Covid-19 #22: What Were You Doing This Time Last Year?

[DireWolfSpirit]

9 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

The US, on the other hand, has about 2x the number ordered of Phase 3 vaccine doses, so about 660 M doses, 500 M more than Canada, enough to vaccinate the entire country, and more importantly, they are at the top of the list and receiving those doses first. The US has already had 45 M delivered by the companies, though not distributed yet, and will have 120 M delivered by the end of March, enough for almost 20% of the population. Whether or not they get administered is another matter.

This is what is driving me buggers. Our ability to produce the vaccine far exceeds our organization and execution to administer the innoculations. I see no sense of urgency, no organization or leadership on the delivery end. 

The manufacturers are doing their job spectacularly, it's the government that is dragging and not treating this as an emergency, "wartime" situation.

We can do better. It doesn't help that the Trumpinista's have largely just stuck the heads in the sands and want to describe this as a "states problem". We need our new Commander in Chief to start commanding and using emergency powers.......yesterday.

The vaccine is being manafactured, the backlog is on the logistics and admin side. There has to be room for extraordinary improvement in that area.

[Filippa Eilhart]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

There is a whole initiative from the WHO, CEPI and GAVI that is trying to ensure equitable access to the vaccines.In

 

To which the EU paid 500 milion euro: 

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2075

[Larry of the Lawn]

5 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's really a tough call either way. There needs to be strict enforcement, but at the same time we need to have some level of understanding. I wish I knew where the sweet spot was.

Regardless though, this is just another example of what a disaster this has been.

It's not an either or.  This is going to result in doses being discarded.   

[Raja]

18 minutes ago, Filippa Eilhart said:

To which the EU paid 500 milion euro: 

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2075

Have a look at the COVAX share within the immunizations by income level, look at the COVAX proportion compared to everything else - it's tiny compared to what is needed. Look, I get it, you think it's equitable, I one hundred percent do not.

Quote

Australia, Britain, Canada and the European Union have all made financial commitments to Covax. Now, they are being encouraged to stagger the delivery of their own doses so the developing world won’t be stuck at the end of the line.

“The worst possible outcome is you’re offering vaccines to a whole country’s population before we’re able to offer it to the highest-risk ones in other countries,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to the W.H.O.’s director-general who is working on the global vaccine initiative.

 

[BigFatCoward]

My sister lives in Norway, just told me they are tightening their rules when they have 350 cases a day. We have 55000 cases a day and arent sure if we should shut schools. 

[Filippa Eilhart]

I don’t know how the EU is supposed to stagger the delivery of its own doses if it hasn’t even got enough to vaccinate 1% of its population.

[Raja]

10 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

My sister lives in Norway, just told me they are tightening their rules when they have 350 cases a day. We have 55000 cases a day and arent sure if we should shut schools. 

These graphs are quite something

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Here in Canada, the latest controversy is government ministers traveling over the Christmas holidays.

The first one was a Manitoba MLA who travelled to Greece to see her dying Grandmother. I'm not totally clear on the circumstances but it seems that she received approval from the Greek government to make the trip but her party leader was not aware of it before it happened. She has been removed from her roles in the NDP shadow cabinet. Still, the optics are not great.

Now the floodgates have opened and there are stories about (for example) an Alberta MLA who flew to Hawaii for vacation literally days after the province shut down in mid December. And another one who went to Mexico for vacation. A disproportional number of these people seem to be from Alberta and it appears that Premier Kenny and the UCP isn't interested in censuring these people. You can imagine it's not going over well.

 

[Zorral]

The NYC Teachers Union is again saying that the public schools need to close in the face of the rapidly rising number.

The NYC Public Library, also wants physical check out to be closed too, for the same reasons. That rolling out of the dysfunctional temperature reading machines that bring the security people in close contact with the patrons for far too long, and physical checkout has made the people who work there very nervous too, just like they've done me, so that I stopped requesting materials.

 

 

[The Anti-Targ]

12 hours ago, Filippa Eilhart said:

To which the EU paid 500 milion euro: 

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2075

At $3 per shot for the cheapest (Oxford-Astra Zenica) that's just over 150 million doses, 75 million people fully vaccinated, across all developing countries. That's pathetically small. The only other country rich enough to be comparable is the USA, and if the USA also only throws in $500 million then whoop -dee-doo they've collectively helped to vaccinate a max of 150 million-ish people. This is a project that needs $10s of billions invested. $2 billion each from USA and EU for developing countries would be a meaningful donation for countries that can't afford to cover their own cost of a vaccine programme.

NZ has committed $75 million to supporting vaccination globally, focussing on the Pacific. That's the equivalent of the USA committing to $4bn and the EU committing $6bn.

 

[Filippa Eilhart]

don't forget the EU countries can also donate the vaccines they ordered but aren't going to use.

I really don't get this. We needed payment in advance so that the research can go ahead at the speed it did - otherwise it would take 10 years just as with any other vaccine. But countries cannot be expected to pay billions in advance to a vaccine in development that may never see the light of day without some sort of assurance that they will be first to get the product *IF* (and it was a big if) it gets developed. And I can't really see any government telling its citizens - sorry, you're not getting the vaccine because we want to help out others before we help ourselves. But ok, I get some people are more altruist than I am.

[Padraig]

Like everything, its a matter of finding the right balance.  Currently, the issue isn't how certain countries are getting all the vaccines available.  The issue is that there is not enough vaccines available.  If more get approved in January (I'm looking at you J&J) and other companies actually ramp up production, then the current panic should begin to dissipate.  Once countries are reasonably sure that there are reliable scaled up production lines in place, that will change the storyline.

At the same time, it is fair to raise concerns about how the vaccine will be distributed when supply is available.  I would hope most people can see the truth in the below quote from the NY Times article.  Its that balance.

Quote

The worst possible outcome is you’re offering vaccines to a whole country’s population before we’re able to offer it to the highest-risk ones in other countries

 

[Hereward]

I continue to find most of you people utterly incomprehensible. No wonder you keep losing elections. :p

[Kalbear]

it is remarkable how utterly horrible the vaccine rollout has been. By trying to prioritize certain people, we are likely going to be wasting millions of doses of vaccine that will expire. 

It would be far better at this point to simply give it to everyone in nursing homes and then open it up via lottery. 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

32 minutes ago, Kalbear Total Landscaping said:

it is remarkable how utterly horrible the vaccine rollout has been. By trying to prioritize certain people, we are likely going to be wasting millions of doses of vaccine that will expire. 

It would be far better at this point to simply give it to everyone in nursing homes and then open it up via lottery. 

Completely agree with one addition - I think they should go into schools (for teachers/administrators/etc., not students obviously).  Then I actually think a lottery would be most efficient after that.  It's like the studies showing that random boarding on airplanes is most efficient....

[Kalbear]

8 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Completely agree with one addition - I think they should go into schools (for teachers/administrators/etc., not students obviously).  Then I actually think a lottery would be most efficient after that.  It's like the studies showing that random boarding on airplanes is most efficient....

Schools aren't going to matter while kids can spread it and become a massive factor in disease spreading, especially with the new strain that appears to increase the viral load in children more. 

I mean, I'm fine with having a prioritized system, but in order for that to work you HAVE to have a list of people ready to go - and if you don't do that, you simply should give it out as fast as you possibly can. 

[Cas Stark]

I may be missing something, but Cuomo's idea of fining hospitals if they don't give out all their vaccines seems odd. He seems to be taking for granted that community-based infrastructure, mobile units, staff or even demand exists for all hospitals and so failure to distribute the vaccines is the fault of the hospital. Doesn't seem too productive to me. 

[Zorral]

Both Cuomo and de Blasio insist they are not going to close the schools.

Yet a second variation has showed in in the UK, the one first seen in South Africa, and it's even more quickly / easily transmissible than the first variation, which is here already too.

This is what we get via the ignorant who bsed on 'herd immunity.'  The greater the numbers infected the more variations arrive, each one more easily / efficiently transmissible.  Hope the herders are happy now.

Scotland is doing lock down on itself.

For vaccination here in NYC, what would work is to set up a vaccination center in all the precinct voting places. Send out a mailing to each voting district saying which days we can come in and get our vaccination.  The voter rolls already do this for voting -- and track who cast their votes.  We could do the same for vaccination.  Though of course the way the Board of Elections here have handled our elections -- maybe not?

 

[The Monkey]

So, nine months after most of the world, the Public Health Agency here in Sweden will start recommending face masks. The recommendation only extends to public transportation during weekday rush hours (i.e. there is no recommendation to wear it in shops etc.). Our agencies retain their old position that mask wearing doesn't have any proven major epidemiological benefits, but might perhaps make some small contributions towards curbing the spread in situations where social distancing is impossible.

Their worry in recommending masks have always been that it might create a false sense of security, and that people as a result might abandon other, much more important, behaviours like social distancing, hand-washing and staying home when you're feeling sick.

To you guys who live in countries that have recommended/mandated masks for a long time: have you seen any signs that people became more forgetful in maintaining social distance of 2 metres once mask wearing became common place? In the news footage/social media from other countries I constantly see mask-wearing crowds standing extremely close to eachother, but obviously this isn't very representative, so I'd love to hear your experiences.

[Zorral]

3 minutes ago, The Monkey said:

people became more forgetful in maintaining social distance of 2 metres once mask wearing became common place? I

Quite otherwise here -- within the community.  It's those who come down here to carouse who don't wear their masks or observe distance at all.

Seeing everybody in masks all together reminds everyone in the community, and underlines, what needs to be done to reduce risk.

Since things have gotten so bad, even with our pod member, we are keeping distance while masked, which we'd relaxed over late summer when our cases dropped so far.  Now they're way back up and going up every day because PEOPLE STOPPED WEARING MASKS ALL TOGETHER DURING THAT PERIOD.