Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[mongers]

Btw, 95% of cases in Vienna are now B.1.1.7.

Non-critical international travel will guarantees any radically different new variant will infect other countries with advanced vaccination programmes.

[Maladict]

Btw, 95% of cases in Vienna are now B.1.1.7.

Britain's parting gift to the EU. 

[Sheilbh]

Looks like we will be getting domestic covid passports - on the NHS app and would show if an individual has had the vaccine, or a recent negative test, or has previously tested positive (so will have antibodies):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/01/boris-johnson-gives-backing-to-domestic-use-of-covid-passports

[Duque de Bragança]

7 day case numbers per 100k based on WHO data:

Georgia, Armenia and even Azerbaijan do not exist.

[Maladict]

Georgia, Armenia and even Azerbaijan do not exist.

The panzers never made it there.

[Tamas]

Looks like we will be getting domestic covid passports - on the NHS app and would show if an individual has had the vaccine, or a recent negative test, or has previously tested positive (so will have antibodies):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/01/boris-johnson-gives-backing-to-domestic-use-of-covid-passports

I mean, I don't mind but aren't we supposed to finish vaccinations during the summer? A good way to coerce people to overcome their ignorant scepticism, I guess.

[Caliga]

Georgia, Armenia and even Azerbaijan do not exist.

Kind of like Bielefeld?

[Sheilbh]

So this is interesting/good news for other countries with the UK variant:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

We went into full lockdown after Christmas - including closing schools because they were transmitting it from household to household. Obviously since then there's also been rolling out the vaccine for the priority groups. But schools re-opened in early March and basically the new cases flatlined for a while (but testing ramped up hugely).

New cases are starting to decline again now - which suggests that schools can be opened or re-opened even with the UK variant dominant without causing a surge. Schools have been open for about a month so I think that's long enough to see the impact it has.

I mean, I don't mind but aren't we supposed to finish vaccinations during the summer? A good way to coerce people to overcome their ignorant scepticism, I guess.

Yeah I think everyone eligible (so no teens - yet) should have one does by the end of July. But assuming that's like other government vaccine targets I think it'll be earlier than that - my friend in the NHS says there are different targets internally. At the minute in the UK 94% of people have had, are waiting for or would accept a vaccine and vaccine hesitancy is declining across all ethnicities.

I get that vaccine hesitancy and anti-vax sentiment may be a big issue in some places - but it doesn't seem like a massive thing we need to overcome here. The key restraint on people getting vaccinated is waiting for supplies.

And I slightly wonder if anti-vax fears have been overplayed in other places too. Actually now it's being offered French up-take is similar to the UK (even of AZ) despite us being on literal opposite ends of the spectrum in opinion polling on vaccines - I now suspect the French are just doing their thing about how everything's awful: "I hate the vaccine, it's rubbish, give it to me" In the US too vaccine hesitancy is falling across all groups as it's actually being rolled out and millions of people are getting it without issues.

[Barrister]

Alberta had 807 new cases announced yesterday (highest since January) - of which 406 were "Variants of concern" (almost all of which were the UK variant).

[Sheilbh]

Bloody hell Belgium
https://twitter.com/LE_GENERAL_FR/status/1377722216113184771?s=20

In unrelated Belgian news there's been an amazingly petty spat - some restaurant basically put up a picture taking the piss out of their chief scientist blaming him for lockdown, in response he posted a 1 star review on Google saying the food's inedible and now they've announced he's banned

[The Brain]

Chads came from the barracks to fry the Belgians?

[Tamas]

Apparently after the UAE now Serbia is also planning to administer third doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, after a lot of people tested, over-70s especially, fail to have any antibodies after a few weeks of the second shot.

The manufacturer acknowledged that there is sometimes no immune response and are "investigating".

[Zanza]

https://amp.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-uk-finds-30-blood-clot-cases-after-astrazeneca-jab/a-57083963

British regulators have found 30 cases involving rare blood clot events after the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine — 25 more than was reported last month.

Now I still think the benefits of AZ outweigh the risk. But it is important to continue monitoring this rare side effect.

[garbon]

https://amp.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-uk-finds-30-blood-clot-cases-after-astrazeneca-jab/a-57083963

British regulators have found 30 cases involving rare blood clot events after the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine — 25 more than was reported last month.

Now I still think the benefits of AZ outweigh the risk. But it is important to continue monitoring this rare side effect.

Has anyone suggested the opposite?

[Tamas]

Well 30 extra sort of like doubles the overall number of this confirmed happening doesn't it?

Blood clots were very popular on my mother's side of the family, so I can't say I am entirely unconcerned, but of course know the odds are very minimal. I'd just prefer them at zero.