International COVID-19 Megathread

[politicallefty]

do people not understand that the masks are supposed to be for the sick?

That's true for the regular surgical masks, yes. However, the N95 respirators can be beneficial if you know how to fit them, but most people will find them uncomfortable as they're hot and they make it somewhat harder to breathe. The CDC only recommends them for health professionals in contact with the infected.

[politicallefty]

Unfortunately, it looks like Spain is following Italy.

https://twitter.com/AndyBiotech/status/1241341087735783425

324 dead in the last 24 hours and another nearly 5k confirmed cases. I'm afraid New York isn't far behind.

[politicallefty]

https://twitter.com/NorbertElekes/status/1241412207516233734

The daily Italian numbers are a gut punch everyday. This is legit f-cking nightmarish.

[politicallefty]

From what I'm reading, vaccination in Europe outside the UK seems to be a hot mess by developed countries standards. Looking how it's going in America as we speak, who would have thought a year ago?

I'm grossed out to think about it, but it might have been one of the very few things the Trump Administration did right (specifically procuring and pre-purchasing enough vaccines early on). That appears to be the same case for the UK as well. Even if I give credit there, there's certainly no expectation that the Trump Administration would've been anywhere near as successful as the Biden Administration has been in distributing the vaccine to the states.

I would hope that the EU isn't trying to distract from their own ineptitude in obtaining enough vaccines or that it's not an extension of the UK/EU feud as a result of Brexit. If the AstraZeneca vaccine was problematic, we would've known by now. These things show up in the trials. And, from what I've read, it's the primary vaccine used in the UK. If there were any serious issues, they would be the first to know.

[politicallefty]

The EMA has ruled that AstraZeneca is indeed safe and effective, and that there's no causal relationship with the blood clots. Many European countries are resuming its use.

Meanwhile, Biden is approving the export of 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses to Canada, and 2.5 million to Mexico.

Meh, he should also approve to export them to the EU.

I definitely agree with the EMA ruling since there is not even stark evidence the side effects were caused by the vaccine itsself. And even if that was the case, the risk to die from Covid is far greater by not getting vaccinated. The major damage however is not the few days we lost, but the image problem AstraZeneca already had before due to poor communication.

According to this NPR article, our stockpile of AstraZeneca is only 7m. (I'd been under the impression that is was much larger. I'm not sure why the big discrepancy.) I think the reason that it hasn't yet been approved here in the US is because the FDA requires its own specific requirements for trials and those are ongoing.

It also mentions that the US has fully vaccinated 12% of the population, while Canada and Mexico are at 1.7% and 0.5% respectively. I'm assuming the reason they are getting priority is two-fold: they both border us and therefore it's easy to give them what we have and it's also vital to reopening our borders. I'm also assuming the "loan" of the vaccines is similar to how one will go next door to "borrow some sugar/flour". I think the Biden Administration has said that reopening our borders with Canada and Mexico is the highest priority after vaccinating all (or as many as possible) Americans.

I'm not sure what's going on with you guys over in the EU. Suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine over a few possible adverse cases was completely irresponsible given the current trajectory of cases. I am stunned. Even if it was causing some problems in a few cases out a million, the risk of serious illness or death from COVID is orders of magnitude higher, not to mention the undermining of confidence in vaccination efforts. The US and the UK are now two of the world's best in rolling out vaccine to the people. Go figure that the EU is now faulting the US and the UK for their faulty efforts and near total ineptitude.

[politicallefty]

I'm somewhat puzzled now. With J&J on the hook now alongside AstraZeneca for apparently having vaccines that cause blood clots, why hasn't this been an issue in the UK? From what I've read, they both use the adenovirus vector technology. If any country would be seeing significant side-effects, wouldn't it be the UK on account of massive use of the AZ vaccine?

[politicallefty]

UK has the Issue too (79 blood-clotting cases, 19 Deaths). But compared to rest of Europe is much less per AZ dose, correct, because UK (very rightly in my view) has a strict age based rollout with only very limited exceptions. That + very high vaccine acceptance means that in UK practically everyone over 50 has gotten a dose, but only few people below. On the other hand In US most states have opened to all age groups, or here in Germany for instance (and in most mainland European countries I know) certain essential workers were also vaccinated very early. That, plus the fact that AZ was not used for +65 in Germany for a long time, meant that most people who got AZ intitially here were Teachers, Medical/Senior home staff etc., i.e. Groups that are disproportionately young and female. So we vaccinated AZ right into the groups most at risk of blood clots, while UK did the opposite, hence in Germany people started panicking. Maybe also the fact that there was distrust in AZ already before contributed to finding/reporting more blood clots in Europe in the initial phase.

The UK has vaccinated a large portion of its population. Its priority was to vaccinate large numbers before administering second doses. I've heard of many people under 50 getting vaccines in the UK. If there's even a small issue, it seems to be related to the adenovirus vaccines. That would include AZ, J&J, and Sputnik V.