Covid-19 and the madness of crowds

I guess it depends what you mean by worse. Susceptibility and mortality present two quite different statistics to look at. I remember learning in science at high school about the basic nature of viruses. Any novel virus tends to be fairly deadly, but in order for a virus to thrive it mutates to become more contagious, but less deadly. It is extraordinarily rare for a virus mutation to be more deadly. Thus, it comes as no great surprise that the virus has already mutated more than once, and that each successive mutation has appeared to be far more contagious than the previous. But the mortality rate kd the mutations is not as great. It might not appear that way, because deaths are still incredibly high in places where the virus is rampant - but that’s because a greater number of people have the virus.

The UK government are a bunch of self-serving W⚓️S, that have no morals, and care only about their wealth and that of their cronies. I can’t stand any of them, because I’m a woke leftie snowflake, but I can’t help but think they have made the right choice here.

Why is it odd? I know people who have had bad reactions, particularly to the AZ vaccine. 

Wonder what a booster shot will do......

A long way to go on that front, worldwide. 

I feel very lucky to live in the UK where so many of us have been doubly vaccinated.  Cases are rising fast again here but I am pretty confident that the overwhelming of the health services seen during previous waves, will not happen this time round....

The tragedy is India is the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world and could and should have worked out arrangements to manufacture Pfizer/Moderna vaccines here apart from Astrazeneca and the homegrown Covaxin.  Sputnik is already being made here but only for export so a batch of Sputnik vaccines are arriving from Russia.  As I said, you can't make this up.  The sheer hubris and complacency at the top is unbelievable. 

Forget allowing in Pfizer/Moderna, even had they granted the funding that SII, the local manufacturer of Astrazeneca vaccines, asked for last October, we would be in a better place today.  We don't have vaccines now when we need them most. 

Thanks Steve, I am fine. Even with having to deal with long covid, I feel like getting it the first time round was a blessing in disguise because this wave is way more contagious and is not weakened enough to be non-lethal.  A top 'journalist' (I mean he turned into a right wing grifter like a Hindi Fox News guy if you will) aged 42 died today.  He had a cardiac arrest a week after getting covid.  We are hearing of many cases where there is a sudden and drastic drop in oxygen saturation levels, like all the way to 70 or even 30 in some cases, and the patient (or their relatives) is left to scramble for help. And with our acute oxygen shortfall, aided by a combination of unforgivable complacency, lack of build up of infrastructure (owing to said complacency) and greedy black-marketing of oxygen (yes, you read that right!), many such people are simply dropping dead. 

This is a scary, scary report from the most populous state of India and one of its poorest - Uttar Pradesh:

I don't think it could be 300 million even with our rampant underreporting (lord, I shudder to think what would happen if it really hit that number).  I am guessing you read 3 million as 300 mil.  The real number of active cases is likely to be 5-10 times of 3 million, so 30 mn.  I would not be surprised to see it top 100 mn though the official number, again, will be much lower. Testing is so poor in some of the worst hit pockets that we are seeing insane positivity rates like 40-50%.  

Here in Mumbai, the positivity rate is 12-13%. Which is still high by international standards but much better than the other metropolises. Our state is ruled by the scion of a fascist rabble rouser (who died a few years back); who would have thought that he of all people would at least show the basic common sense to resist political pressure and impose shutdowns to arrest the spread of the virus here, a couple of weeks before other cities like Delhi followed suit. Even he failed to adequately prepare the city/state for the second wave but at least he acted in time which seems like a miracle compared to the rest of the nation.

Whilst I appreciate and am thankful for the outpouring of help and prayers, I also want for tougher words/action from leaders like Biden or Merkel to knock our Prime Idiot several pegs down, embarrass him till he resigns and flees the job he is patently unsuitable for.  This mess is primarily on him though state govts echoed his own complacency as did the people.  But they echoed the example he was setting...by addressing large rallies of mask-less voters in a state that was going to the polls in April and expressing amazement and delight at how many people had come. You can't make this up.  This megalomaniac needs to go.  Nay, he needs to die, preferable of acute oxygen shortage from covid.  Only then will his puppet health minister stop denying the oxygen crisis we are dealing with.