Off Topic Coronavirus

Just pray for a late hat-trick...

 

Absolutely... .
So if one person is killed by a slipping on a banana in 2019 but 5 in 2020..
That is a 500% increase...and such shocking facts would certainly make me rush out and ban bananas..

Even though it is only 5/5000000...it is only 0.00001% of the UK population

 

With respect didn’t he say that out of in-hospital admissions the death rate remained the same ? But the increase was in regard to total infections ?
So saying that the increased death rate in KNOWN infections is 1.3% in the new strain, whereas in the old it’s 1%....But then if that’s the case then surely the total people actually infected will never be known.....so the ACTUAL death rate increase (.3%) should be far lower.

Forgive me for being “glass half full” but I fail to see how even a .3% death rate (if that’s the correct figure) is of any major concern at this time...especially if, as I think he said, both are responding well to the vaccine.

 

Then using your anecdote I would say, with respect, you were being a bit silly in even contemplating banning bananas.
You make my case in my mind even firmer.

 

Positivity is anti-social, Stainesy. We must remain scared ****less.

 

To be honest Strolls, I get why they might be trying to scare the public, and if it gets the average ‘Sun reader’ to take a bit more care then great....however I personally just don’t get the panic of .3% increase in the new strain.
We’re at the end game now......let’s keep going

 

Correct Stainsey, you've got it..you got my point entirely... It is how you express the results
Is it a 30% increase or a 0.3%.
Well actually it's both.

Now shall we be positive or negative about this...

I want you to stay at home and not leave your home it 30% increase.

I want you not to worry ...it's only a 0.3%

There are lies, damned lies and statistics...

 

So it’s a case of looking at the shock/horror emotive headlines of it being 30% more deadly.....

Or being logical and understanding it’s only .3% more deadly in real terms.

Phew.......at least I wasn’t missing anything.
Just going to have a banana......I’ll dispose of the skin carefully

 

I personally don't want to die, of any sort of variant ...and with over 1000 people dying a day ( my second friend died yesterday) I dont want to come out of my cocoon until I have had two jabs...
The vaccine roll out seems to be going pretty good...and it is now a matter of time until it gets to me and you..

And so I am being careful...and not going to any raves, orthodox Jewish weddings or street parties

 

And to nail.it down further, he was very specific, the statistics he pointed out were for a 60 year old male....so could it be less severe for younger, more severe for older? He didn't expand upon that, so we only know the headline figures

 

60 year old male? Oh ****ing great.

 

Probably high BP would be a factor as well I’d reckon......co-morbidities and all that

 

Sb, your now the yardstick for the establishment.
I’m glad l’m only 59 years and eight months and so on.

 

Four months until you get to codger level

 

But l’m still so sprightly and youthful looking.
Looks like it must all turns pear shape in June.

 

60 is the new 40
Make sure you are tucked up with a nice cup of cocoa by 10 though

 

Countries threaten to sue as EU Covid vaccine woes increase
14:09 pm on 23 January 2021

A second coronavirus vaccine manufacturer has warned of supply issues, frustrating European Union efforts to distribute the jab.

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Photo: Verwendung weltweit/ AFP

UK drug-maker AstraZeneca said a production issue meant initial volumes would be lower than anticipated.

The European Commission said it was trying to obtain more information.

This comes on top of a halt to vaccinations in some parts of Europe due to a cut in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

AstraZeneca, which developed its vaccine with Oxford University, disclosed the situation in a statement, but gave few details.

"Initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain," it said.

Reuters news agency quotes an unnamed EU official as saying that the company had told the EU that the supply would reduce to 31 million - a cut of 60 percent - the number of doses it could deliver to the bloc in the first quarter of this year.

Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, Astra-Zeneca's product is yet to be approved by the EU's drug regulator, though this is expected at the end of this month.

AstraZeneca has signed a deal with the EU to provide at least 300 million doses of its vaccine.

Austrian media have reported that only 600,000 of two million AstraZeneca doses promised by the end of March will arrive in the country on time, with the remaining 1.4m now being delivered in April.

A delay would be "completely unacceptable", Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said.

Threats of legal actions
As for Pfizer, the US firm said it had to cut shipments for the next few weeks while it worked to increase capacity at its Belgian processing plant. The EU has ordered 600 million doses from Pfizer.

The Pfizer cuts have forced Germany's most populous state, North-Rhine Westphalia, and several regions in Italy to suspend first jabs. Vaccinations for medics in Madrid have been halted too.

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Fatima Negrini, who is 108, receives her vaccine at a resthome in Milan, in Italy. Photo: AFP / Kos Group

Italy and Poland have threatened to take legal action in response to the reduction in vaccines.

Meanwhile, cases in many European countries are surging. Germany has reached 50,000 Covid deaths and Spain has seen record infections in recent weeks.

Hungary's government, which has complained at slow EU approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has reached a deal with Russia to buy up large quantities of the Sputnik V vaccine, even though it has not received EU approval.

How Europe has been hit by vaccine delays
Italy has been told to expect a a 20 percent cut in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next week - it has already seen a 29 percent dip this week - and Rome is considering legal action. Some Italian regions have seen a 60 percent fall in doses.

Germany, where BioNTech is based, has had several states struggle with vaccine deliveries. North Rhine-Westphalia, in the west, halted jabs in hospitals on Tuesday and paused first vaccinations in nursing homes too. Second vaccinations are continuing but special centres for the over-80s will not open now until next month.

Authorities in and around the Spanish capital Madrid have temporarily stopped vaccinating healthcare personnel this week, saying they had only received half the doses they were expecting. The national government is rationing distribution until Pfizer's deliveries improve. Spain reported a record 44,357 cases in one day on Thursday.

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A healthcare worker in Madrid receives his vaccination earlier this month. Photo: AFP

Romania has warned that its vaccine stocks could be down to almost zero by the end of the first week of February. The Czech government has warned that the reduction in distribution has created "huge complications".

Poland, which began by vaccinating healthcare workers and moved to care homes this week, saw a 50 percent drop in the number of vaccines delivered this week. Ministers say they have been promised normal service by mid-February. If that is not the case, Warsaw says it would consider legal action.

France requires negative test for arrivals
EU leaders agreed late on Thursday to keep their internal borders open but warned that restricting non-essential travel may be needed to curb the spread of the virus.

France has said it will impose tighter travel restrictions for European arrivals from Sunday night, requiring a negative PCR test within three days of travel. Health Minister Olivier Véran has appealed to people to stop using home-made fabric masks - health officials are recommending that medical masks are worn instead.

Belgium is to ban non-essential travel for Belgian residents from late January to 1 March, other than for people living in border areas to go shopping. Anyone making an "essential" trip that lasts more than 48 hours will have to self-isolate and take two Covid tests after they return.

Denmark, meanwhile, is suspending flights from the UAE for five days because of a tip-off suggesting that pre-flight tests are unreliable. Denmark requires all air passengers to have tests taken in the 24 hours before a flight.

The total number of German Covid deaths climbed above 50,000 on Friday, but the number of infections has fallen in the past week. Leading virologist Christian Drosten has warned Germans that as increasing numbers get vaccinated there will be growing pressure to curb restrictions. "Then we won't be talking in terms of 20,000 or 30,000 infections a day but in the worst case scenario 100,000," he told Spiegel magazine.

- BBC

 

BMA raising concerns about the government's vaccine strategy, urging that the gap between Pfizer doses be reduced from twelve to six weeks.

 

A genuine question......What’s people’s opinion on here about smashing out the first dose of vaccines first and extending the next dose to 12 weeks ?
So many different opinions on social media, Twitter etc and I really don’t know what to think.
My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that it’s a good thing (but now wavering).....better to get 1000 people 50% safe rather than 500 people 90% safe (figures just made roughly).....that’s what logic says to me. Am I being too simplistic ?

 

I have tried to stay off this topic because it winds me up. Social media and Twitter probably not the places for an authoritative debate either (including here).

every single practising doctor, including my kidney consultant who I saw a few minutes ago, I have spoken to (and it’s a dozen or so) thinks there is absolutely no sensible reason to delay the second jab of the Pfizer vaccine. As far as I know no other country is following this approach. There is no evidence to support it. The AZ vaccine is a bit different, and the trial data so chaotic and poorly presented, so a delay to 12 weeks might actually be better, but it’s very hard to tell.

The argument is partial mass protection v stronger protection for fewer people. Given that the fewer people are by definition the most vulnerable, the ones with a much higher chance of ending up in hospital for a long time, I support stronger protection for the vulnerable.

But I’m pretty sure that either way, we will be facing another wave of this **** in the autumn, when we will probably need an upgraded vaccine(s) for whatever strains are circulating then. The key will be reducing hospitalisations to a manageable level.

On a slightly more positive note, having read the ‘evidence’ behind this ‘new strain is more deadly’ stuff, it really is weak, 6 out of 10 studies hint at this, but the results of these are incredibly variable and based on very small numbers. It might be more deadly, but I suspect the levels of deaths can be easily explained by the increased number of cases due to the increased infectiousness, which I still don’t understand - I mean I understand the statistics but not the mechanics of why it is more infectious.