Covid-19 #28: Astra Projecting is an Out of Body Experience

[rotting sea cow]

nobody, absolutely nobody foresaw this (/s)

Exclusive: Fauci says U.S. may not need AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Yes, all AZ vaccines produced in US are going outside, sooner as we think.

Edit: Yes, I still think that US is going to show off in full force in the vaccine diplomacy business very very soon. AZ, J&J and Novavax will be directed to lower income countries. Surpluses of Moderna and Pfizer to higher income ones.

 

 

[Arakan]

20 minutes ago, rotting sea cow said:

Edit: Yes, I still think that US is going to show off in full force in the vaccine diplomacy business very very soon. AZ, J&J and Novavax will be directed to lower income countries. Surpluses of Moderna and Pfizer to higher income ones.

 

 

Exactly this will happen and sooner than later the Marketing and PR machine will be out in full force and telling the whole world how great and altruistic the US is. And sooner rather than later everything else will be forgotten and you will be called out as typical Anti-American „hater“ (or just „jealous“ about US awesomeness) when you point out facts. Biden is only marginally better than Trump in that regard. Biden already boasted that the US has the best vaccine program worldwide „and no one comes even close“.  Of course no explanation of how and why. Anyway what about a little bit of understatement and humility. Maybe it’s a personal thing but I simply don’t like people who constantly feel the need to boast how awesome and great they are and always feel the need to be the center of attention. I prefer people who are self-reflective and let their actions speak. But that’s personal. 

[Fez]

12 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Is there someone you trust who could give you a ride?  would you be willing to take an uber with the windows down, an n95 and a face-shield?  Just trying to game out some options....

 

9 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

There's always the option to rent a car, and if there's going to be a longer commute involved, might be worth it to eat the over pricing of a one day rental (although you can in that case rent the cheapest thing possible).

Yeah, this is the plan if need be. There's an Enterprise within walking distance of me. I could always do a 1-day rental, and again 3 weeks later. I'll gladly eat that cost if it means getting the shot faster.

It's what I did anyway a few months ago to get my cat to the vet for his annual check-up and shots.

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, JoannaL said:

Its in the German newspapers as well that the UK has updated their numbers from 5 to 30 , but I have not seen an article about that in BBC or guradian so cant quote.

It's shown up on the Guardian now:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/02/covid-further-rare-blood-clot-cases-found-in-oxford-astrazeneca-recipients

According to the

latest figures from the MHRA, there have been 22 reports of a blood clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) that was accompanied by a low platelet count among recipients of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, as well as eight reports of other blood clotting problems with low platelets. Platelets are fragments in the blood that help it to clot.

However, such cases remain rare: the MHRA notes that by 24 March, 18.1m doses of the Covid-19 Oxford vaccine had been given.

There have also been two cases of CVST among people who received the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, neither of them accompanied by a low platelet count.

[Fragile Bird]

59 minutes ago, Arakan said:

Exactly this will happen and sooner than later the Marketing and PR machine will be out in full force and telling the whole world how great and altruistic the US is. And sooner rather than later everything else will be forgotten and you will be called out as typical Anti-American „hater“ (or just „jealous“ about US awesomeness) when you point out facts. Biden is only marginally better than Trump in that regard. Biden already boasted that the US has the best vaccine program worldwide „and no one comes even close“.  Of course no explanation of how and why. Anyway what about a little bit of understatement and humility. Maybe it’s a personal thing but I simply don’t like people who constantly feel the need to boast how awesome and great they are and always feel the need to be the center of attention. I prefer people who are self-reflective and let their actions speak. But that’s personal. 

I have to laugh at the fact HoI laughed at this post. Watching Biden talk about how “no other country” had done what the US had done really was a bizarre situation. Is a bizarre situation, since he keeps doing it. As of the numbers this morning, the US has administered 150.2 M vaccine doses, and has exported 4 M, for a total of 154.2 M. Europe has administered 125.6 M and exported at least 77 M, (80 M, 85 M now?) for a total of at least 202.6 M, easily outstripping the US if the EU had done exactly what the US did. And of course, the UK would only have half the 35 M administered doses, since, I gather, half their doses have come from Pfizer and the EU.

I have that Alice Through the Looking Glass feeling when I hear Biden brag, without ever mentioning turning their back on the rest of the world. I keep wondering if Americans imagine themselves traveling through Europe this summer while hospitals are full of the sick and dying, and the Brits as well. Brits drinking beers on Spanish beaches? Who is going to bring the beer out to them on the beach?

But hey, theme parks are opening up for the Easter weekend in the US, isn’t that great?

And I always look at the countries ahead of Canada on the vaccine tracker, and it’s funny to see how many of them are Caribbean islands. I believe they got COVAX vaccine. Gotta be ready for the return of US-based cruise ships!

I said days ago I didn’t think the US would ever use AZ vaccine. They’ll ship that out, but they won’t ship Pfizer or Moderna doses out. Don’t kid yourself, they need 160 M for the under-16 cohort and 600 M or more for booster shots.

[Heartofice]

Actually I was laughing at Arakan’s last couple of sentences.. which I found kind of amusing.

[Fragile Bird]

3 minutes ago, williamjm said:

It's shown up on the Guardian now:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/02/covid-further-rare-blood-clot-cases-found-in-oxford-astrazeneca-recipients

 

 

That is really interesting. For the last week doctors here in Canada have kept pointing out that there haven’t been cases in the UK, so don’t worry about AZ. Now we know there have been. Was the information deliberately repressed? If the numbers had come out earlier, would 50% of the UK population be vaccinated, or would vaccine hesitancy have shot up?

I still think the benefit outweighs the risk. I keep thinking about the 8 in 100,000 risk of stroke associated with the birth control pill, although I assume those rare brain clots were not a significant factor in that number. However, I’d still rather have an mRNA vaccine.

[Arakan]

2 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Actually I was laughing at Arakan’s last couple of sentences.. which I found kind of amusing.

What is wrong with humility and understatement. Do the job and shut up until everything is said and done. Don’t turn vaccination into a competition. At the end it is a common worldwide effort. Or should be at least. Do you see German politicians boasting 24/7 that Biontech is the bestest, most awesomest vaccine developed in good old Mainz by the Rhine (of all rivers) by ze Germans? Nope. And that’s the difference in personality between someone like Dr Merkel and Mr Boris Johnson. But hey, if I give you a smile, I am happy   

[Fragile Bird]

10 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Actually I was laughing at Arakan’s last couple of sentences.. which I found kind of amusing.

Ah. However, as someone who lives next door to “the greatest democracy on the face of the earth, the greatest country to live in the world”, I can tell you lots of people on this side of the border find the non-stop bragging that comes out if the US tiresome. It’s also amazing to see how many people are brainwashed by the constant depiction of that message.

[Padraig]

I find this "America is terrible" thing a little over the top.

It is fair to say that the Pfizer factory in Belgium was designed to serve the rest of the world (outside the US).  If the EU had said we want every dose, I could imagine Pfizer saying that we are going to move part of our business to another country.

And while J&J's Belgian subsidary created its vaccine, and Biontech created Pfizer's vaccine, whether we like it or not, J&J and Pfizer are American companies.  Same as Moderna and Novavax (which is likely to be the next Western vaccine).  So the US has played a huge role in this vaccination drive.

I don't know why Russia and the US are been put in the same basket.  That's silly.

And I really doubt anyone gave Caribbean islands based on where the US wanted to go on holiday.  A lot of those islands don't have huge populations, so any donation will make a major difference.

3 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

In the situation described above people are refusing vaccines in such quantities that in the capital GPs are calling twenty-somethings if they want a freebie vaccine. The reasons for refusal that I’ve heard of: they don’t want any vaccine, AZ causes thrombosis and kills, Russia’s untrustworthy, Chinese medicine causes cancer, and, I can’t go on a summer holiday with this or that vaccine. And in all this mess, my 54 year old mother with hypertension and other mild chronic conditions who signed up for a vaccine in October, still haven’t received even a notification. 

Sorry to hear that.  I had noticed that Hungary remains the worst affected country in the world, in terms of fatalities.  Although, I did see that case numbers had finally started to decline.   I hope it continues.

[Heartofice]

3 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Ah. However, as someone who lives next door to “the greatest democracy on the face of the earth, the greatest country to live in the world”, I can tell you lots of people on this side of the border find the non-stop bragging that comes out if the US tiresome. It’s also amazing to see how many people are brainwashed by the constant depiction of that message.

Well yes quite. As a Brit it’s quite a struggle to adapt to the US levels of comfort of self aggrandisement. I’ve had friends who’ve moved there who’ve had to be trained in breaking down their own ingrained humility and cynicism because it just didn’t translate. 

[Arakan]

6 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Ah. However, as someone who lives next door to “the greatest democracy on the face of the earth, the greatest country to live in the world”, I can tell you lots of people on this side of the border find the non-stop bragging that comes out if the US tiresome. It’s also amazing to see how many people are brainwashed by the constant depiction of that message.

Oh man, I wish Canada could join the EU

[Padraig]

10 minutes ago, Arakan said:

What is wrong with humility and understatement. Do the job and shut up until everything is said and done. Don’t turn vaccination into a competition. 

Everything said is purely for domestic consumption.  That's just how it works in the US (for both parties).  You can't avoid it.

[williamjm]

13 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

That is really interesting. For the last week doctors here in Canada have kept pointing out that there haven’t been cases in the UK, so don’t worry about AZ. Now we know there have been. Was the information deliberately repressed? If the numbers had come out earlier, would 50% of the UK population be vaccinated, or would vaccine hesitancy have shot up?

If those were doctors were saying no cases had been reported in the UK before then that was inaccurate, a couple of weeks ago the MHRA said they had 5 cases reported.

I wonder if the increase from 5 to 22 reports in a fortnight could be due to vaccinations starting to target younger age groups more?

[Arakan]

9 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Well yes quite. As a Brit it’s quite a struggle to adapt to the US levels of comfort of self aggrandisement. I’ve had friends who’ve moved there who’ve had to be trained in breaking down their own ingrained humility and cynicism because it just didn’t translate. 

But you see, that’s the point. Boris Johnson in his way is so „unbritish“ it hurts. The Brits I know are mostly very polite, understatement and most of all, pragmatic. Don’t brag before the job is done. All this „first to approve“, „fastest in vaccinations“, „Europe so much behind“ was so contra-productive as it undermined a calm approach. I repeat: vaccination is a worldwide effort which will continue for the next couple of years at least. Don’t turn a marathon into 100m sprint. 

[Clueless Northman]

43 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I have that Alice Through the Looking Glass feeling when I hear Biden brag, without ever mentioning turning their back on the rest of the world.

And we have to keep in mind that if we've seen this happening in such a major life-and-death crisis, what kind of other bullshit are our benevolent leaders coming up with, what kind of blatant lies and propaganda are they getting away with on a weekly basis, in every single other issue? I mean, with that orange idiot, you knew he was telling crap the second he opened his mouth and you didn't bother to even listen, because he was obvious and upfront, but with others, you have to triple-check every sentence just to be sure.

[Fragile Bird]

24 minutes ago, Padraig said:

I find this "America is terrible" thing a little over the top.

It is fair to say that the Pfizer factory in Belgium was designed to serve the rest of the world (outside the US).  If the EU had said we want every dose, I could imagine Pfizer saying that we are going to move part of our business to another country.

And while J&J's Belgian subsidary created its vaccine, and Biontech created Pfizer's vaccine, whether we like it or not, J&J and Pfizer are American companies.  Same as Moderna and Novavax (which is likely to be the next Western vaccine).  So the US has played a huge role in this vaccination drive.

I don’t think anyone is denying the importance of the US role in vaccine development. It is also the richest country in the world, so if they weren’t, that would have been a surprise. I don’t think Pfizer expected to serve the rest of the world solely from Europe, though, nor Moderna. As I suggested previously, surely that’s reason why Trump created his EO forbidding export. There must have been discussions about that between Trump officials and the companies, and when Trump found out that vaccine was going to be exported, he stopped it.

I absolutely do understand the American export ban, I just think it’s immoral, which I said from the beginning.

24 minutes ago, Padraig said:

And I really doubt anyone gave Caribbean islands based on where the US wanted to go on holiday.  A lot of those islands don't have huge populations, so any donation will make a major difference.

The economy of the Caribbean largely runs on the tourist trade. Bermuda, for example, has 25% of it’s population fully vaccinated, 35% with first doses. That’s pretty impressive! And yes, fully 50% of the 30 M tourists that go to the Caribbean come from the US. After all, it’s right there, just to the south, no jet-lag from huge time zone differences, and just a couple of hours away. Here in Canada the political opponents of the federal government constantly point to Canada being “number 54” on the list of countries (we are now usually in the upper 30s) in terms of first doses administered, so I looked at the countries in the list and we are really fourth (a distant fourth) among larger countries. Way lower if you ranked by two doses administered. The last time I looked I think there were 20 small island nations and principalities ahead of us. Gibraltar! Where did Gibraltar get so much vaccine?!? Let’s all be jealous of Jersey!

[Fragile Bird]

36 minutes ago, williamjm said:

If those were doctors were saying no cases had been reported in the UK before then that was inaccurate, a couple of weeks ago the MHRA said they had 5 cases reported.

I wonder if the increase from 5 to 22 reports in a fortnight could be due to vaccinations starting to target younger age groups more?

Well, to be fair, they have said things like “very few cases” in the UK, in comparison with the EU. The number of cases in the EU has been remarkable, and the story has been the UK just hasn’t seen cases like that. But did the MHRA report 5 cases of the rare brain clots? If they did, it wasn’t well reported. I think that’s why people were surprised here when we suspended vaccinating people younger than 55.

[williamjm]

13 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

The last time I looked I think there were 20 small island nations and principalities ahead of us. Gibraltar! Where did Gibraltar get so much vaccine?!? Let’s all be jealous of Jersey!

The UK vaccination program also covers its remaining overseas territories like Gibraltar and Jersey.

[ljkeane]

5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

But did the MHRA report 5 cases of the rare brain clots? If they did, it wasn’t well reported.

They absolutely did. I linked to it in this thread. Every potential adverse reaction reported is published online. I think you need to rein in the conspiracy theories.