COVID-19 coronavirus

[markfiend]

A lot of infected-but-not-sick people were transmitting the virus in the early days. So there is that.

[Quiff Boy]

yep, afaik it's possible to be asymptomatic but still carry the virus and pass it on to others

which is why everyone should wear a mask, even if you don't feel ill

[Chaotican]

I agree that wearing a mask and acting like you have it is the only way to go. I would never risk spreading this to anyone.

In the USA, folks are refusing the vaccine in crazy numbers, and in part because it “doesn’t do anything to stop the spread.”

We have asymptomatic transmission, yes. But there is growing evidence that it is more like “presymptomatic” transmission. If you’re able to transmit this virus after vaccination, it will be one of the rarest infections we’ve ever seen. Currently, in my research, no virus behaves this way.

I don’t really have a point. I don’t want us to change our behavior. I just automatically bristle and rebel when I feel like someone is trying to pat my head and smooth my feathers by giving me the info they want me to believe in order to control me.

Mask up, isolate, and get the vaccine!

[markfiend]

Mask up, isolate, and get the vaccine!

[DJElectricDaddy]

I don’t really have a point. I don’t want us to change our behavior. I just automatically bristle and rebel when I feel like someone is trying to pat my head and smooth my feathers by giving me the info they want me to believe in order to control me.

Mask up, isolate, and get the vaccine!

I can empathize with that completely. The bigger issue is how cynical a lot of people have become of ‘the authorities’ whomever that is. From corruption to poor and inconsistent messaging, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have institutions that no longer have the trust of large numbers of the population. You’re right, when some beurocrat is telling us something ‘sincerely’ our automatic instinct is to assume they are pissing up our back and telling us it’s raining. They treat us like children

[Quiff Boy]

aye, very true.

on both sides of the atlantic, and on both sides of the political spectrum in those countries

[Swinnow]

Agreed

[Electrochrome]

I don’t really have a point. I don’t want us to change our behavior. I just automatically bristle and rebel when I feel like someone is trying to pat my head and smooth my feathers by giving me the info they want me to believe in order to control me.

Mask up, isolate, and get the vaccine!

I can empathize with that completely. The bigger issue is how cynical a lot of people have become of ‘the authorities’ whomever that is. From corruption to poor and inconsistent messaging, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have institutions that no longer have the trust of large numbers of the population. You’re right, when some beurocrat is telling us something ‘sincerely’ our automatic instinct is to assume they are pissing up our back and telling us it’s raining. They treat us like children

We behave like children, it's a terrible circle. And when it's revealed just how cynical the policies were, and just how much BS was flowing (far beyond what we'd normally expect), we're plain infantile sometimes.

At this point, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution. I talk to people who won't get the vaccine unless they "have to", or they want to wait to see what happens when others take it, like it's a mysterious pill.

Nearly a year later and the USA is talking about a national plan. We'll outdo the Spanish Flu of 1918...and that was 1918 hospitals and level of medicine and no mass communication. I could understand it then. Today it was literally a death cult.

[DJElectricDaddy]

Can’t argue with any of that. Sadly.

[MadameButterfly]

one thing through this all i started looking where it started and how it has developed globally.
it started in Wuhan and when it hit Europe had already mutated. we now have the British, South African, Brazil variant which all mutate differently so any vaccine you take you hope covers them all which i doubt is the situation. when looking at the different types of vaccinations some you need the second one within 3 weeks or it has no effect. with all the different types for different age groups the question i still have is for which variant are they aiming at.

this is a virus that will mutate for the coming time and something the world will have to live with as this virus is clever.

wearing a mask does not stop the virus that i judge on the facts that we were one of the last countries to make it compulsory and after that happened our numbers of infected did not decline at all.

carrying the virus you can infect others without feeling sick. this depends on your own immune system and how you got infected. obviously if you are in a risk group you will get really sickly but there are people that just thought they had a common cold that actually had covid but the spreading of it to others is a given.

one thing that i haven't seen in this virus that one would see in a virus is the dorment stage. only it mutating and the different variants which seem to enjoy the warmer temperatures although the cold doesn't seem to scare it either.

not to go all gloomy but this might be the virus that brings balance in the nature with world population. understandably the world leaders are trying to lead something they don't know enough about yet. remember when it all started last year March and how clean the air was with all flights being scrapped and how nature bloomed.

so keep your distance with people, wear a mask not to infect someone else, wash your hands and show love to those who are isolated and alone.

above all stay safe xxx

[DJElectricDaddy]

Well said MB. Agree with all of that.

Interesting that I was just listening to BBC radio about an article that appeared on New York Times today. A fourth vax option has just released results from its testing (only phase 2 I think) and its vax differs greatly from the other three, it uses insect cells to create pure coronavirus spike protein cells that give the human body the blueprint to fight infection. Something along those lines as fat as my layman’s brain understands it.

Anyway they ran a second limited test on the South African variety and it was only 50% efficacy compared to the 89% on its ‘standard’ test. The NYT article quoted the vax company as saying “were going to need more vaccines” which caused quite a stir apparently.

Anyway, so many variables in the story so take it all with a pinch of salt. A vax co. saying we need more vac? Hmmmm. NYT stirring up fear with a news headline? Hmmmmm. Vaccines mutate and one shot won’t cover them all? Hmmmmmm duh, have you seen the flu virus? New shot every year.

Anyway this thing is here to stay. I think it may take a generation until our species has got any real herd immunity. What that means for the various ‘social’ industries will be interesting. Music, theatre, sports....replaced by virtual reality gaming and events?

[sziamiau]

well Hungary approved the Russian and the Chinese vaccines next to pfizer, moderna and astra. for sure they will speed up getting it out to everyone. in the meantime I am still here at the lake, heading to my parents tomorrow and no clue when I actually go back to NL. since I have Dutch health insurance who knows when I will get vaccinated:(

[ribbons69]

this is a virus that will mutate for the coming time and something the world will have to live with as this virus is clever.

As does the Flu of course. I have to have a new jab every year because it is always mutating. Covid- 19 will be the same, we will have to have new injections every year.

[Pista]

Let's have a wee peek at a covid denier shall we?

[DJElectricDaddy]

Ugh the specter of Judy Malkovits. Did you see that Plandemic video? Ridiculous. She spouts nonsense like magic microbes at the beach that give us immunity, and if we’re on lockdown millennia of evolved immunity will be just washed away. Among other gems. My idiot sister got wrapped up in that and is now total covid hoaxer.

Yay humanity

[Swinnow]

As I said earlier, the UK is rapidly becoming a nation of utter weapons.

[Electrochrome]

Well said MB. Agree with all of that.

Interesting that I was just listening to BBC radio about an article that appeared on New York Times today. A fourth vax option has just released results from its testing (only phase 2 I think) and its vax differs greatly from the other three, it uses insect cells to create pure coronavirus spike protein cells that give the human body the blueprint to fight infection. Something along those lines as fat as my layman’s brain understands it.

Anyway they ran a second limited test on the South African variety and it was only 50% efficacy compared to the 89% on its ‘standard’ test. The NYT article quoted the vax company as saying “were going to need more vaccines” which caused quite a stir apparently.

Anyway, so many variables in the story so take it all with a pinch of salt. A vax co. saying we need more vac? Hmmmm. NYT stirring up fear with a news headline? Hmmmmm. Vaccines mutate and one shot won’t cover them all? Hmmmmmm duh, have you seen the flu virus? New shot every year.

Anyway this thing is here to stay. I think it may take a generation until our species has got any real herd immunity. What that means for the various ‘social’ industries will be interesting. Music, theatre, sports....replaced by virtual reality gaming and events?

Based on absolutely nothing except my own brain, I believe 2021 will also be "lost".

I think we need a year of vaccines, the more the merrier, masks (like actually wearing them), the natural herd immunity, etc. I agree that it's pretty much "here to stay".

At some point, the fatigue and economic devastation will just be too much and I think all of those things will be back. We'd need several vaccines to be easily available, another yearly shot like the flu. We'll understand that we are always taking our chances. You may see more people wearing masks on say the subway or in other super crowded spaces, similar to what people in various parts of Asia have been doing for years.

Congress is printing trillions of dollars, that can't go on. NYC is destroying entire industries with no good reason (restaurants are doomed). Landlords are kicking out restaurants and bars which are counter-suing because it's illegal for them to operate.

[paint it black]

Meanwhile in the rock. Fully out of lockdown, no masks, no restrictions, apart from travel on and off. Pub n party this weekend

[Pista]

If you've been reluctant to get an anal COVID swab for fear of walking like a penguin afterwards, there's good news

[Quiff Boy]

this is really interesting

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-02-02-ox ... h-interval

A single standard dose of the vaccine is 76% effective at protecting from primary symptomatic COVID-19 for the first 90 days post vaccination, once the immune system has built this protection 22 days after the vaccination, with the protection showing little evidence of waning in this period.

people are protected from 22 days after a single dose of the vaccine

and

The authors also report further on the potential for the vaccine to reduce transmission of the virus, based on swabs obtained from volunteers in the UK arms of the trial with a 67% reduction after the first dose of the vaccine.

[markfiend]

Mention of "natural herd immunity" above: There ain't no such thing. We get herd immunity from vaccines. That's it.

[Swinnow]

Hurrah, science rocks.

[Pista]

Just registered for the vaccine here in Hungary.
Sputnik me up!

[Swinnow]

Do you get a free George Galloway with each Sputnik?

[DJElectricDaddy]

Mention of "natural herd immunity" above: There ain't no such thing. We get herd immunity from vaccines. That's it.

Well I’m not sure I’d entirely agree with that. Sure evolution has to play a role too, natural selection and all that