outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

The Sainsbury's round the corner from me had queues snaking round the car park in the spring, now the bit we all stood in is being dug up for what I guess is an extension to the shop and there's no entry restrictions whatsoever. I was in there just before NYE and it was like first day of the sales, just unsafe bedlam. Pretty much everyone does wear masks though, although if more than a few stop doing so I can see that whole system breaking down too.

PS Today's confirmed UK infections: 68,053. Confirmed deaths: 1,325. Still, we're all just muddling through.

a work colleague (who I really don't like that much) posted a long screed on FB about getting kicked out of a Papa Murphy's because he didn't wear a mask (he apparently has a medical reason, but he's also a huge Trump idiot who's been truthering Covid from Day 1 so who knows how legit that is), it sounds like he raised hell and now is gonna take it to corporate. bottom line, if I was still working at Burger King for $7 an hour I don't think I'd bother trying to boot out these idiots knowing the scene that is likely to ensue. I can't imagine having a dude screaming at you is safer than just giving him his damn Whopper Combo

ARE there any legitimate medical reasons not to wear a mask?

ARE there any legitimate medical reasons not to wear a mask?

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Friday, January 8, 2021 1:30 PM (one minute ago)

the short answer is not really aside from claustrophobia

Some who have been raped find it traumatizing:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/10/survivors-say-they-are-being-stigmatised-for-not-wearing-masks

Hmmm. Well, no matter what, not wearing a mask is a public health danger even if you have a defensible reason, so the thing to do is to let stores bring your purchases to you outdoors for everyone's protection.

^^

that new rochelle tweet was deleted, wondering if there was other confirmation for that?

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/01/08/montefiore-new-rochelle-sanctions-ineligible-vaccinations-covid-investigation/6593444002/

the city that never sleeps! enjoy your weekend!

BREAKING: @NYGovCuomo announces vaccination for priority group 1B will start next week.

Will include:
* People aged 75+
* Add'l groups of essential workers: 1st responders (police, fire), transit workers, education workers

Distribution via pharmacies, doctor networks, unions

— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) January 8, 2021

My state has published this PDF of colorful circles and forecasted timing for various subphases of phase 1

Wow what an ambitious plan.

:/

pareene’s essay today was spot-on. expand criteria now

https://newrepublic.com/article/160810/2000-stimulus-checks-vaccine-rollout-democrats

This… does not look good:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-08/covid-patients-symptoms-persist-six-months-in-foreboding-study

That said, those affected were all hospitalized at some point.

yeah for sure it is scary but i feel like it’s probably the case that anybody hospitalised for any viral infection is probably in for a tough time for awhile? partic if you are an oldie which i’m assuming most of these were

median age 57 but not much other info. guessing most of the people with lingering issues tended to fall above that mark

median specifically means that half the people were younger than 57.

Beyond that, the study adds credence to worries about the possibility of reinfections among those who have recovered. The researchers analyzed levels of neutralizing antibodies -- immune proteins that the body normally makes in response to viruses that can ward off repeat illness. In a group of 94 patients, levels of these antibodies fell by an average of 53% during the six-month study period after their sickness peaked.

aimless half the people in the study were under 57

half were over

75% of all the people reported at least one lingering symptom

given what we know about how younger and older people deal with this disease i would be very surprised if that 75% were distributed equally along all the age cohorts in the study

literally the only good thing i could say about ukgov’s handling of this whole thing:

People vaccinated

First dose total
1,296,432

Second dose total
21,313

They’ve just approved Moderna as well but won’t get doses until March at earliest so possibly most of us will be getting that one?

is there anything to read about why it’s going so well relative to other countries? france has vaccinated something like 7000 people.

14m need both doses before lockdown in the UK can be lifted iirc, or at least that’s the story right now. the goalposts will likely be moved!

France is the most anti-vaxxer country in the world, which may have something to do with it…

A more serious answer is to be found here:

https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2021/01/04/covid-19-six-questions-pour-comprendre-les-lenteurs-de-la-vaccination-en-france_6065175_4355770.html

Speaking of which, my FIL is now ranting about chemtrails. Verily he hath ascended.

xxp Those figures are a couple of days old now too so hopefully will be ramping up. I think Boris said the vaccine data would be updated daily starting Monday.

(UK figures I mean)

Pom, chemtrails are my favorite tinfoil hat thing. At the hippie grocery store where I work a few years back, there were a lot of true believers, but my favorite was the guy with the shirt that read WHAT ARE THEY SPRAYING? on the back. I about lost my mind when I saw that.

That and the "4/20 STOP THE CHEMTRAILS" show at the big city park.

I loved living in that town because it was so beautiful and it made me feel so sane and normal. Wish those people weren't so racist.

It's not a particularly right-wing conspiracy theory and my FIL is very much on the opposite end of the spectrum, politically speaking, but he's been lapping this shit up while hanging out with his equally covidiotic brother, who is also very much left-leaning except when it comes to… well, the Jews. It always comes back to the Jews with these people, and it's unfortunately not just a right-wing brainworm, so I wouldn't be shocked if my FIL suddenly got on that bandwagon despite all other signs firmly pointing to the contrary (up until the start of the pandemic, at least).

Anyway, sorry for going a bit off-topic here, but with 42% of the French population outright refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 despite having access to an excellent public healthcare system – head and shoulders above our stingy equivalent here in Quebec – France is fucked for the foreseeable future. Given the sheer amount of Luddites in that country, I expect ecofascism to make a killing there in a decade or so.

post-hospital syndome is a real entity that is studied but how much of that is specifically being in the hospital or having a particular reason for being in the hospital vs being a person who is more likely than average to be hospitalized is unclear iirc. being in the hospital definitely sucks though it's a truly awful experience generally and especially now that we don't let people have visitors

It's not a particularly right-wing conspiracy theory and my FIL is very much on the opposite end of the spectrum, politically speaking, but he's been lapping this shit up while hanging out with his equally covidiotic brother, who is also very much left-leaning except when it comes to… well, the Jews.

Japan is also highly vaccine hesitant.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/why-japan-has-one-of-the-world-s-lowest-vaccine-confidence-rates-20201223-p56pvd.html?btis

That is not surprising, they think the west is overly vaccinated in general.

Ben Goldacre needs to fucking not

The year has just started but we may already have a strong contender for the 2021 'Golden Covid Awards' in the 'tone-deaf' category ... https://t.co/PaF2lnFRtL

— Prof Francois Balloux (@BallouxFrancois) January 10, 2021

literally the only good thing i could say about ukgov’s handling of this whole thing:

People vaccinated

First dose total
1,296,432

Second dose total
21,313

They’ve just approved Moderna as well but won’t get doses until March at earliest so possibly most of us will be getting that one?

― scampish inquisition (gyac), Saturday, January 9, 2021 4:13 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I got my first dose last Thursday and the hospital where I work has already given 2000 staff theirs.

In case anyone is wondering the only side effects I've had are sore arm and maybe fatigue but it's winter and I'm in hibernation mode so idk if the fatigue is related or not tbh.

tbf Goldacre did follow up apologising.
congrats ENBB!

i had a letter from nhs yesterday suggesting i go get vaccinated...

...for the flu.

(am in very bottom category of the people they have categorised so i'm not expecting anything any time soon)

It took until the end of November for the UK to hit a million cases. Yesterday we passed three million.

It's a race to see whether we reach herd immunity via vaccination or infection!

Growing frustration in Germany over slow vaccine rollout
People in Germany are growing increasingly frustrated by the slow rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine its scientists helped develop, Reuters reports.

Scarce vaccine supply, cumbersome paperwork, a lack of healthcare staff and an aged and immobile population are hampering efforts to get early doses of a vaccine made by US-based Pfizer and German partner BioNTech into the arms of the people.

Germany has set up hundreds of vaccination centres in sports halls and concert arenas and has the infrastructure to administer up to 300,000 shots a day, health minister Jens Spahn said.

But the majority are standing empty, with most states not planning to open centres until mid-January as they prioritise sending mobile teams into care homes. A day spent with a vaccination team in the small town of Dillenburg, 100 km (60 miles) to the north of Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt, shows just how painstaking the task is.

The team starts out by loading a cool-box containing 84 doses of the Pfizer vaccine defrosted overnight into a waiting ambulance, and setting out for the Elisabeth residential care home.

There they are met by manager Peter Bittermann, who has already dealt with the forms needed to vaccinate residents and staff, and provided space for the shots to be administered and recipients monitored post-vaccination.

The four-member immunisation team, plus two trainees, has just a few hours to dispense the temperature-sensitive Pfizer vaccine before it is no longer fit for use.

The German Red Cross needs an extra 350 people to run its local vaccination campaign, said Nicole Fey, spokeswoman of the local district administration.
“We’ve been able to recruit some, but there can never be enough,” she told Reuters TV.
In the first two weeks of its vaccination drive Germany has given 533,000 shots, just two-fifths of the 1.3 million doses received. The UK, by contrast, has reached the 2 million mark.

Israel, the world leader in terms of the share of population covered, is inoculating 150,000 people daily, with its universal and digitally enabled healthcare system making it easier to schedule appointments.

Germany’s larger size and federal set-up are complicating operations, a problem also faced in the US. Elsewhere in Europe, the decentralisation of Spain’s vaccination operation has exposed differences between regions and led to tensions with the central government.

(from The Guardian)

Belgium isn't much better - February: retirement home residents, March: medical personnel, April: 65+, May: people with lung diseases etc, June: start with the rest of the population

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErbyfspXEAEK2aR?format=jpg&name=medium

succinct

I was lying in bed awake in the darkness this morning and started enumerating all the deadly new diseases that have emerged during my lifetime. I came up with: HIV-AIDS, ebola, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (aka 'mad cow'), hantavirus, Legionnaire's Disease, avian influenza H5N1 (aka 'bird flu'), SARS, MERS, SARS-CoV-2 (aka 'COVID-19'). Nine new and fatal diseases. I'm sure there have been more, but these killed enough people to make headlines.

better than counting sheep

Hooboy.

Newsom says stay-at-home order will likely be extended for most of California given lack of ICU capacity. Bay Area now at 0.7% capacity. pic.twitter.com/LbnkcEX07U

— Dustin Gardiner (@dustingardiner) January 11, 2021

(also swine flu H1N1, 2009)

What this tweet forgot to tell you: ~92-95% of those who are vaccinated are Jews and ~5-8% Palestinans/Syrians. And from the population of +60, only 2-5% of Palestinians/Syrians recived it.

0% from Palestinians in Gaza and the WB

Medical apartheid https://t.co/9F9qgx2bCF

— Marvin 🇵🇸 مارفن (@42M4rvin) January 11, 2021

Tuscaloosa tonight. pic.twitter.com/1rQhydSH6z

— Alina Stefanescu (@aliner) January 12, 2021