“China eats weird animals disease”

Opponents of vaccinations and the German government’s coronavirus policies were planning to hold demonstrations in several German cities on Saturday.

The largest protest was expected to be held in the northern port city of Hamburg, with around 8,000 registered attendees. Under the slogan “Hands off our children,” they planned to march through the city center, police said.

Vaccinations for children are beginning in Germany, following recommendations made by the country’s top vaccine body. However, parents are divided on the issue.

A common refrain of those opposed to vaccines is that immunizations are harmful to people’s health and an infringement on human rights. Any kind of science proving the efficacy of any vaccine is often denied.

In 2021, those health concerns have mutated into a widespread belief among the most staunchly anti-vaccine that if you receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose, you will almost certainly die.

The latter is a baseless conspiracy theory. But tens of thousands of Canadians believe it’s true and have created social media channels to promote it.

I got vaxxed, it’s not my business whether you did or not. Besides it appears Omicron is gonna get us all.

For Ontarians who have done everything asked of them, it feels like they have been taken to the cleaners.

I tried to ask Joe at my local Cadet Cleaners for a comment on the province’s response to the Omicron variant, but his shop is now out of business.

The LCBO says it has already run out of COVID-19 rapid antigen test kits after select stores across Ontario began to give them out on a first-come, first-serve basis on Friday.

“Our supply of COVID-19 rapid test kits has run out. Thanks for your patience & understanding. We’ll post if we receive more,” the LCBO said in a tweet Friday evening.

The organization said Friday morning it didn’t know exact arrival times for specific stores, and expected “limited” supply to be scooped up fast.

What a dumb idea, how much you want to bet these kits start showing up for sale on E-Bay etc?

It has been nearly two years since the first inklings of a respiratory infection in China that would turn the world upside-down. In a rational society, this would be the point where we realized that our attempts to vaccinate against this infection have failed. Yet we persist in our devotion to the sacred serum that will deliver us from our distress.

Currently, 60% of adults in the United States are fully vaccinated. That’s not nearly enough, say the pro-vaccinators. But exactly 0% of the population was vaccinated in 2020, and the number of deaths was lower. That is a profound fact that cannot be ignored.

Since the Omicron variant arrived in late November, the biggest questions have been how fast it spreads, how severe the illness is that it causes, and how much resistance the existing vaccines provide.

Indications so far are that the virus spreads very quickly, but that it isn’t as deadly as prior variants. Now, a new study says the new variant may resist vaccines- to a “striking” degree.

A survey conducted by Columbia University and the University of Hong Kong found that the number of spike mutations “pose a threat to the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapies,” with the Omicron variant resistant to all available vaccines, as well as past infection.  

So, that’s that: It won’t be a Merry Christmas after all.

It’s only a matter of time before we’re hit by the full force of omicron infections — a case of, “not if, but when.” And that when won’t take long. That’s what three of Germany’s top researchers said during a virtual nationwide press briefing Wednesday (15.12.2021).

Christoph Neumann-Haefelin, an immunologist at the University Medical Center Freiburg, said omicron will likely become the dominant variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, by mid-January — superseding the delta variant, which until now has been one of the most infectious strains since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Ford government considering capacity restrictions, gathering limits due to Omicron spread

Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet is meeting this afternoon to consider additional measures to limit the spread of the Omicron variant, including reduced capacity and gathering limits.

Multiple sources have told CP24 and CTV News Toronto that the government is considering reducing capacity limits to 25 per cent in some sectors and lowering the maximum allowable social gathering size from 25 to 10 indoors.

The sources also say that the government is considering changing the definition of fully immunized to three doses as it ramps up its effort to get everyone 18 and up a booster shot.