New vaccine

[cruisenewbie1976]

30 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

This could put stop to lockdown easing, vaccines and international travel.

 

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-indian-double-mutation-variant-arrives-in-britain-and-has-hallmarks-of-very-dangerous-virus-12276922

I think we should probably take with a pinch of salt, given all the previous scaremongering about variants, that has come to pretty much nothing. 

[Angel57]

26 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

This is what I was saying the other day. We are going to have to be very vigilant for a long time to come.

 

On a different note, I had THE text from my GP. It’s time for my 2nd jab. I’ve booked for next Thursday, just 9 weeks after my first jab. I think I’ve been very lucky, I’m ‘only’ 61 and will be fully vaccinated already.

 

My husband went down the mass vaccination centre route and his 2nd jab is booked for 1st May. I’ll be done before him and he’s 69. 

That’s great news. I’m same age as you and had my first (Pfizer) jab 7 weeks ago so am hoping I’ll get the call in the next few weeks.

I’m sure it’ll be a great relief when you and your husband have had both vaccinations.

[jeanlyon]

Yes, I have my second one on Monday - just under 10 weeks.  Don't like the look of all these horrible mutations.  Why are we not closing our borders to these countries where they have huge infections?

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes, I have my second one on Monday - just under 10 weeks.  Don't like the look of all these horrible mutations.  Why are we not closing our borders to these countries where they have huge infections?

We seem to be trying to discourage them by having 7 hour queues at immigration. I certainly would not be flying at present.

[Harry Peterson]

58 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

We seem to be trying to discourage them by having 7 hour queues at immigration. I certainly would not be flying at present.

Nor me. And those undistanced queues contain people from both red and green countries, making the matter even worse. It’s no wonder we’re importing new variants.

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

I think we should probably take with a pinch of salt, given all the previous scaremongering about variants, that has come to pretty much nothing. 

Have you forgotten the Kent variant already?

 

I certainly haven't forgotten what it felt like last November when infections were going crazy locally and is now the dominant strain in the UK as it's more infectious.

 

That doesn't seem like nothing to me.

 

But if people still think its all scaremongering, then we are really stuffed..... and that's putting it politely 

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Indeed.  This time last year I was relatively optimistic that our Dec 19 Iona cruise would still go.  "I got it wrong again dad!"

 

This time round, I'm not 100% confident our Feb next year Ventura TA will go.

 

Things are so dynamic.

I've given up trying to predict what will happen.

 

Hoping for the best, and trying to play my part to prevent the worst 

[Snow Hill]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes, I have my second one on Monday - just under 10 weeks.  Don't like the look of all these horrible mutations.  Why are we not closing our borders to these countries where they have huge infections?

I can’t understand why India is now not on the Red List, both it neighbours Pakistan & Bangladesh are and they have lower numbers. 

[Dermotsgirl]

3 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

I can’t understand why India is now not on the Red List, both it neighbours Pakistan & Bangladesh are and they have lower numbers. 

I really hope it's not because Johnson is due to visit India later this month 

[cruisenewbie1976]

2 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Have you forgotten the Kent variant already?

 

I certainly haven't forgotten what it felt like last November when infections were going crazy locally and is now the dominant strain in the UK as it's more infectious.

 

That doesn't seem like nothing to me.

 

But if people still think its all scaremongering, then we are really stuffed..... and that's putting it politely 

Exactly, and because the Kent variant is so transmissible, the others don't really stand much of a chance. The majority of cases across the world are now B117. We're going to keep getting different variants. We're also getting lots of people vaccinated. No need to panic! 

[Dermotsgirl]

4 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Exactly, and because the Kent variant is so transmissible, the others don't really stand much of a chance. The majority of cases across the world are now B117. We're going to keep getting different variants. We're also getting lots of people vaccinated. No need to panic! 

I don’t think anybody is panicking?
 

Most sensible people realise that we have got to be on our guard for some time to come.

 

it just takes a highly transmissible variant that is more resistant to the current crop of vaccines to cause us a big problem. 
 

Why anyone would dismiss awareness as scaremongering and sensible behaviour as panic is beyond my understanding 

 

 

[cruisenewbie1976]

1 minute ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I don’t think anybody is panicking?
 

Most sensible people realise that we have got to be on our guard for some time to come.

 

it just takes a highly transmissible variant that is more resistant to the current crop of vaccines to cause us a big problem. 
 

Why anyone would dismiss awareness as scaremongering and sensible behaviour as panic is beyond my understanding 

 

 

Because the original post was from Sky News, well known for being alarmist, along with most of the media. The suggestion in that post was also that it could affect the road map and international travel. It's not even been labelled as a variant of concern yet.

So, I totally agree, we (or the scientists) should be on their guard and I'm sure they are. My point was, that we shouldn't think the worst when the media jump on the latest variant. 

[Snow Hill]

2 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I really hope it's not because Johnson is due to visit India later this month 

He should cancel trip and do it via Zoom or Teams. 

[jeanlyon]

It's not just on Sky News, it's on other news channels as well.  they have unbelievable numbers in India today.

[Windsurfboy]

The countries on red list, is always months behind the data. Turkey which is in middle of explosion of new variants is not on red list. South Africa which has things under control is

 

However none of the new variants will go away. There will be scare stories for each new one, and this fear will stay.

 

If the South African variant  was a transmissible as they say how come they have been out of lockdown for nearly  two months, with only 0.5% of population vaccinated,  yet a third of the daily cases we have.  So nothing as virulent or deadly as home grown  Kent variant

 

 

[davecttr]

21 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

The countries on red list, is always months behind the data. Turkey which is in middle of explosion of new variants is not on red list. South Africa which has things under control is

 

However none of the new variants will go away. There will be scare stories for each new one, and this fear will stay.

 

If the South African variant  was a transmissible as they say how come they have been out of lockdown for nearly  two months, with only 0.5% of population vaccinated,  yet a third of the daily cases we have.  So nothing as virulent or deadly as home grown  Kent variant

 

 

Tests per 1 million population are:

UK - 2 million +

France - 1 million +

Germany - 627 thousand +

Italy - 902 thousand +

Spain - 946 thousand +

South Africa - 171 thousand +

 

With a population of 59 million South Africa is just not conducting enough tests. Italy with 1 million more population has a testing rate 5 times higher, test less people you get less cases.

[cruisenewbie1976]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

It's not just on Sky News, it's on other news channels as well.  they have unbelievable numbers in India today.

All the media have been responsible for scaremongering - it gets higher viewing figures. 

There's undoubtedly a lot more cases than they're reporting in India, but important to remember that their population is also more than 20 times that of the UK. 

[Snow Hill]

9 hours ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

All the media have been responsible for scaremongering - it gets higher viewing figures. 

There's undoubtedly a lot more cases than they're reporting in India, but important to remember that their population is also more than 20 times that of the UK. 

Professor Danny Altmann, Professor of Immunology at Imperial College says the India Variant is very concerning and believes it will be escalated to VOC., so is he scaremongering?

Edited April 17, 2021 by Snow Hill

[Splice the mainbrace]

16 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I've given up trying to predict what will happen.

 

Hoping for the best, and trying to play my part to prevent the worst 

 

I find that I have positive days and negative days regarding covid.

 

On positive days I focus on the vaccine roll out, the UK overall falling levels of cases, deaths and hospital admissions, and the lifting of some restrictions.

 

But on negative thought days I focus on the rising cases around the world, new variants and their potential impact on the UK, the step 3 and 4 lifting of restrictions including easing of international travel, allowing University to open for the last month of term and nightclubs opening mid June when few under 30s will have been vaccinated by then.

 

The number of cases in our area has plateaued at mid teens per 100,000 for the last week so I feel that things are on a knife edge and any lifting going forward has to be carefully monitored and has to be reversible (sorry Boris) if necessary. I feel that there should be steps 5 or even 6 for high risk indoor activities until every adult has been fully vaccinated, there's a huge difference between meeting in a pub garden in mid April to close mixing bopping on a enclosed dance floor in late June with new variants potentially circulating. If we have to pour increased money into the high risk sectors to support them longer so be it, while at least the lower risk sectors are back up and running and no longer need supporting.

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Splice the mainbrace

[cruisenewbie1976]

1 hour ago, Snow Hill said:

Professor Danny Altmann, Professor of Immunology at Imperial College says the India Variant is very concerning and believes it will be escalated to VOC., so is he scaremongering?

Imperial College have come up with some of the worst models throughout the pandemic, so I wouldn't automatically assume that a Professor of Immunology ISN'T scaremongering. You only have to look at Independent Sage to know what some professionals are willing to do to keep their names in the limelight. Professor Devi Sridhar is another. Dr Eric Feigl-Ding another. 

I'm sure it probably will be escalated to a VOC, but that's still not a reason for us to start fearing the worst. The "Bristol" variant, which was reported as being "very dangerous" by various media outlets at the beginning of the year has not been seen since 1st March.

 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

 

I find that I have positive days and negative days regarding covid.

 

On positive days I focus on the vaccine roll out, the UK overall falling levels of cases, deaths and hospital admissions, and the lifting of some restrictions.

 

But on negative thought days I focus on the rising cases around the world, new variants and their potential impact on the UK, the step 3 and 4 lifting of restrictions including easing of international travel, allowing University to open for the last month of term and nightclubs opening mid June when few under 30s will have been vaccinated by then.

 

The number of cases in our area has plateaued at mid teens per 100,000 for the last week so I feel that things are on a knife edge and any lifting going forward has to be carefully monitored and has to be reversible (sorry Boris) if necessary. I feel that there should be steps 5 or even 6 for high risk indoor activities until every adult has been fully vaccinated, there's a huge difference between meeting in a pub garden in mid April to close mixing bopping on a enclosed dance floor in late June with new variants potentially circulating. If we have to pour increased money into the high risk sectors to support them longer so be it, while at least the lower risk sectors are back up and running and no longer need supporting.

 

I think we all tend to overlook the fact that the vast majority of those infected with covid have minor symptoms and make a full and fast recovery, there are probably many more people contracting the common cold on a daily basis, but we don't get overly concerned about that.  I do accept that the common cold does not normally have many fatalities, but the comparison with minor covid symptomatic cases does show that this sort of infection rate is not unusual.

The variants do present the health services with problems, but they are problems that can be remedied, the annual flu vaccine has to be adjusted regularly to be effective against the latest strains, and in the main this does work.

Therefore my view is that we should take on board many of the hygiene measures we have adopted during the pandemic, and ensure there is a maximum take up of any and all booster jabs, but try not to be too alarmist, otherwise life will become increasingly less pleasant than we all want it to be. 

Edited April 17, 2021 by terrierjohn

[zap99]

12 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

It's not just on Sky News, it's on other news channels as well.  they have unbelievable numbers in India today.

Unbelievable number of people also. 167 billion , I think sky news said 🤔

[zap99]

20 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes, I have my second one on Monday - just under 10 weeks.  Don't like the look of all these horrible mutations.  Why are we not closing our borders to these countries where they have huge infections?

When you mentioned horrible mutations and closing the boarders I wondered if you meant Devon and the Chelsea tractor driving mutants.🤣

[kalos]

26 minutes ago, zap99 said:

When you mentioned horrible mutations and closing the boarders I wondered if you meant Devon and the Chelsea tractor driving mutants.🤣

We also have to keep in mind the Brits who are chomping at the bit to get overseas at the 

very first chance possible yet show deep concern at  other nations flying into the UK.

Which tells me the  tractor driving mutants are not as bad as first thought although the 

John Deere tractor variant could be a bit of a worry 

[zap99]

58 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Imperial College have come up with some of the worst models throughout the pandemic, so I wouldn't automatically assume that a Professor of Immunology ISN'T scaremongering. You only have to look at Independent Sage to know what some professionals are willing to do to keep their names in the limelight. Professor Devi Sridhar is another. Dr Eric Feigl-Ding another. 

I'm sure it probably will be escalated to a VOC, but that's still not a reason for us to start fearing the worst. The "Bristol" variant, which was reported as being "very dangerous" by various media outlets at the beginning of the year has not been seen since 1st March.

 

It is in the experts interests to keep us all frightened. Before this lot started we would all say ' who are you ?''. Now the words of any virologists  are worshiped by all of us armchair experts. When this is all over and the world gets back to normal, I don't thing the rent a virologist doom sayers will be quoted much, but the scientists who will get us out of this mess will be honoured. Numbers are falling ,less folk are dying. The World will open up soon to those that want to travel.