Kolyada Withdrawn from Olympics, Replaced by Semenenko

The Wall Street Journal has an article about Russia, CV, and the Olympics.

With the Beijing Olympics barely a week away, one team is on the leading edge of demonstrating the pandemic-related complications that may lie ahead: the Russian Olympic Committee.

Positive Covid-19 tests are mounting among Russian athletes, threatening the participation of stars across figure skating, hockey and sliding sports in a country whose sports programs have barely acknowledged the virus—until now. At least five positive results have been reported as of Wednesday.
 
I think they were mocking the thread drift! There is a special CV forum, after all.
True, but the Olympics in China could end up becoming quite the experiment of whether natural immunity is a more viable strategy than masks and jabs for maintaining a YNW-free team eligible to compete. I will contribute with another Wall Street Journal article (behind a paywall, so no link) with a very brave scientist from my Alma Mater, The Johns Hopkins University, supporting natural immunity as superior and predicting that the CDC and NIH eventually will come around to this conclusion as well. A short excerpt from it:

The CDC study and ours confirm what more than 100 other studies on natural immunity have found: The immune system works. The largest of these studies, from Israel, found that natural immunity was 27 times as effective as vaccinated immunity in preventing symptomatic illness.
None of this should surprise us. For years, studies have shown that infection with the other coronaviruses that cause severe illness, SARS and MERS, confers lasting immunity. In a study published in May 2020, Covid-recovered monkeys that were rechallenged with the virus didn’t get sick.

My entire family got the crud over the holidays and it simply didn't matter whether or not we were masked or triple-vaxxed--we all got it at my Mom's house after the sibling brought it home from the workplace. One of my nephews who went to med school for a year and works for a lab conducting YNW tests got it just like us, even though he has "done every thing right" religiously (and isn't shy to lecture the rest of us!) and actually would agree with the majority of FSU on this issue (makes for fun holiday dinner discussions in the family LOL!). For O-crud at least, it just doesn't matter and I am relieved to have it over with after two weeks of simply wanting to sleep and losing my appetite due to a diminished sense of smell and taste (now fully recovered).

Trying to get back on topic, I think it's a shame that Kolyada (and others) will miss their Olympic experience due to misguided guidelines on something that really isn't going to be much worse than a bad common cold or the flu for healthy young athletes, the age and health group least at risk to hospitalization and death. With daily testing (?) and likely many false positives, I hope the entire Olympics doesn't become a joke of a competition. Plus I don't trust the Chinese not to create a few "false positives" to advantage itself and/or disadvantage the athletes of its enemies. I predict a potential scandal of suspect tests clouding the Games.
 
This Wall Street Journal article today mentions 4 Russian Olympic athletes have tested positive in addition to Kolyada and alternate Bazin (1 skeleton racer, 2 bobsledders, 1 hockey player) while still in Russia: https://twitter.com/louiseradnofsky/status/1486405321908183041
Here's an interview with the 2018 Olympic silver medalist skeletonist Nikita Tregubov who tested positive and is asymptomatic:

“We must fight for our own people to the end, and not leave them in the dark.” The cry of the soul of Nikita Tregubov (Jan. 26):
One of the heroes of the Games in Pyeongchang is being replaced in the Olympic application due to a positive test for covid. Although he has two weeks for treatment and recovery.
...
In Beijing, Nikita also intends to take a medal. On the Olympic track, he has the best result of our athletes. At the same time, Nikita recently passed a positive test for coronavirus. It would seem that there is still time for recovery. But then a strange chain of events begins. With the eviction of the athlete from the base in Sochi, the proposal to go to the covid hospital and the replacement of the athlete, which has already been done, according to the doctor of the federation. Although the training races in Beijing will begin only on February 7th. That is, the athlete has almost two weeks to recover.
 
If you got boosted how do you not have antibodies?

You go to the gym to work out which is one of the germiest places you can go?

There is no reason to finger point anymore.

I think the reason some countries are giving up with all these mask and vaccine mandates is because people are doing the right thing and still catching this Omicron.

It's also interesting how the CDC is coming around that natural immunity is the best but I still don't want to catch it.
I tested for Covid antibodies in late 2020 before vaccines were available. I went to Switzerland in November 2021 and they were very strict to the point of being expensive because you had to apply for their QR certificate and if you did not have one, be tested so you can eat in a restaurant. People there wore their masks religiously and yet the news reports were that they still had increasing cases.

I even took masked outdoor fitness classes before the gyms opened up and before the vaccination was available- did not catch anything. I even shopped during the lockdown. And yes, I tested after all that activity and before receiving the shot and did not have antibodies. Yet I have a friend who caught it masked in a coffee shop.

The gym is not dirty. People can socially distance and wipe off the machines. Even though there are no masks in the gym because members have to show proof of vaccination, many elderly members continue to go and they wear masks. I think that since they continue to come to the gym, they are still healthy and not succumbing to covid in spite of others not wearing masks around them.
 
True, but the Olympics in China could end up becoming quite the experiment of whether natural immunity is a more viable strategy than masks and jabs for maintaining a YNW-free team eligible to compete. I will contribute with another Wall Street Journal article (behind a paywall, so no link) with a very brave scientist from my Alma Mater, The Johns Hopkins University, supporting natural immunity as superior and predicting that the CDC and NIH eventually will come around to this conclusion as well. A short excerpt from it:



My entire family got the crud over the holidays and it simply didn't matter whether or not we were masked or triple-vaxxed--we all got it at my Mom's house after the sibling brought it home from the workplace. One of my nephews who went to med school for a year and works for a lab conducting YNW tests got it just like us, even though he has "done every thing right" religiously (and isn't shy to lecture the rest of us!) and actually would agree with the majority of FSU on this issue (makes for fun holiday dinner discussions in the family LOL!). For O-crud at least, it just doesn't matter and I am relieved to have it over with after two weeks of simply wanting to sleep and losing my appetite due to a diminished sense of smell and taste (now fully recovered).

Trying to get back on topic, I think it's a shame that Kolyada (and others) will miss their Olympic experience due to misguided guidelines on something that really isn't going to be much worse than a bad common cold or the flu for healthy young athletes, the age and health group least at risk to hospitalization and death. With daily testing (?) and likely many false positives, I hope the entire Olympics doesn't become a joke of a competition. Plus I don't trust the Chinese not to create a few "false positives" to advantage itself and/or disadvantage the athletes of its enemies. I predict a potential scandal of suspect tests clouding the Games.
JFC this isn't the C0V1D forum but this just isn't true. It's not an "article" it's a WSJ Op-Ed and countless crackpots are given space on those pages weekly. That study has not been peer reviewed, it's in preprint. The study also took place before Omicron which evades natural immunity. Stop dragging this misinformation into every thread. Not worse than the common cold or flu? I guess people around me have been faking their deaths. The hell is wrong with you.
 
For those who are not aware, The Worldwide Health Forum subforum is the place for discussion of all aspects of the pandemic on FSU. It is open to all posters. It is here https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/forums/the-worldwide-health-forum.408/

Please take general discussion of the pandemic there.

Sorry to sound like an admin when I am not one, but there's really immediate stuff to discuss in this thread about the Olympics, Covid and the Russian team.
 
For those who are not aware, The Worldwide Health Forum subforum is the place for discussion of all aspects of the ********* on FSU. It is open to all posters. It is here https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/forums/the-worldwide-health-forum.408/

Please take general discussion of the ********* there.

Sorry to sound like an admin when I am not one, but there's really immediate stuff to discuss in this thread about the Olympics, ********* and the Russian team.
Agreed. Usually, I don't like it when non-mods try to dictate what other posters write when thread drifts are normal and common and tend to die their own natural deaths, but the crud is a very politically-charged and sensitive topic and I rather not have this thread turn into another soap box for people to air out their insecurities about their positions on what was the best way to deal with the demic and the need to validate those positions that they've been openly and inflexibly championing since this whole thing started.
 
JFC this isn't the C0V1D forum but this just isn't true. It's not an "article" it's a WSJ Op-Ed and countless crackpots are given space on those pages weekly. That study has not been peer reviewed, it's in preprint. The study also took place before Omicron which evades natural immunity. Stop dragging this misinformation into every thread. Not worse than the common cold or flu? I guess people around me have been faking their deaths. The hell is wrong with you.
Many pharmaceutical people feel that the measures around O are excessive since it is milder. Their belief is that if people catch O, it will kill out the more lethal variants. Those are scientists, not crackpots. Epidemiologists have also had differing views on lockdowns since the beginning. Of course no one really wants to come out publicly with an opinion that contradicts the narrative that is pushed on by the government. People aren't dying now. If they were, there would be refrigerated trucks outside hospitals like there was in the beginning. I don't even hear the ambulance sirens anymore and they were going round the clock. The statistics do not support increased deaths or hospitalizations either.

Anecdotally, of my circle of friends, effects have varied from heavy flu to cold symptoms to loss of taste. I only know one person who died and he was in his 70s and had pre-existing conditions.
 
Many pharmaceutical people feel that the measures around O are excessive since it is milder. Their belief is that if people catch O, it will kill out the more lethal variants. Those are scientists, not crackpots. Epidemiologists have also had differing views on lockdowns since the beginning. Of course no one really wants to come out publicly with an opinion that contradicts the narrative that is pushed on by the government. People aren't dying now. If they were, there would be refrigerated trucks outside hospitals like there was in the beginning. I don't even hear the ambulance sirens anymore and they were going round the clock. The statistics do not support increased deaths or hospitalizations either.

Anecdotally, of my circle of friends, effects have varied from heavy flu to cold symptoms to loss of taste. I only know one person who died and he was in his 70s and had pre-existing conditions.
Can a mod move these posts to the C0V1D forum? Yo, the reason to try and stop the onslaught is because not trying to control it will cause thousands of avoidable deaths due to hospitals being overloaded. Hospitals in some states HAVE BEEN getting overloaded and have higher levels than they have in the previous 2 years. Stop making shit up.
 
Agreed. Usually, I don't like it when non-mods try to dictate what other posters write when thread drifts are normal and common and tend to die their own natural deaths, but the crud is a very politically-charged and sensitive topic and I rather not have this thread turn into another soap box for people to air out their insecurities about their positions on what was the best way to deal with the demic and the need to validate those positions that they've been openly and inflexibly championing since this whole thing started.

Well as we will see, I have no power to dictate anything any other poster will do. Just watch. ;)
 
Yes, briefer close contact with infected people is a bigger problem with Omicron, but the basic principle that better masking can reduce both the chances of getting it and the severity of infection still holds true, and I think a lot of people aren't engaging in particularly good masking practices but believe that they are taking precautions. Cloth masks were what was available to most people at the beginning, so you didn't have much choice then. But, cloth masks are not going to be very effective, not just because Omicron is more infectious but also because of the lack of effective filtration and the poor fit of cloth masks. Surgical masks are better, but the fit often isn't good enough for people, even when they are trying. (I live where there is a mask "mandate," and when I go to the grocery store I often see people with no mask, a mask around their neck, or a mask below their nose.) N95s have been harder to get, but KN95s and KF94s have been available for quite some time and generally are more effective than the surgical masks. But I even see people going to the trouble of getting KN95s and then wearing the KN95s clearly without a proper fit and without even trying to use the wire nose bridge.

I was surprised that so many skaters, coaches, and family members at U.S. Nationals were taking risks by not engaging in more effective masking practices. I think there has been such a battle over whether to require masks that there is little messaging or discussion about the most effective way to mask. And I'm amazed by how many people seem to think it's safe to eat and drink around others as long as the rules allow it. It's sad to think about what some of the Olympic athletes are going to be doing (or not doing) before they get to compete, including in airports on their way to Beijing.
That is totally my point. I am not shaming anyone for getting O, but as potential Olympians, you would think they’d follow the strictest mesures. I mean, isolating and wearing A1 mask for three weeks before you leave for China, that’s a little sacrifice for someone who has trained her/his whole life for this specific event.
 
Are all Olympic participants flights into China chartered? I suppose if the team has a charter to go all at the same time, and one person needs to recover and come later, that would be hard to accomplish, regardless of the rules on testing.
 
Do you know that Ireland has given up and and now consider this an endemic and not a *********. Is there will be no more mask mandates there.
Am in Ireland and this is incorrect on both fronts. Masks are still very much mandatory on public transport and indoors.

And on that note - CAN WE PLEASE GET BACK TO THE TOPIC AT HAND AND TAKE YKW ISSUES TO THE APPROPRIATE FORUM.

Thank you. :)
 
An account by Sergey Yaremenko, RIA Novosti correspondent - Severe tests and a battle for luggage: Russian Olympians flew to Beijing:
Machine translated excerpts:
The huge Olympic charter left Moscow for Beijing less than half full - less than sixty athletes, a couple of dozen coaches, about a dozen journalists, plus no more than ten representatives of the Belarusian delegation. And all this in a huge Boeing 777 with more than 400 seats.
Chinese rules began to operate even over Russian territory - it was strictly forbidden to change places (so that later it would be easier to catch contacts if someone passes a positive test), and dinner was served in turn - first in odd rows, and then in even ones. Here the intention is also clear - so that half of the aircraft would be in masks anyway.
With the third wall, customs-anti-epidemic, it turned out to be much more difficult to deal with. Immediately after getting off the plane, the athletes and journalists were met by volunteers dressed in polyethylene spacesuits and sent to a small waiting room. The Olympians and correspondents were not separated and kept together to the end, and this was very surprising. In Tokyo [2020 Games], the organizers tried to dilute the streams as much as possible - athletes from one country went in their own group and did not mix with either journalists or Olympians from other countries. For the sake of what to sit at the training camp in the "bubble" if at the airport you are coughed up from all sides?
 
I think Stepanova/Bukin made the right call to not join the training camp. I personally wouldn't have sent the Sambo skaters and instead arrange for them to go straight to Beijing before their scheduled arrival date. I really reeeeally hope everyone will stay healthy.
If S/B don't fly to Krasnoyarsk, perhaps they can take a different charter flight departing from Moscow? We shall see.
 
True, but the Olympics in China could end up becoming quite the experiment of whether natural immunity is a more viable strategy than masks and jabs for maintaining a YNW-free team eligible to compete. I will contribute with another Wall Street Journal article (behind a paywall, so no link) with a very brave scientist from my Alma Mater, The Johns Hopkins University, supporting natural immunity as superior and predicting that the CDC and NIH eventually will come around to this conclusion as well. A short excerpt from it:



My entire family got the crud over the holidays and it simply didn't matter whether or not we were masked or triple-vaxxed--we all got it at my Mom's house after the sibling brought it home from the workplace. One of my nephews who went to med school for a year and works for a lab conducting YNW tests got it just like us, even though he has "done every thing right" religiously (and isn't shy to lecture the rest of us!) and actually would agree with the majority of FSU on this issue (makes for fun holiday dinner discussions in the family LOL!). For O-crud at least, it just doesn't matter and I am relieved to have it over with after two weeks of simply wanting to sleep and losing my appetite due to a diminished sense of smell and taste (now fully recovered).

Trying to get back on topic, I think it's a shame that Kolyada (and others) will miss their Olympic experience due to misguided guidelines on something that really isn't going to be much worse than a bad common cold or the flu for healthy young athletes, the age and health group least at risk to hospitalization and death. With daily testing (?) and likely many false positives, I hope the entire Olympics doesn't become a joke of a competition. Plus I don't trust the Chinese not to create a few "false positives" to advantage itself and/or disadvantage the athletes of its enemies. I predict a potential scandal of suspect tests clouding the Games.
I agree with everything you said and I think the panic over is panic over O is starting to decrease. OK you get cold like symptoms for a few days and then you have natural immunity for what it's worth.

I think it's sketchy to cancel somebody's Olympic participation for O. It's like you said your whole family got it even those who were triple vaccinated.

The Russians are leaving for Beijing in 4 days. I hope everybody is testing negative then and I hope they are taking many different airplanes.
 
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Per Nikita's IG today - seems like the Russian team will be leaving Krasnoyarsk for Beijing in 4 days - https://www.instagram.com/nikita_katsalapov/p/CZPQgSHN5Iv/?utm_medium=copy_link
They better bring 2 alternates per discipline for figure skating.

It looks like this training camp in Siberia was not a great idea.

Is what happening with Russian figure skaters right now several testing positive happening with Canadian figure skaters or American figure skaters or French figure skaters?
 
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I tested for ********* antibodies in late 2020 before vaccines were available. I went to Switzerland in November 2021 and they were very strict to the point of being expensive because you had to apply for their QR certificate and if you did not have one, be tested so you can eat in a restaurant. People there wore their masks religiously and yet the news reports were that they still had increasing cases.

I even took masked outdoor fitness classes before the gyms opened up and before the vaccination was available- did not catch anything. I even shopped during the lockdown. And yes, I tested after all that activity and before receiving the shot and did not have antibodies. Yet I have a friend who caught it masked in a coffee shop.

The gym is not dirty. People can socially distance and wipe off the machines. Even though there are no masks in the gym because members have to show proof of vaccination, many elderly members continue to go and they wear masks. I think that since they continue to come to the gym, they are still healthy and not succumbing to ********* in spite of others not wearing masks around them.
I think you are the exception rather than the rule. You're a great of strength is staying active and as healthy as possible doing exercise and work
 
I think Stepanova/Bukin made the right call to not join the training camp. I personally wouldn't have sent the Sambo skaters and instead arrange for them to go straight to Beijing before their scheduled arrival date. I really reeeeally hope everyone will stay healthy.
If S/B don't fly to Krasnoyarsk, perhaps they can take a different charter flight departing from Moscow? We shall see.
I've been saying for days get the TT girls out of there and on to Beijing right away. ThIs Russian Is figure skating federation is playing with fire and getting burned.

The training camp is secondary there's no reason to have like all these skaters in the same locker room macaroon on the same ice So close to the Olympics. If I mean it's not like any of these skaters are not in form or shape.
 
Am in Ireland and this is incorrect on both fronts. Masks are still very much mandatory on public transport and indoors.

And on that note - CAN WE PLEASE GET BACK TO THE TOPIC AT HAND AND TAKE YKW ISSUES TO THE APPROPRIATE FORUM.

Thank you. :)

I guess the articles I've been reading about Ireland dropping covid restrictions were fake news or misleading.

Let's hope this thread gets back on topic. Right now it's like a 50/50 chance that happens.
 
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Getting back on topic if misha is symptom free by February 1st does he go to Beijing even if even if it's just as an alternate?

Also it's been talked about for weeks but the NFL wis the what was going to implement not testing a symptomatic fully vaccinated players. Anyone know if that has actually happened and if they're not testing fully vaccinated players without symptoms? Maybe it's time for the Olympics to do that as well.
 
Should team Russia have left their A team home and not sent them to Europeans in Estonia?

Some of us speculated about them doing that before Europeans.
 
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