[COVID-19] General Discussion

[Al Bangor]

The first man to receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine outside clinical trials is an Englishman named William Shakespeare, and the internet is having a field day

Bill Shakespeare, 81, and his 16th century namesake were both born in Warwickshire, where people started getting Pfizer's vaccine on Tuesday.

news.yahoo.com

 

[McTallshort]

The first man to receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine outside clinical trials is an Englishman named William Shakespeare, and the internet is having a field day

Bill Shakespeare, 81, and his 16th century namesake were both born in Warwickshire, where people started getting Pfizer's vaccine on Tuesday.

news.yahoo.com

Bill Gates is going to have fun controlling him!

 

[BiggusLaddus]

"Is that a 5g nano chip i see before me?"

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Covid testing of students finds few positive cases

First results of mass Covid testing of students report "low numbers" of positive cases.

www.bbc.co.uk

Current testing on campuses is revealing that students have a lower rate of infection than the general population. Isn't it about time government stopped using students as an easy scapegoat to blame all the problems on? It's a demographic that it seems it's fair game to repeatedly screw over.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Origin story: what do we know now about where coronavirus came from?

When Chinese scientists alerted colleagues to a new virus last December, suspicion fell on a Wuhan market. What have health officials learned since then?

www.theguardian.com

However it began, the advantage China and other Asian countries had was that they realised the threat. Aylward said many countries in the west still haven't understood. China's concern, having experienced Sars, was serious virus; the west's was serious disease. And that, for him, is why they have not ended their epidemics. If the west has 1,000 cases, it will put the 100 that are severe in hospital. "The other 900 – nobody has any idea where they are, I mean, you can't win that way," he said. "The huge difference was just that extraordinary effort ensuring that they effectively isolated all moderate or mild cases."

Regardless of where it came from – or blame – the only way to tackle a novel virus is to take it incredibly seriously. "China saw it as a serious virus from day one," Aylward said.

 

[Reiser99]

Why does this government continue to shoot itself in the foot? Yes they agreed a plan with the devolved governments but it is clear that the lockdown did not have a significant impact on the transmission levels. You have the r-rate increasing again and they are persisting with allowing people to mix over Christmas. However, it will be political suicide to go back on their word. They should have at least put the decision off until after lockdown and had a look at the situation. The vaccine requires 3 weeks I believe between doses, so those few who have just had it won't have immunity until after the new year at least in all probability as it requires another 7 days after the second shot from what I've heard. Based on all of this we are destined for another lockdown in January and the government will only have itself to blame.

 

[Reiser99]

Origin story: what do we know now about where coronavirus came from?

When Chinese scientists alerted colleagues to a new virus last December, suspicion fell on a Wuhan market. What have health officials learned since then?

www.theguardian.com

I found this part interesting.

"There's always something that happens at Christmas time. There's always some alert, or a signal of a suspected case. The last several years it's been Mers [Middle East respiratory syndrome] – a suspect case travelling to Malaysia or Indonesia or Korea or somewhere in Asia from the Middle East. So there's always some kind of signal. There's always something that happens," she said.

Checking out these reports of suspected infection, often in remote parts of the globe, is a way of life for Van Kerkhove and a select band of experts, including Christian Drosten in Germany, Marion Koopmans in the Netherlands and people from Public Health England and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "I'm used to that over the holidays," she said. "Usually it's not a big deal. "This one was different."

I know it's not what they meant, but it really does imply that as long as it is unlikely to affect the west it is no big deal. Hell we've created a vaccine in less than a year for a new disease, but other diseases are still rampant in poorer areas of the world because the west isn't affected by it. While in some ways the vaccine should be celebrated, it should also be a mark of shame that wealthier countries only put resources into diseases that directly affect them.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Hell we've created a vaccine in less than a year for a new disease

Apparently the vaccine took two days to create - the rest of the time is passing the safety tests etc.

That blows my mind, that they can work that fast

 

[Reiser99]

Apparently the vaccine took two days to create - the rest of the time is passing the safety tests etc.

That blows my mind, that they can work that fast

Even more embarrassing then. I get that we live in a world based around money, but how some people get to sleep at night is beyond me.

 

[Reiser99]

Found an article about it.

'Neglected diseases' are anything but neglected by the billion-plus people living with them

The wide variety of "neglected diseases" means there is no face, no poster child, to excite the sympathy of donors. These diseases must find a voice to attract leadership, advocacy, and funding.

www.statnews.com

 

[Which Tyler]

Even more embarrassing then. I get that we live in a world based around money, but how some people get to sleep at night is beyond me.

Very, VERY expensive mattresses

 

[Bada-Bing!]

COVID-19: Germany to go back into lockdown over Christmas

Drinking alcohol in public will be banned and schools and shops will close between 16 December and 10 January.

news.sky.com

 

[McTallshort]

Apparently the vaccine took two days to create - the rest of the time is passing the safety tests etc.

That blows my mind, that they can work that fast

Didn't they nearly have a working vaccine for SARs that helped?

 

[Reiser99]

COVID-19: Germany to go back into lockdown over Christmas

Drinking alcohol in public will be banned and schools and shops will close between 16 December and 10 January.

news.sky.com

That's what we should be doing. We won't though as conservatives are more worried about the political backlash. As long as we don't have a test and trace system that works effectively we will just yoyo between lockdowns until the vaccine comes.

 

[McTallshort]

That's what we should be doing. We won't though as conservatives are more worried about the political backlash. As long as we don't have a test and trace system that works effectively we will just yoyo between lockdowns until the vaccine comes.

We need to bin off Xmas. It's just another bloody day. Let's all get vaccinated and have a week of partying. Weather will probably be better by then too.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

That's what we should be doing. We won't though as conservatives are more worried about the political backlash. As long as we don't have a test and trace system that works effectively we will just yoyo between lockdowns until the vaccine comes.

yep, reading report on ST today https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...cientists-split-over-covid-lockdown-vg5xbpsfx that BJ repeated the same mistakes he did in March. Really unforgiveable, when he was told of the consequences by SAGE and another 20,000 deaths for not locking down earlier for 2 weeks over half term in October. And now Xmas - so this Conservative Government don't look like the Grinch and instead pay for it in January with another long lock down, most likely.

And it's going to take at least til Easter for large swathes of the population to be vaccinated and even then we don't know how much immunity it will infer.

 

[Reiser99]

yep, reading report on ST today https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...cientists-split-over-covid-lockdown-vg5xbpsfx that BJ repeated the same mistakes he did in March. Really unforgiveable, when he was told of the consequences by SAGE and another 20,000 deaths for not locking down earlier for 2 weeks over half term in October. And now Xmas - so this Conservative Government don't look like the Grinch and instead pay for it in January with another long lock down, most likely.

And it's going to take at least til Easter for large swathes of the population to be vaccinated and even then we don't know how much immunity it will infer.

Really seems like the government has just given up on managing the virus and is hoping they can limit deaths until majority of the public is vaccinated, which as you say wouldn't be until Easter at the earliest and based on how well this government has handled things so far, probably not until the summer.

 

[Gavin]

JesusWe need to bin off Xmas. It's just another bloody day. Let's all get vaccinated and have a week of partying. Weather will probably be better by then too.

 

[McTallshort]

Im sure if such a person did exist he wouldn't mind forgetting his birthday as the date that gets celebrated is just the old pagan date for Yule.

 

[Gavin]

Im sure if such a person did exist he wouldn't mind forgetting his birthday as the date that gets celebrated is just the old pagan date for Yule.

Exactly.

In Northern Ireland there's been an uproar with the closure of churches. One in particular opened during the lockdown and is being investigated by the police - Tandragee Baptist Church.

They claim that the ultimate authority is god and the government can't tell you when to pray in churches.

It confuses me because if god is all-powerful and omnipresent then he can hear you pray from any location.