Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

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.

Just looking at this and I'm in the same cohort as her sister which is crazy. I mean maybe I've been far more at risk than I was aware () but it seems really odd especially given that they both have diabetes.

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpMzdy7PKKo

Pfizer two shots (they're shots, not jabs!!oneoone), 94% drop in symptomatic cases, Israeli study.

[Sheilbh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpMzdy7PKKo

Pfizer two shots (they're shots, not jabs!!oneoone), 94% drop in symptomatic cases, Israeli study.

[Admiral Yi]

 

[viper37]

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  ?

My grandma
We've been a British colony since 1763
My great-grandma was born and raised in the US, and my grandma learned cooking from her, presumably, and as she was babysitting me as a kid, when my mom was working, she was told that, although I was very difficult, I loved chicken (Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dixie Lee chicken, but that distinction was lost on her ).  So, I ate that boiled chicken and assorted other boiled meat for a huge part of my youth.
Traditional Canadian cuisine is often very similar to traditional New England cuisine.  Most of our culinary traditions are inherited from the New England British merchants who came to Quebec after the conquest.

[viper37]

I'm not convinced by curfews. But no emergency is a really weird reasonining

The curfew is only there because some people are still gathering.  Having a curfew makes it harder to have a friendly reunion, in the restaurant or elsewhere.  If people were listening to directives in the first place, there would be no need for it.

[viper37]

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

I do, but it won't stop me from making fun at the British! :PI know they exists, but I have never tasted it so far.

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

We have tourtière, it's very similar to meat pie, but I am unsure if it's exactly the same thing.  Some translations keep the word as it is, while in other places it is translated as meat pie.  It certainly looks the same.  I've never tasted one in an english canada's restaurant (and given they culturally appropriated our poutine, I don't trust them at all!      ), so I don't really know.

[Sheilbh]

We have tourtière, it's very similar to meat pie, but I am unsure if it's exactly the same thing.  Some translations keep the word as it is, while in other places it is translated as meat pie.  It certainly looks the same.  I've never tasted one in an english canada's restaurant (and given they culturally appropriated our poutine, I don't trust them at all!      ), so I don't really know.

It's a pie with meat in it. Any pie with meat in it is a meat pie

(In terms of UK pies - it looks a lot like a larger Scotch pie with shortcrust instead of hot water pastry )

The curfew is only there because some people are still gathering.  Having a curfew makes it harder to have a friendly reunion, in the restaurant or elsewhere.  If people were listening to directives in the first place, there would be no need for it.

But they could do that at 8pm - it makes no difference what time they do it. I don't really see how it makes any difference

[Grey Fox]

We have tourtière, it's very similar to meat pie, but I am unsure if it's exactly the same thing.  Some translations keep the word as it is, while in other places it is translated as meat pie.  It certainly looks the same.  I've never tasted one in an english canada's restaurant (and given they culturally appropriated our poutine, I don't trust them at all!      ), so I don't really know.

It's a pie with meat in it. Any pie with meat in it is a meat pie

(In terms of UK pies - it looks a lot like a larger Scotch pie with shortcrust instead of hot water pastry )

The curfew is only there because some people are still gathering.  Having a curfew makes it harder to have a friendly reunion, in the restaurant or elsewhere.  If people were listening to directives in the first place, there would be no need for it.

But they could do that at 8pm - it makes no difference what time they do it. I don't really see how it makes any difference

Around here the difference is the onus of justification now falls on you instead of on the cop. You have to explain why you are anywhere but your home instead of them having to prove you don't belong where you are.

[Caliga]

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

My wife is actually making a Chinese boiled chicken dish for dinner tonight.

Strictly speaking, I think it's incorrect to boil the chicken, and I've made a variant of it myself from Singapore where you only poach the chicken (I used my sous vide circulator to do that) that I personally think produces better chicken, but if I tell her that I'll get yelled at so I keep my mouth shut.

[Sheilbh]

For whatever reason, Germany unilaterally introduced border checks to Austria and Czechia due to high Covid incidence. Apparently not aligned with the EU commission or our neighbour governments, against common EU policy. Also federal police is overwhelmed and does not have the right equipment for outdoor checks. The result is heavy traffic congestion, interrupted supply chains, pissed off EU and neighbours.

Another chapter in the long list of Covid policy failures by German government.

It should be coordinated and I've no idea about Austria, but Czechia is a little concerning. There isn't much sequencing but I think around 50% of samples are coming back as the new UK variant. Cases had peaked in early January and were falling quite sharply, but they're now climbing again. Experts will knmow more but I wonder if that's because the lockdown measures, which were sufficient against the old variants, are maybe not sufficient for the new UK variant and as that's become dominant cases are now rising again, despite restrictions.

It's basically the big fear I have for most of Europe (and the US) that current measures will be effective against old covid, but might not be enough to stop the UK variant becoming dominant and there may be a third wave in March/April as that happens.

Edit: Incidentally seems that the supply issues in the EU have probably bottomed out now - there's some large Pfizer deliveries landing, J&J submitted for authorisation (EMA expect they can reach a decision by mid-March). Based on the expected deliveries Denmark and Norway are pushing very strong roll-out programs that, if successful, would inoculate the population before the summer. Hopefully other member states are speaking to them to learn best practice.

I think there's been a similar shift in the UK - around manufacturers now being more set up to deliver. From what I've read the next week or two is going to be the most restricted in terms of supply but should then pick up, plus I understand they're trying to mop-up the last of the higher-risk categories. The head of NHS England has now said the limit on roll-out is supply at the minute, but they have "huge confidence" in supply levels and feel that they have good visibility of what's on it's way. The UK goal is slower than Denmark and Norway, with the aim to offer everyone a jab by August/September but may be sooner.

If all of Europe and the US are done by the end of summer - while we might still need booster shots (we still have no idea how long immunity lasts) - hopefully there'll be a huge focus and concerted effort on getting vaccines for everyone through Covax but also for medium income companies who might not qualify for Covax. I think within Europe there should be a focus on the West Balkans (the UK's paid for some AZ vaccines manufactured in India but the main source is still China), Ukraine etc.

[Legbiter]

If all of Europe and the US are done by the end of summer - while we might still need booster shots (we still have no idea how long immunity lasts)

Yeah. The next obvious asshole move for the virus would be for the newer, more transmissible variants to form recombinant strains. Turn the species into a reservoir like in bats.

[Syt]

Tyrol reports six cases of people who had Covid between September and November and who have been re-infected (with the South African strain) in January/February. Their new infection is only showing mild symptoms.

[celedhring]

So the SA variant is essentially Covid-20? 

[Sheilbh]

So none of this is a surprise:

England's poorest areas hit by Covid 'perfect storm' – leaked report
Exclusive: government analysis reveals unmet financial needs of many people needing to self-isolate
Josh Halliday North of England correspondent
Wed 17 Feb 2021 18.00 GMT
Last modified on Wed 17 Feb 2021 21.01 GMT

A "perfect storm" of low wages, cramped housing and failures of the £22bn test-and-trace scheme has led to "stubbornly high" coronavirus rates in England's most deprived communities, an unpublished government report has found.

A classified analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), produced last month, concluded that "unmet financial needs" meant people in poorer areas were less likely to be able to self-isolate because they could not afford to lose income.

In two of the UK's worst-hit areas, Blackburn-with-Darwen and Leicester, the study found that more people seeking financial help to self-isolate had been rejected than accepted. It said: "This could increase the likelihood for individuals to be unable to comply with self-isolation requirements as a result of their unmet needs."

The report, marked "Official Sensitive", and seen by the Guardian, will pile pressure on ministers to improve government support for the millions of people who do not currently qualify when they are ordered by law to quarantine at home. Dido Harding, the head of NHS test and trace, has estimated that at least 20,000 people a day are not complying fully with isolation orders, allowing the virus to spread.

Senior Tory MPs including Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, have criticised the current £500 package, which is available to a limited number of low earners, as a "gaping hole" in ministers' approach to the pandemic. In January, the Guardian revealed that ministers were considering paying everyone in England who tests positive for Covid £500, although no change has yet been announced.

On Tuesday deprivation and ethnicity were for the first time recognised as risk factors for severe Covid in new modelling, which led to 1.7 million more people in England being advised to shield and 800,000 being fast-tracked for vaccines.

The newly revealed analysis by the JBC, a government agency set up last May, concluded that "interconnected factors" such as deprivation, poor housing and work conditions, and delays in the test-and-trace system, were all "likely to be significant contributors" to the high coronavirus rates in some areas.

The government team examined six months of data relating to three of England's coronavirus hotspots – Blackburn-with-Darwen, Bradford and Leicester – and compared them with three other areas with similar socioeconomic issues but lower case rates.

It found evidence that areas with a higher proportion of workers in public-facing roles, such as health and social care, taxi drivers or supermarket workers, were likely to experience high infection rates.

It said: "Having high numbers of people in high-risk occupation is not specific to just these enduring areas. This in isolation is not a reason for enduring transmission, but rather along with a range of other factors, overlaid, that create the 'perfect storm'."

It said that "existing socioeconomic inequality" had left black, Asian and minority ethnic communities at greater exposure to Covid-19 as they were more likely to live in cramped and multigenerational housing in deprived areas and hold public-facing jobs.

Despite this, the report noted: "Guidance around how to self-isolate safely in high-density housing does not appear to exist for England as it does for Scotland and Northern Ireland."

The JBC report, which has been shared within Whitehall, also raised criticisms of test and trace, the government's flagship scheme that has cost the UK more than five times the amount spent on vaccines to date.

It said there was "anecdotal insight" that locally led contact tracing had "proved to be more responsive and more effective because they understand the communities they live and work within and can meet their needs for communication, engagement and support more effectively".

It also said contact-tracing data had not been given to local authorities quickly enough to contain outbreaks, adding: "There is evidence to suggest that line list data on CTAS [the daily details of every case in an area] has not been available to the local areas in sufficient time to consistently and effectively respond to contain transmission, trace contacts and respond to outbreaks.

"The delays of data passing between the NHS test and trace service and local authorities will have an impact on the ability to effectively manage and contain transmission in the population."

It warned that delays with contact tracing "may impact transmission rates" and added: "In the enduring areas and most of the comparison areas this has improved as a result of the implementation of local contact tracing models."

The report said there was no single cause for enduring Covid transmission "and therefore no silver bullet to resolve the issue", adding: "Instead, it is likely to be due to a unique mix of factors in each location eg many of the factors are also interlinked and aligned: deprivation – employment – household composition."

A government spokesperson said: "We do not comment on leaks. We recognise this is an incredibly difficult time for many people and we launched the test-and-trace support payment to help people who cannot work from home to self-isolate. We are working with England's 314 local authorities to monitor the effectiveness of the scheme – including any impact on groups who may be ineligible for it.

"Local and national contact tracing teams are working in lockstep with NHS test and trace to break chains of transmission, and their efforts are paying off, with over 8 million people contacted and told to isolate by the 300 local contact tracing partnerships in operation."