Covid-19 Pandemic

[Ivanhoe]

Yeah, just watched Campbell dissect the thing.

Reading between his reading between the lines, he is implying that we are in for future pandemics from the PRC.

 

[BansheeOne]

On 3/30/2021 at 8:06 PM, BansheeOne said:

Well that's just my luck. For all the legendary borderline third-world efficiency of Berlin state and municipal administration, vaccination of the high-priority groups has actually been going rather quick, though some popular reluctance might have reduced demand to that effect. Still, I was surprised to pull an invitation to make an appointment out of the letterbox when I came home today (my parents over in Lower Saxony who are both over 70 with significant comorbidities only got theirs two weeks ago or so).

Visited my local brother for Easter this morning, and another doctor friend of theirs, a general practitioner, cleared that up. She asked if I was hypertensive, and when I said yes explained that public administration draws on data supplied by the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians including flags for chronic conditions, any condition, which elevates your priority. She also advised that the online booking process listed vaccination centers with the shots they are using, so you can in fact pretty much chose what to get. 

Sure enough, when I got home I read the letter all the way through, and after the second paragraph it certified my claim to a high-priority vaccination. The two centers next to me are both using the BioNTech stuff, and I now have an appointment for the first shot on 4 June and the second on 14 July. Probably wasted ten days by not following up directly, but again I'm really not in a hurry despite my "chronical" status. Meanwhile my brother, also working in the medical field, already got an initial shot of AstraZeneca two weeks ago. Word is that you can also get a different vaccine for the follow-up, but people under 60 can still get AZ if they opt for it after thorough information.

I have to admit that with a family history of strokes and a vertebral artery I dissected a dozen years ago, I wouldn't be too hot on anything increasing the risk of cerebral vessel blockade, but my brother hasn't keeled over, anyway. My parents are to get their first BioNTech shots at home from their GP next week, which they had much preferred to getting hauled to a vaccination center in the next town with their state of reduced mobility. So overall it seems the speed of things is picking up. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by BansheeOne

[Ivanhoe]

We can always change your TankNet username to ZombieOne.

 

[DKTanker]

1 hour ago, BansheeOne said:

Sure enough, when I got home I read the letter all the way through, and after the second paragraph it certified my claim to a high-priority vaccination. The two centers next to me are both using the BioNTech stuff, and I now have an appointment for the first shot on 4 June and the second on 14 July.

Take a TX* vacation, you can get your first shot next week and your second three weeks later.  You'd be home by Mother's Day.

*TX is now providing vaccinations to anyone, resident, traveler, vacationer, illegal entrant....that is over the age of 16.

[BansheeOne]

The closer destination for that would actually be Serbia:

Quote

Foreigners flock to Serbia to get coronavirus vaccine shots

Thousands of vaccine-seekers from countries neighboring Serbia have flocked to Belgrade after Serbian authorities offered free coronavirus jabs to foreigners who showed up over the weekend

By The Associated Press

March 31, 2021, 6:09 PM ET

BELGRADE, Serbia -- Thousands of vaccine-seekers from countries neighboring Serbia flocked to Belgrade on Saturday after Serbian authorities offered foreigners free coronavirus jabs if they showed up over the weekend.

Long lines of Bosnians, Montenegrins and Macedonians — often entire families — formed in front of the main vaccination center in the Serbian capital as police kept watch.

[...] 

Most of Serbia's Balkan neighbors have been struggling with shortages and have barely started mass vaccination drives, while Serbia boasts of having ample supplies and one of Europe's highest per capita vaccination rates.

The Serbian government has donated vaccine doses to North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia.

Critics of populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic contend he is trying to spread his influence in the Balkans and to polish the ultranationalist image he acquired during Yugoslavia's bloody breakup.

Others say that the AstraZeneca vaccine shots Serbia is giving foreigners are nearing their expiration date and need to be used as soon as possible, a claim that could not be verified.

[...] 

Serbia has one of the highest inoculation rates in Europe, mainly thanks to the government's large purchases of the Sinopharm vaccine from China and the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The country also is using the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca.

Although over 2 million people in the country of 7 million have so far received at least one shot, Serbia has seen a notable decline in number of residents signing up. Officials and doctors link the drop-off in interest to an increasingly vocal anti-vaccine movement.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/foreigners-flock-serbia-coronavirus-vaccine-shots-76798518

[bojan]

If you accept AZ, that got incredibly bad press after German cancelation of it. People are now rejecting it ("Germans rejected it, there must be something wrong with it") and are waiting for... something else*. Hence surplus of AZ that would expire if not used.

*Which will realistically be Sinopharm. Which is probably worse. But hey, their choice, at least they will be vaccinated with something.

Edited April 4, 2021 by bojan

[BansheeOne]

Actually there's now a run on AZ in Germany - by those over 60, since apparently the warnings for the younger group were taken as confirmation that it's perfectly safe and readily available for the older. Right after starting yesterday, people were getting same-day appointments in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, where the switch freed up 450,000 doses that were probably meant for essential public servants. Just now I read that they're running out of available appointments there. 

[Nobu]

21 hours ago, BansheeOne said:

Actually there's now a run on AZ in Germany - by those over 60, since apparently the warnings for the younger group were taken as confirmation that it's perfectly safe and readily available for the older. Right after starting yesterday, people were getting same-day appointments in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, where the switch freed up 450,000 doses that were probably meant for essential public servants. Just now I read that they're running out of available appointments there. 

Glad to hear this, and also agree with the sentiment above that something (Sinovac/Sinopharm/AZ) is better than nothing. 

A Vietnamese neighbor, good guy, nice kids, isn't even on board with the Pfizer/Moderna/JJ versions.

Fear and you-first hesitancy is going to be another enemy in the battle of the human race vs. COVID. It is also going to be somewhat of a bitch.

Edited April 5, 2021 by Nobu

[Angrybk]

US seems to be going balls-out on the vaxxing now. Many states casting all restrictions aside. Got my first Pfizer on Saturday, felt like I’d been hit by a sledgehammer on my arm for the first 24 hours but nothing now (second shot is often worse apparently). 

[Ivanhoe]

Some controversy, but he makes some important points;

 

[seahawk]

On 4/4/2021 at 7:00 PM, bojan said:

If you accept AZ, that got incredibly bad press after German cancelation of it. People are now rejecting it ("Germans rejected it, there must be something wrong with it") and are waiting for... something else*. Hence surplus of AZ that would expire if not used.

*Which will realistically be Sinopharm. Which is probably worse. But hey, their choice, at least they will be vaccinated with something.

Believing that the Germans have any form of competency in that matter, is a huge mistake. Germany has shown again to be a failed state only surpassed by the Eu when it comes to incompetence.

[bojan]

It is institutional memory of most technology iz 19th/early 20th century coming to Serbia via Germany that has lead to blindly trusting in any German technological development and holding a Germany in the naïve view as the "most well organized country".

There is a saying "German medicine - best medicine", through that one comes from a movie (where it was used to mock totalitarian type character), and is used mockingly in the common speech as a saying for people* who blindly believe in superiority of something only because of it's geographical origin.

*Unless they worship Russia, in which case there is "Which car are better then Moskvitch?", from another movie.

And somewhat obscure and forgotten "Because it never rains in England", through that one was more general "It's a BS" saying,  now holding a little relations to England other than "always raining" stereotype fact, but originating from WW1 as a counter argument to a popular thinking "Britain has entered war, it will be over before end of the year".

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by bojan

[BansheeOne]

Everybody knows the best medicine always comes from far away - from America when in Europe, from Europe when in America, and from China in either case!

 

[Ivanhoe]

https://lidblog.com/fauci-texas-results-confusing/

Quote

On Tuesday, Fauci was on MSNBC’s Morning, Joe. He refused to acknowledge “the science,” claiming the results from the first four weeks since Texas relaxed COVID restrictions were confusing.

Quote

The chart published by the NY Times details the trend of COVID cases in Texas. The data used is from April 5th,  approximately four weeks since Texas Governor Abbot issued the executive order relaxing restrictions. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  The ONLY graph in the chart below trending upward is on the bottom left—the number of COVID tests given. Texas is testing more, and cases are down.

 

 

[Ssnake]

If empirical observation contradicts the flawless theory, the results are confusing.

[Simon Tan]

I object the term balls out. It is not respectful to women, both cis and non-cis. vaccination certainly should be guided by feminist ideals rather than misogyny.

[Ivanhoe]

1 hour ago, Simon Tan said:

I object the term balls out. It is not respectful to women, both cis and non-cis. vaccination certainly should be guided by feminist ideals rather than misogyny.

I object to your flagrant dismissal of women with balls.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1393800/eu-news-coronavirus-vaccine-uk-us-astrazeneca-clinical-trials-pfizer-spt

However, the CEO of scientific data company Airfinity, Rasmus Bech Hansen, pointed out that these blunders can be traced back to how much the EU has invested in the vaccines.

He explained that pre-purchase agreements, where a nation promises to pay a set amount for a certain number of vaccines, have been key to get vaccination programmes moving.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s ‘How to Vaccinate the World’, he said: “There is risk transfer — the governments are taking on risk from the private sector.

“Early interventions have been critical, as we have seen.

“We analysed the numbers and funding numbers between the EU, the UK and the US.

“The UK and the US have invested seven times more pre-approval in these vaccines than the EU has.”

Airfinity's research reveals the UK has spent £25 per person on early COVID-19 research when it committed £1.67billion to vaccines before knowing if they would be effective.

Mr Hansen’s company Airfinity also claimed the US spent £7.9billion, which is the equivalent of £24.02 per person, in its vaccine research.

The EU, however, has spent just £3.51 per European citizen. Overall, the EU invested £1.57billion into its research.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mr Hansen explained the significance of this early investment from the UK and US.

He said: “In some ways, they’ve taken on much more risk, and that has really been critical in reaching this point — after all, we are getting quite a lot of vaccines at an unprecedented pace.”

 

[Ssnake]

Finally someone to point out that what we're seeing now is the consequences of decisions made nine months ago. One would assume that mankind has learned in all the millenia to at least think ahead nine months, but countless teenagers prove us wrong every day.

[Stuart Galbraith]

I heard someone the other day point out that the Anglo American's treated it as if it was a war and threw resources at it as if it was one, where as the rest of the Europeans viewed it as a simple procurement. Those figures, if they are true, seem to bear it out.

It may well be future generations will give Trump due credit for giving the winning hand to Americans, because give credit where its due, that was a serious amount of funding he approved there.

[Ssnake]

Yes. I never thought his handling was even half as bad as the public made it to be.

[Stuart Galbraith]

That isnt saying he didnt make mistakes. There was a few things he could have done that would have got the death toll down, not least using masks publically. OTOH, I think America would have took a bad hit whatever happened for several reasons. Trump was a convenient pissing post for everyone else that screwed up.

No, that doesnt mean im suddenly a Trump admirer, but even a CNN anchor the other day said Trump deserved far more credit for the vaccine program that Biden was not giving him because of 'politics'. They're absolutely right.

[BansheeOne]

To be fair, the EU as such didn't play much of a role in vaccine development, because health politics isn't one of its fields of competence. Rather, at the research stage every country with promising developers spent money on their respective national champions and cooperative projects; Germany alone 1.5 billion USD per the Geneva Global Health Center, which puts the US at 2.2 and the UK at 0.5 bn, so obviously they don't count in as much as Airfinity*.

From this source, the EU paid 327 million on top, but across all its member states, investions were obviously lower per capita than in either of the three big national contributors. Even France, which had a vaccine candidate from Sanofi, just spent 18 million according to them, less than Spain (87), the Netherlands (58) or Switzerland (21, half of it non-public).

Brussels only really came into play (and arguably fucked up) at the procurement stage; and only because the member states tasked them with negotiating good prices as a bloc for fear that else smaller countries would be left dry by the ones with deeper pockets.

 

* ETA: From this Airfinity chart, they seem to include a lot of private money that the Global Health Center doesn't; though it's hard to say since OTOH, investions below are by maker, not by country. I suspect that much of it is from multinationals which the Global Health Center doesn't attribute to a particular country, but Airfinity does.

Edited April 7, 2021 by BansheeOne

[Stuart Galbraith]

There was an interesting article here that suggests that the differences in law  that influenced the way the respective contracts were set up, may also have played a role in subsequent events.

https://www.politico.eu/article/the-key-differences-between-the-eu-and-uk-astrazeneca-contracts/

Two contracts, two different legal systems, but one goal: Getting doses of a life-saving vaccine to people as quickly as possible. 

Just how the U.K. has secured doses more quickly than the EU from pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has been a matter of intense scrutiny. Some clues can be found in comparing the contract that AstraZeneca signed with London to the one it inked with Brussels. 

On the whole, the contracts appear roughly the same when it comes to their language and their tone, says Sébastien De Rey, a contract law specialist at Leuven University. But there's one key difference, he notes: “The U.K. contract is, on some specific points, more detailed."

The level of specificity is partially due to the legal systems they're based on. The U.K. contract is written in English law, which will judge whether both parties delivered the goods based on the exact wording of the contract. The EU contract is written in Belgian law, which focuses on whether both parties tried their best to deliver the goods and acted in good faith.

It's these extra details that give the U.K. more leverage to ensure its contract is delivered effectively. While both contracts say all parties will make their “best reasonable effort” to deliver the vaccine, the U.K. government is clearer in asserting its oversight of the agreement.

This core difference, according to a lawyer familiar with the development of the U.K. text, can be chalked up to the fact that the contract sealed with London was written by people with significant experience of purchasing agreements, specifically drug-buying deals. The European Commission’s contract, by contrast, shows a lack of commercial common sense, in the lawyer’s view.

 

 

[BansheeOne]

Has HMG's contract with AZ actually been published in some form? There's been lots of allegations that it includes some sort of "must serve us first" language, but I haven't actually seen proof. Mind, everyone seems to assume it's more specific on that point than the EU contract, which has been a large part of the blame directed at Brussels, and a bit of a wake-up call ("the end of naiveté", to paraphrase EUP speaker David Sassoli).