Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[alfred russel]

Dude knows a lot about Florida.

I disagree...there are relatively few basements in florida--in a lot of central and south florida (where most people live) the water table is too close to the surface for basements.

[The Larch]

Germany, WTF.

Edit: It's funny how the different language versions of this news article are written. In the Spanish language of this same article, from DW, Stöcker's involvement in this campaign is made clear from the start, as well as his status as a well known AFD supporter. The headline itself reads "German Police stops illegal vaccinations from a far-right doctor", in contrast with the much more aseptic English language article presented further down, in which Stöcker is only mentioned halfway through it, and his connection to this campaign is not made explicit.

Germany: Dozens take illegal mystery COVID vaccine before police shut it down
Scores of people waited in line for an unknown and unauthorized shot described as a COVID-19 vaccine in the city of Lübeck. Around 50 jabs were administered before police could intervene.

German police had to close down an unauthorized event billing itself as a vaccination center on Saturday after a doctor began administering COVID-19 vaccine shots he had invented himself, German media reported.

The jab, which was developed without any official recognition, was being administered as a vaccination drive at Lübeck airport in the north of Germany.

Police said that some 50 individuals appeared to have received the mystery shot, while over 200 more people were in line when the authorities showed up.

They seized the liquids, syringes and lists recording who had already been vaccinated that day, as well as the personal data of those present.

Unsupported vaccine claims
Winfried Stöcker, a doctor and entrepreneur, came to fame in Germany in March after being interviewed by the magazine Der Spiegel about his homemade vaccine.

Stöcker is also the owner of Lübeck airport, German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported.

The unlicensed vaccination campaign is considered a criminal offense under the German Medicines Act.

Stöcker developed his vaccine without any cooperation with regulators. He tested the jab on himself and some 100 volunteers.

He then claimed that his vaccine was 97% effective and could be reproduced in large quantities, but he was met with criminal charges.

Medical experts argued that the entrepreneur-slash-physician had skipped several safety steps and failed to provide information to regulatory bodies.

Germany's odd relationship with vaccines
With just 68.4% of the population fully vaccinated, Germany has one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe. It is not, however, suffering from a severe lack of doses of approved vaccines.

The effects of this can be seen in Germany's current fourth wave. States with the lowest vaccination rates, such as Saxony and Thuringia, are now experiencing unprecedented rates of infection.

There was no information about the vaccine status of those who had lined up to get the unapproved jab at Lübeck airport, or why they decided to try an unregulated, unapproved vaccine.

[Zanza]

I get the impression that we actually have a higher share of idiots than elsewhere. I wonder why.

[Syt]

"Natural" or "Alternative" remedies have been popular in Germany for a long time. Many insurances until recently were still covering homeopathic "medicine".

[Maladict]

Many insurances until recently were still covering homeopathic "medicine".

They stopped? That's some progress, at least.

[Admiral Yi]

Meuslis gone mad.

[The Brain]

He cut his teeth on the underground vaccination circuit of Wismar in the 90s.

[Duque de Bragança]

Many insurances until recently were still covering homeopathic "medicine".

They stopped? That's some progress, at least.

In France as well. The anti-vaccine crowd is a lot into charlatanism er... alternative or even esoteric medicine.

[Josquius]

Omicron spotted in Switzerland.
Fingers crossed they drop their UK travel restrictions soon. They're pointless.

[PDH]

I get the impression that we actually have a higher share of idiots than elsewhere. I wonder why.

That's the good news about this modern world, we all get to realize that there is a higher share of idiots everywhere than we thought before.

[Maladict]

There's some concern over a number of COVID related stillbirths. A rare type of infection that is usually seen once every five years has now occurred at least 13 times in a short period. 95% were unvaccinated, prompting doctors to reverse their cautious approach to vaccinating pregnant women and urging them to get vaccinated asap.

[Sheilbh]

So maybe they are starting to get the comms right - Health Secretary at the end of an interview at a walk-in centre persuades and then takes the journalist to get his booster shot
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1465443612263649290?s=20

I've also seen the best ad about covid yet - which we could have done with 18 months ago. But I remember talking about masks etc at the start of the pandemic with a friend who works for the NHS and she basically said just imagine you and everyone around you is smoking - so it's probably fine/non-annoying outdoors, but in a pub awful. Someone's finally done an NHS advert based on that idea.

Edit: Oh and boosters are being moved up to 3 months after your second dose so I think over 40s are now eligible.

[Richard Hakluyt]

That is good news on the boosters. The 6 month restriction really was a bad idea; get the boosters done before Christmas seems obvious to me  . Perhaps a case of inappropriate penny-pinching?

[garbon]

Looks like NHS site is still yet to be updated.

And on 6 months, I assume it was them trying to balance between when efficacy of 2nd jab waned enough to justify having 3rd jab vs eventual waning that might lead to 4th?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Looks like NHS site is still yet to be updated.

And on 6 months, I assume it was them trying to balance between when efficacy of 2nd jab waned enough to justify having 3rd jab vs eventual waning that might lead to 4th?

I reckon you are right there; but Christmas is such a massive spreading event that I think it trumps that. Plus, by the time the booster is waning, it will be late spring/early summer which reduces spread. Then we can get our tweaked 4th jab in autumn 2022.