Coronavirus (2021) thread

[Healdplace]

Yeah, I think I read that barely anyone (per 100) have been done in London but in the North East the numbers vaccinated so far are huge.

If true that would be quite significant as the North East numbers of new cases are the lowest in England. They are a small region and usually are but they have noticeably fallen quite quickly in the past week or two and are sitting at about 1000 a day. If they start falling to about half that it would be pretty good evidence of suppression in the region. As that was the kind of number they were getting before the winter. Which everywhere is going to see more cases because it is winter.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Science for dummies question, but why would it be different for AZ than Pfizer?

Am I right in suggesting the 12 week gap has been fully trialled and proven to work best with AZ?

I think there was a greater spread in the trial as to the gap between doses - the gap wasn't so tightly controlled. The company have been much more positive than Pfizer, and I think I've seen some arguing that the reason the lower dose showed better efficacy was actually more likely to be the greater gap between doses for that cohort rather than the different dose (I think MHRA may have said that?)

I don't know if there's any fundamental reason why it should be different between the viral vector (oxford/AZ) or RNA (Pfizer/Moderna) approaches.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I’ve just had my flu jab for the first time, seeing as recently turned 50 and got my letter last week, wasn’t sure whether I’d have it until reading advice on here that it supposedly assists somewhat if you get covid.

My thanks to Bluemoon’s health experts.

You are Pep Guardiola and I claim my £5;)

I knew it!

 

[hammocity]

Usually the sort who don't think that any rules apply to them.

I have zero sympathy for these people if they become ill, it's the law abiding mask wearers that can suffer from their actions which really boils my piss. It's a bit like a car overtaking on a blind bend and crashing in to an oncoming vehicle, not concerned for the bellend of a driver but there's an innocent third party who's going to suffer. I just don't understand why anyone can buy a badge off Amazon that says "I am exempt from wearing a mask". They should have to provide proof of medication or can those be bought off Amazon as well? Wankers.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I agree he is exactly the kind of journalist the BBC used to employ not preening prima donnas where they are the focus of the story not the story.

About time he was asking the questions at the press conferences not the ones using their questions to fit into their already pre decided to camera feature for that evening's news.

Way too much of that happens now all TV has become basically X Factor - The Pandemic.

Pieces like Clive's stand out because they are sadly too rare when in the days when British TV was the envy of the world they were the norm.

Clive said it took months to arrange to go into hospitals to meet patients and staff working in ICU so that might have been a deterrent to some journalists. I’m not a big fan of BBC News anyway but I can’t recall the rest of the media being much different. Maybe the Guardian and one or two other newspapers tried to hold the Government to account but hardly anybody reads them.

I don’t watch the press conferences but when I did they weren’t inspiring. The Government and the media have probably failed to communicate the most important messages and a lot of the public weren’t interested anyway. Hence the mocking of Whitty and Vallance and headlines like “Boris Saved Christmas.”

 

[blueparrot]

Science for dummies question, but why would it be different for AZ than Pfizer?

Am I right in suggesting the 12 week gap has been fully trialled and proven to work best with AZ?

Az have said between 8 and 12 works best.

 

[Indaparkside]

I have zero sympathy for these people if they become ill, it's the law abiding mask wearers that can suffer from their actions which really boils my piss. It's a bit like a car overtaking on a blind bend and crashing in to an oncoming vehicle, not concerned for the bellend of a driver but there's an innocent third party who's going to suffer. I just don't understand why anyone can buy a badge off Amazon that says "I am exempt from wearing a mask". They should have to provide proof of medication or can those be bought off Amazon as well? Wankers.

If they can’t wear a mask why can’t they wear a visor, no excuse

 

[Healdplace]

Yorkshire by the way IS the stand out region for suppressing this wave as they are sitting at about 2000 cases or below and are much bigger than North East. They used to be very similar to the NW which has been about 3 or 4 times higher than them lately and is still more than double even though the NW has come down in lockdown.

The media reported recently that London complained because pro rata Yorkshire was getting more vaccination doses than anyone.

In the weekly Pop Score tables of the England regions I post every few days here Yorkshire moved in past weeks from one of the most impacted areas to now the single best and even ahead of the South West - which as a small rural region has always had the fewest cases and was used by Boris to justify the tiers - saying locking down Devon and Cornwall would be unfair.

The SW rose along with the south. Yorkshire did not rise along with the rest of the north. Seemingly as it had the lowest % of the new variant It was in single figures still pre Christmas when the NW was 30% or so.

So it may be they also are now getting pro rata the most vaccine their continuing stand out success in this wave is down to both those factors.

 

[ayrshire_blue]

I think there was a greater spread in the trial as to the gap between doses - the gap wasn't so tightly controlled. The company have been much more positive than Pfizer, and I think I've seen some arguing that the reason the lower dose showed better efficacy was actually more likely to be the greater gap between doses for that cohort rather than the different dose (I think MHRA may have said that?)

I don't know if there's any fundamental reason why it should be different between the viral vector (oxford/AZ) or RNA (Pfizer/Moderna) approaches.

Thanks as always. So I suppose in theory, what's good for one *should* be good for the other, and vice versa.

 

[Healdplace]

Clive said it took months to arrange to go into hospitals to meet patients and staff working in ICU so that might have been a deterrent to some journalists. I’m not a big fan of BBC News anyway but I can’t recall the rest of the media being much different. Maybe the Guardian and one or two other newspapers tried to hold the Government to account but hardly anybody reads them.

I don’t watch the press conferences but when I did they weren’t inspiring. The Government and the media have probably failed to communicate the most important messages and a lot of the public weren’t interested anyway. Hence the mocking of Whitty and Vallance and headlines like “Boris Saved Christmas.”

I am not a journalist. Though I have worked in the media and written things for many media sources. And I have also faced stories written by journalists that I know they made up or distorted for effect because I was involved with them. So I guess I have a bit of a thing about the way the media handle this likely biggest ever story of these journalist's careers.

We need more Clive Myries that is for sure.