Coronabollocks..

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

When Bots finally gets a paltry number of vaccines, the government has stated that frontline workers such as doctors and nurses will be at the front of the que. Fair enough; except that it will only be available to those who are citizens, not those who are merely residents. Now, while you can understand the logic to some degree behind this policy, it is, however, a bit silly when you consider that a lot of our doctors are indeed residents. And you can bet your life that no one will able to get hold of a vaccine privately.

[Pontius Navigator]

A definite and encouraging drop in new cases in the UK means the NHS will find pressure easing in the next few weeks.

this isn't a statistical blip.

[OFSO]

See note on "Chaos in Spain" as to why Astra Zeneca vaccine hasn't been approved.

[Pontius Navigator]

What is Prat in EU languages?

[ian16th]

Isn't there a big enough demand for Astra Zeneca to inform the EU to exit stage left? Without any financial impact.

[om15]

Apparently yes, here is another view p[oint on the subject

[Boac]

Unfortunately the Stasi hold sway over the Pfizer supply.

[om15]

More thoughts this evening,

[Pontius Navigator]

A definite and encouraging drop in new cases in the UK means the NHS will find pressure easing in the next few weeks.

this isn't a statistical blip.

As previously warned, deaths are expected to rise, today 1,600. Thankfully case numbers declining to 20,000.

[PHXPhlyer]

Vaccine tourism on the rise as wealthy international tourists eye an opportunity in the U.S.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/va ... s-n1255531

Vaccine tourism on the rise as wealthy international tourists eye an opportunity in the U.S.
Florida has already taken steps to stop the "abhorrent" flow of scarce coronavirus vaccinations to wealthy line-cutters.

Shortly before the Covid-19 vaccine made its debut last month in the United States, an Indian travel agency called Gem Tours & Travels announced it was registering customers for an exciting new package: a four-day trip from Mumbai to New York City with a coronavirus shot thrown in for about $2,000.

"Vaccine tourism," Nimesh Shah, the company's business development specialist, called it.

“We are only taking registrations of Indians with a valid 10-year U.S. visa,” Shah told ThePrint. “We are not taking any money but just collecting data for the moment. We are proud to have coined the term ‘vaccine tourism.’”

Soon, competitors like the Kolkata-based Zenith Holidays were registering customers for vaccination packages.

Pronab Sarkar, president of Indian Association of Tour Operators, condemned the companies for peddling these junkets. But Zenith Holidays, which generally does not offer travel packages to the U.S., still has on its website a "Vaccine Tourism" tab where customers can fill out a registration form, click send, and within minutes an email from the company pops up in their inbox promising more information soon.

Just how many Indians signed up for such a vaccination junket to the U.S. was not immediately clear because neither Shah nor anyone from Zenith Holidays responded to several emails from NBC News or an inquiry posed via the registration form.

But the very idea that somebody with money but no immediate access to the scarce Covid-19 vaccine could fly to another country to get a shot was raising both outrage and ethical questions.

In Florida, reports of rich Canadians, Brazilians and Venezuelans, as well as people from other states, crashing the Sunshine State to get a shot prompted the state’s surgeon general to sign a public health advisory last week requiring vaccination providers to ensure that every person who gets the shot lives in the state.

Argentinian celebrity lawyer Ana Rosenfeld, who was visiting family in Miami last month, got her first shot in a town near Tampa, some 270-plus miles away.

“I always wanted to get the vaccine,” Rosenfeld, 66, told the Argentine publication Teleshow. “If I would have had the possibility of doing it in Argentina, I would have done it.”

But wealthy Americans who live outside Florida have also been able to get vaccinated in the state. Richard Parsons, the former chairman and CEO of Time Warner, described on national TV how he flew down from New York to Florida to get a shot.

“It’s orderly and sensible,” Parsons, 72, said while appearing on "Squawk Box" on CNBC. “I don’t know how Florida got the march on everyone else. But you go online. You make an appointment. You get an appointment.”

Neither Rosenfeld nor Parsons had to pull any strings or call in any favors. They were able to get the shot because the executive order that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed just before Christmas gave first dibs on vaccinations to people ages 65 and older but did not specify that they had to actually live in the state.

That changed Thursday when Dr. Scott Rivkees, Florida's surgeon general, signed a public health advisory that requires vaccination providers to ensure that every person who gets a shot in the state is a Florida resident.

“Vaccine tourism is not permitted,” Jared Moskowitz, Florida’s director of emergency management, said in a statement after hearing that Canadians were flying to his state to get vaccinated. “It’s abhorrent, people should not be flying here to get a vaccine and flying out.”

But already nearly 40,000 people, whose home address was listed as “out of state,” have been vaccinated in Florida, state data shows.

And the Florida Department of Health is now investigating allegations that MorseLife Health System, an expensive elder care center in West Palm Beach, gave Covid-19 shots meant for residents and staff to members of the Palm Beach Country Club and wealthy donors with ties to New York developers Bill and David Mack.

"To go under that rubric when you're not a resident and not a staff member, that's definitely going outside what the guidance is and what the program is for," DeSantis said this month after the story broke.

Residency requirements are hard to enforce because many Floridians are snowbirds who live part of the year in the north, said Dr. Marissa J. Levine, a public health professor at the University of South Florida who previously served as Virginia’s state health commissioner for four years.

Also, the slow rollout of the Covid-19 vaccinations has also revealed how little work both the Trump administration and the local governments did to prepare what Levine called “an ethical framework” for distributing the shots.

“Right now, it’s a scarce resource and demand is outstripping supply,” she said. “If you don’t have that kind of framework, people with power and money will do everything they can to cut the line. Clearly it’s not right that people with power and money get the vaccine before others.”

And yet, they’re trying.

Dr. Joseph Varon of the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston said recently that people from abroad began reaching out to him for help with getting vaccinated last month and it hasn’t stopped.

“I get text messages every five minutes of people from all over the world, 'Uh, hey! Can you set us up with the vaccine?'” Varon said.

In some cases, they’re succeeding.

Dr. Gabriel Rodriguez Weber, a physician in Mexico City, told KPRC 2 Investigates in Houston that “without a doubt, many are doing it.”

“All of those with economic means or that have a contact,” he said, when asked about the 10 Mexican nationals he knew of who flew to Houston, San Diego, Miami and New York City to get coronavirus vaccines.

More than a dozen Argentinian corporate executives have been able to get vaccinated in Florida, The Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported, citing an account from the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarín.

“It’s free and it’s not necessary to be a resident, only to be 65 years old and not have received any other vaccinations in the past 14 days,” the newspaper said.

As for the Canadians, that country’s National Post newspaper reported that elderly residents were flying to Florida to get vaccines because DeSantis had given first priority to people ages 65 and over.

Therese Gagnon, a retired school teacher and Quebec resident who winters in Florida, said nobody asked her if she was a full-time resident when she showed up at a drive-thru vaccination center in Fort Lauderdale.

“No proof necessary, just proof of age, which is great since we live here part of the year and we could infect our neighbors and friends,” she told the newspaper. “The governor made a very wise decision.”

PP

[om15]

Here is a further detailed informative news report on the EU vaccine debacle,

[Pontius Navigator]

Unfortunately the Stasi hold sway over the Pfizer supply.

The scientists were suggesting that a half and half would still work, but Mandy Rice springs to mind.

[TheGreenGoblin]

The return of the loon taxi driver...

[Boac]

It is impossible to dive into the murky waters in which the partisaners swim, but there are lots of 'unknowns' here. The EU has not yet approved the Oxford vaccine (rumoured 29/1). Why AZ need to reduce the EU supply is a mystery. If there are AZ production/distribution problems (who knows?), then contracts SHOULD be honoured pro rata. The EU actually has the right to restrict export to attempt to satisfy their demand, again as long as contractual needs are met pro-rata.

It could be time to get our magnificent Navy 'steamed up' and ready to take on the foe. Horatio, where are you?

[Jetex Jim]

If we go directly to Stella Kyriakides, rather than through the Brexiteers filters, we get a rather different take on things.

She said: “You know that AstraZeneca vaccine is currently in the final stages of approval with the European Medicines Agency. If all requirements are met, the European Medicines Agency could recommend market authorisation by the end of this week.

“But there is a problem in the supply side. Last Friday, the company AstraZeneca surprisingly informed the commission and the European Union member states that it intends to supply considerably fewer doses in the coming weeks than agreed and announced.

“This new schedule is not acceptable to the European Union. That is why I wrote a letter to the company at the weekend in which I asked important and serious questions. The European Union has pre-financed the development of the vaccine and its production, and wants to see the return.”

It does rather seem as though Nigel and his chums want the benifit of club membership without having to pay for it.

[boing]

Sounds like a bit of a global problem. A bit hypocritical of the EU to complain about Ox/Az when their own companies have the same problem with other nations.

But the timing has been a sticking point, as the US clamors for delivery as soon as possible while Pfizer juggles global demand.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday that a complicating factor in the negotiations is that Pfizer is having some supply chain issues that will make it more challenging for the company to produce 100 million more doses in the spring. The federal government is negotiating with Pfizer to see how it can help with those manufacturing issues in order to get the additional 100 million doses, he said.

Politics
Pfizer to temporarily reduce vaccine deliveries to Canada, minister says
The pharmaceutical giant is pausing some production lines at its facility in Puurs, Belgium
Global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will temporarily reduce shipments of its vaccine to Canada, Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand has announced. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)
Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said today that global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will temporarily reduce shipments of its vaccine to Canada, further complicating the slow rollout of doses.
Anand said she was told last night that Pfizer will send fewer doses than expected because it is pausing some production lines at its facility in Puurs, Belgium, in order to expand long-term manufacturing capacity.
"This expansion work means that Pfizer is temporarily reducing deliveries to all countries receiving vaccines manufactured at its European facility, and that includes Canada," Anand told reporters at a public health briefing.

BRUSSELS: The European Union reached a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for 300 million additional doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, the head of the European Commission said on Friday (Jan 8), in a move that would give the EU nearly half of the firms' global output for 2021.

And it appears that the Germans don't mind jumping the queue.

Germany said on Monday it had agreed with BioNtech to supply 30 million additional doses in a side deal, although the timing of the delivery is unclear.
The German move, agreed in September but revealed only this week as the government faced pressures at home, appears to be in contrast with EU agreements that forbid members to negotiate parallel deals with vaccine makers.
"No member state on this legal binding basis is allowed to negotiate in parallel or to have a contract in parallel," von der Leyen said.

.

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

While the EU, UK, USA and Canada fight over the now reduced supplies of vaccine due to a temporary glitch, I guess they couldn't give a stuff about the rest of us; https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... munisation

Edit It does seem that the UK does have priority over the EU for contractual reasons; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... on-vaccine.

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

Daily Wail Alert! This bloke does actually make some valid points in this short article; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... lyses.html.

[Undried Plum]

Ageing population

Our ageing population has meant a far greater number of people were vulnerable to Covid than in younger nations. Age is, by far, the biggest risk factor for Covid deaths.Someone aged 85 to 89, for example, has an 8.9 per cent chance of dying if infected. For someone aged between 70 and 74, the risk is 2.3 per cent. This explains why wealthy countries have generally fared worse than developing ones where populations tend to be young.

Something wrong with that theory. Japan has a much more aged population than we do, but their death rate is less than a tenth of ours.



Population density

Britain has 273 people for every square kilometre – more than twice the European average of 108. One study, by the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, predicted that population density accounts for 84 per cent of the difference between infection rates in different areas.

The population density of Japan's populated areas is much higher than the the UK's.

[Boac]

The difference, UP, is they do not have Boris.