Coronavirus

[Randi]

Just came back from getting my second shot.
So far, so good.

Two helpful hints:
To avoid a sore arm, keep your muscles relaxed when they give the shot.
To minimize side effects, keep extra hydrated for the following 24 hours.

[Michael]

I'll remember that for my first shot tomorrow. I hope your arm isn't too sore.

[AvastMH]

Well done Randi - and thanks for the tip
Good luck Michael

[leelaht]

I'm scheduled for my first shot tomorrow, yeah. In addition to the the hydration and relaxed arm, I've also heard to use a separate arm for the second shot, and to move the arm around a lot afterward (to get the vaccine moving around in your body I guess).

[Michael]

If you typically fall asleep on one side, pick the other arm for your vaccination.

[Michael]

We got our first doses today: Pfizer. The vaccination site was very organized. They were set up for lots of people, and I was surprised that there weren't more people streaming in. Mind you, we were given appointments about a week ago, so it wasn't a case where anyone could just show up. They had either 15 or 20 people giving the vaccines; I don't remember if there were three columns of five rows, or four columns of five. When I was getting my dose there were probably five other people getting theirs too.The vaccination site was a gym at the University, and there was lots of parking. They had lots of people guiding us around, with hand sanitizer stations everywhere. It was like an airport, where you walk between rows of ropes and you stop every so often to answer the usual questions, have your id checked, etc etc.

My only complaint was with my memory. I was going to ask the medic if I should hydrate with beer, but I forgot. I was also going to ask if I should refrain from all exercise and heavy lifting, but I forgot to ask about that, too.

[jil]

My only complaint was with my memory. I was going to ask the medic if I should hydrate with beer, but I forgot. I was also going to ask if I should refrain from all exercise and heavy lifting, but I forgot to ask about that, too.

If you typically fall asleep on one side, pick the other arm for your vaccination.

I now remember to do this after the time I managed to jab my left arm on some barbed wire and it swelled up. I decided my left arm had suffered enough and got the tetanus shot in my right. Result - I couldn't lie on either side

[AvastMH]

My only complaint was with my memory. I was going to ask the medic if I should hydrate with beer, but I forgot. I was also going to ask if I should refrain from all exercise and heavy lifting, but I forgot to ask about that, too.

Try a different version next time around - might improve your memory - you never know your luck

[Hanibal94]

Yesterday was the first day that doctors were allowed to give COVID vaccinations in Germany (until then, it's only been special centers doing it).
The result: Over 600.000 people got it, which is almost twice the previous record!

Also, cases seems to be going down, and have been for a few days after peaking around Easter. I sure hope this is correct, and not just a statistical fluke or something.
Still, I do feel cautiously optimistic right now. My family and I are planning to go to New Jersey in the summer to see relatives (and get vaccinated if we haven't gotten it by then!), and I really hope that works out.

[AvastMH]

That sounds like wonderful news from Germany! It's very good to know that people want to go out and jabbed. Hopefully you'll soon be following the other countries making good headway on the vaccination front. Numbers of Covid infected folk will drop.
I do so hope that you can get your holiday to New Jersey

[Michael]

Like Joan, I hope you get to New Jersey this year. We all need something to look forward to.

[Michael]

Data modeller Jens von Bergmann became so frustrated with what he considered complacency by BC leaders about viral exponential growth that he made and circulated this drawing.

[Randi]

Very good

[AvastMH]

Jens von Bergmann - he the man!!! Excellent! The Public Health view is exactly the rubbish we've had here too often imho.

[studentforever]

As soon as people get to the political top of the tree they forget or ignore any technical competence they had acquired and concentrate on public relations and maintaining their own position. I remember reading 'How to lie with statistics' many years ago - I think it is bedtime reading for most of our politicians and their advisors.

[ggordon]

As soon as people get to the political top of the tree they forget or ignore any technical competence they had acquired and concentrate on public relations and maintaining their own position. I remember reading 'How to lie with statistics' many years ago - I think it is bedtime reading for most of our politicians and their advisors.

"How to Lie With Statistics" was required reading for a class I took in college. It is one of my all time favorite books and had a major impact on my career. It enabled me to spot misleading plots of data and helped me avoid giving misleading information in my presentations. However, it could certainly be a quite useful guide for the misuse of statistics for political purposes.

[Randi]

I didn't read that, but I read something similar ("A mathematician reads the newspaper" ?).
It had a Compaq advertisement that stated they had the highest price to performance ratio in the business. Not long afterwards, I saw a Compaq ad with the same "logic".

Interestingly, when I showed it to a very smart person in the marketing department, he thought it was a good ad. When I questioned the logic, he just kind of shrugged.
I also showed it to one of the janitors that I was tutoring in math. He stared at it for a long time and then said he didn't think that was what they really meant to say.

[Michael]

[Michael]

We had 1297 cases on Thursday, and 1262 cases yesterday.

Our provincial government was a coalition between the NDP and the Greens. The NDP called an election in October so they could get a majority and have a mandate to control the epidemic. They got their majority but as for controlling the pandemic, that didn't work out too well.

Here's one of the graphs...

[AvastMH]

Michael - that's a nightmare! With a population of about 4.7 million that's a lot of infections. Well done to your politicos for putting themselves ahead of the population they serve