Topic: COVID-19:VERIFIED news sources, 0 politishit, 0 CONSPIRACY SHITE

[classycarra]

Feel a bit guilty to be honest, always said I was happy to wait to get the vaccine so others who need it more could be prioritised but then when you get the message through saying you can book it doesn't really make sense to put it off.

You absolutely shouldn't feel guilty about a thing, though I get what you're saying. Either way, delighted to hear you got your first vaccination mate!

[classycarra]

This is an excellent thread

https://twitter.com/jamesward73/status/1364009555068338176?s=21

It deals with the problems of trying to model what might happen next.  The model Sage used was a little out of date on the effect of vaccines.  The data that came out yesterday was much more encouraging (although still not entirely clear).

James models different scenarios using different assumptions ... huge huge differences in our comes for each one...

So which one will we follow? I don’t think anyone really knows....

100% follow the SAGE models (which will be far more up to date and detailed and methodologically sound), the latest of which won't be public yet, and definitely not the twitter mathematicians (that guy and BristOliver, who he quotes) who have no expertise in public health/epidemiology/infectious diseases.

[TepidT2O]

100% follow the SAGE models (which will be far more up to date and detailed and methodologically sound), the latest of which won't be public yet, and definitely not the twitter mathematicians (that guy and BristOliver, who he quotes) who have no expertise in public health/epidemiology/infectious diseases.

Not sure about the sage models. They are two weeks old (I know, not old but...).

Since yesterday we have information of vaccine efficacy that seems (and it’s still early, so caution here, and some info is conflating ) to be better than the most optimistic scenario used by Sage.

[Qston]

Sartorial elegance personified

[Mighty_Red]

I haven't had a family holiday since 2018, had to cancel 3 holidays laat year and like most we want to go somewhere as soon as possible. However the way people are going crazy means I don't want to go to places where they will be spreading themselves. You know the slaphead Maguire types getting into fights on Mykonos.

One thing that changed my perspective on intl travel was in Nov/Dec when India went to Australia for the cricket - they had 30k supporters in the stadiums. Yes they've had lots of lockdowns, their quarantine rules have been stupidly strict and people haven't been able to get home, but the vast amount of Australians have been able to have a somewhat normal life.

Contrast that with our situation, we've had the worst of all worlds - restricted travel and stay at home, no pubs or footie.

[rob1966]

If they lift the restrictions by the end of May, we are deffo going on the holiday to Lanazarote we booked last year. We went the lakes last August and it was fucking rammed, thousands upon thousands crammed into Bowness - this year will be chaos in the UK, you'll be seeing 1 to 2 million people on Bournemouth beach first sign on the sun for example. I lived in Southport long enough to see how packed that place gets of a weekend and our kid has been in Bournemouth since 1994, I've seen firsthand what it is like in Summer down there.

Give me a quite resort abroad with space to lie on a lounger over this any day of the week.  This was June 2020, over 1/2 a million hit the beach on one day

[Red Beret]

I'd love to be able to go on even a couple of daytrips, but yeah I'm quite worried about the usual destinations being packed.  I tell myself September is probably my best option, but that's an awful long time to wait when you're still in February.

[Phil M]

If they lift the restrictions by the end of May, we are deffo going on the holiday to Lanazarote we booked last year. We went the lakes last August and it was fucking rammed, thousands upon thousands crammed into Bowness - this year will be chaos in the UK, you'll be seeing 1 to 2 million people on Bournemouth beach first sign on the sun for example. I lived in Southport long enough to see how packed that place gets of a weekend and our kid has been in Bournemouth since 1994, I've seen firsthand what it is like in Summer down there.

Give me a quite resort abroad with space to lie on a lounger over this any day of the week.  This was June 2020, over 1/2 a million hit the beach on one day

Isn't it mental when you think back and realise that happened 2 months on from Cheltenham and all the furore that caused at the time.

[Qston]

If they lift the restrictions by the end of May, we are deffo going on the holiday to Lanazarote we booked last year. We went the lakes last August and it was fucking rammed, thousands upon thousands crammed into Bowness - this year will be chaos in the UK, you'll be seeing 1 to 2 million people on Bournemouth beach first sign on the sun for example. I lived in Southport long enough to see how packed that place gets of a weekend and our kid has been in Bournemouth since 1994, I've seen firsthand what it is like in Summer down there.

Give me a quite resort abroad with space to lie on a lounger over this any day of the week.  This was June 2020, over 1/2 a million hit the beach on one day

Reminds me of the people who queue on the motorway for hours on a bank holiday monday to go shopping at an outlet village. I just don`t get the fun and pastime of it. Peace and quiet for me as well Rob.

Fingers crossed France will let me in so I can sit doing nowt not being pestered by anyone

[Andy82lfc]

Isn't it mental when you think back and realise that happened 2 months on from Cheltenham and all the furore that caused at the time.

It is yeah, but a large proportion of people here have been an absolute disgrace since this started, leading to some of the highest rates in Europe and the world, you just need to look at basic absolutely zero effort things like mask wearing, so no surprise unfortunately.

[west_london_red]

Oh dear....

I’ve got  an anti Vaxxer on my ass.

Did an assembly about vaccines and how they worked.  Myth busted some issues about coronavirus and showed the BAME vaccine video at the end.


A very very long complaint form one parent... yikes,..!

I suspect there’s a lot of parents more in need of your assembly then the kids sadly.

[TepidT2O]

I suspect there’s a lot of parents more in need of your assembly then the kids sadly.

I’m bald I did it.  Kids like that need information that is factually correct.  We have lots of BAME kids and I thigh to it important to stress the need for vaccination in those communities especially (the complainant says BAME people are at more risk of vaccines than anyone else etc etc etc.. total wacko jacko sadly )

[west_london_red]

If they lift the restrictions by the end of May, we are deffo going on the holiday to Lanazarote we booked last year. We went the lakes last August and it was fucking rammed, thousands upon thousands crammed into Bowness - this year will be chaos in the UK, you'll be seeing 1 to 2 million people on Bournemouth beach first sign on the sun for example. I lived in Southport long enough to see how packed that place gets of a weekend and our kid has been in Bournemouth since 1994, I've seen firsthand what it is like in Summer down there.

Give me a quite resort abroad with space to lie on a lounger over this any day of the week.  This was June 2020, over 1/2 a million hit the beach on one day

That reminds me, I was reading something over the weekend (I think it was the i) all those mass beach visits last year that had everyone (and I include myself) in a mixture of rage and horror had no impact on anything to do with Covid, didn’t cause any spikes in cases or local outbreaks or anything of note whatsoever.

[Qston]

I’m bald I did it.  Kids like that need information that is factually correct.  We have lots of BAME kids and I thigh to it important to stress the need for vaccination in those communities especially (the complainant says BAME people are at more risk of vaccines than anyone else etc etc etc.. total wacko jacko sadly )

Went too far with the clippers ? At least you have owned up

[vblfc]

OK.  Any chance?  Last page has been full of talk of holidays etc. Cut that out and have some sympathy for us in the EU, more specifically expats sitting in Berlin. Vaccine program here is a bit of a dogs dinner.  Add to that all the negative publicity around Oxford/AZ and I am pissed to read today that almost no-one is turning up for those AZ vaccines at Tegel - I find this really annoying as looks like I will be months away and will gladly take the AZ shot. 
To be honest - I'm just jealous of you guys living in UK with such an amazing covid plan:   
Nah - I really am pleased for you all.  It's great, positive for once and long may this vaccines pace and energy roll on. 
It's all coming together - Get your tickets booked for CL final - it's on.

[So… Howard Philips]

I’m bald I did it.  Kids like that need information that is factually correct.  We have lots of BAME kids and I thigh to it important to stress the need for vaccination in those communities especially (the complainant says BAME people are at more risk of vaccines than anyone else etc etc etc.. total wacko jacko sadly )

And I assume you'll be tied up for weeks as the parent' s complaint is escaleted through the labyrinthine complaints system?

[Elmo!]

I just got my vaccination appointment in the mail (Group 6), but it's not until the 11th March.

[Red Beret]

I suspect there’s a lot of parents more in need of your assembly then the kids sadly.

I imagine plenty of parents dislike it when teachers tell their kids something that mum and dad told them is wrong.

[Qston]

I imagine plenty of parents dislike it when teachers tell their kids something that mum and dad told them is wrong.

No doubt. Those same kids will probably get measles as well.  There really are plenty of ill informed people out there.

[Zeb]

OK.  Any chance?  Last page has been full of talk of holidays etc. Cut that out and have some sympathy for us in the EU, more specifically expats sitting in Berlin. Vaccine program here is a bit of a dogs dinner.  Add to that all the negative publicity around Oxford/AZ and I am pissed to read today that almost no-one is turning up for those AZ vaccines at Tegel - I find this really annoying as looks like I will be months away and will gladly take the AZ shot. 
To be honest - I'm just jealous of you guys living in UK with such an amazing covid plan:   
Nah - I really am pleased for you all.  It's great, positive for once and long may this vaccines pace and energy roll on. 
It's all coming together - Get your tickets booked for CL final - it's on.

Saw some of the German government's attempts to persuade. And the responses on social media of "No, we don't the cheap rubbish vasccine. We're waiting." Hope you and your's get sorted out quicker as a result though. Just hope old folks over there have sense to go with what's available. See where we're all at come the summer. Hopefully some live football at the very least.

[TepidT2O]

And I assume you'll be tied up for weeks as the parent' s complaint is escaleted through the labyrinthine complaints system?

Might go to governors...  which would be highly frustrating and a total waste of time.

Half the governors had kids who I was firm tutor to, so I’m not worried

[Ashburton]

OK.  Any chance?  Last page has been full of talk of holidays etc. Cut that out and have some sympathy for us in the EU, more specifically expats sitting in Berlin. Vaccine program here is a bit of a dogs dinner.  Add to that all the negative publicity around Oxford/AZ and I am pissed to read today that almost no-one is turning up for those AZ vaccines at Tegel - I find this really annoying as looks like I will be months away and will gladly take the AZ shot. 
To be honest - I'm just jealous of you guys living in UK with such an amazing covid plan:   
Nah - I really am pleased for you all.  It's great, positive for once and long may this vaccines pace and energy roll on. 
It's all coming together - Get your tickets booked for CL final - it's on.

Seems it was quite an effective hit job on AZ, although I did notice the polling done on this see to demonstrate a huge amount of vaccine nationalism in Germany - the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines are practically unwanted compared to the Pfizer jab, presumably due to its origin.  Quite a shame, it didn't have to be like this.  Hopefully all those jabs sat doing nothing will get used soon at least, perhaps they can expand the vaccination groups - in particular now the reduction in hospitalisations data has been published.  We've also seen healthcare workers in Belgium threaten to strike if they've been given the AstraZeneca jab.  It really is quite ludicrous.

To be fair though Berlin saying they'd let you choose your vaccine was always going to turn in to a bit of a mess, and the lack of public knowledge of what efficacy actually means (note it may sound like 'effective' but it's a far more nuanced description) made this quite a messy situation.

Hope you lot get yourself sorted soon though.  Think Pfizer's production should sort it out by the end of Q2 and can start laying jabs into people to get everyone protected by the end of summer.

[filopastry]

[Ashburton]

You're right, no mention of it, yet they are reporting people scrambling to book as if there's only 1 day left.

It's these people who are the ones who acted like caged animals who went mad upon being released last year. They went all over home and abroad mixing with everyone who spread it all over again creating new variants and started the 2nd wave.

If people were just a bit more sensible, we could've had these things open much earlier.

Think it's also a psychological thing, people are itching to get some space, to see somewhere new and many have some cash in their pocket after a reduction in expenses over the lockdown.  I don't think I'd begrudge anyone a bit of a blow out holiday and there is some logic to getting in there early.

More broadly though, at least you know the majority of the UK population will have been vaccinated - which means less illness, less mutation and less need to worry.  It's those who seem to be optimistically wanting to travel to areas which are barely anywhere through their vaccination program and likely to be wary of British tourists (with the predominance of the B117 variant) tipping up.  Perhaps later in the year when we've seen a more broad roll out I can understand it, but before that, seems like there are a lot of variables.  In particular how the lockdowns/restrictions hold once the weather starts improving and people naturally want to get back outside again.

[Ashburton]

So unless I got the wrong end of the stick a healthy 20 year old in the UK will have access to the vaccination before a 80 year old woman in Kenya? Its great that we are hopefully seeing light at the end of the tunnel but still remember Michael Ryan from WHO, who was disgusted how some countries were fighting to be first in the queue when others cant even get in line. How true he was when you see countries vaccinating people who should be last in line.

To an extent they had to do it this way - I can't see how telling people to stay at home to protect others makes any sense if they're just going to deny them the vaccine at the end of it.  For 20 year olds, it's less about protecting them but more about closing down vectors for everyone else.  Think we can switch to offering the younger generation some 'freebies' like pizzas at vaccination centres to get them to actually turn up, as I can't imagine it'd be much of a priority for many unless there is something in it for them.  We've seen some success with this in Israel and the comms strategy does seem to be targetting various groups (seen quite a few BAME vaccine ads, presumably they'll do the same with women since they're slightly less likely to get vaccinated).

[rob1966]

That reminds me, I was reading something over the weekend (I think it was the i) all those mass beach visits last year that had everyone (and I include myself) in a mixture of rage and horror had no impact on anything to do with Covid, didn’t cause any spikes in cases or local outbreaks or anything of note whatsoever.

That is interesting to discover, our kid was going mental as he couldn't even take the dogs for their usual walks due to the amount of people on the beach.

Makes you wonder then if a flight of vaccinated brits flies to a resort or island that is mainly taking Brits and then everyone is outside all the time and follows the rules inside, is it any worse than going the pub/beach in the UK?

[redbyrdz]

Looks like cases are flattening out at about the current rate, which is still quite high.

Maybe due to the part of the population that can't or won't follow the "stay at home" rules? If so, there is probably not much that will help, until vaccinations reach them. But even then, some might refuse and keep rates up.

[redbyrdz]

I’m bald I did it.  Kids like that need information that is factually correct.  We have lots of BAME kids and I thigh to it important to stress the need for vaccination in those communities especially (the complainant says BAME people are at more risk of vaccines than anyone else etc etc etc.. total wacko jacko sadly )

Don't envy you. I wouldn't have the patience to try and talk sense into people like that.

[west_london_red]

That is interesting to discover, our kid was going mental as he couldn't even take the dogs for their usual walks due to the amount of people on the beach.

Makes you wonder then if a flight of vaccinated brits flies to a resort or island that is mainly taking Brits and then everyone is outside all the time and follows the rules inside, is it any worse than going the pub/beach in the UK?

Yeah, it was quite surprising to read but made some sense because for all the anger at the time it went very quiet afterwards and none of the medics or scientists mentioned it again.

With the scenario your explaining I personally don’t think I’d go on a flight unless the airline mandates everyone is vaccinated myself, going on holiday doesn’t worry me too much but the thought of hours on a plane with people who are not vaccinated does worry me.

[TepidT2O]

Don't envy you. I wouldn't have the patience to try and talk sense into people like that.

Didn’t even try. There’s no point.  Nothing will convince idiots like that   I just sent a generic email back to them.

[west_london_red]

Thought it was interesting that the study in Scotland looking at reduction in transmission showed that more Pfizer doses have been as administered than AZ, was something like 650k vs 500k where I always assumed the AZ was doing most of the heavy lifting in getting people vaccinated.

[filopastry]

Thought it was interesting that the study in Scotland looking at reduction in transmission showed that more Pfizer doses have been as administered than AZ, was something like 650k vs 500k where I always assumed the AZ was doing most of the heavy lifting in getting people vaccinated.

A lot of the early vaccination was Pfizer, and studies like this looking at people a few weeks later will be weighted towards vaccines that were administered earlier

[killer-heels]

I am definitely back on the Pfizer vaccine train now. Astra Zeneca / Oxford vaccine has had abuse chucked at it a lot by the Europeans.

[redbyrdz]

Well if the Germans don't want it, at least I'll be able to get a sunlounger.

Nationalist idiots everywhere.

The Germans don't want "the English vaccine".
The English don't want "the German vaccine".

[rob1966]

Well if the Germans don't want it, at least I'll be able to get a sunlounger.

Brits are worse than the Germans now, watching the hotel security open the doors to the pool area for 8am sunbed sprint in Majorca a few years ago was hilarious. It was like the Grand National for women

[killer-heels]

Nationalist idiots everywhere.

The Germans don't want "the English vaccine".
The English don't want "the German vaccine".

To be fair I think the Brits are happy to have the German vaccine. If anything some Brits are getting put off by the Europeans slinging mud at the AZ one.

[TepidT2O]

Interesting to compare the numbers of the two.  They seem to be showing different benefits

But if we went back to last April, we’d have cut our gonads off to have 1 vaccine that wasn’t as good as either of them.  The development has been remarkably successful, we’ve been lucky (too have some amazing scientist working on this sort of things for years).

[Elmo!]

To be fair I think the Brits are happy to have the German vaccine. If anything some Brits are getting put off by the Europeans slinging mud at the AZ one.

I'm not going to complain whatever I am given, but I am hoping for Pfizer.

[Motty]

Creamfields are still saying its going ahead? Surely no festivals will be on this year? Especially not one with 80,000 people milling around ffs!!

[Babel Time]

Well if the Germans don't want it, at least I'll be able to get a sunlounger.

The roll out there is pretty disgraceful. They have received about 1.5m doses of AZ over the past two weeks and only administered 211k doses to date. Additionally, another 650k are due to be delivered on Friday. They are currently vaccinating at a rate of about 0.15 doses per 100 people per day. The existing supply and future deliveries should allow for a rate of 0.25-0.3, so almost double. The Moderna supply is also currently only utilised to about 30%. For reference the UK has been going at a rate of over 0.6 for the past few weeks (thought dropped to about 0.55 this week)

But they do absolutely insane things:

- for each Pfizer dose they receive, they put one in reserve, so that the vaccinated person can have it precisely 3 weeks later
- Not getting GP practices involved immediately. Despite the fact the AZ supplies were due to start in middle of February (ended up being a little sooner) the plan to involve GP practices is not supposed to start until April. These have a theoretical capacity of 5m doses a week
- Seemingly not being able to pivot quickly after STIKO only recommended AZ for over 65s - low AZ vaccination numbers cannot be only down to lack of uptake
- the absolutely worst comment I saw by some regional vaccination official was. "We are building a stockpile, so that in the event potential future supply shortages we do not have to cancel appointments" - Seriously, wtf, clearly not inconveniencing people is far more important, than you know, saving lives.

My dad lives in Germany, he is in his late 60s and has a pretty bad lung condition. In his town they used to open the vaccination centre for one hour a day before they ran out of supplies. Now they don't even open it anymore. They also very recently had an outbreak in a old peoples home (who's inhabitants had not been vaccinated yet).

They are getting more data by day, further indicating that:
a) A single dose provides a substantial amount of protection
b) AZ reduces deaths and hospitalisations in over 65s massively

So, I do hope they act on the latest data, and approve AZ for over 65s. I'm certain there are loads who are desperate for it. And start actually getting this stuff into people arms, as it serves no one in some stockpile somewhere.