Spoke with my friend recently ... he and his wife are 32 and had COVID-19 about 5 weeks back. All seemed fine, but now the wife has developed asthma after the virus and had to be rushed to the hospital in the night because she could not breathe. She is now on steroids and they are hoping it has not become a permanent problem...

I haven't seen any dates for a review of current restrictions.
I guess it depends on the figures after Christmas and New Year.
I wish they only held press conferences when they ACTUALLY had some important news! They seem to have them without giving any real information out.

And they are still allowing some ski resorts to stay open!! Absolutely infuriating and selfish decision!

I hope she is ok and has no long lasting effects.

I suspect it's all about the ski season.. For both financial reasons and the morale of the people.
People here see skiing as a basic human right, like driving everywhere for Americans .. I can see the resorts staying open regardless of covid numbers and then a token closure in March again.
Plus the financial side, tens of thousands are employed there, mostly seasonal workers who would need to be supported if the jobs all vanished. Plus the huge investments in the infrastructure, the govt would probably need to pick up the pieces if a medium-large resort failed.

I suspect this is a game the govt are playing where they don't want to be seen to close literally everything except the ski resorts so they keep some other stuff open too, avoid total closures so that the resorts can be part of that.

Personally I might go ski at my local place 5 mins away from me but i don't think i'll travel to any of the big resorts this year. A silly little accident could be a real pain in the ass, imagine one of the kids gets hurt and the nearest hospital is full and they get shipped to somewhere else and parents are not allowed to accompany etc etc..

Relax, we will just become zombie-mutants with spike-proteins sticking out of our bodies one day.

I'd rather sit at home extra 3 months and wait for the shot than play a genetic lottery with unpredictable long-term side effects.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-globa...cov-2-variant/

Except it is a luxury for most that I know. The choice between catching the virus and playing the genetic lottery does not look appealing but is real. Although most that can actually sit home waiting it out, also have kids who cannot sit home and wait it out. So the protection of those waiting it out is very limited.

I’d happily sit at home and do nothing.... unfortunately I have to go to work or I’ll end up hungry and homeless.

Shall we get started by wearing these spiked hats?

Is there some analysis how widespread this new variant already might be on the continent? I keep reading about this being identified in spots here and there, but given that all coutries seem magnitudes behind the UK in genomic sequencing I wonder whether there are extrapolation studies or similar. Also, are we able to step up sequencing quickly?

If/when we reach similar levels of dominance of this strain, we will be in a world of pain. I don't know how serious the UK Tiers are in reality, but on paper Tier 4 looks pretty bad - and is still insufficient to get R below 1.

I do physical work on site and I have to commute 3-4 days a week. What I meant by "sitting at home" is minimizing all non-essential interactions like going shopping 3 times a week, chatting with colleagues at coffee breaks, meeting friends who I miss soo much, avoiding crowded areas/crowded hours etc. This was a reply to counter "younger people must be set free" and not meant literally.

This sounds very desperate.

Britain Opts for Mix-and-Match Vaccinations, Confounding Experts
If a second dose of one vaccine isn’t available, another may be substituted, according to new U.K. guidelines.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/h...e=articleShare

(should be free access)

Very desperate, indeed.

Soon they'll be substituting the MMR jab, or maybe just recommending shooting up with heroin... anything with a needle should do.

"On a needle she was crucified."

Ok. I agree. But then - what's being sufficiently safe for you isn't the same for somebody who thinks that it translates to having friends over but wear masks while sitting 2m away. Especially in a place that makes sanitary measures recommended but not mandatory. I think I know why, we need compliance and this is how it happens. Setting younger people free is making them more compliant. They don't wait for an approval, anyways.

Looking at CZ - which stuck to draconial measures and still deals with a nightmare just gives me a different perspective, I think. Fatigue sets in, vax will influence it only after a chunk of time to efficiently fight the fatigue. "Setting free" can be the right figure of speech, a symbol, that will still give more energy to keep going, staying safer or feeling more in control.

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

Not at all. They asked a medical expert on the news weeks ago if you can mix and match vaccines, they said that should work absolutely fine!

Was that medical expert Donald J. Trump, by any chance?

Obviously not

They are already planning trials of just that https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55273907

Surprised they are doing it without trials though, I assume the science tells them that it should work.

I am not implying that there is necessarily a big risk from doing this, other than maybe compromising efficacy. I don't know. But boy, we talk months and months about how important proper stage 3 tests are and all this - to then a few weeks in throw all this overboard and suggest cocktails?

But it tells you that UK authorities are shit scared about this new variant.

It’s a big gamble and not something I’d be messing around with.
There is no data available at all on this and the two vaccines currently approved in the UK use two different techniques to introduce the spike protein so basically nobody really knows whether it will work or not.

This is absolutely insane. Instead they could actually approve straight away other vaccines like Moderna etc. (why is it not approved yet, btw?) and get many more shots immediately instead of mixing random stuff together...


Indeed. I'd understand if they tried to mix at least same-mechanism vaccines like Pfi and Mrna, but those two they have are completely different

Moderna is basically sold out, so even if you immediately would approve, you would not get anything anytime soon. Germany has the same issue now.