Coronavirus Updates

[Beebo Brink]

So “a history of a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food” would be my wife. We're watching these reports with interest (and concern).

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Yup... but not the SARS-CoV-2 virus, instead is a weakened chimp adenovirus. So being all technical (Please Don't Hit me!) is not an inactivated SARS-CoV-2.

More specifically even, it's a virus literally being extracted out of chimpanzee shit and modified in a way that it does not replicate itself any longer. Well, if it helps, why not... got to get it from somewhere.

Source: Why Oxford’s positive COVID vaccine results are puzzling scientists

By the way vaccines, it doesn't matter now if vector virus or mRNA, here's an intersting study by two scientists from American universities:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijcp.13795

The interesting parts are these:

* it's a kind of meta study, which judges if the vaccine trial studies were operated in an open and transparent manner to the subjects; their conclusion: nope, they were not.
* if you get yourself an anti corona vaccine treatment and later catchup the real thing there's a chance that the effects of the treatment will actually worsen your COVID-19 disease in case the immunisation of the vaccine did not protect you. How big this probability though is they cannot tell, because not enough data yet.
* the risk had been obscured in the studies, subjects have not been properly informed
* this enhancement effect has already been observed with vaccines against dengue virus, measles, SARS, MERS and feline corona virus according to the authors. Again no probability given there.

Their conclusion:
Given the strong evidence that ADE is a non-theoretical and compelling risk for COVID-19 vaccines and the “laundry list” nature of informed consents, disclosure of the specific risk of worsened COVID-19 disease from vaccination calls for a specific, separate, informed consent form and demonstration of patient comprehension in order to meet medical ethics standards. The informed consent process for on-going COVID-19 vaccine trials does not appear to meet this standard. While the COVID-19 global health emergency justifies accelerated vaccine trials of candidates with known liabilities, such an acceleration is not inconsistent with additional attention paid to heightened informed consent procedures specific to COVID-19 vaccine risks.

In other words: things are getting rushed and standards in the trial studies have been lowered a lot.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How Will You Know When It’s Your Turn to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine?

It will be up to states or territories to decide the specifics.

slate.com

In the UK, it's going to be easy -- one national standard for everyone, and I'll simply wait for a letter or text telling me when to make an appointment.

This is the official medical guidance our government is working from.

As to the specific point in the Slate article,

Some states have preliminary plans to reach groups who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic—Black, Native, Latino/a, and Asian people are more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people, and people experiencing homelessness have seen outbreaks at shelters. But given the general state of health care in the U.S., the wealthier and whiter you are, the better your chances are of having ready access to the vaccine.

this is what our guidance says

There is clear evidence that certain Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups have higher rates of infection, and higher rates of serious disease, morbidity and mortality. There is no strong evidence that ethnicity by itself (or genetics) is the sole explanation for observed differences in rates of severe illness and deaths. What is clear is that certain health conditions are associated with increased risk of serious disease, and these health conditions are often overrepresented in certain Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. It is also clear that societal factors, such as occupation, household size, deprivation, and access to healthcare can increase susceptibility to COVID-19 and worsen outcomes following infection. These factors are playing a large role in the inequalities being seen with COVID-19

 

[Sid]

I expect an invitation either from my GP's office, my hospital or the GGD (healthcare organization that coordinates all virus related infections in NL) when it is my turn for the vaccination. There is nothing one can do to get higher on the list I guess. So whatever my government decides, I just wait until it is my turn.
Good news is, that first the government thought it would need the whole of 2021 for a complete vaccination programm, but the most recent estimate is that everyone who wants to be vaccinated will have it before mid summer. Especially since Janssen Biologics comes with a vaccine that most likely only needs one injection.

 

[bubblesort]

They are finally starting another lockdown in Pennsylvania tomorrow. Took them long enough. We're at 12k new cases per day now!

Starting tomorrow, in person dining in restaurants is shut down. School extra curriculars are shut down, but nobody is fighting over that because football season is over now. Casinos, theaters, and in person classes at gyms are shut down.

Conservative anti-masking, anti-social distancing nut jobs caused this. They are killing both people and the economy with their stupidity.

On the bright side, I do hope health clubs go under. I hate the way they spread bro science and new agey woo from companies like goop. The bad personal trainers who work in health clubs are downright dangerous, IME. America would be healthier and happier without health clubs. People need to build home gyms, and participate in local sports, not drive across town to fork over thousands of dollars a year to learn to squat on a stability ball from some unqualified idiot.

 

[danielravennest]

Conservative anti-masking, anti-social distancing nut jobs caused this. They are killing both people and the economy with their stupidity.

I would argue that kids being back in school had a lot to do with it. The national numbers stopped going down and then started to curve up around the time fall classes started. From past experience, we know school kids are excellent disease vectors. Unlike colds and the flu, they don't get sick much themselves from COVID, but they can pass it around to other kids and then take it home to adults who *do* get sick more often.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Coronavirus: UK scientists identify drugs that may help severe cases

Breakthrough comes via Edinburgh study that spotted five genes linked to serious illness

www.theguardian.com

 

[Free]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I would argue that kids being back in school had a lot to do with it. The national numbers stopped going down and then started to curve up around the time fall classes started. From past experience, we know school kids are excellent disease vectors. Unlike colds and the flu, they don't get sick much themselves from COVID, but they can pass it around to other kids and then take it home to adults who *do* get sick more often.

Seems intuitive but it's not what the WHO say

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/risk-comms-updates/update39-covid-and-schools.pdf?sfvrsn=320db233_2

 

[Beebo Brink]

Dozens of GP practices in England opt out of Covid vaccine rollout

Exclusive: more than 100,000 patients will have to get jab elsewhere as GPs say they lack capacity to take part

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Dozens of GP practices in England opt out of Covid vaccine rollout

Exclusive: more than 100,000 patients will have to get jab elsewhere as GPs say they lack capacity to take part

www.theguardian.com

I'm not sure that's as big a story as it seems, since "dozens" isn't a terribly large proportion of just under 7,000 NHS GP practices in England, and presumably they'll be working with the local primary care trust to ensure adequate coverage.

I've just checked, and if I've properly understood the video put out by my local primary care network, they are all ready to start vaccinating people as soon as the vaccines arrive in their fridges. They've identified two local sites that will be run collectively by all the local practices to offer over 40,000 vaccinations over the next few months, so presumably I'll be asked to attend one of them when the time comes.

They do stress that, if you normally have a flu vaccination, you need to get that ASAP because they have to leave an interval between the flu and Covid vaccinations, so that might be worth bearing in mind since I imagine the advice will be similar everywhere.

ETA

Church of England gives space for Covid vaccination and testing for up to a year

Cathedral crypts among buildings across the country turned into coronavirus field centres

www.theguardian.com

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Glad I got my flu vaccine a few months ago. Not that I expect to be up for the vaccine for months yet.

 

[Sid]

New strain of Covid-19 may be cause of rise in cases, Hancock tells MPs

Health secretary says variant may be linked to rapid spread of virus in south-east England

www.theguardian.com

Fuck. What if....

 

[Innula Zenovka]

New strain of Covid-19 may be cause of rise in cases, Hancock tells MPs

Health secretary says variant may be linked to rapid spread of virus in south-east England

www.theguardian.com

Fuck. What if....

England's new Covid variant: should we be worried?

Dr Zania Stamataki sets out the key factors … and says there is no need to panic

www.theguardian.com

ETA

 

[Free]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

A long, but very interesting, article on how the international scientific community collaborated to develop vaccines for the virus with such unprecedented speed:

The great project: how Covid changed science for ever

The emergence of a novel coronavirus prompted a wave of global collaboration that has led to vaccines, treatments and the promise of new discoveries

www.theguardian.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

Detailed comprehensive look at the long-term effects:

The many strange long-term symptoms of Covid-19, explained

Long Covid “is a phenomenon that is really quite real and quite extensive,” Anthony Fauci said.

www.vox.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How the mRNA vaccines work -- a wonderful explainer

 

[Sid]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Not so much "fears" as "increasing certainty," I think.

Many commentators suspect that this "new strain," which some speculate is more rapidly and easily spread, but otherwise identical to the other strains, in that it is no more (or less) likely to be symptomatic or to cause serious illness than are any of them, is little more than a convenient excuse for the failure of the government's earlier tier system, where different areas are subject to different restrictions.

Since despite the fact the R rate is already rising, and hospital admissions are at as high a level as they were in mid-May and also rising, and this is before the superspreader event that Christmas will assuredly prove, it seems inevitable that, in the new year, the government will have at least to introduce a new Tier 4 level of restrictions for much of the country and very probably also have to introduce a third lockdown.

All this and Brexit too.

(I have to say, I'm now actually quite relieved that the Tories won the elections this time last year, since the idea of a minority Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn trying to handle all this doesn't bear thinking about).