yes, I understand that.
here is some recommended reading for anyone trying to understand co-morbidities and how it has affected Covid-19 deaths with the elderly. draw your own conclusions. data collected and analysed by the Canadian goverment, but not been publicized to the media.
Of the 15,300 people who died of COVID-19 between March and December 2020, nearly 9 in 10
had at least one other health condition or complication or another cause listed on the death
certificate. Dementia or Alzheimer’s was listed on the death certificate of 36% of COVID-19
death certificates and was particularly common among those age 65 or older.
Other common COVID-19 comorbidities (i.e., the simultaneous presence of two or more
diseases or medical conditions in a patient) reported on death certificates included pre-existing
cardiovascular and respiratory conditions such as hypertensive diseases, ischemic heart disease
and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Since 94% of Canadians who died of COVID-19 in 2020
were older than 65, the overall trends for common COVID-19 comorbidities are largely driven
by age.
The sad thing is, I should be in LAX now but sadly had to cancel 
First world problems.
AY.3 looks like it could be a real problem.
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As an immunocompromised person he has already had his third shot (right at the front of the queue) and is now receiving an “experimental” treatment only approved under Emergency use to treat his symptoms.
Fighting public masking because you have a therapy that is expensive and resource intensive to administer is the most american idea ever.
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18 mths into the pandemic and you still have idiots like this. At worst, refusing to wear a mask attracts a small fine, but he choose to tell everyone else in the train not to wear a mask, that he never will, and when confronted by a police, choose to threaten to fight, and when in court, mocked the judges, prosecutors and the court, claim he is sovereign. So now he is jailed 6 weeks which is probably letting him off easy.
PS: not highlighting his nationality, just that this came in yesterday’s news. There are idiots of all nationalities.
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I view booster shots to be an ethical issue. Most of the world has not been vaccinated. And 2 shots are enough for most people not to get close to dying of the virus as far as I know. The Cost-Benefit has some what changed perhaps. When most people soon have two shots in the West, isn’t it time for the rest to get their first ? Just my thoughts anyway. What is important is to minimise the risk of death. If death has been minimised, then maybe a third shot is something that 99% of us can wait with. It is not dangerous to get a harsh flue for most people after all, if that is the symptoms that the most vaccinated get. I was a proponent of “taking care of your own first”, but if the risk of dying now is so slim, then that calculus has changed really. It is then time to save the rest imo. However, if (example) me not theoretically getting a booster shot means that would go to waste, then I would of course get a booster shot. Not that I’ve had my second shot yet anyway, but theoretically speaking.
Just my thoughts.
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It’s not just about not dying Magnus, don’t forget long covid. Also the ‘risks’ are not fully understood and I think you’ll find variations on a booster shot becoming very common. It need not be an either or situation as vaccine manufacture can be further ramped up.
@Magnus Yes we really need to look at getting the world vaccinated. My worry is the chances of new variants remaining high due to whole areas of the world not being vaccinated to a ‘required’ level.
I think efforts need to be made looking into the logistics of this, of course this will be the pharmaceutical industries bonanza however can’t they wait a bit for things to be a little more sure?
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Tough question. The right and difficult response is probably on a case by case basis.
But also logically the wider you can get vaccinations done the closer the whole planet gets to that herd immunity threshold.
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The issue of using limited supply as a booster is an ethical mess. However, one of the issues of considering it for Gen Pop is the data on the waning effectiveness of the original regimen suggests that a portion of the population (approv 50%) immunity has waned to essentially 0. So this isnt an issue of a top up for the west vs no immunity for the third world. It’s an issue of whether we use 1 extra shot to confer immunity or tell our own population they’ve had their 6-8 months of peace now they can live with no immunity again.
One of the big issues with doing this on an evidential basis, is we know the waning response is variable we just don’t know in whom this occurs. There is a thought a significant part of the group who need it might be accounted for in the immunocompromised group who already got the booster so the expansion to gen pop would only add a little bit of short term benefit. I doubt that is true, and personally will be in line as soon as I can, but still probably agree that it’s a bit early to announce a blanket approval.
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The much (unfairly, imo) maligned AZ vaccine coming into its own here, showing very little waning of efficacy/immunity compared with mRNA vaccines.
Hopefully that bodes well for the older UK population as well as those in India and developing countries around the world who are reliant on COVAX.
the the pro-pharma US gov’t won’t approve it. my stance on that, is because the big pharma lobbyists cannot make money on it.
They’ve approved Janssen though, haven’t they, and that works very similarly to AZ.
Every regulatory agency requires that of the clinical data they review during an approval a sufficient amount of it is from their country. There are genuine reasons for holding firm on this. AZ simply didnt do enough of their trials in the US and so didnt submit their vaccine for review here. The FDA cannot approve something a sponsor has not even submitted for approval.