outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

just found out my folks are finally in line to get their first shots tomorrow, huge relief on my psyche

great news Ned, Alfred, suzy, and dan! glad to hear more ilxors and/or ilxor family members getting shots.

(thank god I caught the typo before I sent that)

"Thanks, but they prefer pants to shorts."

my folks (mom and stepdad + dad) have all at least gotten their first shots and are scheduled for their second next week. it's pretty cool

woohoo!!!

USA rolling 7-day average deaths per day dropped under 3,000 for the first time since January 8th (32 days ago):

https://i.imgur.com/2Ym5n3G.png

3,265 people died today, which is... staggering.

USA should pass 500k deaths ~Feb 17th. Half of USA COVID deaths occurred in the past three months between Nov 17 - Feb 17.

Good long read on the school dilemma.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/magazine/school-reopenings-rhode-island.html

Yeah, this quagmire becomes less psychically burdensome as the people in my life are getting their jabs. My mom and my gf's parents have all had their first, and we each have a brother in the medical field who's received both.

An open letter was published in Le Monde today calling on governments to stand against the protection of strong intellectual patent laws for the Covid vaccines, as they should be viewed as global public goods.

An English version can be found here.

I agree with that, but I’d go (not that much) further and say every drug is a global public good and none should have patent protection

^^^^

otm.

combine that with full public funding of drug research and I'd be 100% in favor. Also think it would lead to more efficiency in targeting of research toward the most serious and needed areas. Could still allow private companies to deal with more discretionary/lower risk issues.

no private companies would do research without gaining a patent and profit motivation, is the argument that always gets made

BREAKING: World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended Oxford vaccine for over-65s.

— sarahknapton (@sarahknapton) February 10, 2021

agree with others here that it's not just for the rona that we need to end drug patents, but this would be a start.

no private companies would do research without gaining a patent and profit motivation, is the argument that always gets made

― Nhex, Wednesday, February 10, 2021 11:18 AM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean, this is probably true, which is why I said public funding of research. The flipside of the profit motive is that lots of wasteful research gets done, e.g. the development of drugs that are only slight variations on the drug whose patent is about to expire.

There are these things called the NIH and CDC and whatnot

moderna was paid for up front with public money. can’t wait to hear a pharma rep explain why this was actually bad and has led to bad outcomes

Some good news

GOOD NEWS ALERT: Some tentative evidence in the data that the UK #COVID19 vaccination programme is working.
Case fatality rate for over 80s is down over 30% since early Jan.
CFR for under-80s by contrast down 8%
Based on research from @danielhowdon et al.
More on @skynews tonight pic.twitter.com/1736WQbEEZ

— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) February 10, 2021

nice.

I wrote about the kafkaesque experience of navigating grief during a global pandemic for @LRB https://t.co/PFpm9gJfzP

— No-One (@judeinlondon2) February 11, 2021

This sounds promising: https://www.yahoo.com/news/israeli-drug-substantially-alleviates-serious-193541719.html

The drug, Allocetra, treats the extreme overreaction of the body's immune system seen in some severe coronavirus patients, which can sometimes lead to organ failure and death. The phenomenon is known as a "cytokine" storm.

Yes. This is good. The "cytokine" storm phenomenon happens with more diseases than covid-19, but sadly the article doesn't address whether this drug is specific to covid-19 or able to treat patients suffering a "cytokine" storm prompted by other pathogens.

couple of my friends got into the Novovax trial tht started here today, my bro just missed out :(

2 of 3 get the real vaccine, with an opportunity to get later for the other 1/3rd.

interested in that one as they're the one where they think it might actually prevent transmission.

Meanwhile, Neil Tennant's safe!

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/pet-shop-boys-neil-tennant-181224480.html

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/538523-biden-says-us-will-have-enough-doses-to-vaccinate-every-american-by-july?

Microchips for all!

Israel: For the first time in the pandemic, there were fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations this week in the 60 y/o and older age group than in the 60 y/o and younger age group

The 60 y/o and older were first to vaccinate and 91% of them have been infected or vaccinated to date pic.twitter.com/adbHlQE8hx

— Eran Segal (@segal_eran) February 11, 2021

Wow, it's almost as if vaccines work

dat not what da meme said

I think what is not helping the anxiety levels around here is the frustrating lack of coordination in messaging. Our governor announces that they are expanding the eligibility for the current phase (1b), which sounds like a good thing. Except, mere hours later, we get an email from our mayor that basically said, “yes, we saw what the governor said, but that’s not happening here because we are weeks behind and still don’t have enough doses to finish the previous phase”. Of course people are going to be confused and anxious when this is what is going out.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/214693/covid-19-linked-with-wider-symptoms-than

react study reaffirming that the set of covid symptoms the testing system is fixated on is too narrow

Based on these new findings, the researchers estimate that current Pillar 2 testing would pick up around half of all symptomatic infections if everyone eligible were tested. But if the additional symptoms were included, this could be improved to three-quarters of symptomatic infections.

Obviously this will not lead to a change in approach here in uk, if it’s clearly broke don’t fix it is our motto

no one rides the bus any more, but "lockdowns" in the US since spring were not worth the name:

https://i.imgur.com/fpRZ6X2.png

https://covid19.apple.com/mobility

Can’t wait to get my shots so I can ride the bus without having half a panic attack

I miss the bus so much

some countries that actually locked down over winter

https://i.imgur.com/UgndYlT.png

https://i.imgur.com/nQbnjl8.png

could be worse, i suppose

https://i.imgur.com/ZfS7Oqo.png

I went to catch a bus once in November, for the only time since February, and checking the timetable before leaving found that services had been cut so much that walking for 45 minutes got me there at the time the bus would have left my street

Here’s what happens when you unnecessarily and knowingly expose children, school staff and their families to increased risk of infection because you failed to put in place in U.K. schools the scientifically recognised mitigations for all indoor spaces where households mix! https://t.co/sSWR0d8dlH

— SafeEdForAll (@SafeEdForAll_UK) February 12, 2021

I know ppl don't like Eric F-D, but the rush to re-open schools more widely in March (and re-open when not enough if the pop have their vaccines) could still make for the next fuck-up.

it's already happening where I work - we're set to bring in many of the kids by end of March. very frustrating, especially with the new variant becoming dominant right around then, let alone the likely spike happening from the Super Bowl and this coming vacation week.

Many UK schools have been more than a third full throughout this "lockdown" so community transmission has remained high.

The reporting on school is so variable and I can't parse it. It seems dumb to re-open w/o vaccination and teachers are terrified and striking, but an article claims open schools are fine and everyone quotes this for months, but then I heard it reported that the data was bad and some of the schools included in that study WERE ACTUALLY CLOSED at the time their numbers were cited?

Idek

Fwiw https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html

Vaccination not a hard requirement for a lot of these people although honestly at this point it seems churlish not to wait until teachers are vaccinated which could be weeks not months in the UK and US.

another wrinkle - there are teachers who won't get vaccinated, because they're just as foolish as the parents that want to pretend we don't live in a COVID world, which is just awesome. I'm not sure any govt has even attempted to require that teachers get vaccinated