Vaccines for Travelling Abroad

[BC]

Infections are currently on the up in Italy:

http://www.thelocal.it/20211028/italys-covid-infections-almost-double-in-a-week-as-vaccine-rate-falls-again/

It may take a few more weeks for it to really rise high but it could well do, very likely even. Odd are the Delta Plus variant hasn't taken hold in Italy but is doing so just now, with that of course the usual.

It has been established that the delta variant is predominant in Italy since at least summer, now probably close to 100%

http://www.reuters.com/world/europe/covid-19-delta-variant-gains-prevalence-italy-almost-95-health-institute-2021-07-30/

The number of tests has increased, detecting more infected.  At least some of this is due to additional testing needed to maintain a green pass.

[Trenchcoat]

It has been established that the delta variant is predominant in Italy since at least summer, now probably close to 100%

http://www.reuters.com/world/europe/covid-19-delta-variant-gains-prevalence-italy-almost-95-health-institute-2021-07-30/

The number of tests has increased, detecting more infected.  At least some of this is due to additional testing needed to maintain a green pass.

There's a difference between the Delta variant and the Delta Plus variant. The Delta Plus variant is a mutation of the Delta variant and thought off as even more transmissible. It's looking like that is what is keeping infection rates up in the UK. There have been cases of it in other countries, Portugal was one so it will only be a matter of time before it replaces Delta as the dominant strain elsewhere in Europe most likely.

Whether that will be it or whether we will get more increasingly infectious strains but still as deadly who knows. I'm not sure how much worse it could get so let's hope this is the worst of it over with.

[Trenchcoat]

Just typing into Google 'Total World Population' 7.753 billion people apparently. The graph it shows is truely astonishing, it's generally a continuous upward climb (probably averaged out but all the same). If you look at how much the world's population has grown since the 1980's it's quite shocking, perhaps nearly doubled. Main thing is if you consider that had the virus not come about that the population increase would continue at anywhere near the pace it had been and I would guess the planet would really start to be in some trouble, global food shortages, environmental devastation caused, resources being used up, etc. Then add on to that so many jobs being lost to robotics and that could cause job problems too.

So while I'm not real big on conspiracy theories without adequate proof such an outlook makes you wonder if this virus was devised on purpose. It looks clear to me that we were headed to way too much population globally. The virus as bad as it is could be seen as the least worse way of avoiding more painful even violent outcomes.

To date 5 million have past away globally from the virus, apparently 1 percent of the world's population is 78 million so 0.1 percent would be 7.8 million. So I'm guessing we have lost about 0.08 million of the world's population headed towards 0.1 million. Though of course babies would have been born in that time so global population loss will probably be less than 0.08 million maybe guessing 0.05 million. Aside from that of course is population loss by other means.

Possibly the vaccine may slow the death rate globally in most countries by next year. My guess is that it won't be going away for a fair while and that it will continue to ebb away at global population possibly at a slower pace.

I remember just before the start of 2020 and knowledge of the virus became public that two global catastrophies were being talked about as definite by the end of this decade if drastic action was not taken. One was climate change with the world getting way too hot in some places for people to survive like in California and difficult in other places. The other was global population growth not just adding to climate change problem but becoming way to large for the planet to support. No real solution seemed evident to either to reverse those two catastrophies. One could do only see more talk of change needed at environment summits like COP26 with little happening to make any real difference. To a large extent no real difference can happen as there is little alternative. People need to heat homes, travel by road and air, construction needs to take place, people want to date have relationships and have kids, etc. Nowhere near enough people wanted to pass on that and live a pretty muted life and I don't blame them I don't. So I really do wonder if the virus was created as the only real way to deal with all of this the aim being that it puts the world's global population on a long term global decline as clearly we would be screwed otherwise with real big insurmountable problems happening by the end of the decade by how things were looking.

Accordingly, "A 2012 United Nations report summarized 65 different estimated maximum sustainable population sizes and the most common estimate was 8 billion. Advocates of reduced population often put forward much lower numbers. Paul R. Ehrlich stated in 2018 that the optimum population is between 1.5 and 2 billion."

[fathertime]

Still no vaccine for me yet.   Wife already had virus, yet also got the vaccine second dose last week.   Of course, as expected she got sick from the vaccine.  Nothing serious, just a high fever and lying around a couple days.    She thinks I need to get the shot, almost everybody I know is bugging me to get the shot.     I would like to travel abroad soon, so that may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. 

Life expectancy down quite a bit in the US.  Virus impact on overall lifespan seems to be quite real (In a general sense) despite a 99% or so survival rate.     Heading to vegas this weekend, lets see if I can continue to avoid severe consequences for living such a sinful life. 

U.S. life expectancy falls sharply in 'sobering' loss of young people to Covid

 
The United States had the second-steepest decline in life expectancy among high-income countries last year during the pandemic, according to a study of death data spanning several continents.

 

The U.S. trend was among the worst.
 

U.S. men saw life expectancy fall by nearly 2.3 years. Women lost more than 1.6 years of life expectancy.

The measurements provide one of the most comprehensive views of the human cost of the pandemic and illuminates its effects on different age groups and genders. One surprise: The drop in life expectancy in the U.S. was driven by the deaths of young people, said Dr. Nazrul Islam, a researcher at the University of Oxford and the study’s lead author.
http://www.yahoo.com/news/life-expectancy-fell-sharply-u-223226859.html     

Fathertime!

[Trenchcoat]

Men were generally thought to suffer worse/higher mortality figures so it's sounds like its panning out that way FT. I kind of thought that the sheer volume of overweight women in the west would tip the scales so to speak but looks like men are still being hit harder. I think the fact that your wife still got bad side effects even though she has already had the virus shows how bad it can be. My mother is up for her booster next week and the way things are going it's probably best for her to chance it with Pfizer as she's getting on. I myself would still look for other options as a fair bit younger and still not totally sure on the mRNA stuff.

In the Ukraine the infection rate is up to around 24,000 infections for yesterday and 752 deaths so it's getting quite bad out there now. Not sure if it will stay around that or get worse still.

Here in the UK infection rate stubbornly refuses to go down and death rate is probably around 150  ish a day on average and has kind of been that way for the last few months. They apparently don't expect things to get any better now that we are heading into Winter.

[Trenchcoat]

UK becomes first country in the world to authorize use of first antiviral drug for use against the Coronavirus:

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-59163899

Apparently cuts risk of death and need for hospitalisations by half. Don't think we would be able to move this quickly if we were still part of the EU Will no doubt save many lives.

[Trenchcoat]

Well over 40s are now being offered the booster jab which will be Pfizer. I'm not going to be going for it as I'm not going to take an mRNA vaccine. The way I see it I've had two shots of the AZ vaccine which is better than nothing at all and although it may start to diminish in effectiveness it will have to do. I'll keep up my regular use of wearing a face mask and using anti bacterial hand gel and where necessary spray. I've done ok up till now and keep quite a low profile so it seems logical to me. At my age in my early to mid forties I've had the most youthful part of my life and the thought of old age doesn't thrill me so if it happens that I don't make it then at least I've avoided that.

Possibly I may try the US to see if I can get a booster of the AZ vaccine there or even J&J. No way am I taking any mRNA vaccine though there could be all sorts in that mix.

A week back now my Mother had the Pfizer booster, no real bad side effects. At her age though it's less of a long term risk so given the immediate risk to her it wasn't an option I disagreed with.

Apparently they reckon about 10 percent of the population already had built in immunity to the virus even before it came across. Apparently a lot of it genetic trait and likely also immune to similar stuff like Flu. No telling who is immune though so can't really guess. I've never really suffered from Flu bad, may have never had it at all, possibly a brief time one or twice but could have been something else but usually don't get it yearly or anything. Whether this means I've got some built in immunity who knows.

Infection figures in the UK are much the same so despite all the boosters to the elderly and vaccination of the rest of the population it looks like the virus is not going away soon. Ukraine is now in much the same position but with a higher death rate pro rata as they have a much lower vaccination rate. Going into winter they forecast it to be bad so will just have to see I guess.

[Trenchcoat]

Looks like Valneva is set to become the best new vaccine to get in the new year. It's based on traditional methods so not mRNA but is more effective than the AZ vaccine. Our government was front of the queue but then cancelled the order due to some sort of breach if contract or not getting approval from our regulator. The vaccine had since been approved by the EU regulator so not sure what was going down there, politics possibly. So looks like not a great move from our government unless Astra Zenaca have their own version in the pipeline.

[Trenchcoat]

Does anyone here know if it is still possible for a foreigner to get a Johnson & Johnson vaccine jab in New York? I know they were doing so earlier in the year around July/August time however thing have now moved on to boosters and mass vaccination centres have apparently closed and instead now vaccinations are apparently done through pharmacies and pop up sites. I've looked online and apparently some places are doing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in New York but the NYC website won't let those from outside the US book. I'm not up for getting a Pfizer jab in the UK due to it being mRNA so wondering if anyone has any info on whether it's still possible for a foreigner to get a J&J jab?

[Trenchcoat]

Well early heads up on this one guys and if it sounds out as bad as this initial report suggests I'm afraid it doesn't sound at all good, basically back to square one or possibly even worse if true:

BBC News - Covid: Africa travel restrictions over variant fear
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59424269

[John Gaunt]

Does anyone here know if it is still possible for a foreigner to get a Johnson & Johnson vaccine jab in New York? I know they were doing so earlier in the year around July/August time however thing have now moved on to boosters and mass vaccination centres have apparently closed and instead now vaccinations are apparently done through pharmacies and pop up sites. I've looked online and apparently some places are doing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in New York but the NYC website won't let those from outside the US book. I'm not up for getting a Pfizer jab in the UK due to it being mRNA so wondering if anyone has any info on whether it's still possible for a foreigner to get a J&J jab?

I’ll be getting my booster Pfizer dose soon.
Don’t worry Trench, I haven’t mutated into something else or grown a third eye.

[ML]

I got third Pfizer several months ago.

And speaking of Johnson and Johnson . . . my Johnson grew around 50% as a result.

[Trenchcoat]

I’ll be getting my booster Pfizer dose soon.
Don’t worry Trench, I haven’t mutated into something else or grown a third eye.

Apparently a case of the new variant is already in Belgium so you may not want to bother with that Pfizer booster Gaunty as it may be obsolete with a few days/weeks. My guess is that the UK might as well chuck the remaining Pfizer stock they have as it looks like it will be a waste of time and money  distributing and carrying out injections with it. Suits me as now there is even less point me booking in for the booster not that I was anyway due to it being mRNA. Just see what stock they will buy up for the new variant I guess.

[Trenchcoat]

Apparently Omicron is the name given to the new variant looks like it has likely already spread a fair bit so guessing we're already stuffed on this one, likely just a matter of time till it kicks off everywhere:

BBC News - Covid: World races to contain new Omicron variant
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-59442129

Apparently re-infection risk is higher with it plus of course likely rendering most vaccinations given largely ineffective.

[BC]

The WHO said it would take a few weeks to understand the impact of the new variant, as scientists worked to determine how transmissible it was.

A top UK health official warned that vaccines would "almost certainly" be less effective against the new variant.

But Professor James Naismith, a structural biologist from the University of Oxford, added: "It is bad news but it's not doomsday."

Your article mentioned nothing about reinfections.

Too early to say anything, really.

[BC]

Update

First vaccination in the US 14 December. 299,193 deaths prior. Yesterday 799,138 = 499,945 deaths since 14 December or 1515 per million.
First vaccination in Italy 27 December, but let's take 14 December for parity. 65,011 deaths prior. Yesterday 133,537=68,526 deaths since 14 December, or 1142 per million.

In two months, for the US 1191 deaths per million to 1515, a 324 per million increase.
In two months, for Italy 1088 deaths per million to 1142, a 54 per million increase.

Last month the difference was 238, up from 103 per million, now that has grown to 270 per million in two months, and is still on the rise, representing a difference of 89,100 US lives during the same month period using population-adjusted figures.


http://i.postimg.cc/VLkx4GmS/Screen-Shot-2021-11-27-at-13-48-35.png


http://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/numeri-vaccini-italia-mondo/

Note: The US figures don't include booster doses.  Almost 50% of those here over 80 have received them along with a good number of those over 40.  Italy is again working down with strict age brackets and vulnerable. I have seen recent reports that 20% of Americans that were vaccinated have received their booster shot, and that anyone 18 or over is eligible.

Italy stands at over 87% of those over 12 have at least one shot, and almost 85% are fully vaccinated.

The political divide is quite evident in the US.


http://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/dashboard/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-dashboard/

Again, make your own determinations.  IMO the correlations between vaccinations and death are quite evident.

[Trenchcoat]

Two cases of the Omicron virus now detected in the UK:

http://www.gbnews.uk/a/166104

Already here so it looks like we will be suffering soon on this one.

[Trenchcoat]

Masks are back in the UK in Supermarkets & Public Transport and other public indoors areas:

http://www.gbnews.uk/a/166245

I personally never thought they should have been dropped as not really fair on others having to use those places that wanted a bit of protection from other spreading it.

[Trenchcoat]

So the Omicron virus appears to be spreading quickly here now with many cases found. Apparently symptoms are a lot milder so many cases could have gone undetected for a while. Scientists meanwhile can't seem to decide if the present vaccines will work well enough or if it will evade the present vaccines due to it having around 40 mutations or so. They also don't know if it will be just as deadly or not as the original virus, the Delta variants and other variants. There are scientists lining up on both sides of the fir both of those issues. So by the time they know in the coming weeks they likely won't need to tell us as we will already know as cases pan out.

This is an article from a scientist who reckons the virus won't get particularly any less deadly aside from vaccine situation:

http://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/01/covid-19-variants-omicron-may-not-evolve-less-danger-time-nervtag-uk

There are other scientists who reckon that it will get weaker over time in order to spread. If the above guy is correct then we are then likely going to have to rely on scientific advances and possibly preventative measures, mask wearing, social distancing, etc.

[Trenchcoat]

Early report out into the Omicron virus, apparently both fast spreading and able to reinfect those who have had Covid before:

http://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-omicron-has-substantial-ability-to-evade-immunity-from-previous-coronavirus-infection-12484840

So still have to wait to see if the vaccine can give much protection against it.


Seems to be spreading real quick in South Africa, apparently cases have doubled in a day and in a straight vertical climb:

http://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10263839/amp/South-Africas-Covid-cases-DOUBLE-day-test-positivity-climbs-16-5.html

Another Report says cases so far have been mild but early days as we know from before it can take a while before hospitalisations and deaths. Hopefully it will stay mild and we will avoid that this time though. The potential positive is if it really evolves into a weaker and weaker strain(s).

[Faux Pas]

Early report out into the Omicron virus, apparently both fast spreading and able to reinfect those who have had Covid before:

http://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-omicron-has-substantial-ability-to-evade-immunity-from-previous-coronavirus-infection-12484840

So still have to wait to see if the vaccine can give much protection against it.


Seems to be spreading real quick in South Africa, apparently cases have doubled in a day and in a straight vertical climb:

http://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10263839/amp/South-Africas-Covid-cases-DOUBLE-day-test-positivity-climbs-16-5.html

Another Report says cases so far have been mild but early days as we know from before it can take a while before hospitalisations and deaths. Hopefully it will stay mild and we will avoid that this time though. The potential positive is if it really evolves into a weaker and weaker strain(s).

Just line up, get your jab, prepare for the next one and shut your pie hole. You're all in

[GQBlues]

Just line up, get your jab, prepare for the next one and shut your pie hole. You're all in

LMAO! It’s comical to watch the sheeples actually. They all lost rational thought process. It’s now actually ‘news’ that this ‘new’ strain supposedly render naturally immune folks defenseless from getting infected. LMAO.


The idiots who were reported to have ‘brought’ it inside they US were fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated folks, you know - the ones with those silly 'green passes' - freedom to roam - are the ones that are carrying, infecting, spreading, prolonging, worsening the pandemic global condition.

Then puppy-crazed Fauci reared his silly head again to rush everyone and get a booster. A waning, single strain protection vaccine that was created ‘prior’ to all these trendy variants, which only temporarily protects anyone, have people believing is good for any/all variants.

The next display of silliness is you are going to get someone counting imaginary sheep jumping over some virtual fences trying to find some justification in their mindless submission.

[fathertime]

LMAO! It’s comical to watch the sheeples actually. They all lost rational thought process. It’s now actually ‘news’ that this ‘new’ strain supposedly render naturally immune folks defenseless from getting infected. LMAO. The idiots who were reported to have ‘brought’ it inside they US were fully vaccinated.

Then puppy-crazed Fauci reared his silly head again to rush everyone and get a booster. A waning vaccine that was created ‘prior’ to all these trendy variants, which only temporarily protects anyone.

The next display of silliness is you are going to get someone counting sheep jumping over some virtual fences trying to find some justification in their mindless submission.

As if the growing restrictions weren't enough already, many members of my family are not happy with MY decision to remain unvaccinated.  Just another aggravation.     

At some point I intend on eventually getting the vaccination after the omicron virus is covered.  I think I've always believed that we will all get the virus at some point.  Despite a lot of science behind the vaccination, I'm still a sceptic in my case. 

Fathertime! 

[GQBlues]

Folks need to do what they believe they should do. Period. That goes for every single one of us. Having idiots discriminate one from others for choosing to do what they believe they should do is asinine.

[Trenchcoat]

LMAO! It’s comical to watch the sheeples actually. They all lost rational thought process. It’s now actually ‘news’ that this ‘new’ strain supposedly render naturally immune folks defenseless from getting infected. LMAO.


The idiots who were reported to have ‘brought’ it inside they US were fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated folks, you know - the ones with those silly 'green passes' - freedom to roam - are the ones that are carrying, infecting, spreading, prolonging, worsening the pandemic global condition.

Then puppy-crazed Fauci reared his silly head again to rush everyone and get a booster. A waning, single strain protection vaccine that was created ‘prior’ to all these trendy variants, which only temporarily protects anyone, have people believing is good for any/all variants.

The next display of silliness is you are going to get someone counting imaginary sheep jumping over some virtual fences trying to find some justification in their mindless submission.

Well of the ones that have gotten Omicron in the UK so far, those that we know off half have had two jabs of the vaccine. That means it looks like it's evading the vaccines to sone extent and getting through. Of course any strain of the the virus could still mean that the person gets it even with the vaccine. So still to see how deep this will go, whether the Omicron causes serious illness & death in both or just the unvaccinated. If the vaccines no longer protect much at all then a lot of people are wasting their time getting pointless booster jabs and potentially exposing themselves to any possible problems that might surface with the vaccines down the line.

http://news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-over-half-of-uk-omicron-cases-happened-after-two-jabs-as-ukhsa-releases-risk-assessment-12485607