It feels like some kind of negotiating thing where the US doesn't want to pay what Pfizer is asking. Also our vaccine czar seems to be in bed with Moderna.

Does the Chunnel have doors? I'm imagining some huge metal sliding doors to close it up. Maybe with giant padlocks and chains.

I don't think there was anything wrong with the Phase 3 trials. They ran two trials, in the UK and Brazil, and the UK trial, with a half-dose given first, showed the best results, 90% effective compared to 60%. It is not true that the half-dose regime was a mistake. The media coverage was stupid, but then media coverage of everything always is.

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-12-08...avirus-vaccine

UK gov has bought the Oxford vaccine heavily (100m doses), but it's also bought 40m Pfizer and now 7m Moderna (the snag with Moderna is they don't have the manufacturing capacity, so it's got to be run up from somewhere somehow), plus 60m Novavax, also at Phase 3, and quite a few more at earlier stages, total 357m if I recall aright.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/u...vid-19-vaccine

Add to this many states not getting what they were told they would get. All D and battleground states and MA of course.

The Eurostar trains are still running, but you have to fill in special forms and you're referred to government travel advice if you don't want to be told to go back where you came from.

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/trave...rostar-service

That's good news, I hope. I just hadn't seen anything until now to refute the apparent lie that they had accidentally run trials with different doses. So they were running two trials at deliberately different doses the whole time? That's a relief, as I had a lot of hope for the Oxford guys.

I still think this is a concern:

"Of the 11,636 volunteers in the UK and Brazil included in this initial analysis of efficacy, the majority are in the 18-55 age range (UK 87% and Brazil 90%), with those aged 56 or older contributing 12%. As only five cases included in the primary analysis occurred in those who were more than 55 years old, the vaccine efficacy in older age groups could not be assessed but will be determined in future analyses after more cases have accrued in this age range."

Fingers crossed it is just as efficacious in older age groups.

Took a ride today with my wife to drop off some presents at her sister's house. Drove past a bunch of strip malls (Marshall's, Kohl's, Best Buy, etc.). Parking lots packed. Stores looked packed with huge crowds all over. Like pandemic isn't even a thing. I'm assuming most in the stores were wearing masks at least - although given that at least 50% of people seem to be unable to keep the mask over their nose, probably isn't helping that much.

This is in NJ where recent positivity rate is around 11%.

It's the same everywhere. People don't even know what positivity rate means.

https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/...dling-pandemic

(Linked from: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25482927)

Not just East Asian countries either; Australia and New Zealand seem to have handled this way better too.

Juk

The Covid darling Thailand is in a world of **** right now. Let your guard down and this is bound to happen.

th5 south, do you pay tax in Thailand? The baht rate is mental for anyone getting paid in USD now... we're all thinking of relocating.

It is true that Oxford is claiming that the lower dose was intentional (more on that later), but the mistake story is in no way the media’s fault. AstraZeneca's head of biopharmaceutical research, Dr Mene Pangalos, said they didn’t realize it was a half dose until midway through the trial and directly told the media it was “a mistake” and “serendipity.” So the media accurately reported what they were told by an extremely reliable source.

Even the new explanation from Oxford suggests it a bit of an accident. The knew there was a manufacturing error that produced batches too strong, so they diluted it. They did intentionally dilute it, but didn’t realize they diluted it to half strength until later. It doesn’t make the vaccine bad by any measure, but it was not planned in advance to give some participants half doses. If it was, the populations would have been assigned balanced demographics, which they weren’t. They were adapting to conditions on the fly. They knew there was a problem, proposed a solution, received approval and acted on it, so it wasn’t like they were shocked they ended up overdiluting, but it wasn’t the planned outcome.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/20/belg...us-strain.html


Thankfully decision makers are reading my posts.

I get paid in USD and pay Thai taxes. How TF is this currency staying so strong!?!?!
And then what's the bs with them being accused of monetary manipulation? How does a strengthing currency help a country that relies on exports?

You are right. The Bank of Thailand has very much been trying to weaken the baht, but they have little control. There is absolutely no chance that the Thai government is manipulating the currency to strengthen it.

The primary factor driving it is foreign investors who perceive Thai stocks to be underpriced. There have been large inflows of US$ denominated investments which have strengthened the baht. Most economists expect this trend of a strengthening baht against the dollar to persist for 2021. I believe the consensus prediction is that the baht will climb another 5-10% next year.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...after-n1251914

That happened to a LLSNL reg who contracted he disease. He didn't get hospitalized for Covid, but did for heart issues a few weeks later.

I'm sure myocarditis is a total nothing-burger if you're young/healthy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...risk-i-rcna210

.

Sorry, I thought I was in the "corona is a nothing-burger" thread

I've heard your heart is important if you care about living.

But I'm no doctor so idk.

It seems epidemiologists are saying there is now a new mutant strain in the UK that is more deadly and causes the lungs to partially liquefy, like with ebola.

That seems like a reasonable end to the year.