Are vaccines the light at the end of the tunnel?

[cangelmd]

10 hours ago, Lady Chew said:

I wonder if we'll have trouble walking past all of the cabin doors ... 

Nah, but we can lean up against the wall in the cabin so our traveling partners can hang wet swimsuits and day bags on us

[TeeRick]

10 hours ago, UnorigionalName said:

 

I'm actually super excited about it, and I think there's good reason for EUA.  It's a much more conventional protein subunit vaccine, which have been around for a while and have not been shown to have long term side effects.  Some of the most valid reasons to avoid the current 3 vaccines are due to the unknown potential for long term side effects.

 

Hopefully they will get it validated for children quickly, who have the most chance of developing long term side effects.  Hopefully it will also allay the fears of some fence-sitters and convince them to get a more conventional vaccine, to get closer to herd immunity.

 

I am a little worried though, that conspiracy theorists will jump all over the word "nano" and I wonder what crazy theory will pop up next.

This vaccine will be a very good one for global vaccinations.  Hopefully they will be able to manufacture it in high amounts. They do have a number of partners to help and say they can manufacture at least 100 million doses per month.   It is stable at refrigerated temperatures too. 

 

There will be lots of fodder for the vaccine conspiracy folks I agree.  The SPIKE protein is manufactured using a baculovirus expression system in moth cells.  Of course this has been around for decades but people will focus on baculovirus and insect cells to stoke their fears.  And of course even though it is actually highly purified and assembled into virus-like particles in lipids, the company calls it nanoparticles.  Maybe they will regret that term once the anti-vaxxers get ahold of it and come up with all sorts of crazy issues!

 

More here:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/will-small-long-shot-us-company-end-producing-best-coronavirus-vaccine

[TeeRick]

About 80% of VT population has at least one shot of vaccine and 70% have two shots.  I think I want to move there!

 

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/vermont-relaxes-covid-19-restrictions-212129540.html

[springfire]

6 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

About 80% of VT population has at least one shot of vaccine and 70% have two shots.  I think I want to move there!

 

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/vermont-relaxes-covid-19-restrictions-212129540.html

Maybe they gave them some Ben & Jerry's ice cream!  

 

Vermont has done an excellent job!

[runningtide]

Forget the COVID information overload. Linda and I are so excited about an upcoming cruise in September on Equinox. I made our final payment yesterday. I have been reviewing the latest information on COVID procedures at Celebrity, RCL, and other lines. In addition, ports of call restrictions and the continued legal issues between the Florida Governor and the CDC. 

I reached a decision that with three months to go, it is a complete waste of time to try to figure out how COVID and subsequent ship and port procedures will impact this cruise. Its simply too fluid at the moment and will continue that way for the next month or more. I know for many guest, it is frustrating to be unable to make important decisions and plans without solid information, especially if your sailing soon. But we all have to realize by cruising this year, we are all part of a startup experiment. Risks are part of the equation. 

 Bottom line, I'll make a final decision when we are a few weeks out. My airline tickets are refundable, and I can accept a cruise line refund or FCC. For now, fingers crossed. 

All the best to our fellow passengers. Stay safe and keep positive !

[cangelmd]

6 minutes ago, runningtide said:

 

Forget the COVID information overload. Linda and I are so excited about an upcoming cruise in September on Equinox. I made our final payment yesterday. I have been reviewing the latest information on COVID procedures at Celebrity, RCL, and other lines. In addition, ports of call restrictions and the continued legal issues between the Florida Governor and the CDC. 

I reached a decision that with three months to go, it is a complete waste of time to try to figure out how COVID and subsequent ship and port procedures will impact this cruise. Its simply too fluid at the moment and will continue that way for the next month or more. I know for many guest, it is frustrating to be unable to make important decisions and plans without solid information, especially if your sailing soon. But we all have to realize by cruising this year, we are all part of a startup experiment. Risks are part of the equation. 

 Bottom line, I'll make a final decision when we are a few weeks out. My airline tickets are refundable, and I can accept a cruise line refund or FCC. For now, fingers crossed. 

All the best to our fellow passengers. Stay safe and keep positive !

This is what we have done. We are booked on second Equinox cruise, August 1. Everything is refundable until late July. We have fortunate enough to have a Celebrity Suite, so we have a plan for holing up in our room if necessary, but hope to enjoy the ship. If we miss all the ports that’s ok. We are going with the flow and just thankful to be going.

[Moonarino]

18 minutes ago, runningtide said:

 

Forget the COVID information overload. ... Stay safe and keep positive !

 

8 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

... We are going with the flow and just thankful to be going.

 

Thanks both of you for the relevance.

[TeeRick]

The CureVac mRNA vaccine only had 47% efficacy in its 40,000 person phase 3 trial conducted in Europe and Latin America.  Not sure how this mRNA vaccine differs from Pfizer or Moderna.  It could be formulation?  Or a lot of speculation and some data that it did not protect well against circulating variants.  In ant case very disappointing news for the worldwide vaccine effort.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/curevacs-covid-19-vaccine-misses-efficacy-goal-mass-trial-2021-06-16/

[TeeRick]

This article is on positive tests and breakthrough COVID cases in Indonesia in health care workers - all vaccinated with China's Sinovac vaccine (CoronaVac). It is a whole inactivated virus vaccine.  It has been controversial with marginal efficacy results in trials in South America.  But it was sanctioned by the WHO.   I am pointing this out here because the cruise industry draws crew members from Indonesia and other countries using the Sinovac vaccine.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-indonesian-doctors-contract-covid-19-despite-vaccination-dozens-2021-06-17/

 

https://www.who.int/news/item/01-06-2021-who-validates-sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-for-emergency-use-and-issues-interim-policy-recommendations

[mimbecky]

California now has a digital COVID 19 vaccine record that you can access.  You fill out a small amount of information and they will send you a link to the QR code and digital copy of your record.  I did it this morning.  Almost too easy.  Now I have the QR code saved in my phone for scanning should anyone ask.

M

[cruise kitty]

2 minutes ago, mimbecky said:

California now has a digital COVID 19 vaccine record that you can access.  You fill out a small amount of information and they will send you a link to the QR code and digital copy of your record.  I did it this morning.  Almost too easy.  Now I have the QR code saved in my phone for scanning should anyone ask.

M

Thanks for the info, I"m going to look into getting the digital record 🙂

[mimbecky]

7 minutes ago, cruise kitty said:

Thanks for the info, I"m going to look into getting the digital record 🙂

 

Here is the site...

Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record (ca.gov)

 

[4774Papa]

On 6/11/2021 at 11:04 AM, TeeRick said:

Den,

I am vaccinated so I decided not to golf in thunderstorms.

Yes, you could be like the Bishop in the movie Caddyshack.

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, 4774Papa said:

Yes, you could be like the Bishop in the movie Caddyshack.

One of my favorite movies of all time!

[TeeRick]

Well nobody ever said that some of these NFL players are intelligent.  I don't care if he does not get the vaccine.  But he is a public figure looked up to by some kids.  So just be quiet about it.  No need to make a public statement. 

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/19/us/cole-beasley-nfl-retire-covid-vaccine/index.html

[TeeRick]

A pretty good summary of mRNA vaccines and Myocarditis.   The risk from COVID itself is about 1/1000.  The general risk /frequency is 1/100,000.  It seems that the general data seen so far in the vaccinated is about 300 cases in 7 million vaccinated younger people (ages 12-17) according to CDC.  Not sure if all were vaccine related.  Cases seem to be mild and resolve quickly.   An advisory committee to the CDC is meeting this week to review everything.

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/17/1007447098/pfizer-covid-vaccine-teens-symptoms-myocarditis

[TeeRick]

Happy Father's Day to all of you out there who frequent this thread!  I hope you have a great one!  It will be nice to actually see my kids this year as we are all vaccinated.

[larry_s_taco]

I have a question for those that are in, or have worked with vaccines. I just got off the Celebrity Millennium. It was a great cruise, and everyone tested negative on the last day of our cruise. My question is this: they told us on the previous cruise 2 people in the same cabin tested positive. They produced their vaccine card, and had a negative RT-PCR test prior to boarding. I know there are break through cases with vaccines, but what is the likelyhood of two breakout cases in one room?

[TeeRick]

27 minutes ago, larry_s_taco said:

I have a question for those that are in, or have worked with vaccines. I just got off the Celebrity Millennium. It was a great cruise, and everyone tested negative on the last day of our cruise. My question is this: they told us on the previous cruise 2 people in the same cabin tested positive. They produced their vaccine card, and had a negative RT-PCR test prior to boarding. I know there are break through cases with vaccines, but what is the likelyhood of two breakout cases in one room?

Larry- Very highly unlikely to be honest.  These has been much speculation on this.  Lots of posts.  We will not likely ever know what happened.  Some have said that they were possibly exposed pre-cruise and it took several days for their test to come up positive.  They were asymptomatic so it would likely have never been caught unless they had to go through a routine scheduled test like on Millennium.   

Possibilities:

1) Unlucky- but there is always a low probability I guess

2) fake vaccine documents (but no evidence pointing to this)

3) bad vaccine lot? (again no evidence but hopefully somebody is checking)

4) were these two immunocompromised by an existing disease so the vaccine was not as effective?

5) was the covid variant they got identified?  and what vaccine did they get in relation to the variant? Was it the major variant where they live? Or a variant dominating where they traveled pre-cruise?  This one might be of some concern - hopefully being checked.  A true detective story really.

 

The good news is that the Celebrity procedures on Millennium worked well.  Nobody else was tested positive even all of the identified close contacts.  No illness.  No transmission.  Your cruise appears to be in the clear too.

[cangelmd]

1 hour ago, larry_s_taco said:

I have a question for those that are in, or have worked with vaccines. I just got off the Celebrity Millennium. It was a great cruise, and everyone tested negative on the last day of our cruise. My question is this: they told us on the previous cruise 2 people in the same cabin tested positive. They produced their vaccine card, and had a negative RT-PCR test prior to boarding. I know there are break through cases with vaccines, but what is the likelyhood of two breakout cases in one room?

Do you know exactly which test you took onboard? Was it an antigen test or a PCR? Did they just swab your nose or was it NP swab?My first assumption was that one person had a breakthrough and the other person sharing the cabin had transient virus picked up by the test. This is less likely with the antigen test because it needs actual viral replication, not just some RNA hanging around.

 

The simplest explanation is two faked vaccination cards or 2 people who weren’t the full two weeks past vaccination. I now think that if they were truly both travel pros, the lure of a free cruise might have been too much to resist and they got vaccinated right before getting on the plane. I don’t know if we will ever know for certain.

[ljason913]

i got the vaccine but i dont want to wear a mask or test

[TeeRick]

4 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

Do you know exactly which test you took onboard? Was it an antigen test or a PCR? Did they just swab your nose or was it NP swab?My first assumption was that one person had a breakthrough and the other person sharing the cabin had transient virus picked up by the test. This is less likely with the antigen test because it needs actual viral replication, not just some RNA hanging around.

 

The simplest explanation is two faked vaccination cards or 2 people who weren’t the full two weeks past vaccination. I now think that if they were truly both travel pros, the lure of a free cruise might have been too much to resist and they got vaccinated right before getting on the plane. I don’t know if we will ever know for certain.

I had not considered about a testing artifact so you might be right.  But I think they were both tested more than once.

[Fouremco]

18 minutes ago, ljason913 said:

i got the vaccine but i dont want to wear a mask or test

Unfortunately for you, the cruise lines and majority of passengers want testing for the time being. I've had the PCR test and didn't find the nasal swab the least bit painful; mildly uncomfortable at worst. When I expressed my surprise at how quick, easy and painless it was, the nurse administering the test said that she gets a similar response from a lot of people. The requirement to take a test shouldn't deter anyone from cruising.

Edited June 20, 2021 by Fouremco

[ljason913]

2 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Unfortunately for you, the cruise lines and majority of passengers want testing for the time being. I've had the PCR test and didn't find the nasal swab the least bit painful; mildly uncomfortable at worst. When I expressed my surprise at how quick, easy and painless it was, the nurse administering the test said that she gets a similar response from a lot of people. The requirement to take a test shouldn't deter anyone from cruising.

well if u get a false positive come back to me with ur thoughts 

[Fouremco]

3 minutes ago, ljason913 said:

well if u get a false positive come back to me with ur thoughts 

In spite of the false claims that armchair molecular biologists continue to circulate on the Internet, PCR tests are highly accurate, and are considered the "gold standard" of testing. I've no worries about a false positive.