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Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

brusselstimes.com

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Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#121

Post by lostlogin »

jdavis703 wrote: post #73
baxtr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is good enough though? I always thought the whole prevention thing is because we want to “flatten the curve”, remember? Not to prevent every single infection, which is impossible.

In the US there are literally thousands of different public health agencies headed by health officers with strategies ranging from herd immunity by any means necessary to attempting COVID 0. Vague gripes about public health tag lines in such a fractured environment is unproductive.

Isn’t that in itself a big problem? You need a united strategy for public health initiatives to be effective.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#122

Post by [deleted] »

petercooper wrote: post #25

Viruses 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…

[deleted]

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#123

Post by Havoc »

anonygler wrote: post #31

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.

>With a minuscule fatality rate at this point,

Even at 0.1% over 7b population that's still a couple million body bags so measures even if only partially effective at preventing transmission are still worthwhile

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#124

Post by roenxi »

zzzeek wrote: post #75
anm89 wrote: post #54

Its almost like canceling all of humanity although it accomplishes extremely little but a CYA for the politicians is not the best way to handle this. Im sure when are fighting the 200th variant whose symptoms are a day of fatigue we will almost be ready to end the restrictions. And just for the record, im 2x vaccinated, not an antivaxxer or denier or something.

It's 100% about hospital capacity and mass death. When hospitals around the country are no longer turning away cancer patients needing treatments and have plenty of ICUs for heart attacks and such, when they no longer have to rent fleets of refrigerator trucks every outbreak to store the bodies, the restrictions will end. It has always been about that and nothing more.

It has been nearly 2 years. Have they considered training a few people to handle respiratory diseases and bulking up the hospitals?

Nursing is hard and takes years of training, but 2 years would have been long enough to teach people how to manage the average case of 1 disease.

There have been a lot of people sitting around doing not much, they could probably use the work.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#125

Post by lostlogin »

midasuni wrote: post #18
Gigachad wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is being 99.9% effective just isn't good enough. One person slips through and it's all over. It isn't realistically possible to keep covid out of areas.

New Zealand has done a pretty good job over the last two years. Whether the costs outweigh the benefits is a separate question

Economically or in terms of mortality/morbidity, it’s not obvious that there was a better strategy for New Zealand.

The article claims that covid is in all Antarctic bases, but I wasn’t aware that Scott base had any. I can’t find any reports of it either.

Edit: Their report from August had it covid free. https://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/media/news/antarctica-new-z...

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#126

Post by nradov »

Spooky23 wrote: post #107
trentnix wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could start by not terminating perfectly capable doctors and nurses who have decided, for whatever their reasons may be, to refuse vaccination. I’m vaccinated (and boosted) but I cannot understand why it was okay for these people to be on the frontlines of the fight for over a year but suddenly they are no longer acceptable. And I find no convincing argument as to why actually recovering from infection counts fo…

It’s pretty simple. They are more likely to get sick and more likely to infect those whose care they are entrusted with. There’s a long history of this type of sanction. If you are a provider or nurse in a hospital who fails to get a measles, hepatitis, or rabies (after exposure) shot, you’ll be terminated for cause in many places. The reason why recovery doesn’t “count” the same as vaccination is that immunity doesn…

I encourage everyone eligible to protect themselves by getting vaccinated but that doesn't produce lasting immunity against infection either. Immunity is a spectrum, not a binary condition.

https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-made-herd-immu...

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#127

Post by tandymodel100 »

trentnix wrote: post #116
Spooky23 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty simple. They are more likely to get sick and more likely to infect those whose care they are entrusted with. There’s a long history of this type of sanction. If you are a provider or nurse in a hospital who fails to get a measles, hepatitis, or rabies (after exposure) shot, you’ll be terminated for cause in many places. The reason why recovery doesn’t “count” the same as vaccination is that immunity doesn…

> It’s pretty simple. They are more likely to get sick and more likely to infect those whose care they are entrusted with. In a vacuum, that makes sense. But in the midst of genuine shortage of healthcare professionals, it's myopic foolishness. And I'd guess your comment about the lasting effect of actual recovery is going to turn out to be very wrong and already contradicts most everything I've seen recently regardi…

In all honesty I don't want people uneducated or conspiracy-minded enough to not take the vaccine treating me anyway even in a shortage situation.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#128

Post by tandymodel100 »

enchiridion wrote: post #88
zzzeek wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 100% about hospital capacity and mass death. When hospitals around the country are no longer turning away cancer patients needing treatments and have plenty of ICUs for heart attacks and such, when they no longer have to rent fleets of refrigerator trucks every outbreak to store the bodies, the restrictions will end. It has always been about that and nothing more.

How about scale up the hospitals, or at least covid capacity in a meaningful way. How long does they public have to bear burden of insufficient health infra. EDIT: Sorry that might have come off a bit blunt. But the entire pandemic response has been frustratingly insufficient in my opinion. A variant like Omicron was long predicted and expected. How are we not prepared with a plan to end lockdowns? And blaming unvacc…

> How are we not prepared with a plan to end lockdowns?

We don't have lockdowns, and haven't had lockdowns in America

> And blaming unvaccinated or anti-maskers is not a good answer

Blaming the unvaccinated, who comprise the overwhelming majority of those that get hospitalized, spread it and die, is a good answer. I think a lot of this is solved by deprioritizing them at triage time or letting them recuperate at home.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#129

Post by nradov »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #114
enchiridion wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about scale up the hospitals, or at least covid capacity in a meaningful way. How long does they public have to bear burden of insufficient health infra. EDIT: Sorry that might have come off a bit blunt. But the entire pandemic response has been frustratingly insufficient in my opinion. A variant like Omicron was long predicted and expected. How are we not prepared with a plan to end lockdowns? And blaming unvacc…

The AMA doesn't want an oversupply of competition.

False. The current physician shortage is primarily caused by insufficient federal funding for medical residencies. Every year there are doctors who graduate from medical school but are never allowed to practice medicine because they can't get matched to a residency program. The AMA has been lobbying Congress to increase the supply for years.

https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-fun...

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#130

Post by tandymodel100 »

pezzana wrote: post #2

> 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…

I'd say "overkill" over ineffective. I do think that if all of these scientists were dying of the virus it was extremely ineffective, but thankfully they are not.
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