[News] Coronavirus

A place to discuss the now-global coronavirus outbreak.

848 miles. She's tough and resilient, surely she can hack that.

As a virologist I’m shocked my work has been hijacked by anti-vaxxers

As a virologist, I’ve spent the past year or more studying the novel coronavirus that has upended all our lives. Communicating our work to the public and speaking to the media is an important part of my job, and I’ve always tried to be clear and accurate about the science: I believe the available vaccines against Covid-19 are safe, and they are our best route back to a more normal way of living.

I’ve been concerned about the anti-vaccination movement since before the pandemic. But I never imagined that my own work could actually be part of their misinformation arsenal. So I was shocked to discover that a recent TV interview I did for ITV London News had been seized on by anti-vax and conspiracy activists and now has thousands of likes, shares and retweets across social media.

The original interview was about our research on the Pfizer vaccine, which found that the antibody levels it generates are not as good at neutralising the Delta variant than against the original Wuhan strain – a simple update on likely vaccine protection. But the widely shared versions of the video were often edited, or taken out of context, to make me out to be some sort of supervillain, or the unlikely hero of the anti-vax world.

In some videos, I’m shown playing the part of the brave dissenter inside the establishment, blowing the whistle against some imagined harm of the vaccine. In another, I’m introduced as the head of the “UK bioweapons programme”, being caught admitting that the Covid vaccine could somehow destroy your immune system.

Like the virus itself, the videos seemed to be mutating and spreading, with new, more virulent variants catching on online. One of the most widely viewed videos created a convoluted and conspiratorial narrative involving vaccines, alien DNA and abortion which was repeated over and over – and featured the same clip of me replayed over and over at various points.

Judging by the messages coming into my inbox, there are a lot of people taken in by this. I get tens of notifications a week (even three months later) from people still citing these videos as proof that vaccines don’t work.

And I still get direct inquiries from people genuinely worried about the impact of these videos. I’ve heard from a nurse for a prison in New Zealand, wanting to reassure prisoners under her care who were fearful of being vaccinated. I’ve heard from a woman in the United StatesS, fearful for her clinically vulnerable brother, who she said was taken in by online conspiracies. I’ve heard from a couple in Canada trying to decide whether to accept the vaccine, who wanted to understand exactly where these videos adhered to the truth, and where they had departed from it.

Nevin73 wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

Alaska state senator says she can’t work at Capitol after Alaska Airlines ban

tl;dr -
1 - Airline introduces mask requirement
2 - GOP state senator doesn't wear a mask and is banned from the airline
3 -The only way for her to easily get to Juneau is by airline
4 - There are no other airlines that fly in the winter.

Can't she pull herself up by her bootstraps and drive?

If I understand geography right, there is no actual driveable highway that connects where she is to where she wants to go.

mudbunny wrote:

If I understand geography right, there is no actual driveable highway that connects where she is to where she wants to go.

Indeed, but Nevin's sentiment still applies. With enough bootstraps, she could weave a raft.

Alaska sure can pick 'em.

Hire a bush pilot...

fangblackbone wrote:

Hire a bush pilot...

Jeb's probably looking for work. Don't know if he has a pilot license though...

She should be able to get the local Constitutional Sheriffs to authorize her presence on board on both ends. Even if the plane exits the county of flight origin, she's on it, and they are not going to just drop her off in the middle of nowhere. Dunno why she didn't think of this... Guess she's just not into FREEDOM.

mudbunny wrote:

Alaska state senator says she can’t work at Capitol after Alaska Airlines ban

tl;dr -
1 - Airline introduces mask requirement
2 - GOP state senator doesn't wear a mask and is banned from the airline
3 -The only way for her to easily get to Juneau is by airline
4 - There are no other airlines that fly in the winter.

She's from Eagle River. She could drive to Juneau and take the ferry like plenty of others.

And that Seattle Times article shows her with a mask on? So what's her problem?

Bout had it with these folks.

Bout had it with these folks.

What's wrong with you? There's no "bout" about it.
I am teasing you but I TRULY have had it with these juveniles...

This story sounds eerily familiar. Didn't some Alaskan jackass get kicked off of planes a year or two ago and have to take the same ferry? Same jackass?

Twelve hours in a Florida COVID-19 ICU

It's the outright contempt De Santis and his ilk have and have stoked against healthcare workers that disgusts me most.

I have no compassion left for these people. None. Only hatred and contempt.

The Research on Ivermectin and Covid
* I know data doesn't matter to the crazies but here is some good information

farley3k wrote:

The Research on Ivermectin and Covid
* I know data doesn't matter to the crazies but here is some good information

(video here)

I like how he was basically rolling his eyes the entire video. "Come on, people, seriously?"

Keldar wrote:
farley3k wrote:

The Research on Ivermectin and Covid
* I know data doesn't matter to the crazies but here is some good information

(video here)

I like how he was basically rolling his eyes the entire video. "Come on, people, seriously?"

You can almost hear Dr. McElroy rolling her eyes on the Sawbones podcast.

Oh Nicki Minaj. Thank you for the laugh today.

@oeste wrote:

The worst part of the “I’ll do my own research” folks is that they are often the WORST at it! Research is a SKILL. It takes understanding how to validate sources & more importantly, how to check your own bias when the results of your research doesn’t match with your expectations.

I'm imagining someone in Trinidad right now wondering why Nicki Minaj was talking about their swollen testicles on the Internet.

Dude thought he could get one last hurrah before he got married, caught an STD, and is trying to blame it on the vaccine.

Speaking of marriages… a friend is going to a wedding with her husband who has a weakened immune system. They were happy about it at the time of accepting but as the day gets closer they are getting more nervous. We talked seriously about it but in the end the conversation got quite funny as we discussed more outlandish strategies.

The biggest concern is eating on a table with others they don’t know. In the end we thought there were two ways to go. The first was to contact everyone else on their table and ask them searching questions about their attitude to vaccines and personal risk, what socialising they’d done in the last month and if they’d be happy to submit themselves for a lateral flow test. The other idea was that she and her husband could erect a perspex wedge on the dining table and warn people off if they approached the edges.

In reality she’s going to talk to the bride and see if she has any thoughts or insight.

Higgledy here's one idea I came across, if the bride/groom are willing.

You Are Invited to Our Wedding. Kindly Tell Us Your Vaccination Status.

Many couples are setting up mobile testing sites the day before their weddings, informing guests that they will need to wear masks throughout the reception, and providing color-coded bracelets that indicate which guests are fine with hugging and which want to keep their distance, according to wedding planners.

Living in Denmark, I'm of two minds on this. As that was published two weeks ago, I think the current number is around 80% vaccinated before they fully threw out all the restrictions. I am just worried that the same thing that happened in the Netherlands will occur here, although I would guess it won't show up until November due to the nature of when people travel outside of the country (schools have a week vacation in the middle of October so many people travel south for the last gasp of warm sunny weather before the long dark of winter sets in). I know that at some point this will be the right decision I just think that holding onto at least some restrictions for a bit longer than maybe necessary would be the better idea, ie error on the side on caution.

Delta is so pervasive that even with herd immunity, you still have to wear masks and socially distance yourself.

Wearing masks and socially distancing were working to contain the virus for almost a year before the vaccines came about. We only saw spikes when people were dumb or threw tantrums and decided they'd "had enough!"

The numbers are available. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were lost because of getting your hand caught in the cookie jar and denial.

Higgledy wrote:

Speaking of marriages… a friend is going to a wedding with her husband who has a weakened immune system. They were happy about it at the time of accepting but as the day gets closer they are getting more nervous. We talked seriously about it but in the end the conversation got quite funny as we discussed more outlandish strategies.

The biggest concern is eating on a table with others they don’t know. In the end we thought there were two ways to go. The first was to contact everyone else on their table and ask them searching questions about their attitude to vaccines and personal risk, what socialising they’d done in the last month and if they’d be happy to submit themselves for a lateral flow test. The other idea was that she and her husband could erect a perspex wedge on the dining table and warn people off if they approached the edges.

In reality she’s going to talk to the bride and see if she has any thoughts or insight.

As someone who got married during the pandemic (pre-vaccine), I can tell you what we did.

We kept the ceremony extremely small. We both had both our parents as guests. One set was more-or-less bubbling with us already and was tested shortly before, the other set was traveling from out of state and quarantined for 2 weeks in state (not even grocery runs; we dropped them on the doorstep). Between the two of us we have 6 and 2 half siblings, and the only one present in person was officiating the ceremony. We had a total of 7 people present (including us). Everyone else had to watch the livestream. We told friends and family that we would like to celebrate with them, so we will hold a reception when it is safe.

For us the small ceremony was what we wanted anyway, but I don't think we would have done it much different if we did want a large ceremony. If we were doing it post vaccine we *might* have invited more immediate family after confirming that they were vaccinated, but post-delta I'm not sure we would have even done that.

Marriage is a big deal, and worth celebrating with loved ones, but we felt that the risks of a larger gathering outweighed the benefits of doing so in person. Of the 7 people at the ceremony 3 are healthcare providers, so a) the risks of covid are well understood by us, b) we don't mess around with disease safety, and c) if we did invite more people there was a risk of any one of them may have been exposed at work leading to a larger spreader event. As it is, we had a backup plan of doing a quickie ceremony outside at a friends house with my sister in law officiating from 10 or 15 feet away, and those friends acting as the required 2 witnesses from 10 or 15 feet away from all of us (and no senior parents present). With the rapid spread in our area in the weeks before the wedding we came pretty close to doing that, and did in fact scale back the celebration that happened.

As much as one can mitigate the problems of a large gathering, I still don't think it is right (with conditions here in the U.S. right now) to ask friends and family, (especially the intergenerational mix normal for weddings) to attend a large in person gathering. I know as attendees your friends are not in a position to change how the wedding is conducted, but I think asking people to choose between safety and attending your wedding is a crappy thing to do, and in their position I would be very tempted to tell the couple getting married exactly that and refuse to go* (even without an immune compromised partner).

* I understand that every friendship is different, and do not blame anyone for not feeling comfortable telling off the couple getting married and/or skipping the ceremony; I can see myself caving in some circumstances, so no judgement.

Interesting thanks. Yeah, it’s very tricky.

We had friends get married in May with just their parents and having a reception in November.

I wish they had done a live stream. My friend and I introduced them a couple years ago. He and I had been working together about 2 months and she and her had been friends since high school. We two couples got together for bar trivia and invited our respective single friends and voila. Kind of sucked not being there for the day. It's the only wedding I feel directly responsible for and would have liked to see it.

I'm supposed to go to a wedding in a few weeks. In Ohio.

I don't really want to go.

Iowa's School Mask Mandate law is currently blocked. (edit: the law blocks districts from implementing Mask mandates)
Just got the email from the local district superintendent that all visitors, staff, and students are expected to wear masks when social distancing isn't possible.

THIS SHOULDN'T BE SUCH A f*ckING RELIEF, IOWA! DO BETTER!

The situation in Australia continues to evolve on a State and Territory basis. I live in Sydney, the largest state capital city located in the most populous State. We ruined it for everyone when an unvaccinated and unmasked airline crew driver caught Delta and it spread too quickly for the contact tracers to locate and isolate. The second most populous State capital city, Melbourne, is having the same experience; lockdown and tracing can't keep up with Delta.

That leaves 3 States and 1 Territory mostly COVID-free but frankly their economic contribution to the national result is well behind the two most populous States. Our national capital is highly vaccinated (basically everyone there is a public servant) so I'll ignore them for the moment.

We've given up on contact tracing since 70%+ of the population has had their first jab. Of the 30% who haven't had the first jab, part of it has been those reluctant to take Astrazeneca (opting to wait for Pfizer which was in low supply) or children under the age of 16. I feel we will close in on 85-95% fully vaccinated in my State in the next 3-6 months.

Most people are resigned to living with COVID as endemic and that seems to be the national strategy. This lockdown is wreaking havoc economically as Australia has relied on high migration, tertiary education, tourism and services (hospitality and entertainment) to keep people in jobs. Thus it has become a numbers game where we know people will die and suffer whichever way the government turns but by and large most citizens are doing their civic duty and getting jabbed.

Probably the hardest thing for my household is having 2 children, 12 and 9, where they can't get jabbed but schooling is likely to return to classrooms soon, in the next 6-8 weeks. Remote learning has taken a toll on the youngest child thus I do support a return to classrooms but it would be nice if it coincided with medical approval for young children (12-15 is Pfizer approved but supply of the jab is still tight).

It doesn't help that our federal government changed the jobkeeper rules to exclude public university staff three times. This has resulted in at least 1 in 5 tertiary education jobs being lost, and that doesn't even count the casual staff who just weren't offered more employment.