Northern Europe during Pandemic -- Summers 2020 & 2021 & onwards

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

On the darker side, the UK mutation is becoming prevalent in Sweden: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN2A21QB Despite the UK mutation, however, the numbers in Sweden are looking very good, with deaths, hospitalizations, and test positivity falling right off. Maybe the UK mutation is not such a game changer after all. This thing works in waves in any case. This wave is subsiding. Surely we will have enough people vaccinated by the time the next wave would be starting up, to seriously dampen it, if not snuff it out completely. I do believe we are nearing the end of the tunnel.

I guess we are just at the beginning. Frequently more or less useless vaccinations, tests and curfews, randomly lockdowns and disrupting of individual traffic...

They just get in the groove.

[barnakiel]

Yes. I did not hear about Russia, but read about possibility to get the vacc done in Saudi Arabia. No nationality limits. There is a new term for it too in the media 'Covid tourism'. Odd as it sounds.

[CatNewBee]

Serbia does quite well too, they buy from all sources (including China, Russia... ) and have all approved vaccines available to the population, also giving them the choice which one they want.

Most democratic approach, you apply online, choose your poison and get notified where and when you can get your shot, also automatically rescheduled for the second one.


https://www.euronews.com/2021/02/02/...-over-politics

[Dockhead]

Sweden is tightening the screws on travel:


https://www.thelocal.se/20210203/swe...CKgA5P_FxkcTrM


Now from 6 February like most of the rest of the region, you cannot enter without a negative COVID test. And nonessential travel from Denmark and Norway is altogether banned.


The whole region is now under the tightest travel restrictions we've ever had since the start of the pandemic.

When will this nightmare end? I feel particularly bad for residents of The Sound region, which includes Malmo and Copenhagen. This really cuts this region in half, disrupting personal lives, work lives. There are lots of people who work on one side and live on the other side.

[El Pinguino]

We have had quite a few people with the UK variant turn up in hotel quarantine here in Australia.
We have also a small number of quarantine workers catch the variant while at work.
Strangely it hasn't run riot through the community as one would have imagined it would.

How odd...
https://www.theage.com.au/national/w....html#comments

and scroll down here https://www.theage.com.au/national/c...05-p56zqw.html to this story
'0955 AM.. More than 1500 close, secondary contacts of COVID-positive man identified'

Maybe its something in our water.....

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

We have had quite a few people with the UK variant turn up in hotel quarantine here in Australia.
We have also a small number of quarantine workers catch the variant while at work.
Strangely it hasn't run riot through the community as one would have imagined it would.

How odd...
https://www.theage.com.au/national/w....html#comments

and scroll down here https://www.theage.com.au/national/c...05-p56zqw.html to this story
'0955 AM.. More than 1500 close, secondary contacts of COVID-positive man identified'

Maybe its something in our water.....

Daily infection rates are way down in the UK itself, to 314 per million today (7 day rolling average) from a peak of 881 on 9 January.


So the B117 strain, which has been the dominant strain in the UK since December, may be more infectious, but doesn't seem to "run riot" -- it doesn't seem to have dramatically changed the dynamics of the pandemic. It may be that the world is excessively freaked out about these mutant strains. Not saying they're not bad, of course.



How's it coming with vaccination in OZ?

[El Pinguino]

Oz? Rather than backing all the horses in the field in the early days the Federal government just ordered Phizer rather than Moderna and the Oxford one rather than Novavax.. pretty dumb in my view...
Anyway they start vaccinating in a few weeks... first the emergncy workers etc along with the old and frail. Then over 70s(?) ... all with Phizer... so thats me sorted..
After that the rest will be getting the Oxford needle.
There is talk about no hotel quarantine for vaccinated people coming into the country... just home quarantine.
If that happens I will have ticked all the boxes by July when Qantas resumes international flights and l can get back to Ecuador .
Dunno what I will do then.. maybe just take the boat up to Panama for a spell.. I'm a bit out of my comfort zone so far north.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Oz? Rather than backing all the horses in the field in the early days the Federal government just ordered Phizer rather than Moderna and the Oxford one rather than Novavax.. pretty dumb in my view...
Anyway they start vaccinating in a few weeks... first the emergncy workers etc along with the old and frail. Then over 70s(?) ... all with Phizer... so thats me sorted..
After that the rest will be getting the Oxford needle.
There is talk about no hotel quarantine for vaccinated people coming into the country... just home quarantine.
If that happens I will have ticked all the boxes by July when Qantas resumes international flights and l can get back to Ecuador .
Dunno what I will do then.. maybe just take the boat up to Panama for a spell.. I'm a bit out of my comfort zone so far north.

Sounds like the pandemic is almost over for you Glad to hear it.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

...How's it coming with vaccination in OZ?

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was approved provisionally on the 25th January by the TGA.
First vaccinations are expected to start late February.
10 million were originally ordered and another 10 million have apparently just been secured, all manufactured offshore. With the delays in production is not clear when all 20 million doses will be available.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved yet. It is still under discussion and an announcement is expected this month.
53.8 million doses have been secured, 3.8 from overseas and 50 to be manufactured by CSL in Melbourne.

The Novavax vaccine has actually been secured as well, but is still under development.

The 4th source will be via the global COVAX Facility program.

The University of Queensland vaccine trials were ceased after Phase 1 as antibodies developed against a component of the vaccine, eliciting HIV positive test results (without actually being infected) in the participants. This didn’t seem to make the news much in Europe.

I think the rollout will be painfully slow in Australia.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was approved provisionally on the 25th January by the TGA.
First vaccinations are expected to start late February.
10 million were originally ordered and another 10 million have apparently just been secured, all manufactured offshore. With the delays in production is not clear when all 20 million doses will be available.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved yet. It is still under discussion and an announcement is expected this month.
53.8 million doses have been secured, 3.8 from overseas and 50 to be manufactured by CSL in Melbourne.

The Novavax vaccine has actually been secured as well, but is still under development.

The 4th source will be via the global COVAX Facility program.

The University of Queensland vaccine trials were ceased after Phase 1 as antibodies developed against a component of the vaccine, eliciting HIV positive test results (without actually being infected) in the participants. This didn’t seem to make the news much in Europe.

I think the rollout will be painfully slow in Australia.

Yikes; why so slow?! That's crazy -- that is nearly 3 months behind the U.S. and Europe. 3 months is an age in something like this. With practically zero natural immunity in the population, Australia is sitting on a time bomb. If I were the King of Oz, I would light a fire under that vaccination program. Yikes.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Yikes; why so slow?! That's crazy -- that is nearly 3 months behind the U.S. and Europe. 3 months is an age in something like this. With practically zero natural immunity in the population, Australia is sitting on a time bomb. If I were the King of Oz, I would light a fire under that vaccination program. Yikes.

Its behind Chile...

Our leader ... Scomo....aka 'Slomo'... does not appear to have any feeling of urgency....
At one level that is fine... nobody is dying ... the few cases we have are in hotel quarantine apart from two or three.... nothing to worry about....

At another level.... if the Victorian experience last year were to repeat itself it would not be good.

There is no feeling of urgency amongst the general population either.... its been very much a Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane problem... in the rest of Australia it has had little effect..... one wouldn't want to be in the tourism business....

If I may indulge in a little whataboutism..... what about New Zealand? If the vaccine train was going any slower over there it would be going backwards....

PS Chile... with a slightly smaller population than Oz is still getting about 70 deaths a day.....despite pretty severe restrictions on movement etc.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Yikes; why so slow?! That's crazy -- that is nearly 3 months behind the U.S. and Europe. 3 months is an age in something like this. With practically zero natural immunity in the population, Australia is sitting on a time bomb. If I were the King of Oz, I would light a fire under that vaccination program. Yikes.

My thoughts as well.

One major problem is simply availability of doses. Not that long ago Pfizer announced that only 5 of the 10 million doses secured would be sent in the near future. The locally manufactured Oxford vaccine won’t be available until April and that will be produced gradually.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is the lack of natural immunity coupled with Australia’s aim of zero community transmission. I can’t see how zero community transmission can possibly be the long term aim, but nor can I see how they will transition from this and get the country functioning normally again. It seems to me that this will be a very drawn out procedure.

[El Pinguino]

This... from the Guardian a few days ago .. sums up the state of play in Oz pretty well..
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...u-need-to-know

[capn_billl]

Quote:
Originally Posted by arsenelupiga View Post
These shots do basically nothing, except will give you 'iphone passport' or so they say. And of course there is $$$ part for chemists.

Once people realize shots are basically worthless, .
ZERO evidence for this...

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

ZERO evidence for this...
source?

Well let's see.

Multiple vaccinations needed. Even if you actually had Covid

Short time immunity.

Frequent boosters needed.

Multiple mutations, and variants.

These sound like the same reasons we don't have a vaccine for the common cold.

Not a good look.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

Multiple vaccinations needed. Even if you actually had Covid - In most cases, two.
Short time immunity. - Not known, and not likely.
Frequent boosters needed. - Not likely. [1]
Multiple mutations, and variants. - Not (yet) relevant.
These sound like the same reasons we don't have a vaccine for the common cold. - Not really.
Not a good look. - FAIL. Case not made.

Multiple unsupported statements, leading to an unjustified conclusion (IMO).


1. A study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, that investigated immunity in participants who received Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine, 119 days after the first vaccination, found that they had more antibodies, than people who recovered from COVID-19.

“Durability of Responses after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273 Vaccination” ~ by Alicia T. Widge, M.D. et al
➥ https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2032195