https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/10/delta-variant-has-wrecked-hopes-herd-immunity-warn-scientists/
10 August 2021

Delta variant has wrecked hopes of herd immunity, warn scientists

There is no way of stopping Covid spreading through the entire population, experts tell MPs as they call for end of mass testing

The delta variant has wrecked any chance of herd immunity, a panel of experts including the head of the Oxford vaccine team said as they called for an end to mass testing so Britain can start to live with Covid.

Scientists said it was time to accept that there was no way of stopping the virus spreading through the entire population, and monitoring people with mild symptoms was no longer helpful.

Prof Andrew Pollard, who led the Oxford vaccine team, said it was clear that the delta variant can infect people who have been vaccinated, which made herd immunity impossible to reach even with high vaccine uptake.

It comes as Angela Merkel became the first major world leader to announce the end of free testing, with the provision set to stop in Germany from Oct 11.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health confirmed that more than three quarters of adults have now received both jabs, and calculated that 60,000 deaths and 66,900 hospitalisations have been prevented by vaccination. But experts said it would never be
enough to stop Covid from spreading.

Speaking to the all-party parliamentary group on Covid, Sir Andrew said: "Anyone who is still unvaccinated will, at some point, meet the virus.

"We don't have anything that will stop transmission, so I think we are in a situation where herd immunity is not a possibility and I suspect the virus will throw up a new variant that is even better at infecting vaccinated individuals."

Until recently, it was hoped that increasing the number of Britons jabbed would create a ring of protection around the population. As late as last week, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said one of the reasons it had advised that 16
and 17-year-olds should be vaccinated was because it may help prevent a winter Covid wave.

However, analysis by Public Health England has shown that when vaccinated people catch the virus they have a similar viral load to unvaccinated individuals and may be as infectious.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia and an expert in infectious diseases, told the committee: "The concept of herd immunity is unachievable because we know the infection will spread in unvaccinated populations and the
latest data is suggesting that two doses is probably only 50 percent protective against infection."

Prof Hunter, who advises the World Health Organisation on Covid, also said it was time to change the way the data was collected and recorded as the virus became endemic.

"We need to start moving away from just reporting infections, or just reporting positive cases admitted to hospital, to actually start reporting the number of people who are ill because of Covid," he added. "Otherwise we are going to be frightening
ourselves with very high numbers that actually don't translate into disease burden."

On Tuesday, Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, confirmed that third dose booster shots would be given from next month. However, Sir Andrew argued that, if mass testing was not stopped, Britain could be in a situation of continually vaccinating the
population.

"I think as we look at the adult population going forward, if we continue to chase community testing and are worried about those results, we're going to end up in a situation where we're constantly boosting to try and deal with something which is not
manageable," he said.

"It needs to be moving to clinically driven testing in which people are willing to get tested and treated and managed, rather than lots of community testing. If someone is unwell they should be tested, but for their contacts, if they're not unwell then
it makes sense for them to be in school and being educated."

Dr Ruchi Sinha, consultant paediatrician at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, told MPs and peers that choosing not to vaccinate children would be unlikely to cause problems in the health service.

"What matters is the burden of patient hospitalisation and critical care and actually there hasn't been as much with this delta variant," she said. "They tend to be the children who have got their comorbidities, obesity, or severe neurological problems
and those children are already considered for vaccination. Covid on its own in paediatrics is not the problem."

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Churchill once said that Americans will try every wrong thing before they do the right thing.

Rejoice! They are now trying to imitate us.

The only way to stop a virus that covers the world is to deny it fresh hosts. Act accordingly or live with it.

Or die with it.

The world is now divided in groups of people that regard Covid differently: Those who believe the risks and try their best not to catch it, as if their lives depended on it. Then those who think they have nothing to worry about, for any of myriad reasons,
political, religious, seditious reasons or just being a dumbass.

Covid shows the cracks in the defining ideas of civilization. Like crowding into huge cities... real, gigantic Petri dishes. It's not such a good idea to divide ourselves into sovereign nations either, where people can do pretty much whatever the fuck
the want with the soil, water, and air, whether burn the Amazon forest whole, or make room for coffee farms in Asia destroying protected habitats, or exploding atomic bombs into the atmosphere we all share. And now, with Covid, when the entire human race
is being attacked in all places simultaneously, in a silent blitzkrieg you would not believe if not for the cries, wails and tears and millions dead worldwide, and immeasurable suffering physical, financial, and emotional of many more millions.

This is the time in a century when all of humanity needs to step in unison against a mindless and inexorable enemy.

National barriers, and this piecemeal approach to deal with a global crisis is not the fault of the WHO, the usual scapegoat for shirking responsibility that starts with each and every individual. You cannot opt out or you are just delaying the end of
this collective problem. We shouldn't allow that, but we must, because NO ONE is in charge. Little human ants are all preoccupied with their little territories within national borders, thinking that if they keep their lot clean their are safe. They are
not, as long as people travel. Nobody is safe. That's the reality today, unless you isolate yourself.


On Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 6:36:00 PM UTC-4, Ed Stasiak wrote:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/10/delta-variant-has-wrecked-hopes-herd-immunity-warn-scientists/
10 August 2021

Delta variant has wrecked hopes of herd immunity, warn scientists

There is no way of stopping Covid spreading through the entire population, experts tell MPs as they call for end of mass testing

The delta variant has wrecked any chance of herd immunity, a panel of experts including the head of the Oxford vaccine team said as they called for an end to mass testing so Britain can start to live with Covid.

Scientists said it was time to accept that there was no way of stopping the virus spreading through the entire population, and monitoring people with mild symptoms was no longer helpful.

Prof Andrew Pollard, who led the Oxford vaccine team, said it was clear that the delta variant can infect people who have been vaccinated, which made herd immunity impossible to reach even with high vaccine uptake.

It comes as Angela Merkel became the first major world leader to announce the end of free testing, with the provision set to stop in Germany from Oct 11.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health confirmed that more than three quarters of adults have now received both jabs, and calculated that 60,000 deaths and 66,900 hospitalisations have been prevented by vaccination. But experts said it would never be

enough to stop Covid from spreading.

Speaking to the all-party parliamentary group on Covid, Sir Andrew said: "Anyone who is still unvaccinated will, at some point, meet the virus.

"We don't have anything that will stop transmission, so I think we are in a situation where herd immunity is not a possibility and I suspect the virus will throw up a new variant that is even better at infecting vaccinated individuals."

Until recently, it was hoped that increasing the number of Britons jabbed would create a ring of protection around the population. As late as last week, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said one of the reasons it had advised that 16

and 17-year-olds should be vaccinated was because it may help prevent a winter Covid wave.

However, analysis by Public Health England has shown that when vaccinated people catch the virus they have a similar viral load to unvaccinated individuals and may be as infectious.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia and an expert in infectious diseases, told the committee: "The concept of herd immunity is unachievable because we know the infection will spread in unvaccinated populations and the

latest data is suggesting that two doses is probably only 50 percent protective against infection."

Prof Hunter, who advises the World Health Organisation on Covid, also said it was time to change the way the data was collected and recorded as the virus became endemic.

"We need to start moving away from just reporting infections, or just reporting positive cases admitted to hospital, to actually start reporting the number of people who are ill because of Covid," he added. "Otherwise we are going to be frightening

ourselves with very high numbers that actually don't translate into disease burden."

On Tuesday, Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, confirmed that third dose booster shots would be given from next month. However, Sir Andrew argued that, if mass testing was not stopped, Britain could be in a situation of continually vaccinating the

population.

"I think as we look at the adult population going forward, if we continue to chase community testing and are worried about those results, we're going to end up in a situation where we're constantly boosting to try and deal with something which is not

manageable," he said.

"It needs to be moving to clinically driven testing in which people are willing to get tested and treated and managed, rather than lots of community testing. If someone is unwell they should be tested, but for their contacts, if they're not unwell then

it makes sense for them to be in school and being educated."

Dr Ruchi Sinha, consultant paediatrician at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, told MPs and peers that choosing not to vaccinate children would be unlikely to cause problems in the health service.

"What matters is the burden of patient hospitalisation and critical care and actually there hasn't been as much with this delta variant," she said. "They tend to be the children who have got their comorbidities, obesity, or severe neurological problems

and those children are already considered for vaccination. Covid on its own in paediatrics is not the problem."

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

tiglat

The only way to stop a virus that covers the world is to deny it fresh hosts. Act accordingly or live with it.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/delta-variant-the-biggest-risk-to-the-world-at-the-moment-2495172
July 26, 2021

Evidence is also mounting that it is capable of infecting fully vaccinated people at a greater rate than previous versions, and concerns have been raised that they may even spread the virus, these experts said.

In Singapore, where Delta is the most common variant, government officials reported on Friday that three quarters of its coronavirus cases occurred among vaccinated individuals, though none were severely ill.

Israeli health officials have said 60% of current hospitalized COVID cases are in vaccinated people. Most of them are age 60 or older and often have underlying health problems.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 11 Aug 2021 15:35:59 -0700 (PDT), Ed Stasiak wrote:

Delta variant has wrecked hopes of herd immunity, warn scientists

There are 7 billion people in this world, of which about 1 billion have
been vaccinated. In many parts of the world, people will not be
vaccinated. Now, if we were talking about something like smallpox or polio, things might be different.

There was never any hope of eliminating it.

Every year when I get a flu shot, I will ask for a COVID shot too.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Who is to say that if we keep this virus going isn't there going to be a Gamma variant or an Omega variant, and one of them is going to kill everybody.

The longer we postpone the end of this, the more chances we have to brew more lethal variants. That's why we have to deal with the people who are causing this delay.


On Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 8:21:59 PM UTC-4, Ed Stasiak wrote:

tiglat

The only way to stop a virus that covers the world is to deny it fresh hosts. Act accordingly or live with it.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/delta-variant-the-biggest-risk-to-the-world-at-the-moment-2495172
July 26, 2021

Evidence is also mounting that it is capable of infecting fully vaccinated people at a greater rate than previous versions, and concerns have been raised that they may even spread the virus, these experts said.

In Singapore, where Delta is the most common variant, government officials reported on Friday that three quarters of its coronavirus cases occurred among vaccinated individuals, though none were severely ill.

Israeli health officials have said 60% of current hospitalized COVID cases are in vaccinated people. Most of them are age 60 or older and often have underlying health problems.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

tiglath

Ed Stasiak

In Singapore, where Delta is the most common variant, government officials reported on Friday
that three quarters of its coronavirus cases occurred among vaccinated individuals
Israeli health officials have said 60% of current hospitalized COVID cases are in vaccinated people.

The longer we postpone the end of this

Did you not read the above? There is no "preponing" this, social distancing, face diapers, vaccinations
don't mean shit, you either get the covid and are asymptomatic or get the covid and get sick.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)