Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[alfred russel]

Had a really weird experience yesterday.  In this area, masking and distancing are still pretty much universally observed.  I'd only seen one un-masked person in a store in months, and that person was given a mask by a store employee and told that they need to wear it or leave.

Then i went into a local business named Arbortech that sells lawn and tree maintenance stuff to both professionals and the public.  I noticed that there were now a lot of rolls of robe, harnesses, pitons, and the like.  I also noticed that not a single customer, except me, was masked.  No employee was masked.  Both of those changes were new.  I bought the weedwhacker cord I was looking for, and asked the clerk at the register, as I was ringing out, why the ropes and stuff.  She explained that they were now really into rock climbing sales.

Given our own AR's attitude here, I wondered f there wasn't something to the connection between rock climbing and MAH FREEDOM!

To answer the general, certainly not. The sport is attracting a younger more educated set, and is really trending at the moment, and is more urban (paradoxically). There is a strong link to the environmental movement. In a thousand different ways it is a decidedly progressive community. Totally single case anecdotal, but my normal gym was struggling with getting people to wear masks and distance from the start and has currently ended all covid restrictions (no more mask requirements, all machines can now be used, classes back at full enrollment), but my climbing gym still has everyone wearing masks with good compliance.

To answer the specific charge about me, wtf. If you see someone wandering around a store without a mask and think, "huh that guy seems to be taking an AR attitude" you lack reading comprehension. I've told you guys over and over that I wear a mask in stores. I've avoided restaurants (though I have eaten in some); probably cooked more this year than the rest of my life combined, and while I've traveled a bunch, it has typically been by car and I think I've only spent a single night in a hotel (a lot of cabins and airbnbs and a zillion nights in tents).

[alfred russel]

So yeah, my brother is being transferred to the ICU.

[Jacob]

I'm reading that the US is lifting the export ban on Covid vaccines in order to supply India in light of the dire situation they're in. The EU and the UK are also sending respirators and oxigen. Even Pakistan is sending aid.

Also, the EU is taking AstraZeneca to court over the repeated failures to supply the agreed amount of vaccines.

Apparently China offered help too - saying "we'll send you a bunch of SinoVac" to which India replied "you haven't published enough data about your vaccine for us to be comfortable with that, no thank you."

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Also, the EU is taking AstraZeneca to court over the repeated failures to supply the agreed amount of vaccines.

maybe the EU should take itself to court too for continuous blundering. They can start with VDL.

[Sheilbh]

It doesn't necessarily matter because the US has loads of vaccines but this is exactly as expected:


I think this is another example of business as usual in the full glare of global publicity doesn't necessarily boost confidence.

I believe it has been put back into use with an expanded side-effects section because it's an effective vaccine and the risks of covid are far higher.

[garbon]

It doesn't necessarily matter because the US has loads of vaccines but this is exactly as expected:


I think this is another example of business as usual in the full glare of global publicity doesn't necessarily boost confidence.

I believe it has been put back into use with an expanded side-effects section because it's an effective vaccine and the risks of covid are far higher.

I don't think you can discount the factor that the US also has other vaccines available. Certainly would be in my own personal calculus about whether or not to take J&J.

[Sheilbh]

On vaccine hesitancy v anti-vaxxers this is a brilliant approach from Turkey:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/27/covid-vaccination-persuasion-teams-reap-rewards-in-turkey

[Tamas]

Yeah if there was an abundancy of Pfizer and Moderna that I had the choice to gain access to, I would not have had an AZ shot either.

[DGuller]

If I had a choice, of course I would go for Pfizer or Moderna.  The main reason is that it seems like the mRNA vaccines are the gold standard against Covid.

[mongers]

If I had a choice, of course I would go for Pfizer or Moderna.  The main reason is that it seems like the mRNA vaccines are the gold standard against Covid.

Is there a risk of consumerism infecting the public's understanding of the vaccination programmes?

[Josquius]

It doesn't necessarily matter because the US has loads of vaccines but this is exactly as expected:


I think this is another example of business as usual in the full glare of global publicity doesn't necessarily boost confidence.

I believe it has been put back into use with an expanded side-effects section because it's an effective vaccine and the risks of covid are far higher.

I don't think you can discount the factor that the US also has other vaccines available. Certainly would be in my own personal calculus about whether or not to take J&J.

True, there is the whole cultural thing of being picky on medical treatment, adverts for medicines, etc...

[The Larch]

If I had a choice, of course I would go for Pfizer or Moderna.  The main reason is that it seems like the mRNA vaccines are the gold standard against Covid.

Which is quite the development, as before Covid mRNA vaccines were a somehow unproven technology and elicited plenty of suspicion, in contrast with vaccines developed following more traditional technologies like the Oxford/AZ one.

[Grey Fox]

It's proven technologies but only the 2nd vaccines to actually work using that precise strain of virus.

[Sheilbh]

If I had a choice, of course I would go for Pfizer or Moderna.  The main reason is that it seems like the mRNA vaccines are the gold standard against Covid.

I'm really not sure that the case - from UK real world studies of millions of people who've received either Pfizer or AZ there's small differences. From what I remember reading it looks like the mRNA are better at stimulating an antibody response but adeno-something vaccines like AZ and J&J produce a stronger T cell response. They're very similar in terms of reducing symptomatic infection, but the AZ/J&J vaccines seem to be better at reducing asymptomatic infections and also slightly better at reducing hospitalisation.

But it is much a muchness around the edges.

If I had a choice of all the vaccines I'd probably go for J&J but that's just because it's single dose

[Jacob]

Yeah, I'd go J&J too for the single dose. One and done.