About one in 10 lung transplants in the U.S. now go to COVID-19 patients. The trend is raising questions about the ethics of allocating a scarce resource to people who have chosen not to be vaccinated.

Once rare, lung transplants for COVID-19 patients are rising quickly
KERRY SHERIDAN

About one in 10 lung transplants in the United States now go to COVID-19 patients, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS.

The trend is raising questions about the ethics of allocating a scarce resource to people who have chosen not to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

"They are accumulating on a steady basis. So it's very much a real thing," says David Klassen, chief medical officer for UNOS.

"If there were more lungs available for transplants, I believe the numbers would be greater than they are," he says.

In all, 238 people across the country have received lung transplants due to COVID-19 since the first such operations were tracked in August of 2020, according to the latest UNOS figures from October of this year.

Lung transplants for COVID patients rose tenfold between the first year of the pandemic and 2021, according to UNOS data, which also shows transplants for other top lung diseases, like emphysema, cystic fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis, are down compared to prior years.

"It's happening in the U.S. It's also happening in Canada. There was just a paper out from Western Canada about this causing a huge surge in the number of lung transplants there. It's a big problem," says David Mulligan, chair of the Yale-New Haven Health Transplantation Center.

More than 2,000 lung transplant operations are usually done each year in the U.S., costing around $1.2 million for a double lung transplant.

The rise in COVID-related transplants is forcing doctors to grapple with how to best manage who gets them, especially now that ...

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/28/10589882 ... ng-quickly

Re: Lung transplants et al. I know it sounds cruel, but I think that's a good policy. Unvaxxed by choice? Too damn bad. Same goes for any treatment, especially in a country that has universal health care. Get out of the way of those who did their due diligence, who followed mandates and got vaccinated as soon as they could. They can still get sick and should be prioritized for treatment. I'm sick and tired of coddling the conspiracy theorists or religious nuts many of whom are all about "I wish I had gotten vaccinated" with their dying breaths. Sorry, but that's how I feel now.

Unvaccinated? Starting today you won’t be able to board a plane, train in Canada
By Laura Osman

Unvaccinated travellers over the age of 12 won’t be able to board a plane or passenger train in Canada beginning today, and a negative COVID-19 test will no longer serve as a substitute for most people.


The policy came into effect on Oct. 30, but the federal government allowed a short transition period for unvaccinated travellers who could board as long as they provided a negative molecular COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours before their trip.

The stringent new requirement comes into effect as Canada reacts to the ...

https://globalnews.ca/news/8413040/covi ... da-travel/

Another one...


Anti-vaccine Christian broadcaster Marcus Lamb dies at 64 after contracting Covid
Lamb's Daystar Television Network had asked viewers in recent days to pray for his recovery.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/marcus-lamb-anti-vaccine-christian-broadcaster-dies-covid-battle-rcna7139

Vaccines work better than thoughts and prayers. Hoodathunkit?

Americans Are Suing to Protect Their Freedom From Infection
Once, people were asking to be exempted from measures that kept the public safe. Now the reverse is happening.
By Wendy E. Parmet

As the pandemic stretches on, a new era of COVID-19 litigation has begun. At first, America’s pandemic litigation followed a familiar script: Religious worshippers, business owners, and anti-government populists protested against public-health orders, and asked courts to either declare them exempt or scrap the orders altogether. This time, state governments are blocking public-health measures, and plaintiffs are asking courts to force their states to protect them.

The first round of COVID-19 litigation began in March 2020, as states scrambled to control the rapidly spreading coronavirus. During this period, states ordered businesses and religious institutions to close, limited gatherings, banned elective medical procedures, and in some instances, blocked interstate travel. Later, states mandated masks and stayed evictions. More recently, some have mandated vaccinations at state universities, in health-care settings, and even, as in New York, at restaurants and theaters.


Not surprisingly, opponents of these measures have gone to court, bringing more than 1,000 cases in different jurisdictions across the country. The challengers have raised almost every constitutional and statutory claim imaginable. They argued, in some cases with the support of the Trump administration, that public-health orders had limited their rights to free speech, free assembly, worship, and travel. They claimed that public-health orders had violated equal protection and due process and exceeded the executive authority of whatever official issued the order.

Initially, most courts rejected such challenges, stressing the need to defer to public authorities during a pandemic. Early on, the Supreme Court also signaled that it was in no mood to override public-health measures. In May 2020, in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, the Court by a 5–4 vote refused to block California’s ban on in-person worship. The majority did not issue an opinion, but in a concurring opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that “our Constitution principally entrusts ‘the safety and health of the people’ to the politically accountable officials of the state.”

In the months following South Bay, most courts, with notable exceptions, continued to ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ra/619914/

Another one...


Evangelical anti-vaxx 'rebel' reveals father ended up in ER after whole family contracts COVID-19

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/6/2067873/-Evangelical-anti-vaxx-rebel-reveals-father-ended-up-in-ER-after-whole-family-contracts-COVID-19

Sorry, But Covid’s Not Over Yet
More People Died of Covid in the Last Two Days in America Than on 9/11. So Why Are Americans Pretending Like Covid’s Over?
umair haque



Here’s a sobering fact. More Americans have died in the last two days of Covid than died on 9/11. The last two days.
Sorry, America. But Covid isn’t over.

I say that for a reason. Americans are acting, by and large, like Covid’s over. It isn’t. If anything, a brutal, bitter pandemic winter lies ahead. Like the last one — perhaps not as bad, but still very bad. If 9/11, the greatest tragedy in modern American history is a barometer, than we should all be ....

https://eand.co/sorry-but-covids-not-ov ... 8226646adf

Supreme Court declines to block New York vaccine mandate
Ariane de Vogue

The Supreme Court turned away two emergency requests Monday from health care workers, doctors and nurses in New York to block the state's vaccine mandate.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The dispute arose when three nurses and a group called We the Patriots USA, Inc, challenged the mandate, arguing that it allowed exemptions for those with medical objections but not for people with religious objections.

The rule, which is currently in effect, covers workers in hospitals and nursing homes, home health agencies, adult centers as well as hospices. Several doctors who say they have ...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/politics ... index.html

California medical board attacked by anti-vaccine activists

Civility in American politics has gone the way of the dodo bird, which has led to attacks and intimidation of the Medical Board of California by anti-vaccine crackpots. Because these anti-vaxxers lack any scientific integrity or evidence, they resort to mob tactics in trying to get their way.

This is happening across America, especially with school boards. The cowardly right-wing, emboldened with conspiracy theories and their prominent hatred of science, no longer rely upon the ballot box to get their way, they now try to scare hard-working people, like at state medical boards, to push their nonsense agenda.

Although I’m going to focus on what happened with the Medical Board of California, it’s not going to be unique to the Golden State. As these violent activists learn about what’s being done in ...

https://www.skepticalraptor.com/skeptic ... activists/

Atheists are among the most likely to be vaccinated for COVID — and white evangelicals are among the least
Alex Henderson

Although some anti-vaxxers identify as liberal or progressive, the vast majority of people who have been angrily railing against COVID-19 vaccines in the United States have been far-right white evangelical fundamentalists, Christian nationalists and MAGA Republicans. And recent Pew Research polling has found that atheists have some of the United States’ highest COVID-19 vaccination rates.

According to Pew, 90% of atheists in the U.S. have been vaccinated for COVID-19 compared to only 57% of white fundamentalist evangelicals. Among the overall adult population in the U.S., 73% have been vaccinated.

None of that is to say that all people of faith are anti-vaxxers or that everyone who is religious in the U.S. is far-right politically. Some African-American AME churches, for example, have done an excellent job helping people in the African-American community get vaccinated for COVID-19. And there are plenty of people of faith who ...

https://www.rawstory.com/vaccination-rates/

Not all the crazies are in the US ....

Three were jailed in Greece after a principal was handcuffed over virus measures.
By Niki Kitsantonis

The authorities in northern Greece have jailed three people pending trial and placed restrictions on eight others over an attack on a school principal related to coronavirus restrictions.

The police said the group of people handcuffed the principal on Friday and drove him to a local precinct, suggesting that officers arrest him for enforcing Covid measures at the school that they said breached constitutional freedoms.

Instead, the members of the group, which calls itself the Guardians of the Constitution, were detained. The 11 — nine men and two women — face abduction charges along with a string of lesser offenses, including disturbing the peace and violating measures aimed at preventing the spread of disease. Three of them have children who attend the school, according to one of their lawyers, who said they were protesting the measures and had not intended to hurt the principal.

In recent weeks, the Greek authorities have amplified efforts to crack down on those actively opposing restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/14/worl ... ction.html

So much for children don't suffer from this

Montreal hospital says a healthy newborn baby has died from COVID-19
Annabelle Olivier

Montreal’s CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital announced on Friday the death of a newborn following complications linked to COVID-19.

In a news release, a spokesperson for the hospital said ...

https://globalnews.ca/news/8460311/baby ... n-variant/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/politics ... index.html

I think this is smart, actually. the discussion will move from infection to severity.

Far-right using COVID-19 theories to grow reach, study shows
David Klepper, Lori Hinnant

The mugshot-style photos are posted on online message boards in black and white and look a little like old-fashioned “wanted” posters.

“The Jews own COVID just like all of Hollywood,” the accompanying text says. “Wake up people.”

The post is one of many that white supremacists and far-right extremists are using to expand their reach and recruit followers on the social media platform Telegram, according to the findings of researchers who sifted through nearly half a million comments on pages — called channels on Telegram — that they categorized as far-right from January 2020 to June 2021.

The tactic has been successful: Nine of the 10 most viewed posts in the sample examined by the researchers contained misleading claims about the safety of vaccines or the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing them. One Telegram channel saw its total subscribers jump tenfold after it leaned into COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

“COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for radicalization,” said the study’s author, Ciaran O’Connor, an analyst at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “It allows conspiracy theorists or extremists to ...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/far ... tudy-shows

Next stop the Supremes ...

Court rules Biden’s vaccine mandate for large employers can take effect
Decision reverses previous ruling but Republican officials say they will appeal measure to supreme court

A federal appeals court panel has allowed Joe Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead, reversing a previous decision on a requirement that could affect some 84 million US workers.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 6th US circuit court of appeals in Cincinnati overrules a decision by a federal judge in a separate court that had paused the mandate nationwide.

The mandate from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) was to take effect on 4 January. With Friday’s ruling, it’s not clear when the requirement might be put in place, but the White House said in a statement that it will protect workers: “Especially as the US faces the highly transmissible Omicron variant, it’s critical we move forward with vaccination requirements and protections for workers with the urgency needed in this moment.”

Republican state attorneys general and conservative groups said they would appeal Friday’s decision to the US supreme court.

Twenty-seven Republican-led states joined with conservative groups, business associations and some individual businesses to push back against the requirement as soon as Osha published the rules in early November. They argued the agency was not ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ake-effect

We try

State senator dies a month after telling a local radio station he was sick with Covid-19 while in El Salvador

(CNN)A Washington state senator has died a month after confirming with a local radio station he was in El Salvador and sick with Covid-19.

State Sen. Doug Ericksen's family announced his death through a statement issued Saturday by the Washington State Senate Republican Caucus, but they did not state the cause of his death.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/politics ... index.html