Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[spectateur]

Macron urges US, EU to rapidly divert COVID vaccines to Africa

Current imbalance in access to vaccine doses is 'politically unsustainable', French president says.

www.aljazeera.com

He's just repeating the message from the United Nations chief. Nothing new or revolutionary here.

 

[Deleted member 48881]

He's just repeating the message from the United Nations chief. Nothing new or revolutionary here.

Indeed. What are the latest developments from France, mate? Curfews still on? from 6 pm? Any plan for March onwards?

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

AstraZeneca's vaccine contract with the UK is based on 'best efforts,' just like its deal with a frustrated EU

AstraZeneca's contract to supply the UK with Covid-19 vaccines commits it to making "best reasonable efforts," the same language used in its deal with the European Union, which critics blamed for the bloc's faltering inoculation program.

edition.cnn.com

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I think we all know through our media our Uk contract with AstraZeneca was world beating and only possible because we left the EU. I mean, that's what they told us. lol

 

[PhilM]

And as noted, with the vulnerable well on there way to vaccination, the infections will hopefully not prove fatle.

I think the issue arises from people not appreciating/realising the seismic shift that will soon occur due to the successful implementation of the vaccine.

If the virus was allowed to spread freely through the population, the end results were significantly increased hospitalisation and death figures - it killed people.

If the vaccines work as planned and the at risk groups are then covered, the overall risk attributed to a more freely spreading virus should dramatically drop.

People will still get it, they'll feel rough and may need to isolate (I think this'll continue for a while), but it will be tolerated with less social and economic stress.

While on one hand I do think children need to be back in school ASAP, it may be prudent to provide second dose to all key risk groups before peeling it back.

Once the 70+ and extremely critically vulnerable are all vaccinated and the 50-69 and vulnerable have one dose, there should be the scope to look at normality.

My wife was saying teachers should be vaccinated my response was yes they should, but when it's their rightful turn rather than as a national priority.

For me, if you're a teacher or fireman etc. you should first get it because of your age or an underlying health issue - e.g. if you're 55 get it because of your age.

A twenty something doctor, policeman or fireman doesn't need the vaccine as a priority because if they get it, well, they should in the majority of cases be fine.

So back to the point at hand...the virus will spread through schools again - that I'm certain - but the impact it will have on the wider community should be less.

 

[mahermi1]

Been sent my text, booked in Wednesday 24th for my first jab.

 

[Deleted member 48881]

lol

 

[mill]

I think the issue arises from people not appreciating/realising the seismic shift that will soon occur due to the successful implementation of the vaccine.

If the virus was allowed to spread freely through the population, the end results were significantly increased hospitalisation and death figures - it killed people.

If the vaccines work as planned and the at risk groups are then covered, the overall risk attributed to a more freely spreading virus should dramatically drop.

People will still get it, they'll feel rough and may need to isolate (I think this'll continue for a while), but it will be tolerated with less social and economic stress.

While on one hand I do think children need to be back in school ASAP, it may be prudent to provide second dose to all key risk groups before peeling it back.

Once the 70+ and extremely critically vulnerable are all vaccinated and the 50-69 and vulnerable have one dose, there should be the scope to look at normality.

My wife was saying teachers should be vaccinated my response was yes they should, but when it's their rightful turn rather than as a national priority.

For me, if you're a teacher or fireman etc. you should first get it because of your age or an underlying health issue - e.g. if you're 55 get it because of your age.

A twenty something doctor, policeman or fireman doesn't need the vaccine as a priority because if they get it, well, they should in the majority of cases be fine.

So back to the point at hand...the virus will spread through schools again - that I'm certain - but the impact it will have on the wider community should be less.

I think key workers should get it, less for themselves and more because they are much more likely to come into contact with lots of people. Think about a single teacher in a high school and how many households they could affect. I’ve got no problem waiting a bit longer if it meant the likes of teachers (and coppers..) went first.

But you make a good and seemingly under appreciated point regarding the vaccines and efficacy. Yes the vaccine after a single dose might only be 50% effective in terms of preventing the virus altogether. But for the 50% who do get it, their symptoms are much less severe and much less likely to be life threatening etc.

 

[Billy Dean]

Interesting data from over here showing the impact of the UK variant, which is now the dominant strain here. Compared to our second lock down. Comparatively it shows peak values in Oct/Nov to the current lockdown, we should be 4.3% vs the current 5.5% at this stage of the lockdown. The UK variant is driving infection and making infection rates more stubborn to get down.

The 1.2% difference is an extra 200 cases a day based on current test volumes, we are bouncing between 700-1000 case a day at the moment.

Similar here in Germany. Not the dominant strain yet but growing. After a couple of months of falling numbers the cases are starting to creep up again. The ones labelled as doom mongers over here (i.e. the ones that usually get proved right) are saying by mid-March it will be dominant and growing rapidly despite lockdown. Hard to know what to do then as there isn't that much more that can be locked down.

 

[PhilM]

I think key workers should get it, less for themselves and more because they are much more likely to come into contact with lots of people. Think about a single teacher in a high school and how many households they could affect. I’ve got no problem waiting a bit longer if it meant the likes of teachers (and coppers..) went first.

But you make a good and seemingly under appreciated point regarding the vaccines and efficacy. Yes the vaccine after a single dose might only be 50% effective in terms of preventing the virus altogether. But for the 50% who do get it, their symptoms are much less severe and much less likely to be life threatening etc.

I think that's a good and valid point, yet when the programme was designed I know there were still doubts about how the vaccine would impact transmission.

If I remember correctly, they're now saying it's likely to have an impact but the evidence is still growing, so the priority is still on reducing hospitalisation etc.

In a class of thirty, one inoculated teacher may help reduce transmission but what about the thirty-odd children? Surely they're a greater risk when combined?

Unless we can get all school children vaccinated, there's likely to be an increased transmission rate and case numbers will go up in the wider community. But..

Personally, I'd go for the age groups and vulnerable first and then knock it out to the wider key workers such as teachers, fireman, social workers and cops.

It will increase the risk for teachers and there'll be those, who are not in the demographics above, that will get the virus and suffer, but long-term they'll be fine.

The primary goal has to be to reduce deaths and hospitalisation, which will in turn allow for the wider removal of restrictions that we need in many, many ways.

On a side note, I think you'll be hard pressed to find many front line cops who haven't already had it and built their own natural immunity to the bugger.

 

[COYBL25]

Not any more no. I can only imagine the difficulties under these circumstances. Here's the thing though: it's a pandemic. People will become infected in large numbers again and more people will die. So what do you suggest doing if the infection rates are rising amongst kids of a primary school age?

F.A. probably.

This isn`t the point I raised and the point I initially raised, was the one which you`ve conveniently tried to side step.

As per usual, you called the British government MURDERS for " planning " to send primary school age children back to school after March 8th.

However, you chose to completely ignore the fact, that two of your flavour of a month countries - Wales and N.Ireland, have announced dates for some primary school age children back to school some weeks before English children go back.

So, I`ll ask you once again, are the Welsh and N.Irish governments not MURDERS too ?

 

[toffee82]

A twenty something doctor, policeman or fireman doesn't need the vaccine as a priority because if they get it, well, they should in the majority of cases be fine.

It's all about reducing hospitalisation.

If I'm being particularly blunt, it is far more tragic that we have lost twenty, thirty and forty somethings (especially in healthcare jobs) than over 80's.

Captain Tom for example. Good on him but if we all started living to 100 the planet would be in even more trouble than it is.

 

[roydo]

I think that's a good and valid point, yet when the programme was designed I know there were still doubts about how the vaccine would impact transmission.

If I remember correctly, they're now saying it's likely to have an impact but the evidence is still growing, so the priority is still on reducing hospitalisation etc.

In a class of thirty, one inoculated teacher may help reduce transmission but what about the thirty-odd children? Surely they're a greater risk when combined?

Unless we can get all school children vaccinated, there's likely to be an increased transmission rate and case numbers will go up in the wider community. But..

Personally, I'd go for the age groups and vulnerable first and then knock it out to the wider key workers such as teachers, fireman, social workers and cops.

It will increase the risk for teachers and there'll be those, who are not in the demographics above, that will get the virus and suffer, but long-term they'll be fine.

The primary goal has to be to reduce deaths and hospitalisation, which will in turn allow for the wider removal of restrictions that we need in many, many ways.

On a side note, I think you'll be hard pressed to find many front line cops who haven't already had it and built their own natural immunity to the bugger.

The thing with school children, whatever age, is it would be dead easy and efficient to vax them all on site. As in, at school.

2 or 3 nurses could probably do a whole school in a day. Literally, jab the kids while they are in lessons.

 

[toffee82]

Emergency services should be ahead of teachers. They can't just work from home.

I do think, however, that if we are opening schools then teachers and support staff should be offered the vaccine. At current vaccination rates it would push others back 2-3 days. These are largely people who do not have to go out.

 

[PhilM]

It's all about reducing hospitalisation.

If I'm being particularly blunt, it is far more tragic that we have lost twenty, thirty and forty somethings (especially in healthcare jobs) than over 80's.

Captain Tom for example. Good on him but if we all started living to 100 the planet would be in even more trouble than it is.

I get where you're coming from, but in the wider sense I refuse to let arithmetic choose which life is more valuable to save.

But you're right, it is about hospitalisation and deaths because they are not acceptable to the wider public; infection rates will be less relevant soon enough.

The thing with school children, whatever age, is it would be dead easy and efficient to vax them all on site. As in, at school.

2 or 3 nurses could probably do a whole school in a day. Literally, jab the kids while they are in lessons.

Oh it would. However, I think that brings another minefield due to parental consent and the lack of testing/evidence on children or at least up to now.

If the vaccine does help to significantly inhibit transmission, it would actually be logical to hammer the 10-30 bracket as they're the primary offenders.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Similar here in Germany. Not the dominant strain yet but growing. After a couple of months of falling numbers the cases are starting to creep up again. The ones labelled as doom mongers over here (i.e. the ones that usually get proved right) are saying by mid-March it will be dominant and growing rapidly despite lockdown. Hard to know what to do then as there isn't that much more that can be locked down.

There are reports from Australia the isolation hotels used people literally got Covid from opening their hotel doors to collect food...
long covid is really not covered or spoken about enough, there are round 400,00 people to date according Covid select committee and long Covid is less likely to age or health discriminate.