That is strange. I managed to move my 2nd booking forward with no problem and when checking available slots was given both my original centre plus other local centres without having to cancel my original booking (I am in London, so don’t know if that makes a difference or not)
I agree. Modi and Co have a lot to answer for , not that they ever will. I don’t want to diverge this topic on to a different tangent.
Anything about producing vaccines in scale will take a period of 4-5 months to start manufacturing , that still leaves bangladesh short in terms of the new variant and the damage that it will deal…
Countries everywhere have fucked up w.r.t covid19. Goes without a saying though
It’s been a long time coming. Attempts at using AI have been tried since the 1980s. The game changer has been computing power, which allow better algorithms.
We tend to think of proteins as static the challenge is they are really dynamic. Constantly moving, many have switches which cause them to change shape depending on the environment, or special helpers proteins that help folding in the right shape.
The first challenge is the data itself. We get the 3D structures by shooting X-rays at crystal versions of proteins. The problem is crystals are static, like a photo. To get enough protein to make a crystal you typically need to make it in different organisms domesticated for lab use (which may different assembly helpers). To make crystals from the protein you need to put protein in a very different environment to what’s found inside a cell. Even then only some proteins crystallise. We have an incomplete and imperfect dataset for AI to learn from.
If you change 1 amino acids, the difficulty is not just how it alters the 3D shape (different folding, different bonds nearby) but how it alters the movement. It’s like a pond and a ripple effect. About 10 years ago I use to have a £100,000 computer (64 cores, 128GB ram). I would change 1 amino acid, press go and leave it running for 5 days. This would be to try predict what the movement for 1ms. This simulation would help me understand if protein would catalyse a reaction or not.
So you can imagine huge amounts of computing power it would take to design proteins from scratch.
Until recently I had started to doubt if I would see it in my lifetime. Deepmind and cloud computing have made a step change improvement. But we still have some way to go.
Well…Have you heard the latest from the idiot in charge of NRW, likely the next chancellor?
Since numbers of new infections are so low atm, he won’t do much at all to prevent further spreading.
Already reports from some states that people don’t turn up for their vaccination appointments. Personally, practically everyone I know has either had at least one jab, don’t want to get vaccinated at all or might eventually but aren’t really worried.
Even I have a hard time arguing with people, when they point out that after almost 1,5 years Corona there are about 700 deaths here, in a city of a over a million. After all that’s happened around the world, there still is no glory in prevention.
Got my second dose this afternoon. Almost 50 days apart between 1st and 2nd dose. As mentioned earlier in my post, due to supply issues with Pfizer, I got Moderna this time. Will see how I feel later today.
Because I had mixed doses, I should now be microchipped and have 5G. You on the single type won’t have full coverage like I do!
So Singapore has opened up Sinovac to people who were not medically suitable for Pfizer or Moderna previously or for people who just don’t believe in the mrna ones for wherever reason.
Difference is Sinovac has not provided additional information and data requested by us, so it was not approved under our National Vaccination program which provides compensation and free vaccination. Still, there was a overflowing demand at the private clinics, with people making it a East VS West thing. These are the idiots but for the rest, I think it’s just grest to get some protection in because they cannot take the mrna ones for now. 50 is better than zero. We are probably on track to do 2/3 vaccinated by our independence day on 9 Aug. And I think the government has been prepping us to move away from managing this as a pandemic and rather endemic.
I’ve never heard of anyone being unsuitable for the Pfizer vaccine.
Here, there is some hesitancy regarding AZ, but no-one would dream of taking Sinovac or Sputnik unless it was an extreme emergency.
This is partly due to prejudice, no doubt, but also due to the fact that there’s much more transparency about the vaccines developed in the west. This is a good example of the strength of democracy over authoritarianism.
There are centres round us apparently doing walk ins this weekend. Me and Mrs Mascot are going to look into it this afternoon - might be something to explore.