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Texas hospital reports its 1st case of lambda COVID-19 variant
MARLENE LENTHANG
·3 min read
A major Texas hospital system has reported its first case of the lambda COVID-19 variant, as the state reels from the rampant delta variant.
Houston Methodist Hospital, which operates eight hospitals in its network, said the first lambda case was confirmed Monday.
The
lambda variant was first detected in Peru in December 2020, according
to the World Health Organization and makes up 81% of COVID-19 cases
sequenced in the country since April 2021, according to a June WHO report. Currently, WHO designates lambda as a "variant of interest."
Houston
Methodist had a little over 100 COVID-19 patients across the hospital
system last week. That number rose to 185 Monday, with a majority of those infected being unvaccinated, according to a statement released by the hospital Monday.
Among those infections, about 85% have been diagnosed with the delta variant, hospital officials said.
"We're
seeing an alarming spike in the number of COVID-19 cases across the
Houston area, with the steepest increase happening over the weekend,"
Houston Methodist said. "The increased hospitalizations add stress to
many of our hospitals that are nearing capacity."
Hospital
president and CEO Dr. Marc Boom stressed it is "imperative" that the
community "get vaccinated and decrease virus spread."
Despite the report of the lambda variant, experts at Houston Methodist say delta is still the primary concern in the U.S.
"The
lambda is the dominant variant in Peru and Peru has had a very
difficult time with COVID-19. It shares mutations in common with the
alpha variants, the beta, the gamma, which is the dominant variant in
Brazil," Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of Diagnostic Microbiology at
Houston Methodist, told ABC News.
"I don't think there's
sufficient evidence at this point that we should be more concerned about
lambda than delta, I still think delta is the primary concern for us.
There's a lot more evidence that we have that delta is much more
contagious, the viral loads are much higher," he added.
The
lambda variant "has been associated with substantive rates of community
transmission in multiple countries, with rising prevalence over time
concurrent with increased COVID-19 incidence," the WHO said in its June report. In June, the variant was detected in 29 countries.
The delta variant, which was first detected in India in December, now accounts for about 83% of all sequenced COVID-19 cases in the United States,
Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle
Walensky said during a Senate hearing Tuesday. The WHO designates delta
as a "variant of concern."
Long
noted that Houston Methodist has seen its positivity rate increase and
hospitalizations rise, but the situation on the ground is still "far
below" the winter peak.
"[Infections are] on the increase. How
many more cases are we going to get?" Long said. "We're going to need
more folks to get vaccinated and folks who aren't vaccinated in
particular to practice all the safe practices that we learned through
the pandemic to help slow the spread of COVID. All those are critically
important to keep this delta wave under control."
At the moment, 51% of Texas' state population aged 12 and up is fully vaccinated, according to state data.
Video report on Jul18 #IranProtests for water in Khuzestan Province, SW #Iran. Angry
locals took to the streets to protest the regime's erroneous policy of
redirecting the province's two rivers to other areas, causing a severe
water shortage in Khuzestan. #خوزستان_تنها_نیستpic.twitter.com/2V5xld5u3t
Braving gunfire and arrest, demonstrators have taken to
the streets again in Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province, protesting
against drought caused by the Teheran regime’s diversion of the region’s
two main rivers. Meanwhile, the Biden government continues to negotiate
with the Tehran regime in Vienna over lifting sanctions against the
terrorist state, while Tehran plots to kidnap an opposition leader in
New York.
Graphic videos
uploaded to social media by demonstrators show protesters’
blood-covered bodies lying in the streets, with scenes of chaos as
regime forces open fire indiscriminately in their effort to crush the
protests over severe water shortages caused by the regime’s damming and
diversion of the region’s rivers to other areas of Iran, which have led
to catastrophic drought as the scorching summer heat rises to over 125
degrees Fahrenheit.T
Ahwazi rights groups earlier confirmed the deaths of two
protesters killed by regime forces on Saturday, along with the injury
and arrest of dozens more. The demonstrations have been growing across
the region since protesters gathered in front of the Ahwaz governor’s
office on 10 July 2021 to protest against the transfer of Ahwazi water
to Persian cities, draining Ahwaz’ rivers and depriving citizens of
drinking water and water for irrigation and livestock, with the
communities located on the Karoon and Karkheh rivers devastated by the
chronic manmade water shortages, which have also led to the agonising
deaths of hundreds of the wild buffalo native to the region left without
water.
The protests which began in the regional capital on 10 July
quickly spread to cities, towns and villages across the Ahwaz region
whose long-suffering people are doubly oppressed by Iran’s totalitarian
regime, not only being subjected to the ‘standard’ persecution for
demanding freedom, but also being brutalised and persecuted for their
Arab ethnicity and subjugated under an effective apartheid system,
denied fundamental rights including the right to wear their traditional
Arab garb or be educated in their native Arabic language, and now being
denied even the water from their own rivers.
By Wednesday, protests had also spread to the cities of Abadan,
Muhammarah, Hamidiyeh, Ma’shour, Khafajiyeh, Susa, Toster, Shawoor,
Falahiyeh, Bostan, Howeyzeh, and Mola Thani, as well as Ahwaz city, all
of which have witnessed large-scale protests, where protests continue to
this day.
The Iranian regime has reacted with its customary murderous
brutality, with its security forces savagely attacking protesters and
using direct live gunfire in their efforts to crush the demonstrations.
On 16 July, 28-year-old Mustafa Naimawi Asakerah from Abbasabad
neighbourhood in Falahiayeh died instantly when he was hit in the chest
with two bullets fired by a regime thug. On the same day, 21-year-old
Qassem Khezri (Nasiri) from Kontex in Ahwazi city’s Kot Abdullah
district was fatally wounded by indiscriminate gunfire by the security
forces as he was returning from work. He died of his injuries the next
day in Golestan hospital.
Ahwazi human rights activists have reported that more than 20 people
have been injured in the gunfire, some critically, including
20-year-old Mahdi Jamal from Andisheh neighbourhood in Tester, who was
shot by security forces on 16 July, and remains in a critical condition
in hospital. Another critically injured victim, Hashem Asakerah from
Falahiyah, is also still in a critical condition, along with a child
named as Muntazer Rabihat, who was shot in the head and suffocated with
tear gas. Reports also indicate that about ten civilians were wounded in
Shawoor, although the victims’ identities have not yet been provided.
The protests have now spread to the capital of Tehran, Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad reports from New York City:
Last week, Alinejad revealed the FBI had uncovered a regime plot to lure her to a third country and kidnap her.
The U.S Justice Department said on July 13 that an Iranian
intelligence officer and three alleged members of an Iranian
intelligence network have been charged with conspiring to lure a New
York-based journalist to a third country and forcibly return her to
Iran, Radio Liberty reported:
“Alinejad, who left Iran in 2009 and has been living in the United
States since 2014, confirmed she is the journalist in the indictment,
saying on Twitter that she’s grateful to the FBI for foiling the plot.”
Sources in Iran are reporting that other cities are joining in the
protests. Opposition spokesmen expect the internet will be affected in
the next two days.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to negotiate
with the terrorist regime in Vienna, Austria over a lifting of
sanctions and a return to the nuclear deal which supplied Iran with $100 billion in 2016, including $1.7 billion in cash, with which Tehran proceeded to wage war across the Middle East, from Gaza, Yemen and Lebanon to Afghanistan.
As the Biden state departments makes nice with the Iranian delegates,
two dozen US embassy employees in Vienna have fallen ill with the
mysterious Havanna Syndrome.
“The exact cause of the ailments in Vienna, which U.S. government
agencies formally refer to as “anomalous health incidents” or
“unexplained health incidents,” remains unknown, but in response to the
surge the C.I.A., the State Department, and other agencies are
redoubling their efforts to determine the cause, and to identify the
culprit or culprits”, The New Yorker reports.
Iranian American human rights activist Saghar Kasraie told the
Gateway Pundit: “The Biden administration is on the wrong side of
history, they cannot win over the hearts and minds of the Iranian people
while they are being slaughtered for wanting freedom and democracy. How
can the Biden Administration negotiate with regime that is no longer
legitimate to its own citizens? We, the Iranian people, ask the leaders
of the free world to stop recognizing this criminal regime and support
the will of the Iranian people.”
Mask mandates make a return - along with controversy
Dan Diamond
Two
months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
vaccinated individuals didn't need to wear masks in most settings, a
growing number of experts are warning it's time to put them back on.
First,
there was Los Angeles County, where the rising menace posed by the
delta variant of the coronavirus prompted health officials to reimpose a
mask mandate. Then, Bay Area health officers on Friday recommended that
residents of seven counties and the city of Berkeley, Calif., resume
wearing masks indoors. Mask mandates are being discussed, too, in
coronavirus hot spots such as Arkansas and Missouri, where cases have
sharply increased in recent weeks and many residents remain
unvaccinated.
"Universal
masking indoors is a way of taking care of each other while we get more
people vaccinated," said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles
County Department of Public Health, which last week moved to reinstate
an indoor mask mandate. "It really doesn't disrupt any business
practices. It allows us to remain fully open - while we acknowledge that
the delta variant [is] spreading like wildfire here."
And the nation's current and former surgeon generals warned the nation should brace for a broader return to mask-wearing.
"We
need to prepare the public for what could be, again, a return to some
of these mitigation measures," former surgeon general Jerome Adams told
Indianapolis TV station WISH-TV on Sunday, highlighting a resurgence of
the virus across the Midwest. Adams, an appointee of former president
Donald Trump, called on the CDC to "hit the reset button" and once again
recommend widespread mask-wearing as coronavirus cases spike.
But the growing calls to reinstate mask mandates - echoed by the
American Academy of Pediatrics, which Monday called for everyone over
the age of 2 to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status - renewed a
cultural and health flash point a year and a half after the virus
landed in the United States.
"We need to be reopening our state,
not reimposing unnecessary restrictions," Kevin Faulconer, the
Republican former San Diego mayor now running for California governor,
wrote on Twitter last week. The Los Angeles County sheriff last week
said he would refuse to enforce the local masking mandate, and
Republicans nationally took aim at existing protections.
"In a
free county people will evaluate their personal risk factors and are
smart enough to ultimately make medical decisions like wearing a mask
themselves," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a statement last week,
introducing legislation that would ban mask mandates on planes and
public transportation.
The daily average of confirmed U.S.
coronavirus cases has risen in the past month, from 11,855 on June 19 to
more than 34,000 on Monday, according to The Washington Post's
seven-day average of coronavirus cases. Experts on coronavirus
transmission say masks remain a crucial tool to protect tens of millions
of unvaccinated Americans - and even vaccinated people, with growing
evidence of breakthrough infections in some fully immunized adults,
although health officials have said most people who have died or been
hospitalized with covid-19 in recent weeks were unvaccinated.
"The
best protection everybody has is masks," said Kimberly Prather, a
professor at the University of California, San Diego who has studied
airborne virus transmission and said she "absolutely" supports the
resumption of indoor mask mandates. Prather said she has also grown wary
of going without a mask in some settings outside, warning that the
delta variant is hyper-transmissable.
"While delta numbers are
going up - and if I'm in a crowded outdoor location with lots of people
yelling - I would be wearing a mask," Prather said.
But many
Americans say they have stopped wearing face coverings, and experts
acknowledge it will be difficult to persuade them to resume.
"I
think people will be disappointed that folks were having some hope and
seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - and this would be a
suggestion that we're taking a step back," said Marcus Plescia, chief
medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health
Officials.
Just 55% of respondents to an Axios/Ipsos poll in late
June said they were wearing masks "sometimes" or "at all times" in
public, down from 68% who said the same in early June and nearly 90% in
February, March and early April.
Plescia said he supports the
resumption of local mask mandates, given the rise in cases and the
growing evidence about the threat of the delta variant.
"You know,
recovery from just about anything comes in cycles - things get better,
and they get worse, and they get better, and they get worse. It's rare
that it's linear. And I think that's what's going on here," Plescia
said.
Some physicians who embraced mask mandates last year said they're concerned the moment has passed.
Former
Louisiana health commissioner Rebekah Gee, who is CEO of Health Care
Services for LSU Health, wrote last year that she favored the use of
mask mandates to protect public health. But "at this point, I'm not
convinced that requiring masks in every aspect of society is effective,"
Gee said Monday, warning that many Americans had tuned out public
health officials' calls to wear masks and take other steps to guard
against the coronavirus.
Gee instead said she favors targeted mask
requirements, such as mandating use in close quarters or when
interacting with vulnerable populations such as children younger than
12, who have yet to get vaccinated. Gee also said she supports
private-sector requirements for masks.
"The point now is how do
you save lives and get people on the team of science, the team of
truth?" Gee said. "Forcing people to do things is not the best way to
get them to agree with you."
The CDC on May 13 initially moved to
relax its mask guidance, saying vaccinated Americans could go without
masks in many cases. Federal officials also suggested the move would
provide an incentive for unvaccinated Americans to get immunized.
But the CDC's recommendation did not appear to spur a growth in vaccinations.
In
a Kaiser Family Foundation survey of unvaccinated Americans following
the CDC's recommendation, 85% of respondents said the agency's new
guidance did not affect their decision to get vaccinated. The pace of
vaccinations has steadily declined from about 2 million shots per day in
mid-May to fewer than 550,000 shots a day. Health officials' goal of
ensuring that at least 70% of adults receive one shot of vaccine, which
President Joe Biden initially targeted for July 4, is unlikely to be
reached before Aug. 10, according to The Post's projections.
Federal
officials have defended the CDC's earlier decision. In a Washington
Post Live interview Monday, National Institutes of Health Director
Francis Collins said the CDC's recommendations for fully vaccinated
people to remove their masks were issued before the delta variant began
broadly circulating - and before it was clear how much hesitancy would
exist in some parts of the country.
"I know people are tired of
masks, but it's not so awful to consider having to put a cloth mask on
your face when you're inside if it's going to potentially stop what is,
right now, looking like a pretty significant surge of infections,
especially in places where vaccination rates are low," Collins said.
Surgeon
General Vivek Murthy said the federal government supports local mask
mandates in places where cases are surging or many residents are
unvaccinated.
"It's very reasonable for counties to take more
mitigation measures, like the mask rules that you see coming out in
L.A.," Murthy said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I anticipate that will
happen in other parts of the country, too."
The latest debate over
masks comes after months of battle over their benefits, including a
now-retracted study in JAMA Pediatrics that claimed masks could harm
children by forcing them to breathe high carbon dioxide levels. The
study was retracted Friday amid "numerous scientific issues," the
journal's editors wrote.
"The science is settled that masks do
work, though mask performance can vary widely," said Linsey Marr, a
Virginia Tech engineer who has studied airborne-disease transmission.
"The kind of studies that are trying to just debunk masks, so far
they've all been shown to be completely flawed."
Meanwhile,
society continues to steadily reopen, as businesses and entertainment
venues increasingly welcome back customers. The Transportation Security
Administration said it tracked 2.23 million travelers through its
checkpoints Sunday, the highest number of travelers since the onset of
the pandemic last year, and movie theater chains have reported millions
of patrons this month after a year when cinemas often sat empty.
The
highest-rated television program in recent weeks has been the National
Basketball Association Finals, featuring thousands of often mask-free
fans crowding indoor arenas in Phoenix and Milwaukee to cheer on the
teams - a visual that induced complicated emotions in at least one
expert.
"I cringe every time I see it," said Shad Marvasti, a
family medicine physician and director of Public Health and Prevention
at the University of Arizona College of Medicine at Phoenix, who added
he's rooting for Phoenix to win the NBA finals - but wishes fans were
required to wear masks. "You can't leave this one to the honor system.
It just doesn't work that way."
- - -
The Washington Post's Frances Stead Sellers and Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
A mob surrounded and harassed a white officer as he was attempting to respond to a shooting in Atlanta on Sunday.
Black police officers had to step in and attempt to calm the situation.
The crowd was hurling anti-white racism at the officer, including shouting things like “get your white face out of here.”
The city is currently suffering from a police shortage.
CBS 46 reported in April that “APD currently has 1632 officers
according to its latest filled vacancy report. That’s about 400 officers
short of the department’s ‘authorized strength’ of more than 2,000.”
The shooting took place at a gas station in northeast Atlanta. Two people were injured, but are expected to survive.
“Investigators say one of the victims reported he was arguing with
the suspect when he opened fire, injuring both victims. It is unclear at
the this time if the second victim was involved in the argument,”
WSB-TV reports.
A fully vaccinated aide for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a White
House official tested positive for Covid-19 after welcoming Democrat
Texas lawmakers to the Capitol.
Last Monday 60 Democrat members of the state House of Representatives
fled Texas to Washington DC to block Republicans from advancing new
voting laws through a special session of the legislature.
Democrat lawmakers were seen packed on a private plane, maskless, flying from Texas to DC.
Six of them have now tested positive for Covid.
The obvious stunt by Texas Democrats has turned into quite the super
spreader because now a Pelosi aide and a White House official (both
vaccinated) have tested positive for the China virus.
A White House official and a staff member for House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) have both tested positive for COVID-19 after attending
the same reception last week, officials confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: While both individuals are
vaccinated and mildly symptomatic, they illustrate how Americans
inoculated against the coronavirus can still contract and, potentially,
unknowingly transmit the virus — even at the highest levels of the
nation’s government.
“We know that there will be breakthrough cases, but as this instance
shows, cases in vaccinated individuals are typically mild,” a White
House official told Axios.
Driving the news: The Pelosi staffer helped usher a delegation of Democratic Texas lawmakers around the Capitol last week. Six of those lawmakers, who flew to Washington to block the Texas legislature from changing the state’s voting laws, have since tested positive.
Both that staffer and the White House official were at the same rooftop reception at the Hotel Eaton last Wednesday night.
The White House official has not had any recent direct contact with
President Biden. The Pelosi aide did not have any contact with the
speaker since that person’s exposure.
Imagine the media firestorm if Republican lawmakers flew to DC and spread Covid around the Capitol.
The Foo Fighters had to postpone a concert that was scheduled
for last Saturday in LA after a positive Covid19 case was confirmed
within the band’s fully vaccinated organization.
The band had only recently begun touring again, playing large venues strictly for the fully vaccinated, and requiring that concert attendees show proof of vaccination upon entry to their shows.
In an ironic twist of fate, a breakthrough case was discovered among
one of the Foo crew, all of which have reportedly received either the
single-dose J&J shot or two or the other options. The positive test
forced the band to postpone the LA show.
Foo Fighters posted news of the cancellation on Twitter without specifying who in the organization had contracted the virus.:
Breakthrough cases of Covid are on the rise. As of July 12, the CDC reported
5,492 cases of fully vaccinated people which resulted in
hospitalization and/or death. Last week the New York Yankees vs Red Sox
series opener was canceled after fully vaccinated players tested
positive.
A breakthrough case refers to anyone who is diagnosed
with Covid19 after being fully vaccinated. A person is considered fully
vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of either
the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or two weeks after receiving the
single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine
In May, the CDC revised its system for reporting breakthrough cases,
stating it would count only those cases that result in hospitalization
or death. Previously, the agency had included in its breakthrough count
anyone who tested positive for COVID.
Some states follow the new CDC guidance for counting breakthrough
cases. Other states continue to report, at the state level, all cases
where an individual tests positive, but may choose to report only
hospitalizations and deaths to the CDC..
The methods being used to determine not only breakthrough cases, but
vaccine-caused side effects, and deaths are most certainly the opposite
of what the CDC did during the “pandemic”, where virtually EVERY death
was labeled as a Covid death.
Here’s one article from last year, and there are many, that
illustrates the double standard being deployed by the CDC in the way in
which they tally vaccine-caused deaths compared to how they counted Corona Virus deaths.