COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

  • Thread starter baldgye
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In future, post your sources and don't expect others to do it for you.

These data are in fact genuine, but the fact that you're presenting what is basically just an image without any comment or context (or indeed any sources) makes it is virtually useless - indeed, it is worse than useless, it is deliberately misleading without the proper context.

Of course, the insinuation, as ever with you, is clear nevertheless... and you've been warned about this before. In case that wasn't clear, however, let me warn you now... posts pushing the 'scamdemic' narrative will not be tolerated.

Either put up or shut up... post your evidence, sources, comments and context, or don't bother.
 
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Update: again or still in lockdown here. My last post was in March 2020. I have lost a lot of money even though the government is helping with subsidies. I own or co-own 2 businesses. A 400 seat restaurant and the other a foodhall with about 700 seats (incl terrace. So the lockdowns have been terrible. I put in a lot of money, but I am still hopeful for 2021. There is a finish in sight and I hope 2020 will be a distant memory for everyone.
 
Update: again or still in lockdown here. My last post was in March 2020. I have lost a lot of money even though the government is helping with subsidies. I own or co-own 2 businesses. A 400 seat restaurant and the other a foodhall with about 700 seats (incl terrace. So the lockdowns have been terrible. I put in a lot of money, but I am still hopeful for 2021. There is a finish in sight and I hope 2020 will be a distant memory for everyone.

Glad to see you're around! I had noticed that you hadn't posted since March and I had feared the worst. We've had our differences but I'm genuinely relieved to see that you're okay. I sincerely hope your financial situation turns around and 2021 is a much better year for you.
 
So I guess Oklahoma is on to Phase 2 of their vaccine rollout. I signed up to get in line and see where I would be slotted into the phases. Apparently, I am in Phase 2 and now just waiting for appointments to start opening up.
 
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Personal update; my parents, my sister and the caregiver have all taken sinopharm (a so far. Pfizer weren't available at first until later on. They are fine right now.

It's up to me and my two brothers to decide whatever we should get a vaccine or wait for a while. I honestly wouldn't mind passing up as long as the vaccines go to the right person in need and not some annoying college kids.
 
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Unsure if to post this in here or in the election thread (technically cross-posting so up to you @Scaff or @TB)

Disgraceful behaviour.

These people can't or won't comprehend the fact that rights are universal and are not simply an entitlement to do whatever one pleases.

There's two things at play here: the desire to not be forced to do something against your will by someone else (i.e. wear a mask) and the desire to be protected from potentially lethal harm from other people's behaviour.

Neither of those things are rights - and yet I'm guessing that at least one was argued to be one.

I'm no expert, but my take is that the very concept of rights is based on the fundamental principle that one's behaviour does not strip anyone else of their ability to go about their lives.

In these two examples, it's pretty clear which one ought to prevail if/when they are pitted against each other... asking (or even forcing) someone to wear a mask (at zero cost to them), or protecting people from a potentially lethal infection (and not just the people in the room, but everyone they have to interact with in the next month).
 
Unsure if to post this in here or in the election thread (technically cross-posting so up to you @Scaff or @TB)


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...n-coleman-b1785643.html?utm_source=reddit.com

First positive result has come in from that room. The person getting the positive had previously been vaccinated with 1 of the 2 doses. I wonder how many people in that room had been vaccinated or were between doses. Hopefully the vaccination affords a milder case for her, she's 75.
 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...n-coleman-b1785643.html?utm_source=reddit.com

First positive result has come in from that room. The person getting the positive had previously been vaccinated with 1 of the 2 doses. I wonder how many people in that room had been vaccinated or were between doses. Hopefully the vaccination affords a milder case for her, she's 75.

I think this goes to show that any place that's just doing one dose is going to have a bad time. It also puts a point on the fact that the vaccine distribution needs to be better. While Biden's release everything plan is better than Trump's horde everything plan, I fear that it means people will miss out on their second dose.

Seriously, we need to let Pfizer control their supply and take the government out of the equation since the government can't do anything efficiently. If Pfizer partnered with Walgreens and CVS, we'd see way more vaccination happening.

On that same note, we're being told the health department here will oversee the vaccinations for the public. Since all our data suggests this is not going to go well, we're already putting together a system that can be activated in a couple of hours to get people into our clinics for vaccinations. I mean the health department here thinks two people are enough for contact tracing so I assume they probably think 5 nurses can vaccinate 3.2 million people or something.
 
Figures revealed today in the UK.
  1. Last year saw the largest increase in UK deaths in a single year since 1940, according to provisional ONS figures
  2. In 2020, nearly 697,000 deaths were registered, compared with an average of nearly 606,000 each year between 2015 and 2019
 
Figures revealed today in the UK.
  1. Last year saw the largest increase in UK deaths in a single year since 1940, according to provisional ONS figures
  2. In 2020, nearly 697,000 deaths were registered, compared with an average of nearly 606,000 each year between 2015 and 2019

It's almost like those people who said asinine things like "why are there fewer deaths this year" or "we're not really in a pandemic" were full of absolute bull plop.
 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...n-coleman-b1785643.html?utm_source=reddit.com

First positive result has come in from that room. The person getting the positive had previously been vaccinated with 1 of the 2 doses. I wonder how many people in that room had been vaccinated or were between doses. Hopefully the vaccination affords a milder case for her, she's 75.

Coming back to this one for a moment. If the unmasked people were unvaccinated, it's like they're playing a game of russian roulette (except pointing the gun at everyone else) in that room. I think a reasonable case could be made for criminal negligence.

Figures revealed today in the UK.
  1. Last year saw the largest increase in UK deaths in a single year since 1940, according to provisional ONS figures
  2. In 2020, nearly 697,000 deaths were registered, compared with an average of nearly 606,000 each year between 2015 and 2019

Based on global data, I'm guessing this is the the middle of one of the mildest flu seasons in the history of flu seasons for the UK. COVID-19 measures are absolutely hammering influenza, and if that's all we knew, we'd expect the numbers to be significantly down this year instead of up.
 
That's the Blitz spirit for you :D
I'm not that bombastic.

Coming back to this one for a moment. If the unmasked people were unvaccinated, it's like they're playing a game of russian roulette (except pointing the gun at everyone else) in that room. I think a reasonable case could be made for criminal negligence.

Simplest way in my eyes would be to make it like a privately-owned business in terms of a dress code. Either that, or they agree to meet virtually for those idiots who cannot be bothered to wear a mask.
 
So when do us normal people get their shots? I'm hoping within the next 6 months.
That depends on how efficient your government is at getting it into the arms of hospital staff, care home staff/residents and first responders. As well as how many more vaccines get the nod by summer. I expect that we will be well into the general public by then.
It will also be intriguing to see how the rollout to the general public is handled - lottery system? scramble to sign up on an constantly crashing website? lines around the block at clinics?
 
Our needle wielders are able to vaccinate a million people per week, so we should be able to vaccinate the entire country in 18 weeks. The current limiting factor is the delivery of the vaccines.
 
...While reading up on South Africa's response to the South African strain of this virus, something suddenly struck me as a bit odd.

We are finally getting vaccines rolled out, but what about the drugs to treat the ones already suffering from COVID19? I thought many pharmaceutical companies were hard at work figuring that out?

Not sure if it's just the media's attention currently focused on the vaccines since they are (somewhat) available now, or the research into the potential treatment aren't going well enough to report anything new. I dearly hope it's not the latter, especially when I read that this South African variant kind of resists the cocktail of drugs that the doctors had devised to soften the blow of COVID19 symptoms...
 
We are finally getting vaccines rolled out, but what about the drugs to treat the ones already suffering from COVID19? I thought many pharmaceutical companies were hard at work figuring that out?
Without doing any research into it, I wouldn't hold your breath. Viruses are notoriously hard to treat - any treatments for the common cold are just to alleviate symptoms until your body can do its thing. Influenza treatments are not much better. The problem being that there are not many things you can put in the human body that are detrimental to the virus without being even worse on the host.
Viruses generally resolve when the bodies immune system gets the better of them and vaccines are simply giving the immune system a heads up on what a virus might look like so it can get rid of it quickly.
 
Here's something fun for UK folks; my wife came home from Tenerife before Christmas and had to fill out forms providing her address and contact details to ensure she was able to quarantine for 10 days after arrival. She arrived at the airport with her forms in hand and no matter where she tried to hand them in she was waved through and told not to worry about it. It doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that they're now expected to ensure that arrivals have negative Covid tests!
 
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The UK recorded 1564 new deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus within the last 28 days... that's a new record.

To put that into perspective, that's ~80% higher than the highest US death toll (also recorded today) per capita.

The only saving grace is that the UK's vaccine rollout is gathering momentum, and the national lockdown imposed on the 5th January looks like it might be starting to have some effect, whereas the US may still face the frightening prospect of the so-called 'UK variant' (B.1.1.7) taking hold (or one of the other new variants) and ramping up pressure on an already very strained system.
 
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