Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Richard Hakluyt]

Britain continue to weaponise national treasures to encourage people to get the vaccine. This time Elton John and Michael Caine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kHYUq0_0YQ

I'm really pleased that Elton John in his late career is very able to take the piss out of himself

Advert was actually an enjoyable watch 

[Josquius]

Britain continue to weaponise national treasures to encourage people to get the vaccine. This time Elton John and Michael Caine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kHYUq0_0YQ

I'm really pleased that Elton John in his late career is very able to take the piss out of himself

Heh, Caine did 'his bit' that isn't actually his bit.

In better news there are now pretty clear signs that the vaccine is working in Israel:

OK, I have to moan at how they've presented this.
What they're showing is % of the total from the different groups.
Though at first glance it seems there's been a huge spike in cases for younger people whilst older people are getting better.
Using percentages to show the shift from extreme cases to less extreme cases is good, but with the two age groups....Numbers would be better.

[The Larch]

Map on last year's economic downturn in Spain by province. Unsurprisingly enough, the impact has been higher in those regions more dependant on tourism:

[celedhring]

Foreign tourism, to be exact. Lleida for example has a very sizable GDP share coming from tourism (actually larger than Barcelona's) and has dropped significantly less than the Catalan coastal provinces.

[The Larch]

Foreign tourism, to be exact. Lleida for example has a very sizable GDP share coming from tourism (actually larger than Barcelona for example) and has dropped significantly less than the Catalan coastal provinces.

Well, it's not as if ski season has been wonderful anyway, though. 

[celedhring]

Ski season was actually relatively unaffected by Covid, since we locked down in March, with most of the ski season already gone. It's going to be hit hard for 2021 though.

[The Larch]

More queue-jumping shenanigans from Spain, in recent days it's surfacing that quite a few bishops and priests have received the first dose of the vaccine when vaccinating teams were visiting retirement homes. An anonymous whistleblower from Murcia even talks about an entire cavalcade of priests headed by the local bishop arriving to the care home where they were vaccinating the residents and workers, getting vaccinated as well.

Also, due to the Oxford-AZ vaccine having been approved here only for its use in under-55s, the national strategy has been retooled so that essential workers (policemen, firefighters, teachers...) will start getting vaccinated with it now, rather than employing it for older people as originally intended. In other cases, those under-55s who have already had Covid are going to be pushed to the end of the line.

[Sheilbh]

Interestingly on AZ vaccine the WHO have today released something and they recommend it for all age groups (except for children - obvs - no-one's done any studies about that for any vaccine yet I don't think) and that the first dose is most effective after 8-12 weeks which is when the second dose should be administered.

Edit: Also this is potentially very important/possible optimistic news:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/feeling-better-in-2-hours-covid-drug-for-critically-ill-starts-phase-3-trials/

[celedhring]

More queue-jumping shenanigans from Spain, in recent days it's surfacing that quite a few bishops and priests have received the first dose of the vaccine when vaccinating teams were visiting retirement homes. An anonymous whistleblower from Murcia even talks about an entire cavalcade of priests headed by the local bishop arriving to the care home where they were vaccinating the residents and workers, getting vaccinated as well.

Also, due to the Oxford-AZ vaccine having been approved here only for its use in under-55s, the national strategy has been retooled so that essential workers (policemen, firefighters, teachers...) will start getting vaccinated with it now, rather than employing it for older people as originally intended. In other cases, those under-55s who have already had Covid are going to be pushed to the end of the line.

Yesterday I saw an interview with an union representative from the Catalan Fire Department complaining about this idea, since 30% of their personnel is 55+, which I found quite incredible 

[The Larch]

In other news from Spain, a judge in the Basque Country has allowed the region's bars and restaurants to reopen, after they had been ordered to close by the regional government. Some journos dig up some stuff on the judge and apparently he has "No more lockdowns" as his WhatsApp status. 

[The Larch]

More queue-jumping shenanigans from Spain, in recent days it's surfacing that quite a few bishops and priests have received the first dose of the vaccine when vaccinating teams were visiting retirement homes. An anonymous whistleblower from Murcia even talks about an entire cavalcade of priests headed by the local bishop arriving to the care home where they were vaccinating the residents and workers, getting vaccinated as well.

Also, due to the Oxford-AZ vaccine having been approved here only for its use in under-55s, the national strategy has been retooled so that essential workers (policemen, firefighters, teachers...) will start getting vaccinated with it now, rather than employing it for older people as originally intended. In other cases, those under-55s who have already had Covid are going to be pushed to the end of the line.

Yesterday I saw an interview with an union representative from the Catalan Fire Department complaining about this idea, since 30% of their personnel is 55+, which I found quite incredible 

The average age of any group of public workers in Spain is shockingly high. The ban on most new recruiting during the last crisis has really exacerbated this, as barely any new workers have been hired in the last few years. Plenty of teachers will also be excluded by the 55+ limit.

[Sheilbh]

Yesterday I saw an interview with an union representative from the Catalan Fire Department complaining about this idea, since 30% of their personnel is 55+, which I found quite incredible 

Catalonia's finest?


There's a bit of a political brouhaha here over prioritisation. Basically the list has been set by an independent committee and is based on doses per life saved - which I think is right. But that means it's heavily skewed towards age and once the first 4 of 9 categories are complete (over 80s, care home residents, over 70s and health or care home workers) Labour want other front-line public sector workers to be moved up the queue (they focus on teachers) and Priti Patel wants the police bumped up.

It has been pointed out that teachers and police are no more likely to suffer from serious covid than an average of the general public and are far less at risk than the other 5 categories and certain other professions (shop worker, taxi driver, bus driver etc). But it is quite politically popular.

[Sheilbh]

The average age of any group of public workers in Spain is shockingly high. The ban on most new recruiting during the last crisis has really exacerbated this, as barely any new workers have been hired in the last few years. Plenty of teachers will also be excluded by the 55+ limit.

Yes. When I was working in a restaurant in the crisis years I worked with someone who'd just come out of teacher training but couldn't get a job and someone who'd done police training but similarly couldn't find a job. So they were both with me in a restaurant in London

[Jacob]

From all the data I've seen, all the vaccines are effective 100% for preventing hospitalization and death after about a month, no matter the strain.

They are less effective in preventing mild to moderate symptoms.

That's good to know, and good to continue repeating.

[Jacob]

Britain continue to weaponise national treasures to encourage people to get the vaccine. This time Elton John and Michael Caine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kHYUq0_0YQ

I'm really pleased that Elton John in his late career is very able to take the piss out of himself

Yeah