outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

other countries do it why not all of us

I went to the Philippines during flu season. It definitely didn't seem to be everyone. Maybe one in ten people, which is still a lot of people. The flu was bad that year.

I'm not sure if those wearing it were sick but I assumed probably they were or just trying not to get sick.

(2019)

other countries do it why not all of us

Anywhere outside of the Japan/China/Korea and environs though?

San Francisco now over 200,000 with at least one shot; over-65 population about to hit 70% of that, approaching 40% with two doses.

My wife (teacher) should get her second shot next week, I think!

when we say "other countries do it", i don't think "it" is "wear a mask all winter"?

Anywhere outside of the Japan/China/Korea and environs though?

― Wrote For Lunch (Tom D.), Wednesday, March 10, 2021 11:13 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

not to my knowledge but what, is it a bad idea

making waves of controversy in this thread today i see

Personally I still haven't cracked the glasses-fog problem, so I'm unlikely to wear a mask all winter without duress, but it would be awesome if it became normal to wear one for doctor's visits, flights, what have you

i am def talking more about dense urban experiences than your super isolated walk in the park or whatever

I would probably think about it if I was visiting nyc in the winter tbrr

i love wearing a mask, ima mask up forever

I live in a city btw, and I wear a mask until I get to the more empty/quiet part of the neighborhood. I was just agreeing about how good it feels to take off the mask and breathe the air.

Didn't mean to seem like I was gloating about my empty streets.

But I do wonder how much you actually need to wear a mask outdoors, even in dense urban environments. If you're getting on a bus, or the subway, or popping into stores, then yeah, I think it would be cool if we kept carrying masks around for that. But as I understand it, even COVID, which is super-contagious, is very unlikely to spread just from people passing each other unmasked on the sidewalk. I wear a mask outdoors because we're in a pandemic and it's best to err on the side of caution, and because I want to reassure other people that I'm safe and trustworthy. But once this is over, I would think it would make more sense to focus on masking indoors in crowded areas rather than outdoors.

My wife (teacher) should get her second shot next week, I think!

― DJI, Wednesday, March 10, 2021 11:07 AM (fifty-four minutes ago)

Our teachers received codes but have to go to Oakland Coliseum for some reason. What an absolute shitshow.

Crossing the bridge isn't that bad?

Meanwhile most of my friends in biotech (non-lab) have all had at least one vaccination and they are all as inessential as you can imagine, working from home, etc.

But I do wonder how much you actually need to wear a mask outdoors, even in dense urban environments. If you're getting on a bus, or the subway, or popping into stores, then yeah, I think it would be cool if we kept carrying masks around for that. But as I understand it, even COVID, which is super-contagious, is very unlikely to spread just from people passing each other unmasked on the sidewalk. I wear a mask outdoors because we're in a pandemic and it's best to err on the side of caution, and because I want to reassure other people that I'm safe and trustworthy. But once this is over, I would think it would make more sense to focus on masking indoors in crowded areas rather than outdoors.

I would feel weirder and more self-conscious carrying a mask in my pocket and putting it on to walk into Target or wherever than I do just putting it on before I leave my apartment and not taking it off till I get back.

listen sorry for starting this tangent, everyone can do what they want in the after times

i also wasn’t responding to your post directly lily!

If Victoria is anything to go by mask wearing went the minute the mandates ended. Compliance was very good, and came back when mask wearing came back, but I see very little evidence of mask wearing beyond mandatory situations (public transport, taxis.

Our vaccine rollout as poorly as anything else run by the federal government. They bungled procurement and now they are bungling roll out, well behind target an no signs of acceleration. We should give up on federation at this point the federal government has given up on everything. (3 of the cabinet are on sick leave, 2 have gone down with a nasty case not wanting to front the media about alleged rapes)

I'm not judging anyone who wants to keep masking up, I just personally can't wait to not have to do it anymore.

i also wasn’t responding to your post directly lily!

sorry, I know you weren't. idk why I took it personally, i shouldn't have.

everything's heated these days it's ok!! <333

Huge win for vaccines here.

Remember, Israel has a lot of COVID variants going around, including the scary South Africa variant.

Now we find that the Pfizer vaccine blocks 94% of ASYMPTOMATIC infections, even with variants in the mix!https://t.co/eZL9QsqJOZ

— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) March 11, 2021

tite

hell yeah

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yess

Nominating this cinematic masterpiece for an Oscar pic.twitter.com/YgiOpZRw1i

— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen) March 9, 2021

Interesting note today on the SF Covid update page:

https://data.sfgov.org/stories/s/COVID-19-Vaccinations/a49y-jeyc

March 2021 Update: Issues with the California Immunization Registry data system have resulted in the number of vaccinations being underreported since March 2nd. This affects all the dashboards on this page. Data will be updated as soon as these issues are resolved.

Which, great! If we're doing even better than has been reported, bring it on.

And we are down to 37 cases/day average, which is pre-holiday level!

From the SFGov page "vaccine approved for 16+ only" - I guess I've been under a rock, I didn't know that. Are 15yos less vulnerable somehow, or does it just suck to be 15? No driver's license, no vaccine ...

They're still doing trials on younger kids, and they probably won't have access til the fall.

boo

Yeah, that's been the case since the start. But as noted, trials with the currently approved vaccines are well under way.

Our office in Milan sent out notices earlier this afternoon that Milan/Northern Italy will be under stricter lockdown due to a surge in cases (their FOURTH wave iirc).

Trying to find data on vaccination levels...

This says almost a million doses:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1196406/number-of-covid-vaccine-doses-administered-in-italy-by-region/

Population of Milan is 1.4 million
Greater Lombardy population is ~10 million

Corriere says the last 3 days have seen a brutal explosion in cases:

https://www.corriere.it/

yup

Italy reports highest number of new cases since November, most of Italy on lockdown from Monday

- New cases: 26,824
- In hospital: 26,570 (+464)
- In ICU: 2,914 (+55)
- New deaths: 380

— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) March 12, 2021

i think they reopened restaurants recently and vaccine delivery in the EU is generally bad. italy is on 11 doses per 100 people. UK is on 37, US is on 30.

doses per 100 people
brazil 6
argentina 5
chile 33

chile wyd?

They have the Chinese vaccine that didn’t require special handling, didn’t they?

ah. serbia has one of them (i think there are two) and they're on 27 so i guess that makes sense.

100 million achieved in US

Chile is using the Sinovac vaccine (the other one is sinopharm I believe) and yeah,no special handling required.

This is devastating news. Global South countries have been fighting for the right to manufacture and import affordable versions of the covid vaccines. A few hours ago, the USA, UK and European Union joined forces to block them at the WTO. The West is indefensible.

— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) March 12, 2021

Are you fucking kidding me?

I mean yeah, not surprising, but still shocking.

Colonialism is alive and thriving.

You can add Canada to that shameful list:

https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2021/03/10/canada-others-accused-of-blocking-access-to-vaccines-for-poor-countries/

I just read an article in the Economist that talked about Chile's vaccine success, the two key factors they listed were registering early to run large scale trials of vaccines (at least one of the Chinese ones), and a well-run national database of vaccinations that already existed before the pandemic.