Pandemic Thread (CoronaVirus etc.)

[Crazed_Insanity]

It only immediately jumped in my brain because it played out in front of my house.

I also did not make any blanket statements as if that’s the ONLY reason why Latinos got in worse than black folks in LA.

You saw nobody listed partying as the reason, well, I am nobody. Maybe my neighbor is an outlier, but if it is a superspreader event, surely Latino numbers would become a lot worse in LA.

Anyway, if it helps, you can rest assured that my brain won’t immediately jump to conclusions that all Latinos are idiots; however, I believe my new Latino neighbor is probably an idiot.

[Tom Servo]

We've dipped below 1,000 hospitalized in LA county (we were over 8,000 at one point during January), positivity is at 2.0%, and 18% of the population have had at least their first vaccination. We're moving into the red tier (it's purple at the worst, then red, orange, and yellow out here). Indoor dining at 25% capacity for the first time since last June. Same with movie theaters and some other indoor businesses.

I think I'll keep staying outside for now.

[Random]

Yeah, this rush to go into enclosed spaces with other people seems optimistic at best.

[Tom Servo]

I enjoyed this article on the response to the 1918 flu compared to our response to Covid: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/h...c-lessons.html

[Crazed_Insanity]

I think this pandemic has highlighted the importance of 'individuals' making the right choices more than anything else. Give another 100 years with more advanced science and perhaps even better government leadership and health organizations, as long as we have individuals making poor choices, those few bad apples could still likely cause a lot of trouble for many...

Political polarization also didn't help. Gap between the rich and poor also probably made problems worse(rich privileged folks think they could fly away from affected areas to get away from shutdowns or think they're special and don't need masks...)

I think it should be obvious now why the more progressive nations do better during this pandemic. Those nations are the ones focusing on ALL individuals' welfare. Whereas China was more concerned about preserving the name of communist party at all cost. In America, Trumpians were mostly about self preservation than fellow americans...

As long as people don't learn to love thy neighbors, another pandemic like this will likely happen again.

Scientists have learned a lot since 1918, but most of the population has obviously learned nothing.

To be fair, I didn't learn anything from 1918 either..., however, if our society remains as selfish as before, no amount of science or preparation will help prevent the next pandemic.

[SportWagon]

em-you
not.. e-moo

I say ee-myou ...

There used to be a ranch about 15 miles from here which I would bicycle past occasionally.

A friend once served it at his barbeque.

Covid news:
For vaccine Im in group 3.
There is about 9 million ahead of me, 3 million in my group and it seems about 12 million after me.
Estimate is for June 2021.
Most likely it will be a locally made AstraZeneca (made in Melbourne). That production should be happening in weeks.

Our state leader, Gladys, had her shot.
And we are at 52 days without a locally acquired case!

In Canada, my wife and I are disappointed that we seem to be stuck with AstraZeneca.

My wife had been following the news as the vaccines were developed and tested, and AstraZeneca seemed to be trailing severely in effectiveness.

But, having developed no vaccines or production facilities ourself in Canada, there seems to be pressure to accept the idea that "something [not great] is better than nothing". Even when there had been reservations about using it on older people (because of lack of test data), and when there are mixed reports about the one-or-two dose requirement, and absolutely no information on "mixing vaccines" (e.g. second dose of something different from first).

I just hope when vaccines are administered, they will be clearly telling people what they are getting (even though previously, when you got "the flu shot", you simply got "the flu shot").

[Rare White Ape]

There's no reason why you couldn't directly ask what's in any medicines before they are administered to you. Even the colloquial Flu shot will have different strains and variants in different regions, and at different times of the year.

It's not a failure of the government to "not tell you" what is in each shot. The information is freely available on the web.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Even after a google, there's no reason why every average Joe will be able to understand what they're reading!

I do believe government should share the burden of helping its citizens feel more at ease... and be able to guide them toward the right direction... and not expect its citizens to just gather whatever info they can find on the net...

Although AstraZenaca vaccines are being pulled from some european nations due to reported blood clots, but I believe data is still showing the benefits outweigh the risks. It's like stop flying all together simply because of some crashes. At least with 737max planes, we have direct evidences showing us poor service records by the airline and poor design practices by Boeing. Even without fixing the 737Max design flaw, I personally won't be afraid to fly in one as long as it's not flown by some 3rd world budget airlines... Further, Percentage of people who suffered blood clots showed very small variations whether they got the Astra shot or not. So there's no direct data showing that the vaccine caused the clots.

As for effectiveness... remember for flu shots, 50% efficacy would be considered a success.

Granted as we have more and more mutated strains, it's possible that sooner or later all of our vaccines will become less effective and they'll have to develop new vaccines... just like we need to get flu shots again and again...

Moral is that some protection is better than no protection. Masks and distance don't work 100% of the time too, cloth face coverings are also even less effective..., but better something than nothing.

[Dicknose]

There used to be a ranch about 15 miles from here which I would bicycle past occasionally.

A friend once served it at his barbeque.

Its not that good!

In Canada, my wife and I are disappointed that we seem to be stuck with AstraZeneca.

My wife had been following the news as the vaccines were developed and tested, and AstraZeneca seemed to be trailing severely in effectiveness.

Its hard to compare, is 86% nearly as good at 93% - but flip it and see if 14% not effective is twice as bad as 7%.
And while I can see how they test these and generate these numbers, it does seem that the result is very sensitive to a few positive cases. Especially when its hard to control the exposure.
In terms of getting herd immunity its not a big deal. But stats over a large group is not the same as any given individual. And especially while we are still going for herd immunity and the virus is widespread you want the most effective protection.
It does seem that all the vaccines give very good protection against worst case infections.

The blood clots seems like it might be a minor issue. Germany has reported its about 4 times the normal background rate. Thats noticeable. But also interesting to see just how many people typically get clots.

Anyway - good luck with your vaccine and stay safe!

[Tom Servo]

LA County reported 242 new cases today. Tuesday isn't normally a day with artificially low numbers. The case numbers are the lowest I can find since late March of last year, except for a few outliers where something happened like all the test results got backed up a day and the next day had crazy high numbers to compensate. Curious to see what the next couple of days bring, if this is just another case of them being slow reporting (normal on Monday, unusual but not unheard of on Tuesday) or if the numbers really are that low.