Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) (SARS-CoV-2) [2020]

Do you think this pish with wearing face coverings will ever be over? I want to get back to my extra work in movies.

Meh.

 

Querdenker auf Corona-Station | SPIEGEL TV - YouTube

This video is in German, but you can turn on the autotranslate. This man is Prof. Mueller, he didn't want to be vaccinated, he is a so "Querdenker". Here is his statement about his coronavirus infection: himself ill - Prof. Dr. Werner Mueller (prof-mueller.net)

(Bing translation)

 

I dont understand the reason for posting? Is it cause hes a professor (in accounting)
Go on reddit theres some forum there where its just full of stories of person X, who saiz covid is nothing to worry about, followed by a month later person X dies of covid

 

Andreas Backhaus auf Twitter: "1) A new podcast episode with virologist @c_drosten dropped this week (in German). I'll translate some excerpts that could be summarized as "Path to Endemic Covid-19". Starts at around 1:09:30. All errors in the following are my own. Full episode: https://t.co/h1RKyHwdYK" / Twitter

Andreas Backhaus auf Twitter: "9) "...more robust mucosal immunity. How I would like to become immune: I want to have a vaccine-induced immunity and on top of that, I want to have my first generic infection, and the second, and the third. Then I know I will have long-lasting immunity and I will only..."" / Twitter

I want the same.

 

Probably a good theory in the longer term, but it seems to me that it would be best to have a wider immune response (for the most vulnerable, especially) first of all so boosters/redesigned vaccines targetted at Delta would be a good idea. It would also provide the opportunity to develop further treatments, of course, for those who aren't so lucky and get more serious disease even if vaccinated. This American professor posted an interesting thread on twitter the other day:



Delta is dominant pretty much everywhere in the world already with only South America dominated by other variants at present, mostly Lambda and Gamma. However, Delta is increasing there as well (though more slowly than in other areas) so it seems that is likely to supplant the the variants in South American in just months at the current rate of increase. With this in mind, it is likely that any new more problematic variants are likely to descend from Delta, so it would make sense to produce vaccines targetting Delta as soon as possible and not keep using the Wuhan virus as the template. This, if course, is more easily possible with the new vaccine technologies such as mRNA, Adenovirus, Recombinant proteins etc.

The AZ variant vaccine developed which is currently in trials was designed to combat Beta but that has now been mostly supplanted by Delta. It still seems to show increased efficacy against Delta in comparison to the earlier AZ vaccine (if measured antibody titres are anything to go by), but it would surely be worthwhile getting onto one aimed at Delta. The worry here is that Pfizer are doing very well thank you very much from their current vaccine and boosters promise to be a real money-spinner due to their apparent short-term efficacy. Not sure how much of an impetus they have to push through an updated vaccine when they are making so much money from the current one already...

Not too sure how the other vaccine developers will react. AZ have said they will supply at cost until the 'pandemic is over', but is that just their original vaccine or do they have wriggle-room if they were to classify an updated vaccine as completely 'new'?

 

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson on COVID battle: "It's not just a flu – it makes your willy shrivel" (nme.com)

 

Whole thread.

 

In Portugal, There Is Virtually No One Left to Vaccinate
Portugal is among the most highly vaccinated countries in the world. Vice Adm. Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who led the campaign, said there was a key to his success: Keep politics out of it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/...ccination-rate.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

 

Great work by Portugal to avoid the idiocy seen in so many other countries.

 

Is it just their populace? what's different there?

 

I can't read the article in full. I wonder how they compare to england...

 

98% of people eligible for the vaccine have gotten it in portugal.

 

England isn't doing too badly, except for the failure to vaccinate younger people soon enough. The MHRA confirmed the use of the vaccines was safe in younger people back in June, but the JCVI has bizarrely dragged its feet in authorising the rollout. Perhaps not so bizarrely, as some of the comments from members of the JCVI seem to be somewhat Great Barrington Declaration-esque in many regards. The JCVI is supposed to release notes of their meetings and data backing up their decision making, but hasn't done so since February which rather begs the question, what exactly are they doing? Even now, with infection rates ludicrously high in children aged 10-19, most schools haven't even started the rollout of vaccines to those aged 12-15. Also no mitigations in place in schools - no masking, no air filtration, no distancing or 'bubbles'. If a child is confirmed as infected, their siblings are still expected to go to school if they don't have any symptoms!

Scotland and Wales have done somewhat better and have vaccinated more of their younger teens, but still nothing like the numbers in European countries. I'd imagine the situation is the same in Northern Ireland. After getting off to great start with the vaccination programme, the UK has completely dropped the ball. By design, it would seem, rather than necessity. The walk-in vaccine centres are still there and are mostly unused, but those aged 12 to 15 aren't allowed to go in them to be vaccinated!

 

I see, thanks.

 

Nicely done.

 

It's not entirely ludicrous. The infection has almost zero hit on children, ranging from a day of sniffles to a week of tiredness in all but fringe cases. Vaccinating them achieves not a lot of difference to letting them get the disease. I don't know what's happening with the unused vaccines but if they are going to other countries to protect the vulnerable, that makes much more sense.

The 'sky high' case rates in the UK in the past weeks have been largely low-symptom child infections. The Office for National Statistics provides great transparency and we can see all the trends laid out.

Infections:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...s/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/infections

This includes sweet animated age demographics showing how the virus has waxed and waned in the four nations - no point in Scotland vaccinating kids now that they've largely all had it!

Hospitalisations:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...insights/hospitals#hospital-admissions-by-age

We also have transparency of excess deaths, although frustratingly not normalised and only presented as absolute measures, making it difficult to see at a glance who is really affected. But the raw data is available:
https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJr...hMzUtNGIyZS1hZDQ3LTVmM2NmOWRlODY2NiIsImMiOjh9

Basically, everything needed for informed decision making without having to rely on politicians with their agendas or journalists with theirs! We can see here 'excess deaths' can't be attributed directly to C19 now; there are some, but they are a small fraction of elevated excess death figures.

It would appear the disease is in its last throws of 'dying out' in the UK. The adult population already being protected mostly from vaccinations, the virus is only able to spread freely among the children where it has done, firstly in Scotland and now through England. Without interventions, case rates drop once the available hosts have all been infected, as we see in Scotland's 2 week peak where all the kids were getting it. At which point, everyone having active antibodies and trained cellular defences, there'll be established the base species-wide resistance to the pathogen and it'll become part of the background fauna we live with daily. The only peculiarity is how the Scotland pattern hasn't continued downwards but has settled into a slow increase. I guess antibodies are low and people are getting reinfected. Thankfully Scottish hospitalisations are decreasing so the disease is losing impact.

Personally, I've been double-dose vaccinated and now I choose not to wear a mask as I want ongoing exposure to the pathogen to maintain an active resistance and get ongoing training in new strains or other useful target antigens - whatever my body can work with. The chances of having a serious reaction after the vaccines is very low such that I'm willing to chance it, same as I chance cycling without a helmet as I think the benefits outweigh the risks.

 

So you get infected and then infect a dozen other people - not the best plan I've ever heard...........

 

Safe is a spectrum, corona itself is on that spectrum for kids.

 

No. He has a statistically low chance of getting infected, and then that's multiplied by the also statistically low chance of infecting other vaccinated people. Vaccines happened, the risks have changed. Recalibrate your risk-benefit analysis. It adds one to the many risks associated with living and existing in this world.

 

ONS stats show that 7 children (well, ages 0-19) died due to Covid in the last week of October (i.e. Covid was mentioned on the death certificate). Over a hundred deaths in this age group since the start of the pandemic. An unknown number of Long Covid cases but certainly in the tens of thousands among children. This is a significant disease, even if it is generally mild in children. Bear in mind, we've only had high cases in these age groups since June/July when mitigations in schools were deliberately dropped so, if we're happy to see rates continue at high levels, the number of children dying will continue at higher rates than were seen for the first 15 months or so of the pandemic.

Not sure why so many people seem to think the pandemic is over here in the UK, other than the nonsense messaging from the government. Half-term (which was two weeks long in our local area and lots of other places) cut infection rates right down and the fall in deaths and hospitalizations reflects this. However, the schools went back a couple of weeks ago and the 7 day rolling average for infections is up 6%. In a few weeks time, the hospitalizations and deaths will reflect this increase. It should also be noted that the weather has been unseasonably mild over the past couple of months. A cold snap due to come in this week which will mean more time spent indoors and, accordingly, an increase in infections.

Bear in mind that the vaccination programme in young teens (such as it is) won't do much to stop the spread of Covid to them and their families. The JCVI has only authorised a single dose of vaccine. They aren't going to be fully vaccinated at all as they are in most countries. We already know that 1 dose of vaccines doesn't really do anything to reduce the risk of infection or spread with Delta. Parents of young teens are likely to catch at and I only hope that any grandparents helping out can avoid catching it from their grandchildren and that the booster programme will be enough to stop too many deaths in the parents and grandparents age groups when the kids inevitably bring it home this winter. I've got two young children and it's just a matter of time, unfortunately. I'd have them out of school if I could but it's not feasible and my wife is a secondary teacher so we're never going to avoid it in any case.