Wuhan virus 2020

[August]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

I had no reaction at all to both my shots, and I know that is not due to my "manliness", which has faded with age. I do hope they weren't giving me a saline shot because they ran out of vaccine and were afraid to tell me

I'm not surprised. I hardly felt my shot. I thought because the dose was only half a milliliter. On the way home it was even a little tough to feel exactly where she stabbed me. About an hour later though wow. I thought I had been poisoned, but still no pain from the injection site itself. Had I not gotten sick it would have been similar to your experience. It was about 24 hours later too.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

I had no reaction at all to both my shots, and I know that is not due to my "manliness", which has faded with age. I do hope they weren't giving me a saline shot because they ran out of vaccine and were afraid to tell me

Trust you to think that one up

That thought did cross my mind for a moment after my second jab

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the Sage advisory group, tells the BBC the UK could be at the start of a another wave of coronavirus.

"This strain can circulate very effectively... I don't really see why it wouldn't continue to spread in other parts of the country," he says.

Covid was only the 18th highest cause of death in Wales in April and the ninth highest in England.

It was the leading cause of death in both nations each month from November to February.

Failures in the national Test and Trace system are partly responsible for the surge of Indian variant cases in Blackburn, a report says.

It’s understood a technical problem left the council - and several others - unable to identify cases of the Indian variant for three weeks.

UK airports could start segregating passengers arriving from red list countries next month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says.

People aged 25-29 are now eligible for a vaccination in Northern Ireland, as are 34-year-olds in England.

The Duke of Cambridge has had his first jab and tweeted his thanks to all involved in the rollout.

[Jimbuna]

Not sure if I believe this or even if the vaccine they are using is effective.

China delivers more vaccine doses than US and UK combined

China has now administered 449.51 million vaccine doses. It is the world’s leader in terms of vaccine numbers, and has been highlighting in the past 24 hours how this figure means it has delivered more doses than the US and the UK combined.

China has been rapidly escalating vaccination in recent weeks. Today, it is big news in China that more than 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the past eight days alone. This means that at the rate China is moving, it could vaccinate a population the size of the UK in under a week.

For the past 10 days, National Health Commission data has put the number of vaccines being administered per day at over 10 million. Last month at the same time, China was averaging between 3-4 million vaccine doses a day.

A lot has happened in a month - China has escalated rollout of vaccination to over 60s, while previously it was prioritising vaccination of people in the 18-59 age bracket. China has also boosted vaccine capacity domestically, and the news the Sinopharm vaccine was granted emergency approval by the World Health Organization earlier this month has helped boost public confidence in vaccination.

There have also been increased media campaigns encouraging people to get their jab. China’s most trusted respiratory expert, Zhong Nanshan, has repeatedly appeared on TV urging people to do their bit, and today, there is the rollout of a catchy vaccination song called “Hurry up and get jabbed”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-57183056

[Skybird]

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...385401v1.full/

Summary

The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has emphasized the vulnerability of human populations to novel viral pressures, despite the vast array of epidemiological and biomedical tools now available. Notably, modern human genomes contain evolutionary information tracing back tens of thousands of years, which may help identify the viruses that have impacted our ancestors – pointing to which viruses have future pandemic potential. Here, we apply evolutionary analyses to human genomic datasets to recover selection events involving tens of human genes that interact with coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, that started 25,000 years ago. These adaptive events were limited to ancestral East Asian populations, the geographical origin of several modern coronavirus epidemics. An arms race with an ancient corona-like virus may thus have taken place in ancestral East Asian populations. By learning more about our ancient viral foes, our study highlights the promise of evolutionary information to combat the pandemics of the future.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Not sure if I believe this or even if the vaccine they are using is effective.

Well, since they made the virus it follows that they would have a nice head start on a vaccine.

[Jimbuna]

From Sunday, people travelling from the UK will not be allowed to enter Germany.

The decision is down to a rise in cases of the Indian variant in the UK

German citizens and residents, plus people with an exceptional reason, can still enter - but face a two-week quarantine.

But Spain is lifting restrictions for UK travellers from Monday.

In England, those aged 32 and 33 can book in for their first vaccine from today.

On Friday, nine Covid deaths were recorded in the UK, and 2,829 cases.

The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Rotterdam tonight, in front of a Covid-tested audience of 3,500

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Well, since they made the virus it follows that they would have a nice head start on a vaccine.

I suspect you may well be right

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[MaDef]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Well, since they made the virus it follows that they would have a nice head start on a vaccine.

Hold on.... When it was suggested that this virus escaped from the Wuhan lab over a year ago, those who suggested it were ridiculed into silence. What's changed?

[Skybird]

Since tonight, travellers from the UK (Brits and non-Brits alike) cannot enter Germany anymore as long as they are no German nationals or have their primary living place in Germany. But they have to go into 14 day quarantine. Negative test results or vaccinations do not shorten the quarantine, it is mandatory for everybody.

Reason is the fast spreading of the Indian variant in the UK.

Now here is the rub. Spain is opening up for tourists from the UK. And Germany also allows German travels to Spain again. Where the German tourists then meet with the British, or better: meet the Spain the British "infestors" have left behind. And so one can expect that German tourists nevertheless will bring the Indian variant from the UK to Germany - via Spain.

I currently read a book about immunology and the immune system. The author gave an introductory chapter on the history of treating pandemics since the times of ancient Greece. And wonder oh wonder: already three thousand years ago and then always again when a pandemic haunted the mediterranean trading routes and Europe, they practiced the same what today is called: social distancing, quarantining, stopping movement, isolating - even the equivalents of that time to modern hand hygiene - and even wearing masks.

But today, with our so fast-moving travel options that transport people and germs around the globe in no time, they have nothing better to do than to shuttle tourists - tourists! - by the thousands and tens of thousands around the whole continent. It is so very very very very important to do so.

BTW, most pandemics in the past 3000 years lasted usually from 3-15 years and came in waves. 3 to 15 years. Often, they never became fully wiped out.

After summer, we will see another, fourth wave, i predict. The vaccines we currently have, seem to help against the Indian variant - but they do so at a lower efficiency level, while the variant is far more infectous. And the virus will not stop to mutate.