Coronavirus 3 - Al Pacino's turn to mumble

[Pies4shaw]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-02/charting-australias-covid-vaccine-rollout/13197518?nw=0

[David]

Depressing stuff!

[5 from the wing on debut]

Regardless of the who/where/why/what of our vaccine rollout, we don't need it as much as other places in the world. It seems that until manufacturing is undertaken on a large scale here that our rate of vaccination won't match other places.

There are just so many unanswered questions surrounding this though. Will the vaccine work? Will it work for a time and then won't work on mutations?

Assuming everyone is vaccinated, what will that mean, if anything, for the vulnerable? The virus is here to stay, it isn't going anywhere. The vaccine isn't a cure, it aims at minimising the damage caused by the virus. What does that mean, for example, to the elderly in nursing homes? If the vaccine doesn't stop transmission then they are still in trouble, vaccinated or not.

It may be that we are now living in a completely new world where the virus is continually an issue, regardless of vaccination. That's depressing.

[David]

I think it goes without saying that COVID-19 will continue to be an issue, at least in the medium term. But I guess the hope is that soon it will be a much smaller, manageable issue, like the many other viruses that still exist and cause serious illness and death but don't require lockdowns, travel bans, etc. to be contained.

I think it's a good point that vaccination is less of an immediate priority here and that it's more important that other countries get it under control quickly (it's encouraging, for instance, to see that the particularly hard-hit UK has partially vaccinated almost 50% of its significantly larger population and fully vaccinated almost 10%). But the longer it takes for us to get to herd immunity here (possibly won't even happen this year, by the looks of things), the more openings there will be for outbreaks – maybe even bad, second-wave-level ones – and lockdowns, not to mention sickness and death. After more than 12 months of this and many of us (well, at least me) feeling pretty confident that we were out of the woods, that's a pretty draining thought.

[5 from the wing on debut]

Is herd immunity something that is still thought to be possible?

[David]

That's basically the primary point of this mass vaccination, isn't it?

From the article P4S posted:

[5 from the wing on debut]

As far as I am aware, no one on the planet has been immunised and there are no plans for that to occur. That article must be from the commencement of the pandemic and not more recently.

Medicos may correct me, but doesn't immunisation give you immunity? There is no immunity from covid. The vaccine doesn't do that, it just reduces the effects of covid, if it works at all. There have been many reported instances of vaccinated people becoming infected. We even had a nurse in Qld fall into that category, although it was after the first jab, not the second.There are also reports of people suffering from covid more than once. Covid is mutating.

I would like to be wrong about this, but we will see.

[David]

Actually, the ABC article is only a month old (from 2 March), and was updated as recently as today.

I'm no medico, but I think you do have the wrong end of the stick on COVID-19 and immunity:

https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-how-long-does-it-take-to-have-immunity-after-vaccination

[Tannin]

Vaccination - administration of a vaccine

Immunisation the response of your immune system to a training event (typically vaccination). This prepares the immune system to deal more successfully with infection.

The "immun" in the word "immunisatiion" doesn't refer to "immunity", it refers to the immune system.

Vaccination is something the doctor does. It teaches your body about a specific new infection. Immunisation is something your body does: it learns how to recognise and fight an infection.

But beware! In practice, people often mix the two terms up.

[5 from the wing on debut]

That surprises me as I have read in more than one place that the vaccine will not provide immunity, but rather, will minimise the effects of covid. I discussed that a few weeks ago with a friend who runs the family business which is two aged care facilities. His concern was along the lines of the vaccine not being a cure, how will their safety policies and procedures have to continue into the future.

I read somewhere a while ago that when Sweden tried herd immunity they tested those that had had covid and only about 7% of them had developed antibodies which they thought would prevent them from getting it again.

We will have to wait and see if the vaccine is more effective than being infected and then recovering. Here's hoping.

[ronrat]

Why can;t my 90 ywar old Dad and 84 year old Mum get the virus. Probably because they do not live in Gold Coast or Brisvegas.

In Thailand they are looking at opening up "sandboxes: so tourists who have had the jab. Yo fix it they intend to vaccinate Thai citizens. They won;t allow private clinics the vacs so the multitude of Burmese, Cambodians and Laotians miss out plus a 100,000 expats in these areas who own business or retired.

Politicians the world over need a kick in the arse.

[eddiesmith]

[Tannin]

Actually, we already know how effective the vaccines are. That's one of the reasons that they run those major trials, and do extensive follow-up tracking too.

We don't know how long the enhanced immune response that the vaccines produce will last.

There are two key effects from vaccination: (1) vastly redued risk of life-changing illness or death; (2) the virus is unable to reproduce in large numbers (because your immune system is fighting it thanks to the vaccine) and is much less likely to spread.

BTW: if that 7% figure is correct (it sounds absurd to me, but let's assume that it is correct for the moment), then the vaccines are about 12 times more effective in producing immunity than the disease itself.

[Pies4shaw]

In Victoria today: no new cases, no active cases, 13,291 tests reported.

So, that's a whole lot of zeroes - until we start taking big bunches of COVID-y international travellers into Hotel Quarantine (which resumed today).

[5 from the wing on debut]