Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE WORLD HEALTH Organization (WHO) has warned that countries are essentially driving blind in reopening their economies without setting up strong contact tracing to beat flare-ups of coronavirus.
WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan said robust contact tracing adopted by Germany and South Korea provide hope that those countries can detect and stop clusters before they get out of control.
But he said the same is not true of other countries exiting lockdowns, declining to name specific countries.
The warning came as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands sent children back to school, and a number of US states continued to lift business restrictions.
Fears of infection spikes in countries that have loosened up have been borne out in recent days in Germany, where new clusters were linked to three slaughterhouses; in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the crisis started; and in South Korea, where a single nightclub customer was linked to 85 new cases.
Authorities have warned that the scourge could come back with a vengeance without widespread testing and tracing of infected people’s contacts with others.
“Shutting your eyes and trying to drive through this blind is about as silly an equation as I’ve seen,” Ryan said. “And I’m really concerned that certain countries are setting themselves up for some seriously blind driving over the next few months.”
More than 10,000 people are involved in contact tracing in Germany, a country of 83 million.
In South Korea, the government clamped down again, halting school reopenings planned for this week and reimposing restrictions on nightclubs and bars.
It is trying to track down 5,500 patrons of a Seoul nightlife district through credit card transactions, mobile phone records and security footage.
Ireland is still planning to roll out its Covid-19 contact tracing app by the end of May, despite reported delays with the process.
Last week, Health Minister Simon Harris said he wants an “all-island approach” to the app.
With reporting from Dominic McGrath
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Good luck to the Guinea pigs that step forward to take that vaccine.
@MrMagoo: https://t.co/opqPJ2e6dc?amp=1
@Vladimir Macro: I’ll stick with the people we voted in to represent us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Freedom_Party
@MrMagoo: I really hope that any vaccine that is released is a safe one. I personally will only considerate it a safe vaccine if it is endorsed by Dr Judy Mikovits.
@OhToBeARossie: At least do your family the service of studying Vitamin D & C supplementation.
@Alpha Centauri: yes, she is completely honest, has never stolen anything and did not have a paper completely disqualified on the grounds of it being complete waffle and isn’t at all trying to pedal her book to all the new conspiracy theorists that have emerged out of the this.
@Dell: Ther’s always one
@Vladimir Macro: oh there’s millions of us who don’t use YouTube as reliable sources.
@Dell: You know when you have a medical issue and try find out what the problem is.
You go to the Doctor and explain the case. Then you say to the Doctor, well I read it could be this or this. Doctor says dont google it.
Well guess who is advertising on google now. The government and HSE re covid.
Yet our doctors dont trust google. Google also own youtube.
So which is it?
@Vladimir Macro: I see she got 0.67% of the vote in the last general election, chairperson of the Irish Freedom Party…
https://archive.vn/20200210203504/https://www.irishtimes.com/election2020/tipperary
The video you posted yesterday of her explaining her opposition of Covid-19 social distancing didn’t mention she was the chairperson of a fringe political party. That’s an important omission, as it means, she wasn’t talking as an academic but was expressing a political opinion.
@Vladimir Macro: there’s a difference between advertising a legitimate established service and pedaling lies. The unfounded rubbish you are swallowing is the online equivalent of the travelling medicine show with their heal all snake oil. You’re even helping them along, omitting information and political affiliations of the “experts” in these videos.
@David Jordan: She did explain she was the chairperson towards the end.
Look all the studies on Vitamin D and C that are out there. Many studies from different parts of the globe. A political party is irrelevant to those studies. Yes here stance is but that doesn’t mean it’s a lie.
Calm down do your own research
Ivor Cummins on Twitter has all the links. He has no political affiliation.
I’d be more worried about taking a new and untested vaccine than Coronavirus to be honest.
@Adam Conroy: exactly. It’s about first with the vaccine, patent it, money in the bank. Side effects?, well the usual, one in bla bla bla.
No HIV vaccine after 30 years but a vaccine for covid after a few months. I smell more WHO lies/propaganda.
@Quiggers: or sars vaccine for 17 years
@Vladimir Macro: there’s several candidate Sars vaccines, but no Sars, that’s why the vaccines were not used.
Stadler, K., Roberts, A., Becker, S., Vogel, L., Eickmann, M., Kolesnikova, L., Klenk, H.D., Murphy, B., Rappuoli, R., Abrignani, S. and Subbarao, K., 2005. SARS vaccine protective in mice. Emerging infectious diseases, 11(8), p.1312.
@Quiggers: apples and oranges. There are thousands of mutations for hiv so it is very difficult to create a vaccine though they are getting close. Also, it isn’t deadly anymore so not as much as a rush.
Some good news at last
I’m a bit wary about this fast track to a vaccine. I wonder what pharmaceutical companies are involved in the production of this and what their reputations are. How come the WHO won’t reveal that to allow the public to make an informed decision? The article mentions how contagious the virus is and focuses on the number of deaths and cases globally, yet overlooks the 1,529,606 people that have recovered.
@Yolita Ferue: they won’t reveal the companies for a few reasons . First they cant be seen to be promoting any pharmaceutical company over others and wouldn’t want people to decide not to get a vaccine because they may not know the brand name of the companies. Second is down to finance if they reveal the companies it could affect the stock value if their vaccine failed during trials and the last reason could be that a number of companies are collaborating on different vaccines and not all the companies will be Involved in the same callaboration by the end
@Paul O’halloran: I think the public has the right to know what pharmaceutical companies the WHO is promoting for their own health and safety, we don’t want something bigger and more catastrophic than the opioid crisis in the US to happen globally and in terms of choice if there’s a number collaborating on different vaccines. Surely, if they have confidence that their vaccines have been tested and are effective, then they shouldn’t have to worry about their vaccines failing at trials. Most people don’t care about the stock value of these pharmaceutical companies, these companies already make gigantic profits from human suffering.
@Yolita Ferue: look at the share prices and which ones have gone up a lot lately
Cha ching
@Macca Attack: yes, it does take millions and millions of euro to develop a single vaccine.
@Brendan Cooney: no doubt about it Brendan and they will charge a fortune for it and will make billions out of it. Sooooo, ,,, what’s your point
@Brendan Cooney: also takes minimum of 6 years to properly test it
Fantastic news.
@Johnny 5: They better hurry up before our water runs out and we can’t wash our hands every 3 minutes!
I had a nightmare recently that the world leaders had a secret society that met around one of those huge round tables and decided that to tackle climate change they must create this virus that wouldn’t be deadly enough to derail society but would get everyone to take the vaccine and 75% of those who took it ended up sterile and governments blamed the pharmaceuticals for rushing an untested vaccine but secretly paid them billions. I have a weird mind.
@Pedro: interestingly enough, the SARS-COV-2 virus infects the testis, the virus itself might be harmful to fertility. This is because the testies (and kidneys) have the ACE-2 receptor that the virus uses to infect cells…
Fan, C., Li, K., Ding, Y., Lu, W.L. and Wang, J., 2020. ACE2 expression in kidney and testis may cause kidney and testis damage after 2019-nCoV infection. MedRxiv.
@Pedro: I would be very happy to take such a vaccine, if it caused me to be sterile!
Finally a voice of reason and balance from one of the worlds leading scientists:
https://t.co/opqPJ2e6dc?amp=1
@Mark Malone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Freedom_Party
@OhToBeARossie: I particularly like the election results part of that page
@Dell: 0.3% in the last general election, that’s pretty poor.
Yeah but what about Bill Gates? BILL GATES??!?!? 5G??!?!? PLANDEMIC?!?!?
@Jesus Christ: Don’t worry. The Lord has promised more plagues. One to fit every conspiracy theory actually.
“…top contender vaccines are racing to be completed”. What could possibly go wrong!?
The common cold is a type of corona virus and we still don’t have a vaccine for it so good luck with that!
The modern day Holy Grail of exploratory medicine. The testing/development is expensive but the rewards are a potential blank cheque.
For brain dead society
@james r: Tell us why oh enlightened one?
@james r:
Presume you’ll be first up to try it then!
Bill Gates of hell vaccine reg number 060606 will be tot of the list
@Jimmy Carroll: I’m totally going to take the word of the guy on the journals comment section, who didn’t even string one intelligible sentence together, over the word of world’s top scientists.
Some good news and it can’t come soon enough !
How long does it take to vaccinate 5 million people? A year, 2 years?
Its going to be one hell of a plan
How long does it take to vaccinate 5 million people? A year, 2 years?
@John Keane: Its going to be one hell of a plan
12-18 months, average 15, 2 months ago in March – meaning June next year at the earliest when it would be deemed safe and effective, fully approved and ready to roll out.
Still optimistic, in my view – I just hope there’s no shortcuts taking place or corners being cut. As I said before, this pandemic will most likely be over by the time the vaccine comes, it’ll just be useful in preventing further ones.
have your say