The Davos Effect

Posted on by Thor

Each year in a World Economic Forum is held in Davos, Switzerland. Simply put, the world’s billionaires go to Davos to talk money. The 2022 Davos World Economic Forum was postponed due to the outbreak of the Omicron Variant.

On twitter, people started sharing photos from the Forum pointing out that the Billionaires are taking every precautions against COVID this year. Each room has one or several HEPA Air Filters to remove any virus from the air. Rooms also had  Far-UVC lighting, used to  kill pathogens in the air.

Every attendee at Davos was PCR tested before entering the forum. If someone tested positive then access to the forum was automatically, electronically, revoked. Drivers for the speakers were required to wear masks and many in the audience wore masks as well. If an attendee started to feel ill at Davos, they could go collect a free rapid test, or even call the dedicated COVID hotline.

Part of me wonders if the outrage expresses online is actually a brilliant ad campaign to convince people to be like the rich and buy their own HEPA filtration devices.

Many on Twitter were up in arms that the billionaires get such preferential treatment while children and workers are forced to go to poorly ventilated schools and workplaces. I fell a bit different, I am happy that at least one public gathering was willing to recognize that they have a responsibility to keep people who attend safe.

The problem is that the public narrative on COVID is that the pandemic is over. Joe Biden said as much to a reporter on National TV. The “New Normal” for everyday citizens seems to me mass infections that result in increasingly worst outcomes as people infect one another over and over. health problems due to repeated infections include, like cardiac damage, viral persistence, and immune system dysfunction. COVID literally shrinks the brain which might explain why some are so hell bent on denying COVID is much worst than a cold or flu.

France and Belgium have already introduced new air quality standards, and DIY projects to build Corsi-Rosenthal boxes for schools and healthcare settings have popped up around the country. Parliament in England and Congress in the United States have both quietly installed HEPA filtration to keep the politicians safe.

COVID kills the ignorant and the divisive, but the rich prosper and can afford clean fresh air.

 

COVIDCON Superspreader

Posted on by Thor

Seth Meyers  told the thousands who had packed Radio City Music Hall for NBCUniversal’s presentation, at the Upfronts, “What a historic room to be able to tell people you got Covid in.”

The NBCUniversal upfront, which kicked off proceedings at Radio City Music Hall with elaborate production numbers involving dozens of performers, was a largely mask-free affairs

Ten days later, Covid cases were sweeping through the ranks of those who attended the marathon of events in New York. Top-level executives at virtually all of the major networks and studios were impacted, along with support staff that worked on the presentations as well as media buyers and reporters who attended the string of events.

It is likely the largest Covid superspreader event in the senior ranks of the TV industry since the start of the pandemic.

The majority of attendees did not wear masks most of the time. None of the non-affiliated guests were required to take a Covid test throughout the week. Vax cards were mandated at all venues. On May 16, 2022 New York City health officials strongly recommended that people wear masks when they were in densely populated indoor spaces. But they didn’t go as far as mandating this, and for the next couple of days, there were not a lot of masks seen at the events targeting ad buyers.

So inviting senior studio executives, talent and ad buyers was a great way to spread the virus. How might you infect as many of the worlds billionaires as possible? You invite them to Davos, Sweden for the World Economic Forum. Davos returned to an in-person meeting format this year. Videos I saw showed mask less crowds huddled together gleefully spreading deals and the virus. They might be rich but that doesn’t mean they are smart.

Complacency Waves

Posted on by Thor

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla warned Wednesday of “constant waves” of COVID-19 caused by complacency around the virus, politicization of the pandemic, and waning immunity.

Cases are rising in the U.S., and the rate at which people are getting vaccinated is falling. In the week that ended May 22, 2022, the US reported 790,000 new cases, more than three times as many as were reported in the last week of March. Of course these numbers are a fraction of how many are becoming infected since testing sites are closed and people test at home if at all.

People are also growing tired of COVID-19 safety regulations, said Bourla, who was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders and members of the business elite are gathered for an annual summit.

“What worries me is the complacency,” Bourla said in Davos, adding that fewer people were wearing masks and that even people who have already been vaccinated were less likely to get booster shots. The consequences will likely be seen in three to six months, he said.

Bourla said Pfizer believed that antiviral drugs would replace vaccines as the key weapon in fighting the coronavirus, at least until shots providing a longer period of immunity are developed. Pfizer is “doubling down” on producing its antiviral pill Paxlovid, he added.