Woah, different to the numbers I’ve seen. No unexpected though.
Apparently, Italy is doing a good job according to this article of FT.
Downer comment of the day - interesting piece in the NYT yesterday from Eric Topol about the limitations of the several of the more high profile vaccine development programs
It’s behind a paywall, but for those with a subscription
In short, the studies are designed in a way that may allow the vaccine to show statistical significance (and therefore get approved and be interpretted by the public as “effective”) in areas that don’t have the clinical relevance we really need of a first line vaccine.
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Is this a similar article?
https://www.thelocal.it/20200918/why-has-italy-had-fewer-new-covid-cases-than-other-parts-of-europe
I genuinely don’t understand why countries in Europe like the UK, France and Spain,that suffered so badly from the first wave are already on top numbers for the second wave again.
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Sheer fucking stupidity.
I can send you some pictures of local supermarkets and how people are just carrying on as before but you probably see it yourself.
You don’t need 6 people to go shopping.
You don’t need to stand next to me when I’m picking items up.
You don’t need to stand at my shoulder when I’m paying at the card machine.
You don’t need to be offended when you do these things and I tell you to fuck off.
You do need to clean the trolley before using it.
You do need to wear a mask properly.
The lists are endless.
Basically too many people are stupid and irresponsible.
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And Boris says the reason Italy and other EU nations have performed better with the second wave despite having far less restrictions is because the UK is a “freedom loving nation”
Basically, our government is blaming the people for the UK’s inability to manage the pandemic.
yes people are stupid and they need to be told. That’s simply not been done by an utterly incompetent shower of shite that we call a government
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‘Freedom’ is definitely on top of my list of words misused in political discourse lately.
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France is heaading for a decent herd immunity scenario. There just isn’t any control over the spread of the virus in this second wave (r must be approching 2 now).
Naah, but raises the exact same points.
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I think most of the governments are now banking on Herd Immunity or availability of the vaccine.
Well that’s all they have left after not taking it seriously in the first place. No preparation, no reaction all in the name of the economy. Well what economy? we can’t even make masks for nurses.
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Because we have herd immunity or something 
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Now? that was the whole strategy for many of them from day one.
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That is really worrying but it does look the likely outcome. 
The following quote struck me. Would that mean those companies first to market would have the ability to continue to work on an improved variant of the vaccine while they sell their first version, giving them some sort of monopoly in the field, or would they also have difficulties in getting the candidates needed?
Declaring a winner without adequate evidence would also undermine the studies of other vaccines, as participants in those studies drop out to receive the newly approved vaccine.
I think we know the answer to that, the economy doesn’t allow for better once there’s a monopoly.
The battle will be over production once there’s a couple on the market.
China and possibly Russia might continue to develop vaccines who knows.
As for the west once a vaccine is out the politians will cry victory and that will be that even if the vaccine is absolute dogs shit.
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[Genuine question]
What evidence is there, if any, to demonstrate that herd immunity (against Covid19) is a possibility?
pretty much none isnt there. The fact that the same countries that got hit in the first wave are doing poorly second time round would indicate that to be the case
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I think @Iftikhar is suggesting that certain governments are gambling on it.
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I think there are cases of people catching Covid19 twice(maybe different strains) I don’t have any links so won’t post definitively.
Also the damage that this virus can cause to the body make herd immunity senseless.
Just my opinion.