Covid-19 #29: Gazing Into the Abyss, Again

[Fragile Bird]

Wave 3? Wave 4?

I guess I should also say something about trying not to become a monster when you fight a monster. What would Nietzsche say about the pandemic?
 

There are actually quite a few articles  about his reactionary ideas of ‘the herd’ and attitudes to empathy for the weakest members of society and the casual disregard for the well-being of vulnerable groups in society or the wider safety of citizens by some populist leaders.

- Partial quote from A Revelation of all Values: Nietzschean Populism and Covid-19

[Fragile Bird]

But I don’t really care about Nietzsche, I’m more worried about the looming abyss and what we might look like on the other side of the abyss.

[JoannaL]

16 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

But I don’t really care about Nietzsche, I’m more worried about the looming abyss and what we might look like on the other side of the abyss.

Just one more wave , Fragile Bird, we can make it ! on the other side will be the sunlit uplands of  herd immunity by vaccination.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Not to chide anyone here, but why not go classic

 

Once more into the wave, dear friends, once more. Or close the wall up with our covid dead.

I am lacking a fireplace and glass of whiskey to toast to the miseries of this world with a nihilistic pleasure. Well, just picture me there doing that while uttering that altered Henry Fifth quote.

[Fragile Bird]

I was considering the Charge of the Light Brigade as well...

[Padraig]

Quote

According to this logic, Pfizer shouldn't have relied as much on US factories as well, since these would basically be seized by US government for their own ends until all Americans get their double doses. Yet in this case, they didn't mind. Is it that Pfizer, as an American firm, kind of cares about USA and US people and doesn't give a damn about the others?

I didn’t say Pfizer wouldn’t have produced vaccine in Belgium.  There simply would have been another factory in another non-US/EU country.  And requiring another factory would have likely caused further delays, as you have a limited number of engineers working on factories spread even further around the world.  This is why co-operation is far better than barriers.

But yes.  Pfizer is also going to be more affiliated with the US, in the same way Biontech is going to be affiliated with Germany (or AZ with the UK).  That's hardly surprising?

The US's sheer size also helps.  A factory there was going to recoup its investment easily.

[Zorral]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/sanmarino-covid-vaccine-sputnik/?

Quote

 

...it had been San Marino’s intent — at least initially — to rely entirely on Italy for its vaccines. In January, it signed a deal in which Rome agreed to redirect one of every 1,700 Europe-supplied doses. That seemed to ensure San Marino would vaccinate at whatever pace the E.U. would. The agreement, though, required not just a sign-off from Italy, but also from Brussels and the vaccine providers. Paperwork delayed the arrangement by nearly two months.

“Once the delays began, we found ourselves dealing with a very strong protest from the citizens,” said Health Minister Roberto Ciavatta. “We needed to offer solutions.”

San Marino considered options aside from Sputnik V. But Chinese-made vaccines had no peer-reviewed studies showing how well they worked. India’s, too, felt like a “leap into the dark,” Ciavatta said. Sputnik V had an advantage for several reasons: A Lancet medical journal paper showed the vaccine was 91.6 percent effective in preventing symptoms of covid-19 and fully effective in stopping severe cases, giving it nearly the efficacy of those produced by Moderna and Pfizer. Plus, it was relatively cheap — at roughly $10 per dose. Its design — an adenovirus vector — made it similar to vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Because San Marino has no drug regulator equivalent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency, it simply put the question about Sputnik V’s use to a small bioethical committee.

The members gave Sputnik V the green light.

The rollout of the doses — with a Russian TV documenting one early day in the campaign — made San Marino a pandemic outlier in a new way: It has become the lone Western European county to authorize Sputnik V....

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

Well bloody hell, I was just going to bed and thought I’d look at the Ontario Covid-19 vaccine booking system and they dropped the age and I booked an appointment for Monday.

I will call the number tomorrow and double-check to make sure it’s for Pfizer.

[Proudfeet]

@Tywin et al.

Given what I was replying to, I think its pretty clear that I was talking about the constituents. I'm aware that the general demographics of the regulars on this forum doesn't lean that way, but as you made it clear, its still half the country and your post was just another reminder that "freedom" is very malleable to whatever suits them or not.

Putting on masks is an infringement on their freedom. As is safe distancing and other control measures. But there's nary a peep about the old favourite free market, market efficiency when it comes to vaccine nationalism except when it comes to which vaccine they want or if they do at all.

Its not about what should or shouldn't be. Its the rank hypocrisy that sets me off. I'm not really arguing for anything, its just a snide remark off the cuff.

[Arakan]

My final conclusion wrt the vaccination distribution worldwide. 
We as human beings all have our very own blindspots, that’s a simple psychological truth. That’s our blindness towards oneself. A lot of people would even deny that they have such blindspots, they simply refuse and reject to acknowledge this blindness towards oneself. This is what I call the blindness towards the blindness. And when we as human beings slowly come to the conclusion that such blindness might really exist, the first intuitive reaction is denial out of cognitive dissonance. That‘s just how we as human beings function. 

And this whole issue about global vaccine distribution is a case of the above. I don’t necessarily exclude myself. Though facts are facts: 
1) the European Union did export a large part of its domestic vaccine production (ca. 80 million doses, 40-45% of its total)
2) the US and the UK didn’t. As of last week the number was Zero. Even though they themselves received or are due to receive vaccine doses from the EU. 
3) Both of the above countries de facto declared an export ban with different legal/contractual tools. The EU could have done the same but refused to do so up until now 
4) Death rates in the US and UK were high, but this argument in this case is irrelevant because they were and still are as high if not higher in a large proportion of EU member countries (Italy, Poland, Czechia)

On a personal and emphatic level I can understand posters here from the UK or US. What I cannot understand is bragging, boasting and shit talking of the EU, especially by Trumpists and Brexiteers. It is simply despicable when Boris Johnson, Prime Ministers of the UK, and members of his cabinet shit talk the EU, telling people that the vaccination process is proof of how shit the EU is etc. when at the same time 50% of the UK vaccine doses are coming from the EU. This is simply despicable. No other words to call it. Biden I can understand much more due to the domestic issues within the US. He is in a tough spot with dozens of millions of MAGA Trumpist idiots screaming behind his back. 
 

Anyway, those above are the basic facts. I would ask American and UK users to at least show some emphathy towards the whole clusterfuck (like @Zorral does for example). 

[Heartofice]

5 minutes ago, Arakan said:

My final conclusion wrt the vaccination distribution worldwide. 
We as human beings all have our very own blindspots, that’s a simple psychological truth. That’s our blindness towards oneself. A lot of people would even deny that they have such blindspots, they simply refuse and reject to acknowledge this blindness towards oneself. This is what I call the blindness towards the blindness. And when we as human beings slowly come to the conclusion that such blindness might really exist, the first intuitive reaction is denial out of cognitive dissonance. That‘s just how we as human beings function. 

And this whole issue about global vaccine distribution is a case of the above. I don’t necessarily exclude myself. Though facts are facts: 
1) the European Union did export a large part of its domestic vaccine production (ca. 80 million doses, 40-45% of its total)
2) the US and the UK didn’t. As of last week the number was Zero. Even though they themselves received or are due to receive vaccine doses from the EU. 
3) Both of the above countries de facto declared an export ban with different legal/contractual tools. The EU could have done the same but refused to do so up until now 
4) Death rates in the US and UK were high, but this argument in this case is irrelevant because they were and still are as high if not higher in a large proportion of EU member countries (Italy, Poland, Czechia)

On a personal and emphatic level I can understand posters here from the UK or US. What I cannot understand is bragging, boasting and shit talking of the EU, especially by Trumpists and Brexiteers. It is simply despicable when Boris Johnson, Prime Ministers of the UK, and members of his cabinet shit talk the EU, telling people that the vaccination process is proof of how shit the EU is etc. when at the same time 50% of the UK vaccine doses are coming from the EU. This is simply despicable. No other words to call it. Biden I can understand much more due to the domestic issues within the US. He is in a tough spot with dozens of millions of MAGA Trumpist idiots screaming behind his back. 
 

Anyway, those above are the basic facts. I would ask American and UK users to at least show some emphathy towards the whole clusterfuck (like @Zorral does for example). 

How many vaccines has the Uk produced?  Do we need to start again with the basic differences between companies and countries?

[Arakan]

9 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

How many vaccines has the Uk produced?  Do we need to start again with the basic differences between companies and countries?

Typical so typical. You don’t understand nothing. The EU could have declared an export ban and that’s it. No vaccine produced on EU territory allowed to leave. They could but they didn’t. Leave it. You are a hardcore Brexiteer and rational discussion with you is useless.  

[Padraig]

Ironically, part of the challenge is that the EU wasn't entangled more with companies.  The US threw so much money at pharma companies that it played a major role in what they would do.  That politico article made it clear that the UK argument was very entangled with AZ from the beginning.  All this is partly due to opportunity (or lack thereof), depending on where companies are based.  The EU had Biontech but Pfizer was the big brother/sister in that relationship.

Unrelated but I was thinking of the current vaccines.  Pfizer.  Working well.  Big increase in doses from April in the EU (67.5m in Q1, to 200m in Q2) .  Looks like it will be cleared to be used on children over the next few months, so that will delay any completion date.  Had good results against the South African variant recently, which is promising.

Moderna.  Small volumes in Europe but increasing from the end of March.  Hit its 10m target in Q1 (35m in Q1).  Also looking at kids, variants etc.

J&J.  Should be seen in Europe from the 19^th Apr but in small doses initially (55m in Q2).

Novavax.  Likely to be approved in the UK in late April/May.  Should see a formal application soon.  Unclear what happens in the rest of Europe although Novavax is preparing factories in places like Poland.  Available in the US in May/June presumably.

Curevac. May be approved by June but not sure how many doses it will have available immediately.  A lot of work going on behind the scenes but, like Novavax, this sort scale is very new for it.  We may see test results in late April.

Sputnik.  Might be approval by June but this is going to take a while.  A few more EU countries will be using it by then, and while it will be useful for them, I don’t see huge volumes relative to EU’s needs.  Russia says it can deliver 100m doses in Q3 but this is another vaccine noted for over promising, under delivering.

AstraZeneca. Will increase supply from end of March.  Lets hope there will be good news for it in April! (30m in Q1, 70m in Q2).

There are a lot of other vaccines out there, Valneva, Reithera, Medicago.  I know I have missed a few.  But not going to see those until the second half of the year.  Unless a Chinese vaccine tries to get Western approval!

By the way, if anyone can explain what the Czech Republic was trying to do with that deal on the 10m Pfizer doses, i'd be interested.  Austria and Slovenia were just being greedy but I can't figure out the Czechs!

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

11 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I took an Uber for the first time in over a year, last night  Both the driver and I wore masks, as Uber requires.

Ah, normality creeping in, as I Uber back to my car on Saturday morning 

Sounds like you told only half the story in the other thread. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Full (boring) story was told!

Curious how you had a drink with a stranger at a bar knowing how careful you are. Is this the future? 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

38 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

We are both half vaxxed (and he’d also recovered from covid in December) so I felt ok. His shot was Pfizer.

Knowing that I have 80% protection right now, being a bit more than two weeks out from Moderna Shot 1, is *really* liberating. I’m not about to put wine into my veins (a la The Simpsons episode that you linked), but if someone created a shot of “human interaction and discussion” I’d be a junkie. Hell, I once planned a holiday party for a place I didn’t even work for anymore, I’m that social.

Still doing masks in public places that are not my table at a restaurant or seat at the bar; it’s the right thing to do and shows respect. 

Just giving you shit. I'm just happy to see the CDC said it's okay to travel now if you've gotten both shots, masks and social distancing still, of course. I miss my family and friends in California, and a certain couple of kiddos are well overdue for being Powerbombed into a pool. Hoping to make it to L.A. and San Fran for Thanksgiving.

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

Yeah, right now the focus needs to be on the unmasked unvaccinated folk who are still at high risk. Once the 200m threshold is passed, we can safely say half of the US population is relatively protected, at which point the messaging can change to behaviors of the vaccinated.

[Zorral]

They Say that 'vaccine reluctance' is eroding significantly here in the US.  Please, let it be. 

It's also wonderful to hear that it is safe to vaccinate children younger than 16. This means kids -- and their parents! -- can begin recovering normality (such as it ever was, whatever) of life.  But that means enormous improvement of quality of life for all of us, even though we will / should continue to mask in shared public places.

Oooops!  I meant to include a great big HOORAY in response to Bird's news of a vaccination appointment.  So glad for you!

 

[Fragile Bird]

A story popped up on my phone that Australia is dealing with a rare blood clot that occurred after someone got the AZ vaccine.

Australia’s only done 750,000 vaccinations.

[Zorral]

12 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

A story popped up on my phone that Australia is dealing with a rare blood clot that occurred after someone got the AZ vaccine.

Australia’s only done 750,000 vaccinations.

I saw that yesterday, I think?  Deeply concerning.