Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[madwullie]

7 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

I mean, I'd be inclined to agree if there weren't direct quotes from the likes of Mairead McGuinness and Ursula vd Leyen making themselves out to be the bogeymen. And this is before the likes of France and Germany's handling of the entire vaccine rollout.

I agree in terms of spin usually but there's very little spin required here given they've done this to themselves. The EU have made a complete mess of this and are in full on damage control mode and need to be seen to be doing something because right now, people who are living in member states will be boiling it down to 'Britain left EU and they have control over their own vaccine supply, we are still in the EU and are being drip fed vaccines too slowly'.

The easiest thing for them to do is shift blame onto the UK Gov and make out that they are hoovering up all the vaccine for themselves, regardless of contracts because that shifts blame away from EU being incompetent and onto the UK Gov for being greedy. I mean, let's be honest, if we were still in the EU and say, it was Germany who had left and were ploughing on unabated with vaccines, I know for a fact people in this country would be asking WTF the EU are doing, rather than blaming Germany for ploughing ahead and vaccinating it's population.

@Paco above outlined the ins and outs far better than I could. 

[DMCs]

1 hour ago, MP_MFC said:

I'm more surprised its the AZ one they are threatening and not the Pfizer.

Because the Pfizer one needs components made in the UK so the UK could retaliate by blocking export of that to the EU and then everyone loses. 

As far as I'm aware at the moment the EU are only considering action regarding this Dutch facility which wouldn't actually cause too huge a problem with our own domestic production + some delivery from India.

Edited March 22, 2021 by DMCs

[Jacksgranda]

Listening to a pretty depressing discussion about the South African variant v AZ only giving 10% efficacy. Not a great problem at the minute as infections are dropping so less chance of spreading, however could be a problem come Autumn when respiratory things ramp up again. 

RoI expecting another surge. 

Have a nice day.

[Burnieman]

3 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Listening to a pretty depressing discussion about the South African variant v AZ only giving 10% efficacy. Not a great problem at the minute as infections are dropping so less chance of spreading, however could be a problem come Autumn when respiratory things ramp up again. 

RoI expecting another surge. 

Have a nice day.

Does anyone know why the South African variant is not causing many issues in South Africa?

[vikingTON]

Just now, Jacksgranda said:

Listening to a pretty depressing discussion about the South African variant v AZ only giving 10% efficacy. Not a great problem at the minute as infections are dropping so less chance of spreading, however could be a problem come Autumn when respiratory things ramp up again. 

RoI expecting another surge. 

Have a nice day.

'Efficacy' claims based on antibodies in a lab test are not comparable to a human immune system that is now already primed to respond to a version Covid 19 virus and in the vast majority of people still has the capacity to very quickly adapt to a shan protein changed variant. It doesn't account for T-cell immunity. 

[Jacksgranda]

Just now, Burnieman said:

Does anyone know why the South African variant is not causing many issues in South Africa?

I Kent you would ask that...

[scottsdad]

2 hours ago, Aufc said:

I think what this thread has taught me is that i was right to get rid of social media. People losing their shit over some random writing something on twitter. Until it comes from boris or nicola then ill be happy ignoring them

I'm three years Twitter free and much happier for it. Never tried the others. 

[101]

15 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Listening to a pretty depressing discussion about the South African variant v AZ only giving 10% efficacy. Not a great problem at the minute as infections are dropping so less chance of spreading, however could be a problem come Autumn when respiratory things ramp up again. 

RoI expecting another surge. 

Have a nice day.

RoI are simultaneously shitting the bed both in terms of lockdown, easing restrictions and Vaccine roll out. Take no notice harder for you due to your open border but still Arlene and Michelle will see you good.

[Turkmenbashi]

Seems the Germans have found the cause of the blood clots by AZ but also the cure, not seen this reported anywhere in the U.K. 

https://m.dw.com/en/astrazeneca-german-team-discovers-thrombosis-trigger/a-56925550

[Aladdin]

25 minutes ago, Burnieman said:

Does anyone know why the South African variant is not causing many issues in South Africa?

It's difficult to say if it is or isn't.  South Africa has a population not dissimilar in size to the UK but has only carried out less than 10m tests compared to the UK's 110m odd.  Cases could be getting missed and, with around 1 in 8 adults HIV positive, you would expect that they could, unfortunately, be susceptible to a high number of hospitalisations and deaths (around 55k so far).

You have to balance that against a younger, more rural population and lower population density.  It may be the virus just hasnt had the chances to spread that it has in the UK.

Certainly plenty for epidemiologists to mull over once this is all done and dusted.

[Jacksgranda]

39 minutes ago, 101 said:

RoI are simultaneously shitting the bed both in terms of lockdown, easing restrictions and Vaccine roll out. Take no notice harder for you due to your open border but still Arlene and Michelle will see you good.

Provided you do what she says and not what she does...

[Ron Aldo]

Listening to a pretty depressing discussion about the South African variant v AZ only giving 10% efficacy. Not a great problem at the minute as infections are dropping so less chance of spreading, however could be a problem come Autumn when respiratory things ramp up again. [emoji20]
RoI expecting another surge. [emoji20]
Have a nice day.

As far as I understand, it remains effective against severe illness and death which is really all we need it to do. Some unlucky people might be laid up in bed for a few days but as long as that isn't a hospital bed then this really shouldn't be an issue.

[Glen Sannox]

2 hours ago, Stellaboz said:

Dunno about the rest of the EU but they've utterly fucked it here in Germany. Utterly fucked it. 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Glen Sannox

[Jacksgranda]

18 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

1 hour ago, Jacksgranda said:

Listening to a pretty depressing discussion about the South African variant v AZ only giving 10% efficacy. Not a great problem at the minute as infections are dropping so less chance of spreading, however could be a problem come Autumn when respiratory things ramp up again. 
RoI expecting another surge. 
Have a nice day.

As far as I understand, it remains effective against severe illness and death which is really all we need it to do. Some unlucky people might be laid up in bed for a few days but as long as that isn't a hospital bed then this really shouldn't be an issue.

That's what I thought but the professor who was on said 10% efficacy isn't much use at all.

[Todd_is_God]

56 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

That's what I thought but the professor who was on said 10% efficacy isn't much use at all.

I didn't hear this, but the relevance of that bit in bold is surely heavily dependant on what happens with the other 90%

If they are getting a mild dose, then it's not a concern at all. Whilst it would be nice if no one got ill ever, decimating people's lifestyles in order to achieve that isn't a viable solution.

Why have we apparantly suddenly decided that we can't accept someone getting laid low for a few days?

What am I missing?

Edited March 22, 2021 by Todd_is_God

[scottsdad]

51 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I didn't hear this, but the relevance of that bit in bold is surely heavily dependant on what happens with the other 90%

If they are getting a mild dose, then it's not a concern at all. Whilst it would be nice if no one got ill ever, decimating people's lifestyles in order to achieve that isn't a viable solution.

Why have we apparantly suddenly decided that we can't accept someone getting laid low for a few days?

What am I missing?

You're missing the desire to keep this going into 2023 and beyond. The desire to tell kids and grandkids that you, like the Greatest Generation, sacrificed your liberty to make the country better for them. You're missing the desire to have the soap opera of virus/variant/lockdown/vaccine wars carry on and be our main source of both news and entertainment. You're missing the need to change goalposts to make sure that people live in fear for longer. You're missing the Message from Above.

[D.V.T.]

No briefing today?

[MP_MFC]

No briefing today?

She did say last week that they would become less frequent in the run up to the election and given that it would be almost entirely a non covid Political question field day I guess this is the start of the wind down.

[Steven W]

8 minutes ago, D.V.T. said:

No briefing today?

Become my lunchtime routine watching it!

 

[Gaz]

2 hours ago, Burnieman said:

Does anyone know why the South African variant is not causing many issues in South Africa?

It's got Diplomatic (Herd) Immunity