Coronavirus (COVID-19 Outbreak) (69 Viewers)
- Thread starter Bjerknes
- Start date
From what I'm reading, the vaccine is not expected to be ineffective against it at this time. People will inevitably point to influenza, but its different and its genome makes it a nightmare.
https://asm.org/Articles/2020/July/COVID-19-and-the-Flu
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074182/ (section 5 here sums it up)
https://asm.org/Articles/2020/July/COVID-19-and-the-Flu
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074182/ (section 5 here sums it up)
IMO, my guess is it will have lower efficacy. The vaccine candidates all targeted the coronavirus spike. From what I read, the new strain has a different spike.
But lower not by a lot. Apparently viruses need to mutate over years to truly render vaccine efficacy useless. Evolution is still a slow burn.
This was always going to happen though. Which is why we have different flu shots every year.
I think the surreal thing to me is how much of the global population is ignorant of some basic science and every update comes out like a, “How is that possible!”
The global news cycle is like watching a 6-year-old at a science fair or magic act.
But lower not by a lot. Apparently viruses need to mutate over years to truly render vaccine efficacy useless. Evolution is still a slow burn.
This was always going to happen though. Which is why we have different flu shots every year.
I think the surreal thing to me is how much of the global population is ignorant of some basic science and every update comes out like a, “How is that possible!”
The global news cycle is like watching a 6-year-old at a science fair or magic act.
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Just listening to Matt Hancock speak now. More areas of the south east and south west have gone into tier 4.
Worrying news - two people who have travelled from South Africa recently have brought in a strain that is even more transmissible than the one discovered last week. The South African government acted quickly and reported the discovery of this new strain. Anybody who has travelled from or been near someone who has been in ZAF in the past two weeks has to isolate in quarantine immediately. There will be law submitted to enforce this, total isolation. That sounds scary.
Better news - the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine data has been submitted to the MHRA for review in advance of being wheeled out as a workable vaccine. Remember, this vaccine is much cheaper and easier to store than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The health officer is now talking. Essentially the 'old' version of Covid was well under control, but this new variant has spiralled in certain areas, notably the south east and south Wales.
Worrying news - two people who have travelled from South Africa recently have brought in a strain that is even more transmissible than the one discovered last week. The South African government acted quickly and reported the discovery of this new strain. Anybody who has travelled from or been near someone who has been in ZAF in the past two weeks has to isolate in quarantine immediately. There will be law submitted to enforce this, total isolation. That sounds scary.
Better news - the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine data has been submitted to the MHRA for review in advance of being wheeled out as a workable vaccine. Remember, this vaccine is much cheaper and easier to store than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The health officer is now talking. Essentially the 'old' version of Covid was well under control, but this new variant has spiralled in certain areas, notably the south east and south Wales.
No, the current vaccines still work against these new strains. The difference between strains as it stands is the rate of transmission, not the severity of the illness. Like any virus it is mutating at a rate that helps it survive best, so if it was struggling with means of infecting cells or an incubation period it will mutate to adapt.
The obvious issue with this is the impact it has on the health service. You can see from the curves that the new strain is off the charts in the worst areas, and overall this is causing things like daily recorded cases, hospitalisations and deaths to approach numbers seen in the first wave in spring. Left alone it would surely spiral out of control.
I think the UK had vaccinated 500,000 people as of yesterday.
Additionally, I think Covid deniers should be at the back of the queue for any vaccine, or not at all, whatever their choice may be, especially those wonderful politicians in the US who have been shitting on people all year.
The obvious issue with this is the impact it has on the health service. You can see from the curves that the new strain is off the charts in the worst areas, and overall this is causing things like daily recorded cases, hospitalisations and deaths to approach numbers seen in the first wave in spring. Left alone it would surely spiral out of control.
I think the UK had vaccinated 500,000 people as of yesterday.
Additionally, I think Covid deniers should be at the back of the queue for any vaccine, or not at all, whatever their choice may be, especially those wonderful politicians in the US who have been shitting on people all year.
If this South African or the more transmittable British variant becomes the dominant form we'll be doomed. We didn't even manage to contain the spread of the previous version, just imagine an even more transmittable variant. At this point it's a race and I wonder what will reach me sooner, COVID or a vaccine 
