With a minuscule fatality rate at this point, all these measures seem like a massive waste of energy and resources. Masks, vaccines, dividers, hand sanitizer… none of it actually stops transmission. Spare everyone from this godawful ceremony.
Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
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Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#32> All staff members preparing to depart to the station had to undergo a PCR test in Belgium two hours before leaving for South Africa, take a PCR test five days after their arrival in Cape Town, where they also had to quarantine for ten days. Another test was required when leaving Cape Town for Antarctica and another PCR test had to be undergone five days after arrival. This is clear evidence that the current paradig…
There's a weak link somewhere--I wonder if it's flight crews in this case. If the pilot and other crew for the leg from South Africa to Antarctica weren't also isolating 10 days and tested at the same time, then there's your infection vector.
Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#33Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#34> All staff members preparing to depart to the station had to undergo a PCR test in Belgium two hours before leaving for South Africa, take a PCR test five days after their arrival in Cape Town, where they also had to quarantine for ten days. Another test was required when leaving Cape Town for Antarctica and another PCR test had to be undergone five days after arrival. This is clear evidence that the current paradig…
What are some realistic alternatives?
Mandatory vaccines and boosters, plus testing for antibody titer levels.
Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#35What's the quarantine situation? Shared bathrooms? High enough virus density in the quarantine room that a meal delivery person gets a blast through the door slot? Or some other source of virus escape?
Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#36With a minuscule fatality rate at this point, all these measures seem like a massive waste of energy and resources. Masks, vaccines, dividers, hand sanitizer… none of it actually stops transmission. Spare everyone from this godawful ceremony.
Hospitalizations tend to precede fatalities. While I hope you're right, it's too early (by a couple weeks in the US, at least) to start trumpeting a "minuscule fatality rate".
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/current-covid-patients-ho...
Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#37With a minuscule fatality rate at this point, all these measures seem like a massive waste of energy and resources. Masks, vaccines, dividers, hand sanitizer… none of it actually stops transmission. Spare everyone from this godawful ceremony.
Hospitalizations tend to precede fatalities. While I hope you're right, it's too early (by a couple weeks in the US, at least) to start trumpeting a "minuscule fatality rate". https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/current-covid-patients-ho...
Unless you’re elderly or have health issues, Covid fatality rate was already very, very low. Therapeutics make that even better.
Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#38Viruses are interesting things. I once enjoyed a case study about an outbreak of common cold on an Antarctic base that only happened after 17 weeks of isolation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2130424/ (I'm no virologist but given that the common cold didn't seem to be impacted by the severe lockdowns in the UK at all, whereas flu was, I've gotten the - uneducated - feeling the cold is a bit like some S…
Strep can lay ‘dormant’ in people for a while. Two months after the original outbreak and lockdown my daughter got strep. We hadn’t seen a soul. Dr said one of us was likely the carrier.
Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#39What's going to happen if they simply do nothing? Basically, if they treat it like flu?
Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures
#40> All staff members preparing to depart to the station had to undergo a PCR test in Belgium two hours before leaving for South Africa, take a PCR test five days after their arrival in Cape Town, where they also had to quarantine for ten days. Another test was required when leaving Cape Town for Antarctica and another PCR test had to be undergone five days after arrival. This is clear evidence that the current paradig…
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