The COVID-19 pandemic

[jeffster]

4 doses of the vaccine is not enough:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-infection

[plam]

Health Canada approves Pfizer's COVID-19 therapeutic: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/health-...-1.6317505

That's terrific news. As the article said "It's a game changer." It certainly is, and it might end up being our way out of this pandemic.

It's a super useful tool to have, but it's quite difficult to manufacture in the needed quantities just yet (supply chains for precursors, etc). Again, a good reason to limit spread as much as possible right now: more options become available later. Vaccines are better, but when there's breakthroughs, it is an excellent option.

[tomh009]

Multiple defences to combat this: distancing, masking, vaccines, drugs. No one thing will be enough on its own.

[ijmorlan]

I don't think people swimming across the Channel are making a huge difference in the number of COVID cases.

No, but (without knowing anything about the specific situation) I would wonder how many undocumented boat trips take place.

[ac3r]

4 doses of the vaccine is not enough:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-infection

I can't access this article due to the paywall but I'm a bit confused what "warding off" even implies, especially when the vaccine does not nor has ever really been considered to prevent infection itself. It is primarily taken to minimize the impacts of the disease and potential death.

Public health in Ontario has more or less concluded that, if you have any symptoms, assume you have it and chill at home for 5-10 days (I forget what the specifics are...I think 5 days if you are vaccinated? But correct me if I'm wrong). Doesn't that mean that your vaccinated or even unvaccinated immune system can already ward this off and you should get better fairly quickly? Most scientific bodies around the world has concluded that this variant is fairly "mild". One of the main reasons the hospitals are getting hit hard right now is due to the fact this particular variant spreads so fast, and statistically, that means that more and more people will get hospitalized. But really...

How many more doses of this are we supposed to get? Lol. Either this vaccine works or we need to rethink things.

[JoeKW]

Apparently most vaccines don't prevent infection (who knew?). They mostly prevent disease.

[jeffster]

Multiple defences to combat this: distancing, masking, vaccines, drugs. No one thing will be enough on its own.

The drugs could end up be the game changer.

Or so I hope.

[jeffster]

4 doses of the vaccine is not enough:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-infection

I can't access this article due to the paywall but I'm a bit confused what "warding off" even implies, especially when the vaccine does not nor has ever really been considered to prevent infection itself. It is primarily taken to minimize the impacts of the disease and potential death.

Public health in Ontario has more or less concluded that, if you have any symptoms, assume you have it and chill at home for 5-10 days (I forget what the specifics are...I think 5 days if you are vaccinated? But correct me if I'm wrong). Doesn't that mean that your vaccinated or even unvaccinated immune system can already ward this off and you should get better fairly quickly? Most scientific bodies around the world has concluded that this variant is fairly "mild". One of the main reasons the hospitals are getting hit hard right now is due to the fact this particular variant spreads so fast, and statistically, that means that more and more people will get hospitalized. But really...

How many more doses of this are we supposed to get? Lol. Either this vaccine works or we need to rethink things.

I believe both Moderna and Pfizer are working on updated mRNA vaccines.

Some suggest that this becomes seasonal with yearly boosters, or possibly 2 boosters a year.

But it's doubtful that anyone has the right answer.

[jeffster]

Apparently most vaccines don't prevent infection (who knew?).  They mostly prevent disease.

Unfortunately, many in the scientific field, as well as government, media and PHU's (even the RoW as of last week) suggest that vaccinations prevent infection. Vaccines only work if you get infected, otherwise they do nothing for you. It's like buying a 5th of vodka, it won't get you wasted if you leave it unopened.

I blame that misinformation on why you have some hardcore folks that refuse to get the jab. And using coercion and fines as tactics is wrong.

[tomh009]

Multiple defences to combat this: distancing, masking, vaccines, drugs. No one thing will be enough on its own.

The drugs could end up be the game changer.

Or so I hope.

Paxlovid was reported as reducing the probability of hospitalization or death by 89%, which is an impressive number, even allowing for confidence intervals. But that's for high-risk adults, who are more likely to be hospitalized; for the general population the number may be less impressive.

The other question, if you want to consider this the new normal, is how would people get Paxlovid. At the moment it's prescription only, so you would need to go to the doctor's office as soon as you have symptoms and the rapid test is positive, get a prescription, and then go to a pharmacy to get it filled. Depending on how common COVID-19 is in the future, that could turn the family doctors into a bottleneck.

So, I see this as more of another arrow in the quiver rather than a solution to COVID-19 in itself.

[jeffster]

The drugs could end up be the game changer.

Or so I hope.

Paxlovid was reported as reducing the probability of hospitalization or death by 89%, which is an impressive number, even allowing for confidence intervals. But that's for high-risk adults, who are more likely to be hospitalized; for the general population the number may be less impressive.

The other question, if you want to consider this the new normal, is how would people get Paxlovid. At the moment it's prescription only, so you would need to go to the doctor's office as soon as you have symptoms and the rapid test is positive, get a prescription, and then go to a pharmacy to get it filled. Depending on how common COVID-19 is in the future, that could turn the family doctors into a bottleneck.

So, I see this as more of another arrow in the quiver rather than a solution to COVID-19 in itself.

Yeah, they may want to figure something out to make it easier if one requires that medication. Though I am certain a positive test result would be a requirement, unless it eventually becomes OTS.

[jeffster]

Numbers are out:

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Durham Region Health Department 748.9
• Peel Public Health 596.5
• Halton Region Public Health 571.6

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 561.0

• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 549.9
• Lambton Public Health 549.8
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 530.3
• Niagara Region Public Health 491.0
• York Region Public Health 486.8
• Brant County Health Unit 472.9
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 472.2
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 456.7
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 449.9
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 424.8
• Toronto Public Health 421.2
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 419.9
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 392.3
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 378.1
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 332.1
• Peterborough Public Health 319.6
• Southwestern Public Health 319.2
• Algoma Public Health 309.3
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 306.5
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 304.9
• Ottawa Public Health 299.0
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 297.3
• Northwestern Health Unit 296.5
• Porcupine Health Unit 293.6
• Timiskaming Health Unit 290.6
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 218.4
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 213.7
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 207.3
• Huron Perth Public Health 206.8
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 197.9

• TOTAL ONTARIO 453.7

[danbrotherston]

Paxlovid was reported as reducing the probability of hospitalization or death by 89%, which is an impressive number, even allowing for confidence intervals. But that's for high-risk adults, who are more likely to be hospitalized; for the general population the number may be less impressive.

The other question, if you want to consider this the new normal, is how would people get Paxlovid. At the moment it's prescription only, so you would need to go to the doctor's office as soon as you have symptoms and the rapid test is positive, get a prescription, and then go to a pharmacy to get it filled. Depending on how common COVID-19 is in the future, that could turn the family doctors into a bottleneck.

So, I see this as more of another arrow in the quiver rather than a solution to COVID-19 in itself.

Yeah, they may want to figure something out to make it easier if one requires that medication. Though I am certain a positive test result would be a requirement, unless it eventually becomes OTS.

I wonder how many anti-vax nutters will demand this treatment...which benefits Pfizer...at the same time as decrying the vaccine as "big Pharma".

Of course, maybe it'll be counter-indicated with ivermectin.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Durham Region Health Department 662.3
• Peel Public Health 587.4
• Halton Region Public Health 572.0
• Lambton Public Health 546.0

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 532.9

• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 529.6
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 469.1
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 456.2
• Niagara Region Public Health 455.7
• York Region Public Health 440.0
• Brant County Health Unit 439.4
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 422.6
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 419.2
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 416.3
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 398.0
• Toronto Public Health 397.9
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 368.1
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 360.1
• Algoma Public Health 320.7
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 315.2
• Southwestern Public Health 306.4
• Northwestern Health Unit 303.4
• Peterborough Public Health 300.0
• Timiskaming Health Unit 296.7
• Porcupine Health Unit 291.2
• Ottawa Public Health 266.3
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 263.1
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 246.9
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 243.0
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 211.3
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 208.1
• Huron Perth Public Health 204.6
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 200.4
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 168.3

• TOTAL ONTARIO 426.6

[ac3r]

I wonder how many anti-vax nutters will demand this treatment...which benefits Pfizer...at the same time as decrying the vaccine as "big Pharma".

Of course, maybe it'll be counter-indicated with ivermectin.

Oh they're already doing that. If you lurk social media such as Twitter, the discourse - especially in replies to news articles when the Health Canada approval was announced - was immediately anti-big pharma. "Haha, I'm not taking that! There's microchips and this is all a big lie pushed by Reuters and Pfizer!" So many would rather take ivermectin and drink their own piss than take vaccines or medications. At least until they're truly sick and end up in the emergency room...then they expect the best of the best medical care and the pharmaceutical industry has to offer. These people are incredibly out of touch.