News Worldwide impact of the novel coronavirus (covid-19)

[notsurewheretoturn]

I know just how you feel.

I'm protein intolerant so if this vaccine contains anything that's meat, fish or eggs related, I dare not take it or I'll risk major and potentially fatal kidney problems. There's already a long list of things I can't take as they affect the kidneys and as I only have one, I can't afford to mess about with it.

Plus, as you say, there's a whole host of pharmaceuticals which were deemed safe at the time, only to find out that they weren't that great after all.

I'm not an anti-vaxer either, we need vaccines, but we also need extended research before releasing them to general public.

The speed of this scares me.

 

[blackemerald1]

The leading US researchers are not using egg protein. Instead they're developing a new technology called mRNA. They're not going to be injecting weakened virus instead they're trying to stiumulate our immune system to block the virus at a cellular level. (That's not a great explanation btw but it's very technical and I'm not.)

 

[bellbird]

mRNA

mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) is the precursor information to protein.
Basically it would be a vaccine with the instructions for our body to make the protein, rather than a vaccine with the actual protein itself. Our bodies would then develop immunity against that viral protein so that if/when we met it through a naturally acquired infection, we already had the antibodies primed to fight it.

 

[Freida]

nstead they're developing a new technology called mRNA

This is what scares me. A new technology - which translates as either a wonderful way to save people or a nasty way to mess them up. Or,maybe both. It's a numbers thing...if they can save millions with a small number being made worse it's worth it. But being one of the few?

Sigh. Gonna be a hard thing to make myself do

 

[gealach]

pretty sure we're in the same province.
Or there's 2 wanna be carrot premiers

that's both funny and scary

I've had some really bad reactions in the past on vaccines

I have too. The H1N1 vaccine in 2010 made me sick for months, finally sent me to hospital, and then I needed emergency surgery (fun times). Since then, the annual flu vaccine, which contains a bit of H1N1, makes me varying degrees of sick. It sucks, because I never know how much of an adverse reaction I'm going to have, but I need that vaccine in order to do my job.

It's the minimal study behind this one

The speed of this scares me

It's accelerated research, but not minimal research, a common misconception that's not really being corrected by public education or through the media. Normally the drug companies take multiple years to create a vaccine because that's not the only project they're working on, so time, funds, staff, and resources are split between multiple research projects which limits any individual project. Also each company doesn't usually share their developments, but holds all of the information as proprietary, only sharing after the drug has been created, distributed, and some money has been made to recoup what was spent on R&D (I think drug patents here are 10 years, before info is shared to create generics). With covid being pandemic, the companies have been focusing almost exclusively on creating a vaccine, so time and money have been narrowly focused on this one project. There has also been global exchange of research info, which is speeding things up because each company doesn't have to start from scratch by reinventing the wheel (it's much faster if you can start with someone else's proven successful wheel and start on inventing the wagon). Also, this is a coronavirus, so years of research into SARS and MERS is helping with this (again not reinventing the wheel, it's just a different looking wheel but of the same brand name - coronavirus). Hope that helps

The companies that have developed the vaccines, have announced that they are effective, safe with minimal adverse effects, and have no serious adverse effects... and that's the info that has me questioning a bit whether I want to be in the first round of vaccinations, because there were serious adverse effects with at least 2 vaccines, but not sure if they were due to preexisting conditions or if they were caused by the vaccine trial (companies say preexisting conditions, but...). When a company certifies/verifies/regulates (or similar) its own products, there's always a risk of them overstating the good while downplaying or outright hiding the bad because they need to start making a profit from that product, so there's incentive to get it to market ASAP. This is mitigated to a certain extent with these vaccines, because the companies have agreed that they won't be making huge profits from the vaccines, so the monetary incentive has been removed, and they're incentivized by getting an effective product to market first/ASAP (and saving the world ). But still...

 

[Freida]

That actually helps quite a bit!

 

[gealach]

That actually helps quite a bit!

wherever there's a need for a little bit of useless information about a lot of things... The Hobbit is there!!!!! da da da daaaaaa

 

[mamachick]

I don't know what is happening financially in other countries other than US. I am grateful that my husbands work is stable and so are my kids. (all hospital employed and able to work from home. Yet there are so many people that either dont qualify for unemployment, have it delayed, or its just not enough. So many small businesses closing. Many currently without healthcare. So many people are suffering. Not having essentials such as rent, utilities and food is just not acceptable. Many will loose homes and are going to food banks. The situation is really making me sick. I avoid news a couple of days but cant bury my head. Sadly, I dont expect and funds to come through to help people until 2021. Thankfully, food banks and other resources are ramping up but I dont think its enough.

What is the financial situation for those out of work in other countries? Is the government helping individuals?

 

[mumstheword]

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

The UK government introduced a furlough scheme for most who were temporarily out of work due to the lockdowns at the beginning of the year. They were paid 80% of their wages by the government (up to a certain amount), and their employer has the option of paying the remaining 20%. This scheme has been changed a bit recently as more have either returned to work or the firms have closed completely. There were a few gaps that people slipped through, but it opened the door to a lot of other benefits to help pay rent etc.

Mortgage holidays were introduced etc, but people still struggle. Evictions were banned and hotels were taking in anyone who was sleeping rough, so no one was sleeping on the street.

Any families that qualified for free school meals had these covered when the schools were closed so kids were fed. Some benefits, such as unemployment were increased by £20 a week, but others such as disability benefits have remained the same, we've just been left as we were, but without a lot of physical support as people weren't allowed to work in people's homes except to give care so there's a lot of help that we're missing.

The self employed did get some help, but it was based on profits in previous tax years so a lot didn't qualify.

Even before the pandemic though, we had a lot of people using food banks, and this has increased quite a bit. Obviously it takes time for benefits to be processed so there were gaps in income.

We are very lucky with healthcare as doctors and hospital care is free at the point of delivery and paid for via income tax (tax on earnings) so everyone is able to access the system when needed and not have to worry about medical bills etc,. Only dentists and opticians need to be paid for and this is either free or at a reduced cost if you are on low income. If you have diabetes then optical care is free. Prescriptions are charged at a fixed item fee, but again free if you are retirement age or on low income.

 

[gealach]

We currently have 26 more covid ICU patients than we have beds for them, and in some hospitals covid patients are being doubled up in the ICU rooms. Today a memo went out, and some hospitals are being instructed to conserve oxygen... not because there isn't enough delivery to the hospitals, or enough on site storage capacity, but because the infrastructure within the hospitals that converts it back to gaseous form and then actually gets it to the bedsides isn't going to be able to handle the demand of so many patients. So where normally a patient's O2 sats would be titrated to no less than 95%, now they're going to be titrated to 90%, which for healthy people is manageable, but these are not healthy people. The province and the health organization are trying to pass this off as normal, stating that it's just a precaution while the infrastructure is being upgraded (really, they suddenly decided to upgrade now, when our system is being overwhelmed with patients and the numbers are increasing??? nothing suspicious about that timing) and in anticipation of more patients needing oxygen, and that this happens several times a year. No. I don't know any front line health care workers who think this is okay or normal. I also don't know anyone who has seen this kind of rationing for oxygen before, and I haven't seen it in my going on 13 years of fulltime duty. This is a huge red flag that our health care system is right on the edge. And no matter what they say publicly to make this seem normal, we know what it looks like when someone puts lipstick on a pig. And this is a lot of lipstick.

 

[ms spock]

It sure has been a confusing story with this drug.

Is there any Science that can back this YouTube's claim?

Why would Surgisphere’s dataset not be available to researchers so they could check the data and the facts?

... both The Lancet and NEJM published expressions of concern, and just two days later, after independent auditors failed to obtain access to Surgisphere’s dataset, both of the studies were retracted. The Surgisphere Scandal: What Went Wrong?

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31324-6/fulltext