Once lagging, Europe catches up to the US in vaccinations
The European Union has caught up to the once-vaunted U.S. coronavirus vaccination effort despite a sluggish start.
apnews.com
The idea that zero Covid is a non-sustainable approach for countries longer term especially in the face of highly transmissible variants like Delta which can seemingly exploit the slightest crack in your border controls.
Delta broke down Australia and China's defenses. Does it spell the end of the zero Covid strategy?
A few months ago, some Asia Pacific countries seemed smug about containing Covid-19. The contagious delta variant has broken down their defenses -- and shown coronavirus isn't something that can be won and forgotten about.edition.cnn.com
And people wonder why I had that knock-down-drag-out fight with sferrin here upthread, after which he tried bombing my dms.Joe Rogan Vs an actual scientist. In which the scientist who wrote a report on mutation in vaccinated chickens seems to better understand his report than Joe Rogan, shocking as that conclusion maybe to some. The conclusion being yes viruses can mutate in vaccinated populations but it’s the equivalent of wading through a lake of treacle for them compared to the unvaccinated as it slows everything right down. To me it looks like Rogan is wilfully misinterpreting the report.
‘Joe Rogan Is Getting This Completely Wrong,’ Says The Scientist Who Conducted The Vaccine Study
“He's taking very careful work about evolutionary scenarios of the future, and from that, erroneously concluding that people should not be vaccinated now," says Andrew Read, professor of biology and entomology at Pennsylvania State University and author of the study.www.forbes.com
I chated with an old physician who happens to be one of France Fights On "founding fathers.". He told me that he clearly remember the 1968 then.
Guess what ? it was as bad and deadly as COVID, with a HUGE difference: nobody gave a frack.
The idea that zero Covid is a non-sustainable approach for countries longer term especially in the face of highly transmissible variants like Delta which can seemingly exploit the slightest crack in your border controls.
Delta broke down Australia and China's defenses. Does it spell the end of the zero Covid strategy?
A few months ago, some Asia Pacific countries seemed smug about containing Covid-19. The contagious delta variant has broken down their defenses -- and shown coronavirus isn't something that can be won and forgotten about.edition.cnn.com
Australia's 'zero Covid' lockdowns costing $1bn a week
Economists warn Australia faces big hit from delta variant as Canberra maintains its policy of trying to eradicate Covidwww.telegraph.co.uk
In other news, economists are not scientists.
France’s virus pass now required in restaurants, trains
People in France are now required to show a QR code proving they have a special virus pass to enjoy restaurants and cafes or travel across the country.apnews.com
Delta outbreak piles pressure on China’s homegrown vaccines | Financial Times
China’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the virus first emerged in Wuhan is adding to concerns about the quality of its domestically developed vaccines amid a dearth of data on the efficacy of the shots.
The National Health Commission on Monday reported 94 locally transmitted symptomatic infections, taking the total number of active Covid-19 cases confirmed on the Chinese mainland to 1,603.
Hundreds of those are suspected to be linked to an outbreak seeded last month at a busy airport in the eastern city of Nanjing. Rapid transmission across the country since then has ended China’s year-long streak of only small-scale, locally contained clusters.
The rising case numbers have focused attention on the absence of rigorous studies from state-run Sinopharm and privately owned Sinovac proving that their vaccines work against the Delta coronavirus variant.
Declining efficacy against emergent mutations of the virus is a problem for all vaccines. But unlike the shots developed by BioNTech/Pfizer, Oxford/AstraZeneca and Moderna, no research into the Chinese jabs’ efficacy against the Delta variant has been published in an international journal with a robust process of peer review to confirm the results.
The BBC retained three studios on the site under its commercial for-profit Studioworks arm, which are largely rented to other broadcasters and provide the permanent base for many of ITV’s shows. However, the vast majority of London-based BBC staff and its news operation are based five miles away at the corporation’s Broadcasting House on Portland Place.
The Loose Women co-host Charlene White thanked the security team who kept protesters out of the studio while her ITV programme was on air on Monday afternoon.
“Not sure what protesters were hoping to achieve, but all they would’ve found was me, Jane, Nadia and Penny on Loose Women talking about the menopause,” she said.
Herd immunity is “not a possibility” due to the prevalence of the Delta variant, a scientist behind the Oxford vaccine has warned, amid signs that the UK’s recent fall in Covid cases and hospital admissions is stagnating.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said there is likely to be some “bumpiness” in transmission and “uncertainty of what happens next over the next six months”, with scientists expecting a rise in cases ahead of winter as the weather worsens and people spend more time inside.
And because of mounting evidence that the highly transmissible Delta variant can infect those who have been vaccinated, it’s unlikely that herd immunity will ever be reached, said Sir Andrew, meaning infections will continue to bubble away throughout the population – as now appears to be the case.