Covid- Thank you, Next! Get out of our lives.

[Fragile Bird]

Novavax press release:  https://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-demonstrates-90-overall-efficacy-and

[Week]

1 hour ago, Gorn said:

It's simply not logical that people are afraid of missing work because of the vaccine (two days at most for a minority of cases), when the vaccine prevents them from missing work because of Covid (two weeks, and that's if they're lucky to get a mild case).

At this point, I'm half-convinced that anti-vaxxers and people who are afraid of needles are just picking the most socially-acceptable option from a list offered to them by a pollster. "Oh yeah, I'm afraid of missing work, that's why I won't take the shot. Yeah, that's it."

From a month ago -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/27/time-off-vaccine-workers/

 

[Kalbear]

3 hours ago, Gorn said:

It's simply not logical that people are afraid of missing work because of the vaccine (two days at most for a minority of cases), when the vaccine prevents them from missing work because of Covid (two weeks, and that's if they're lucky to get a mild case).

Because the chances of them getting covid aren't that high AND there's a difference between doing something that will almost certainly get them to lose days vs. doing something that might?

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

3 hours ago, Gorn said:

It's simply not logical that people are afraid of missing work because of the vaccine (two days at most for a minority of cases), when the vaccine prevents them from missing work because of Covid (two weeks, and that's if they're lucky to get a mild case).

At this point, I'm half-convinced that anti-vaxxers and people who are afraid of needles are just picking the most socially-acceptable option from a list offered to them by a pollster. "Oh yeah, I'm afraid of missing work, that's why I won't take the shot. Yeah, that's it."

Most of the people that I know that won't take the shot are rightwing conspiracy kooks. They also are known to use any excuse they can come up with to get a day off of work, lazy minds/ lazy bodies, they follow together.

A sizeable portion of these are from an area evangelical "super church" that believe and do everything their cult leader directs.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Rant incoming.

 

I hate people. I really do. Mankind consists of a whole lot of fuckwits, and the sooner our species of mutated apes go extinct due to a pandemic or as a casualty of the climate crisis the better. Maybe it's not too late and Earth will get another go with hyper intelligent mutated beavers or hamsters next time.

What hit home this week's installment of people are stupid? Taking the metro. On my way back after my weekly visit to my dad, I was sharing a car with a young woman. There were a whole lot of people, and I didn't really notice her at first. But some conversation happening some 20 metres or so to my left made me turn my head, and it just kept on shaking until I had to leave.

The afore mentioned young woman, my guess mid to late twenties was not wearing her mask. Fine I shouldn't get triggered by this anymore. However her reasoning was quite something. She wasn't wearing it because of her Asthma [fine]. The woman sitting in the next block, then wondered whether she had a written exemption from her doctor. No, if she sees an inspection is coming, she will pull up her mask, instead of covering her chin. Ok, we reached eyeroll levels on my part. She then went on some (I assume it was internet based) rant about masks being carcinogenic. We or rather she was talking about disposal surgeon masks. Fortunately, I had to leave two stop later. Instead of leaving that weird metro experience behind, the woman and her conversation partner had to exit at the same station. Her conversation partner in what was to me in equal measures surprising and depressing exclaimed that our maskless lady was the sole sane person in the entire train car. That was the moment I've decided that if one of those Hollywood asteroids was ever really on its way to Earth, that I'd be on team Asteroid, and to Leave it to Beaver.

[Fragile Bird]

Regarding the discussion here about people who may be seriously ill but have not gone to the doctor because they fear Covid-19. I've linked programs from a radio show called White Coat Black Art before, from an emergency room physician named Brian Goldman, and this episode called Delayed Diagnosis. There are interviews with a woman with an ovarian tumor and with a cancer specialist about how many people are coming in very late with their tumors.

The estimate is that it will likely take more than two years to catch up on appointments and surgeries, maybe even three.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-75-white-coat-black-art/clip/15848993-delayed-diagnosis

[Zorral]

It wasn't only fear that kept people from seeking medical attention in the last year and a half: as here in NYC there was no medical attention to seek.  Everything was given over until the late summer almost entirely to covid.  Even doctors whose specialties had nothing to do with respiratory disease were called in to work in the covid crisis on covid.  That's all that was coming into the emergency rooms.  Doctors' offices were closed, for everybody was working in the hospitals. This resumed starting again in the holidays, through January and February and a lot of March.

And now we're down to the lowest numbers of just about anywhere.  But in the first half of 2020 we were the Hottest of Hot Spots.

This has really taken a toll in people's health.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

What happens, waiting for that fabled 'herd immunity.'

https://slate.com/technology/2021/06/covid-vaccine-skepticism-how-to-address.html

Quote

 

Mike Fesi, a Republican state senator in Louisiana, didn’t trust coronavirus vaccines. So earlier this year, when his colleagues seized their chance to get inoculated against the virus, Fesi refused. He figured he didn’t need the vaccines, and he claimed, without evidence, that they had killed a friend of his family. But then Fesi got a nasty surprise: A month ago, he was abruptly vaccinated, and the vaccine made him sick. That’s because the vaccine he got wasn’t Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson. It was COVID-19.

If you’re one of the millions of people who have already chosen to get one of the federally approved vaccines, you don’t need to be persuaded that it’s the smart decision. But many other people do. They’re wary of the vaccines, and they think they can avoid vaccination or wait till they’re ready. That’s a mistake, because all of us are going to get vaccinated one way or the other. Sooner or later—and probably sooner, since the supercharged delta variant already accounts for 10 percent of U.S. infections, and that share is doubling every two weeks—people who don’t take one of the approved vaccines will get the virus. They might think of that as an alternative to vaccination, but it’s not. The virus will do the same thing the vaccines do: It will provoke their immune systems to develop antibodies. The difference is that the virus, unlike the vaccines, will attack their bodies and quite possibly kill them....

 

 

 

[Zorral]

From one day, to the next.  Hardly if any Delta strain covid cases here in the US They were Saying just yesterday, it seems, to today, They are Saying the Delta strain is well on its way to being the dominant strain in the US.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/14/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

 

Quote

 

The Delta variant is on its way to becoming the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US, raising concerns that outbreaks could hit unvaccinated people this fall.

And a new study shows the Delta variant is associated with almost double the risk of hospitalization compared to the Alpha variant.

The Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant, which is "stickier" and more contagious than the original strain of novel coronavirus, became the dominant strain in the US this spring.

But health experts worry the Alpha variant could be trumped by the Delta variant, which appears to be even more transmissible and may cause more severe illness for those not vaccinated.

 

 

[williamjm]

5 hours ago, L'oiseau français said:

I’m watching the CEO of Novavax, Stanley Erck, being interviewed on CNBC. They have released the efficacy data, 90%, but 83% of the virus they faced was a variant, including a tiny amount of Delta, and the efficacy was 93% against variants. Most of the variant cases were the UK version (is that Alpha?). There were lots of other good news numbers, the press release will be worth reading.

Yes, Alpha is the Variant Formerly Known As British.

Following-up on the discussion we had recently about vaccine efficacy vs the different variants there are now some official figures from Public Health England:

In some respects (such as 1st dose-only AZ) Delta does seem more troublesome, in others it's more or less the same as the Alpha numbers.

[Larry of the Lawn]

8 hours ago, Gorn said:

It's simply not logical that people are afraid of missing work because of the vaccine (two days at most for a minority of cases), when the vaccine prevents them from missing work because of Covid (two weeks, and that's if they're lucky to get a mild case).

At this point, I'm half-convinced that anti-vaxxers and people who are afraid of needles are just picking the most socially-acceptable option from a list offered to them by a pollster. "Oh yeah, I'm afraid of missing work, that's why I won't take the shot. Yeah, that's it."

I dunno.  Three of my friends have been putting it off for that reason, and one of them got it this week when his work offered it on the job.  I know it's anecdotal but a lot of work places do punish people for taking time off, even when it has to be allowed.

Another had covid was asymptomatic, and she has been putting it off hoping she can get it at work eventually.

[Clueless Northman]

2 hours ago, williamjm said:

Yes, Alpha is the Variant Formerly Known As British.

Following-up on the discussion we had recently about vaccine efficacy vs the different variants there are now some official figures from Public Health England:

Wait a minute: Pfizer is more effective against Delta than against Alpha, specially with just 1 dose?

[williamjm]

26 minutes ago, Clueless Northman said:

Wait a minute: Pfizer is more effective against Delta than against Alpha, specially with just 1 dose?

I did notice that as well after all the angst about it. AZ double dose (but not single dose) also has a slightly higher efficacy shown for Delta. The error bars seem large enough that some of the differences probably aren't statistically significant.

[Fragile Bird]

I said that it will be interesting to see what happens to US numbers now that it's two weeks after Memorial Day, but I forgot that US numbers have now become unreliable, or, perhaps it might be better to say, somewhat distorted, now that consistent reporting is ending.

Quote

At least two dozen states that have stopped updating daily the number of people catching the virus, being hospitalized and dying, according to Johns Hopkins. Some stopped reporting anything over weekends. Others cut back to just a few times a week. Florida is the latest state to go to just once a week — Oklahoma is another one that has reduced to once a week reporting.

State officials are defending the changes, which they say allow public health workers to focus limited resources where they are needed most, such as improving the quality of the data and boosting vaccinations.

"As our cases were trending downwards and our vaccination rates were increasing, it made more sense for us to go to weekly reporting for certain things," says Jolianne Stone, the Oklahoma Department of Health's epidemiologist. "We still do have a pulse of what is going with COVID here in Oklahoma. And I feel very confident in that."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/11/1004751742/states-scale-back-pandemic-reporting-stirring-alarm

Surely a year and a half into this pandemic, daily reporting of numbers is routine? How many resources does it take?

[Fragile Bird]

Oh for crying out loud. I was in bed and adjusting the music on my cell phone when I glanced at Facebook and I saw a man got into a fight with a grocery store clerk in a suburb of Atlanta over a face mask, and he pulled out a gun and shot her. She died. The security guard then got into a gun fight with him and they shot each other. Both are in hospital.

 

[Luzifer's right hand]

26 minutes ago, L'oiseau français said:

Oh for crying out loud. I was in bed and adjusting the music on my cell phone when I glanced at Facebook and I saw a man got into a fight with a grocery store clerk in a suburb of Atlanta over a face mask, and he pulled out a gun and shot her. She died. The security guard then got into a gun fight with him and they shot each other. Both are in hospital.

 

The right to harm others shall not be infringed. Freedom. 

[rotting sea cow]

8 hours ago, Clueless Northman said:

Wait a minute: Pfizer is more effective against Delta than against Alpha, specially with just 1 dose?

These numbers are prone to sampling issues and not always directly comparable. Data is preliminary. There might be differences in the populations affected. Delta is also spreading now, in summer time. Alpha was in the middle of the winter. These things do influence outcomes.

It seems that South Asia will not escape the current wave. Several countries are reporting outbreak, including Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and others. We will see how things develop.

 

[lessthanluke]

9 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

I dunno.  Three of my friends have been putting it off for that reason, and one of them got it this week when his work offered it on the job.  I know it's anecdotal but a lot of work places do punish people for taking time off, even when it has to be allowed.

Another had covid was asymptomatic, and she has been putting it off hoping she can get it at work eventually.

Yup. Missing a few days work can be a breaking point for some people.

[Zorral]

8 hours ago, L'oiseau français said:

Oh for crying out loud. I was in bed and adjusting the music on my cell phone when I glanced at Facebook and I saw a man got into a fight with a grocery store clerk in a suburb of Atlanta over a face mask, and he pulled out a gun and shot her. She died. The security guard then got into a gun fight with him and they shot each other. Both are in hospital.

 

You just don't understand: a society in which everybody carries a gun is a society that is calm, honorable, and courteous.  Guns make us all very polite.

I kid you not, this is what the slaveocracy always said, while sneering at those effete northern abolitionists.  Everybody in their circles were always carrying all the time and so, well ignore how many died and were maimed in duels.

[Padraig]

18 hours ago, williamjm said:

I did notice that as well after all the angst about it. AZ double dose (but not single dose) also has a slightly higher efficacy shown for Delta. The error bars seem large enough that some of the differences probably aren't statistically significant.

Vaccine effectiveness does seem to be holding up, which is good.   The more troubling news now seems to be that the delta variant increases the likelihood of hospitalisation (for those who aren't vaccinated), which isn't good.  Going to be an anxious month or so.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

On the other hand, the Greek alphabet has 24 letters. So I am looking forward to the next mutant. It's a bit like a deathly advent calender. And when we reach Omega. I am the Alpha and Omega or so the corona virus would say, if it could speak.