Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[crazy canuck]

I'm looking forward to the vaccine being approved for kids younger than that.

I'm not sure they'll want to go much below that, given the possible side-effects.

They are only using MRNA vaccines on the young.  It was only us expendable Gen Xers that got the Bad Batch.

[Tamas]

It's a good safe vaccine. Most of the world will not be able to afford Pfizer or Moderna

I don't know about Sinovac, but the price Hungary paid for Sinopharm (for which I think there are many more doubts) was over 3 times more than Pfizer and the other EU-approved vaccines.

[Sheilbh]

I don't know about Sinovac, but the price Hungary paid for Sinopharm (for which I think there are many more doubts) was over 3 times more than Pfizer and the other EU-approved vaccines.

But Hungary can afford to pay is - in the global scheme - a rich country. I imagine China isn't shipping vaccines to Latin America and Africa at x3 the price of Pfizer?

And yeah everything I've seen about Sinopharm is a little bit dodgy.

[Grey Fox]

I see the Danes will start vaccinating their 12-15 year old cohorts next week.  Here there's talk of doing the same once the schools start again in late August.

BC has started on 12+ a little while ago.

I'm looking forward to the vaccine being approved for kids younger than that.

It's coming. Not a lot of children catch it & show symptoms/get tested so accretion of data is slow.

[celedhring]

Tomorrow I have my first in-person work meeting since March 2020 (everybody in attendance is fully vaccinated).

I'm weirdly looking forward to it 

[HVC]

Going double Pfizer didn't help. Don't feel great. Guess that's what I get for not feeling anything with the first shot besides being tired

[Tamas]

So it seems like we are opening up next week with the government expecting a significant amount of self-regulation from a significant portion of society:

But Javid says the government also has a plan to ensure that step 4 is safe.

He says the plan will be published today. It will:

Encourage businesses and large events to use Covid-certification in high-risk situations.
Offer guidance for the extremely clinically vulnerable.
Involve a review of unlocking in September.
Urging people to return to work gradually.
Recommending that people continue to wear masks in indoor settings, like public transport.

[Tamas]

"If not now, when?"

This is from Alastair McLellan, editor of the Health Service Journal.

BREAKING: The number of covid+ patients in English hospitals has risen 48% in the last week to 2798. This is a rate of increase not equalled for NINE months!

[celedhring]

After the explosive growth in the past days (apparently right now Catalonia has the worst infection figures in all of Europe), the regional government is dialing back the reopening. Everything has to close down at 00:30, and gatherings are restricted to 10 people.

Some markers are starting to slow down, so hopefully we're approaching the peak of the 5th wave. We're already past 50% fully vaccinated, which coupled with whatever acquired immunity should start putting a dent on the ability of the virus to spread.

(If delta had caught us before vaccines we would have been utterly fucked - and it will fuck up many countries that don't have our access to them)

[Admiral Yi]

Going double Pfizer didn't help. Don't feel great. Guess that's what I get for not feeling anything with the first shot besides being tired

I talked to the pharmo who gave me my fix about this.

He explained you're going to feel side effects the *second* time you're exposed to it, because that's when the body's immune response kicks in.

So if you got exposed before getting vaccinated, you'll have side effects after your first vaccination.  If you're a covid virgin, you'll feel side effects after your second shot.

Whereas I've never had any side effects because I was a virgin and I had the single dose J&J shot.

[Zanza]

Vaccination campaign in Germany tapers off already with too few vaccinated. Not sure what the next steps will be. I guess making it more accessible somehow.

[Syt]

So, I mentioned before that the hospitality business (hotels, bars, restaurants, cafes) in Austria has trouble finding staff.

To paint a more complete picture: during the time of closures, the state paid 80% of last year's revenue, no questions asked. Additionally, there was a scheme where the state would pay something like 80-90% of employees wages, and the employer the missing 10-20%. Regardless, many fired their staff during this period. Critics, economists among them, pointed out that a lot of businesses will make a killing on these subsidies - 80% of your revenue, and eliminating salaries and having to pay suppliers? Awesome!

What was mentioned yesterday was that the labor minister instructed state employment agency that unemployed from the hospitality industry should NOT be brought into work in other industries, even if under normal circumstances the agency would do so. (Usually, if you're unable to find work in your old job, after  awhile they start to branch out, sign you up for training programs etc.). However, the Gastro (Austrian shorthand for Gastronomie, i.e. hospitality industry) complains they struggle to find personnel. Apparently people don't want to work a tough job for minimum pay, no future prospects of advancement at unpredictable hours (and usually 25% more hours than the contract says). The labor minister has therefore called for the employment agency to toughen their rules to force these people into the labor market and also suggested law changes to lower benefits for unemployed.

Additionally, the Gastro complains about the Covid measures (you need a negative test or vaccination to go to an establishment), and a lack of customers.

Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence from across the internet (Twitter, Reddit, comments on news sites): decent restaurants and cafes are full, and even if you would normally just walk in you often need a reservation now. Staff seems happy, as many such places pay well. The places struggling are the ones that offer low quality food and crappy pay - possibly because no tourists wander in, not knowing any better or people realized that if they pay 8 EUR for a schnitzel menu it's going to be shit..

[The Larch]

There are similar complaints by restauration and hospitality associations in some touristic areas here in Spain as well.

[Tamas]

There are similar complaints by restauration and hospitality associations in some touristic areas here in Spain as well.

And in the UK. It seems in all countries employers have a lot of ideas on how to create the necessary environment for them to continue paying insultingly shitty wages. But apparently can't even consider, like, IDK, paying more.

Of course one of the issues is that by paying more to their employees some might need to raise prices, putting things like eating out beyond the reach of lower income people who got used to it thanks to the large influx of immigrants willing to do good work for shit wages - something a lot of the very same people detested. Will be interesting to see where all of this ends up.

[garbon]

Going double Pfizer didn't help. Don't feel great. Guess that's what I get for not feeling anything with the first shot besides being tired

I talked to the pharmo who gave me my fix about this.

He explained you're going to feel side effects the *second* time you're exposed to it, because that's when the body's immune response kicks in.

So if you got exposed before getting vaccinated, you'll have side effects after your first vaccination.  If you're a covid virgin, you'll feel side effects after your second shot.

Whereas I've never had any side effects because I was a virgin and I had the single dose J&J shot.

As Malthus previously posted, there appears to be a lot of conflicting information around feeling side effects.

Two shots of Pfizer, both times nothing more than injection site soreness for 24 hours or so.

They say that the strength of the reaction to the vaccine has no bearing to the strength of the immune response.  We'll see.

Two completely opposite claims in the news:

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5950221

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/nationalpost.com/news/world/no-vaccine-side-effects-wont-show-the-strength-of-your-immunity-to-covid-19/wcm/60a6200d-7026-44f7-a94a-cca06073d6af/amp/

No idea which is correct.