The events in Brazil are very grim. LA isn't much better.
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
I know the UK is keen to highlight how many vaccine doses have been given out, but are there figures of how many have been fully vaccinated i.e had both doses? Quite a few older family members have had their first doses over the last week.
Yep, some good general data on the situation on this page:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
469, 660 have received both doses so far according to that page, as of yesterday. About 6.3 million received their 1st dose.
Took my Dad to receive his vaccine earlier today, I know there’s a few weeks to go before it will have any effect and even then he needs to be careful but I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is that he’s finally getting some level of protection.
An accessible take on the new variants.
https://www.sciencealert.com/why-ar...ts-spreading-so-dramatically-around-the-world
https://www.sciencealert.com/why-ar...ts-spreading-so-dramatically-around-the-world
A couple of pieces of preliminary, maybe good news on the treatments front.
Another report out recommending a daily low dose of Vitamin D (on a does no harm, will help a lot of people basis)
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland...ainst-covid-19-say-irish-experts-1069537.html
There are also now studies reporting that even in patients who already have covid, vitamin D can help.
And a gout attack treatment - colchicine - that's undergoing clinical multiple trials, also looks very promising. A new Canadian placebo controlled trial of 4000 patients showed what looks like a statistically significant impact on disease progression. I say looks like, because as this article warns, it's right on the edge of statistically significant, and it's currently "just a press release" not a peer reviewed paper.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/23/colchicine-gout-drug-shows-promise-for-covid-19/
Still, I wouldn't bet against a "lemsip for covid" prescription being available next winter, for people who don't get the hoped for results from the vaccine. Progress, and another reason to try not to kill too many people over the next few months by an impatience to restart normal life.
Another report out recommending a daily low dose of Vitamin D (on a does no harm, will help a lot of people basis)
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland...ainst-covid-19-say-irish-experts-1069537.html
There are also now studies reporting that even in patients who already have covid, vitamin D can help.
And a gout attack treatment - colchicine - that's undergoing clinical multiple trials, also looks very promising. A new Canadian placebo controlled trial of 4000 patients showed what looks like a statistically significant impact on disease progression. I say looks like, because as this article warns, it's right on the edge of statistically significant, and it's currently "just a press release" not a peer reviewed paper.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/23/colchicine-gout-drug-shows-promise-for-covid-19/
Still, I wouldn't bet against a "lemsip for covid" prescription being available next winter, for people who don't get the hoped for results from the vaccine. Progress, and another reason to try not to kill too many people over the next few months by an impatience to restart normal life.
Thanks. So they're down to a couple of thousand a day now. We have to hope this gamble doesn't backfire.
Will he ever learn?
I think this is just a press quote, something that got stretched too far. I think it was a, "Looking at' in the sense of checking the numbers, analysing what order they can release restrictions and the timeline for it, not in the sense of actually changing things immediately.
That said, I suspect we'll see the international travel restrictions change multiple times over the next month.
Folding to the lobbyists and Tory back benchers once again.
That went fecking marvellously last time. He’ll announce Toby Young as his chief strategist next.
Well I mean, they're obviously going to look at it on two weeks. I think we can expect nothing to change.
I think there needs to be the number of population next to each country for some perspective.
Apologies if this has already been posted, but Astro Zeneca has been warned by the EU that it must meet the agreed amounts they signed up to deliver.
https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0125/1191881-coronavirus-vaccine-eu/
https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0125/1191881-coronavirus-vaccine-eu/
The perspective comes from the per million part.
Bit of a strange one. Feels like she’s rattling her sabre to make everyone feel as though something is being done, rather than because it’s justified. At the end of the day, AZ already have a huge financial incentive to produce as much vaccine as possible, as quickly as possible. So I don’t see how threatening them changes anything.
Good-ish news.
The SA variant caused sixfold reductions in antibody titres. They reckon this is still high enough to provide immunity overall but that’s still a big reduction. There’s a good chance it will reduce duration of protection and could make it completely ineffective in a minority of people who don’t respond well to the vaccine.
I’m sure all the companies producing vaccines (especially mRNA vaccines) are getting cracking on tweaking their product to work better against this variant. Sounds like they need to.
I know they have to do this just to sound like they're doing something - but it is mildly irritating. The ramp up has been extraordinarily fast, all the manufacturers are struggling to hit Q1 rollout. It's just really hard to do, so trying to pin blame on the companies seems not just premature, but pointless. That said, there may be a real incentive to complain here. If the UK is getting all the AZ it asked for and it's only the EU being cut then moaning at the supplier to apply an equality of misery to all customers might have some impact. Even so, in terms of actual volumes arriving in the member states, it won't do much - because the actual volumes aren't there.
Incidentally, J&J have announced production delays on their vaccine. They haven't actually released P3 data yet, but a lot of people were hoping they would be shipping in volume from late February.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/13/johnson-johnson-vaccine-production-458941
Gah. Fecking hell. I’m probably more aware than most about how inevitable stuff like this is but it’s still frustrating as hell when it happens.
I don't actually know if they have done this with AZ but the EU has given manufacturers like Pfizer a lot of money for the express purpose of investing in expanding production facilities over the last year. That might by why they're complaining.
I think you’re spot on. “We gave you the money up front so you could open new facilities and ramp up. We expect you to deliver what you promised”
I understand the complaining, it's human nature to complain about things that don't go best case. It's why governments have been trying to reduce spending on things like carehomes and pandemic preparedness for years. However, I would be staggered if any company contractually guaranteed a particular number of doses in January/February, irrespective of much money they were given. The surprise has been that there's any vaccine availability in January, not that there are shortfalls.
AZ have a manufacturing process that starts with a 6 week brewing stage and has to pause multiple times afterwards to check for quality (purity, stability, sterility). Even if all your reactors work great from day one, all your raw materials arrive on time, they're going from a series of trial batches that add up to 100k or so doses in total to a production run that starts in the millions and has to deliver billions. When you're ramping up even a small error in the production process, a minor breakdown in the plant, or a short delay or quality issue in the supply chain can cost you millions of doses or delay delivery by weeks, which is what we're seeing here.
Incidentally we also have the problem that several manufacturers are actually chasing the same stuff - whether that's something fundamental like some of the chemical reagents (where they may also be competing for resources with other important drugs), or something seemingly trivial like plastic liners for reaction vessels or glass vials for the finished product.
I thought I read actually that there is a global shortage of glass vials
One thing the Tory's seem to have done well at is securing and administering the two vaccines in the UK.
Kind of. By pushing the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine out they’re hugely inflating the numbers of people who are deemed to have been vaccinated already. Which looks good for their metrics but might not be a great idea in the long run. At the very least, it’s a bit of a gamble.
They’re also taking risks with the AZ vaccine. Dosing people before we’re sure of the optimal dose/dose interval.
If you’re being cynical you could argue that it’s the same mentality as them counting posted out tests as completed tests back when countries were being compared on their testing numbers.
Having said all that “perfect is the enemy of good” so these gambles might all pay off in the end. It’s a bit like Sweden. Going against the grain with big decisions can either make you look like a genius or a fool. Time will tell.
A first look at what the current "high risk" job profile looks like. Worth remembering when it comes to talking about vaccination priorities.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55795608
Per 100,000 men aged 20-64, 31 died in the population as a whole compared with:
Per 100,000 women aged 20-64, 17 died in the population as a whole compared with:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55795608
Per 100,000 men aged 20-64, 31 died in the population as a whole compared with:
- 119 restaurant and catering staff per 100,000
- 110 care workers
- 106 metal-working machine operatives
- 101 taxi drivers
- 100 security guards
- 79 nurses
Per 100,000 women aged 20-64, 17 died in the population as a whole compared with:
- 47 care workers per 100,000
- 32 social workers
- 27 sales or retail assistants
- 25 nurses
- 22 cleaners
- 21 secondary education teaching professionals
If they start giving out vaccines to some of the above before the emergency services I'll give up.
Would that include you per chance?
Not me personally no as I would issue it to response officers first and foremost. Do you disagree?
Massive rioting throughout the Netherlands yesterday due to the curfew. Expected to happen again tonight. All based on these moronic disinformation campaigns that covid is just a flue and the government is using it as an excuse to implement a totalitarian communist dictatorship in the vision of China.
I can't believe what I just typed is actually true. People are so intensely stupid. Oh yes, the Germans put out a curfew in WW 2, so this is exactly the same, hence Rutte is a nazi. Feck. Off.
I can't believe what I just typed is actually true. People are so intensely stupid. Oh yes, the Germans put out a curfew in WW 2, so this is exactly the same, hence Rutte is a nazi. Feck. Off.
I’d say giving it to those most likely to die without it is a good starting point.
Isn't that whats being done? You've just sidestepped the question.
Have I? You were whining about the possibility of those who have died in greater numbers being pushed above emergency services.
Whining? The fact I find it hard to accept that they'd push the vaccine out to taxi drivers and security guards ahead of police officers seems to make you feel uneasy for some reason.
If they’re dying in greater numbers then why not? Ultimately, those numbers should drop with the services not being used as much. You’re dealing in self interest. If emergency services are at greater risk then they should be higher up the list than those that aren’t. Doesn’t seem the case from the numbers though.
Scrap that. Just read the article and the figures are skewed anyway. Quite misleading infact