How are you all dealing with coronavirus and the restrictions... #2

You wouldn’t know there was still a pandemic around here. Hardly anyone is wearing masks and on the news they are saying it’s the lowest rate of new infections but there’s over 2000 new cases in my state and 7 deaths. That’s not nothing!

@AzulOscuro and @BreakForTheLight I hope you both won't have to wait too much longer for your vaccinations. You've waited a long time already.

I know the vaccine is not a cure and they say we're going to have to live with covid some time but it's a big relief to finally get your vaccine. I have my fingers crossed for you!

Fully agree with @Discombobulated. I hope both of you can get vaccinated soon!

There are more and more medical professionals coming out to say that Sinovac is showing to not be very useful as far as preventing transmission. There was an article today showing how many municipalities in our region (including mine) are seeing more active cases than a month ago.

Sorry, I guess only @AzulOscuro can read it.

Tabla: evolución de contagios en la Región Metropolitana, comuna por comuna - www.lun.com

Still, the Health Minister will only say that all vaccines are safe and effective. What kind of kickbacks are he and the president getting from the manufacturer, I wonder?

They are finally letting us take off our masks at work if we are fully vaccinated. I asked the guy behind me if that would get him to finally get vaccinated and he said no. I got the vax months ago. It feels really strange not having the mask. IMO they are worthless anyway.

I can’t understand how after 8 millions of population being vaccinated, contagious cases still are increasing. Here in Europe, after having more of less this quantity of vaccinated people, the number of contagios show a tendency to be stabilised or decrease.
Thanks god, you got pfizer.

Ah, @rechu, for the record, don’t have too much faith in any of the politicians there rectifying or undoing anything. They never get wrong in the decisions they made. It’s an axiom.

We are gonna also be able to be outdoors without the mask soon. Something to be grateful for because it’s beginning to be very hot here.

I thought the masks were helpful. Why do you think they are pointless?

@AzulOscuro - Believe me, I have no faith in this clown show. The President seems only interested in increasing his fortune and the Health Minister is does whatever the president says.

Now the President wants to introduce a sort of green card to allow more mobility for vaccinated people, when 85% are still getting Sinovac, or as you know I like to call it, Suerovac. We got another 2 million doses of Suerovac yesterday! The government says, well Israel did it, but, of course, Israel is only using Pfizer.

The Health ministry is showing some stats about the probability of ending up in the ICU without being vaccinated. I'm not going to type it all out, but these caught my eye:
40-49 - 5.7%
50-54 - 8.1%
55-59 - 11.2%

60-64 14.7%

That is supposedly of all COVID-19 positive people in these age groups. What can I say, it seems kind of high to me. If I had more free time, I'd pull up the government reports and crunch the numbers myself.

Believe me, I am also very happy I did what I had to do to get Pfizer. That stubborn gene I got from my dad finally helped with something! If we will continue to be a viral hotspot, at least I have more protection than most. I do worry about my husband, especially since at some point he will have to go back to the office.

I do agree with you. A single deceased person or a person in intensive care counts as long as we can do something to avoid it.

We are get use to seeing the figures day after day.
Figures are cold, no face and eyes.

I remember at the beginning of the pandemic that a woman reported that her husband died because he didn’t receive the care needed. The woman phoned to the number for covid emergencies and she was asked to wait. Well, her poor husband couldn’t wait because he was very ill and he needed urgent help.

When I see these gathering of people in the streets without masks, one close to the other as if they were in a concert...I can’t avoid wondering where they come from. Are these our sons and daughters?
What a f@cking $hit of a generation we have created. Haven’t we?

Aren’t you, guys, getting now different vaccines? Moderna, Jansen...you know.?

Moderna hasn't even been approved here. I think cost may have been an issue.

J&J/Janssen was being negotiated for at one point but the talks fell through and it was never ordered. It hasn't been approved either.

AstraZeneca has been approved and we are getting a trickle of doses from COVAX, shipments of only 100,000-200,000 at a time. They are mainly using them for men. It's approved for women over 55, but most in that age group had already been vaccinated.

We have another Chinese vaccine with limited available data, CanSino coming soon. 1.8 million doses of that. It's a one-dose vaccine, similar to J&J/Janssen and has approval here. Mexico is using it a lot. I think they have a contract to make it.


The Pfizer order was for 10 million. I haven't heard that there are any negotiations to get more. We've received only about 2.5 million doses of that order. I know Argentina is currently negotiating for Pfizer and Brazil signed a deal for 100 million. Yeah, even Bolsonaro realizes the need for better vaccines, and they are manufacturing or are going to manufacture Sinovac there. (I am not sure if production has started or not.)

I read that China wants to start a big internal vaccination campaign due to an important upcoming holiday and it is likely to lead to lower exports to other countries. We recently ordered 4 million more Sinovac, yuck. I am not sure if the recent 2 million or so doses are related to that order or not.

They love Sinovac here, what can I say?


In all cases the approvals I mention are for emergency use, as I think is the case everywhere.

Wow, they just announced changes to the quarantines/phases and no area that is still in lockdown in our region is going to move out of it. Some areas are going on 10-11 weeks locked down.

I’ve been vaccinated and the positivity rate and new cases are very low in my city. Nobody has died in several days. I feel some degree of security going to restaurants, movies and generally back to my social groups in person. I am wearing my mask much more often than not and socially distancing. My daughter is not vaccinated and I don’t want to accidentally pass something on to her. These relaxed mandates feel really freeing and good as long as one stays vigilant and responsible. I expect we’ll need a booster shot possibly in the fall.

The mask mandates didn't help in France. Covid cases still exploded. Masks have been around for over 100 years and in 2019 WHO said about face masks that “there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission…”

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/...9-eng.pdf?ua=1

If face masks really worked they would have saved tens of millions of people in the 1918 pandemic.


CDC:
"In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks"
Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures - Volume 26, Number 5—May 2020 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC

There's a furore here because apparently last Friday the government quietly published new guidance online for the 5 areas which have growth of infections of Indian variant. The guidance said people were to avoid travelling in or out of the areas or to mix indoors. Except they didn't communicate this with the local authorities and it's only been publicised today 4 days later.

To me it's edging towards a local lockdown but they don't want to be blamed for it so they're quietly letting local authorities look like they're to blame.

I don't know where this leaves us now, especially those who are fully vaccinated.

Yeah I read about that in the Dutch news. That does sound absolutely ridiculous!

I think Germany has classified the entire UK as a variant area again due to the Indian variant? Not 100% sure though.

My dad has had his second shot now, my mum should be getting hers soon. Germany is giving vaccinated people the same freedom as people tested negatively but I think the hotels are still closed for tourists and I can't have them staying in my tiny flat so I guess we will all need some more patience.

Last weekend I read the goal was to have all school kids (12-18) vaccinated before the end of August and the start of the new school year. The latest news is they want to start vaccinating them in June I'm getting really worried about not getting mine anytime soon now.

Well, this is really bad news. A friend just informed me that her husband was diagnosed with diabetes, which puts him at increased risk for a severe case of Covid. He's about 60 so was vaccinated pretty early on due to age, but at that point there was almost no Pfizer available. It was reserved for health workers and a few situations like people on dialysis or undergoing chemo. So, you can guess what vaccine he got. He is an electrical engineer, so he can't always work from home. He and his co-workers have to visit clients and sometimes travel to other locations in the country. She's extremely concerned and stressed, which is very understandable.

Ah that's a shame about the hotels! Glad your parents are almost fully vaccinated now though and hope you can see them as soon as possible.

The furore over the ridiculous government advice which was sneaked out last week has settled down- they met with local leaders and agreed no special measures are needed. So we are being told to be careful but live our lives as usual. It's good but how ridiculous we had to go through this worry again - we just came out of a 5 month lockdown!

I completely agree with other countries listing us as an Indian variant risk and banning us or heavily restricting our travel - I think it's ridiculous Spain is saying UK visitors dont need to give a negative test to travel there. I just hope Spain don't get another wave from this.

Good news for me is my 2nd vaccine is being brought forward to next month instead of July - I got an email today. This is because I live in an area affected by the variant.

@BreakForTheLight you asked about vaccine efficacy for the India variant a while back. I read today the official data is 33% for first dose of either Pfizer or AstraZeneca and 2nd dose of Pfizer takes this to 88% and AstraZeneca 60% after 2 weeks .

Covid-19: Single vaccine dose is 33% effective against variant from India, data show | The BMJ

So 2nd doses are very important but also the Pfizer is a clear higher performer - I'm so glad our elderly and vulnerable were mostly given it. Hoping that will protect them from any new surges.

I recalled you so much today when wearing the f@cking mask under the sun rays of my city today.
It said that you better not give a lot details on the net about where you are and such, but I’m in the f@acking South of Spain, so you can all guess how we are dealing with the hot weather now. And thus, I have to wear this mask that it’s helpful for nothing.

P.S.: Ace, I guess many things that are told to the populations are with the aim to avoid panic. I wonder when they are gonna treat us as adults.

Did you already get the two shots?

You see how politicians don’t find another way than shirking.