Covid-19: American Acceptionalism

Horrible day in the U.S. New daily death records in Wisconsin, Indiana, and possibly Missouri. Nationwide, worst daily deaths since the April/May peak. That all said, I don't know the degree to which today's numbers have been boosted by post-holiday reporting catch-up.

 

I'm half expecting Whitmer (Really the Michigan health department) to shut things down fully again. Cases have been rising up quite badly here the last few weeks.

 

So I came across this the other day. It's a map of places in your area that has people wearing masks. Bonus is the comments, especially for the unmasked ones.

There's a surprising number of places near that aren't wearing masks, but they're the places I never frequented regardless.

https://www.themaskmap.com/

 

Yeah, the Astra Zeneca one is also two doses. I remember reading that's where the discrepancy between the data for the different regimen's used, i.e. 2 'full' doses or one 'half' dose followed by one full dose.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/28/...vaccines-developing-countries-intl/index.html

It's also covered in the various media stories about concerns regarding the methodology as it wasn't one, unified trial...

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ovid-19-vaccine-results-stand-up-to-scrutiny/

But, as that first story says, the Astra Zeneca trial also checked whether people who had the vaccine, (but hadn't become ill), exhibited any asymptomatic transmission, regardless of whether they had the disease, which the Pfizer and Moderna ones hadn't checked.

I suppose that's not unreasonable as, if you can't get the disease yourself, how could you give it to someone else but, y'know... it might nice to check. I wouldn't want to have a vaccination and be thinking I could still give the disease to someone else.

But then, the 1/2 dose/full dose Astra Zeneca tests were apparently of younger people, (under 55 y/o), so maybe that was the reason for the higher 90% success figures.

I'm guessing these are the reasons why vaccine trials take a few years normally because ALL of this data takes time to gather and study.

But what also strikes me is that the various countries seem to be pushing 'their' vaccine and finding issues with 'the competition'.

Like I say, I'm not sure what to think but, having said that, the only vaccine I probably wouldn't be inclined to take would be the Sputnik one from your friend and mine, uncle Vlad...

 

So the UK has approved use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. My initial response is less about that, than it is about the reporting here in the States.

The Times implies this might pressure the FDA into faster approval...or something. Okay, whatever. But buried in the story I read is a tiny reference to what I really want to know. These approvals that'll soon be happening - is the US, EU, UK, lots of countries - will or won't affect access to these vaccines depending upon information that's not really been reported upon.

This vaccine, for example, is being produced in, I think, two places: Michigan and Belgium. BioNTech seems to have some sort of facility in Austria. Anyway, the production capacity of this vaccine is what it is. And some countries have signed agreements with Pfizer/BioNTech to purchase X number of doses of the vaccine if it's proven viable and safe (which seems to be the case).

Thing is, I've never seen any reporting that compiles all those pre-orders and compares them to the production capacity for this vaccine. The UK has preordered 40M doses of this vaccine (a detail un-reported in the NYT; I found it in a BBC article), which will (eventually) come from the Belgium facility; it'll get 800K doses this month. Its early approval will have no effect on how many doses the US might get, since ours will come from Kalamazoo. But I have no idea if or whether other countries have agreements with Pfizer/BioNTech for vaccine that's being produced from that facility.

I don't know. Guess I'm just sensitive to reporting that implies the US is the only country on the planet whose opinion matters, or that we exist in a vacuum. We may have 100M doses of this vaccine on pre-order, but that doesn't mean we're first in line for all 100M, regardless of how quickly the FDA approves it for use.

 

Not to mention, those 40M doses will only cover 20M people.

This is pretty basic stuff, right? Has it just not occurred to reporters to gather the information?

 

I keep saying this! Anybody with Trump's arrogance should be immediately voted out of power, regardless of what the voter thinks about his policies. That shouldn't even be up for discussion. It should be an automatic decision -- we elect politicians who know that they work for the people, not for themselves.

 

I can't speak for the US but it's been widely reported over here how it works in terms of the breakdown of the different vaccines being developed, tested and produced.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55045639

At present, the government has ordered seven different types of vaccine and expects to receive 355 million doses, including 100 million of the Oxford/AstraZeneca one.

If everyone needs two doses, that would certainly be enough for every adult in the UK.​

There is a lot of other coverage such as...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51665497

Vaccination is actually one of the few things we do pretty well over here and I think I remember reading we've historically had the highest level of flu vaccinations of any country in the world... presumably on account if being free to the most vulnerable groups.

 

Of course, as far as Trump's base goes, "us" can be defined as "those who want nothing more than to own the Libz," which means Trump's trolling is the epitome of policy as far as tens of millions of Americans are concerned.

 

Well - I don't know how all you bitches are feeling, but November almost made me hang myself.

Thankfully, the furnace wasn't totally ********ed and was able to be repaired for $235 + parts - I had a loose ground to the ignition control panel that could barely be seen and the combustion air detector needed to be reset due to high winds.

Thankfully, I no longer smell like a state park campground the day after Labor Day

Oh, and Thursday is Oklahoma's Day of Prayer & Fasting, so sayeth Governor Bushybrows...

1333902782097666054 is not a valid tweet id

 

The closest unmasked place to me is at least an hour away in Delaware.

 

Does it take you longer to get to downtown DC? There's one there that's marked on the map.

 

That's a better, more comprehensive article than I've seen here. Still, it doesn't address the fact that other countries have placed advanced orders for at least some of these vaccines, too.

Eventually this will get discussed, potentially as hoped-for numbers of doses fail to materialize due to the fact that the cumulative number of doses ordered by countries vastly out-paces production capacity.

 

Nobody is moving for that anymore. They just put up a fake company in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands, the New Tax Shelter Hot Spot - The New ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/business/yourmoney/04amster.html
4 feb. 2007For example, part of the Rolling Stones' Dutch-run assets are funneled through the Netherlands Antilles, a Dutch protectorate and a classic Caribbean tax haven, according to company registration ...
Rolling Stones, U2 management deny tax evasion via Dutch ...
https://nltimes.nl/2017/06/12/rolli...nt-deny-tax-evasion-via-dutch-shell-companies
Rolling Stones, U2 management deny tax evasion via Dutch shell companies Rock bands The Rolling Stones and U2 don't have offices in the Netherlands for tax-evasion purposes, but because of the "specific experience and expertise" the country has to offer, their management said to an investigative committee on Monday, NU.nl reports.

 

Would that be on Pennsylvania Avenue?

 

He's got the second-highest vote total in US history. Literally closing in on 25% of the US population. If we're to do the math based on the votes we have, we're probably looking at at least 120 million who are okay with how he's been "working" for them.

It's the country, not Trump.

 

No. I must have been focusing on the east.

 

Oklahoma Checking in:

202,341 cumulative cases (+2,859)
1.812 reported deaths (+54) - Single Day Record
1,782 hospitalizations, (+64) as of 12/1

Pretty much every ICU bed in OK is occupied at this point and the hospitals outside of the OKC / Tulsa MSA's (that weren't shut down for lack of funding) are over capacity and have flooded the metro facilities - putting them over capacity as well

 

Morocco expects 10 million doses.

 

To be clear, those were just a couple I found on a quick google search.

But it's been covered by both the BBC and other TV channels.

https://www.channel4.com/news/factc...-neediest-get-the-coronavirus-vaccine-in-time

Now, whether people have seen it in between stories about Lady Di, (who died almost a quarter of a century ago), and which pop star is porking which actress, is another matter

But a lot of information is available if people are bothered.

 

So, everything's good then... nice to hear

 

Well, the one that's marked in downtown DC isn't one that most of us have reason to wander into.

In all seriousness, though, this mapping tool seems of limited use at present because, at least in DC, not very many sites are flagged. There's not that much information that's been put into the application yet. Maybe it will get better with time.