Day of Chaos 2: a.Covid-19 thread.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

It's crazy how such a small thing has caused so many big problems.
So small that it's been calculated if you gathered all of it together, it would probably fit in a coke can.

[TordelBack]

Currently listening to the Zoom call preparing my youngest for going back into school,  and I understand how the Hitler Youth worked. Never mind the systematic lies of your government, won't it be nice to wear those smart uniforms and go on lovely marches. Everyone tell the class now how you have no reservations whatsoever and just want to please your leaders. What's that you say small child on the Zoom call in front of all your happy friends,  you're concerned that no-one in your family is vaccinated yet, daily cases and deaths are still sky-high, no changes have been made to the school environment? Nonsense, you're just workshy.

Paraphrased, but not loosely.

[sheridan]

How to get a COVID supply contract (tip - it helps if you live next door to the Health Secretary).
the usual litany of lies, half-truths and corruption

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

To nobody's surprise, the Prime Minister does not know how to use a prophylactic correctly.

[Funt Solo]

Well, I got my first shot of a vaccine. I was expecting some side effects but so far nothing. Bill Gates is great, though. Maybe a little sensitivity around the injection site, but nothing to write home about.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Things are very, very slow round these parts, vaccine-wise.  People have fecked up in fine style.

Glad to hear you got yours, though, Funt, and that there haven't been any side effects.  Must be a massive relief all round.

[Tjm86]

Well, having attended our 'training session' for the return to school over the next week or so, I've some good news for those of you worried about the risks of your offspring.

So now face-masks are to be worn by everyone at all times in and out of classes, unless they have a medical exemption.  ... or unless they decide they don't want to because they can't be forced to wear it ... but management will keep telling them to put one on until they decide it is not worth the hassle ...

Please not that this includes teaching staff who are expected to remain socially distanced from all students at all times.

Yes, teachers are now expected to communicate verbally with students at a distance with a face-mask on throughout the session (of nearly two hours at a time).

Students will have a single seating plan for all subjects and assigned desks from which they should not move.  Except for years 10 and 11 (form 4 and 5 in old money) who will continue to move from room to room during the day for options.

Oh, and having spent the day at the same desk to ensure that the school has a clear idea of who they are seated by at any time, students will line up in whatever order they want at the end of breaks, walk up and down corridors with anyone (but they are wearing masks ... except if they don't want to ... or they have an exemption ...)

As always the regulations are a mass of contradictions and loopholes.   

[JayzusB.Christ]

One of my brothers is vaccinated; the other isn't.  The latter's manager felt 'feverish' in his own words but decided to come to work anyway, interacting with all the other staff, before going home early sick.  Test results aren't in yet, but it's not looking good for everyone that works there.  It's an animal sanctuary, so there may well be a lot of animals going unfed for weeks.

[The Legendary Shark]

Lasting immunity found after recovery from COVID-19.

[IndigoPrime]

Although lasting in these cases currently means up to eight months. Long-term, we are likely to be in for booster jabs forever.

[Funt Solo]

Great news, though - it suggests that vaccines (or, getting it and surviving) can be of real (at least) medium-term benefit. There had been worries, earlier in the pandemic, that reinfection could pose a serious short-term risk.

Still unknown (AFAIK) is whether a vaccinated person can still be a carrier & transmitter.

Safest approach for everyone is still: get vaccinated.

[JayzusB.Christ]

My elderly parents' next-door neighbour is an ambulance worker, and has had the virus twice in the space of eight months.  (Worryingly, he had a chat with my folks over the garden wall the first time around, and neglected to tell them he was infected and thus putting them in danger.)

So yeah: The quicker we all get vaccinated the quicker we'll be out of this mess.

[The Legendary Shark]

Although lasting in these cases currently means up to eight months. Long-term, we are likely to be in for booster jabs forever.

Well, no. The article states,

"Virus-specific B cells increased over time.
People had more memory B cells six months
after symptom onset than at one month
afterwards. Although the number of these cells
appeared to reach a plateau after a few
months, levels didn't decline over the period
studied."

The antibodies will naturally decrease as the need for them subsides, but the cells tasked with remembering how to build them remain should the war break out again. This is what happens naturally, it is hoped the vaccine will have the same effect.

[Robin Low]

The antibodies will naturally decrease as the need for them subsides, but the cells tasked with remembering how to build them remain should the war break out again.

Which might be fine just so long as the virus doesn't mutate, which it's doing all the time, because that's what viruses do. This why we repeatedly get colds, why new flu jabs are offered every year and why there'll probably be new covid jabs every year too.

Also, it depends on surviving Covid in the first place, which quite a few people have sadly failed to do.

Regards

Robin

[Professor Bear]

Considering the trouble getting the vaccine rolled out atm, I wouldn't have much faith in the establishment of a booster regimen for the entire country (even if you could get everyone to submit to such a thing).  I suspect that older patients will get a jab as usual, but the rest will be left to fight it off and eventually we'll be conditioned to think of the extra thousand deaths a year as the new normal.