Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Syt]

Sheilbh if they have free beds and don't even try saving over over-75s because "what's the point" that would be pretty damning. Also perhaps somebody then should try and get data on how many of the "what's the point" people are minorities.

It's an opinion you sometimes see in the more primitive comments of opponents of Corona measures, that the virus is only dangerous to the old and "weak" (i.e. people with additional conditions), so that it's actually not so bad.

[Syt]

With the vaccine delivery shortage, Austria now expects to receive 600,000 instead of 2,000,000 doses in the first quarter. Guess this will be another long year.

[Admiral Yi]

AMLO just tested positive.

[Syt]

As of today, FFP2 masks must be worn in public transports, shops etc. Minimum distance is increased from 1 to 2 meters.

Further, all personnel with client contact (e.g. supermarket workers, people working in rest homes, public employees with direct contact with citizens, teaching staff) must be tested on a weekly basis.

[Sheilbh]

Sheilbh if they have free beds and don't even try saving over over-75s because "what's the point" that would be pretty damning. Also perhaps somebody then should try and get data on how many of the "what's the point" people are minorities.

I wouldn't say it's "what's the point" - it's a judgement doctors make all the time over whether individuals can take the treatment (especially when those options are quite limited). Whether the pain and discomfort that they'll need to cause medically is worth it? Can this patient go into the ICU, get invasive treatments like ventilation possibly for weeks and survive?

I just wonder if we're being more broad-brush in our approach to that. It's something I mentioned in the first wave - we are sending far fewer people to ICUs than other countries.

With the vaccine delivery shortage, Austria now expects to receive 600,000 instead of 2,000,000 doses in the first quarter. Guess this will be another long year.

I've seen a little more about this. It sounds really similar to the Pfizer issue - apparently the (I think it's Novasep) factory in Belgium was undergoing work to expand production capacity but isn't ready yet. I almost wonder if it's the same factory.

[celedhring]

As of today, FFP2 masks must be worn in public transports, shops etc. Minimum distance is increased from 1 to 2 meters.

Further, all personnel with client contact (e.g. supermarket workers, people working in rest homes, public employees with direct contact with citizens, teaching staff) must be tested on a weekly basis.

There are some rumblings around here to impose FFP2 masks in places like supermarkets or public transportation (we have an universal mask mandate but doesn't have a certification requirement).

I loathe FFP2 masks but fortunately my trips ouside my apartment are already extremely short 

[Syt]

Guardian cartoon:

[Sheilbh]

UK vaccine numbers hugely down (though still higher than the dips last weekend) so even if there wasn't a saturday effect it definitely looks like there's still a sunday effect.

Also interesting - Merck have stopped their work on vaccine development and are, instead, shifting to therapeutics. Apparently none of their candidates were working as well as the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccines. I think after all of those vaccines announced their results (Johnson & Johnson due very soon) and then approved there's been a sense that this was all inevitable, this is kind of a reminder of just how incredible (and lucky) it is that within a year we have 3-4 working vaccines

[Tamas]

Utter chaos with the Hungarian vaccination "plans" persists.

Latest news tidbit is that after the current round (healthcare workers and care homes) it will be "people aged between 60 and 89" "mainly via visits to their homes by their local GP".

We have like over 2000 people per GP exactly in which decade they intend to be done this way?

[Agelastus]

UK vaccine numbers hugely down (though still higher than the dips last weekend) so even if there wasn't a saturday effect it definitely looks like there's still a sunday effect.

Figures for yesterday? My "heavy showers" turned into over 9 hours of continuous snowfall yesterday. I can't say I'm surprised.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Cases are down a lot; the pressure will start to ease on hospitals soon and then the deaths will come down too. I hope Johnson doesn't crumple and release the lockdown too soon.

[Duque de Bragança]

Hope and Johnson in the same sentence? 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Hope and Johnson in the same sentence? 

Usually it is hopeless for sure 

[Tamas]

Cases are down a lot; the pressure will start to ease on hospitals soon and then the deaths will come down too. I hope Johnson doesn't crumple and release the lockdown too soon.

He already mentioned they might ease off next month, after which some of his press people almost broke their legs rushing in qualifying what he meant is the regularly scheduled review on the 15th, and was not promise to ease.

What a moron.

[Sheilbh]

Figures for yesterday? My "heavy showers" turned into over 9 hours of continuous snowfall yesterday. I can't say I'm surprised.

That's also a very fair point. There was even snow here

Cases are down a lot; the pressure will start to ease on hospitals soon and then the deaths will come down too. I hope Johnson doesn't crumple and release the lockdown too soon.

Yes and the vaccine roll-out is going well. So our approach should be safety first (I think it is plausible, especially if the J&J vaccine is also approved, that we may actually be in a position to lift a lot of restrictions in March). Frankly I don't know what the point is of a Prime Minister is if they've got an 80 seat majority and a policy that is overwhelmingly popular with TORY voters (and the rest of the public), if he crumbles in the face of some minor opposition on the backbenches. It's just so weak.

Edit: And in the interests of fairness I should point out that, after a year of failing to introduce this, the UK is finally introducing mandatory quarantine for arrivals in the country - as has been standard in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea etc. I've just seen a prominent human rights barrister query if any other country in Europe (i.e. signed up to the ECHR) has done this. To my knowledge they haven't - but they've also all got a lot more deaths than the countries that have

It feels like a reasonable limitation on people's rights in the time of a public health crisis.

Edit: Also I've been following the stats from Merseyside which went into a stricter lockdown than most of the country earlier (you may remember it happened just before the Burnham Insurrection) and it is now really striking how low the rate is in most of Merseyside compared to the rest of the country:

Yet again Cheshire is letting the North-West down