Covid-19 vaccine thread

[Sid]

I don't yet know when I'll receive my first vaccination -- probably towards the end of this month, if I'm lucky, or some time in early or mid-March -- but as far as I'm concerned the vaccine simply means I can go about my daily business without being too worried I'll end up in hospital with Covid as a result of it.

Distancing, handwashing and lockdowns will stay until my government says otherwise, but at least I'll feel able to get my hair done and then stop for a coffee somewhere without feeling I'm taking my life in my hands, which will be more than enough of an improvement for me.

And it might mean my long-delayed visit to the Rijksmuseum to see the Rembrandts will at last take place -- it was supposed to happen about 30 years ago, but I had to cut short that visit to Amsterdam, and I've never made it back since.

I had been intending in 2018 to remedy that in 2019, but then I had to postpone until last year, and then 2020 happened, so I'm taking no more chances.

If you visit Amsterdam and you have time enough, don't forget to visit the Van Gogh museum as well. Very impressive too.
And the Rijksmuseum not only has beautiful Rembrandts, don't forget to see the 4 Vermeers they have and the paintings from Jan Steen.
They are all in the Eregallerij (the shortest way to the Nachtwacht) together with the other Rembrandts.

But for the time being all our museums are closed.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Khamon]

Okay now we have appointments at the military college Tuesday, the 9th, because the resident nurse convinced the county health department to vaccinate the staff on campus that day! She told us to not our cancel our March 23rd appointments until the needles were in our arms. I hope they go ahead and schedule us for the second doses.


edited to correct goofy grammar stuff

 

[Arkady Arkright]

The six feet distancing and hand washing will have to stay in place until the end of the pandemic I guess.

Is there a formal, internationally agreed, definition of the 'end of the pandemic' ?

 

[Arkady Arkright]

If you visit Amsterdam and you have time enough, don't forget to visit the Van Gogh museum as well. Very impressive too.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city. I went there on a business trip 40 years ago, it's the only city in Europe (I went to quite a few) where I felt safe walking round alone late at night. The only trouble I saw there was the japanese tourist who refused to stop taking photographs in the red-light district - he (and his camera) ended up in the canal...

 

[Sid]

Oh yes, Amsterdam has something special already. Unique architecture and lay out of the city center, lots of museums, coffee shops where you don't go to for coffee, a world famous red light district and normaly a relaxed atmosphere. But it attracts to many tourists IMHO.
Amsterdam has 0.9 million residents, but when you are downtown it is as crowded as if is where a city of the size of London or New York.

Edit to add:
Normal day in the city center before the corona pandemic:

 

[Wesleytron]

The six feet distancing and hand washing will have to stay in place until the end of the pandemic I guess.

I know! I can't wait until this pandemic is over and I don't have to wash my hands anymore.

 

[Ellie]

Oh yes, Amsterdam has something special already. Unique architecture and lay out of the city center, lots of museums, coffee shops where you don't go to for coffee, a world famous red light district and normaly a relaxed atmosphere. But it attracts to many tourists IMHO.
Amsterdam has 0.9 million residents, but when you are downtown it is as crowded as if is where a city of the size of London or New York.

Are Amsterdam police still extremely polite? (asking for a friend)

 

[Sid]

Why wouldn't they be polite?
BTW I don't think they are extremely polite. After all they are Dutch!
But if you have a friendly\normal approach towards them, they will react that way too towards you.
They don't expect that everybody is a criminal or a scumbag with bad intentions.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Sean Penn emails bizarre tirade to vaccine workers


According to a new report from the Los Angeles Times, on Friday night, employees of the nonprofit Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) opened their emails to find a 2,000-plus-word email from the organization’s founder, actor Sean Penn. In it, Penn excoriated two staffers who had commented on a New York Times article about the massive COVID-vaccination effort at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium.

CORE has been assisting at the vaccination site, and according to the two Times commenters — one of whom described themselves as “CORE staff” — employees have been forced to work 18-hour days, six days a week, “without the opportunity to take breaks.”

A second anonymous user challenged the New York Times’ assertion that site workers got “Krispy Kreme for breakfast and Subway for lunch.”

“We usually DON’T get breakfast, just coffee,” the commenter wrote, adding that the lunch is “NOT Subway” but “the same old lettuce wraps every day. It’s free lunch for staff/volunteers so I’m not complaining but still … not Subway.”

The comments did not go over well with Penn, who soon sent out what the Los Angeles Times described as a “nearly 2,200-word made-for-leaking-to-the-media-screed.” In florid language, Penn decried the commenters’ “shameful entries” and “obscene critiques” as “dissent in the low-hanging fruit of cyberspace.”

“And to whoever authored these, understand that in every cell of my body is a vitriol for the way your actions reflect so harmfully upon your brothers and sisters in arms. I have taken counsel and here will refrain from using the words with which I would otherwise choose to describe the character of your actions.”

In his screed, Penn suggested that anyone “predisposed to a culture of complaint” and “broad-based cyber whining” should just leave.

“Quit for CORE. Quit for your colleagues who won’t quit. Quit for your fellow human beings who deeply recognize that this is a moment in time. A moment of service that we must all embody sometimes to the point of collapse.”

LOL seriously? The dude goes off this hard over two extremely mild criticisms that weren't even so much complaining as just pointing out that conditions are rougher on them from the perspective of these two workers than what was reported in a news article, and he is unselfconscious enough to accuse them of "broad-based cyber whining"?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

UK Covid: 'too early' to decide to ease measures in March, says Hancock; Oxford jab 'protects against UK variant' – as it happened

Health secretary says NHS still under pressure; Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as effective against UK variant as original virus, research suggests

www.theguardian.com

also

UK regulators say extra AstraZeneca vaccine data highlights efficacy in elderly

British regulators have received extra trial data from AstraZeneca that supports their view that the COVID-19 vaccine developed with Oxford University is effective in the elderly, a vaccines official said on Friday

www.reuters.com

 

[Free]

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Nadhim Zahawi basks in glory of the great, triumphant rollout | John Crace

Vaccines minister is delighted to be getting the credit for something over which he has had little control

www.theguardian.com

When [Nadhim] Zahawi was first appointed to his new job, he probably feared the worst: that he would lurch from one piece of crisis management to the next, forced to come up with ever more fanciful reasons for the government having failed to meet its vaccination targets.

Instead, the minister finds himself riding a wave of goodwill and getting the credit for something over which he has had little control. It was Kate Bingham’s taskforce that was responsible for identifying and buying different vaccines, and it has been the NHS, with help from the armed forces, pharmacies and volunteers, that has been responsible for administering the vaccination programme. Nothing has been outsourced to Serco to bugger things up, so all Zahawi really has to do each day is hope that the vaccine supply remains more or less steady and to watch the numbers of people vaccinated skip past the 10 million mark. For the time being at least, he is the minister with the golden touch.

 

[Free]

FDA officials are off on a three-week sprint to review J&J COVID-19 vaccine data

The vaccine is going through the expert gauntlet.

www.theverge.com

Johnson & Johnson announced yesterday that it had officially asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine, kicking off a process that will send its one-shot immunization through a gauntlet of analysts and experts.

If all goes as expected and the agency agrees that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, the United States could have a third shot available by the end of February. Experts hope that this vaccine — which only takes one dose and can be stored in the refrigerator — could accelerate the United States’ vaccination campaign.

Three weeks may seem like a long time to wait before the committee meets and the FDA makes its decision. And in the context of the pandemic, three weeks is a long time — thousands of people could die in that gap — but it’s actually remarkably fast given the enormity of the task at hand. The agency will use every second of that time to make sure there aren’t any safety concerns with the vaccine and that it can actually do what it claims to do. Skipping steps could erode already fragile trust in vaccination.

Also, more evidence that smart people can make dumb pundits.

 

[Sid]

Back to zero?

Oxford Covid vaccine has 10% efficacy against South African variant, study suggests

Small-scale trial of vaccine shows it offers very little protection against mild to moderate infection

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Back to zero?

Oxford Covid vaccine has 10% efficacy against South African variant, study suggests

Small-scale trial of vaccine shows it offers very little protection against mild to moderate infection

www.theguardian.com

If it means that, after being vaccinated, the worst that can happen is that I suffer mild to moderate symptoms should I contract this new variant, and I don't have to worry about ending up in hospital or worse, then I think that's quite a worthwhile result, both for me personally and for the Health Service in general.

Over the weekend, the medical authorities seemed to be saying that this means that people will need annual booster-shots, designed for whatever seem to be the most prevalent strains, but with the new design and production techniques that Pfizer and AstraZeneca use, that shouldn't be a particular problem.

The only question is whether they can deliver them alongside the regular flu vaccinations or if it needs to be a larger programme, but either way it's a great improvement on last year.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

Back to zero?

Oxford Covid vaccine has 10% efficacy against South African variant, study suggests

Small-scale trial of vaccine shows it offers very little protection against mild to moderate infection

www.theguardian.com

Even if it was totally ineffective against the SA strain, the medical resources freed-up by not having to treat the other strains will increase SA survivability anyway.

 

[Khamon]

Our first dose of Moderna is received, in the left arm, which apparently matters because they inject the second dose into the other arm, maybe, rumors. People are also telling me that the second shot causes great distress, fever, pain, and sundry dicomforts. My clearly stated answer is "I don't care; taking it anyway." Oh and that same clinic will be back on campus in four weeks to deliver the boosters, same bat day, same bat time. The sense of relief is overwhelming like we've had an Inauguration or something.

edit add of

 

[Beebo Brink]

People are also telling me that the second shot causes great distress, fever, pain, and sundry dicomforts.

That's an excellent sign that the vaccine worked, just as it's supposed to.