26251 replies to this topic

[qv]

Canadians without two shots of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines may be banned from US travel.

https://www.iheartra...cert-1.15438667

From the article you shared:

"The good news, says Lee, is
that the predicaments posed
by the different vaccines will likely get sorted in time.
think everybody is on the
same page, we just need to do it safely, and we want people to get together again," she said. "It's in
everybody's interest, it's just going to take time."

[spanky123]

From the article you shared:

"The good news, says Lee, is
that the predicaments posed
by the different vaccines will likely get sorted in time.
think everybody is on the
same page, we just need to do it safely, and we want people to get together again," she said. "It's in
everybody's interest, it's just going to take time."

 

I am sure it will eventually get sorted out between now and whenever.

 

It is also a concern that without some sort of digital passport we may be barred from Europe, the US and a lot of other destinations as well.

Edited by spanky123, 17 June 2021 - 03:24 PM.

[qv]

I am sure it will eventually get sorted out between now and whenever.

It is also a concern that without some sort of digital passport we may be barred from Europe, the US and a lot of other destinations as well.

I agree. I'd be happy with some kind of digital passport that let me travel.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

[Mike K.]

We need two doses to weather this storm, not a party after one. The D variant is hot on our tails and we’re at only 14% full vaccination because we felt it more important to outcompete other nations on one metric before an election.

The fact is that Ottawa did no original clinical trials on dose delay and went ahead with rationing anyway despite studies from several sources warning about susceptibility to vulnerable people and to COVID-19 variants, notably the highly contagious Delta variant, which just killed two people in Alberta and forced the United Kingdom (another dose-delay country) to shut down for another month.

This week, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that one dose is much less effective against the Delta variant. “You’ve got to get both doses,” he told CNN. “One dose runs into a problem because the protection is significantly less.”

Two people have died in Alberta with this variant, and ten more have become infected even after receiving two doses, CTV reported. This has health-care workers concerned in the province.

...

Notably, the CBC — with $1 billion a year in taxpayer funding — has avoided the dose-delay controversy altogether, along with other mainstream media, but carried stories praising the hapless Procurement Minister Anita Anand who bungled the job and overpaid for vaccines. The low point, journalistically, was when CBC sent a camera crew with the minister to meet a small shipment of vaccines coming off a plane early in the morning.

By contrast, a CTV interview in May 16 with Oxford University’s Sir John Bell, one of the developers of the AstraZeneca vaccine blasted Canada’s health authorities over its vaccine policies. He was upset at Ottawa’s hold-up of his vaccine due to concerns about blood clots. “Just wait for that one (the Delta variant) to rip through the Canadian population and the problems you’ve had with these very rare clotting events will look pretty insignificant,” he said. “C’mon guys. Either do the experiments yourself or listen to people who do.”

He also weighed into Ottawa’s decision to mix vaccines in its scramble to fully vaccinate Canadians. “That reflects the whole Canadian approach to vaccines generally and that is acting on a lot of hearsay, not facts.”

“My advice is get people two doses as fast as you can and hunker down. So for Canadians to be thinking about whether they should have a second dose, eating marshmallows around the campfire, looks a bit silly to me frankly.”

- https://apple.news/A...eRvGVqF6gLn7WQw

[Rob Randall]

Monday morning quarterbacking. At the time everyone seemed to agree delaying the second dose was the most reasonable course of action at the time. Get as many shots in arms as soon as possible.

[todd]

Except this isn’t football this is a deadly disease and our lives are at stake.


Also it’s Friday.

Edited by todd, 18 June 2021 - 05:41 AM.

[Mike K.]

Monday morning quarterbacking. At the time everyone seemed to agree delaying the second dose was the most reasonable course of action at the time. Get as many shots in arms as soon as possible.

 

Yes, we all know what happened. It became a race to save the Liberal Party through inoculating 20-somethings who liked to party instead of double dosing vulnerable seniors, vulnerable populations and older demographics. 

 

14% is where Canada is at and the D variant is staring us square in the face. And why do you suppose "everyone" agreed to delay the second dose? Why was Canada unique in that regard, with its second dose delay? What made us different from, say, Poland, or the US, or the UK, or Germany, and more like Bulgaria and Estonia?

[todd]

The one shot decision seemed more political give everybody something. Whatever the reason things seem to be working as long as we get the second dose by fall at this point we should be OK. Assuming the vaccine holds up to the variants.

Edited by todd, 18 June 2021 - 06:07 AM.

[Mike K.]

Like, how can Canadians be ok with this? This is how it happened, Rob is correct that we just shrugged our shoulders and said, let's do it! We gotta beat France at first doses!

 

The fact is that Ottawa did no original clinical trials on dose delay and went ahead with rationing anyway despite studies from several sources warning about susceptibility to vulnerable people and to COVID-19 variants, notably the highly contagious Delta variant, which just killed two people in Alberta and forced the United Kingdom (another dose-delay country) to shut down for another month.

 

Monday morning quarterbacking. At the time everyone seemed to agree delaying the second dose was the most reasonable course of action at the time. Get as many shots in arms as soon as possible.

 

 

[Rob Randall]

Global consensus seemed to point to a delay as being acceptable medical advice; the best path forward. It's very experimental and includes a lot of wishful thinking but that's what the situation was in a very fluid situation. Ottawa didn't do their own trials, they relied on studies by other countries. Time was of the essence.

[Victoria Watcher]

Global consensus seemed to point to a delay as being acceptable medical advice; the best path forward. It's very experimental and includes a lot of wishful thinking but that's what the situation was in a very fluid situation. Ottawa didn't do their own trials, they relied on studies by other countries. Time was of the essence.

 

????

 

Global consensus?  yet Canada was the only country that employed the strategy?

 

i think we did the right thing.  we got it right.  or we got lucky.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 June 2021 - 06:24 AM.

[Mike K.]

But Canada stands alone among its peers. I don't understand how the US can be at 45% full vaccinations and Canada at 14%, if Canada did it the right way. Did the US do it the extra right way?

[todd]

????
 
 
i think we did the right thing.  we got it right.  or we got lucky.

Doesn’t really matter they will take what they can claim.

[Victoria Watcher]

But Canada stands alone among its peers. I don't understand how the US can be at 45% full vaccinations and Canada at 14%, if Canada did it the right way. Did the US do it the extra right way?

 

the US got more vaccines earlier.  there is no doubt we were starved badly at the start.

[todd]

the US got more vaccines earlier.  there is no doubt we were starved badly at the start.

our government for some reason thought we could get some from our buddy China. not their fault

[Mike K.]

the US got more vaccines earlier.  there is no doubt we were starved badly at the start.

 

It helped they made them, too.

 

Where's Canada's vaccine? We invested vast sums into Canadian vaccine efforts. What's the result of that investment? https://www.canada.c...g-capacity.html

[Victoria Watcher]

I don’t think our investments are/were intended to have them flowing this year.

probably just more political optics.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 June 2021 - 07:02 AM.

[Mike K.]

Probably.

[amor de cosmos]

WHITEHORSE, Yukon - The wealthy Canadian couple who snuck into a remote Yukon community to receive COVID-19 vaccinations intended for vulnerable First Nations residents were fined $1,150 each and won’t get any jail time. 
 
Former casino mogul Rodney Baker, 55, and his wife Ekaterina Baker, a 32-year-old actor, flew into Whitehorse in January, where they chartered a private plane to take them 450 kilometres northwest to Beaver Creek, a community of approximately 100 people, most of whom belong to White River First Nation. In January, vaccines were scarce in Canada, and were prioritized for health care workers and some vulnerable communities, such as First Nations.

https://www.vice.com...n-covid-vaccine
 

RUDN University mathematicians built a model of COVID-19 spreading based on two regression models. The mathematicians divided the countries into three groups, depending on the spreading rate and on the climatic conditions, and found a suitable mathematical approximation for each of them. Based on the model, the mathematicians predicted the subsequent waves. The forecast was accurate in countries where mass vaccination was not introduced. The results are published in Mathematics.
 
*snip*
 
Mathematicians have identified three groups of countries. The first category includes countries where the first wave of the pandemic lasted about 180 days. These are the countries with the lowest spreading rate, with an average annual temperature of 15-38° (for example, Saudi Arabia, Egypt). In the second group of countries (for example, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy) with an average annual temperature of 2-31°C, the first wave lasted 90 days. Countries in this group are characterized by an average infection rate and stopping periods with low virus spreading rate. The third group includes countries with the highest spreading rate and no stopping periods, with an average annual temperature of 2-18 degrees Celsius—for example, the United States and Russia.
 
For modeling, scientists used WHO data on the number of cases from March 1 to November 15, 2020. RUDN mathematicians chose the most suitable regression models—methods for statistical research of the influence of several variables on one value. The Fourier series and the sum of the sine-waves were the most accurate for the modeling COVID-19 cases. This means that the curve of new cases of the disease is represented either as a sum of Fourier functions (they can be represented as waves of a certain frequency and amplitude), or as a sum of ordinary sine-waves.
 
As a result, professor Ragusa obtained the calculated values of the peak of the second or third wave in the studied countries. Different models gave close forecasts with a difference of several days. The obtained predictions were compared with the data available at that time. It turned out that the model provides fairly accurate predictions if the country does not introduce wide vaccination. For example, the calculated value of the peak of new cases in Egypt is 1481 people on January 11, 2021; the real peak occurred on December 31 with 1418 cases. In other countries, the model provides an accurate prediction until the beginning of 2021. After that, the vaccination effect takes place and the calculated values differ from the reality. For example, for Germany, the predicted and real values are close until about January 15, 2021, and on February 15 they differ by about 2.5 times.

https://phys.org/new...s-pandemic.html
 
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have observed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect the testes of infected hamsters. The findings, published in the journal Microorganisms, could help explain symptoms some men with COVID-19 have reported and have important implications for men's health.
https://medicalxpres...cov-infect.html
 

Researchers of a recent study looking at whether the authorized COVID-19 vaccines harm male fertility were deluged with hundreds of emails from freaked-out men and their worried partners leading up to publication. Now, the findings from 45 vaccinated men are in: none showed any significant signs of lower sperm counts after getting their shots.
 
It's still possible that men who experience post-vaccination side effects may suffer from lower sperm counts for a few weeks, just as they might after a viral infection. But there's no reason to worry about significant adverse impacts on male fertility, said study co-author Ranjith Ramasamy, MD, of the University of Miami Health System, in an interview with MedPage Today. "People should not be concerned. The vaccines are very safe."

https://www.medpaget...19vaccine/93177

Convalescent plasma associated with better survival in blood cancer patients with COVID-19
https://www.news-med...h-COVID-19.aspx

Despite Drop in Approval Ratings Amid Second COVID Wave, Modi Still the Most Popular Global Leader
https://sputniknews....-global-leader/
 

A Russian military research unit that was involved in the development of Sputnik V is working on a new coronavirus vaccine in the form of chewing gum, the RBC news website reported Friday.
 
The Defense Ministry’s 48th Central Research Institute collaborated with the state-run Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow to develop and trial Sputnik V last year. Russia, facing accusations of rushing human trials, touted the adenoviral vector vaccine as the world’s first to be approved for widespread use.
 
Citing an unnamed Defense Ministry source and confirmation from the 48th Central Research Institute’s director, RBC said “work is underway” toward developing a mucosal Covid-19 vaccine in the form of chewable tablets and pastilles.
“After testing, the drug will be included in various treatment and prevention regimens for coronavirus,” the source was quoted as saying.
 
Col. Sergei Borisevich, who heads the 48th Central Research Institute, confirmed work on the new vaccine but did not specify what stage it was at.

https://www.themosco...cine-rbc-a74248
 
У 89,3% заболевших COVID-19 в Москве выявили индийский штамм
89.3% of COVID-19 patients in Moscow have an Indian strain
https://ria.ru/20210...1737578888.html

Over 966 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in China
http://www.ecns.cn/n...tq0279998.shtml
 
if you read just one story today...

More scientific evidence in countries such as the US and France has emerged to suggest that those countries may have had COVID-19 cases way before they officially confirmed.

A US government study suggested that the coronavirus may have already been circulating among people one month earlier than it was officially confirmed, and French scientists also presented scientific evidence that the country's cases were caused by an indigenous virus strain prevailing before 2020. 

Chinese scientists urged that such evidence should not go unnoticed, and should serve as evidence that the next-stage virus-tracing investigations should be focused on countries which reported cases earlier than they previously identified, especially the US.

A study of more than 24,000 samples taken for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research program in the US between January 2 and March 18, 2020 suggested that seven people in five states - Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - may have been infected well before the country's first confirmed cases that were reported in January 21, 2020. 

The results suggest that the virus may have been circulating in Illinois, for example, as early as in December 24, 2019, one month earlier than the US authorities confirmed. 

The data suggests the virus was in the five states far away from the initial hot spots and areas that were considered its points of entry into the country, the study said.

Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Global Times on Wednesday that the US should be prioritized in the next-stage investigation, as the country was slow to test people at an early stage, and it possesses so many biological laboratories all around the world. "All bio-weapons related subjects that the country has should be subject to scrutiny," Zeng said.

Ju Liya, chief scientist of the European precision medicine platform in France, also told the media last week that after having studied the genetic sequence of the viruses from earlier patients, they found the outbreak in France was caused by an indigenous virus, which was prevailing in the country even before 2020. 

She also claimed that the France outbreak had no link with the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first coronavirus case was reported, as the hereditary feature of the virus strain detected in France is very different from that found in COVID-19 patients in China. 

In response to a question about the US study, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a Wednesday briefing that scientific journals and scientists around the world have pointed out similar evidence, including chief Swedish epidemiologists who believe that there were cases of coronavirus in Sweden as far back as November.

"It is obvious that the outbreak had multiple origins," said Zhao.

https://www.globalti...6/1226339.shtml

One-third of older Americans delayed health care over COVID concerns
https://www.newswise...covid-concerns/

Dozens who died in Texas prisons during the pandemic had been granted parole, new report shows
At any given time, thousands of Texas prisoners have been approved for parole but not yet released. At least 42 of those people died in the 12 months after the coronavirus first swept the state.
https://www.texastri...le-coronavirus/