Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

Ramping up across Europe which is great news. And interestingly Europe and the US looking at vaccinating over 12s this summer/autumn (I think there have been trials in the US for approval). I suspect that getting parents vaccinated will sort of break the chains of transmission in schools (there was a UK study released yesterday that a single dose of all the vaccines cuts your risk of getting covid, but even if you get it they also cut household transmission by around 50%) - so kids will still get it but they're low risk. But if we can vaccinate kids as well that would be even better.

[Zanza]

They are doing clinal trials even for 6 months - 12 years old and 9n pregnant women. So once those are concluded, it should be possible to vaccinate almost everybody.

Purely anecdotal: A friend of mine, who occasionally posts conspiracy leaning pics and is very critical about the lovelorn measures is now looking to get vaccinated... I think anti-vax idiots will not stop this.

[Sheilbh]

Purely anecdotal: A friend of mine, who occasionally posts conspiracy leaning pics and is very critical about the lovelorn measures is now looking to get vaccinated... I think anti-vax idiots will not stop this.

Agreed in Europe - even the French up-take figures are great despite the polling. I'm more worried about the US.

[Sheilbh]

Only seen a little bit of a story about this but apparently scientists have been monitoring a few "test" events including allowing fans back into things like the FA Cup, League Cup and Snooker World Championship.

Apparently early results indicate no link to a covid uptick. So it feels increasingly likely that we will get fans back in stadiums (not sure in what numbers) before the end of this season and may be - as planned - back to normal with major events by this summer.

[crazy canuck]

So the good news - BC has once again bent the curve.  The bad news - the bend is a bit of a statistical mirage.  We have all but eliminated original COVID.  90% of cases are now a variant.  The curve for variant infections has not bent and remains constant.

The really bad news.  They have now traced the source of most of the variant infections to Whistler.  If they had just shut that down BEFORE the rest of the country had their spring breaks we would only have had the Albertans bringing in their infections to deal with.   But we had trusty signs politely telling Albertans to turn back at the border to deal with that problem 

[celedhring]

Yesterday was the first day where Germany vaccinated more than one million persons (1st + 2nd dose combined), about 1.3% of the population. Finally some progress.

Yeah, yesterday we vaccinated 1% of the population for the first time, too. Supply is getting much better.

Incidentally, getting a shot to 1% of a country's population in a single day seems a pretty big deal to me. The power of a modern state is truly a thing to behold.

[Grey Fox]

Pfizer Canada says that starting in May, Canadian supply of the vaccines will come from the Kalamazoo, Michigan plant.

Thanks Berkut.

[Zanza]

Supply seems much better now indeed. The last two days together were more than two million in Germany or 2.4% of population. My company will start vaccinations on site in our factories soon. Also Germany now seems to be able to use close to 100% of delivered vaccines within the week after delivery, which seems good enough.

And BioNTech/Pfizer have now started the approval process for 12-16 year old persons with EMA, so in late summer we should be able to vaccinate this group too.

[Sheilbh]

Supply seems much better now indeed. The last two days together were more than two million in Germany or 2.4% of population. My company will start vaccinations on site in our factories soon.

And BioNTech/Pfizer have now started the approval process for 12-16 year old persons with EMA, so in late summer we should be able to vaccinate this group too.

Yeah - I understand that the UK is similarly expecting to ramp things up in May. I think we're now up to people in their 40s and the expectation is that vaccinations will open up to people in their 30s through May. So I think the expectation is supply is increasing across the board and there are exports starting from the US too (I think first to Mexico and Canada).

I swear early on in this I read something about basically things being tight until May, with April possibly being the most constrained month, but then supply should take off - it certainly feels like that's what's happening.

Of course the big global exception is that, for entirely understandable reasons, India is not able to supply the vaccines that have been promised to Covax and I wonder if there's anything Western countries can do to force the manufacturers in those locations to give equal priority to Covax as their paid orders.? I think the previous model was basically that India would manufacture for Covax and the factories in the ROTW were for higher income paying countries - given the situation in India that's not going to work because they need the vaccines themselves and I don't want Covax to fall victim to that.

[Barrister]

Alberta did in fact yesterday hit our all-time high mark for both single day and total number of infections.

Premier Kenney did respond - by officially having grades 7-12 go online-only (most school boards had already ordered that) and closing indoor fitness activities.  So the boys hockey (which was only practices anyways) is again on hold.

[crazy canuck]

Alberta did in fact yesterday hit our all-time high mark for both single day and total number of infections.

Premier Kenney did respond - by officially having grades 7-12 go online-only (most school boards had already ordered that) and closing indoor fitness activities.  So the boys hockey (which was only practices anyways) is again on hold.

This morning I heard the Calgary Mayor say that the infection rates in that city were worse than India.

[alfred russel]

Alberta did in fact yesterday hit our all-time high mark for both single day and total number of infections.

Premier Kenney did respond - by officially having grades 7-12 go online-only (most school boards had already ordered that) and closing indoor fitness activities.  So the boys hockey (which was only practices anyways) is again on hold.

This morning I heard the Calgary Mayor say that the infection rates in that city were worse than India.

I've been seeing that type of comparison (first world place is worse than India right now!), which is potentially not true considering the testing regimes are significantly different.

[crazy canuck]

Alberta did in fact yesterday hit our all-time high mark for both single day and total number of infections.

Premier Kenney did respond - by officially having grades 7-12 go online-only (most school boards had already ordered that) and closing indoor fitness activities.  So the boys hockey (which was only practices anyways) is again on hold.

This morning I heard the Calgary Mayor say that the infection rates in that city were worse than India.

I've been seeing that type of comparison (first world place is worse than India right now!), which is potentially not true considering the testing regimes are significantly different.

Perhaps more to the point Calgary has state of the art medical facilities - so not at all the impact that is currently being suffered in India.

[Barrister]

Alberta did in fact yesterday hit our all-time high mark for both single day and total number of infections.

Premier Kenney did respond - by officially having grades 7-12 go online-only (most school boards had already ordered that) and closing indoor fitness activities.  So the boys hockey (which was only practices anyways) is again on hold.

This morning I heard the Calgary Mayor say that the infection rates in that city were worse than India.

I've been seeing that type of comparison (first world place is worse than India right now!), which is potentially not true considering the testing regimes are significantly different.

Perhaps more to the point Calgary has state of the art medical facilities - so not at all the impact that is currently being suffered in India.

While not enough, Calgary also has a significant % of its population having received at least one dose, and the most critically at risk have received both.

[crazy canuck]

Alberta did in fact yesterday hit our all-time high mark for both single day and total number of infections.

Premier Kenney did respond - by officially having grades 7-12 go online-only (most school boards had already ordered that) and closing indoor fitness activities.  So the boys hockey (which was only practices anyways) is again on hold.

This morning I heard the Calgary Mayor say that the infection rates in that city were worse than India.

I've been seeing that type of comparison (first world place is worse than India right now!), which is potentially not true considering the testing regimes are significantly different.

Perhaps more to the point Calgary has state of the art medical facilities - so not at all the impact that is currently being suffered in India.

While not enough, Calgary also has a significant % of its population having received at least one dose, and the most critically at risk have received both.

That is good news.  I was surprised to hear him make that statement.  Seemed awfully tone deaf.