Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

I mean that's a five storey house in a nice bit of town with outdoor space. V jealous

[Duque de Bragança]

Well, be my guest then. Who am I to judge? 

[garbon]

London property prices do look set to go down quite a bit. In particular those vast areas of little but office in the centre.... What will become of them?

This is my big question - what happens with all that office space? It won't all become smaller bases plus swing-space/co-working because almost by definition companies won't need as much. But they're not really designed for other types of use so?

As if them being sub-par buildings for residential purposes will prevent them being turned into residential buildings.

I am fairly certain the last 2-stories block of flats we lived in was originally an office building. It wasn't great by any standards but the location was neat.

Yeah my last flat was definitely a converted office. Even had a front door that was that frosted glass panels. Never was short on electrical sockets though.

[garbon]

Interesting - economists looking and mapping the pandemic "Zoomshock" in London. I imagine it's basically the same in all big cities - and just wonder if this ever goes back. It feels unlikely right now.

A lot of that is also aligned with tourist and retail commerce hubs.

Even Greenwich shows a big hit to employment.

[Sheilbh]

Just got an Amazon gift card from my dental insurance because I haven't been able to go to the dentist during lockdown. Nice touch but slightly random

Also some good news on vaccine manufacturing front - Merck have scrapped their two vaccines because they weren't doing great. They're now in talks with other pharma companies and governments to manufacture other vaccines which would be very helpful (especially because Merck are super-experienced at vaccine manufacture).

[Duque de Bragança]

Another spin:

Merck goes Sanofi since its vaccines aren't doing great as well. 

[Sheilbh]

The government and their scientific advisers are emphasising that it's far too soon to see if vaccines are having an impact in the UK. But there are some encouraging signs:



Also from Sam Freedman who was looking at deaths in English hospitals - the percent of deaths in each week being among the over-80s:
Wk of 4th Jan: 55.6%
11th Jan: 54.2%
18th Jan: 53.7%
25th Jan: 53.4%
1st Feb: 51%
8th Feb: 47.6%

[celedhring]

Some very early data from over here was pretty encouraging too, IIRC it similarly pointed to a 30% drop in fatality for vaccinated seniors.

[Admiral Yi]

We can reopen senior citizen nightclubs pretty soon.

[Josquius]

Pretty sure I used to live in a converted office  flat in Switzerland too. It was odd in that my kitchen window opened onto my neighbours private entrance hallway.
Glad to be out of there

Though not all office buildings are so unsuitable. And then there's always the cheaper to knock it down and build something else path we are increasingly heading towards.


In other news.... Does the US have its own eat out to help out thing going on?
I had a us vpn on whilst listening to Spotify and I got an ad about eating local. Not for any particular restaurant. Just eat local.

[Duque de Bragança]

British strain accounting for now 20 to 25 % of new cases in France.

Plus Moselle (near Germany) has uncontrolled clusters of the South African and Brazilian strains, so curfew is no longer obviously enough.

[Sheilbh]

Interesting shift in France - there's some research that basically indicates people getting the Pfizer vaccine don't need a booster shot if they've already had covid. Which makes sense because the first shot probably acts like a booster, right? But goood to have it confirmed.

Anyway, France is moving to single shot Pfizer vaccinations for people who've already had covid which sounds like a good idea as long as you've got decent records of a positive test. I'd be very reluctant to move to this just for everyone who thinks they had "something" last February

But hopefully it might help out with supply - especially because I think (according to the UK government) the next few weeks will be the worst hit by the Belgian factory being refit.

[celedhring]

Our protocol is to delay booster jab 6 months after last confirmed positive test, for those who had Covid. It feels a bit "wait and see" until we have more evidence, I guess.

[DGuller]

Cuomo is in hot water.  Apparently, hiding the death count in nursing homes is a bad thing, especially when you put sick people there yourself.  Or at least having someone admit to it is a bad thing. 

I think we may see a rapid hero-to-zero moment here, and unlike Republicans, Democrats have no problem holding their own to account.  I think Democrats were very wise to not get drunk on Cuomo's hero worship last spring and do something like nominate him to be a veep.

[Razgovory]

I have no problem with tossing Cuomo aside.  Mistakes are forgivable (though the may show someone has such poor judgement that they should not hold office".  Hiding the mistakes is a more serious problem.