Category: Breaking News

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Wuhan to test entire population for COVID and lock them down

Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan will begin testing its entire population, after just 6 positive coronavirus cases were detected there

Wuhan has recorded seven locally transmitted cases – the first local infections in more than a year. The city of 11 million people shot into the spotlight after the coronavirus was first detected there in 2019. China is currently seeing one of its biggest outbreaks in months, with 300 cases detected in 10 days. Some 15 provinces across the country have been affected, which has led to the government rolling out mass testing measures and lockdown restrictions. Authorities have attributed the spread of the virus to the highly contagious Delta variant and the domestic tourism season. The announcement in Wuhan came as China reported 90 new virus cases on Tuesday. The National Health Commission said 61 of these were locally transmitted – compared with 55 local cases a day earlier. China had been largely successful in controlling the virus within its borders. However, this new spread, which was first detected among workers at a busy airport in Nanjing, has sparked concern. Authorities have tested the 9.2 million residents of Nanjing three times and imposed lockdown on hundreds of thousands of people. But over the weekend the spotlight turned to popular tourist destination Zhangjiajie in Hunan province, where many of the latest cases have emerged. Travellers from Nanjing were thought to have visited the city recently. Health officials have zeroed in on a theatre in Zhangjiajie, and are now trying to track down about 5,000 people who attended performances and then travelled back to their home cities. “Zhangjiajie has now become the new ground zero for China’s epidemic spread,” Zhong Nanshan, China’s leading respiratory disease expert, told reporters.The new outbreak has also reached the capital Beijing, with the city reporting several locally transmitted infections.

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US Senator Graham tests positive for coronavirus… was fully vaccinated

WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham announced on Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated, has flu-like symptoms and will be self-quarantining for 10 days. “I am very glad I was vaccinated because without vaccination I am certain I would not feel as well as I do now. My symptoms would be far worse,” Graham, 66, wrote on Twitter. The South Carolina Republican, a leading conservative voice in the Senate, said he began experiencing flu-like symptoms on Saturday and sought medical attention on Monday morning. He was later informed by a congressional physician that he had tested positive. “I feel like I have a sinus infection and at present time I have mild symptoms,” Graham, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, wrote in a pair of tweets. “I will be quarantining for ten days.” His announcement comes at a crucial time for the closely divided Senate, where Democratic leaders hope to advance President Joe Biden’s agenda in coming weeks by pushing through a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Graham is among a group of 17 Senate Republicans who have backed the bipartisan infrastructure legislation in procedural votes. The measure needs Republican votes to achieve the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation in the 100-seat chamber. The Senate is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, who control the chamber only because of Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote. It was not clear how much contact Graham has had recently with other members of the Senate. A spokesman for Senator Joe Manchin, a leading Democrat on infrastructure, could not confirm whether Graham attended a recent private gathering hosted by Manchin, but added: “Senator Manchin is fully vaccinated and following the CDC guidelines for those exposed to a COVID positive individual.” Graham’s office did not respond to questions about the gathering. Graham did not say whether he had tested positive for the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for a recent surge in infections in the United States, particularly Southern states with relatively low vaccination rates. Forty-six percent of South Carolina’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, well below the national average of 58%, according to the Reuters COVID-19 Vaccination Tracker.

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CDC Says Vaccinated Can Be Super-Spreaders (Are Vaccines Failing?)

Via the words of the CDC’s own director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the official narrative on vaccines and covid has just self-destructed. While in March of this year, Walenksy had publicly promised that vaccinated people could not spread the virus and infect others.

This week the CDC publicly stated that vaccines are failing, and that vaccinated people may now carry higher viral loads than unvaccinated people, contributing to the spread of covid.

Even Yahoo News, which typically shills for Big Pharma, could not sugarcoat the devastating narrative shift, reporting:

The CDC updated its guidelines on Tuesday to recommend masks indoors, even for vaccinated people. The Delta variant makes it easier for vaccinated people to transmit the virus, the CDC said. Vaccinated and unvaccinated people infected with Delta may have similar viral loads.

The CDC is currently hiding these data from the public, by the way, most likely because they know that once the data are revealed, any remaining shred of their pro-vaccine narrative will spontaneously collapse.

CDC “Confession” Just Obliterated All The Promises Made To The Vaccinated… Now They Are Slowly Realizing They’re The Doomed Super-Spreaders

In making these public statements, the CDC just admitted that the entire promise that vaccinated people were immune to covid and couldn’t spread it to others just unraveled. Immediately, the CDC demanded that the entire nation revert to neanderthal mask mandates, even for those who have been “fully vaccinated.”

But It’s Even Worse: CDC Director Just Admitted The Vaccines Will Soon Be Obsolete

If you can imagine it, the situation is actually far worse than what’s been covered here so far. In her public confessions this week, CDC director Walensky also admitted that covid is “just a few mutations away” from rendering all existing vaccines completely obsolete. She added:

The largest concern that I think we in public health and science are worried about is that virus and the potential mutations. We have a very transmissible virus, which has the potential to evade our vaccines in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death…

we obviously need “booster shots,” vaccine companies are now openly stating that the mutated Delta strains means people will need booster shots to be protected

The “high wave of morbidity and mortality,” it seems, has only just begun.

Dr. Robert Malone Warns Of “Worst Case Scenario” And Cites First Evidence Showing Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) Now Emerging

Over the next 12 months or so, we are likely going to see a wave of post-vaccine deaths that mirrors the wave of people obtaining vaccines earlier this year. Even Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of the mRNA vaccine technology, warns that the CDC’s admission is essentially a confirmation that Antibody Dependent Enhancement effects have begun.

Pfizer protection is waning at six months. Those who received Pfizer, that are now in the waning phase, seem to be getting infected. This exactly what you would anticipate is the window of greatest susceptibility to antibody dependent enhancement, in this long tapering phase as the vaccine response declines.

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Delta strain worries could slow recovery – Fed’s Kashkari

(Bloomberg) — Sign up for the New Economy Daily newsletter, follow us @economics and subscribe to our podcast. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19 could keep some Americans from looking for work, potentially harming the U.S. recovery. “I was very optimistic the fall would be a strong labor market with many of those Americans coming back to work. That’s still my base case scenario,” he said Sunday during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “But if people are nervous about the delta variant, that could slow some of that labor market recovery and therefore be a drag on our economic recovery.” Fed officials took a step last week toward eventually scaling back their pandemic support for the U.S. economy. They held interest rates near zero and repeated a pledge made in December to maintain $120 billion in monthly asset purchases until “substantial further progress” was made on employment and inflation. But they also said that the economy had made progress toward these goals, and that policy makers would continue to assess progress at upcoming meetings. Economists took that as a clear signal they were leaning towards scaling back the bond buying later this year or early next, provided surging infection rates from the Delta variant of Covid-19 don’t stall the economy recovery. Kashkari, not a voter this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, said they were not there yet. “We’re about a third of the way back from where the hole was in December, so we’ve made progress but we are still in a deep hole,” Kashkari said. “We have 7 to 9 million Americans who are still out of work that we need to get back into the job market.” His comments dovetailed with remarks on Friday evening from Fed Governor Lael Brainard, who said “employment has some distance to go” to meet that test, noting that millions of Americans still remain out of work.In contrast, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told reporters earlier in the day that he wanted the central bank to decide in September to begin reducing its asset purchases.

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UK finance minister presses for travel rules easing

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Britain’s Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has pressed for an easing of travel restrictions to offer respite to the tourism sector amid concerns that the country is not reaping the benefit of its vaccination programme, the Sunday Times reported. Sunak had written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning of the impact that Britain’s strict border controls were having ahead a meeting of ministers on Thursday to consider changes, the newspaper said, citing a source familiar with the letter.The Treasury declined to comment. England last month lifted the requirement for fully vaccinated Britons returning from medium-risk countries to have to quarantine. Visitors from the EU and United States with the same status will also be exempt from Monday. However, travellers still have to take expensive tests before departure and shortly after arrival. Separately, the bosses of Britain’s biggest airlines and travel companies urged Transport Minister Grant Shapps to add more countries to the “green list” that have fewer restrictions. They said green status should increasingly become a default, given that nearly 90% of British adults had been given one vaccine and more than 70% had two, and domestic restrictions had eased. “On this basis there is no reason why, and it is essential, that much of Europe including the key volume markets, the U.S., Caribbean and other major markets, cannot turn green next week in time for the remainder of the summer peak,” bosses of Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, British Airways, Jet2.com, Loganair, Ryanair and TUI UK & Ireland said in a letter shared with media. They said a continued requirement for expensive COVID-19 tests would have a huge impact on aviation. “We have seen no evidence that this regime is necessary for fully vaccinated travellers or those from Green countries, or that effective, cheaper rapid tests cannot be used from higher risk destinations,” they said.

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CDC leak, summary and full report

An internal report presented to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates the Delta coronavirus variant is far more transmissible than older lineages, may cause more severe disease, and that when it causes breakthrough infections, may be as easily transmitted as when it infects unvaccinated people.

What the document shows:

  • The slideshow dated Thursday and first obtained by The Washington Post, appears to provide some data backing CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s controversial decision on Tuesday to change the agency’s guidance on mask use.
  • It says the Delta variant is about as transmissible as chickenpox, with each infected person, on average, infecting eight or nine others. The original lineage was about as transmissible as the common cold, with each infected person passing the virus to about two other people on average.
  • And if vaccinated people get infected anyway, they have as much virus in their bodies as unvaccinated people. But vaccinated people are safer, the document indicates. It says vaccines reduce the risk of severe disease or death 10-fold and reduce the risk of infection three-fold.
  • The CDC, the document advises, should “acknowledge the war has changed.” It recommends vaccine mandates and universal mask requirements.

How the CDC reacted:

  • Walensky confirmed to CNN that the slideshow was presented to her at a noon briefing on Thursday. “I think people need to understand that we’re not crying wolf here. This is serious,” Walensky told CNN Thursday night. “It’s one of the most transmissible viruses we know about. Measles, chicken pox, this – they’re all up there,” she said.
  • Walensky noted that the R0 for the Delta variant – a measure of its transmissibility – is estimated to be 5-9, meaning each infected person can be expected to infect 5-9 other people. “When you think about diseases that have an R0 of 8 or 9 – there aren’t that many.”
  • Asked about the contents of the slide deck, Walensky said, “There weren’t any surprises. It was the synthesis of the data all in one place that was sobering.”

What comes next:

  • The CDC is scheduled to publish additional data Friday that will back Walensky’s controversial decision to change guidance for fully vaccinated people. She said Tuesday the CDC was recommending that even fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in places where transmission of the virus is sustained or high. The data behind an internal US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document that suggests fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant at the same rate as unvaccinated people is, according to the Washington Post, based on a Covid-19 cluster that emerged from July 4 weekend festivities in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Alex Morse, Provincetown’s town manager, told CNN’s “New Day” that there are 112 active cases right now in the town, but the overall cluster number is more than 880 since July 1.

Vaccination alone won’t stop the rise of new variants and in fact could push the evolution of strains that evade their protection, researchers warned Friday. They said people need to wear masks and take other steps to prevent spread until almost everyone in a population has been vaccinated. “When most people are vaccinated, the vaccine-resistant strain has an advantage over the original strain,” Simon Rella of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, who worked on the study, told reporters. “This means the vaccine resistant strain spreads through the population faster at a time when most people are vaccinated.” The findings suggest that policymakers should resist the temptation to lift restrictions to celebrate or reward vaccination efforts. This is likely to be especially true with a more transmissible variant such as the Delta variant, said Fyodor Kondrashov, also of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. “Generally, the more people are infected, the more the chances for vaccine resistance to emerge. So the more Delta is infectious, the more reason for concern,” Kondrashov told reporters. “By having a situation where you vaccinate everybody, a vaccine resistant mutant actually gains a selective advantage.” People should not complain, he said. “The individual who already vaccinated and putting on a mask should not think this is pointless but should think that there is a vaccine resistant strain running around,” he said.

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The world is at risk of losing hard-won gains in fighting COVID-19

GENEVA, July 30 (Reuters) – The world is at risk of losing hard-won gains in fighting COVID-19 as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads, but WHO-approved vaccines remain effective, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described the Delta variant of the coronavirus as being as transmissible as chickenpox and cautioned it could cause severe disease, the Washington Post said, citing an internal CDC document.

COVID-19 infections have increased by 80% over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Deaths in Africa – where only 1.5% of the population is vaccinated – rose by 80% over the same period. “Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed,” Tedros told a news conference. The Delta variant has been detected in 132 countries, becoming the dominant global strain, according to the WHO. “The vaccines that are currently approved by the WHO all provide significant protection against severe disease and hospitalisation from all the variants, including the Delta variant,” said WHO’s top emergency expert, Mike Ryan. “We are fighting the same virus but a virus that has become faster and better adapted to transmitting amongst us humans, that’s the change,” he said. Maria van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, said the Delta variant was the most easily spread so far, about 50% more transmissible than ancestral strains of SARS-CoV-2 that first emerged in China in late 2019. Japan said on Friday it would expand states of emergency to three prefectures near Olympic host city Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka, as COVID-19 cases spike in the capital and around the country, overshadowing the Summer Games. Ryan noted that Tokyo had recorded more than 3,000 cases in the past 24 hours, among some 10,000 new infections in Japan. “The Olympics is a part of that overall context and the risk management that is place around the Olympics is extremely comprehensive,” he said.

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Delta variant rampant in Asia; Tokyo, Thailand, Malaysia post record COVID infections

July 31 (Reuters) – The Olympics host city Tokyo, as well as Thailand and Malaysia, announced a record number of COVID-19 infections on Saturday, mostly driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant of the disease. Cases surged in Sydney as well, where police cordoned off the central business district to prevent a protest against a strict lockdown that will last until the end of August. Police closed train stations, banned taxis from dropping passengers off downtown and deployed 1,000 officers to set up checkpoints and to disperse groups. The government of New South Wales reported 210 new infections in Sydney and surrounding areas from the Delta variant outbreak. Tokyo’s metropolitan government announced a record number of 4,058 infections in the past 24 hours, topping 4,000 for the first time. Olympics organisers reported 21 new COVID-19 cases related to the Games, bringing the total to 241 since July 1. The record comes a day after Japan extended its state of emergency for Tokyo to the end of August, expanding it to three prefectures near Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka in light of the recent spike in infections. Olympics organisers said on Saturday they had revoked accreditation of a Games-related person or people for leaving the athletes’ village for sightseeing, a violation of measures imposed to hold the Olympics safely amid the pandemic. The organisers did not disclose how many people had their accreditation revoked, if the person or people involved were athletes, or when the violation took place. read more Malaysia, one of the hotspots of the disease, reported 17,786 coronavirus cases on Saturday, a record number of infections. More than 100 people gathered in the centre of the capital Kuala Lumpur, expressing dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the pandemic and calling on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to quit. Protesters carried black flags and held up placards that read “Kerajaan Gagal” (failed government) – a hashtag that has been popular on social media for months. Thailand reported a daily record of 18,912 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total accumulated cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record, taking total fatalities to 4,857. The government said the Delta variant accounted for more than 60% of the cases in the country and 80% of the cases in Bangkok. The Delta variant is not necessarily more lethal than other variants, but much more transmissible, Supakit Sirilak, the director-general of the Medical Science Department, told Reuters. China is also battling an outbreak of the Delta variant in the eastern city of Nanjing, traced to airport cleaners who worked on a flight from Russia. COVID-19 infections have increased by 80% over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. “Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed,” Tedros told a news conference. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said the variant, first detected in India and now dominant across the globe, is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or flu. It can be passed on even by vaccinated people, and may cause more serious disease than earlier coronavirus strains.

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CDC: 74% of recent COVID patients vaccinated…… Obviously vaccines are not enough

https://youtu.be/LgJSunRq14M

Of new COVID-19 cases on Cape Cod, 74% have been among fully vaccinated people, according to a report issued Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Testing indicated the delta variant of the virus accounted for 90% of specimens from 133 patients, the report indicated. New cases have been recorded in Barnstable County, particularly in Provincetown, this month. The CDC in its report said that 469 cases of COVID-19 have been associated with multiple summer events and large public gatherings in a town in Barnstable County. “Persons with COVID-19 reported attending densely packed indoor and outdoor events at venues that included bars, restaurants, guest houses, and rental homes,” the report read. On July 3, the state Department of Public Health reported a 14-day average COVID-19 incidence of zero cases per 100,000 persons per day in residents of the town in Barnstable County. By July 17, that average increased to 177 cases per 100,000 persons per day. Among the 469 cases in Massachusetts residents, 301 (87%) were male, with a median age of 42, the CDC said. Vaccines received by those with breakthrough infections were Pfizer-BioNTech (159; 46%), Moderna (131; 38%), and Janssen (56; 16%), the report indicated. The most common signs or symptoms of those with breakthrough cases were cough, headache, sore throat, myalgia and fever. Overall, 274 vaccinated patients with breakthrough infections were symptomatic. Among five patients who were hospitalized with the virus, four were fully vaccinated, the CDC said. No deaths were reported. As of Friday, Provincetown Town Manager Alex Morse said there have been 220 cases among town residents, including 103 active cases. Of the total cases, 73% are among vaccinated individuals and 89% are men with a median age of 39. The CDC suggested that jurisdictions consider prevention strategies like wearing masks in indoor public settings, particularly during large public gatherings. “The delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is highly transmissible,” the CDC report read, “vaccination is the most important strategy to prevent severe illness and death.”

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War has changed’, CDC says, as Delta variant infectious as chickenpox

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom, warned on Friday that the number of newly registered COVID-19 cases and deaths continues to climb in numerous countries across the globe. Commenting on new coronavirus variants, Dr. Tedros argued there will be more versions of the virus as long as the spreading lasts. “Hard-won gains in fighting COVID-19 are being lost,” he insisted at WHO’s press briefing. Dr. Tedros concluded by reiterating that the WHO’s goal remains to support every country to vaccinate at least 40% of its population by the end of the year and 70% by the middle of 2022.