@BreakForTheLight. That sucks. I'm really sorry. I felt the same way last week when they announced we were headed back to lockdown. And now with the new restrictions announced today, my mood went down another notch.

@AzulOscuro Sadly, we really did get the worst vaccine in Sinovac. Studies in Brazil showed 50.4% efficacy. That compares to around 94-95% for Moderna and Pfizer, AstraZeneca and J&J are somewhere in the 70s. There were some studies done in Indonesia that showed a better rate for Sinovac. However, those were earlier before the variants started to become an issue. Being in South America, it seems like the Brazilian trials have more of a relevance here than ones done in Asia. It's likely the Brazilian variant was already there during the study since it wasn't too long ago. There was an infectious disease expert on TV the other day saying the same thing. Several other people I know who are knowledgeable about these things say the same.


I think part of the problem, as with so much here, is how the government handled it. They went in full propaganda mode to sell the vaccine as the solution. They refused to discuss different levels of vaccine efficacy. The Health Minister and his minions should have said that this was the best we could get for now and it's been shown to reduce hospitalizations but it's not so effective in preventing transmission so we are still stuck with the other prevention methods like masks. They have started to do so recently, but how many people got vaccinated and immediately let their guard down thinking they were more protected than they were?


Then here they announced that in a study by the Catholic University, 90% of people have developed an "immune response" to the vaccine. Several months ago when first discussing this with my sister, who works in this area, she said the virus seems to be pretty easy to generate some sort of immune response to. The question is if it is the immune response is sufficient to fight the virus. Without more information, it's hard to know if the response is useful or not.


I think the Infantas got Sinopharm. Supposedly it has better efficacy numbers, but Chinese vaccine makers are not exactly forthcoming. They publish press releases, but as far as phase 3 studies that are peer reviewed - nothing so far as I have heard. Serbia is using Sinopharm and cases keep going up there too, in contrast to the US, UK and Israel that are vaccinating a lot and seeing cases fall.