All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Eli Lilly Antibody Treatment Fails to Work on Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients : US News : Latin Post – Latin news, immigration, politics, culture

Source: Eli Lilly Antibody Treatment Fails to Work on Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients : US News : Latin Post – Latin news, immigration, politics, culture

Taiwan goes 200 days without domestic COVID-19 case | TheHill

Taiwan, an island of more than 23 million people, has gone 200 days without a locally transmitted COVID-19 infection. Taiwan achieved this impressive record through early border shutdowns, intensive contact tracing, enforced quarantines and loyal mask use by its residents, according to a Bloomberg report.

Source: Taiwan goes 200 days without domestic COVID-19 case | TheHill

Coronavirus: DeWine calls on counties to create COVID Defense Team as Ohio breaks daily record

Gov. Mike DeWine called on counties to create a COVID Defense Team as the Ohio reported 3,590 cases in the last day, breaking the state’s previous record of 2,858. The COVID Defense Team will assess each county’s situation, inventory assets and focus on what each community can do to fight the virus. Source: Coronavirus: DeWine calls on counties to create COVID Defense Team as Ohio breaks daily record

In The Eye Of The Corona

yaskhan

It's like living in a submarine
Torpedoed in quarantine.

Bacillus becomes a biometric
A wake-up call going ballistic.

Defying mother nature's laws
Showcasing our human flaws.

Binge buying panicky stockpiling
All in all, my appetite is dying.

Eating right,  fighting fit
Our system needs a health permit.

Looks like an apocalyptic virus
Giving man the price of being lifeless.

A pandemic becoming a tragedy
Epiphany for man's fragility.



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We Escaped a War 40 Years Ago. Now We Might Be Sent Back. – Mother Jones

My family came fleeing the civil war in Nicaragua in 1979, because they served in the military and they had to seek refuge here in the United States. We saw this country as a defender of human rights, so we felt safe here.

Since I came to this country, I integrated and saw it as my second home. I haven’t gone back to Nicaragua once. I would feel like a foreigner there, and I wouldn’t feel safe, because I know that people who go back after living here so long are seen differently, and it could end really badly. My life is here; this is my community.

I work doing housekeeping at a university, cleaning offices, and I’m also a representative for our union, where we’re mostly Latinos. We work hard cleaning, especially in this pandemic. We’re keeping the university clean so that students can be safe. Every day, we face uncertainty and fear of getting the virus and passing it on to our families, but we’re considered essential workers.

Back in 2018, Trump said TPS was over—but then it was appealed and instead it got expanded by a year, which would mean it ends January 5, 2021. So all this uncertainty continued. Then, not that long ago, we were told that it was revoked again, but it’s being appealed again. All that keeps us unstable, because we don’t know what’s going on in the courts.

This year my brother, his wife, and I were thinking of buying a house together. I’m divorced, and I live with them, so we wanted to buy a house to live more comfortably. But with this situation, we didn’t do it because of this uncertainty that TPS might end in January.

Sometimes I watch the news and I see how disparagingly immigrants and Latinos are talked about, and I feel terrible. At the same time, I get strength because I know there are a lot of people who support us and who recognize the work we do. We’re not living here for free: We’re working, we’re contributing with our taxes and our culture. If we’re doing good here, why can’t we keep doing so in peace here? I’ll respect whoever the next president is, but the respect has to be mutual.

Source: We Escaped a War 40 Years Ago. Now We Might Be Sent Back. – Mother Jones

Stricter Covid-19 recommendations introduced in several Swedish regions – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

From October 29th the public is recommended to avoid indoor environments like shops, shopping malls, museums, libraries, swimming pools and gyms, as well as meetings, concerts, exhibitions, sports training, matches and competitions. Businesses have also been told to take measures to make sure recommendations can be followed, including shops and shopping centres reducing the number of people they let in, and making it easier for staff to work from home. Similar local restrictions have already been introduced in Uppsala and Skåne.

Source: Stricter Covid-19 recommendations introduced in several Swedish regions – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

As Coronavirus Surges, Chastened Dutch Wonder, ‘What Happened to Us?’ – The New York Times

Mr. Rutte continues to reiterate that the Netherlands is a “mature democracy, home to proud adults,” and urges people to adhere to the rules if they want the numbers to go down. But compliance has been spotty, and for now only nine other countries outpace the Netherlands’ 56 globally.

“This has obviously been a colossal political miscalculation,” said Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, a popular Dutch novelist who lives in Genoa, Italy. “Everybody does as they like and are free to decide themselves. Even positive patients in the Netherlands aren’t ordered to stay indoors. This is absolutely bonkers. In Italy, you’ll be thrown in jail.”

With the virus now raging, opinion polls show that a majority favors reimposing a full lockdown.

But Mr. Rinnooy Kan said that taking charge on that level was difficult for any politician in the Netherlands. “There are so many competing interests vying for attention,” he said, “and there is very little patience for blanket measures.”

Perhaps hubris is a better way to explain the failed policy, said the journalist Addie Schulte, who wrote an opinion article in the leading NRC Handelsblad newspaper, arguing that the governmental disorganization and incompetence laid bare by the pandemic also revealed a blind spot among the Dutch elite.

“Simply put,” he said, “we haven’t been able to manage even the most basic services, and allowed this crisis to get out of hand.”

Gilead’s Covid-19 Drug is Mediocre. It Will Be a Blockbuster Anyway. – The New York Times

 just days before the F.D.A. granted approval, a large study sponsored by the World Health Organization found that remdesivir provided no benefit to hospitalized patients.

“I think most people think that because a drug is F.D.A. approved, that means it must work,” said Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies the drug industry. He and other researchers recently found that less than one-third of new drugs approved by the F.D.A. and its European counterpart over the past decade were rated as having a “high therapeutic value” by outside experts.

“I think it’s important to recognize that F.D.A. approval doesn’t guarantee a certain level of benefit — all it says is that there is some benefit,” he said.