Coronavirus Pandemic

[lazerwalker]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. The 6 month gap was politics and not science. Indeed, when boosters were first muted, everyone talked about Autumn, not December, so the schedule slipped, even from what the politicians themselves originally said.

Can you provide a link where, prior to the emergence of Omicron, virologists said that the delay to boosters should only be 3 months? So far you've only asserted it without evidence.

It isn't just about the decay in antibody levels in the blood - the immune system's creation of memory cells is also important for long-term protection and the gap between initial and booster doses can't be too short for the booster to maximally enhance the memory cell response.

As I said, the emergence of Omicron looks to have changed the trade-off in delay time to favour reducing it to enhance the more short-term antibody levels vs long term effects, but a 3 month gap wasn't necessarily the best choice pre-Omicron.

[merman]

Initial findings from Imperial College - booster provides 85% protection against severe illness and hospitalisation from Omicron, BUT no signs that it is less severe or infectious than Delta.

I have a horrible feeling that lockdown is the only answer to slow transmission, and if that means not seeing family this Christmas then I am prepared to accept it. Even having had my third jab I find myself increasingly anxious at being out and mixing with others.

[lazerwalker]

I found the article I referred to a few days ago, talking about the delay period before being boosted:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... octors-say

[PFVA]

Here we have been told a while back that the protection given by the vaccines starts decreasing after 3 months and that's why the 3rd or booster dose was recommended after the 6 months.

And speaking of what we are being told we were officially warned by several of the government people, the PM, the health minister, etc that the confinement that starts right after New Year and was supposed to last a week will probably be extended due to Omicron. Right now that variant represents 20% of the Covid infections but it's expected to rise fast and being more contagious may become too much for the hospital system thus confinement will more likely bye necessary.

We were also told to expect a 4th dose of the vaccine 6 months after the third one.

In the meantime some free testing centers are popping up in different locations. I just saw this one at the park when I went for my riverside stroll

Omicron

[KlaxonCow]

I found the article I referred to a few days ago, talking about the delay period before being boosted:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... octors-say

Thank you for that article. I will update my opinions accordingly.

[merman]

Piers Corbyn and the anti-vaxxers can go to Hell.

[KlaxonCow]

Looks like Drakeford did ask Westminster for funding - furlough and such - but they flatly refused.



Thing is, Omicron is doubling at a ridiculous rate, so even if hospitalisations and deaths are down - and that remains the open question we don't have an answer for yet - then there's going to be a "tsunami" of folks self-isolating and taking days off work.

And, remember, Long Covid - which could have people off work for a very long time - can happen regardless of severity (like my own initial symptoms were mild, but they just wouldn't entirely fuck off for almost a year and if it wasn't that we were all in lockdown and working from home anyway, then I have no idea how I'd have coped, if I had to actually go into the office to work).

Because Long Covid appears to be, by the latest theories and studies, an immune system "over-reaction" rather than the virus itself. That, in response to Covid, it creates antibodies that unintentionally are "auto-antibodies" that wrongly target your own body's cells. And presumably it lasts so long, because the body is mistaking your own body's cells for the virus and, therefore, is fighting itself, convinced that the virus is still infecting you.

So, this time, it looks like we're not just inevitably going back into lockdown (Wales has already announced and Westminster is reported to be "drafting" its restrictions now). But we're doing so with a flat-out refusal from the UK Treasury to fund any of this or bring back furlough.

(That said, though, this happened before. Wales asked for furlough to cover the "firebreak" and was told to "fuck off". Then, a few weeks later, Westminster decides that it needs a firebreak for England and, suddenly, all the furlough money's flowing again. So, you never know, maybe they're just being racist again.)

[tufty]

So boris has decided to ... not decide.

[Ollie]

So boris has decided to ... not decide.

That's very on-brand for him. He likes to wait until circumstances make the decisions for him.

[PFVA]

And here we go. Government meeting tomorrow to anticipate measures supposed to enter in effect after New Year's to after Christmas and add a few more. So far known not just vaccination certificates but also negative tests for New Year's public parties and réveillons, limit the number of people in shopping centers and whatever.

[Dio]

So boris has decided to ... not decide.

More like his cabinet has told SAGE to get to fuck.

[KlaxonCow]

More like his cabinet has told SAGE to get to fuck.

Well, we're all very tired of experts.

With their "facts" and their "understanding", getting things right all the time, with actual scientific predictive power, because they actually bother to study what they're talking about before opening their mouths.

It's all very "elitist" of them, I feel.

Why can't my ill-informed populist opinion - that I pulled out of my arse, as I find actually learning things to be such a bore - be considered just as equally correct, as that of a smart person who has dedicated their lives to the study of the subject?

Wah, it's unfair! I'm going to stomp my feet, in a very determined way, until mommy and daddy use their money to make the scientist people go away, so that the toys are all mine! Mine! I'm a spoilt brat and I DEMAND everyone's attention.

Doesn't the virus know that this is a democracy? It should listen to me. The latest winner of our local "beauty contest for ugly people" in the General Election. I'm the important one here, virus.

Don't listen to those scientists. They're all a bunch of nerds. Most of them poor as well - because these stupid nerds devoted their lives to the betterment of humanity and the alleviation of suffering as the higher goals of their difficult craft, rather than, like me, filling up their Panini sticker book (or for a younger audience: collecting all the Pokemon cards) of my bank account with I.O.U. notes, so I have the biggest number in the whole database! I'm so rich, I get to enter my initials in the "Rich List" highscore table. Look at the size of my money dick. Kow-tow to me, you fucking betas.

Meanwhile, the virus - having no sentient capacity to watch the TV news or read newspapers - continues to mindlessly replicate, entirely oblivious to the fact that they are ignoring the democratic authority of our elected leaders. Which is very rude of them.



Yeah, sorry. Your "authority" is a man-made construct backed up by absolutely nothing whatsoever in actual reality. Hate to break the bad news like that. But, like, seriously, this shit is genuinely life or death, so we don't have the time to molly-coddle your egos.

[gilesgoat]

On other words we got Moderna this afternoon so we have something working on our RNA / DNA we'll turn into monsters ...

.. actually NO and that's why I am disappointed

So far just feeling a bit tired and light pain in the arm on the site of the injection but so far that's all about it.

[Ollie]

Fucking Javid on Marr yesterday saying his job is to challenge the scientific advice he receives...

[tufty]

o_O

Scientific advice might suggest shoving grapefruit up your arsehole is not recommended. Maybe he could "challenge" that