# Russia's Delta Surge **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [October 15, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556 "2021-10-15T18:42:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/1 "2021-10-15T18:42:08Z")
Delta, obviously, has caused a global spike in Covid-19 cases. But, when you compare the curve of it from country to country it seems to be following a fairly consistent bell curve. That’s not true for Russia. It starts out as a bell curve and then it suddenly goes for a secondary surge that’s even larger than the previous peak. Any ideas for why that would be? Ideas I’ve had: 1. Conspiracy. Putin decided that he needed to account for earlier death counts that were adjusted to look better, and he’s using the now-inflated numbers to convince his people to get vaccinated. 2. Winter is starting in Russia and that’s giving Delta a whole new life. 3. It’s not Delta, there’s possibly a new strain. I’m currently leaning towards #2. If so then we should expect Russia’s new surge to be the lead indicator of a new global spike. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/2 "2021-10-15T19:05:11Z")
I would also assume it’s number 2, and I further assume the northern US is in for something similar soon. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/3 "2021-10-15T19:17:04Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I further assume the northern US is in for something similar soon. And being a La Nina year, it might get ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/4 "2021-10-15T19:20:24Z")
Canada seems to be clear, at the moment. I imagine that they have a high vaccination rate but I would think that we would see _something_ starting there if it’s hitting Russia. Canada already has the Delta strain, so there shouldn’t be any delay beyond “when the weather decides it’s winter.” Any Canadians available to let us know if the season has started shifting? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/5 "2021-10-15T19:41:21Z")
Nevermind, it looks like Finland is also going Bactrian so…yup. If any of y’all ain’t vaccinated, now’s a good time! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/6 "2021-10-16T04:38:32Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’m currently leaning towards #2. If so then we should expect Russia’s new surge to be the lead indicator of a new global spike. > [@RitterSport](#): > > I would also assume it’s number 2, and I further assume the northern US is in for something similar soon. And if it’s #3 (Yet Another New Strain) that might _also_ be a leading indicator of another new surge a-coming. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Nevermind, it looks like Finland is also going Bactrian so…yup. We’re catching Covid from camels now? Finnish camels? (What does La Niña have to do with this?) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/7 "2021-10-16T17:49:59Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > We’re catching Covid from camels now? Finnish camels? You’ve never truly covid’ed unless you’ve covid’ed on a Finnish camel. (I’m not La Niña guy, so I have no opinion on that.) ETA: For anyone mystified, I’ll explain that there are two types of camel, Bactrian and Dromedary. The first have two humps and the latter has one. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/8 "2021-10-16T18:34:53Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > (What does La Niña have to do with this?) > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > 1. Winter is starting in Russia and that’s giving Delta a whole new life. > [@RitterSport](#): > > I would also assume it’s number 2, and I further assume the northern US is in for something similar soon. > [@DMC](#): > > And being a La Nina year, it might get ugly. If the surge is driven by the winter and thus people being indoors, La Nina is likely to make the Northern US both colder and wetter than normal, thus more people indoors for longer periods of time. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/9 "2021-10-24T13:58:03Z")
[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/outbreak-worsens-covid-19-cases-eastern-europe-near-20-million-2021-10-24/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/outbreak-worsens-covid-19-cases-eastern-europe-near-20-million-2021-10-24/) > So far, Russia has vaccinated about 36% of its population with one vaccine shot. That has to be part of it That stat also really confuses me, since Russia is one of the countries that produces a vaccine. Most of the vaccine-producing countries took care of their own. Of course, Russians may not trust Russia as much as Americans, Brits, Germans, Indians, and Chinese trust their own governments. But that’s a really really low vaccination rate for a vaccine-manufacturing country. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/10 "2021-10-24T15:05:45Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > So far, Russia has vaccinated about 36% of its population with one vaccine shot. > > But that’s a really really low vaccination rate for a vaccine-manufacturing country. From what I’ve heard, trust in the Russian government is fairly low. There’s other possibilities: 1) they can’t produce enough vaccine for the entire country or 2) they engage in lots of vaccine diplomacy. Most likely it’s some combination of these three things. ---
**Author:** ![Itsokaytohategoogle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f475e1/32.png) [@Itsokaytohategoogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itsokaytohategoogle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/11 "2021-10-24T15:36:38Z")
Has anyone here seen Professor Francis Boyles videos on the origin of Covid 19? He’s a professor at North Carolina Univ. Chapel Hill. He wrote the laws regarding bio-terrorism for this country back in Reagan’s day. He showed a paper re Covid 19 being manipulated for gain of function in the Chapel Hill Bio level 3 lab, which had allowed for a Chinese researcher from the Wuhan lab to observe what the lab was doing for a 1yr period because the Chapel Hill lab had received a grant to do such research on the virus from the Chinese govt. At the year’s end the guy in effect returned to China with the means to weaponize Covid. Wuhan subsequently produced and leaked the virus. Boyle claims to have been blacklisted for telling too many truths in general. He showed this scientific paper with a footnote naming the Chinese observer in the lab for a year. I don’t believe that Covid is out there evolving new strains on it’s own. I believe that these labs are the source of these new strains as seen in Russia. These Biosafety Level 3 and 4 are working on these types of biological weapons regularly. Boyle further claims that Sars and Mers and HIV were lab created Bio weapons and that he was talking about these labs and what they were doing back when he was in favor and doing interviews, but not being believed. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rqocYEUQBvU/maxresdefault.jpg "Dr Francis Boyle Coronavirus Is Twice As Potent As SARS SUBTITULADO ESPAÑOL") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqocYEUQBvU) There’s more info in the above url. He’s currently a Prof of international law at Indiana State Univ. I think. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/12 "2021-10-24T15:58:39Z")
> [@Itsokaytohategoogle](#): > > Boyle further claims that Sars and Mers and HIV were lab created Bio weapons and that he was talking about these labs and what they were doing back when he was in favor and doing interviews, but not being believed. This man is almost assuredly a crackpot. None of these would be effective bioweapons, especially HIV. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/13 "2021-10-24T16:20:26Z")
> [@Itsokaytohategoogle](#): > > He’s currently a Prof of international law at Indiana State Univ. I think. University of Illinois College of Law So far as we can tell, he doesn’t know anything about viruses except the laws that surround them and he has no particular knowledge of the origins of Covid past what anyone with access to the Daily Mail could tell you. If you want to start a separate thread on the man, I’m sure that you can get people to walk you through the myriad of reasons to doubt the guy’s theories. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/14 "2021-10-24T17:38:28Z")
From everything I can tell, he first put some of these crazy ideas out there while working with a source named greatgameindia(dot)com, that doesn’t even warrant a link it is so odious. They had a report back in early 2020 (January) that started with the following, which they claim was corroborated by him: > Last year a mysterious shipment was caught smuggling Coronavirus from Canada. It was traced to Chinese agents working at a Canadian lab. Subsequent investigation by GreatGameIndia linked the agents to Chinese Biological Warfare Program from where the virus is suspected to have leaked causing the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. It was pretty quickly [debunked](https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-how-one-particular-coronavirus-myth-went-viral/), not that it really had to be. Other fun headlines from the not to be linked source: > Australian Study Claiming Mandatory Masks Stopped Second Wave Is Total Crap Says Experts > Dr Fauci Funded Experiments That Cut Off Vocal Cords Of Puppies To Silence Their Cries > Flying Syringes – Bill Gates Wants To Release Genetically Modified Mosquitoes To Inject You With Vaccines As with many crazy conspiracy theories, you start with a truth and then tweak it until it says what you want it to say. The Bill Gates article, for example, starts with a simple truth. Bill’s foundation (along with the US Military) did indeed fund a study to see if mosquitoes could be genetically altered (he’s funded many such studies, actually, as he’s fighting malaria pretty hard) to actually protect people who had not been vaccinated against malaria, as opposed to giving them malaria. This was long before CoVID, and I’ve seen zero evidence that he thinks this is an effective delivery mechanism for delivering generic vaccines, much less one for CoVID, which the article definitely wants the reader to take away as the driver. It’s a shitty website with shitty articles, some of which were indeed sourced from the crackpot named Boyle. ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/15 "2021-10-24T20:33:09Z")
> [@Itsokaytohategoogle](#): > > Boyle claims to have been blacklisted for telling too many truths in general. And yet journals like the New England Journal of Medicine and Cell seem to be doing just fine. > [@Itsokaytohategoogle](#): > > I don’t believe that Covid is out there evolving new strains on it’s own. Why don’t you believe this? This is what viruses do. Mutating is their gig. Less than 30 minutes into the **first** college lecture in the **first** course in virology, you would find that viruses mutate with every reproduction cycle. They can’t **help** but mutate for lots of reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/16 "2021-10-24T23:24:49Z")
> [@Itsokaytohategoogle](#): > > I don’t believe that Covid is out there evolving new strains on it’s own. Viruses don’t care what _you believe._ Scientific research doesn’t care what _you believe._ Watching videos made by crackpots with no medical or scientific background does not constitute “research.” ---
**Author:** ![Itsokaytohategoogle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f475e1/32.png) [@Itsokaytohategoogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itsokaytohategoogle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/17 "2021-10-25T02:45:00Z")
It may be that Boyle is a crackpot, but when the Covid discussion was rife with Dr.s giving their trained, educated and scientific opinions on the origin of the virus, this crackpot was the single person offering tangible evidence to those looking for something more than a heap of educated shills pointing their fingers at the wet market. His evidence were the papers on gain of function research done at the Chapel Hill lab which revealed a very real link to the Wuhan lab. This is hardly the work of a crackpot. It is in fact the work of someone who knows where to look amid the huge volume of content on the subject to find the work on Covid presented in the accepted format of the highly educated scientific community. I would agree with you if you called him eccentric, but ‘crackpot’ is a term which should be relegated to those offering their input which lacks any evidence whatsoever in support of their supposed opinion. If such clear evidence as that offered by Boyle is dismissed by someone insisting on seeing evidence of scientific worth, then I would insist on those calling him a crackpot offering what they call credible evidence in support of that view. I am fully in support of calling people names and hearing others do the same. I am okay being the recipient of name calling. I do however think that the names should be applied to those who fit the name, as I feel each category should retain the integrity of it’s meaning i.e., ‘crackpot’ is for those who think scientists do their work without bias entering the picture, and those in high positions who think they can distribute unsupported drivel in lieu of pertinent findings and with only well delivered words in support of their crackpot theories. We all deserve those names which accurately describes us. Please debunk Boyle with more than an unpleasant name and references to his supposed ignorance on the subject at hand. Your comment is both presumptive and full of dismissive arrogance. It is also bursting from the sheer quantity of ‘reduction to absurdity’. Surely you can do better. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/18 "2021-10-25T02:57:13Z")
> [@Itsokaytohategoogle](#): > > Surely you can do better. Remind me again why this was posted in a thread on Russia’s Delta Surge? ---
**Author:** ![Itsokaytohategoogle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f475e1/32.png) [@Itsokaytohategoogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itsokaytohategoogle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/19 "2021-10-25T04:02:45Z")
Hey Scabpicker, articles about Boyle containing the words “mysterious shipment” should serve to eliminate them from use in your efforts to categorize him as a crackpot. Boyle knows he’s under such a name calling attack. After all he used to work for the U.S. government. I believe the laws on Bio-terrorism that he wrote in 1984 are still in effect, but I don’t know that for sure. Whatever that case may be, in dismissing him as a crackpot, I take it that you have decided not to address the evidence he has brought to light re: the origins of Covid 19. References to crackpots and your own self referenced state of being a “pinche idiota” have not offered one iota/idiotas morsel of evidence pertaining to Boyle and his evidence. It sure appears to me at this moment in time that there is a ‘band wagon’ trend in full effect. The problem I have with jumping on band wagons is related to the pride that prevents people from jumping off. Fortunately, those who jump onto any given bandwagon have decided to close off input from some specific source(s). This makes their life more comfortable. It almost represents closure on a designated issue that appeared as a bothersome open wound. SPOILER ALERT!!! Riding a bandwagon allows one to feel included… only. The self assigned merit that’s self awarded upon jumping aboard isn’t even a bandaid for open wounds. Closure on a bandwagon fails to matter when everyone is saying the same thing. It’s sort of like the feeling one gets when mommy kisses your boo-boo. Bandwagon or not, please address Boyles evidence and how it has presented me with questions about the sourcing of covids et al origins aside from the possibility of being natural mutants. All of us are mutants when likened to viruses insofar as new dna combos are created with every new birth. All of us are not serial killers. All forms of covid are not serial killers. Labs can and do create viral serial killers with different levels of potency. It behooves us to look at any new covid outbreak as possibly being lab generated just like covid 19 was. Russia is not excused from being targeted by newly lab generated forms of covid. Labs doing gain of function work on covid did NOT come to a screeching halt when their work had been exposed. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556/20 "2021-10-25T06:11:00Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > That stat also really confuses me, since Russia is one of the countries that produces a vaccine. They went from Phase II testing straight to vaccination with all three vaccines they developed. Now it definitely is a technique. It may be worth the risk of inadequate testing on one vaccine to maybe save lives now. It is not great for encouraging voluntary vaccination though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russias-delta-surge/952556.md?page=2)