How are you all dealing with coronavirus and the restrictions many of us have to live

I found a few articles about the syringes:

'Shots of air': Brazilian health workers accused of giving fake COVID vaccinations with empty syringes | National Post

Kroger mistakenly used empty syringes instead of COVID-19 vaccine at Midlothian store

A spokesperson initially told CBS 6 multiple people were mistakenly given a shot of saline instead of a Coronavirus vaccine at the Midlothian location, but now Kroger says that's not the case.
"After a thorough investigation we just received new information that customers were injected with empty syringes and not saline," said a Kroger Mid-Atlantic spokesperson.

Actually 7,830 new cases. It won't let me edit.

Covid: Man charged after woman, 92, given fake vaccine - BBC News

I remembered this case from back in January, luckily he was caught. The charge was assault.

There were a few scams went around involving giving payment details in order to 'book' an appointment which of course wasn't real.

The worst thing was the very elderly and scared/confused being targeted. That is how those people get their money sadly.

Apparently we've stopped using AZ again for people under 60 or women under 60. I don't even know what's happening anymore. Are we ever going to get out of this?

The question mark over the very small number of rare clotting disorder in younger people (women?) does not seem to be going away. In the UK AZ is the main vaccine and it's being given to most people, my sister got hers today, her partner yesterday.

It is confusing I agree @BreakForTheLight and hard to work out what is happening.

In the UK we are being told the Moderna and Novovax are coming next month onwards and also the Janssen one. I guess Germany is similar?

Well, this is kind of interesting. My dad e-mailed me today and he asked me about the vaccination situation here and when I thought I'd get one. I told him I qualify next week and that I have been giving a lot of thought about what to do because the only option being used widely here is Sinovac and I do not feel comfortable receiving it. I said, I've been careful all this time and haven't gotten sick. I guess maybe I could have had an asymptomatic case, but that seems unlikely. We are severely locked down and I work from home. Apart from my husband, my contacts with others is only brief interactions like receiving a package or buying something at the pharmacy. So, I said since it looks like we will be getting more variety of vaccines in the relatively near future, I have decided to continue with self-care measures and wait a bit more to see what options become available.

I was sort of anticipating pushback. My dad is a retired chemist and I know he's been keeping up to date on the vaccine developments. I thought he'd start with the spiel of I should get whatever vaccine is available. Instead his response was to keep doing what I'm doing. It doesn't sound like he has much faith in Sinovac either.

(((Rechu))) it's not fair you feel you have to take this gamble but I understand why.

Chile imposes lockdowns to fight new Covid wave despite vaccination success | Global development | The Guardian

I saw this article today and wonder what you would say in reply to it?

I notice it only says Chile is using Sinovac and Pfizer, not the proportions of each used. It doesn't detail the lower efficacy of the Sinovac either.

@Discombobulated - The articles never indicate this. It gives the impression that they are more or less equal. There are even some international press reports that say we are using AstraZeneca and that we have J&J on order. AstraZeneca has been approved and ordered, but nothing has arrived. I read recently they were negotiating with J&J but last I heard the negotiations were stalled. I don't know who is giving them this incorrect information. The last I read was that 94% of vaccines given here were Sinovac and only 6% were Pfizer. Pfizer was given to the first healthcare workers vaccinated and now it's for teachers, health workers, under-18s with conditions that make them vulnerable and people on dialysis. Supposedly the most recent shipments are for general use since priority groups have been vaccinated, but it's only a few hundred thousand doses. You'd have to be very lucky to get one.


Maybe there is success in numbers vaccinated, but we are not seeing ANY result. The government remains firm that we are going to get to herd immunity by June. I have no faith in that. I believe it's not going to happen and we are going to see this pressure cooker we are living in explode. Apart from the border closure, the recent measures have very little support. We feel like we're in a plane and the pilot put on a parachute and jumped out. There is no leadership.

People are so sick of how our Health Minister starts off each press conference saying thanks to everyone but doesn't address real issues. This is how it started off yesterday (my translation): “As always, even though it bothers some people that work for the TV channels and morning programs, I thank the radio stations, I thank the TV channels, I thank the workers at the Presidential Palace and the Health Ministry.

And, if someone is bothered by my thanks, they’ll have to keep complaining because I am not going to listen to them." Clown show!

Now that you mention Moderna - I don't know what's happening with that one. It's already been approved in the EU but you don't hear much about it. We're also waiting on the Janssen one. Novavax still needs to get approval and I think they're looking into approving the Russian one, too.

Back home not even my 90+ year old gran has had hers. She would've been eligible for getting it at a vaccine center but she's not mobile enough to get there so has to wait until GPs start vaccinating I think?

I'm very curious about what people in Germany think about the whole AZ situation. It seemed like younger people were resisting AZ as their only option two months ago with the govt. strongly pushing it and now a complete reversal by the authorities? In some ways, it is good to know that the govt. will correct earlier guidance based on new information but it also leaves you a little wary of taking their advice immediately.

Cases have doubled in the past week where I am. 30% of the population has been vaccinated, mostly Pfizer and Moderna, only over 50s and healthcare/teachers. Case counts are highest in the young people who have not had access to the vaccines. Vaccine refusal is also high in some areas and I will be curious to see what the case counts are like a month from now.

I heard these cases through mass media news and I even saw with my own eyes how these empty syringes were administrated to elderly people. Some relatives who were present reported this fact.

To be honest, at this point in my life, I’m not strange when behaviours like that take place. Human being is able to do the most selfish acts.

I’m lately trying to avoid news about the pandemic.
Again, I’m feeling depressed and I know that focussing on the news doesn’t help me a bit.
But still I know Spain is not on a third wave but the fourth one. We took the leads. Around 150 people deceased each day. Puff!
I have been thinking how much I want to travel to Venezuela to see my mother-in-law. She’s getting really old and I want to see her but I don’t know when I’m gonna be able to go there. This pandemic is already lasting so much.
No way I can get the shot soon, so I don’t expect to travel overseas short-term. I’m pretty disappointed.

@rechu, I don’t blame you for not wanting to take Sinovac vaccine. I have been reading your posts and something is fishy since contagious keep rising there.

I understand that here with the Spring arrival, contagious increased since we are going slowly in vaccinating people but there, something is not working. Hope you soon receive the other vaccines.

If you saw them administering empty syringes, I hope you reported it to someone immediately. Personally I wasn’t able to see if syringes were empty or full because of how they looked (they are small and narrow and it wasn’t visible what’s inside) and 6 ft distance makes it impossible to see, but if you were able to actually see they were empty, I hope you involved government authorities and law enforcement so they can investigate such crimes

I would report that fact if I have seen here. I saw it on TV and it happened overseas so I’m not a witness. I only saw how it was reported in social media and I saw the recordings and the news report.

I understand where you are coming from. It’s better to take all news with a grain of salt. I do understand you, don’t have any doubt of it.
I’m not ready to believe whatever but it was broadcasted here, in Spanish TV news. I wonder who recorded it. The relative who accompanied the person who was gonna be vaccinated. I saw how they introduced the empty syringe and pull it out.

Divine, I can’t believe my eyes anymore but there were news here at the beginning of the pandemic of nurses who stole and made business selling masks when we cannot find them here, anywhere.

I’m aware of there are fake news and that we have to take any information with a grain of salt, but I’m a person who had to pay for favours to come back to Spain when we lost the plane in Caracas airport. I know how in some countries with a low salary, people have to complete their incomes as however.

If I saw my aunty or my mother being administrated an empty syringe, don’t have any doubt that I report it. I’m a warrior. With social anxiety, but I’m a warrior lol

@AzulOscuro I get depressed about not being able to travel either. Before COVID started, in the last 2 years or so we hadn't been able to travel as much as we used to because we bought a house. Now, we have plenty of money to travel since I am making more than at my last job, but we can't.


I got into a bit of an argument with a friend from Brazil who doesn't understand my opposition to Sinovac. He said that in Brazil there have been no reports of people with at least one Sinovac dose ending up in the ICU so it must be working. First of all, just because it's not being reported, doesn't mean it's not happening. Then, who knows if they are even keeping track of those things? We've had reports here of two people with both doses get very sick and one died. Maybe the second dose hadn't had its full effect, but you would think they would have some protection.

I also told him that if the virus circulates here, even if the ICUs are not so stressed, our government will likely use it as an excuse to lock us down to prevent protesting. And, if the virus is still around because the vaccine doesn't help with transmission, as many experts are saying, then I think new variants are more likely. We could have our own Chilean variant. In the end, I want a vaccine that does more than just keep us out of the ICU so we can try and regain some sense of normalcy.


We are at the highest numbers of new cases and hospitalizations ever. 8,028 new cases announced today. We just recently passed over 1 million total cases. I think Spain is in that club too, isn't it? 2,867 people are in the ICU. There are only 199 available beds. 2,460 are on ventilators. Fun times, aren't they? People have started to call the vaccine Suerovac not Sinovac. Suero is saline solution.

Someone made a video imitating the Health Minister and the way he thanks everyone. So, in today's press conference, he thanked the person who made the video!

I think their reputation has taken a big hit. It's this, and the failure to deliver the agreed amount of vaccine. And also the more severe "mild" side effects compared to the other ones. Like people having to take a day off work due to fever/fatigue etc. Which is a problem when the younger people getting the vaccine are mostly health care workers - already overworked teams can't really afford to have people calling in sick.

This weekend is tough. It's too long. I originally had 2 days off for a concert. Of course that has been cancelled so I cancelled my days off because 6 days in a row off work would have felt too isolating. Even though at the same time I also really need the rest from work. I'm focusing on work to not think about the things I miss but the focus on work is stressing me out. I don't really know how to handle this anymore. Coping strategies are not nearly enough.

New tasks at work have kept me distracted from feeling too bad about the lockdown situation but now I have 4 days off it's hitting hard again. I miss concerts so much. Spending my days watching live gigs in Youtube is probably not the smartest thing to do.

Are other countries finding there are more side effects with the AZ? Nearly everyone I know who had the AZ felt unwell. Less so with the Pfizer.

I wish I knew, @Discombobulated. We'll probably see AstraZeneca in 2022 the way things are going! My brother is in the UK, so it sounds like he will get it soon.


I feel like I am hitting a brick wall again. The whole situation with the Sinovac vaccine is causing me so much anxiety. Some days I try to convince myself that I should just get it, maybe it will help somewhat. But I can't get over this strong feeling that I don't want it. I almost think it may have to do with the fact that I have so little agency in my life right now. The government clown show controls when I can leave my house and now what I am allowed to buy? The border closure, well it was necessary, but they waited way too long for it to have much of an impact. I can't even leave the country and makes me feel claustrophobic. I guess this is one thing I can control. I can refuse to be part of the government propaganda campaign of smiling people showing off their Sinovac vaccination cards.

The Health Ministry are dishonest about efficacy. They say people are immunized, which isn't true. Sadly if you read comments on social media and news articles, people are believing it. They get the impression that they don't need to be careful after being vaccinated even though they can still get infected and infect other people.