Yeah, I think late Jan really was the point that local agencies dropped the ball by not turning from a state of appropriate watchful waiting to action. Like I said, we knew we had a case that required community transmission in the US as early as the third week of Jan. Given what that told us about asymptomatic transmission and factoring in the lag that we knew existed, that one case should have been five alarm fire. Yet even the people who are no lionized for speaking out “early” took a month to really react to that.
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It would not have made any difference if WHO had reported earlier.
The problem was that many nations perceived the advice as over precautionary, over reaction and having little chance of affecting them. They looked back at past warning in a boy who cried wolf kind of way. Past predictions of pandemics where not as bad as they warned it could be. It will just be another disease that affects countries with poor hygiene or health standards.
While the West wondered at China building a hospital in 5 days (debating propaganda/comparing it to ghost cities). Few connected that the reason why was this was nothing we had seen before. There were whispers but people also did not trust China (understandably)
It was not till it hit Italy and Israel that the world knew it was bad. You did not need the WHO to tell us. That was the marker for me.
Many nations failed to react for weeks even when apparent. Trump claimed it was just being used as a political tool by his opponents, Johnson talked about taking it on the chin. There were so many comparisons made to the flu. (Something half the population can’t differentiate from a cold).
WHO were far from perfect. But the real blame lies with governments.
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Holding a religious belief seems to be associated with an increased risk of covid mortality. Except for Jedis, obviously.
One question: is there any statistic resource available somewhere, listing the number of severe side-effects/deaths due to the vaccines?
There are a number of pharmacovigilance reports that you can look at. The ones for the UK (Pfizer, AZ and Moderna) are published and updated weekly here:
It’s due a weekly update today. If you go to the bottom of the page (just above where it says “Annex 2 glossary”) you’ll find the links to the reports on the three vaccines used in the UK currently.
Here’s a link to the EU pharmacovigilance site…not sure where they have the specific information on the covid vaccines but I’m sure you can find it from there without too much difficulty
https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/overview/pharmacovigilance-overview
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That’s great, thanks mate. 
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152.195 vaccinations in The Netherlands yesterday, a new high.
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Remember that optimistic target of doing 100,000 tests per day by the end of last April that was either hit or not depending on how you fudged the numbers? Well, now the UK regularly processes over 1 million tests per day and has the highest test rate of any country worldwide with a population of more than 10 million.
The UK have processed just under 168 million tests to date. Only the USA (461 million) and India (309 million) have done more. At nearly 2.5 million tests per 1 million of the population the tests the UK have carried out per capita is more than twice that of France, Italy or Spain and more than three times that of Germany. It’s more than 10 times that of India.
Also, the UK is sequencing nearly all positive tests and has provided nearly half of all global genomic sequencing to the GISAID worldwide database.
The AZ vaccine has been produced in greater amounts worldwide than the combined number of vaccine doses exported from within the EU.
53% of the total UK population has now had at least one vaccine, compared with 30% for the EU.
28% of the total UK population is now fully vaccinated, compared with 12% for the EU.
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Boris would but he’s got a few CCJs to sort out 
He really isn’t your typical Conservative PM is he.
Some anti-vax nutter called Yvonne Hobbs, apparently. Its claimed she’s alleged defamation against him, as well as (allegedly) previously bringing defamation claims against Rishi Sunak, the BBC and Marks & Spencer!
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I am just going to put this here. Make of it what you will.
The Atomic Scientist is a publication founded over 70 years ago. They are the publication that “keeps” and publishes the doomsday clock. Einstein contributed material to this non-profit publication. Think that has the source covered adequately…
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The CDC here in America just issued new guidelines, saying that completely vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks, inside or outside, and also not practice social distancing. A few caveats, like airline travel. Masks required there.
If you have not been vaccinated you are supposed to continue wearing a mask.
My initial reaction is mixed. It represents progress… however, since there’s no proof of vaccination required, it’s an honor system, and honor might be in short supply.
The ultimate conclusion will not be two groups: vaccinated and masked people.
The ultimate conclusion will be two groups: vaccinated and infected people.
Seems the pendulum swung too far too quickly and it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
Like you say, its swung too quickly and I am afraid this looks so much like a populist measure. Like you say, if every person goes to a mall and not wear a mask, how would anyone or enforcement know who is or who is not vaccinated? And its not for the sake of it. Because surely they remember that a vaccinated person does not mean he or she cannot be carrying the virus. And if he is not wearing a mask and meets 1000s of anti maskers in the mall and spreads it to them, these 1000s then go on to spread to their family, then what happens? You get a over strain of your health system all over again. I really wonder why since they are so advanced in the vaccination already, why not wait a while more to get to a higher percentage before doing it? And also, are there any consequences for people choosing not to get vaccinated? Like they will have to pay for everything themselves if they contract Covid-19 if they choose not to get vaccinated when offered?
Singapore just announced an hour ago that we are reverting to the strictest measures in a year probably when the Circuit Breaker was implemented last year. No dining in for the next one month, groups of more than 2 are prohibited etc. Here we go again