Month: August 2021

In this photo illustration a woman has an injection in her arm NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images LONDON — Achieving herd immunity with Covid-19 vaccines when the highly-infectious delta variant is spreading is "not a possibility," a leading epidemiologist has said, with experts agreeing that such a goal — where overall immunity in a population is reached and the spread of the virus is stopped — is not likely for several reasons. Professor Andrew Pollard, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told British lawmakers Tuesday that as Covid vaccines did not stop the spread of the virus entirely — with vaccinated people still able to be infected and transmit the virus — the idea of achieving herd immunity was "mythical." "I think we are in a situation here with t...

HOUSTON – More children were hospitalized with COVID-19 at Texas Children’s campuses Wednesday night than ever before, and most of them also have the Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV, according to the hospital. The respiratory virus usually causes more pediatric hospitalizations and deaths worldwide than any other virus. Last year, like other viruses, RSV was mostly dormant. Now, it’s back with a vengeance. “What may be happening is the population has become more susceptible because they had not seen this virus in a while,” said Dr. Pedro Piedra at Baylor College of Medicine. “Once it got introduced into our community, it spread rapidly. It’s been in our community for about a month.” The seasonal virus, which is most dangerous for young infants, especially those six months and younger,...

Canberra, Australia’s capital with a population of about 400,000 will likely go into a snap lockdown after it was revealed that there was one new case of COVID-19, according to reports Wednesday night from the country.  "For the sake of your health, your family’s health and for the health of the community, it’s critical that Canberrans take every precaution they can over the coming days," Andrew Barr, the chief minister, said, according to ABC.net.au. The report said the lockdown will last seven days. The person who was infected was a man in his 20s, and officials are unclear how he came down with the virus and listed a number of possible exposure sites. The report called the diagnosis the "most serious public health risk" the Australian Capital Territory faced in a year.  CLICK FOR T...

Since March 2021, CPR reported a 257% jump in the number of sellers using the cloud-based instant messaging software Telegram to advertise fake vaccination cards, as pressure to get inoculated rises. The fake CDC, NHS and EU Digital COVID cards are being sold for $100 and can be purchased with PayPal or cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin. Also offered are fake PCR COVID-19 tests. CPR said the black market groups have 100,000 followers each on average, with some groups exceeding over 450,000 followers, a 566% increase from March, when the cards were being sold for closer to $200 each. They noted that Telegram is the most commonly used digital market for the cards, which has sellers based in the USA, UK, Switzerland, Pakistan, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Indonesia, and France,...