Attached are charts for week ending 7th January 2022. So far, the daily cases have not topped 600 and have indeed been dropping v. slowly for the past 4 days. The charts suggest that Omicron has been here for nearly a month but the rate of increasing daily cases has dropped. Deaths and isolations have increased, but only marginally. Vaccinations uptake is still very slow.

Source: Lyall Small

See BU COVID 19 Updates page

73 responses to “BU Covid Dash – Omicron January 19”


  1. How many other diseases can you identify from this list of symptoms?

    Why are vomiting and diarrhea symptoms people with COVID get sometimes or not at all?

    Dead give away … but I’m no doctor!!

    Seems everything has to be COVID these days!!

    Give me the old time diagnostic abilities of doctors.

    These new fangled approaches are confusing.

    I used to deal with all sorts of complex equipment on a production line and I know the art of diagnosis as applied to technical problems.

    I got to a stage where I was a guru and could walk up to a machine listen to the operator’s complaint and go straight to the fix.

    Sometimes I could put my hand on the machine and feel the problem.

    Each set of symptoms elicited a different course of action.

    Humans of course are alot more complex but it seems that everything is diagnosed as COVID, and big able adults accept the crap these days.

    Listen to Dr. Chetty or Dr. Mello, and hear them say they dealt with different symptoms and changing diagnoses.

    The developed countries that went for the one size fits all are the ones with the most deaths.

    Doctors who watched, listened, deduced and diagnosed have amazing records, 7000 and zero deaths.


  2. Voting during a pandemic

    By Peter Wickham

    The declaration by the Electoral & Boundaries Commission (EBC) that people whose movement has been restricted on account of their COVID-19 status would not be allowed to vote has sent a shock wave across the political divide for reasons that are obvious.
    In fairness, Government has not yet offered an opinion on this matter which is consistent with the convention that electoral matters are within the purview of the EBC and not the Government. The role of the Prime Minister and Government in this instance is to facilitate the EBC by way of resources; however, it would be highly improper for the Government to direct the actions of the EBC regarding COVID-positive, COVIDsuspected or any other voters. Like the majority of commentators, I am therefore supportive of the need for people in this category to be allowed to vote; however, I am uncomfortable with the accusation of voter suppression on the part of Government which cannot direct the EBC’s actions in this regard.
    The matter of blame for this scenario is interesting, and, here, opposition forces would have us believe that the Prime Minister is responsible for the situation by calling the election amid a pandemic.
    EBC’s obligation
    This suggestion can be easily dismissed if we consider several facts, not least of which is the reality that the EBC has a constitutional obligation to be ready to facilitate an election at any time, regardless of the environmental conditions. Moreover, the EBC had the opportunity to observe the manner in which COVID-19 elections were conducted in the United States and Canada, along with eight other Caribbean islands and should therefore have been well-placed to make recommendations to Government regarding the needed changes in regulations and additional resource needs.
    In the past, I have been critical of the EBC, which has not been progressive in terms of leading electoral reform to bring us into the 21st century as it appears to prefer to manage an electoral system rooted in the 1950s.
    This backwardness on the part of the EBC led to court challenges in 2018 when it attempted to prevent persons who were clearly eligible to vote from registering; however, the mistakes of the past appear not to have impacted on its approach to change. In this instance, I agree that the COVID-19 directives would not allow people either suspected or COVID-positive to vote, and the EBC needs to operate within that restriction. The matter is, however, not about interpreting the rules, but about facilitating changes to reflect an evolving reality that is compelling.
    Ten days
    With exactly ten days remaining before elections, one estimate suggests that we can add up to 3 000 people daily to the roughly 2 000 people in home isolation. This is not an insignificant number of people at either the local or national level and with constituency margins bordering 1 000
    in some instances, these voters could impact on the result, depending on where they intended to vote.
    There are several options open to the EBC, ranging from the provision of specialised voting facilities at each polling station to supplemental voting facilities at quarantine centres; however, both would require some relaxation of the directives that mandate COVID-19-positive persons to remain at home.
    Logistically, the facilitation of such voting on election day will be challenging, even if the directives are relaxed. It is therefore unfortunate that there is no provision for these persons to vote early, along with the other special voters.
    In 2009 after the Antigua and Barbuda Parliament had been dissolved, it was reconstituted to facilitate the compulsory acquisition of Allen Stanford’s assets and if necessary, a similar recall here would be appropriate to facilitate special regulations for this unique circumstance.
    The Mottley administration has a distinguished record regarding emergency legislation as reflected in the constitutional change to facilitate the appointment of DLP members to the Senate after 2018 and the passage of the legislation relating to a Public Health Emergency (as distinct from a state of emergency). It is therefore clear that there is both the legal capacity, along with the ability of the Government to make legislative changes if necessary to facilitate the participation of voters who would otherwise be denied access to the polls.
    In all this, the court challenge suggested by the former Opposition Leader always seemed dubious as the courts are not likely to challenge the exclusive and constitutional right of the Prime Minister to call elections at the time of her choosing.
    In the unlikely event that the court was minded to order a delay of the election, it would in essence be setting a new date and exercising an executive and not a judicial power that was not contemplated by our Constitution. This perhaps explains why Bishop Joseph Atherley has had little success gaining the support of others to mount this legal challenge.
    Peter W. Wickham is a political consultant and a director of Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES). Email peter.w.wickham@gmail.com.

    Source: Nation


  3. Cases are a falling, so much for the predicted surge!!


  4. Did you know that “Nearly 75% of the worldwide communicable diseases are waterborne [7]. The removals of diseases causing organisms from drinking water are absolutely necessary to healthy life [8].”

    This article describes what happened in Pakistan in 2010 the last time the world was in this climate cycle.

    We expect Pakistan to see a surge of COVID cases as January progresses given their recent floods.

    https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:MGDgbNZMEvIJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5


  5. Question is how high will the cases go?

    https://imgur.com/RK4SvRi


  6. Anti-vaccine protesters rally in France, Germany, Austria, Italy

    https://aje.io/fcf7ct


  7. When Governments pass laws conspiracy theorist nutters will start up and many will be taken in. This applies to bigger countries like USA, UK but also filters down to smaller countries like Barbados etc. Infected are expected to isolate as a courtesy to others, which applies to the election too. Time is the healer and waiting out and surviving the present is the key living past the critical stage of the global pandemic.


  8. In 2021, the Cuba government, indirectly, appealed to her neighbours within the region (Caribbean nations) to assist them financially to develop Covid-19 vaccines which would have benefitted the region. This was at a time when Cuban was under sieged by the virus.

    Barbados response to this request was bizarre. Our Prime Minister chose to ignore the coded request. Instead, she knowingly allowed a local business man with no knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry to procure vaccines by any means necessary.

    Cuba soldiered on in glorious isolation eventually finding a suitable vaccine.

    Caribbean governments chose to surrender their sovereignty to wealthier nations to secure overpriced vaccines without a single regard of how this would impact their nation’s economy, health and sovereignty.

    The link below is a balanced view of Cuba’s failures and success as a nation. Compare and contrast this with Barbados a country which has been assisted by all and sundry since her independence.

    Mia has a record. She has proven herself to be a Houdini with enormous self-preservation properties. Sadly, she is not a great leader. She lacks vision and is incapable of progressing the nation. Three and a half years in government and what has she achieved?

    Read the link below. We have a mediocre leader whose record pales into insignificance when compared to other leaders of states.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/05/cuba-coronavirus-covid-vaccines-success-story

  9. GP, one time BU "resident doctor" Avatar
    GP, one time BU “resident doctor”

    re The developed countries that went for the one size fits all are the ones with the most deaths.
    BECAUSE THAT IS NOT HOW MEDICINE IS TO BE PRACTICED
    Doctors who watched, listened, deduced and diagnosed have amazing records, 7000 and zero deaths.
    BECAUSE THAT IS THE WAY THAT MEDICINE HAS ALWAYS BEEN PRACTICED
    THAT IS THE WAY THAT MEDICINE IS TO BE PRACTICED


  10. JohnJanuary 9, 2022 4:03 AM

    Did you know that “Nearly 75% of the worldwide communicable diseases are waterborne [7]. The removals of diseases causing organisms from drinking water are absolutely necessary to healthy life [8].”

    This article describes what happened in Pakistan in 2010 the last time the world was in this climate cycle.

    We expect Pakistan to see a surge of COVID cases as January progresses given their recent floods.

    https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:MGDgbNZMEvIJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    So let’s think about this for a moment.

    There is no body of scientific work done to explore the possibility that the virus is in the water supplied by Governments/private entities to their fellow citizens.

    The vaccination is therefore predicated on the need to get around contaminated water.

    For me the possibility of major class action lawsuits exists when people finally realise the con.

    Then again, maybe they won’t and we will all live happily ever after.


  11. If you wanted to get cynical you could say the scientific community is concealing the truth and deliberately misleading Governments in the advice they have given to them.


  12. So it looks like we have had Doctors, Scientists and Governments across the globe who have caused an awful lot of strife and death.


  13. … and they are all at a loss trying to understand why some people won’t take their vaccination.


  14. About to unfold in the great USA.

    Citigroup will terminate unvaccinated workers by Jan. 31, a first among Wall Street banks

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/07/citigroup-is-the-first-major-wall-street-bank-to-terminate-unvaccinated-workers.html


  15. Meanwhile, over in merry old England the complete opposite!!

    “End mass jabs and treat Covid like flu, says ex-head of vaccine taskforce.
    His comments come as the UK recorded more than 150,000 Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic”

    He obviously has figured out what I figured out!!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/covid-vaccine-flu-dr-clive-dix-b1989464.html


  16. Hants

    WHO: Waterborne Disease is World’s Leading Killer
    October 29, 2009 1:28 PM
    Jessica Berman

    The World Health Organization says that every year more than 3.4 million people die as a result of water related diseases, making it the leading cause of disease and death around the world. Most of the victims are young children, the vast majority of whom die of illnesses caused by organisms that thrive in water sources contaminated by raw sewage. VOA’s Jessica Berman has more on the story.

    https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2005-03-17-voa34-67381152/274768.html

    Add 90% of the 5.5 million dead over two years due to COVID (the other 10% is airborne spread which the Governments of the world have spent untold resources fighting).

    My bet is that neither the mother nor the son has even remotely considered the possibility that it is in their water … not always … but enough to catch the two of them.

    They just happened to consume or wash in the wrong batch of water.

    The tenant probably did too!!

    It is amazing the WHO or no authority has sought to link water and COVID.

    The problem is that when they look it’s been gone for several days while the infection grows in affected people.

    Just needs to appear sporadically to cause pandemonium, stop people thinking and hide in plain sight

    Most of the 3.4 million who died pre COVID were in the developing world.

    COVID has equalized things as many of the COVID deaths occur in industrialized/advanced/urbanized countries.


  17. The problem is the Governments of first world countries can’t countenance the possibility of water in their countries being contaminated.

    That is for turd world countries.

    They are confident in their technologies without even understanding how they work and where the vulnerabilities are.


  18. So while we watch helplessly as cases spiral upwards in Canada, the US, UK, Europe etc., Barbados has survived its flood surge, celebrated the festive season and experienced a spike and now returns to normal.

    The first world can learn from countries like Barbados, Grenada, Dominica etc. because the scale on which the problems occur are far smaller and more easily understood.

    The UK, Canada etc stopped thinking ages ago when cases went ballistic.

    The experts don’t have a clue as is shown by the 5.5 million dead.


  19. Have not had the time to research it but read of cases found in Cyprus with blended characteristics of delta and omicron.


  20. I just read a newspaper article about Omicron in Kenya. The Omicron wave is almost over there, there were hardly any deaths.

    This shows once again the superiority of the original human race from Africa over the decadent, fat, car-driving European type.

    We need more true Africans in Barbados!


  21. @🐇/🐰
    I am looking for the prediction where you said we will be down to 100 cases by Friday.

    Guessing a next number comes out of your hat on Friday. Is your hat located next to the UWI hat?


  22. @🐇/🐰
    I am looking for the prediction where you said we will be down to 100 cases by Friday.

    Guessing a next number comes out of your hat on Friday.
    .
    Estimates are really guesstimates.

    Emerging new variants means that established models cannot be very robust. The hope would be that models for older variants would also be useful for new variants, but quiet often models need to be updated.

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