BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Dec 20 - 01:48 PM

Not bad from someone who hails from the Socialist Republic of Croydon... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 04 Dec 20 - 02:23 PM

I told you all bonz seems to be gradually mellowing
and going slightly more centre lefty...

That'll annoy him when he realises...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 Dec 20 - 03:23 PM

Not in the least, I am enjoying our upgrade to superfast BT Halo 3!!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 12:32 PM

Just ran across this metaphor. Swiss cheese model of pandemic transmission: sure, the Mask slice has holes, but combined with handwashing and social distancing and all the other slices with their holes, you end up with no holes going all the way through. And don't let the Misinformation Mouse nibble any one layer away: sure masks aren't a 100% effective barrier but so what? They are only one slice of our model. Anyway:

Blicky.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 12:46 PM

What "misinformation"?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 12:55 PM

Super-gluing lips, nostrils, and eye lids is an option
for improving the effective level of mask protection..

Top charlatan Scientist have yet to agree on the benefits of gluing shut ear holes,
and the remaining bodily entrances..

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 01:58 PM

Steve Shaw, read the article. Well- explained there.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 02:16 PM

Since catching up on this thread today,
I've been walking around with cheese stuffed up my nose.

It's a 110% effective miracle protection against covid..

I can prove this because I can still smell cheese...!!!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 03:19 PM

I did read the thing end to end, and I found it rather shallow and unnecessary. We don't need to be patronised by a facile metaphor into realising that multiple strategies are needed from all of us to fight the virus. Just give us the unadorned facts. His clever yarn called for far more mental processing than hard facts ever would. And he seemed to be implying that measured naysaying (Steve's take on masks???) could be misinformation. As one of my favourite lecturers used to say if we got a bit flowery in our essays, what we don't need is empty cleverness. Great message, misfire delivery. That's all.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 03:35 PM

Nicely put, dude.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 03:39 PM

Steve - which smelly cheese do you recommend to work best
as anti covid nasal plugs...???

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 04:23 PM

You're asking the right man. I am a massive cheese aficionado as it happens. But which cheese? Well now. A firm Westcountry farmhouse cheddar would both be not smelly enough and would be a lamentable waste of cheese. I once bought a disgustingly overripe Brie at the pannier market in Barnstaple (bloody delicious). It ticked the stinky box...but it was very soft, too snot-like... I'm not a Stilton man, pongy though it is, and it can be a bit crumbly, which wouldn't fit the bill ("fit the bill"...cheese up nose...see what I did there?) So, for good stink, wide availability and good nostril-friendly texture, I'm going for...

Saint Agur!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Jos
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 05:14 PM

I don't even like eating Saint Agur, never mind plugging my nose with it. (And as far as the adverts go, trying to tell the English how to pronounce it, well the do nasty things with my synaesthesia.)

How about a nice strong Gorgonzola?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 05:52 PM

Bound to be tory ministers with connections in the dairy industry,
who will be contracting billions of £££s of public money
to produce sub standard PPE cheese plugs...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 07:44 PM

Any man who hates Saint Agur is tired of life...

A Gorgonzola piccante would indeed fit the bill. Use a small amount then email me for a killer pasta sauce recipe with chicken breast, double cream and the rest of the pack...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Jos
Date: 06 Dec 20 - 08:27 AM

Can I use chicken thighs instead of chicken breast?
Chicken breasts don't taste of much, really.

And why don't you just post the recipe, here or in the 'Recipes - what are we eating?' thread, instead of wanting an email, then everyone can enjoy it?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Dec 20 - 08:30 AM

I might have already done it in the recipes thread but I'll check. Warning: it's a real rib-sticker... Thigh meat great, by the way.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Dec 20 - 10:12 AM

The price of tea in China is going up.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Dec 20 - 10:16 AM

It seems that shaming politicians for breaking their own rules is a futile effort. Every day or two I read about someone who decamped for some far away luxury location. I suspect the California politicians who were scolded a few days ago were at the same meeting as these Texas legislators, a week-long 50-people meeting in a Maui luxury hotel. "But ethics watchdogs have long criticized the conference, calling it a junket that hands lobbyists a captive audience of state lawmakers." The industry representatives and corporate sponsors paid $10,000 each to attend. I can't manage to post a link to the ePaper version of this story and it isn't in the html side of things yet.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 06:13 AM

State data shows my particuler neighborhood is a hot zone.
Latins here are not mask compliant.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: robomatic
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 10:16 PM

I have read that Catherine the Great got a cowpox / smallpox vaccination in the early 1800s. Apparently it was not done in public and the vaccinating doctor was prepared to flee if things did not go well.

Things went well.

On tonight's news I heard that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip may be 'first adopters' with the new vaccine. Maybe there will be a public presentation. If only Lucy Worsley can make it!

Maybe Rudy Giuliani can recover some of his lost sparkle with a similar presentation from his hospital room.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 12:42 AM

Trouble is.. in this bonkers internet conspiracy era..

.. even if high profile folks do big PR for vaccines
by getting media event jabs,
conspiracists will immediately insist there's no proof
the injection was anything more than vitamins or any other harmless placebo...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 06:17 AM

I can't see it at present, but there was (maybe not in this thread) a question about whether the virus could by promulgated by farting.
I saw a post on Facebook today which seems to answer this: Facebook

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 06:29 AM

Telegraph today (page 9)
English pubs in Tier 2 with live music evenings have started making them all-ticket events.
In Tier 2 areas, live music venues are allowed to operate at 50% capacity and serve alcohol to ticket holders at the bar, without them having to order a main meal as well."

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Jos
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 07:28 AM

"... even if high profile folks do big PR for vaccines ..."

I assume "high profile folks" means people who are successful at sports, or who appear on television programmes with high viewing figures.

If so, the chances of my recognising them (or even having heard of them), let alone being persuaded to follow their examples, are vanishingly small.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 07:51 AM

..apparently liz and phil are being lined up for a PR jab job...???

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: robomatic
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 10:34 AM

The English are effin' awesome.


NPR reports the first two jabs went down this morning in England:
DECEMBER 8, 2020.

First was a 91 year old pensioner.

Second was a guy named William Shakespeare.

Already been dubbed: "TAMING OF THE FLU"

God save the queen!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: robomatic
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 10:58 AM

On the local news I heard there might be as many as tens of thousands of vaccine doses headed to Alaska that might be available as soon as next week. Now there are half a million folks all over the state so I reckon the doses will be apportioned to:

* Health Professionals
* Elderly and At-Risk Health Situations
* Native and Bush Community.

Since a double dose is the standard treatment, that amount of doses will be absorbed relaively quickly even if, as I understand, a high percentage of my fellow Alaskans will not be eager to undergo vaccination. But it will establish a good base of people who will be examples of folks who got the shot early and did not get sick.

Good news!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Jos
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 11:23 AM

A few days ago there were reports, and pictures, of Russians being administered the Sputnik covid 19 vaccine in Moscow.

The BBC news service said that "Russia is starting its Covid-19 vaccination programme, with clinics in the capital Moscow inoculating those most at risk from the virus.
Its own vaccine Sputnik V, which was registered in August, is being used."


This morning BBC Radio 4 news reported that a 90-year-old woman was the first person in the world to receive a covid 19 vaccine outside of a trial as part of its development.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 06:44 AM

Just a snippet from today's Guardian: rich western nations with 14% of the world's population have bought up 53% of the vaccines. Canada, for example, has bought enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone in the country five times over.

That news has caused me to completely lose interest in where I might be on the UK priority list...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 09:27 AM

And the Pfizer vaccine has, through this field-testing by just giving vaccines to the populace, already been found to be too dangerous for people with -wait for it- bad allergies. One blicky.

I was *not* fearmongering. These vaccines are untested for anything other than efficacy.

This is a new *type* of vaccine. We have *no clue* what injecting rna can do. When they first started the polio vaccines hundreds of children got polio till they figured out how to use viruses in vaccines. And that is just an example.

People who are not frontline workers, like me, can afford to wait, though. Not at all saying it isn't worth the risk if you are such a worker. Just saying it *is* a risk.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 10:42 AM

It can be argued that SARS-CoV-2 is more of a risk.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 12:26 PM

From CNN, there were two health care workers, who carried an adrenaline auto-injector who had anaphylactoid reactions. The vaccine is supposed to stimulate the immune system, people with serious allergies have overly vigilant immune systems. This isn't a surprise reaction, but it would be good if they could reduce the possibility of a reaction.

It was close enough to "fear-mongering" for me to think of it as such. the "we have *no clue* what injecting..." is bullshit. They have a clue that it will provoke an immune response. I think most of us are fairly inured to most irrational fear of the unknown (to them, at least).

As for "People who are not frontline workers, like me, can afford to wait, though.", we don't have a choice in the US. I'll get the vaccine whenever I can, but I figure I'm not at the top of the list.

Those of us who aren't afraid will hopefully be enough to protect those who won't, or don't, get the shot from being infected, but it's pretty far off.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 03:39 PM

The Pfizer/BioNTech and the Oxford AztraZeneca vaccines have both been tested on >20,000 people.
The normal number of people tested for medicines licencing is anything between 300 and 3,000
These are not untested vaccines.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:49 AM

According to waste water testing, Boston will have a 500% spike next week.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Rain Dog
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 04:33 PM

Well in Kent we now have 6 of the top 10 infected areas in England. The rates are continuing to rise. By the end of the week we might have all 10 of the most infected areas in England.

Matt Hancock has announced the testing of all schoolchildren. Didn't anyone tell him that we have had the Kent test for years?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 07:05 AM

While we were lulled into propogandized sleep, China has vaccinated 9 million people. They are also poised to vaccinate the middle east, Africa, South America and Mexico, Russia and South East Asia.

Meanwhile back on the farm Trump refused Pfizer's intial offer for 100 million doses so we are at the back of the line for them. We will face an intentional shortage with less effective vaccines. Supply and demand will raise prices?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 07:14 AM

Trump thinks it's more important to execute people than to vaccinate.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 02:04 PM

Correction China has innoculated only 1 million.

When I brought up the vaccine with black neighors, they laughed.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Dec 20 - 06:45 AM

The Dead are rising, cases climbing and the vaccine cavalry is coming.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Dec 20 - 12:38 PM

Covid-19 Live Updates: U.S. Begins Vaccine Rollout, With Shots Given in New York

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Rain Dog
Date: 14 Dec 20 - 01:19 PM

And now we have a new strain of the virus with most cases of it appearing in the south east. Experts seem to think that might be an explanation of quick spread of the virus here in the south east of the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Dec 20 - 01:26 PM

My question is - THE VACCINES DO REQUIRE A SECOND 'BOOSTER' SHOT, BUT WHEN WILL WE LEARN IF FUTURE BOOSTERS ARE REQUIRED? accidental caps

Does the varient have a name yet?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Allan Conn
Date: 14 Dec 20 - 02:42 PM

Or it could just be that the variant happens to be most common in the area where there has been this new upsurge. They don't really know. There are variants arising though so it is not a first. Scotland had a variant a bit earlier in the year and there was a Spanish one too recently if I recall. Sure there have been more.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: robomatic
Date: 14 Dec 20 - 10:21 PM

The predicted amount of vaccines has arrived in Alaska. Vaccinations begin tomorrow!

Way Cool.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Dec 20 - 08:18 AM

"These vaccines are untested for anything other than efficacy."

That's not actually true. It's the kind of assertion that gets red-card3d by Twitter when the Great Loser makes it.

Adverse reactions by people with strong allergic vulnerabilities are not exactly unexpected in this kind of situation. You always need to have a look out for them, as was done in this case.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Dec 20 - 10:31 AM

I listened to a radio program yesterday talking about various philosophical and statistical topics to do with COVID, and have decided that the "it's my body" argument can be shot down. Just as people aren't allowed to smoke in public buildings (even it if its their body they can't bring their smoke in) they are similarly not allowed in with bare faces. We don't want your germs or your smoke in here.

What a sorry excuse for a spouse when her husband ignores her request that people wear masks and they all get sick and her mother dies. I think I'd be ready to move away from that community by now.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Dec 20 - 03:13 PM

Mrrzy is correct that the mRNA vaccines are a new type. But I think the facts as we know them indicate that it is a far more targetting toward the virus type of vaccine and a far less body interfering type of vaccine. One of the reasons the new vaccines must be kept so cold is that the critical part of the vaccine is extremely delicate. It is there to do one thing and it will fall apart otherwise. The other reason is that there are no real additives to this vaccine the way normal vaccines have been formulated, hence it is really not as likely as the 'normal' vaccines to complicate the human resistance.

I think the mRNA vaccines are probably the safest ever prepared or manufactured precisely because of the technology behind them. They are a game changing technology.

This is Dr. McCoy territory.

Meanwhile, I believe the AstraZeneca vaccine is more of the 'normal' non RNA type and does not need to be stored at very low temps. It does have some additives as did the familiar forms of vaccines in the past.

I think a lot of initial reluctance to be inoculated in the immediate future comes from several main sources:

1) A feeling to 'not be first' along the lines of "Early bird gets the worm, second mouse gets the cheese."

2) People who may associate the virus AND the vaccine with Donald Trump.

3) People who are going to get the Chinese or Russian vaccine and may not feel these have been well vetted.

4) People who through cultural isolation or stigmatization have reservations to any organized medical community.

I think far more than 50% of the population will accept the vaccines in the near future.

Vaccines have a two hundred year history, going back to cowpox/ smallpox in Europe, perhaps longer in other parts of the world. They have had complications and problems historically, but they are true human-made miracles.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 08:57 PM

Vaccines come from science... Non-overlapping magisteria with Trump.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 09:14 PM

RNA messenger vaccines against all forms of flu has been sought and have failed for over 12 years. Then again it is an entirely different kind of virus that mutates yearly. Perhaps what is learned recently will give a 'shot in the arm' to flu research.