Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #88

[SouthAussie]

Sounds like China or Russia.

Yes, it is a bit scary that they were pointing the guns at Rebekah and her kids.... just to serve a warrant and carry out the seizure. Maybe that is standard procedure in FL?

 

[HongKongPhooey]

I'll distract you. What's a lateral flow test?

(I am pretty negative right now - don't get me started).

Sorry, wasnt ignoring you - time difference... Its an on the spot test. Students in some locations are offered two a few days apart, then they can travel home. There has been controversy about accuracy tho.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-55198298

 

[GRT]

Has your Lowe’s and Home Depot been packed? I have family members at both and they say most customers come in, get what they want and don’t linger. Not crowded at all in the big retail stores with large aisles and space between customers. No one chitchatting and huddled up in groups talking.
The little bars/restaurants can’t space people out like big retail stores and require customers keep their masks on the entire time. They need help to survive until the end of next year.

Our Lowes does a brisk business, but Menards and Sams are the ones that seem packed. Everyone is in masks but there's no social distancing. Both Sams and Menards have stickers on the floor at the checkouts but many aren't paying attention, it seems, and the real crowding goes on in the aisles.

The little guys, like that bar owner in NY, can't make ends meet and if feeding their family becomes difficult, any parent is going to break the rules and open their business.

I've been doing a lot locally with the Food Bank but the need is still great. People have to eat--people don't necessarily have to shop for Christmas gifts. Our Food Bank is giving four times as much food as it normally does and still, we're not keeping up with the demand.

Jeff Bezos income has nearly doubled during the pandemic, while one in four eateries has permanently closed its doors.

When governors issue shutdowns, they're responsible for feeding the families of those whose incomes they've just halted. It can't be any other way or we're going to see chaos.

 

[GRT]

Dr. Fauci is exceptional, but there is No Way that "All" Americans will have access to the vaccine by April. Pfizer already cut back their promised December distribution figure, and it's simply not going to be possible for the vaccine to be available to 300+ Million within the next 4 1/2 Months.

My prediction would be that's it's October before enough Americans have received Both Doses, so that herd immunity has been achieved. Sure, it's great to aspire to reaching that goal by April/May, but that's assuming an absolutely perfect scenario, and we all know that these things never go perfectly.

It's going to be a little while longer before we finish "Rounding The Corner" that we started rounding last April.

Pfizer will step up or other vaccine makers will take their spot. This isn't something where Pfizer can sit back until the end of 2021 and expect to control all the vaccines.

One pharmaceutical company may not be able to supply all our needs by April, but more than one company is working on vaccines, so I think Fauci's prediction will be pretty close. The other companies aren't going to just wait around to let Pfizer slowly suck up all the profits--they're also in it to win it.

 

[GRT]

And, I just found out this nice little tidbit...federal government offices will shutdown without a budget. Merry Christmas, go file for unemployment. This won't affect VA employees, or other agencies that are not based on budget funding. But everyone else...

What’s left on the end-of-year to-do list? Just about everything! | Federal News Network

Our state and government offices have handled this so poorly. Legislators are just as bad or worse. People are really hurting out there and they're tossing a political football around instead of doing their jobs and helping them.

 

[GRT]

Sounds like China or Russia.

It's probably status quo. It appears she hacked into the Department of Health's data system, which would probably render her PC as "evidence," and clear the way to legally seize it.

If her story is factual, however (about why she was fired back in May), she probably has a chance of suing and winning. She needs a good attorney.

 

[GRT]

Pfizer tells U.S. it cannot supply substantial additional vaccine until June or July — The Washington Post

Other vaccine makers are out there and I fully expect them to step up. Plus, I've heard a number of people say they would not get the vaccine so there should be more available fro those of us who want it. I would think. MOO

 

[SouthAussie]

History is being made in Britain as the first patients are given a coronavirus vaccine outside of a trial environment.

It’s being dubbed “V Day” - for the vaccine and hopefully victory over COVID-19.

Hundreds of people across Britain will get the vaccine, but the first - so-called “Patient A” - has already been given the first of two jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at University Hospital, Coventry, in the English Midlands.

(90 year old Margaret Keenan is Patient A)

“It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year,” Ms Keenan told the BBC.
“I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it - if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too.”



UK begins historic rollout of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as world watches on in hope

 

[Legally Bland]

A trial is likely to go ahead in January to find out whether mixing and matching Covid vaccines gives better protection than two doses of the same one, the head of the British government’s taskforce has said.

The trial will begin if the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is approved in the coming weeks, as is hoped. The treatment can only be administered with licensed vaccines.

[...]

The concept is known as a heterologous prime-boost. “It means mix and matching vaccines,” said Bingham. “So you do a prime with one vaccine and then the second – whether it’s 28 days or two months or whatever the agreed periods would be – would be with a different vaccine.”

Viral-based vaccines such as the Oxford jab, which is based on a chimp common cold virus, give a much greater cellular response – prompting the T-cells to kill cells infected with the coronavirus. The mRNA vaccines, like Pfizer’s, tend to generate a bigger antibody response. So the idea is to combine them, in whichever order, to help the immune system respond more powerfully to Sars-CoV2.

“No one’s ever done it live and since we’ll have safe vaccines available we should do that study, because then we have the ability to actually produce better immune responses,” said Clive Dix, deputy chair of the taskforce.

UK trial to mix and match Covid vaccines to try to improve potency

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Pfizer tells U.S. it cannot supply substantial additional vaccine until June or July — The Washington Post

How. Do. We. Continue. To. Miss. The. Boat. Like. This?!!? Dammit!

 

[SouthAussie]

How. Do. We. Continue. To. Miss. The. Boat. Like. This?!!? Dammit!

We have to wait until March before any covid vaccination starts.
Aussies to wait for now as UK starts rolling out Pfizer vaccine

I know that we are not in bad shape like the US, but is it fair for the US to get all/the most vaccines first just because they didn't make the effort to control the virus?

I think Pfizer plan to be equitable in their distribution. No matter when the orders are placed.

.

 

[ilovewings]

COVID-19 pandemic has changed since March: More deaths, vaccine closer (usatoday.com)

This article is chilling in its frank and stark discussion - " Never expected this to happen in the United States- How the Covid 19 Pandemic exploded from March to December.

Here is the key statement: " I don't think there is a single person anywhere who thought hat we would still be facing this in December, let alone that this would be at such a peak at this particular time, said Dr. Robert Amler, Dean of NewYork Medical College's School of Health and Sciences and Practice, and a former Chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ali Mokdad, chief strategy officer for population health at the University of Washington is more blunt: " I never expected this to happen in the United States".

So the question is how did it go wrong? Monica Spana, a senior scientist in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the John Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health called Covid 19 in the US a protracted open-ended and on-going crisis. " I assumed this would have gotten under control like it did in other countries" she said. I didn't expect that we would have such a fragmented and
uneven response that would keep us in such an acute stage of this crisis". She goes on to say the US HAD TOOLS IN PLACE FOR A MORE ADEQUATE PANDEMIC RESPONSE. "HAD THEY BEEN APPLIED I THINK WE WOULD HAVE HAD A DIFFERENT OUTCOME. REGARDLESS OF WHAT WE DID OR DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS ITSELF".

She goes on to state the polititicization around the virus an the US response is an area where there has been consistency,but to the country's detriment. The racial scapegoating of China, the lack of national support for mask wearing, and the rush
to promote drugs like hydroxychloroquinolone, were all different tactics to manipulate the public perceptions of the pandemic for political reasons, she said.

'THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAW VALUE IN SOCIAL FRAGMENTATION AND THAT IS THE ONE THING YOU CANNOT HAVE IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC"- SHE SAID. IT HAS PREVENTED THE COUNTRY AND LOCALITIES
FROM PULLING TOGETHER IN THE SAME DIRECTION".

Regarding face masks she states " changes in guidance are not a bad thing when you are trying to understand the dynamics of a brand new virus- updating guidance is good- and one of the areas where we could have done better.

 

[BUF]

How. Do. We. Continue. To. Miss. The. Boat. Like. This?!!? Dammit!

Yeah... special plans were made to transport this vaccine that needs to be kept so cold, special freezers were bought to store it, etc. ... but no one secured more doses??

 

[SouthAussie]

Yeah... special plans were made to transport this vaccine that needs to be kept so cold, special freezers were bought to store it, etc. ... but no one secured more doses??

I personally do not think it is about not securing more doses up front. I think the delay is going to be about equitable distribution.


Pfizer has opened discussions with the Covax facility for equitable distribution of its potential vaccine, the US pharmaceutical company told ET. On the distribution challenges due to the necessity of deep refrigeration for the vaccine, Pfizer said it had a detailed logistical plan in place.

Covid vaccine: Pfizer starts talks with Covax facility for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccine - The Economic Times

 

[margarita25]

US Coronavirus: Deadliest week since April, with more than 15,600 deaths - CNN

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Rebekah Jones, the former chief data scientist at Florida’s health department who said she was fired for refusing to manipulate Covid-19 data, said the police seized a computer she was using to publish a coronavirus data dashboard of her own.

“At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech,” she said on Twitter. “They were serving a warrant on my computer after [the health department] filed a complaint. They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.”

Jones began publishing state coronavirus data updates on her own website after she was fired in May for refusing to “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen”. Florida’s official site undercounts the infection total and overcounts the number of people who are tested, to minimize the severity of the pandemic in the state, she has said.

“They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country.

View attachment 274831
Trump reportedly limited US purchases of Pfizer vaccine when offered - live

We will certainly be following this on Rebekkah.... I can't believe that she does not have backup of her data elsewhere. But she better have a good attorney.

<modsnip: Politicizing is not allowed>

Rebekah Jones: Florida police raid home of former state Covid-19 data scientist - CNN

 

[BUF]

https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1336286297338605569

BREAKING: Pressed by
@GStephanopoulos
to explain Pres. Trump's executive order prioritizing Americans’ access to COVID-19 vaccines before the United States helps other countries, "Operation Warp Speed" Chief Science Adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui says, "Frankly I don't know."

(video at link)

 

[nhmemorymaker]

As a trained epidemiologist with postgraduate qualifications in anthropology, I never thought I’d be a “participant observer” of a pandemic on two continents. But there I was, boomeranging in just five weeks from Australia to New York and back again. From a commitment to science, communitas and mateship here, to defiant disregard for public health, contempt for science and mystical faith in a super-spreader leader in the United States.

I was travelling to visit my mother. She has lived in New York all her life and had been locked down for nearly eight months. Nothing very unusual there. But my mother is 106 ½ years old. She lived through the Great Influenza of 1918 that took the life of her baby sister. She was married and widowed three times. As she often says, “I’m a survivor.” But for how long?

I should have realised when I transferred to a domestic flight in Los Angeles that I had just walked through the looking glass ........

Arriving in the US from Australia during Covid was like walking through the looking glass | Abby Bloom

Thanks for sharing. What a nice story of family human interest, while accurately representing "a tale of two cities".....

I, so often have used the great phrase of my previous home state in the exact same way.... life free and die. I love the word "riff" attached.

"But over in America, it seemed to be a riff on “Live free or die”, the actual state motto of New Hampshire. To me it looked more like live free and die."

 

[dixiegirl1035]

RSBM.....

....., so I think Fauci's prediction will be pretty close. The other companies aren't going to just wait around to let Pfizer slowly suck up all the profits--they're also in it to win it.

Keep in mind that Moderna and Pfizer are indeed doing for profit, but others such as AstraZeneca/Oxford have pledged to/and are selling AT COST during the pandemic.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

A US person was saying to a friend of mine just 5 days ago that they had been studying hospitalisation rates between this year and last year, and there really wasn't much difference. I couldn't imagine where this person was getting their information from. I have never heard of full ICUs and field hospitals being set up before, nor nurses and doctors crying for help.

So much misinformation out there.

Just highlights the previous post regarding where people get their news. Social Media for G's sake... unbelievable.