the passengers were infected on the flight or in the quarantine hotel. Genome testing is being done to try and figure out the source of infection.  COVID spread could still have happened on flight UK6395 if a highly infectious patient had not worn a mask properly, or if germs had contaminated common facilities such as toilets when a passenger did not flush the water closet with the lid closed. Forbes reported that a new case study from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health finds that Covid-19 can spread on long-haul flights. In September, 2020 two other international studies came to the same conclusion. And last month, an Irish study linked 59 Covid-19 cases to one seven-hour flight.

According to The Sun, Poonam Nanda, the director of Nanda Travel, based in Hong Kong, added: “This one flight appears to be an astonishing outlier and we are all confounded by these numbers.” Hong Kong has now banned all flights from India starting  May 3, 2021 for 14 days.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently eased its domestic and international travel guidance for vaccinated people, stating that travelers who are fully vaccinated “can travel safely within the United States” but noted a greater risk for international travel. However, the agency is still discouraging nonessential travel due to rising numbers of Covid-19 infections. Driven by extremely contagious variants that have invaded all 50 states, the virus is currently hitting healthier 30 to 50 year-olds hard.