Indeed. The high death rates from Covid the UK has endured at the hands of this government's bungling is hardly hidden.Originally Posted by Aimless
Indeed. The high death rates from Covid the UK has endured at the hands of this government's bungling is hardly hidden.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-investigation
According to Ron Kim, an assemblyman from Queens, New York City, the call began with silence before Cuomo said: “Mr Kim, are you an honorable man?” He then proceeded to yell down the phone at Kim for 10 minutes, shouting: “You will be destroyed” and “You will be finished”.
When the Post’s report came out, Cuomo responded by devoting a large chunk of his press briefing to an all-barrels attack on Kim, accusing him of a slew of unethical practices.
The contrast between the untethered attack-machine of this week’s Cuomo, and the teary-eyed empathist he projected last March is so startling it has left many outside observers bemused. But to New York politicians who have for years been in the Cuomo orbit, it was as surprising as the spaghetti and meatballs the governor likes to cook his family every Sunday dinner.
“Meet the Governor Cuomo we’ve known all along, beneath the Emmy-winning performance he put on for months,” was how Jumaane Williams, the New York City public advocate, put it on Twitter this week.
The Guardian asked Williams, who acts as official watchdog for New Yorkers, to elucidate. “The pandemic has exposed many things, and this is one of them,” he said. “It’s been like a secret that up to now Cuomo’s got away with – his lack of accountability, the way he responds to political winds only when forced to.”
Ironically, the area that has landed Cuomo in such hot water is precisely the same as the one that inspired his tear-laden announcement named after his mother – caring for older and vulnerable New Yorkers through the pandemic. Three days after he executed Matilda’s Law, he created a new provision shielding hospital and nursing home executives from potential liability for decisions that might lead to people’s deaths from Covid.
As the journalist David Sirota has noted in the Guardian, Cuomo had received more than $2m from the Greater New York Hospital Association and its associated executives and lobbying firms – the very healthcare industry group that claims to have “drafted” the immunity clause.
The immunity provision has had a detrimental impact on the ongoing investigation into Covid deaths in New York nursing homes which accounted for almost a third of the total death toll of about 46,000. In a withering report released by the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, last month, she says that it has led to confusion about whether homes that failed to meet health standards for containing the pandemic could ever be held accountable.
James has demanded that the new immunity rules be scrapped.
That wasn’t the end of it. Two days after creating the immunity provision – five days after announcing Matilda’s Law – Cuomo released an advisory notice. It directed nursing homes to accept patients back from hospital who were infected or might be infected with coronavirus.
The homes had to admit anyone who was “medically stable” – no resident was to be denied readmission “solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of Covid-19”.
The motivation behind the notice was clear – there was an “urgent need” to expand hospital capacity in order to meet the surge in Covid cases. In other words, free up hospital beds by getting older patients back to their nursing homes.
The rest is history. A report by the New York department of health found that between the issuing of the advisory on 25 March and 8 May more than 6,000 Covid-positive residents were allowed back into nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
There has been a great deal of debate about the extent to which the governor’s March advisory was to blame for large numbers of nursing home deaths from Covid. When the Poynter Institute’s factchecking arm, Politifact, reviewed the question it concluded that Cuomo had not forced nursing homes to take in sick patients as his Republican detractors had claimed.
But Politifact did conclude that the notice give care managers the distinct impression that they had no other option than to take the residents back in.
As with so many other political scandals before it, the real trouble with “Cuomo-gate” was not the arguable errors that were made but the lack of transparency about what happened next. That’s what really bugs the public advocate.
“My problem with Cuomo’s leadership is not that mistakes were made – mistakes are always made. But if you can’t take accountability for them and debrief what went wrong, then mistakes get made over and over again and people are dying for it,” Williams said.
The unravelling began with the attorney general’s report last month which revealed that deaths of New York nursing home residents were substantially higher than had been recorded by the Cuomo administration. Residents who had fallen sick and died after they were transferred to hospital were mysteriously left off the official count.
Then the New York Post dropped a bombshell. The paper reported that Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, had admitted to Democratic leaders in a conference call that the administration had withheld the true nursing home death toll from state lawmakers.
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Cuomo being revealed as an incompetent and dangerous executive is freaking great.
Agreed. And Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, are rightly rounding on him for his belligerent incompetence and attempted coverups.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56153600
Research led by Public Health Scotland found by the fourth week after the first dose, hospitalisations were reduced by 85% and 94% for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs respectively.
Among the over 80s, there was an overall 81% reduction in the numbers admitted to hospital.
Wowzers. This is absolutely fantastic news, better even than expected.
Everyone should be able to celebrate this.
Game set and match to humanity over this bastard bug. Interesting given all the drama that the Scots are finding better protection from AstraZeneca than Pfizer though I wouldn't read too much into that at this stage. Pretty clear that one dose of either works well for now. These numbers are from the Scots independently, we should get figures from England (and maybe Wales and NI) later today.
Aye the hospitalisation rates post-jab are indeed looking excellent.
Roadmap for lifting lockdown published.
Schools reopen 8 March - good!
So long as the data remains good, Rule of 6 outside resumes 29 March which is just in time for my daughter's 7th birthday so we might have a picnic or BBQ or something with my parents then. She lost her birthday celebrations last year due to first lockdown so be nice to not still be locked down for this one.
5 weeks between stages, seems conservative.
More steps April and May and then estimated final removal of all distancing laws for 21 June.
Johnson ruling out bringing it forward today but I wonder if that will hold. If he didn't rule it out people would be mithering every week, but if the data does better than expected I see no reason it shouldn't accelerate.
Also target set for all adult to be vaccinated by end of July.
International travel closed off until at least mid May, will be reviewed in April. I think it should be reopened only for countries sufficiently vaccinated with low enough case numbers.
Overall a sensible if cautious roadmap out of lockdown from Boris & co.
5 weeks between each easing of restrictions on the face of it seems a bit slow, but overall, better that I think than being too quick to unlock, and then having the awful scenario of having to reimpose restrictions yet again.
Here's to a brighter spring and summer.
Interestingly the official target for vaccinated all over 18s is end of July but I wonder whether that's another case of trying to under promise and over deliver. If all adults could be vaccinated by 31 May, then add 21 days for vaccine to work, that would take us to 21 June unlocking.
What do you think of the idea of vaccine passports for domestic use? Sounds like they're keeping their options open on that and so long as its open to everyone to have received a vaccine by that point then I think its a good idea.
EG one scheme I've heard suggested is that for clubs, stadiums, theatres etc that those who are vaccinated could get an app-based 'passport' while the unvaccinated would be required to pay for and take a lateral flow test before being allowed entry. Tests are unpleasant and antivax refuseniks would hopefully realise that a free vaccine is better than paying for and swabbing your nose or throat every time you want to go to a major event. Scheme would only be fair or work if vaccines are available to all though, I'd oppose domestic vaccine passports if vaccines aren't even available to us yet. What do you think of the idea?
Vaccines going to the third world
Fantastic news.
Twitter Link
Yeah I think I'm in favour.
For international travel - probably moreso. I see Greece is already considering vaccination passport checks to allow UK residents to visit.
Domestically - why not. If it will allow me in to a stadium to see the rugby or in to a venue to see a band or a concert, bring it on. And if it prevents those who are not vaccinated from doing the same, why do i care. Assuming that is they are not vaccinated through refusal and not some other reason. I've not heard of a valid reason why someone couldn't get a vaccination.
I don't know about this vaccine, but for others I think immunological disorders are medical reasons to avoid vaccines (which is no problem if the rate is high enough for herd immunity).
I would have some concerns depending on how it would be implemented, to be honest. For things like rugby and concerts, sure, but you do have to make sure it won't be abused.
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
Antivax morons have a lot to answer for. A colleague of my wife refused the vaccine after reading that "it doesn't work against variants so is pointless to get". He's now tested positive and the home is back under lockdown as a result.
The amount of ludicrous nonsense getting spouted about the Oxford vaccine by people who should know better is getting ridiculous and feeding antivax conspiracy lunatics.
In good news 3 of my closest relatives are getting vaccinated this week. My much younger brother today (had open heart surgery a couple of years ago), my dad tomorrow (diabetic so getting it one group earlier than his age) and my wife is getting her second dose on Saturday.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Honestly a little funny how personally he keeps taking this. Kudos the Serum Institute of India
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
How personally who is taking what?
Interesting story, hopefully before too long European politicians set their hubris to one side and learn some lessons. Lives are at stake. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-...llout-12227957
Not looking likely yet when still peddling these unbelievable lies. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...rsula-von-der/
"Hugo", and everything that has to do with AstraZeneca. I guess "International vaccine fund COVAX pays Serum Institute of India to produce 600,000 doses of Oxford's vaccine for Ghana" doesn't have a sufficiently jingoistic ring to it
"Germany's top-selling newspaper" aka. "Germany's equivalent of the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and the Express"Interesting story, hopefully before too long European politicians set their hubris to one side and learn some lessons. Lives are at stake. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-...llout-12227957
Which of her statements do you believe are lies?Not looking likely yet when still peddling these unbelievable lies. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...rsula-von-der/
Last edited by Aimless; 02-24-2021 at 10:34 PM.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Concrete, real-world results from a two-dose Pfizer vaccination regime give better-than-forecast results. Fuckin A
Testing on the SA variant and booster programmes next.
The paper was refreshing to read, it was fairly competently analyzed and executed. I have some quibbles on their exclusion criteria and look forward to seeing some analysis on particularly vulnerable subgroups like nursing home residents that were excluded. I also look forward to longer term followup.Concrete, real-world results from a two-dose Pfizer vaccination regime give better-than-forecast results. Fuckin A
Testing on the SA variant and booster programmes next.
It's fascinating if you dig into the paper you'll see that the CIs are still huge for some of the outcomes, even with a 1 million+ patient sample. There were so few events in the relatively short reporting time that CIs are still pretty broad. It was good to see that any really deleterious outcomes like hospitalization, severe covid, death, etc. pretty much dropped to zero by 28-35 days.
I really wish that more real-world data was reported this cleanly.
"When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first." - Werner Heisenberg (maybe)
Good news all around it seems from vaccines.
And Moderna have created the first variant vaccine too.
People with valid medical excuses can get a variant of the same passport.
Hope is the denial of reality
More good news from Pfizer
Twitter Link
Humanity is going to beat this bug with these jabs.
In other news the percentage of the UK now saying they either have been vaccinated or want to be vaccinated when its their turn is now up to 94% that is a brilliant figure.
Twitter Link
Great news. Remarkably terrible that many European nations are still refusing to use a vaccine that is working for those who are aged over 65 - the very people who need it most and whose lives are being saved here.
Wondering when we'll see California-Franco-German vaccine hesitancy be a main limiting factor, instead of supply.
How about the claim the EU is "catching up" on the United Kingdom's vaccine rollout. Bizzare definition of "catching up" you must have if that didn't raise red flags as a lie.
Twitter Link
Note that chart is doses administered, not first doses administered, so dosing regimen doesn't affect that chart.
The EU's priority is full immunization. This should've been clear from that paragraph you're talking about. By that metric, EU countries have not only "caught up" but passed the UK. You're focusing on a metric that the EU isn't focusing on. As always, RB, it helps to read the articles you link to.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
On full immunizations even the Netherlands have surpassed the UK. Which is kind of telling.
It's nice that Brexit enables them to experiment with the health of the entire nation, but I'm not sure it's a freedom I envy them for. It used to be a prerogative of third world countries.
Congratulations America
I'm agnostic about the strategy; the UK was in a very bad shape, and the approach they've taken may well be appropriate given their circumstances. Just think it's important to be clear about what people are actually saying.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
It's an insanely stupid lie of a claim. Just because you're concentrating on full immunisations doesn't mean you have "caught up" it means that despite having done a tiny fraction of the doses you have marginally more fully vaccinated. So long as you then ignore everybody else.
Claiming that you're doing a different path is one thing but lies about catching up are just dumb lies. You would never let Lewk get away with claiming something so dishonest but you have the audacity to defend that with a straight face?
You have lost all your integrity and moral fibre.
PS it's also ridiculous to set that as the target if you want a pissing contest because just wait a few weeks until the UKs second doses become due and then compare. It's not going to be a pretty comparison but no doubt you'll find a new line to take by then.
Not that I am overly interested, but merely dispensing a first injection isn't exactly the same as a person fully immunized.
Congratulations America
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