outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

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

Where’s Wally?

Ban sports until this over, fwiw.

Hopefully the Alabama Atty Gen was there

A lot to focus on right now but this newsreporter breaking down after being on the scene from 10 hospitals in the Los Angeles area and witnessing the destruction of the pandemic firsthand is quite sobering:

The world is collectively grieving right now, and journalists are working tirelessly to keep the public informed.

This moment of vulnerability is deeply relatable and refreshing to see.

Thank you, @sarasidnerCNN. pic.twitter.com/V9NDxFjtyc

— Alexis Benveniste (@apbenven) January 12, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/tribal-elders-native-americans-coronavirus.html#click=https://t.co/hr8CNJzJ2P

Not exactly comforting information, but helpful

https://www.vox.com/22220301/covid-spread-new-strain-variants-safe-grocery-store-n95-masks-vaccine

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/post-covid-lungs-worse-than-the-worst-smokers-lungs-surgeon-says/

A Texas trauma surgeon says it's rare that X-rays from any of her COVID-19 patients come back without dense scarring. Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall tweeted that, "Post-COVID lungs look worse than any type of terrible smoker's lung we've ever seen. And they collapse. And they clot off. And the shortness of breath lingers on... & on... & on."

We are so completely and utterly fucked.

Err, really? Seems a bit alarmist to me. I mean, I'm sure it happens plenty, but maybe not quite to that extent?

I assume she's talking about patients who are really sick, not just Joe or Jane Mild Symptoms.

Sorry, my comment was in response to Moodles' link about how transmissible the new strain is and how the masks that 90% of the people I see wearing are essentially ineffective.

Josh that's really insensitive and frankly ignorant. My cousin, Ray Mild Symptoms, was in the ICU for a month

No idea you had Greek relatives, TH.

this is probably not the place for me to express contempt toward the way vox articles are written, yet

Inappropriately-placed contempt is an Ilx tradition tho

"Essentially ineffective" is perhaps an overstatement, but it certainly makes sense to encourage people to embrace more effective models

xpost I'm sorry to hear that, Tracer, and I didn't mean to be insensitive. But (again, not trying to be insensitive, honest question!) why would mild symptoms send someone to the ICU? Isn't the ICU for serious stuff, by definition?

am seeing more and more suggestions that this E484/Brazil variant is reinfecting people who had OG Covid, based at least on the level of reinfection in Manaus (which was thought to have reached herd immunity after its first severe outbreak)

Considering the prevalence in Manaus after the first wave, this progression looks almost as if a completely different virus had hit the area. We may really be underestimating the ability of this virus to escape the pre-acquired immune response. https://t.co/54GWeupvvm

— Giorgio Gilestro (@giorgiogilestro) January 14, 2021

That Vox article also seems a bit over the top, although it's clear that you should never linger at the grocery store.

josh...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/health/coronavirus-masks-transmission.html

a little more helpful of an article which I believe the Vox one links to

It's okay k3vin. Ray has had to handle this kind of stereotype his whole life. Assuming he wanted 'Kool Milds' when actually he was a straight Kools guy. etc.

I feel like the Manaus "herd immunity" claims were a bit more nebulous, especially since we don't know how long protection against reinfection lasts.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/study-estimates-76-percent-of-brazilian-city-exposed-to-sars-cov-2-68272