At least they’re not blaming Brexit… 
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In Norway, all higher education is now online. Same with High School. Elementary schools are open if the regional infection is low, closed if high. Online education also for smaller children. More work for teachers and more work for parents of course, but it is better than taking massive gambles. I don’t think teachers should be allowed to jump the vaccination queue if it’s possible with online education, and since the US is a western State, online education, while sub optimal, is feasible for 6 months to a year.
For poor countries with terrible infrastructure, I could agree that teachers should have greater priority, but not in the West. Our elderly are much too important to neglect even though they are close to the end of their life. Their life has still worth and saving maximum amount of people is more important than giving kids maximum quality of education. This is my view anyway.
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It’s even worse the ONS numbers are an underestimate. They don’t include care homes, hospitals or prisons.
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Musings on a Pissed Off Virologist
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That was last month before Boris signed his deals to end all deals.
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Kleenex is made in Warrington and sourced from UK trees right?
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Totally not relevant to the discussion this, just a silly digression by me.
But both the US and the Russian versions of this, are such joke weapons and such unreasonable and unproductive ways of spending military budgets. It cannot be used if an enemy has any air defenses what so ever, since it is so heavy that it can only be dropped from a transport plane; so can’t be used against state level militaries, but only to bomb guerillas. It is a way more useless weapon that nukes and have only been used in Afghanistan to bomb Tora Bora caves and ISIS hideouts as a symbolic statement. To design such an expensive weapon with such limited forms of usage (basically only useful to bomb large cave complexes inside a mountain), is such a waste of money.
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What do you have to search for in order to get a gif of a massive bomb and an anime cartoon frigging herself off on a wooden staff?!
Asking for a friend.
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Understood. I guess I answered the wider point, and not your actually meaning. Sorry about that.
Then I don’t find your opinion very controversial. But I am not sure I agree. There are many other groups of workers who have lines of work where they have to be in contact with people. I guess to me, it would depend on who they jumped the line in front of. In the US, my understanding is that they are prioritizing all lawmakers. I don’t think they should be prioritized really, bureaucrats with vital functions are more important for stability and so on than a political appointee for instance. One could argue that teachers count as important bureaucrats.
Personally, I have checked where I am on the vaccination list (the Norwegian one) and I am not prioritized at all, something which I am happy about. Norwegian prioritizes are the elderly and everyone with underlying conditions as well as health care workers, due to far higher risk of terminal illness and critical functions in the health sector. One could argue that people with vital functions should jump this list and I initially thought that to be the case, but I think it is relatively sound. Our prime minister for instance, she doesn’t get the vaccine like US politicians do.
The priority list (ours) is a bit in flux and is updated now and then after new recommendations.
Basically, I am not even in the list, so won’t get a vaccine in a year or so probably if ever:
Tabell 1. Prioriteringsrekkefølge
| 1 | Beboere i sykehjem |
|---|---|
| 2 | Alder 85 år og eldre |
| 3 | Alder 75–84 år |
| 4 | Alder 65–74 år |
Enkelte personer med høy risiko 18–64 år|
|5|Alder 55–64 år med underliggende sykdom/ tilstand|
|6|Alder 45–54 år med underliggende sykdom/ tilstand|
|7|Alder 18–44 år med underliggende sykdom/tilstand|
|8|Alder 55–64 år|
|9|Alder 45–54 år|
There is this though: https://www.fhi.no/en/news/2020/anbefaler-a-prioritere-vaksinegruppene-ut-fra-smittesituasjonen/
https://www.fhi.no/en/news/2020/designated-groups-of-personnel-in-health-care-services-will-be-offered-vacc/
But when I check where I am in line for a vaccine, I get this (google translated to English):
You belong to a group that is not currently prioritized.
The reason is that old age, according to FHI, has been identified as a dominant risk factor for serious illness and death. A number of underlying diseases also increase the risk. You have answered that you are from 18 to 44 years old, that you do not have any of the underlying diseases that give priority, and that you are not a health professional either.
The government has said that they aim to offer everyone a vaccine, but it is too early to say whether this will be relevant. A lot depends on how the vaccines that are approved actually work. We do not yet know how well they protect against further infection and how high a side effect profile they have.
Note: This order of priority is based on the current infection situation. It will be updated when we receive more information about the vaccines that are approved, or if the infection changes.
Also, research on long term negative side effects of the vaccines, is not available at this time. So in Norway they are telling us that everyone who is not on the vaccination priority list, have to wait until all the priority groups have been vaccinated and until we know more about possible bi-effects of the various vaccines.
After all, while it is bad if someone very elderly gets a serious complication from a vaccine, it is much worse if they are young, depending a bit upon the possible complications of course.
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MOAB
I wanted a Mother of all Bombs text and a massive explosion to show the excellence of the Boris deal.
That Gif came up and seemed just as approriate.
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Two persons who had just recived the BionTech-Phizer vaccine have died. At current, there is no reason to believe it was a bi-effect of the vaccine, but the Norwegian FHI are of course studying that exactly.
I will use google translate and post it, please accept that it likely contains a few linguistical errors. I won’t bother to transcribe it myself.
Deaths in nursing home residents after coronary vaccination
The Norwegian Medicines Agency and the National Institute of Public Health are carefully examining two reported deaths to assess whether there is a connection with the coronary vaccine.
During the pandemic vaccination, the Norwegian Medicines Agency and the National Institute of Public Health monitor side effects that are reported continuously, and react quickly when there are suspicions of unexpected, new or serious side effects. On Tuesday 5 January, we received two reports of deaths that occurred a few days after vaccination.
Currently, residents of selected nursing homes have received the coronary vaccine Comirnaty (BioNTech / Pfizer).
- Now the weakest and most vulnerable, who have serious diseases, are vaccinated. Then there will probably be deaths close to the time of vaccination. We must then assess whether it is the vaccine that is the cause of the death, or whether it is a coincidence that it happens so soon after vaccination, says medical director Steinar Madsen.
In Norwegian nursing homes, about 400 people die a week. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health monitors mortality in the Norwegian population. The Norwegian Medicines Agency and the National Institute of Public Health follow up all reports of suspected side effects, including death, to assess the causal link.
## Comirnaty og bivirkninger
The studies on which the temporary approval of the vaccine is based do not include persons over 85 years of age. Therefore, we know little about how any side effects will affect the very elderly. We assume that any side effects will be the same in the elderly as in younger age groups. This is something we follow closely.
The most common side effect of the vaccine is pain at the injection site, which more than 80 percent of those vaccinated will experience. Other common side effects are fatigue, headache, muscle aches, joint pain, chills and fever. The reactions can be unpleasant, but go away after a few days. Following the use of the vaccine in the United Kingdom and the United States, some cases of severe allergic reactions have been reported.
Most side effects occur shortly after vaccination and disappear after a few days. Even if the new vaccines have been tested in large studies with many participants, it will never be possible to completely insure against unknown side effects.
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Interesting read Magnus.
I am now in the 75+ and vulnerable section here in UK, and am wise enough to have no illusions about either the virus or the vaccines.
I understand the main reasons for the priority lists to be:
- To protect our NHS from being overwhelmed and unable to cope.
- To use the elderly as long term guinea pigs before rolliing out to the younger generations - I fully approve of this btw.
Vaccines need to be tested for years to ensure complete safety - my step daughter worked in this field for many years - but we don’t have the time now for these tests, so humans at greatest risk are the only options left.
I despair when I read people saying that we should stop protecting the elderly and not waste vaccines on them (we all get older, if we’re lucky), wrong, read note 2 above.
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My question to those on here who have more knowledge of this than I ever will is;
The testing that has been done, has that complied with recognised standards for approval of vaccines and medicines?
Secondly, does the amount of testing required vary depending on that vaccine etc?
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Nothing to see here move along.
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Marina Hyde nails it again
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Yes I saw that. It’s beyond madness, it’s stupidity at a level only equalled by Trump. It’s just packaged with a posh accent.
The idiocy of sending kids to school for one day is beyond comprehension. At least we got the message a little earlier but that was still a bit last minute
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What possible motive could the Chinese authorities have for preventing the visit?
Surely they would be eager to show the world how they’ve kept their death rate down to 3 deaths per million people (total deaths 4,634), whilst testing only 11% of their population.
A truly remarkable, if not unbelievable achievement.
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The most suspicious thing is that they consistently report 10-15 cases per day, since months. Honestly, do they really think that anyone is going to believe that? In my book, they’d be more believable if they said that the virus has been eradicated for good.
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I think it is more likely that they wish to ensure they can conceal any evidence of the origin - which is all the WHO mission cares about. Chinese state media have invested heavily in the idea of origin elsewhere.
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I’m sure they want to conceal any evidence it originated in Wuhan. I’m equally certain they want to conceal the real number of deaths, which a visit to Wuhan by the WHO might expose.
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