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Well move over Delta there's a new kid on the block Omicron
It had a large number of mutations, and early evidence suggested an increased reinfection risk, the WHO said.
It was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on 24 November, and has also been identified in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.
A number of countries around the world have now decided to ban or restrict travel to and from southern Africa.
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Some interesting numbers I came across on Twitter…
the Netherlands has 83% fully vaccinated, 3% one dose, and the rest unvaccinated
In the hospitals 51% are vaccinated, the rest unvaccinated
In the intensive care 20% are vaccinated, the rest unvaccinated
Basically that remaining 14% of unvaccinated people is supplying most of the serious hospital cases. But vaccination is not a sure protection against the disease. Luckily the death rates are staying low.
Ask Jamie Metzl, an acclaimed futurist , what the future holds and the answer might surprise: we already know, because we’re already in it.
The human species is well on the path of developing and applying “god-like” powers to “read, write and hack the code of life”, Metzl says. And the consequences of that, “we’re seeing right now” – in fact, more than 90 per cent of us literally have the very latest of the biotechnology revolution inside us, in the form of the revolutionary mRNA vaccines which have been developed to fight the Covid pandemic.
“mRNA vaccines are basically injecting instructions to your cells... to do something they weren’t naturally designed to do, which is create this foreign object that is the spike protein from the SARS-COV2 virus. Then your body identifies that foreign intruder that you have produced – you are the manufacturing plant, and that’s how you get your immunity.”
The Covid vaccines may be a more immediate example of how some will view the possibilities of technology as evil in themselves. Metzl sees them as amazing, the benefits they have delivered to humanity even more so.
“The fact that we have this hope of the vaccines is just incredible. Because if we didn’t have it, imagine this was like 100 years ago with the Spanish flu, and we just had to wait for this virus to burn through 7-8 billion humans. That would have been even more terrifying than this is.”
For those who fear technology his advice is, “just because something feels unnatural doesn’t mean it’s wrong or dangerous... Everything we have felt unnatural and dangerous, until it’s normalised.
“Nobody should be afraid of the technology in and of itself...
“All of this stuff seems like magic until it shows up... [and then] it just becomes normal.”
In response to this ongoing public health emergency, we developed an interactive web-based dashboard (static snapshot shown above) hosted by the Center for Systems >Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, to visualize and track reported cases in real-time. The dashboard, first shared publicly on January 22, illustrates the location and number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries for all affected countries. It was developed to provide researchers, public health authorities and the general public with a user-friendly tool to track the outbreak as it unfolds. Further, all the data collected and displayed is made freely available, initially as google sheets, now in a GitHub repository, along with the feature layers of the dashboard, which are now included in the ESRI Living Atlas.
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
edited November 2021
The Omicron is coming! The Omicron is coming! Run for the hills! 😂
@Jeroen said:
The Omicron is coming! The Omicron is coming! Run for the hills! 😂
Love to see the scare mongering in the media.
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
I know, it all seems a bit much. People here are saying the government has been too slow to act, on a flight from Capetown to Amsterdam there were 13 infected people (who are going into quarantine).
Personally I think it's important to be informed of what's new re the virus and any new strains...The media reports I have seen are for the most part are just saying "Health officials are waiting to see if the present vaccines in use are effective against this new strain" they won't know for a few days...
However there are many who already suffer from anxiety because of the unknowns of this pandemic...
Sadly they are caught between a rock and a hard place, the need to know of any important information regarding Covid 19 and the fear which may come from the information provided...
I think for those who are a bit anxious (which is understandable...a new strain of the virus with greater transmissibility then the last, which could kill if one is severely immunocompromised,) they should just get their information from their local government health authorities and not watch the news, some news stations outlets tend to sensationalise it...
When watching the news I would recommend wearing BS filter glasses and BS filters for the eardrums...
Well tomorrow Friday 3rd December is D day...Aotearoa (NZ) is transitioning to the traffic light system and the island will be on Red the same as Auckland, which means vaxxed people will have more freedom than the non vaxxed, the vaxxed Jaffas can visit the island if they have a vaccine pass, non vaxxed will need to have a negative Covid test result 72 hours before they can travel over....
As it stands there've only been three positive cases on the island, no doubt in the coming weeks this number will rise...
@Shoshin1 said:
Well tomorrow Friday 3rd December is D day...Aotearoa (NZ) is transitioning to the traffic light system and the island will be on Red the same as Auckland, which means vaxxed people will have more freedom than the non vaxxed, the vaxxed Jaffas can visit the island if they have a vaccine pass, non vaxxed will need to have a negative Covid test result 72 hours before they can travel over....
As it stands there've only been three positive cases on the island, no doubt in the coming weeks this number will rise...
Happy Birthday hehe. Sounds like fun. Will there be virtual cake? As you know Theravadin Sangha have to eat cake if laity bring them nothing else. Unless they are breatharians (you think that is extreme, some advanced adepts live on moonbeams … actually that may be vampires or some such mythical creatures …)
Anyway here is a virtual Buddhist Taart …
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Happy Birthday, @Bunks, hope the day is wonderful for you. Hugs and love.
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Many happy returns @Bunks I hope you receive felicitous joy and salutations from everyone!
personDon't believe everything you thinkThe liminal spaceVeteran
edited December 2021
I was quick to get vaccinated and encourage others to get vaccinated. If it were up to me I'd say that people should be free to make their own decisions but the rest of us shouldn't be obligated to carry your bag. If you don't want to get vaccinated fine, but don't expect the rest of us to cripple the hospitals and postpone preventive care or elective procedures to take care of you if you get sick. But apparently I am now an anti-vaxxer because I don't like the idea of vaccine mandates.
Well the weekend is over and most of the Jaffas have gone home, it's still quite busy in the village, all the shops are open..
After I finished work I visited one of the op shops which opened for the first time today since going into lockdown, it was busy, then on the way home a drive through queue was starting to form on the road outside the Covid testing centre...I guess some locals don't have any trust in the Jaffas being Covid free..
I had an interesting enquiry at work this morning, a person rang wanting contact details of local outdoor activity groups, ....They had been stuck at home all through lockdown by themself and was feeling lonely and isolated... However they were also quite anxious about joining a group because they were unvaxxed, and feared being rejected because of their unvaxxed status...
I didn't pry into why they were unvaxxed, it's not my job to know why, unless they freely offered up the information, also questions such as that could make them feel even more isolated/uncomfortable...
I offered to ring a group on the client's behalf to see if they were open to having unvaxxed people in their group...Unfortunately the group have a couple of members who were immunocompromised so they were not accepting non vaxxed members, but they are going to get back in touch with the office, once they have the contact details of another group who might be open to having the unvaxxed in their midst...
Anyhow when I rang the client back I gave them the information, plus made a couple of suggestions they might like to try...
Start going for walks of a morning...I see lots of people walking alone of a morning, the client is bound to meet other people in the same boat, and they may like some company...
Or if they have access to the internet and FB they could go to the local community page and start their own activity group, a group which is open to vaxxed and unvaxxed people...
Sadly there're going to be casualties on both sides of the vaccine fence... anxiety and depression does not discriminate...
Well the Auckland border is open, Jaffas are flooding out in all directions including the island...The good news only 74 new cases today, 56 of those in Auckland...Omicron has not made its presence felt...not yet well not any cases that the health officials know of...
Two unvaxxed people at my places of work (one volunteer at my volunteer job and a friend who I work with at my paid work) have lost their jobs...The friend who I work with is (according to her) waiting for a new 'safer' vaccine to come out...
I've heard the same thing from another unvaxxed friend, however this friend does not work (well apart from some online work) and she is self isolating and as been since the beginning of the lockdown in August, she told me she will be stay in isolation until the new Japanese oral vaccine becomes available, she did also mention something about buying rapid antigen tests when they become available to the general public...Apart from me getting her the special tofu that she likes when I go shopping, she orders everything else online...
I'm not convinced that either will be satisfied when these new vaccines become available, no doubt they will come up with other excuses for not getting vaccinated...However in the long run its their choice ....
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
I know several unvaxxed people, which means the incidence among my group of friends is higher than in most other places. But the government here have said they want to make booster jabs available to everyone over 18 years by the end of January, so that’s something.
@Jeroen said:
I know several unvaxxed people, which means the incidence among my group of friends is higher than in most other places. But the government here have said they want to make booster jabs available to everyone over 18 years by the end of January, so that’s something.
Yes, I am due for my booster in 1 month. It was originally six months between 2nd jab and booster but they've brought it forward with the arrival of Omicron.
I hope and pray that omicron is contagious AND stimulates the immune response. This might well be the saviour variant with only mild symptoms in most people but in effect vaccinating everyones body defences.
OM MANI PEME HUM
OM EE CRONE Gone
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Seems we are getting another lockdown here until maybe mid-January
A year ago I wanted to get a covid test and was just directed through a drive through testing station that took 15 minutes. Fast and efficient.
Well I came down with mild cold/flu like symptoms a couple of days ago. A nose draining like a faucet. I started the process of trying to get a Covid test and found a surprising amount of push back. All the quick test kits for BC were still in a warehouse somewhere. They first asked for a Doctor's recommendation from me to get get tested and then it continued on with a load of other questions. They sounded pretty dubious but with my persistence, they transferred my call to the next step in the Covid testing asking process. My number was electronically recorded and they finally returned my call 6 hours later. Here I went through another battery of questions with another person who sounding equally doubtful that I even needed it until I told them about all the other old duffers that I regularly hang out with at the snooker hall. That finally got me an appointment for the next day for a saliva test.
It made me think that there are some serious flaws here for the public in finding out when to completely self isolate from something covid related and when to act like you've just have a cold.
It sounded like the chamber of commerce was actually calling the shots and certainly put the current our omicron figures into question..
@how said:
A year ago I wanted to get a covid test and was just directed through a drive through testing station that took 15 minutes. Fast and efficient.
Well I came down with mild cold/flu like symptoms a couple of days ago. A nose draining like a faucet. I started the process of trying to get a Covid test and found a surprising amount of push back. All the quick test kits for BC were still in a warehouse somewhere. They first asked for a Doctor's recommendation from me to get get tested and then it continued on with a load of other questions. They sounded pretty dubious but with my persistence, they transferred my call to the next step in the Covid testing asking process. My number was electronically recorded and they finally returned my call 6 hours later. Here I went through another battery of questions with another person who sounding equally doubtful that I even needed it until I told them about all the other old duffers that I regularly hang out with at the snooker hall. That finally got me an appointment for the next day for a saliva test.
It made me think that there are some serious flaws here for the public in finding out when to completely self isolate from something covid related and when to act like you've just have a cold.
It sounded like the chamber of commerce was actually calling the shots and certainly put the current our omicron figures into question..
Been MIA from here and am currently working in NSW. It's a bit of a sh1t show here on the Covid front thanks to some numpties up north
Today's figures are just over 2600 so I will be spending Xmas here and not home in SA sighs I've got some family here to stay with thankfully. Had a close shave with some coworkers contracting Omicron but I'm negative and we're all still masking (it's mandatory for us still anyway at our job). I've been regularly swabbing my relatives and we're all double vaxxed and I had my booster almost two weeks ago.
I'm tired, sick of the covid porn from the media, the incompetency from the NSW government and the selfishness of antivaxxers and people who won't just stay the f**k at home while infectious. But I try to meditate each day (with varying degrees of success).
Merry Xmas and stay safe people.
-Sura
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
edited December 2021
A colleague of my husband was moaning and complaining about having to don masks again at work, and go through all the rigmarole of shielding, distancing and self-isolating,,, he gleefully attended a footie match in the open air - and BANG!. Caught a case of covid.
For all his pooh-poohing and derisive opinions, apparently he's so badly caught out he could barely walk within 2 days and has a pretty serious dose of it. No point mentioning come-uppance or Kamma. Chance your arm, take the risk and see what happens?
Wear a mask, avoid touching and keep your distance. And yes, whatever they can give you, get a booster jab. I did.
My arm ached like buggery the next day, and I had a mild headache.
I'm also needle-phobic, but I'd rather endure a small prick than be one.
I watched the news the other night and there was a segment covering a Covid wards in an hospital in south London...The charge nurse told the reporter, that her nurses were finding it really hard to look after the unvaccinated Covid patients who were filling up the ward...
Sadly but understandably so, they were suffering from Compassion fatigue...
Having to look after unvaccinated patients who (one could say 'deliberately') caught Covid, and whose behaviour has put the frontline health care workers and their families at risk...
Whilst life gets back to (relatively) normal for many people, those care workers on the frontline are faced with the dilemma of conflicting emotions on a daily bases...
Here in Aotearoa (NZ) we have yet to fully experience what's been happening in other parts of the world...All we can do is prepare for the worst case scenario , but hope for the best outcome
No doubt a lot of frontline healthcare workers will be experiencing the mental discomfort of fear & anxiety....
Perhaps our next meditation should be Tonglen taking in their anxiety and giving them our calmness & comfort...
@Shoshin1 said:
Perhaps our next meditation should be Tonglen taking in their anxiety and giving them our calmness & comfort...
Did that Tonglen on an early morning walk on some London greenery. It was dark and practically no one about. All probably having hell realm nightmares about the wrathful OM NI CRONE witch.
Very interesting posts everyone. Not surprised at @how experience. If you don't report/test cases of infection, then they don't exist? Que? Government/health care by idiots?
Vaccination is our best defence. Most of us live in countries where it is available. I will be eligible for a booster jab very soon.
To avoid common cold and illness I am boosting my immune system :
vitamin D
garlic (we are not sangha, is permissable)
pro-biotic, high fruit and veg (includes frozen) diet
daily relaxation based exercise (walking or yoga/qi ong)
daily meditation and other spiritual practice
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
@Jeroen said:
Seems we are getting another lockdown here until maybe mid-January
Yes well the government actually did it. They were looking at the UK’s 90,000 daily infections and thought the hospitals are already nearly full, we may as well jump the gun, even though infection numbers are currently trending down. But the retailers are up in arms, missing out on the week leading up to Christmas is going to put a real domper on things.
Lockdown until 14th January across the whole Netherlands.
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personDon't believe everything you thinkThe liminal spaceVeteran
edited December 2021
@lobster said:
I hope and pray that omicron is contagious AND stimulates the immune response. This might well be the saviour variant with only mild symptoms in most people but in effect vaccinating everyones body defences.
OM MANI PEME HUM
OM EE CRONE Gone
It is good to keep in mind that there isn't an end to covid but rather a transition from pandemic to epidemicEDIT: sorry, endemic with a milder strain perhaps that mutates slightly like the flu. As I hear the news reports on the number of new infections I keep in mind the way the news likes to sensationalize and look for the number of serious illnesses and deaths, especially among the vaccinated vs unvaccinated. Infection rate doesn't mean anything once the symptoms are as mild as an average cold.
Booster shots are available here in the US but I've been lazy so far. I plan on making an appointment sometime over the next few weeks as life slows down.
Please stay safe everyone! We can’t rely on our governments or fellow citizens to look after us anymore.
We are all wise enough to know what we need to do.
Blessings to you all 🙏❤️
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
@lobster said:
I hope and pray that omicron is contagious AND stimulates the immune response. This might well be the saviour variant with only mild symptoms in most people but in effect vaccinating everyones body defences.
OM MANI PEME HUM
OM EE CRONE Gone
It is good to keep in mind that there isn't an end to covid but rather a transition from pandemic to epidemicEDIT: sorry, endemic with a milder strain perhaps that mutates slightly like the flu. As I hear the news reports on the number of new infections I keep in mind the way the news likes to sensationalize and look for the number of serious illnesses and deaths, especially among the vaccinated vs unvaccinated. Infection rate doesn't mean anything once the symptoms are as mild as an average cold.
Booster shots are available here in the US but I've been lazy so far. I plan on making an appointment sometime over the next few weeks as life slows down.
Exactly, yes, for the 90,000 cases per day, many of those are treatable, and there's another approx. 66.5 million who DON'T have it. Balancing facts seems to have been thrown out of the window... Yes, there are people still going down with Covid, but there are millions of people who aren't.
When watching the news I would recommend wearing BS filter glasses and BS filters for the eardrums...
I think the biggest mistake governments and the media made at the very beginning of this pandemic, was to tell 'young adults' that they have less chance of dying from Covid than older people or people who are immunocompromised, and by doing so this lead to many young adults becoming complacent which meant they took more risks, increasing the spread of Covid in their communities....
Perhaps sensationalising the news headlines by making it seem worse than it really is, could be an attempt by the media to shock those young and often complacent ( who more often than not think they are Covid bulletproof and 'never' going to become ill or die) adults into taking more care when out and about with friends and not be so complacent when it comes to protecting themselves and those more vulnerable members of the community...
When reading/watching to the news, I try not to throw the baby out with the sensational bathwater I read between the lines.....
Unlike you know who...
And to back this up about some young adults being complacent ...On my way home from the beach I stopped off at one of the op shops, (wearing masks inside is mandatory plus you have to show your vax cert and scan in)...Two young women were wandering around inside with their masks under their chins... Inside the shop is not very spacious, you have to squeeze past people ....
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personDon't believe everything you thinkThe liminal spaceVeteran
When watching the news I would recommend wearing BS filter glasses and BS filters for the eardrums...
I think the biggest mistake governments and the media made at the very beginning of this pandemic, was to tell 'young adults' that they have less chance of dying from Covid than older people or people who are immunocompromised, and by doing so this lead to many young adults becoming complacent which meant they took more risks, increasing the spread of Covid in their communities....
Perhaps sensationalising the news headlines by making it seem worse than it really is, could be an attempt by the media to shock those young and often complacent ( who more often than not think they are Covid bulletproof and 'never' going to become ill or die) adults into taking more care when out and about with friends and not be so complacent when it comes to protecting themselves and those more vulnerable members of the community...
Looking at my own mind I can see how that approach, while well intentioned, could backfire.
I have a fairly strong anti authoritarian streak and value truth very highly. When people exaggerate or lie to me "for my own good" my reaction is to do the opposite of what they tell me and to distrust anything they may say. I have enough mindfulness training under my belt that I can reflect and respond rather than being carried away by those emotions. As such I feel I am able to sift through the spin and save the baby from being thrown out.
That said I'm sure I'm not alone in some of my temperamental states and I'm also sure many of them don't have the same ability to mindfully reflect. So by not being honest and talking down to people you will simply lose many entirely, especially if they're having their feelings reinforced by some media bubble (cough) FOX news(cough)
Had a chat to my GP this morning about when I should get a booster.
He seems a reasonably intelligent guy with his finger on the pulse so I listen to him.
As I had AZ, he suggested 5 to 6 months after the second shot.
He also believes that by the end of Winter here (August 2022) pretty much all of us in Australia will have had Covid.
But, based on the evidence so far, Omicron appears to be more contagious but less lethal (as these types of viruses naturally become over time) so the vast majority of us who are vaccinated should not have any severe illness.
Hopefully (for their sake) those unvaccinated won't become too ill either.
I am at about my peak immune protection after two vaccinations. I will be eligible for a booster probably early 2022. As people are noting omicron may be contagious but creating much needed immunity. Nobody suggests (yet) we deliberately get it but it will get the unvaccinated and careless first and it MAY just develop a strong immune response. This is the hope. Everybody is likely to get it at some point and most will have mild symptoms.
@Bunks said:
Please stay safe everyone! We can’t rely on our governments or fellow citizens to look after us anymore.
We are all wise enough to know what we need to do.
Blessings to you all 🙏❤️
Seems that NSW is the dubious winner of the numbers game but you guys aren't having much fun either. I'll be in NSW for a while yet but please stay safe yourself
@Bunks said:
Had a chat to my GP this morning about when I should get a booster.
He seems a reasonably intelligent guy with his finger on the pulse so I listen to him.
As I had AZ, he suggested 5 to 6 months after the second shot.
He also believes that by the end of Winter here (August 2022) pretty much all of us in Australia will have had Covid.
But, based on the evidence so far, Omicron appears to be more contagious but less lethal (as these types of viruses naturally become over time) so the vast majority of us who are vaccinated should not have any severe illness.
Hopefully (for their sake) those unvaccinated won't become too ill either.
As of end of this month, maybe sooner, they are moving boosters to four months. Sadly I think he may be right about end of Winter At work we're back in face shields and masks just for standard face to face contact sighs
I am in one of the London hotspots. The unvaccinated are 90% of people needing hospitalisation. We are likely in 2022 to move to military organised, door to door vaccination. I arranged a booster for one person I am shielding. I would have gone with her … but she refused at the designated appointment.
We had a Christmas get together, legal and was very small. My sister had what was probably a cold (she had a negative test for covid) …
I am quite happy to get a booster and at the same time a flu jab. I however usually have to use a walk in, simply because of the shielding logistics. Door to door would be great BUT this may not happen. I may not get a flu jab as I prefer to use positive health and a minor sniffle.
The other person who I am shielding has three vaccines plus flu jab.
Situations/people are complex. A vaccinated ICU nurse I know is holidaying in Kenya. Will she be a carrier to her country relatives? [shrug who knows …]
I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to another area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.
Agent Smith (The Matrix)
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Ooh Agent Smith quote, cool…
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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Well it seems things are going better with coronavirus, the numbers of people in hospital are going down. Omikron seems to be more infectious but less problematic. The government is warning people about not being too optimistic, though.
Well, we have our first community case of Omicron in Aotearoa(NZ) ...a DJ from the UK, he had completed his MIQ and three day self isolation, only to return a positive test on day 12...
He visited the island on Xmas day
On Christmas Day, Etheridge posted photos on his social media channels of himself by the sea, saying: “Merry Christmas from New Zealand.”
On his Instagram feed, he tagged the location of the picture as Waiheke, an island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.
From what I gather he thought he was in the clear, Covid free after completing quarantine, doing what was necessary... hence why he was making the most of his time in NZ...Sadly he started to get hate mail soon after he went public about his positive status...
Come to think about it, I did see quite a few people at the local testing station a day or two after Xmas..
So it was bound to happen at some point. Turns out I was exposed to a positive patient on 22nd Dec who turned up sans mask during the brief three day maskless period in NSW while KNOWINGLY infectious out and about in the community GGRR I am triple vaxxed and have been wearing an N95 mask at all times. I tested yesterday and am at home isolating and waiting for my results but am showing SOME of the symptoms sighs
I'm hoping it's just burnout and sinus because I've been around my family (all of whom are double vaxxed) but I'm still pissed because I have at risk patients I was around yesterday.....
Yes people like that are a real pain the the arse...
However, I feel for those who are unaware they have it and feel crap when they find out they do and could have infected others, like the Omicron case here, by all accounts he is devastated...
Comments
Well move over Delta there's a new kid on the block Omicron
Some interesting numbers I came across on Twitter…
Basically that remaining 14% of unvaccinated people is supplying most of the serious hospital cases. But vaccination is not a sure protection against the disease. Luckily the death rates are staying low.
Interesting read..
What the Covid vaccine tells us about the future of humanity
Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE
The Omicron is coming! The Omicron is coming! Run for the hills! 😂
Love to see the scare mongering in the media.
I know, it all seems a bit much. People here are saying the government has been too slow to act, on a flight from Capetown to Amsterdam there were 13 infected people (who are going into quarantine).
Personally I think it's important to be informed of what's new re the virus and any new strains...The media reports I have seen are for the most part are just saying "Health officials are waiting to see if the present vaccines in use are effective against this new strain" they won't know for a few days...
However there are many who already suffer from anxiety because of the unknowns of this pandemic...
Sadly they are caught between a rock and a hard place, the need to know of any important information regarding Covid 19 and the fear which may come from the information provided...
I think for those who are a bit anxious (which is understandable...a new strain of the virus with greater transmissibility then the last, which could kill if one is severely immunocompromised,) they should just get their information from their local government health authorities and not watch the news, some news stations outlets tend to sensationalise it...
When watching the news I would recommend wearing BS filter glasses and BS filters for the eardrums...
Well tomorrow Friday 3rd December is D day...Aotearoa (NZ) is transitioning to the traffic light system and the island will be on Red the same as Auckland, which means vaxxed people will have more freedom than the non vaxxed, the vaxxed Jaffas can visit the island if they have a vaccine pass, non vaxxed will need to have a negative Covid test result 72 hours before they can travel over....
As it stands there've only been three positive cases on the island, no doubt in the coming weeks this number will rise...
It’s also my 50th birthday hehe 😊
Happy Birthday @Bunks
You share the day with my sister. She's got a few years on you, though! lol
Happy 50th Birthday @Bunks hope you are having a nice day...It's also my son's birthday ..
Happy Birthday hehe. Sounds like fun. Will there be virtual cake? As you know Theravadin Sangha have to eat cake if laity bring them nothing else. Unless they are breatharians (you think that is extreme, some advanced adepts live on moonbeams … actually that may be vampires or some such mythical creatures …)
Anyway here is a virtual Buddhist Taart …
Happy Birthday, @Bunks, hope the day is wonderful for you. Hugs and love.
Many happy returns @Bunks I hope you receive felicitous joy and salutations from everyone!
Thank you everyone! I took the day off work and hung out with the kiddies. Very nice! Will catch up with family for lunch today.
Felicidades @Bunks
I was quick to get vaccinated and encourage others to get vaccinated. If it were up to me I'd say that people should be free to make their own decisions but the rest of us shouldn't be obligated to carry your bag. If you don't want to get vaccinated fine, but don't expect the rest of us to cripple the hospitals and postpone preventive care or elective procedures to take care of you if you get sick. But apparently I am now an anti-vaxxer because I don't like the idea of vaccine mandates.
You gotta love it when the meaning of words change in front of your eyes to include things never intended.
Well the weekend is over and most of the Jaffas have gone home, it's still quite busy in the village, all the shops are open..
After I finished work I visited one of the op shops which opened for the first time today since going into lockdown, it was busy, then on the way home a drive through queue was starting to form on the road outside the Covid testing centre...I guess some locals don't have any trust in the Jaffas being Covid free..
The vaccine mandate is starting to hit some...
I had an interesting enquiry at work this morning, a person rang wanting contact details of local outdoor activity groups, ....They had been stuck at home all through lockdown by themself and was feeling lonely and isolated... However they were also quite anxious about joining a group because they were unvaxxed, and feared being rejected because of their unvaxxed status...
I didn't pry into why they were unvaxxed, it's not my job to know why, unless they freely offered up the information, also questions such as that could make them feel even more isolated/uncomfortable...
I offered to ring a group on the client's behalf to see if they were open to having unvaxxed people in their group...Unfortunately the group have a couple of members who were immunocompromised so they were not accepting non vaxxed members, but they are going to get back in touch with the office, once they have the contact details of another group who might be open to having the unvaxxed in their midst...
Anyhow when I rang the client back I gave them the information, plus made a couple of suggestions they might like to try...
Start going for walks of a morning...I see lots of people walking alone of a morning, the client is bound to meet other people in the same boat, and they may like some company...
Or if they have access to the internet and FB they could go to the local community page and start their own activity group, a group which is open to vaxxed and unvaxxed people...
Sadly there're going to be casualties on both sides of the vaccine fence... anxiety and depression does not discriminate...
Well the Auckland border is open, Jaffas are flooding out in all directions including the island...The good news only 74 new cases today, 56 of those in Auckland...Omicron has not made its presence felt...not yet well not any cases that the health officials know of...
Two unvaxxed people at my places of work (one volunteer at my volunteer job and a friend who I work with at my paid work) have lost their jobs...The friend who I work with is (according to her) waiting for a new 'safer' vaccine to come out...
I've heard the same thing from another unvaxxed friend, however this friend does not work (well apart from some online work) and she is self isolating and as been since the beginning of the lockdown in August, she told me she will be stay in isolation until the new Japanese oral vaccine becomes available, she did also mention something about buying rapid antigen tests when they become available to the general public...Apart from me getting her the special tofu that she likes when I go shopping, she orders everything else online...
I'm not convinced that either will be satisfied when these new vaccines become available, no doubt they will come up with other excuses for not getting vaccinated...However in the long run its their choice ....
I know several unvaxxed people, which means the incidence among my group of friends is higher than in most other places. But the government here have said they want to make booster jabs available to everyone over 18 years by the end of January, so that’s something.
Yes, I am due for my booster in 1 month. It was originally six months between 2nd jab and booster but they've brought it forward with the arrival of Omicron.
I hope and pray that omicron is contagious AND stimulates the immune response. This might well be the saviour variant with only mild symptoms in most people but in effect vaccinating everyones body defences.
OM MANI PEME HUM
OM EE CRONE Gone
Seems we are getting another lockdown here until maybe mid-January
A year ago I wanted to get a covid test and was just directed through a drive through testing station that took 15 minutes. Fast and efficient.
Well I came down with mild cold/flu like symptoms a couple of days ago. A nose draining like a faucet. I started the process of trying to get a Covid test and found a surprising amount of push back. All the quick test kits for BC were still in a warehouse somewhere. They first asked for a Doctor's recommendation from me to get get tested and then it continued on with a load of other questions. They sounded pretty dubious but with my persistence, they transferred my call to the next step in the Covid testing asking process. My number was electronically recorded and they finally returned my call 6 hours later. Here I went through another battery of questions with another person who sounding equally doubtful that I even needed it until I told them about all the other old duffers that I regularly hang out with at the snooker hall. That finally got me an appointment for the next day for a saliva test.
It made me think that there are some serious flaws here for the public in finding out when to completely self isolate from something covid related and when to act like you've just have a cold.
It sounded like the chamber of commerce was actually calling the shots and certainly put the current our omicron figures into question..
Take care mate.
Hope you get better soon mate
Hi folks,
Been MIA from here and am currently working in NSW. It's a bit of a sh1t show here on the Covid front thanks to some numpties up north
Today's figures are just over 2600 so I will be spending Xmas here and not home in SA sighs I've got some family here to stay with thankfully. Had a close shave with some coworkers contracting Omicron but I'm negative and we're all still masking (it's mandatory for us still anyway at our job). I've been regularly swabbing my relatives and we're all double vaxxed and I had my booster almost two weeks ago.
I'm tired, sick of the covid porn from the media, the incompetency from the NSW government and the selfishness of antivaxxers and people who won't just stay the f**k at home while infectious. But I try to meditate each day (with varying degrees of success).
Merry Xmas and stay safe people.
-Sura
A colleague of my husband was moaning and complaining about having to don masks again at work, and go through all the rigmarole of shielding, distancing and self-isolating,,, he gleefully attended a footie match in the open air - and BANG!. Caught a case of covid.
For all his pooh-poohing and derisive opinions, apparently he's so badly caught out he could barely walk within 2 days and has a pretty serious dose of it. No point mentioning come-uppance or Kamma. Chance your arm, take the risk and see what happens?
Wear a mask, avoid touching and keep your distance. And yes, whatever they can give you, get a booster jab. I did.
My arm ached like buggery the next day, and I had a mild headache.
I'm also needle-phobic, but I'd rather endure a small prick than be one.
I watched the news the other night and there was a segment covering a Covid wards in an hospital in south London...The charge nurse told the reporter, that her nurses were finding it really hard to look after the unvaccinated Covid patients who were filling up the ward...
Sadly but understandably so, they were suffering from Compassion fatigue...
Having to look after unvaccinated patients who (one could say 'deliberately') caught Covid, and whose behaviour has put the frontline health care workers and their families at risk...
Whilst life gets back to (relatively) normal for many people, those care workers on the frontline are faced with the dilemma of conflicting emotions on a daily bases...
Here in Aotearoa (NZ) we have yet to fully experience what's been happening in other parts of the world...All we can do is prepare for the worst case scenario , but hope for the best outcome
No doubt a lot of frontline healthcare workers will be experiencing the mental discomfort of fear & anxiety....
Perhaps our next meditation should be Tonglen taking in their anxiety and giving them our calmness & comfort...
Did that Tonglen on an early morning walk on some London greenery. It was dark and practically no one about. All probably having hell realm nightmares about the wrathful OM NI CRONE witch.
Very interesting posts everyone. Not surprised at @how experience. If you don't report/test cases of infection, then they don't exist? Que? Government/health care by idiots?
Vaccination is our best defence. Most of us live in countries where it is available. I will be eligible for a booster jab very soon.
To avoid common cold and illness I am boosting my immune system
:
Yes well the government actually did it. They were looking at the UK’s 90,000 daily infections and thought the hospitals are already nearly full, we may as well jump the gun, even though infection numbers are currently trending down. But the retailers are up in arms, missing out on the week leading up to Christmas is going to put a real domper on things.
Lockdown until 14th January across the whole Netherlands.
It is good to keep in mind that there isn't an end to covid but rather a transition from pandemic to epidemic EDIT: sorry, endemic with a milder strain perhaps that mutates slightly like the flu. As I hear the news reports on the number of new infections I keep in mind the way the news likes to sensationalize and look for the number of serious illnesses and deaths, especially among the vaccinated vs unvaccinated. Infection rate doesn't mean anything once the symptoms are as mild as an average cold.
Booster shots are available here in the US but I've been lazy so far. I plan on making an appointment sometime over the next few weeks as life slows down.
Please stay safe everyone! We can’t rely on our governments or fellow citizens to look after us anymore.
We are all wise enough to know what we need to do.
Blessings to you all 🙏❤️
Exactly, yes, for the 90,000 cases per day, many of those are treatable, and there's another approx. 66.5 million who DON'T have it. Balancing facts seems to have been thrown out of the window... Yes, there are people still going down with Covid, but there are millions of people who aren't.
WooHoo..The Test came back negative.
My participation in the Omicron herd immunity will have to wait for another day.
I think the biggest mistake governments and the media made at the very beginning of this pandemic, was to tell 'young adults' that they have less chance of dying from Covid than older people or people who are immunocompromised, and by doing so this lead to many young adults becoming complacent which meant they took more risks, increasing the spread of Covid in their communities....
Perhaps sensationalising the news headlines by making it seem worse than it really is, could be an attempt by the media to shock those young and often complacent ( who more often than not think they are Covid bulletproof and 'never' going to become ill or die) adults into taking more care when out and about with friends and not be so complacent when it comes to protecting themselves and those more vulnerable members of the community...
When reading/watching to the news, I try not to throw the baby out with the sensational bathwater I read between the lines.....
Unlike you know who...
And to back this up about some young adults being complacent ...On my way home from the beach I stopped off at one of the op shops, (wearing masks inside is mandatory plus you have to show your vax cert and scan in)...Two young women were wandering around inside with their masks under their chins... Inside the shop is not very spacious, you have to squeeze past people ....
Looking at my own mind I can see how that approach, while well intentioned, could backfire.
I have a fairly strong anti authoritarian streak and value truth very highly. When people exaggerate or lie to me "for my own good" my reaction is to do the opposite of what they tell me and to distrust anything they may say. I have enough mindfulness training under my belt that I can reflect and respond rather than being carried away by those emotions. As such I feel I am able to sift through the spin and save the baby from being thrown out.
That said I'm sure I'm not alone in some of my temperamental states and I'm also sure many of them don't have the same ability to mindfully reflect. So by not being honest and talking down to people you will simply lose many entirely, especially if they're having their feelings reinforced by some media bubble (cough) FOX news(cough)
Had a chat to my GP this morning about when I should get a booster.
He seems a reasonably intelligent guy with his finger on the pulse so I listen to him.
As I had AZ, he suggested 5 to 6 months after the second shot.
He also believes that by the end of Winter here (August 2022) pretty much all of us in Australia will have had Covid.
But, based on the evidence so far, Omicron appears to be more contagious but less lethal (as these types of viruses naturally become over time) so the vast majority of us who are vaccinated should not have any severe illness.
Hopefully (for their sake) those unvaccinated won't become too ill either.
I am at about my peak immune protection after two vaccinations. I will be eligible for a booster probably early 2022. As people are noting omicron may be contagious but creating much needed immunity. Nobody suggests (yet) we deliberately get it but it will get the unvaccinated and careless first and it MAY just develop a strong immune response. This is the hope. Everybody is likely to get it at some point and most will have mild symptoms.
Happy Humbug Season everyone!
New Christmas bauble design …
This tired, grumpy healthcare worker wants to make this our national slogan
Seems that NSW is the dubious winner of the numbers game
but you guys aren't having much fun either. I'll be in NSW for a while yet but please stay safe yourself 
As of end of this month, maybe sooner, they are moving boosters to four months. Sadly I think he may be right about end of Winter
At work we're back in face shields and masks just for standard face to face contact sighs
I am in one of the London hotspots. The unvaccinated are 90% of people needing hospitalisation. We are likely in 2022 to move to military organised, door to door vaccination. I arranged a booster for one person I am shielding. I would have gone with her … but she refused at the designated appointment.
We had a Christmas get together, legal and was very small. My sister had what was probably a cold (she had a negative test for covid) …
I am quite happy to get a booster and at the same time a flu jab. I however usually have to use a walk in, simply because of the shielding logistics. Door to door would be great BUT this may not happen. I may not get a flu jab as I prefer to use positive health and a minor sniffle.
The other person who I am shielding has three vaccines plus flu jab.
Situations/people are complex. A vaccinated ICU nurse I know is holidaying in Kenya. Will she be a carrier to her country relatives? [shrug who knows …]
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211226/UK-Government-to-send-out-Get-Boosted-Now-text-messages-from-Boxing-Day.aspx
I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to another area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.
Agent Smith (The Matrix)
Ooh Agent Smith quote, cool…
Well it seems things are going better with coronavirus, the numbers of people in hospital are going down. Omikron seems to be more infectious but less problematic. The government is warning people about not being too optimistic, though.
Well, we have our first community case of Omicron in Aotearoa(NZ) ...a DJ from the UK, he had completed his MIQ and three day self isolation, only to return a positive test on day 12...
He visited the island on Xmas day
From what I gather he thought he was in the clear, Covid free after completing quarantine, doing what was necessary... hence why he was making the most of his time in NZ...Sadly he started to get hate mail soon after he went public about his positive status...
Come to think about it, I did see quite a few people at the local testing station a day or two after Xmas..
So it was bound to happen at some point. Turns out I was exposed to a positive patient on 22nd Dec who turned up sans mask during the brief three day maskless period in NSW while KNOWINGLY infectious out and about in the community GGRR I am triple vaxxed and have been wearing an N95 mask at all times. I tested yesterday and am at home isolating and waiting for my results but am showing SOME of the symptoms sighs
I'm hoping it's just burnout and sinus because I've been around my family (all of whom are double vaxxed) but I'm still pissed because I have at risk patients I was around yesterday.....
Yes people like that are a real pain the the arse...
However, I feel for those who are unaware they have it and feel crap when they find out they do and could have infected others, like the Omicron case here, by all accounts he is devastated...
Stay safe and well @SuraShine
Dear @SuraShine and fellowess followers of the pharma farm,
For most of us death is not an option. However it is always a possibility. Everybody is doing as best they can and as best they understand.
What is the best current and future advice? For me it is:
RIGHT VIEW
A true understanding of how reality and suffering are intertwined.
RIGHT RESOLVE
The aspiration to act with correct intention, doing no harm.
RIGHT SPEECH
Abstaining from lying, and divisive or abusive speech.
RIGHT ACTION
Acting in ways that do not cause harm, such as not taking life, not stealing, and not engaging in sexual misconduct.
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
Making an ethically sound living, being honest in business dealings.
RIGHT EFFORT
Endeavoring to give rise to skillful thoughts, words, and deeds and renouncing unskillful ones.
RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Being mindful of one’s body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities.
RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Practicing skillful meditation informed by all of the preceding seven aspects.