Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Richard Hakluyt]

What the hell are you doing up there? Are meat pies such a strong mutagen? 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/15/32-cases-of-latest-covid-variant-of-concern-found-in-uk

New Covid variant with potentially worrying mutations found in UK

A lot of sequencing is probably part of it. I think there's currently a push to sequencing every case.

I've got no problem with that.  They don't have to find a vein or anything complicated.  Just shove it in and push the plunger.

I thought the Pfizer vaccine was a little complicated, but that the AZ one is basically like an epi-pen. As you say it's not complex.

Edit: Really want a pie now

I got distracted by viper and the boiled meat but this is worrying. Apparently the UK does a very high proportion of the world's genomic sequencing of the virus. Hence the detection of variants here. But, if the variants occur roughly at random and in proportion to the number of infected people, there must be a large number of undetected variants out there. One of these variants could easily be highly transmissible and more lethal than the current dominant variants. The longer the virus is left to reproduce unhindered the more likely a dangerous variant will arise. It really is a world problem and the rich world needs to help the poor world if only out of self interest.

[Agelastus]

I don't get this at all; my people roasted or fried everything, with casseroles putting in an appearance sometime in the 1970s as a posh French way of cooking. Perhaps there was regional variation? And who was the evil person giving you boiled chicken in Quebec? Was there a rogue outpost of the British Council trying to subvert Quebecois culture  ?

Right? It's strange.

I don't think I've ever seen or eaten boiled meat - maybe a boiled gammon. Plenty of stews like scouse but they are braised

Other than stews the only meat I have ever bought specifically for the boiling cooking method are lamb shanks; you should try them (as the article posted by Garbon suggests.)

[Sheilbh]

I got distracted by viper and the boiled meat but this is worrying. Apparently the UK does a very high proportion of the world's genomic sequencing of the virus. Hence the detection of variants here. But, if the variants occur roughly at random and in proportion to the number of infected people, there must be a large number of undetected variants out there. One of these variants could easily be highly transmissible and more lethal than the current dominant variants. The longer the virus is left to reproduce unhindered the more likely a dangerous variant will arise. It really is a world problem and the rich world needs to help the poor world if only out of self interest.

Yeah. It's why I think the only long-term soluion will be a global vaccination push. Otherwise we'll either have long term travel restrictions - probably on developing countries that have not been able to have a vaccine program - or we'll just be playing whack-a-mole for new variants. Unless a treatment emerges - which I think we would need to make affordable for the rest of the world.

I don't think it's possible to vaccinate everyone in 2021, because manufacturing is still ramping up - so that interview with the CEO in India they're aiming to manufacture 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 which is huge (and now authorised for sale anywhere by the WHO), but not enough. Hopefully 2022 we'll have lots of factories capable of making the billions of doses needed and any variant-specific booster shots. I feel like I read recently that vaccine manufacture is now starting in Latin America.

I feel like at this point we should focus on Europe and the Americas because we've failed at controlling the disease so it's where the infections are so, on average, presumably where the variants will be emerging?

Edit:

Other than stews the only meat I have ever bought specifically for the boiling cooking method are lamb shanks; you should try them (as the article posted by Garbon suggests.)

I don't cook meat if it's not in a stew or a curry etc I don't know how and don't trust myself and am not a big enough fan to learn.

I am pretty good at cooking fish though

[The Larch]

(and now authorised for sale anywhere by the WHO)

Huh? I don't think the WHO has the authority for giving the ok to drug sales. Where do you take that from?

[Sheilbh]

(and now authorised for sale anywhere by the WHO)

Huh? I don't think the WHO has the authority for giving the ok to drug sales. Where do you take that from?

Yeah I probably mis-phrased. I think it's a procedure to grant emergency licences, largely in a crisis, for countries that don't necessarily have their own regulators/much regulator resource.

They've authorised it for emergency use from a couple of sites (including India) so the 70 million doses (expiring April) sat in India can be exported. I think it's mainly a big deal for developing countries who are not a priority in making applications for the vaccines and might not have the resource to do a formal review of multiple massive trials.

I think it's only the second time they've done it - they authorised Pfizer in the same way in December.

[The Larch]

(and now authorised for sale anywhere by the WHO)

Huh? I don't think the WHO has the authority for giving the ok to drug sales. Where do you take that from?

Yeah I probably mis-phrased. I think it's a procedure to grant emergency licences, largely in a crisis, for countries that don't necessarily have their own regulators/much regulator resource.

They've authorised it for emergency use from a couple of sites (including India) so the 70 million doses (expiring April) sat in India can be exported. I think it's mainly a big deal for developing countries who are not a priority in making applications for the vaccines and might not have the resource to do a formal review of multiple massive trials.

I think it's only the second time they've done it - they authorised Pfizer in the same way in December.

Ok, that might be more like it, yeah. There's now ay the WHO can override the FDA or the EMA.

[Sheilbh]

Ok, that might be more like it, yeah. There's now ay the WHO can override the FDA or the EMA.

No absolutely I think you have to choose to accept the WHO decisions and, as you say, there's no way Europe or the US would. But it's probably super helpful for the countries in the Covax program for example if the WHO can issue these sort of decisions and they can just accept.

[The Larch]

Ok, that might be more like it, yeah. There's now ay the WHO can override the FDA or the EMA.

No absolutely I think you have to choose to accept the WHO decisions and, as you say, there's no way Europe or the US would. But it's probably super helpful for the countries in the Covax program for example if the WHO can issue these sort of decisions and they can just accept.

Yes, as you say this might be relevant for developing/3rd world countries that don't have those capabilities.

[The Larch]

No issues with boiled meat. My mom makes killer carn d'olla.

That's like a cocido, right? It's not my favourite winter "spoon dish" (Fabada  ), as the meats tend to have most of the flavour taken away during the boiling itself, but man the soup is fantastic.

On boiling and English cuisine, from wiki:

Boiled beef is a traditional English dish which used to be eaten by working-class people in London; however, its popularity has decreased in recent years. Traditionally, cheaper cuts of meat were used; boiling makes the meat more tender than roasting. It was usually cooked with onions and served with carrots and boiled potatoes. It was not uncommon for the beef to be salted in a brine for a few days, then soaked overnight to remove excess salt before it was boiled. In other parts of England cabbage replaced carrots.

This dish gave rise to the old cockney song "Boiled Beef and Carrots" which used to be sung in some East London pubs when they had a pianist and singsong night.

[Maladict]

Flexible when it comes to the law?

I don't know Dutch law, but FWIW it sounds perfectly within the realm of the possible that the current emergency doesn't meet the legal requirement for a nationwidw 9PM curfew.

That's about it, yes. The court ruled that a curfew has such a far-reaching impact on the right to free movement and on privacy that it requires 'extremely careful decision making'. However, for the introduction of the curfew, the government used emergency powers legislation which does not require the consent of parliament. The court said that parliament should have been consulted because there was no 'special urgency' – to introduce the curfew when it did.

The extremely careful decision making quoted also proved to be a hurdle in making masks mandatory in public spaces. It took months to get it done, up until late 2020 it could only be strongly advised. We do like our bureaucracy 

In a way I'm glad privacy issues cannot be brushed aside, even (or especially) in a panic, but this is not very helpful in maintaining public support.

[The Larch]

The Spanish Supreme Court has just striken down a regional curfew, but for different reasons. This time it was because it went beyond what the national emergency law states, and had been pushed to 20h, when the national law only allowed for it to start at 22h, as the earliest.

[Legbiter]

The longer the virus is left to reproduce unhindered the more likely a dangerous variant will arise. It really is a world problem and the rich world needs to help the poor world if only out of self interest.

Yeah, given the rampant global spread at this point it's had plenty of opportunity to hit every site mutation possible.

[Tamas]

Wtf

55 years old radio DJ is called up to receive shot before her sister who is 53, diabetic and with learning disabilities, and in a care home (which incidentally just got an outbreak):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/16/jo-whiley-offered-covid-vaccine-before-sister-in-care-home-with-diabetes

I guess some people won't let a good eugenics opportunity pass unused.

[Josquius]

Edit: Really want a pie now

Meat pie, I can forgive.  Warm beer is hard to swallow.  But boiled chicken ruined my childhood.  Disgusting british cooking habit of boiling all meat.  Why, oh why?  What have these poor animals done to you that you need to boil them and top it with minth sauce?  Damn, that's cruel.  Obelix was right to flee that island in terror.

Do people really not get that the warm beer thing isn't drinking beers designed to be cold warm, and rather making beers that work just fine at room temperature?

And meat pie is one of the greatest things in the world.
Don't the French have that? The Swiss certainly do.

[Sheilbh]

The Quebecois certainly do too with the magnificent tourtiere (which - in filling - is not a million miles from a Scotch pie ).