Coronavirus: Free the Jab!

[Takhisis]

Yes, I have long been feeling as if I were living a horror film. Right now we are speculating with whether elections will be held at all, simply because the government refuses to heed court orders to start vaccinating a couple hundred thousand election staff.
A recent poll indicates that only 30% of university students feel that 80% or more of their coursework was taught. Another strike against for illiteracy!

 

[amadeus]

Yeah but if you Kirchnernize the math that’s 110%.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well, the premier of my province is really super-determined to get 90% of Albertans vaccinated, with at least one dose, ASAP.

Does he care about our health?

Nope. He does care about the Calgary Stampede, though. It was canceled last year, and that cost a lot of people a lot of $$$$$$ (rodeo is one of Alberta's summer moneymakers throughout Alberta).

So the only way to make it feasible for lots of people to attend is to get lots of people vaccinated. Originally the people who had their first dose in April were supposed to be able to book the second dose on June 14.

But earlier today, that was changed to "go ahead and book right now."

Thank goodness the pharmacy I ended up going to is organized. I called them to make sure I was still on the list and that they were going to call me to arrange the second-dose appointment.

I was assured that I was on the list, and they will call me next week. I might not actually get it this month (Kenney simultaneously wanted everyone vaccinated NOW, but cut the number of doses/week to the pharmacy, from 125 to 90. Go figure.), but I will get it sooner than I'd expected (was not expecting it until August).

 

[Samson]

China vaccinating at 20 million/day

 

[EnglishEdward]

Well, good for China.

 

[r16]

bah , the Goverment in New Turkey apparently conducts a web campaign that wrongly claims they have stolen 380 billion dollars . When proven wrong , that will settle things ! (Being next door to Russia certainly helps limiting the damage)

 

[thetrooper]

What's happening in UK?

 

[Takhisis]

Yeah but if you Kirchnernize the math that’s 110%.

Speaking of which, our half-daily misspoken word by our beloved puppet president was ‘go and get infected’ when he meant to say ‘go and get vaccinated’, live on TV.

 

[EnglishEdward]

What's happening in UK?

1) Covid infections and deaths creeping up due to Indian variant

2) G7

3) UK still in 6th place ahead of Russia and Italy

UK: 127,884
Italy: 126,924
Russia: 125,674

 

[GinandTonic]

US overtakes UK as hardest hit by Covid deaths in G7

Interesting to juxtapose Italy and the UK with the US.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I can't figure out what that third graph is trying to say.

 

[GinandTonic]

I can't figure out what that third graph is trying to say.

Deviation from expected mortality rate. 0% being the expected number of people dying for the time of year. +1% being 1% more people dying than would be expected for a given week.

World data

A shiny app for some countries.

 

[MrCynical]

What's happening in UK?

Looks like the lockdown in the UK is probably going to be extended rather than ending on June 21st. In fairness that was never more than an earliest possible date for lifting restrictions. All the stuff about "freedom day" and taking it as a fixed end to the lockdown is very much the media's fault rather than the politicians. Doesn't look like they're going to have much choice. Cases are shooting up, but rather more concerningly there's been a noticeable increase in hospitalizations as well.

Looking at the breakdown by age it's noticeable that the over 60s are seeing far less of an increase, which does suggest the vaccinations are working - if you get both doses. Age groups under 39 have the bulk of the cases, which makes sense. The majority of these are still unvaccinated, or have had only just had their first dose.

Even if the UK lockdown does get extended, in practice in may not make much difference. It's noticeable that compliance with Covid restrictions has plummeted in the last few weeks. Far more people without masks about, public transport is almost back to pre-covid levels of crowdedness, little if any attention paid to social distancing. Even if there is an official extension, I suspect it'll simply be ignored by a large chunk of the population.

Probably the most optimistic scenario at this point is that we get a third wave of cases, but the hospitalization and death rates stay low thanks to the vaccines. In general even where they fail to prevent infection entirely they do seem to greatly reduce severity.

 

[innonimatu]

There's no doubt now that vaccines have been very helpful in reducing the severity of the damage by the pandemic. But I'm still extremely wary of the gung-ho approach to vaccinating everybody fast, rather than the most relevant risk groups only and then proceed cautiously...

 

[El_Machinae]

Keep in mind that catching the virus itself is also 'experimental'. It's a dilemma, and there's no good answer. The only winning move was to have been ready before the crisis started, but we don't like to do that.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Competition for 6th place death count is high and the gap is closing:

6: UK: 127,896
7: Italy: 126,976
8: Russia: 126,073

On deaths per million:

17: UK 1,875
18: Argentina 1,856
19: USA 1,847

Argentina has overtaken the USA.

 

[Kyriakos]

I am surprised this is going on still. I do wonder at what point (2 years? even more?) having any sort of lockdown/masks/other will be impossible in non-dictatorships.
I expect the aftermath to be terrible, and maybe a world war will help ease the depression and excess humanity.

 

[red_elk]

Competition for 6th place death count is high and the gap is closing:

6: UK: 127,896
7: Italy: 126,976
8: Russia: 126,073

Russia will overtake you both in several days, we have almost 400 daily deaths already.

 

[GinandTonic]

Competition for 6th place death count is high and the gap is closing:

6: UK: 127,896
7: Italy: 126,976
8: Russia: 126,073

On deaths per million:

17: UK 1,875
18: Argentina 1,856
19: USA 1,847

Argentina has overtaken the USA.

Meh, the US's declared figures are nonsense. The Argies are even worse.

Tak, do we have excess death figures for Argentina?

 

[Birdjaguar]

I am surprised this is going on still. I do wonder at what point (2 years? even more?) having any sort of lockdown/masks/other will be impossible in non-dictatorships.
I expect the aftermath to be terrible, and maybe a world war will help ease the depression and excess humanity.

Europe survived the Black Death and the world will survive this. I doubt it will get any messier than it has already been.