ANTI-VAXXERS!
Doris says Anti-Vaxxers are NUTS
So far, I’ve found the majority of what the UK Government has had to say as rather confusing, complicated, wrong, detrimental to the wellbeing of the people of the UK, (England, particularly), contradictory, and factually well and truly dodgy. Anyone who has read the pure facts contained here would see that I’ve tried to outline the facts accurately, as I’ve checked and double checked on the web, in medical journals, in the online and printed press, and on the broadcast media.
However Dear Reader, I finally agree with the sentiment of the largely confused, and allegedly dishonest PM of this country, for whom a majority apparently voted.
The sentiment is this:
“ANTI-VAXXERS ARE NUTS”
If anybody reading this blog has a different view, I’d love to hear it. Please get in touch, and particularly, only serious honest views acceptable please.
It’s just that in the USA there are vast numbers of people who have all manner of theories, and who as of this very week have declared that no vaccine will ever be taken by them. They won’t take Flu vaccines, won’t take MMR vaccines and outbreaks of measles have not been uncommon in North and South America, not to mention in parts of Europe.
Ah well.
Vaccine news then: PHASE 3 (ie larger scale and possibly final vaccine trials on humans) are underway with the mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna) in the USA. Other Phase 3 trials as reported here (!) are the AZD1222 (Oxford/Jenner Institute/AstraZeneca), CoronaVac (Sinovac), and the BNT162 from Pfizer/BioNTech in Germany. Two other candidates from Sinopharm and CanSino both in Wuhan China are in final development pre-Phase 3. The UK has invested in nearly 200 million doses of four of these vaccines already in the last two months.
The DNA Nudge and its inventor!
Treatment news: the DnaNudge company has produced a little device which will analyse a miniswab from the nose and mouth in 90 minutes…the tests are called LamPORE tests and are useful because hospitals, schools and labs will have thousands of these machines by September apparently, so they’re being described as “on the spot” tests. They can also detect flu and other viruses it is claimed, so with winter coming soon in the UK, the accuracy of these tests could be vital for how we handle the virus in the next six months. They are approved by Oxford University, and should help the government reach its half a million tests per day goal much more quickly (it says here) and they won’t get lost in the post. The speed is the most important thing, and as of this morning a report on the NHS Track Trace system revealed that less than 55% of people tracked are being reached and are supplying details, and until that figure reaches 75%, it is said that the Tracing setup will not be of much use.
The major worry is that with spikes of infections emerging (not just in the UK by the way) constantly, there may have to be additional local or total lockdowns. Melbourne, Australia is undergoing a six week semi-lock down with bars and clubs shut. South America is seeing the highest increase in deaths at the moment (Mexico in particular) and the infection rate in the US has increased dramatically in the last four weeks.
Courtesy: BBC News
OPINION
The World is certainly experiencing a virus that isn’t dying out. Testing is pretty good in quite a few countries, in many others it is taking a very long time to get the testing/tracing/strategy to any decent position. Until vaccines are produced and administered, the poor parts of the World will see shocking continuations in infection and death, whilst many economies are going down the pan. The people who ignore the rules, i.e. having mass gatherings (completely stupid), not wearing masks A LOT (irresponsible) and of course not washing hands (goes without saying) are just going to find death, damnation and destruction (Ed.-“steady on, Buster”) thrust upon them.
What’s life all about? Phew. Well it’s being with mates, family, working to earn a crust and/or to create, build, investigate, explore and discover stuff. It’s about other stuff too obviously, But wherever you are in the World (except New Zealand perhaps), nobody can do much of this at present, and won’t be able to until it really is safe to resume where we left off.
I’ve got to say the few times I’ve been out and about in the last few months I’ve found pretty spooky, and got most wary of being close to people, especially in locations where I feel they’re flouting the rules, being selfish, uncaring, inconsiderate and particularly stupid.
I don’t wanna moan about other people’s behaviour. I suspect if you’re a selfish stupid maybe heartless or greedy, maybe simply unintelligent person, you can’t cope with this strict situation and the need to prevent this nasty thing spreading. In the UK we have Politicians in Power sneaking vast amounts of really unpleasant legislature through our Parliament system, and it scares me. We’ve just had a vast increase in the number of Peers in the unelected House of Lords, and they’re nearly all friends and family of the Prime Minister (see links below). In the US (where I was planning to be for a bunch of 2020 working and catching up with fantastic friends I have out there), there are all manner of unusual plans for the incumbent President to remain in Power even if he loses the Election this November, or even if he delays it by whatever means he can. Well, 2021 may end up being a whirlwind of a different year from this one. Let’s party for a vaccine or two please, let’s pray that the treatments available help to reduce the death rate and let’s hope people act with decency to reduce the spread of this ghastly virus, which may even contribute to long term damage in people’s heart and brain function and tissue (we’ll discuss the evidence for that next time), but wouldn’t it be gorgeous if we all ended up being better people too?
F. C.
Donna and Doris
WORLD DATA UPDATE (15 DAY CHANGE)
699,000 deaths worldwide as of 4th Aug 2020
Deaths - Deaths/miliion pop.
Belgium 9850 (9800) - 850 (845)
UK 46210 (45000) - 680 (667)
Spain 28470 (28420) - 609 (608)
Peru 19800 (13200) - 600 (400)
Italy 35100 (35000) - 582 (580)
Sweden 5750 (5600) - 569 (556)
Chile 9750 (8500) - 509 (445)
USA 159000 (143000) - 481 (433)
France 30200 (30100) - 464 (462)
Brazil 94700 (79600) - 446 (374)
Mexico 48000 (39200) - 372 (304)
Ecuador 5767 (5310) - 326 (301)
Canada 8950 (8850) - 237 (234)
….
Russia 14350 (12500) 95 (85)
…..
India 39790 (27500) 29 (13)
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/30/politics/trump-delay-election-no-authority/index.html
https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/03/cronyism-at-work-as-johnson-packs-the-lords