Posts Tagged ‘Pandemic’
Covid increases, care decreases
Although cases are less severe, both the moving average of cases and the number of deaths increase, care decreases although recommendations exist, it is less and less observed.
At 14 days up, the moving average reached 59,717, while the moving average of the number of optimums reaches 206, and a worrying number is that which speaks of at least two deaths of children under 5 years of age per day.
The numbers are given by the survey of the consortium of press vehicles in Brazil and these data are consolidated at 20:00, the numbers presented are up to 02/07.
There are no clear protocols, the Secretary of Education of the State of São Paulo, for example, while excluding any possibility of suspending the class, still emphasizes in its last recommendation that “they consider the need to promote the continuity of face-to-face classes, in order to safeguard learning. , mental health, nutrition and protection of children and adolescents in a safe school environment”, seems contradictory when talking about “protection”.
The need to socialize children and maintain schooling is indisputable, but it is necessary to guide and maintain care with safe protocols and ventilated and sanitized environments.
The recommendations clarify that the vaccination rate guarantees protection, but the high indicates that some additional measure should already be taken, and there is no observation in this regard.
The use of masks and alcohol gel is optionally used by the population in various environments and gives the impression that the pandemic would already be in the final stage, but the numbers in May and June have increased.
Covid on the rise and missing protocols
Although the rhetoric is about the use of masks, distancingand sanitizing alcohol gel, the ideal would be a serious policy of testing, in practice, the number of cases increases and there is no control.
The moving average of cases in Brazil is already the highest since March 11 when it recorded 46,895, now it stands at 46,137 with a daily total of 69,231, and with the number of deaths at 347, data from the 23rd because weekend data usually be incomplete, and we have also posted that the likely number is likely to be higher due to tests done in pharmacies and asymptomatic.
The number of deaths, with a variation of 8% in relation to 14 days ago, indicates a trend of stability, in total this indicates that despite the number of cases increasing the lethality is decreasing in percentage, so there is no increase in the lethality of the disease. current active strain.
The outlook is for milder weather until mid-July when a cold wave returns, it may indicate a less infectious period, if the trend continues at the end of July there may be a new high in the current wave, waiting for the new strains are no longer lethal.
According to the newsletter of the Fiocruz Genomic Network (Brazil), the BA.2 variant of the omicron is the dominant one with 63.3% of the samples between June 3 and 16 in Brazil, while the XQ variable (XAG*) appeared in 79 samples, which indicates already a mutation in progress.
The variant XQ was renamed XAG according to the revisions of the Pangolin lineage classification system, in the world there are about 100 lineages of the Omicron BA type.
According to the researchers, cases of reinfection by Sars CoV-2 occur frequently, due to the circulation of variants of concern (VOCs) and so care and protocols must be maintained, not just in rhetoric or on paper only.
The being between the break and the way
Two sentences of Heidegger’s well reflect his essential questions that make more sense in moments of deep crisis: “We must raise again the question of the meaning of being” and “The human being is an ontologically privileged entity because in its existence its own is at stake”. being.” (in ‘Being and time’), then the path must start from a contemplative pause.
The agenda is also a moment for the opening of being and an epoché about the meaning of existing, with other men, within a historical and solidary context with nature that is the “house” where it lives, while language is the abode of the human being. To be.
This requires a desert, a change of mentality, leaving the Fatigue Society, facing the pain and risks of a pandemic with another vision (Byung Chul Han wrote the Palliative Society) and finally finding peace in a new way, breaking with the structures of evil.
Only those who have passed through the desert, through the “valley of shadows”, which are now not exclusive to a single Being, but are shadows over the civilizing process around the world, including the possibility of war, hunger and an endless pandemic if we don’t change the posture.
The biblical story tells John the Baptist who went to the desert and announced a new time, which Christians celebrate his birth these days, Jesus also went to the desert where he was tempted and experienced hunger being fed by “angels”, and humanity as will cross your desert
To follow the path it is necessary to go through these questions, answer these questions, as the biblical passage says in (Lk 9, 20), Jesus after being rejected in Samaria and preventing the apostles from coming into conflict with that people, says to the having a disciple who wanted to bury his father: “Let the dead bury their dead, but you, go and announce the kingdom of God”.
This means that we should not look at what is dying, but at what is being born in the middle of the desert, because that is where a new path begins.
The rise of Covid 19 remains
There is no great consensus among experts on the current increase in the number of hospitalizations, as some point out that the statistics may be higher than those that appear in the surveys, either because of the omission of data in some states or because of asymptomatic cases that do not enter. in statistics or are treated as self-medication.
The various waves had successes and failures, and greater caution is now expected from the authorities.
Infectologist Júlio Croda from Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz-Brazil) stated that one factor was the flexibility in relation to protection measures and another was the seasonal effect of autumn and winter, which we are now just entering, so we concluded it should be extended until August.
Regarding underreporting, infectious disease specialist Rosana Richtmann from Hospital Emílio Ribas in São Paulo, Brazil, said that self-testing in pharmacies helped in terms of the ease of detecting Covid, but underreporting increased, with this the number of cases, which is important for control of the pandemic is limited and can lead to unsatisfactory measures to contain the contagion.
Even considering all this, the 4th. wave continues to advance and for the ninth consecutive day registers an increase, however hospitalizations and deaths must be clearly reported and many health bodies omit them, especially public bodies that are responsible for disclosing them.
A new strain XQ has been monitored in the country since March, isolated cases have already been detected in States of Brazil: Santa Catarina, São Paulo and Minas Gerais, in Rio Grande do Sul local transmission has already been identified in different cities, until the beginning of June there were 25 cases there.
Also abroad there are already cases in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, the XQ strain is a combination of the BA.1 and BA.2 variants is more infectious (about 10%), but there are no conclusive results of its lethality.
It doesn’t take an expert to know that as long as there are no serious preventive measures and rigorously applied, the virus continues to circulate and both the contagion and new variants will continue, more incisive attitudes are expected from health control bodies
Covid 19: the fourth wave has arrived
We warned here in several posts of the risk of the absence or fragility of protocols, and that this led the population to believe that Covid 19 would be at an end, even though vaccination was high and the variant was less lethal, the risk was clear and few health attitudes they were taken.
The number of the average of known cases in Brazil is again approaching the house of 50 thousand and the average number of deaths has again exceeded 100 deaths by Covid, it must be taken into account that many cases are diagnosed in the private network and in pharmacies. , and some are asymptomatic.
Now the fourth wave has arrived, resuming the use of masks and care in environments such as ventilation and distancing are little observed because sanitary habits are followed only by a small conscious portion of the population.
Worldwide, the number of cases is falling, but most Latin American countries, Brazil’s neighbors, are on the rise, and surveillance at airports is not constant and rigorous.
The attitudes taken so far are hesitant and not very incisive in terms of effective care and protocols, only the recommendation to use masks, there is no testing policy, companies and people do it on their own and do not supervise protocols, when it exists.
The authorities are expected to take more responsible attitudes and recognize that the health crisis is still serious and requires very serious and special care on the part of the population.
The data does not lie, a fourth wave of Covid is already present throughout the country, and the number of hospitalizations and deaths is growing again.
Covid 19: responsibility and risks
It is not easy to give bad news, however when dealing with serious diseases and health problems one cannot omit or fail to provide accurate diagnoses and data on diseases and social problems.
There is a relative tolerance for the Covid 19 data, but the observation of friends and relatives around us is not difficult to notice a new increase in cases of Covid-19, the current strain, a variant of the omicron is less lethal then the number of deaths (in Brazil) remains around a hundred.
The data from this last week, which had been increasing, reveal a small drop, but it is worrying that in 8 states the data were not provided, two of them are the states of São Paulo and Bahia, according to them there were problems in the data of the Ministry of health.
The peak in these days from the 29th to the 31st, if we go back 10 days from the infection of the virus, falls precisely during the off-season Carnival, as we defend in the post, monitoring and health protocols could not let their guard down, which was said by some responsible infectologists.
The public bodies that control large agglomerations want a return to normality, of course we all want it, in times of threat of war, efforts to maintain society with a healthy economy and supply becomes imperative, but it cannot cost lives.
A bet that there will be no new lethal variants and that Covid 19 is giving in has no real data to confirm this, if you listen to serious infectologists and sanitarians, the precaution is right.
Looking at the data from our neighbors, Chile has registered a greater number of new cases in the last two months, reaching 7,550 new infections last Thursday (26/05), in Uruguay there is a 50% increase in positive diagnoses (data of Jovem Pan radio-Brazil) and the health authorities of Paraguay already admit the arrival of the fourth wave of the disease.
The fact that the variant is less lethal is comforting, but it can’t be a reason to be unconcerned.
It´s up to the health´s authorities to be responsible and indicate the risks and protocols for the current situation.
Covid 19 data is ignored
For more than a month, data on deaths have not dropped and are again above 100 deaths per day in the moving average, while the moving average of known cases has already risen significantly in Brazil (see graph), although worldwide there is already a drop sensitive.
The monkeypox with still small numbers frightens by the rapid expansion worldwide.
The problem is that if there is no fight against the circulation of the virus, which is less lethal, it is possible that the disease will remain, similar to what happens with smallpox in overalls where the fact that there was no effective policy to combat it while it was in regions of Africa.
The health policy problem is that if there is a surprise of a new variant, we run the risk of going back to square one in the fight against the pandemic, it is clear that this is not on the horizon, but several experts have already pointed out the mutating capacity of the virus.
It is a consensus among the most responsible experts that only the WHO can decree the end of the Pandemic and the concern of the world body is still to keep the alert, although it sees the numbers fall and proves the information with the numbers that the World Organization has.
We are learning to live with this data, but care is getting less and less, for example, the use of masks seems to be too much exaggeration, there are people who stop and question those who use them, another important thing is closed environments and necessary coexistence places such as markets.
Maybe we should also be careful with allergies and colds that we’ve never been very careful about, but public education and clarification can be important.
It is a fact that we must incorporate new habits and care into our daily lives.
Covid in global fall and new disease
The WHO announced a worldwide drop of 21% in world infections, in Brazil it remains at a slight increase and is already worrying, but the biggest health concern is the emergence of monkeypox.
In the case of Covid 19 in Brazil, hygienic care and disease protocols are still needed.
The endemic started in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2016, there were also cases in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Central African Republic and Nigeria, which suffered the biggest recent outbreak, data indicate that a recent increase in incidence was the interruption of vaccination against the disease. smallpox in 1980, and now cases have appeared in Europe, with local infections and the first cases in the US.
A 26-year-old Brazilian who passed through Portugal and Spain, countries that already have several cases of infections, was diagnosed in Germany, is isolated in a clinic and has mild symptoms.
Clinical differentiation between monkeypox and smallpox and chickenpox (a hepervirus and not a pox virus) is difficult as medical reports, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) examination or electron microscopy are necessary to detect the infection, there is no safe treatment , however, the disease is not lethal, its rapid expansion in Europe is already a global health concern.
The treatment indicated is that of simian smallpox, supportive, data from cases in Africa indicate that the smallpox vaccine is effective in 85% of cases as the disease is linked to the smallpox virus.
The image posted above is courtesy of the Public Health Image Library of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (PHIL), American Prevention Center Image Library.
Covid is back to record high in Brazil
In a report by Veja magazine, experts say that the variation of 20.4% compared to two weeks ago, the assessment is that above 15% is already classified as a high moving average.
In another report by USP (University of São Paulo, Brazil), Professor Esper Kallás, from the Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at the USP School of Medicine and infectious disease coordinator at the Clinical Research Center at Hospital das Clínicas da USP, analyzed the current situation, stating that at the beginning of the pandemic it was thought that it would peak but it would not bring surprises, but “time has shown us that we were wrong”, he added.
According to Professor Kallás, the virus has multiplied very quickly around the planet, which has favored its ability to genetically modify which resulted in new variants.
He said verbatim to the report: “This made the virus adapt with a main objective, which was its transmissibility, because, from an evolutionary point of view, what it wants is to spread”, he explains. This is due to natural selection, that is, those with the highest transmission capacity stand out in relation to the others.
In addition to him, the professor also informed other researchers that the current coronavirus is the most transmissible virus ever known.
In its current worst moment, the moving average of known cases reached the mark of 188 thousand cases, it went down until it was close to 12 thousand cases and was below 100 deaths, now it is about to reach 17 thousand known cases daily, returning to get above 100 deaths a day.
The moment is worrying, experts point out, but health authorities are betting on a new fall, even without any evidence, to justify the release of protocols.
Covid 19 rising trend in Brazil
In numbers Publisher by the Brazilian Ministry of Health itself, ranging from May 4th to 5th, Saturday and Sunday in general there is underreporting, the epidemiological bulletin has already recorded a high of around 8.9% with 21,682 new infections and 137 deaths from the disease. .
This trend has continued since the beginning of the month and reaching the rate of 15% will be considered a new high and a new wave, although the number of deaths is lower and a moving average remains below 100 daily deaths, being average and having number above 100 could rise again, as the average number of infections is higher and the number of deaths is lower because the strain is less lethal than the previous ones.
The calculation of moving averages is done by experts using the records of the last 14 days and dividing the total by 14, it is possible to have a broader view of the current moment of Covid.
There is no clear analysis of this slight increase, perhaps a seasonal effect of the arrival of the cold that favors respiratory infections, but this would be very premature because it is happening in the southern hemisphere in less than a week, perhaps the greater capacity of infections of the second omicron lineage, BA.2, the worrying thing is that it favors the circulation of the virus and the danger of new variants.
Except for specialized sectors that alert to the issue, little attention is paid to the most accurate information about this future of SARS-Covid, only the situation in China that remains serious and now even with reports of inhumanities due to an excessive and strict #lockdown.
In Brazil it is electoral period and this does not favor correct information about Covid.