Maps, science, data & statistics tracking of COVID-19

[R-T-B]

and agree to disagree on the monoclonal and other methods that were not invested in. seems like there were plenty of success stories imo

The success or not isn't the only concern. The main concern is still getting covid, and all the side effects that entails even if you live and get through it.

I wouldn't mind if they had done both but I think it's still best if you have to chose to not get it in the first place.

 

[Space Lynx]

The success or not isn't the only concern. The main concern is still getting covid, and all the side effects that entails even if you live and get through it.

I wouldn't mind if they had done both but I think it's still best if you have to chose to not get it in the first place.

That was my argument though, you can't tell me all that 6 trillion dollars they spend was purely for covid - I bet if we read the 2000 page documents that are in those bills me and you could figure out a way to cut or limit some things - and create a new fund for monoclonal expansion, without hurting the overall outcome of the other stuff in the spending bills. I know we could. Congress even admits they don't have time to read it all. that's my only argument. there was enough money to do both.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I think he said everyone would be eligible, not that everyone who wanted one would get one.

That said being said, we are leading the world at the moment in the vaccine effort, politics aside. The antibody regimine wasn't worth investing in because it has a limited success rate IIRC, and it doesn't scale easily. Plus it does nothing for the known and unknown permanent side effects of actually getting covid.

More so than Israel? The UK is around 60% of the adult population currently.

 

[R-T-B]

More so than Israel? The UK is around 60% of the adult population currently.

I meant by sheer number in arms, not percentages, though we aren't bad there either. Either way it's not a contest, more a joint race where we are all on the same team. It's good everyone is trying and ideally everyone could get one.

That was my argument though, you can't tell me all that 6 trillion dollars they spend was purely for covid - I bet if we read the 2000 page documents that are in those bills me and you could figure out a way to cut or limit some things - and create a new fund for monoclonal expansion, without hurting the overall outcome of the other stuff in the spending bills. I know we could. Congress even admits they don't have time to read it all. that's my only argument. there was enough money to do both.

I mean yeah, it's obvious there are ways we could've done that (cuts to the armed forces etc) but I am trying to avoid politics man.

 

[Space Lynx]

Anyone have any interesting data to share on the JnJ vaccine? I'm scheduled to get it Tuesday... a spot opened up.

I really want pfizer... but also time is of the essence for me, because people are acting reckless where I live... no masks in mass, parties, movie theaters full, bars full, etc... its only a matter of time before the UK variant ignites this place...

 

[tabascosauz]

Anyone have any interesting data to share on the JnJ vaccine? I'm scheduled to get it Tuesday... a spot opened up.

I really want pfizer... but also time is of the essence for me, because people are acting reckless where I live... no masks in mass, parties, movie theaters full, bars full, etc... its only a matter of time before the UK variant ignites this place...

According to the company (I think) the Pfizer vaccine is pretty ineffective without taking the full dose (1st+booster) within the recommended time frame. Something like only 50% after the initial dose. A lot of countries are significantly extending the time between doses due to having inadequate supplies, governments claim it has no detrimental impact but I wouldn't be surprised if this comes back to bite us all in the ass.

I'd be happy with anything that's not that Astrazeneca vaccine (yikes lmao), but I gotta wait until at least fall. I see a lot of scientists cautioning against not taking the vaccine for fear of getting the AZ vaccine, and I understand the public policy reasons for preventing panic and fear, but a laughably ineffective (relatively), rushed, deadly vaccine deserves no defence or justification.

 

[R-T-B]

I'd say the best vaccine is the one you can get, as soon as you can get it (short of some iffy third party eastern ones like Sputnik V and such, which I don't have enough info to comment on)

So yeah, your doing fine IMO Lynx. One shot and done is a bonus too.

 

[dragontamer5788]

Anyone have any interesting data to share on the JnJ vaccine? I'm scheduled to get it Tuesday... a spot opened up.

I really want pfizer... but also time is of the essence for me, because people are acting reckless where I live... no masks in mass, parties, movie theaters full, bars full, etc... its only a matter of time before the UK variant ignites this place...

J&J is 70%ish effective against moderate COVID19, but 100% effective against hospitalizations / deaths in the phase 3 trials. So you might still get sick with J&J's level of protection. But if you do get sick, you probably (99.999% sure) won't get hospitalized or die.

So J&J is a very very good vaccine in absolute terms. Preventing most sickness in general and preventing almost all hospitalizations/death. The only "problem" is that those mRNA vaccines came out with incredible statistics (90%+ effectiveness). But 70% effective vs moderate cases is far better than the flu vaccine. So Johnson & Johnson is plenty "good enough".

 

[Space Lynx]

J&J is 70%ish effective against moderate COVID19, but 100% effective against hospitalizations / deaths in the phase 3 trials. So you might still get sick with J&J's level of protection. But if you do get sick, you probably (99.999% sure) won't get hospitalized or die.

So J&J is a very very good vaccine in absolute terms. Preventing most sickness in general and preventing almost all hospitalizations/death. The only "problem" is that those mRNA vaccines came out with incredible statistics (90%+ effectiveness). But 70% effective vs moderate cases is far better than the flu vaccine. So Johnson & Johnson is plenty "good enough".

the 99.99% prevention of death/severe hospitalization is good enough for me. that's really all I care about at end of day, lol. so yeah I am thankful I can get anything so quick... when rest of world can't yet... honestly looking forward to May 11th, which will be the 4 week post date of getting the JnJ shot = full inoculation. Going to be extra careful (double masking, isolation, gloves) until then. As someone who has already had Covid in November (and it kicked my butt) I don't want it again that's for damn sure. and who knows maybe the JnJ will be more effective for me and act as a sort of booster shot. making my efficacy even higher than the trials.

 

[Space Lynx]

I'd say the best vaccine is the one you can get, as soon as you can get it (short of some iffy third party eastern ones like Sputnik V and such, which I don't have enough info to comment on)

So yeah, your doing fine IMO Lynx. One shot and done is a bonus too.

georgia shut off jnj vaccines two days ago, too many reactions to it. the 4th state i think to do so, i believe one state or county even banned all jnj and switched to pfizer only... i don't know what to do... on one hand pfizer seems to have some crazy symptoms (cold sweats seem most common) or arm pain... and from what i read georgia and these others are complaining about lightheadedness from jnj... so i am not sure what the big deal is that would require a full shut down.

*bangs head on desk* i don't know what to do, this whole thing scares me. i just wish i had a traditional flu vaccine option, jnj is closet to that i think but not really...

 

[R-T-B]

i just wish i had a traditional flu vaccine option, jnj is closet to that i think but not really...

Closest thing is India's option, but it's not available here yet.

Honestly, I had Moderna and the worst part was arm pain. Injection site hurt for a day or two. That was all. YMMV, of course.

 

[Space Lynx]

Closest thing is India's option, but it's not available here yet.

Honestly, I had Moderna and the worst part was arm pain. Injection site hurt for a day or two. That was all. YMMV, of course.

I'm not worried about short term side effects at all, I'm worried about two years from now if they discover that mrna messaging tampering changed the structure of x, y, and z, but it took 2-3 years for this to come to fruition in the body... 99.99% chance I am wrong, but scientists have been wrong before too.

I'm considering holding out for something similar to that India vaccine. Honestly if I could get that one tomorrow, I would without hesitation.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Arm pain comes as much from a longish sharp needle going into a solid muscle mass as what is in the syringe I think, Lynx these side effects you are talking about for multiple vaccine's are as much about you and your immune system and how it reacts and adapts to the vaccine as it is the actual vaccine itself, I mean 500 people could walk out of a vaccination centre all having had the same vaccine and tell you 3 days later that they had this or that side effect, that does not necessarily mean you will have any of those symptoms, we are all different.

I had the Pfizer, I felt a little fatigued the next day and poof it went, my 2 closest friends each had the AZ, one had joint ache for 48 hours after, the other got up the following morning and went for a 10 mile run, sometimes it does not pay to over analyse too much.

 

[Space Lynx]

Arm pain comes as much from a longish sharp needle going into a solid muscle mass as what is in the syringe I think, Lynx these side effects you are talking about for multiple vaccine's are as much about you and your immune system and how it reacts and adapts to the vaccine as it is the actual vaccine itself, I mean 500 people could walk out of a vaccination centre all having had the same vaccine and tell you 3 days later that they had this or that side effect, that does not necessarily mean you will have any of those symptoms, we are all different.

I had the Pfizer, I felt a little fatigued the next day and poof it went, my 2 closest friends each had the AZ, one had joint ache for 48 hours after, the other got up the following morning and went for a 10 mile run, sometimes it does not pay to over analyse too much.

aye. I need to just get it done and over with.

 

[R-T-B]

I'm worried about two years from now if they discover that mrna messaging tampering changed the structure of x, y, and z, but it took 2-3 years for this to come to fruition in the body...

That would be really freaky considering the body uses mrna messaging every day of the week...

 

[R-T-B]

Arm pain comes as much from a longish sharp needle going into a solid muscle mass as what is in the syringe I think

Nah, it came from the fact the lady tried to jab it quickly into my arm with a Titanium plate in it without asking "which arm" first at a drive up vaccination event, only to realize aftwards that was impossible. We tried the other arm and then it all went well. That one felt normal, largely. Like any vaccine.

The good news is she replaced the needle so we still used the same dose.

 

[dragontamer5788]

That would be really freaky considering the body uses mrna messaging every day of the week...

Well, COVID19 is itself an RNA virus, which certainly has long-lasting effects on the body (measured in months, maybe longer). The mRNA vaccines however have a number of safety factors.

1. mRNA degenerates quickly. To remain stable, mRNA needs to be at -80C or -30C. Bring it up to normal temperatures, and mRNA will disappear in just a day or two (and some mRNA is only stable for minutes !!) .

2. COVID19 gets "around" this problem by replicating faster than it disappears. As long as it infects a cell and recreates itself, a particular virus's "children" or "grandchildren" so to speak, continue to spread.

3. The mRNA vaccines do not self-replicate like COVID19. Once they disappear from our bodies, then they are gone entirely.

4. This is why our body uses DNA for long-lasting effects. DNA is a "permanent" code, so to speak. mRNA is typically just a temporary copy of any DNA-code our body needs. That makes it ideal as a temporary vaccine (or a virus: since viruses just want our cells to "execute" the virus, even temporarily)

---------------

So its not so much that mRNA "can't" affect us for a long time. Its that mRNA vaccines are designed not to affect us for a long period. There's always the possibility that there's some kind of weird knock-on effect that cascades into a problem... but it really strains the imagination to even just imagine a problem that would go undetected for months (or years) before suddenly reappearing. Especially because mRNA again, only normally lasts for 1 or 2 days in our body.

 

[R-T-B]

Well, COVID19 is itself an RNA virus, which certainly has long-lasting effects on the body (measured in months, maybe longer). The mRNA vaccines however have a number of safety factors.

1. mRNA degenerates quickly. To remain stable, mRNA needs to be at -80C or -30C. Bring it up to normal temperatures, and mRNA will disappear in just a day or two.

2. COVID19 gets "around" this problem by replicating faster than it disappears. As long as it infects a cell and recreates itself, a particular virus's "children" or "grandchildren" so to speak, continue to spread.

3. The mRNA vaccines do not self-replicate like COVID19. Once they disappear from our bodies, then they are gone entirely.

4. This is why our body uses DNA for long-lasting effects. DNA is a "permanent" code, so to speak. mRNA is typically just a temporary copy of any DNA-code our body needs. That makes it ideal as a temporary vaccine (or a virus: since viruses just want our cells to "execute" the virus, even temporarily)

I mean yeah I know but I was trying to keep it layman. This isn't an mrna virus, anyhow. It's just mrna.

 

[Space Lynx]

That would be really freaky considering the body uses mrna messaging every day of the week...

Indeed it would, but it is 47 trillion cells in our bodies and who knows how many trillions of mrna interactions are occurring daily in other parts of the body for other things, China for example does not allow the use of mrna vaccines yet because they have not been tested long enough. I was reading about it earlier tonight. I think the main concern that I gathered from my limited reading on it was that it is possible it changes the way something else works long term that also might use the spike protein, for example, ACE2 inhibitors attach themselves to the lungs almost exactly the same way as a spike protein does to lower blood pressure, hence the need for time to observe... You can't follow the chain reactions of 47 trillion cells, that being said I do think the pfizer vaccine works great, and initial data of so many millions of people in last 4 months seems promising. Again, what if the spike gets confused for an ACE2 inhibitor at some point, as other systems in the body do employ a spike like method to get their jobs done, don't want your body attacking your blood pressure medicine (this is just one example) and while it hasn't attacked it yet, I think this is what China means when it says they would rather observe it longer term before moving ahead with it full steam.

Again I am just implying here, I honestly have no idea, this is just what I gathered on my limited reading. I do not claim to be an expert, simply a cautious consumer. That being said I am leaning towards getting the pfizer vaccine more than the other three main ones. I just wish I had the India one to choose from, I prefer traditional... until mrna proves itself 3 years from now with no long term issues in millions of people.

 

[the54thvoid]

Context is required here. Is there a minimal chance of some issue appearing in a tiny fraction of the population? Maybe. But, look at life as a whole. Health issues. Biggest cause of co-morbidity in UK? Obesity (that's right - eating too much food can kill you, whatever the reason, genetics or otherwise). Heart disease from it and smoking. Alcohol related death. Cancer of all sorts. Traffic accidents. DIY accidents. Spousal abuse. And just life in general promises one thing: one day it will kill you. Gloomy, I know but the persistence of focus on one thing isn't rational. It's how anti-vaxxers work. I know you're not one but that's the method. Sew doubt.

When really, life is full of doubt.

 

[HTC]

Here are Portugal's updated numbers this week.



The pics are, in order, last day updated numbers and every day since then until yesterday's numbers (click for full picture), and the below numbers are current totals, week totals and daily averaged this week:

- 25960 active cases --- 174 less --- 25 less per day
- 784618 recovered --- 4296 more --- 614 more per day
- 16916 fatalities --- 37 more --- 5 more per day
- 827494 confirmed infected --- 4159 more --- 594 more per day

- 9365641 tests taken --- 238674 more --- 39779 more per day but was last updated April 7th and it includes antigen tests as well
- 2121998 vaccinated --- 288780 more --- last updated yesterday but that corresponds to 1520991 1st doses + 601007 2nd doses
- 466 hospitalized --- 51 less --- 7 less per day
- 113 in ICU --- 4 less --- 1 less per day

The main report wasn't published on several days, so i had to use the situation report instead.

Daily fatalities continue to drop and the week average has dropped below 10 for the 2nd consecutive week. Unfortunately, new cases had a significant bump the the country R number is now @ 1.02: it's only slightly above 1, but it doesn't bode well @ all.

 

[TheLostSwede]

At least some of you are getting vaccinated. Sure, no spread here, but so far only 400k doses of vaccine for 23 million plus people...
At least it was prioritised for medical staff, so that's something.
India is apparently much worse, as they're running out of vaccines and they also have a rampant spread again.

 

[Space Lynx]

Context is required here. Is there a minimal chance of some issue appearing in a tiny fraction of the population? Maybe. But, look at life as a whole. Health issues. Biggest cause of co-morbidity in UK? Obesity (that's right - eating too much food can kill you, whatever the reason, genetics or otherwise). Heart disease from it and smoking. Alcohol related death. Cancer of all sorts. Traffic accidents. DIY accidents. Spousal abuse. And just life in general promises one thing: one day it will kill you. Gloomy, I know but the persistence of focus on one thing isn't rational. It's how anti-vaxxers work. I know you're not one but that's the method. Sew doubt.

When really, life is full of doubt.

I appreciate you wording it that way. This is all very true, and as I said in my original message I do intend to get the Pfizer vaccine. I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to think more deeply about things either though. Even Fauci got masks wrong in March 2020, humans make mistakes, even the smartest ones. My only argument against what you are trying to say (well some of it) is obesity for example will kill you sure, but it takes like 30-50 years in most people to do so. You are right though, I almost died in a car wreck in 2011. Hard to believe its almost been ten years ago now. Luckily I wasn't hurt and no one else was, but if the car had not spun the way it did... I would be dead. Mindblowing to think about really. I actually haven't driven on highways since, or if I do its very rare and on a need only basis.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I appreciate you wording it that way. This is all very true, and as I said in my original message I do intend to get the Pfizer vaccine. I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to think more deeply about things either though. Even Fauci got masks wrong in March 2020, humans make mistakes, even the smartest ones. My only argument against what you are trying to say (well some of it) is obesity for example will kill you sure, but it takes like 30-50 years in most people to do so. You are right though, I almost died in a car wreck in 2011. Hard to believe its almost been ten years ago now. Luckily I wasn't hurt and no one else was, but if the car had not spun the way it did... I would be dead. Mindblowing to think about really. I actually haven't driven on highways since, or if I do its very rare and on a need only basis.

Not entirely true, it can also depend at what age you became obese, it's far too complicated for that, if someone becomes obese in their 50's it is highly likely that if they die because of it or as a compounded effect from it it could be much quicker, example ...... men in their 40's and 50's risk of coronary heart disease increases significantly but with the advent of modern preventative medicines can be curtailed significantly (statins etc), however heart disease, apart from genetic vulnerability usually requires a secondary source (for want of a better term), the most common one being obesity, followed by others such as high blood pressure (often caused by obesity) or smoking etc.

It's not really a coincidence that Covid preys on the obese and heart/respiratory failure is a fairly common side effect of severe Covid infection.

 

[dragontamer5788]

Well into our "fourth COVID19 wave", it seems like the steady increase in Hospitalizations has finally plateaued. %Positive is above 5%, which is a problem for stats, and hospitalizations never really went anywhere close to the 2nd wave numbers (~500ish hospitalized). So 4th wave is looking to be > 2nd wave, but less than 3rd or 1st wave.

Is this it? Can I be optimistic now? Maryland has reached 50% Adult 1st dose vaccinated this past week: or 2.1 million 1st-dose vaccinated (6 million total population, ~4-million adults). With warmer weather coming about (outdoor meetings), huge uptake in vaccinations, it feels like we're past the hardest point of this pandemic. Last week, we peaked at over 95,000 vaccinations in one day (this week we're averaging ~70,000, the decline probably due to the pause in J&J distribution). Either way, we're averaging in excess of 1% population-per-day (or ~1.75% of the >Age16 crowd)

Vaccination centers remain tightly booked: but my social circle (younger under 35 folks) seem able to get slots as long as we try to F5 for a bit. Its not "easy" to get a slot, but certainly possible. There seem to be multiple 3rd party free websites that help search for timeslots, with varying amounts of success (since the official government website really, really sucks for this). As discussed from months ago: the system remains mostly the same. The various "mass vaccination" sites (~6 of them in our state) do have one unified website (back when I got things for my parents: each of the mass vaccination sites were a different webpage), so its a wee bit easier now. But CVS, Giant, Riteaid, Walgreens, Walmart, Safeway, and each individual hospital system all have different websites and reservation systems.

A lot of them are still on priority 2B or 2C, so it sucks to go through the whole website registration process and then see that they aren't covering phase 3 (general public yet). Ah well, in that case, just go down to the next website and start over. Its highly annoying that this "state-wide priority phase" thing is so ad-hoc. The governor announces one thing, but the pharmacies / hospital systems do something else. I understand why this happens (There's more vaccine hesitancy in the rural-parts of the state: so those areas are opening up to phase 3 faster. The urban areas are staying behind, focusing on the prioritized populations since the vaccination rate seems higher). So having the different organizations make a local decision makes sense to some degree, but it makes it a lot more annoying to get a vaccine.