Coronavirus: Please use this thread for all COVID19 talk!

I think that the fact that the Chinese allowed "wet markets" to flourish was the most significant contributing factor to this virus being able to pass from animals to humans. It doesn't help that the wish not to be held culpable for anything in China created a situation of inertia which permitted the virus to spread. No one seriously challenges these ideas. It is also fair to say that the way other countries have managed this has been very variable and, in the case of places like Brazil, woefully negligent.

To elaborate on my previous post, the Chinese vaccine has been offered as a cheaper alternative to many countries in the developing world and it's low efficacy rate is considered to have contributed to the resurgence in the virus in places like Peru. There is a good article about this on the BBC website today.

The worrying thing for me is whether the Chinese were aware of the performance of their vaccine prior to offering it around the world. It think the troubling thing for the West is that this vaccine will be politicised by the Chinese and used to exert favour amongst poorer countries in much the same way that the Chinese have exploited the mineral wealth in an unfair trade off for infrastructure work in Central Africa for many years. Regardless of the political influence China exerts, it is scary that they are able to facilitate the delivery of a vaccine which is thought to be between 65-85% effective to such a wide proportion of the world's poorest nations. Without wishing to appear too simplistic, it is a shame that the China are not as efficient at either managing the early stages of the pandemic or the effectiveness of their vaccine as they appear to be in suppressing democracy in Hong Kong.

I find China's approach to the pandemic a marked contrast to another socialist country like Cuba which has more than played it's part in combatting Covid with the number of doctors it has dispatched around the world. I applaud the Cubans but think that the cloak of secrecy that Chinese have hidden behind with regard to the pandemic does give Socialism a bad name,

 

I agree with so much of this but in no way is China a socialist state!

 

It came from a wet market. Whether it was a live or dead animal, they don't know. But that particular pathway for disease transmission is well-established.

The Chinese government absolutely has some culpability. I'm pointing out that this was a comprehensive failure from every stakeholder in the world, because it was. It's not just the UK government: it was the governments of most countries in Europe, in North America, and around the world. And that unquestionably includes the Chinese government, but the timeline matters here: when the Chinese recognized the perils of the disease, they took dramatic action once the virus began to spread out of control in Wuhan, and the rest of the world just kind of shrugged and carried on for another month. We treated what was happening in China (where the disease exploded to thousands of cases in no time, and they were building new hospitals overnight to manage the cases) as a Chinese problem, rather than as a clear premonition of what was to come.

There was an incredible amount of hubris, that we as a modern society would surely be able to curtail diseases in a way that wasn't possible a hundred years ago. We failed, totally, at every level, and in almost every country.

If this originated in Kansas or something, I'd be saying the same thing. Diseases are going to mutate and become threats to humans. It's a thing, it's always been a thing. More steps need to be taken to mitigate that, and China absolutely needs to do a hell of a lot better regarding their live animal markets in particular. But the big problems here are what gets done once the diseases emerge, and here the answer almost across the globe was sweet **** all until it was too late.

 

Lockdown hair style has gone.

 

Got mine booked for Friday. Second jab on Thursday, this could be quite a decent week!

 

Lol me too. Cut off 7’ off my fringe.

Back to normal now though may need a re-dye as a few patches now she cut so much off

 

Please read this thread if you can. India needs to be on the red list right away.

 

We can’t possibly put India on the red list, Chilco! We’re about to do the biggest trade deal we’ve ever had (even bigger than the trade we used to do with the EU, if our dear leader, Boris, is to be believed), so we need to keep the borders open. And if we lose a few more thousand people to some new variant, that’s an acceptable risk (as long as they’re Labour voters ....)

 

Off for my second jab at lunchtime. I'll let you know if the side effects are as bad this time. I suspect preparation is the key....duvet and paracetamol Met a fellow Saints' fan who told me that whisky is good....not so good against side effects but helps you survive being a Saints' fan.

 

Had my first jab 12 weeks ago today, rang my surgery earlier to ask if I was going to have a 2nd jab?
It appears an admin error had forgotten me .....booked in for next Wednesday now:

 

Hearing of a friend of a neighbour (mid 30s) who works as cabin crew for BA. She was working last week on a flight back from Delhi, which was rammed due to everyone rushing to get back before the quarantine requirement kicked in. She’s just been diagnosed with COVID and, according to my neighbour, “quite poorly”. This is a real worry, as I’m unsure what testing she (and the passengers) went through, but if this variant gets a hold in this country .....

 

Which why it’s important to get everyone vaccinated.
Vaccines work against all variants so far.

 

The next big project: creating a vaccine (which will effectively consist of a whole bunch of mRNA instructions covering a broad range of proteins) that provides some protection not just against this coronavirus, but against all coronaviruses:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/04/finding-universal-coronavirus-vaccine/618701/

 

Just a little update. Despite having nasty side effects to first dose, I had none to second jab. Good news.

 

That was exactly my experience too Fran. Glad you’re OK.

 

Just heard on the news that they’re saying “the NHS (Serco actually) Track and Trace app will become the COVID passport”
Are they actually serious? I, for one, refuse to have it on my phone due to potential data-sharing issues (no one has given me enough confidence about how the data captured is actually used), plus a good friend installed it on his android phone and it royally ****ed it up so much that he had to wipe it and reinstall everything.
And what about people who don’t have a smartphone?
Is this just about giving their pals more money? Can’t we just get a card from our GP surgery? Perhaps some of the billions paid to Serco for a failed app could be repaid and used for this?

 

Looks like it will be a different app Dave, I like you won’t download the serco app due to a lot of people I know have had lots of cold calls since giving their data over.
Fingers crossed the new app will be more data secured.


Government sources clarified the app would not be the NHS COVID app - currently used to "check in" to venues such as pubs and restaurants for contact-tracing purposes - but would instead be the NHS app used to book general appointments.

 

OK - cheers, Richie. I’m much more relaxed about it in that case, seeing as the NHS (at the moment anyway) already have my data (and, hopefully, despite efforts of certain unscrupulous people, aren’t selling it on .....)

I probably wasn’t listening closely enough - I tend to tune out the news mentally these days ....... Thanks for putting me right!