Coronavirus

[studentforever]

I am in my 70s and should be in group 3 or 4 depending on how they do health and social care staff. We actually have the lowest percentage of 1st jabs of ANY age group at the moment. With all the clamour for jabs for teachers, bus drivers, supermarket workers, vaccine producers (some extra sympathy there), police, customs, I suspect I'll get my first jab next year, especially when jabs which the government thought they could get has to be sent to COVAX to fulfil another set of promises. One thing you can guarantee with our current batch of politicians is that they forget what they said more than 48 hours previously (some even less) and ALWAYS want to please the person lobbying them at the moment.

[Thursday Next]

I know you're in Scotland and things may be different from here in England. But I thought the Prime Minister's promise that all 70's and over would be vaccinated by the middle of February applied to the whole of the UK? (And, yes, I do know what the PM's promises are worth ... )

I heard an interesting interview on the radio a couple of days ago, from one of the experts on the vaccination roll-out. He said that statistically you only have to vaccinate 25-45 care home residents to save one life, 250-450 over 80's to save one life, and so on. By the time you get to the under-70's you need to be vaccinating thousands of people to save one life. And basically the public-facing workers could clamour all they liked to be at the front of the queue to be vaccinated, but it wasn't going to happen, because age is far and away the most significant factor in how at risk of dying any individual is.

[Randi]

I certainly am not qualified to argue the risk of dying if you catch it.
However the expert makes no mention of the risk of exposure (and transmission).

An old lady like me may be at higher risk of dying from it if exposed, but I am at far less risk of catching it than the younger people who delivers groceries to me.

[Thursday Next]

Sorry, I haven't made myself clear. He did indeed mention the risk of exposure and transmission. The point the guy was making was that, even allowing for the far greater risk of exposure in younger age groups, the over-70's are just so much more likely to die of COVID-19 if they catch it, that this is still the age group at far and away the most risk overall.

[AvastMH]

My lovely neighbour Ron got his first jab on Wednesday. He was so happy to get it. I'd rather have the Oxford AZ. Ron said 'any port in a storm' and got the Pfizer. Now there's news about problems with Pfizer provision over here so who knows what's going to happen? Poor Ron. I'm sure they'll work out how to get him his next injection.
I'm 'extremely vulnerable' but a mere stripling at 62. I'm going to put my jab on my next letter to Santa. And keep my fingers crossed.

[Randi]

NYTimes: "Monterey Bay Aquarium lent one of its ultracold freezers to a nearby hospital for vaccine storage."

[Morgan]

HMMMM, What did the aquarium have in its deep freeze freezer? Fish I would presume. Somebody got an extra large serving of herring one day!

[Randi]

I was wondering about that myself.

[Michael]

This was a most interesting article and worth the five minute read. Well, maybe not if you're a fan of Boris.

Pandemics, Superstition and Science

[Randi]

Great article!

I found the following comment particularly interesting:

From 1350 until well into the 1900s, many Europeans bathed as infrequently as possible, believing that water was the chief carrier of pestilential disease. Before the Black Death, “this was simply not the case,” a French historian once told me. “Early Medieval Europe inherited the Roman habit of bathing daily. The plague brought it to a complete stop.”

[Hanibal94]

That was a great read - thanks for posting, Michael!

I remember hearing about the abandonment of bathing before - apparently, one common "measure" was to frequently put on a fresh shirt.
Louis XIV and his brother were considered especially clean because they changed their shirts three times a day!

Also, I think this abandonment is especially odd when you consider that this cataclysmic trauma launched the renaissance and undid so many fears and superstitions.
But such seems to be human nature: We are very rational about some things, and very irrational about others.

[AvastMH]

Great article Michael. The state of the UK is scandalous. And Boris has to bear the guilt.

Interestingly there's been recent work on the Great plague of 1665 in London. It seems that the busiest vector was human lice. That's why some of the richer folk survived. Chris's point about shirt changes comes into play. The rich could keep themselves pretty much louse free, whereas the poor kept the same clothes on day in day out allowing the lice to settle in and do their worst. The bedding was the final part of the equation when lice could shift around the household. With no understanding of the part of the lice in the misery of the plague people sat close and swapped lice.

[Morgan]

I have heard stories from Native Americans whose tradition thought the lack of bathing on the part of early European migrants was - well, appalling.

[ggordon]

The State of Washington announced today that they changed the age for those who are immediately eligible for the vaccination from 70 to 65. Shortly thereafter I received a message from my local medical center saying that they would start making online appointments for those over 65, but expected there to be long waits. I immediately logged on and was able to get an appointment for next week. The shingles vaccinations made me quite ill for a few days each time, so this will be interesting.

[Michael]

Good luck! You're lucky to get in so early.

[Randi]

Meet the book club that’s helping to quickly vaccinate its town

[AvastMH]

Well done Gordon! Just hope that it doesn't upset your system too much.

I'm getting mine on Monday.

Meet the book club that’s helping to quickly vaccinate its town

The power of community - you just can't beat it.

[ggordon]

I'm fortunate to be getting it at a major hospital complex in case I get an allergic reaction (which apparently is extremely rare). They seem to be very organized and have already automatically scheduled me for my second dose next month.

They had an automated caller contact me today with additional instructions. The recording recommended bringing a smartphone or tablet, but didn't say why. Maybe for entertainment in case there's a long wait?

[AvastMH]

They had an automated caller contact me today with additional instructions. The recording recommended bringing a smartphone or tablet, but didn't say why. Maybe for entertainment in case there's a long wait?

That's good Gordon - sound very safe. Perhaps the phone/tablet is in case of any wobblers on the way home? Then again I'm sure there's a fun game that you can play if you do have to wait

[ggordon]

I got the shot about four hours ago now. It was so well organized. The whole thing including the 15 minutes they want you to wait there afterward took about a half hour.

My arm hurt almost immediately and shortly after I felt dizzy and nauseous. But that didn't last long and now I mostly feel tired. Pain in the arm is almost gone. The woman who gave me the shot said that this would be much easier than the shingles shots. At this point I agree.

I got the Pfizer version.

I was expecting the worst because I got very sick for a few days following each shingles shot.

I suppose it could still get worse later, but so far so good.