Similar decision was made by health officials in Canada to have 16-20 weeks window between 1st and 2nd doses, with Alpha, Beta- strain not as virulent, especially that the small and slow shipments of vaccines coming into Canada. The country just want to have more people to receive at least 1 dose to have some kind of protection. I do not remember that there were any discussion on that decision being based on scientific evidence.
Guess that we were a bit fortunate with that long gap between doses decision.
@CanuckoLFC Those are important data, but hardly definitive for a variety of reasons (not dealing with covid, extrapolating from lab data to clinical outcomes). While there are limitations in the Israel data, that is far more reliable.
Ultimately even the Israel data shows the importance of vaccination even for those with prior infection and “natural immunity”, but if we want maintain the moral high ground about listening to science we have to acknowledge the value of natural immunity.
It’s not a sting if the “confessions” are in line with fairly standard scientific orthodoxy.
There is a huge difference between though between acknowledging that those who got it and recovered (not guaranteed, and what does “recovered” mean?) are thereafter fairly well protected from subsequent reinfection vs pursuing a public health strategy of herd immunity through infection.
That number seems really odd to me, that would be a massive outlier given the recent daily numbers. Maybe it’s just a mistake by worldometer or rather the online journos at Tagesspiegel where worldometer seems to be copying their numbers from?
@Kopstar and I hold very different political opinions but I agree with him wholeheartedly on this matter. The UK government fucks up (a lot, as it happens) but the EU is far from perfect.
The only way to properly treat Long COVID, with its wide-ranging, highly variable symptoms, is with doctors from multiple specialties communicating as a team; with patients’ mental and physical health given due consideration; with rehabilitation as a focus.
Weekly deaths in Europe have grown 14% on average, whereas in the UK they’ve fallen 12%. That places the UK 38th out of 47 in the current trajectory of death rates. 25 countries out of 47 are experiencing increases in those who have died over the last 7 days compared with the previous 7 days.
For comparison:
Germany is 7th (+46%)
Poland is 15th (+35%)
Spain is 17th (+24%)
France is 40th (-19%)
Italy is 42nd (-25%)
*Germany’s figures seem to be skewed by that 411 number of deaths recorded, which is definitely an outlier and may have been due to a correcting for numbers previously reported?
Incidentally, Russia’s daily reported numbers are just bollocks. For the last 3 months they have not gone lower than 700 or higher than 900 (until the last few days). That sort of consistency is just statistically incredibly unlikely.
Is this a case of timing? I looked at case figures for Italy etc. in July (from memory) and numbers were really low compared compared to the UK figures at that time. As a snapshot it looked as if Italy had basically cracked it. Obviously not.
Italy are doing fairly well. You want to be low in the table that I mention, not high! About two months ago, Italy were just about to overtake the UK on number of total deaths. Now, the UK is more than 6,000 ahead again.
Sure, on a deaths/capita basis Italy has had a worse death toll than the UK (2,174/million deaths in Italy compared with 2,013 deaths/million in the UK) but in the last two months their death rate has slowed whereas the UK’s picked up (and is now slowing again).
Pretty sure it’s just a worldometer/Tagesspiegel mistake. That 411 figure is not reported by any other credible source in Germany, not even close (5 times too high), nor does it even add up with their own individual state numbers.
Better than expected tbh. Really stressful in the first weeks, but I think we settled in pretty quickly.
Overall happy. The only annoyance are the customers.
I struggle with the concept that someone can reject the vaccine on religious grounds but want a transplant and all the associated drugs. from immune suppressants, to antibiotics.
If you smoke, take drugs, overweight, drink too much you will will frequently get rejected because of you lifestyle choice (because it affects risk profile) for me this is no different.
I wonder if anti Vaxxers take their beliefs to their logical conclusion. When in hospital with Covid. Do they reject other medications till they have researched each of them themselves, do they suspect government interference in other medications, put it down to profiteering drug companies ?
Although everyone has a right to medical treatment, with transplants there are ethical considerations given limited availability.
I have no sympathy for someone who believes their own ethics regarding vaccination, is more important than ethics of transplants.
