Excellent. Well done. But do you know about vaccines?

Edit: FMF seems to feel my comment groan worthy.

My OH works at a very senior level (although not a scientist) for an international pharma company who specialise in vaccines. He would still never speculate about it "being years" away for a Covid19 vaccine.

Seems like very blinkered thinking to me. Let's hope there's not a highly contagious deadly virus out there that very little, relatively speaking, is known about.

I hope the knackered emergency staff are getting some well-deserved rest tbh.

How dare you to have credentials and be right

To the OP, not sure how that can work when the VD has agreed for schools to close till April 30. Schools closed -> mommy on home office.

Even if that happens, VD, ZH and TI might have their own rules. As always. Or, parents on home stretch get some kind of special pass. And by the time we get back, it will be like reintegrating ton of Robinsons Crusoes.

Just because he/she has a PhD, and works in the field of pharma, it doesn't mean they are an epidemiologist etc. Also doesn't make them right. It was speculation, same as most of this thread.


PhDs are proof of a level of study and research. They do not make one infallible in all areas.

Jorido's "Science" PhD is pretty broad. Science and pharma are very broad terms.

But somehow your opinion is more substantiated and valid than his?

When are you getting vaxed and will you tell us?

It is ok, I am sure that he is used to this.

Where did I say this? I was against the fact-as-opinion sweeping statement about vaccines. I know nothing about vaccines other than I prefer to get my information about them from folk who know about vaccines. If Jorido is willing to narrow down his scientific field and that field is vaccine adjacent, then great.

I do appear to have poked a sore spot amongst you fellas.

Nope, you haven't, were actually quite enjoying. Please, keep on!

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

But but but if you have a PhD you know eveeeeryting! Or so some believe.

Seriously, the recurrent talks about PhDs and degrees are tiring. I met plenty of PhDs. Yes, some are very smart and capable especially in their small "rectangular"/box/segment of a filed, but they don't know everything about everything and are certainly not entitled to arrogance.

I love people with credentials. Back home is a hobby. I don't love arrogance.

Now can we move on from here?

A vaccine against corona virus seems like a distant possibility. I know that various labs around the world are working on it, back home there's a lab that is working on one right now but they admitted there's a long way to...far away.

I wonder if an abundance of funds invested in research would help.

If you want to learn about CV vaccine work from people actually working in the field, you could do worse than listen to this Guardian podcast

12 months is possible. But by no means guaranteed. Particularly as they're having to take new approaches - stuff they have been working on before but not used in any actual current vaccine.

My company did an 'Ask the scientist' during the week, guy was the head of virology, even had a PhD in it!

He said, months of testing and trials, and a vaccine in 18 months was 'optomistic'.

Well deserved rest on 80% pay! I think they'd rather be working TBH!

From personal view, whilst I don't know anyone who has died from the virus or who have even caught it, I have spoken to a good few small business owners pulling their hair out wondering how they're going to support their families on 3000 chf a month, let alone how their businesses are going to survive, let alone recover. The reopening has to start soon, it's a case of damage limitation now.

I think lots of people here share your sentiment. Now how is that going to change the political landscape if SVP all of a sudden starts representing very concrete wishes of lots of people, I wonder. They, we, are not living some theoretical political program but through a very real crisis management. I personally dislike the idea of letting go off just yet the strict confinement measures but TV said last night that the fear of infection has changed a lot, diminished, so I think people will not be cautious enough, even here, in a place that has top discipline and intelligent rules acceptance.

__________________
"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

I think the emergency staff must be physically emtiotionally and mentally done in.

This furloughing... for all medical staff (which seems odd and unlikely) or the private non-essential staff like cosmetic surgeons etc? . That would put a very different face on this obsession with the furlough and reduce it to mere click-bait.

I don't know and haven't researched so interested.

Great. But, do you know about vaccines?. Which, less broad, area of science? I have a couple of friends with PhDs in the science fields. One is a Botanist the other an electrical engineer. Neither could really comment on the work of the other with any "real"authority. Both brilliant scientists. Neither know a thing about vaccines. They're both in favour of them. I just checked.

Clinical trial data is also very broad.

Of course there are no guarantees, either way.

I certainly don't have any insights or knowledge, but I do have two anecdotes. One anecdote is from the child of a friend, a doctor at a hospital treating COVID patients.

From end of February this doctor worked 30 days straight without a day off, 12+ hour shifts. The patient load is lighter at the moment, but it was a harrowing month.

Another anecdote is from a friend who is a lab tech working 12+ hour shifts, days off postponed, to keep up with the testing.

So yeah, for some health care workers involved in COVID care in Switzerland, it has been exhausting.

Why there hasn't been some kind of sensible rotation of health care staff from areas not hard hit, sharing resources, is a question that should be asked of whatever Powers That Be organize these things.

Science is a very broad term and PhDs are usually pretty specialised so you might need to narrow it down a bit more than that.

I have worked on vaccine research for a very large pharmaceutical company so I do know a fair bit about vaccines. It takes time to develop reliable, safe vaccines so we not looking at getting one in the immediate future.

The aim at the moment is to limit the number of cases at any given time in order to prevent the health service from being overwhelmed. It’s not a quick fix, in order to be successful it needs to be done over a prolonged period of time, maybe not to the extent that we have at the moment but I foresee some restrictions in place for a good while yet.
A vaccine will be along at some point but in the meantime we have to do what we can to care for the population as a whole.