2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic (Vaccination 2021 Edition)

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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Sorry if any of you guys in the SE had Christmas plans.
They still do: mass exodus from London. That's why they have second homes in the Cotswolds or wherever, after all. And if they've got the ultra-infectious new strain, all the better to give it to the rest of the nation: think of it as trickledown.
 

Baffle

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Oct 22, 2016
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They still do: mass exodus from London. That's why they have second homes in the Cotswolds or wherever, after all. And if they've got the ultra-infectious new strain, all the better to give it to the rest of the nation: think of it as trickledown.
Yeah, I saw it. I assume a lot of them are people from outside London trying to get to the family home (the younger people anyway). My little sister (a younger person) is stuck in London on her own.
 

Fieldy409

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The longer we let this thing breed, the more mutations there will be. Herd immunity will slow down its breeding hugely. The risk I believe is that this whole time a mutation that happens to be vaccine resistant nobodies immune to might emerge and start the whole problem over again. We need to get that vaccine out pronto.

Hopefully the world realises how important vaccinating the world is and we get the worlds poorer nations vaccinated too....
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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The UK has some new Covid-19 mutation.

I am surprised it didn't start in the US.
Believe it or not, the UK probably handled covid-19 worse than the USA. A lot of Britons don't really want to admit that, or aren't aware as the dominant right-wing press is always as protective of the Tories as it can get away with.

This is something of a kick in the teeth that the country didn't need and pretty bad luck given a more virulent new strain could have emerged anywhere globally, but it was made considerably more likely by the failure of the country to control the virus.
 

Silvanus

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The UK has some new Covid-19 mutation.
The strain is relatively new, but not as new as the Government are making out. Johnson spoke about it publicly for the first time during his announcement of "tier 4" restrictions and the cancellation of the relaxation of travel restrictions for Christmas. The new, unanticipated mutation was used as justification for the u-turn (Johnson had ridiculed Starmer for suggesting the same thing a week or so before). But.... scientists had been warning about a new, more infectious variant as far back as September, and gov ministers had publicly acknowledged it the week before the announcement.

They downplayed and hoped and ignored, in order for Johnson to be able to delay his announcement of new restrictions until after parliamentary recess. Thats what's happened here.
 

Fieldy409

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We might get a 2nd shutdown next year if this new strain is more deadly.
I heard a scientist on the radio talk and he was saying it should just be more infectious, like the protein spike it uses to break into us is better or something. So much more infectious it might even beat normal covid safe procedures. Which can cause more deaths anyway so I guess it's how you define deadly.

Is the snake in Africa that bites more people resulting in killing them deadliest or the snake in Australia with more potent venom that rarely encounters people the deadliest?
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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Apparently there's also a new variant in South Africa that's a lot more infectious.

Frankly, there are probably lots round the globe - it's just that many of them will not yet be discovered by lab tests.
 

tstorm823

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Apparently there's also a new variant in South Africa that's a lot more infectious.

Frankly, there are probably lots round the globe - it's just that many of them will not yet be discovered by lab tests.
One might reasonably speculate that 50% of all samples are more infectious than average.
 

McElroy

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This is something of a kick in the teeth that the country didn't need and pretty bad luck given a more virulent new strain could have emerged anywhere globally, but it was made considerably more likely by the failure of the country to control the virus.
According to Plague Inc simulations mutations happen instantly all over the globe and cause coma, tumors, necrosis, and multiple organ failure. And make rats go insane.
 
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Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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Okay, that's definitely a malicious, clickbait headline.

Reading the article, what is apparent is that Fauci's personal opinion is that herd immunity to covid-19 required a significantly higher percentage of the population than early scientific studies were suggesting. Fauci chose to publicly report these lower estimates from studies over his personal opinion, factoring in what he thought would be most constructive for the public to hear. Over time, newer publications have pushed the estimates upwards, and Fauci revised his public statements upwards in line with them. Then he says he feels that at this point he may as well give his personal opinion as well as the estimates.

None of this is lying.
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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And in other parts of the world, Russia has basically just admitted its covid deaths have been over three times higher than it has previously reported.

It's official count stands at ~55,000. The deputy PM, however, has said that excess deaths in the period Jan-Nov 2020 were 230,000, of which four fifths were due to covid-19: so upwards of 180,000, then. This would mean Russia is the country with the second highest number of covid-19 deaths after the USA, and has a worse mortality rate than the USA, too. In fact, probably worse than every single other European country, too. The disparity is due to the fact that Russia has only been recording on official covid-19 figures where an autopsy has proven it as cause of death.