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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 23, 2021 21:04:06 GMT
Over 97,000 vivid deaths recorded in the UK now. The US has 414,000 covid deaths to date. That horribly means that the UK has proportionately more, since the population of the US is almost 5 times larger than that of the UK. (4.896 times larger, to be exact). In other words, if the UK had the same amount of population as the US, its covid death toll would be 474,912. Meanwhile: www.insider.com/pfizer-will-ship-fewer-vaccine-vials-after-discovery-of-extra-doses
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Post by Biddy on Jan 23, 2021 22:48:39 GMT
Lugg - so sorry to hear about your daughter's friend. It's such a worry for all of you. Hopefully he will make a full recovery soon. Also, Mossie so happy to hear you got your first jab. I know this Covid beast is running amok. At the moment in California many counties have run out of vaccines.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 24, 2021 5:22:26 GMT
France has now vaccinated the first million people.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 24, 2021 8:43:12 GMT
That is an incredible feat Kerouac. Maybe we will get there in about a year....maybe.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 24, 2021 9:53:37 GMT
According to the Geneva Convention, the WHO and the UN, Israel should be providing the Palestinians with vaccines but they reckon its not their responsibility...there has been a petition by 200 rabbis calling for the Israeli government to offer assistance too.
Its early days tho...I know that supplies are patchy here in the UK. A nurse at a surgery near my son and DiL says that quite a few patients didn't turn up for their appointment to receive the vaccine! It wasn't wasted tho as there are always others waiting in the wings. In Leicester we seem to be exclusively Oxford-Astrazenica.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 24, 2021 12:34:25 GMT
Supplies seem to be running low everywhere, at least for those countries using the Pfizer vaccine.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 25, 2021 15:10:40 GMT
One year ago today, France detected its first case of covid-19. A man with a cough and fever had arrived from the Netherlands but he said that his trip had originated in Wuhan, China. A maximum alert was issued at the hospital, which meant that both the patient and his doctor were issued masks. Two other cases were discovered the same day, and these were reputedly the first three cases identified in Europe. The minister of health made the following statement: "The risk of propagation of this virus in France is minimal but cannot be ruled out since there are direct flights between Wuhan and France."
She added "Our health care system is well prepared, all medical facilities have been informed and all necessary recommendations have been issued."
Problem solved.
As of today, France has reported 3,112,055 cases and 73,190 deaths.
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Post by casimira on Jan 25, 2021 15:39:51 GMT
Here in the US, news of the virus was downplayed and glossed over. "It can't happen here" was the message and that attitude prevailed with catastrophic results. The withholding of vital information by the federal government resulted in what we are experiencing now.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 25, 2021 16:26:05 GMT
She added " Our health care system is well prepared, all medical facilities have been informed and all necessary recommendations have been issued." How wrong can you be.......
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 25, 2021 20:09:16 GMT
AstraZeneca are struggling to meet their contractual obligations to the EU. The EU prepaid (just like UK did) for 100 million doses in the next few weeks...but they contacted the EU to say they only expected to be able to supply half that...(it hasn't been authorised by the European regulatory organisation yet but is expected to be in the next few days).
A furious EU minister has said that until this is rectified then exporting the vaccine outside of EU should be banned. Fair point I spose...
We knew that there would be supply problems, I'm sure that the powers that be will sort it out.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 25, 2021 20:20:37 GMT
Actually, I doubt that most people knew there would be supply problems because when the orders were placed, we didn't know that this would get so bad so fast.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 25, 2021 23:52:47 GMT
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Post by mich64 on Jan 26, 2021 1:41:13 GMT
I do remember reading that the US had cancelled half their order as well Bixa.
On the news tonight in my area, Moderna shipment expected within days for our nursing homes residents! It is so relieving to hear that vaccinations will be happening for them any day now. There is a case of the British variant suspected in the region so happy we are getting the Moderna. I thought we would as logistically, the Pfizer was going to be a challenge up here. We expect the larger cities will continue to get the Pfizer althought no new shipments expected this week but I believe the majority of the homes in southern Ontario have already had their vaccinations.
Our small outbreak from the Christmas/New Year's season seems to finally been brought under control, we have now gone 5 days with zero new cases and have 1 person in isolation. Whereas Sudbury, which is 1 1/2 hour away has over 70 cases. They have had to close 3 schools and an outbreak in a nursing home.
Our Health Unit has been quite strict, cancelling skating at the city outdoor rinks, sledding at the city hills and just recently they closed the snowmobile trails. We are also in a Provincial lockdown so there are not many stores open besides grocery or pharmacies. Well, Wal-mart is still open but they can only have 25% of normal shoppers in at a time. Therefore, there is not much to do here (that is their point, stay at home) except walks, hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing or going for a drive. It seems to be working but many are feeling frustrated. I can understand it must be challenging for young families but thankfully all the schools are open and we have had just 2 cases total in one school since September.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 26, 2021 8:28:17 GMT
An article in our Sunday newspaper reported that South Africa would be receiving 5% vaccines from Moderna, 5% from Pfizer, 70% from AstraZeneca and 20% from Johnson & Johnson. South Africa has reportedly secured about 34.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. About 1 million doses are expected to arrive in the country before end January from the Serum instute of India. This biotech company is producing the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. A further 500,000 doses are due in February. The three vaccine makers which are closest to widespread distribution - AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna, require two doses of the vaccine to work. Which means if 40 million people are to be vaccinated by year end, South Africa would need to acquire 80 million doses. The Cape Town based storage and distribution service Biovac is part owned by the Government. This center is to innoculate frontline healthcare workers. It is going to cost R20.6 Billion to innoculate 67% of the population.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 26, 2021 8:46:10 GMT
To add to the vaccine discussion I received a WhatsApp message - An African-American man questions the validity and safety of a Covid-19 vaccine. He maintains that in 40 years of research the world has not been able to manufacture a vaccine for HIV. There has been a hundred years of research for cancer and yet no vaccine, and ongoing research for the common cold - No vaccine. Yet, in 1 year a vaccine was developed for Covid-19!! He is very skeptical about this vaccine and ends with "Thanks but No thanks."
I would like to hear if anyone else thinks along these lines and if not, why not? I can tell you a few people I know fairly well are deciding to not have the jab. Probably because this is Africa and my goodness do things get done in an arse-about-face fashion. Scarey actually.
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Post by bjd on Jan 26, 2021 8:50:00 GMT
First governments funded the various pharmaceutical companies with millions to cover the cost of research of these vaccines, and now they are paying a lot of money to pay for them. The actual cost was quickly deleted from a Twitter post after it was mentioned by a Belgian member of parliament some weeks ago. With the closing down of so many economies for months, we are going to be in a huge economic/social hole when this is over.
The "French" vaccine developed by the Pasteur Institute has been stopped because it's not good enough. Given the way the Chinese stonewalled at the beginning of the epidemic, it is probably reasonable to doubt the efficiency of their vaccine, given the various scandals over the years about food. I seem to remember something about some chemical in baby formula. Meanwhile, we are all waiting for the vaccines to become available, but given the huge numbers of people on earth, it is highly unlikely that generalized vaccination will ever happen.
I learned yesterday that the seniors residence where my mother (200 apartments) lives in Toronto had 9 deaths from Covid in early January, while there were 46 cases among support staff. Obviously it's the people working there who bring in the virus since the place has essentially been locked down for months. But I talked to my sister yesterday and she said she had a letter saying that as of Jan. 21, there were no cases of Covid there. They also said they had vaccinated 115 people, although I don't know if my mother is one of them since she doesn't always answer the phone.
It seems to me that it would be smarter to vaccinate the care workers, although I understand that vaccinated people can still carry the virus.
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Post by bjd on Jan 26, 2021 8:56:35 GMT
Just seeing your post now, Tod. I don't really have answers but I don't think a vaccine can be developed for cancer -- it's not a virus. As for HIV, at first it wasn't taken particularly seriously, given that at first it affected the gay community and many people in Africa. As you know, these are not groups with high priority among pharmaceutical companies.
As for the common cold, it is usually not deadly. Having a cold may be uncomfortable for a few days but doesn't put you into intensive care or have long-term consequences.
Sure, I was hesitant at first because of the speed of development of the covid vaccines and the fact that long-term effects cannot be known yet, but it is also rare that so much money and effort has been thrown at developing a vaccine on such a huge scale. We can only wait and see.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 26, 2021 9:42:25 GMT
The alternative is the possibility of dying in hospital hooked up to a ventilator.
Doesn’t seem that difficult a decision.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 26, 2021 10:07:19 GMT
bjd & Mick - thanks for your thoughts. First of all Mick, of course getting Covid so badly that you have to go to hospital where again there is no guarantee you will come out alive , is a sobering thought, but I think people who are a bit hesitant from the beginning live in the hopes that they will take enough precautions so as to 'dodge the proverbial bullet'. For me, having the vaccine would let me feel more comfortable leaving the safety of my home to do errands and shopping. Maybe by the time S.A. gets around to us - almost last in the queue to qualify, Covid will be so kicked to the curb and the vaccine wont be necessary.
Bjd - you are sensible and probably 100% correct why vaccines have not come forward for so many of mans illnesses. Not every disease can be warded off by a simple vaccine. Would'nt that be grand tho.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 26, 2021 11:48:11 GMT
One thing that is glossed over in recent reports is that so much progress has been made in treatment -- they know better when ventilators are useful or not and how to position the patients and all sorts of other drugs and procedures that can make things better. The fact that so many people are still dying in spite of all of the progress makes everything seem even more grim. The situation is worse than anybody ever imagined.
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Post by breeze on Jan 26, 2021 14:50:50 GMT
When they first started talking about a vaccine, I knew I definitely didn't want to be first in line. Let's see how it pans out over a few months, I said to myself. Apparently I'm not as cautious as I'd thought, because once the vaccine became available in Pennsylvania I started calling around to see how and where we could get it. We were in group 1b, over 65, and 1a was for health care and essential workers. I wanted to be ready for when 1b opened up.
My doctor's office knew nothing and didn't know where to send me. Hospital ditto, local pharmacy ditto, local branch of state health service ditto, state health service in our state capital ditto. Someone told me about a map of the state showing pharmacies that had or would have the vaccine. We called and got on three lists and waited. The third place called us on Friday and gave us a date, time slot, and location. They had 500 vaccines available and we were #325 and #326 on the list. I asked if we were guaranteed to get the second shot as well and they said the state had committed to sending them the same number of vaccines in four weeks.
So Sunday we had the first of two Moderna shots.
When we arrived the woman registering us asked where we were from and didn't seem too impressed when we named our nearby town. They'd had people from adjacent area codes sign up, people from urban areas to the east and west who couldn't get the vaccine close to home and drove a long way to this tiny rural town.
They had a well-organized setup in the lunchroom of a local business. There was no waiting at the time we arrived. All went smoothly. The woman who gave us the shots was the nurse we see most often at our doctor's office, volunteering for the day. I asked if the doctor's office had been busy and she said phenomenally busy.
She hadn't had the vaccine yet.
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Post by casimira on Jan 26, 2021 15:19:46 GMT
I was shocked when I heard on the radio this morning that so many health care workers are not getting the vaccine. A large percentage of them expressed apprehension and concern for a variety of reasons. The major concern was that they were anxious about how it might interfere with their ability to conceive and information they garnered about the side effects specifically fertility. Another concern was the rapidity of the vaccine being approved without adequate testing. The majority of these people are in a younger age bracket.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 26, 2021 15:59:07 GMT
I think that what shocked me the most was when I read that smokers were placed ahead of health care workers in the priority of certain states.
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Post by htmb on Jan 26, 2021 16:21:20 GMT
Kerouac, that’s very hard to understand. Do you remember where you read that information?
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 26, 2021 16:59:19 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 26, 2021 17:01:06 GMT
The UK has just passed the 100,000 mark for covid deaths.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 26, 2021 17:22:56 GMT
The UK has just passed the 100,000 mark for covid deaths. That is just awful.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 26, 2021 18:11:35 GMT
It actually makes sense if the goal is to save the maximum number of lives possible with a limited and finite supply of vaccinations in the same way prison inmates are a given higher priority, which also incites a moral panic. If the goal is instead to prioritize based on who "deserves" to be vaccinated based on virtue, then you'll have a wholly different prioritization.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 26, 2021 18:53:20 GMT
All the NHS workers I know have taken the vaccine. I only know scientists and doctors tho.
I understand that some people are a tad cynical about the rapidity of the vaccine development BUT...as soon as coronavirus started sweeping across the world every university research lab, every pharmaceutical company became involved. Work had already been carried out on other coronaviruses (SARS & MERS) so this work could be adapted and channelled into covid 19. The fact that Chinese scientists rapidly sequenced the viral genetic material and shared the information saved everybody time. Even work carried out to look for an Ebola vaccine helped. Using mRNA is a new way of developing vaccines, mRNA is the genetic material of the virus..the sequential code that the virus uses to reproduce itelf. In theory mRNA vaccines are the way forward, allowing us to adapt to significant changes/mutations othe virus. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious.
Mobilisation unlike anything seen since WWII has been taking place. So when I'm offered the vaccine I'm taking it as will all my loved ones.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 26, 2021 20:13:53 GMT
THanks Cheery. That is very useful.
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