Charts show that Europe's third coronavirus wave has begun

[Klaralven]

LONDON — Warnings of an exponential rise in infections for Germany and a fresh monthlong lockdown in Paris have underlined the dire situation across Europe as the coronavirus surges once again.

The variant first discovered in the U.K. is seen as the reason for the new spike. The strain is reported to be much more virulent than the original one.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/19/europes-third-coronavirus-wave-has-arrived.html

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Not going to Europe any time soon.

We were thinking Fall of 2022. We will see.

[Celerity]

8. We will be saying the same thing about the US. We are a month ahead of you and the variants

are bad news. If the South African and Brasilian variants (whuch are worse than the UK variant) become dominant in the US, then, when combined with 100 million or so wilfully unvaxxed, plus tens of millions of QMAGAT maskholes, and layered with Red State all-around public health shitbaggery, America is going to be a shitshow in many places, unfortunately.

Those variants have R nought values at or over 5.0. That means at least 80% exposure is needed (vaxxed or naturally immune post infection) to hit herd immunity. If you have 100 million (even 80-90m) who are not immune, then herd immunity on a nation wide platform is a pipe dream, especially if the variants go dominant.

Finally, the US is one giant variant potential factory itself. Odds are far from low that a homegrown US variant of a very virulent nature is cooked up and spread nationwide.

The US is being lead down a path to further hellscapes by a RW white power death cult raging into the maw of a global pandemic. If things go truly pear shaped, you may (so may we here in the EU) be forced to make vaccines mandatory, under threat of force. I so hope that day never comes, especially in the US, land of over half a billion firearms floating around the fruited plain.

[OnDoutside]

10. I completely agree about the prospect of mandatory vaccination. The UK variant B117 is now

responsible for almost 100% of new daily Covid cases in Ireland. We are currently plateauing at around 5-600 cases a day, and we're finding it hard to get below that. It will be interesting to see what they numbers are like in the next 7-10 days when the full effect of St Patrick's Day displays itself in the daily rate.

[Hugin]

2. Nothing like news such as this to remind everyone COVID is a global...

pandemic.

We're on it's schedule and not the other way around.

Although, we are considerably better off than we were a year ago at zero, there's still a hill to climb.

[Cal Carpenter]

12. And anyone who doubts what you are saying should look at Michigan's covid graphs

Our cases are skyrocketing again. And our governor just loosened restrictions a couple weeks ago.

A lot of northeastern states are rising again, too.

The vaccines are a huge advance in battling this thing, but the new variants are a major problem. We are not on a downward trajectory as a country. At best, on average, we've plateaued for now but it's not even close to being over.

A lot of scientists talked about the third wave in the US becoming a problem in late March. Well, here we are...

[Scrivener7]

3. And we tend to be only about a month behind Europe.

I'm worried about my NY. The new cases do not seem to be dropping, and we're a first frontier for what comes in from Europe. I'm fully vaccinated, but not easing up on any restrictions any time soon.


(PS: I changed my name, y'all! )

[Klaralven]

4. New Jersey 7-day average of new cases up 33% between Feb 24 and March 19

The 7-day average death rate is down from 64 to 36 daily.

The hospitalization rate has also decreased.

We are probably seeing more cases among a younger population that is at less risk of hospitalization and death. The politicians will probably be OK with more cases so long as hospitalizations and deaths don't go back up. They would prefer to keep on opening schools, businesses, etc, than try to drive down cases.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/new-jersey/

[Scrivener7]

5. Yes. And NY is just stuck at around 8000 new cases a day. That's WAY too high.

(PS: I changed my name, y'all! I used to be Squinch.)

[Klaralven]

6. NY deaths are only 84 a day, down from 206 back on 1/25.

The mayor wants the bars and restaurants open.

He likely thinks that 84 is OK, so long as the count doesn't go up much.

[pstokely]

7. will the younger population get a vax when it becomes available to them?

I guess deaths and the hospitalization rates have decreased because the medically frail have had the vax

[Klaralven]

9. Maybe not, might not matter

In NJ, we are closing in on 10% of the population having had confirmed cases. I'd guess that means that more like 20% of the population have had Covid when asymptomatic or mild cases are added in.

Between unvaccinated people and new variants infecting vaccinated people, most likely Covid will become seasonal and endemic, sort of like a bad flu. It will likely cause a lot of chronic illness and disability among the sickly middle aged population and continue to be a significant cause of death among the elderly.

[OnDoutside]

11. But aren't previously Covid positives being encouraged to get the vaccine in case the get the

variant later ? That's why they still vaccinated Trump.

[Klaralven]

13. I think that the repeat cases are So African and Brazilian variants, which aren't very prevalent yet

So far there is a good deal of uncertainty as to how well you are protected from each variant depending on which vaccine you have had and/or which other variant you have had.

Globally, we appear to be going into the fourth upsurge with about 470,000 new cases per day. So there is plenty of scope for the generation of new variants.

That is also why international travel should remain closed down.

[OnDoutside]

14. No doubt about that for sure.