Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[Vorkreist]

Seeing how i work in hospital i would say im pretty well informed.

So trolling it is. Thanks for the confirmation.

[Ripster42]

Such a tricky game these days to figure out if you are trolling or just that uninformed.

Let me guess. You also have strong feelings against wearing masks.

Well, you have your answer. They're willing to lie about working in a hospital.

[Arrashi]

So trolling it is. Thanks for the confirmation.

Im not entirely sure whats weird about me being nurse but ok.

[Granyala]

And how many exactly are they? 0.1% of population? Less than that? Because almost every disease will have those exceptions.

Death % of younger folks is very low, that is correct.
However you still have a few problems that necessitate taking this seriously:

1) Volume. Even if only few people die, many will need treatment. More than capacity can provide. Deaths will rise, not only from COVID but also from other sources.
2) Incapability of shielding risk groups. It's simply not possible to isolate a large part of the population that way. The more infected you have, the harder it gets to keep it away from the vulnerable people.
3) Lasting side effects. Science is still determining the numbers and whether SARS-CoV-2 is special in that regard, but needless to say that if we let it spread, A LOT of people will need treatment, for lasting effects too, probably more than we can accomodate.
4) Effect on the economy when a large percentage of the population is sick: pretty much equally problematic as a lockdown would be. Only with more dead people.

If you were medical personnel, the above should be obvious to you. Hence the accusation of trolling by @Vorkreist.

[Arrashi]

If you were medical personnel, the above should be obvious to you. Hence the accusation of trolling by @Vorkreist.

No, you know what is obvious for me as medical personel? That when germany offered us help our gov rejected because things are bad, but not really bad, but bad enough to lock jewelry stores.

The government that knows what they are doing to the point they lock libraries (which are factories of death) but not bookstores. That locks furniture stores, but not if they are selling stuff like nuts and bolts or pipes because then they are sterile and safe to visit.

I get it that most of you just read some shit in internet and listened to EXPERT on tv but let me tell you this - in reality nothing that you see really happens. Vast majority of decisions are made in split second by people with mentality of "it wont be that bad...oh shit of fuck". There is no long term planning, no grand plans that take everything in consideration. Everything from supply to diagnostics is in utter chaos. There is no organisation. What we get is getting a phone from region high ups that we need to evacuate 100+ patients because they decided that our hospital will be covid hospital. What we get are shortages of everything because people high up think that maybe it will calm down next week so we dont need to order.

You guys take lockdowns as some ultimate safety measure when in reality its just cover up for insane amounts of imcompetence. For lack of any real support, planning or preparation and are nothing more that empty gesture to appeal to scared masses. People who without any inside look into things may buy it, but for us its just smoke and mirror.

[Tuor]

At least the vaccines may be getting closer to being rolled out:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-v...ember-january/
Astra-Zeneca in January (some say late December).
Moderna in late March/April.
Pfizer possibly some emergency use in late November; don't know about general roll-out.

Obviously not all of them may be found safe and effective, but it seem likely that at least one will; and even if they start rolling out the vaccines it will take time to make and distribute vaccines for billions - so it would only be the beginning of the end.

That was what i said like 3-5 months ago, the vaccine would be avaiable by the end of the year... Like always, someone jumped on me.

Now the question is mass producing those vaccines, for some its even worst because the vaccine requires 2 shots, like the Astra-Zeneca/Oxford one, and they can't produce more then 100 millions at once.

[Forogil]

That was what i said like 3-5 months ago, the vaccine would be avaiable by the end of the year... Like always, someone jumped on me.

Yes, it seems hopeful that they will be ready.

The concern is how safe they will be (as long as they are somewhat effective), and primarily that there seems to be auto-immune responses linked to the virus - and it's plausible that if disease can create an auto-immune response the vaccine can produce the same one.

The auto-immune responses could be Kawasaki disease in children, and possibly "long covid" in adults.

Now the question is mass producing those vaccines, for some its even worst because the vaccine requires 2 shots, like the Astra-Zeneca/Oxford one, and they can't produce more then 100 millions at once.

As far as I understand some of them have already started production (possibly only Astra-Zeneca as the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require extensive cooling).

However, even though they have made millions of does it will not be enough.
Obviously building a facility to produce a vaccine that is not yet approved is economically risky, and producing it even more so - but the risk seems worth it.

[Gaidax]

Our second lockdown helped a lot, but we're already eyeing 3rd one several months down the road.

I hope that 3rd one will be the last one given MOH projects vaccine at spring.

[Tuor]

More measures in Portugal to face the pandemic:
-121 municipalities with restriction of movements, and other measures:
- During the week, people is allowed to circulate in the streets from 23:00H (11PM) to 05:00 (5AM)
- During weekends, people will only be allowed to circulate on the streets from 05:00 to 13:00 (1PM).
- Exceptions include working or accesing health services amongst others.

[Zan15]

Hey the election is over, did cases drop by 85% like expected?

oh wait, our state numbers just came in....eeeek.
Guess no thanksgiving this year.

[Blur4stuff]

93k new cases on a sunday in US. This next week is going to be staggering.

[Strawberry]

I must admit, this whole covid situation has played in my favor.
More time with my parents, more time for my hobbies, haven't done jack shit at work since April (and still got paid) and got more paid with my second job which I love (which leads to even more pay 2021).

2020 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'll drink to it tomorrow.

[Corvus]

Can't help but feel sorry for everyone living, well, everywhere else at the moment. I'm watching the reports coming in from the US and Europe and can't comprehend just how bad it is there.

Australia is back on the very cusp of wiping it out over here, all thanks to closing down the borders very early on but also lockdowns.

As it stands right now thee are just 89 active cases in the whole country, largely quarantine after having returned from overseas. There are only 19 people in hospital and just 1 in ICU.

And as for lockdowns, they work very well when done properly. The state of Victoria, and specifically the capital Melbourne, got hit by a second wave that saw cases spice seventy-fold at its height. Despite protests from a handful of covidiots, they went into a really heavy lockdown that lasted four months. During that period they accounted for around 90% of all Australian cases and deaths.

But right now, as they open up again, they have gone 10 days in a row now without a single new case or death.

And the economy didn't collapse either. The federal government has been subsidising wages for a very large number of people as well as increasing unemployment benefits, which kept things going. As everything opens up again, those are slowly being phased out. Of course that has racked up a large debt but that is a small price to pay for keeping the nation safe.

[Zan15]

Can't help but feel sorry for everyone living, well, everywhere else at the moment. I'm watching the reports coming in from the US and Europe and can't comprehend just how bad it is there.

Australia is back on the very cusp of wiping it out over here, all thanks to closing down the borders very early on but also lockdowns.

As it stands right now thee are just 89 active cases in the whole country, largely quarantine after having returned from overseas. There are only 19 people in hospital and just 1 in ICU.

And as for lockdowns, they work very well when done properly. The state of Victoria, and specifically the capital Melbourne, got hit by a second wave that saw cases spice seventy-fold at its height. Despite protests from a handful of covidiots, they went into a really heavy lockdown that lasted four months. During that period they accounted for around 90% of all Australian cases and deaths.

But right now, as they open up again, they have gone 10 days in a row now without a single new case or death.

And the economy didn't collapse either. The federal government has been subsidising wages for a very large number of people as well as increasing unemployment benefits, which kept things going. As everything opens up again, those are slowly being phased out. Of course that has racked up a large debt but that is a small price to pay for keeping the nation safe.

sigh, there are people who think because we have more people....we can't do it here.
Just like gun control, national healthcare, etc etc.

We lost our edge. We lost our confidence. its all been taken over by the "i got mine" attitude of baby boomers.

[Eviscero]

Pfizer just announced early phase 3 trial results showing their mRNA vaccine is more than 90% effective. If that holds up, it's a silver bullet.

In a beautiful twist of fate, Pfizer did not take any money from Operation Warp Speed. Could mean that not only won't Trump get any default credit in the history books for ending the pandemic during his administration (it won't be "over" until well into Biden's), his Operation Warp Speed may not be given historical credit either!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/h...gtype=Homepage

[Shadowferal]

Sounds like the gamble paid off.
I suppose it was bound to with almost a dozen vaccines being tested.

[Gaaz]

I have doubts about any vaccine to Covid-19. Not because I am skeptical about vaccines in general, but because the virus bears close resemblance to flu or common cold. If humanity could produce a vaccine to a fast mutating virus that changes 2-3 times a year, we no longer would be suffering from seasonal flu epidemics that kill hundreds of thousand of people every year. And now we have reports that Covid has advanced cross species hopping abilities (which led to total extermination of all farm animals like minks in Denmark and Holland (iirc), just to be on the safer side). Each of these hops a virus makes, it mutates orders of magnitude more than from jumping human to human. Simple fact is, we have not even the slightest clue as to effects of these mutations for future versions of the virus. It just as well may turn into a totally harmless strain, or become more deadly than a Bubonic Plague and Ebola combined. And I do not see how a vaccine for such a virus could even theoretically be produced, given that it mutates so rapidly and wildly. All we can hope for is that natural selection will sort things out and more deadly mutation strains that kill their hosts will gradually die down. It sounds horrible, but IMO this virus is not going anywhere and short of a major medical breakthrough in immunology, there is no real cure in sight.

[Shadowferal]

clipped.

You haven't done your homework.
The mutations aren't significant enough.
Though I'll grant you this much, pharmaceuticals are not going to be happy if this also prevents the flu.

[hellhamster]

CEO of Pfizer went to the same university as I did, I'm also skeptical

[PACOX]

I have doubts about any vaccine to Covid-19. Not because I am skeptical about vaccines in general, but because the virus bears close resemblance to flu or common cold. If humanity could produce a vaccine to a fast mutating virus that changes 2-3 times a year, we no longer would be suffering from seasonal flu epidemics that kill hundreds of thousand of people every year. And now we have reports that Covid has advanced cross species hopping abilities (which led to total extermination of all farm animals like minks in Denmark and Holland (iirc), just to be on the safer side). Each of these hops a virus makes, it mutates orders of magnitude more than from jumping human to human. Simple fact is, we have not even the slightest clue as to effects of these mutations for future versions of the virus. It just as well may turn into a totally harmless strain, or become more deadly than a Bubonic Plague and Ebola combined. And I do not see how a vaccine for such a virus could even theoretically be produced, given that it mutates so rapidly and wildly. All we can hope for is that natural selection will sort things out and more deadly mutation strains that kill their hosts will gradually die down. It sounds horrible, but IMO this virus is not going anywhere and short of a major medical breakthrough in immunology, there is no real cure in sight.

If they manage to make mRNA vaccines safe, then they can actually start to crank out vaccines at an accelerated rate. The problem...safe mRNA vaccines. Never been done in humans because they are/can be very dangerous - worse than the disease they are attempting to treat.