Coronavirus

[herman]

https://twitter.com/mcquillanator/status/1374104948837867532
It really seems like legislators still don?t actually understand how this virus spreads, if they think opening restaurants a little bit more now is good.

 

[louisstamos]

My 91-year old grandma got her first dose of the vaccine this past Saturday, so I'm super happy about that!

Both my parents are eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine ASAP - however, they're chosen to wait until one of the Pfizer/Moderna ones are made available to them.  Which, in one sense I kind of understand with all the apprehension in the news about it right now, but at the same time - if AZ was made available to me, I'd probably get it in a heartbeat.

 

[L K]

We ended up with a supply of Moderna vaccine at our medical office.  I had three patients decline home visits to get the vaccine because their spouse wasn't going to be able to get the vaccine at the same time. 

The doses we got were kind of unexpected and I have no idea when we are likely to get the vaccine again if we ever do. Such a bizarre decision process.

 

[Nik]

Both my parents are eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine ASAP - however, they're chosen to wait until one of the Pfizer/Moderna ones are made available to them.  Which, in one sense I kind of understand with all the apprehension in the news about it right now, but at the same time - if AZ was made available to me, I'd probably get it in a heartbeat.

A couple of my friends have said the same thing with regards to their parents and the AZ vaccine which makes me feel a little weird about pushing my parents to get it but I wonder if people realize what that might mean realistically about just how far back they're pushing their vaccinations. Given the 4 month gap between shots(which admittedly might be reduced as supply improves) and the very real chance that it could be another few months for the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines to be available to 60 or 65+ these people could be putting off being fully vaccinated until next year.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

My 91-year old grandma got her first dose of the vaccine this past Saturday, so I'm super happy about that!

My 87 year old grandmother goes today for your first dose. I'm so happy about that. She's a stubborn woman that has never stopped her weekly run to Costco.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

We ended up with a supply of Moderna vaccine at our medical office.  I had three patients decline home visits to get the vaccine because their spouse wasn't going to be able to get the vaccine at the same time. 

The doses we got were kind of unexpected and I have no idea when we are likely to get the vaccine again if we ever do. Such a bizarre decision process.

My co-worker's wife was able to schedule her vaccine for next week because she is indigenous. My co-worker was also able to schedule his at the same time as he lives in the same household.

 

[Highlander]

Just shut down BC for indoor dining till April 19. They are now saying in our BC news that the AZ vaccine is faulty and don't want anyone under 55 having it.  Kind of weird and guess what is being shipped here in the largest amounts?  You got it AZ.  Just waiting to see what AB is going to do, on Thursday.  My son was just going to take a Chef position in Jasper but not sure now.

 

[Bender]

I would take AZ if I were offered simply because my blood clot risk in AZ is lower than chance of getting covid and having major complications. Really a no brainer. Luckily my gf got the Pfizer vaccine as she is a hotel worker. Soon it will become less a problem of having actual vaccines and more a problem of horrible logistics.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

I would take AZ if I were offered simply because my blood clot risk in AZ is lower than chance of getting covid and having major complications. Really a no brainer.

You know, I'd probably have to get more information before I took the AZ. I'm not particularly worried about the blood clotting risk either, but I am unclear about how well it protects against the current and future variants vs the mRNA, which seems to be fuelling the current outbreak, and likely will continue.

So I guess I'd happily take the AZ, but I wouldn't want to go to the back of the line to wait for a reshoot of the Pfizer or Moderna considering how much better they seem to be for the sake of waiting a bit longer up front. It's a tough call.

 

[Bender]

I would take AZ if I were offered simply because my blood clot risk in AZ is lower than chance of getting covid and having major complications. Really a no brainer.

You know, I'd probably have to get more information before I took the AZ. I'm not particularly worried about the blood clotting risk either, but I am unclear about how well it protects against the current and future variants vs the mRNA, which seems to be fuelling the current outbreak, and likely will continue.

So I guess I'd happily take the AZ, but I wouldn't want to go to the back of the line to wait for a reshoot of the Pfizer or Moderna considering how much better they seem to be for the sake of waiting a bit longer up front. It's a tough call.

Yeah I mean it's all dependent on what's available. If I can get Pfizer in a couple weeks vs AZ ok sure but if I have to wait 3-4 months to get Pfizer then just give me what's available. We're going to be getting boosters for a long time so we'll likely get improved vaccine boosters as time goes on. It's the fastest way to end the pandemic and it's worked well in UK and the effects of COVID for me are basically a guaranteed worse outcome than the vaccine based on my medical history.

I'm wondering if the EU received a different batch that is causing these problems.

 

[bustaheims]

I would take AZ if I were offered simply because my blood clot risk in AZ is lower than chance of getting covid and having major complications. Really a no brainer. Luckily my gf got the Pfizer vaccine as she is a hotel worker. Soon it will become less a problem of having actual vaccines and more a problem of horrible logistics.

Seriously. This blood clotting thing is being over-sold. Risks of typical blood clotting incidents aren't higher than expected in the general population. There's been a small percentage of cases (and by small, I mean ~0.000125%) where those receiving the vaccine presented more serious rare blood clotting issues, but they have yet to identify a causal link between the vaccine and these blood clotting issues. It could very well be a random correlation, it could be the result of very specific underlying issues, or a number of things that wouldn't impact the general population. I appreciate the need to be cautious, but it feels like a lot of the reporting around it is pure fearmongering.

 

[Bullfrog]

Agreed busta. Based on what I've read, there is almost no difference in the rates of clotting with those who took the vaccine. And while I certainly don't mean to be cavalier about health risks, even if there was increased risk, it totally outweighs the public harm of not getting vaccinated.

My preference would be to get the Pfizer or Moderna ones, but I'll take literally anything that's available as soon as it's available. I'm not particularly healthy or unhealthy, but I get bad (and long-lasting) bronchitis when I get certain viruses, so I'm just assuming COVID will be horrible for me.

 

[Highlander]

I will take the AZ even though my father had some clots when he was around my age. Have to travel to start working again, and paramount I start to make money again. 
Bullfrog for sure, take whatever comes first and protect yourself.

 

[Andy07]

I would take AZ if I were offered simply because my blood clot risk in AZ is lower than chance of getting covid and having major complications. Really a no brainer. Luckily my gf got the Pfizer vaccine as she is a hotel worker. Soon it will become less a problem of having actual vaccines and more a problem of horrible logistics.

Seriously. This blood clotting thing is being over-sold. Risks of typical blood clotting incidents aren't higher than expected in the general population. There's been a small percentage of cases (and by small, I mean ~0.000125%) where those receiving the vaccine presented more serious rare blood clotting issues, but they have yet to identify a causal link between the vaccine and these blood clotting issues. It could very well be a random correlation, it could be the result of very specific underlying issues, or a number of things that wouldn't impact the general population. I appreciate the need to be cautious, but it feels like a lot of the reporting around it is pure fearmongering.

To this point, the AZ vaccine was the only one to not gouge the public and sold their dosages for only slightly over cost. Now we know that pharmaceutical companies are all ethically motivated and cater to the needs of people instead of the bottom line...(holding breath)... but I wonder if some of these government decisions and "media" character assassinations aren't based on underlying motivations?

 

[Highlander]

Supposedly J&J are not charging for their vaccines in a media effort to make up for all the lawsuits involved in the Baby Powder thing.  Not sure about this but seemed to remember hearing it sometime about 4 months ago.

 

[L K]

Yeah the Vaxzevria stuff is honestly bizarre to me in how it is being handled.

There were 469 reports of thomboembolic events within the roughly 20,000,000 individuals who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK and Europe.  The total number of individuals who have reported a blood clot overall is actually lower than the expected number within that population over the same time period. 

Where the numbers get slightly murky is in looking at cases of DIC and CSVT in the sub age  50 population.

There were 5 reported cases of DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulopathy; small blood clots in multiple small vessels around the body) within 14 days of vaccine administration when we would expect around just under 1 case over the same time period.

With CVST (Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis) they saw 12 against an expected 1.35 cases within a similar population.

The rates were slightly higher in women than men but the number of cases that we are seeing is still incredibly low and not enough to infer causality.

We also know that COVID itself promotes a pro-coaguable and thrombocytopenic states.

 

[Bullfrog]

...
We also know that COVID itself promotes a pro-collaguable and thrombocytopenic state.

Exactly. That's what I was trying to say in the layperson's way. Based on the podcasts I was listening to, they made the point that even IF it leads to clots, the incidence rate was still less than those caused by disease and complications linked to an infection of the virus.

 

[Arn]

Should be able to get my vaccination in the next two weeks or so. We opened up a new vaccination centre (in the arena where the hockey team I follow and used to work for play) which has started off doing around 10,000 per week but ramping up to 40,000 per week.

Everyone over 40 in Northern Ireland should be vaccinated by the end of May or so at current rates.

 

[Nik]

Well, things are clamping down again to try and deal with the diminished ICU capacity. And, really, who could have seen this coming? Like, it's not like a reporter asked if the government's models were predicting "a disaster" and the government confirmed that and just let it happen anyway.

Seriously, all of these armchair quarterbacks who are blaming this government for when the thing that every single person predicted would happen is happening...I mean, have they ever even heard the term mulligan?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/CityCynthia/status/1377624402368544770