Coronavirus (NO POLITICAL OR SOCIAL COMMENTARY PLEASE)

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I am volunteering in a COVID-19 vaccine trial, and I received the first of two injections this morning.

This is the Phase 2/3 trial for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, where I, along with roughly 30,000 others, will receive two injections three weeks apart, and then check in at the medical research center four or five more times after that. This is an observer-blind study, meaning that neither I nor the immediate study doctor knows whether I received the actual vaccine or a control placebo (a saline shot).

^ gold star
Atlanta or Stockbridge….having lived and worked in Georgia I’m a bit familiar with locations

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

^ gold star
Atlanta or Stockbridge….having lived and worked in Georgia I’m a bit familiar with locations

The Atlanta research location. I live about 15 minutes north of the city.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The Atlanta research location. I live about 15 minutes north of the city.

kinda figured as much, I don’t miss the traffic around the perimeter, nor the pollen in your neck of the woods

I volunteered for participation in a double-blind monoclonal antibody trial after a surprisingly (for my age) uneventful *illness*, I just hope that doesn’t preclude me from getting an early approved vaccine when the time comes. Again, kudos for stepping up.

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I am volunteering in a COVID-19 vaccine trial, and I received the first of two injections this morning.

This is the Phase 2/3 trial for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, where I, along with roughly 30,000 others, will receive two injections three weeks apart, and then check in at the medical research center four or five more times after that. This is an observer-blind study, meaning that neither I nor the immediate study doctor knows whether I received the actual vaccine or a control placebo (a saline shot).

I am 48 years old and unmarried with no children, so I would rather put myself through this than have someone’s father or mother go through it. I am confident that this is a safe undertaking, though. At any rate, the fact that I am social distancing does not mean that I cannot have an adventure or two this summer.

A nurse gave me a brief physical. They then took my blood samples and gave me a nasal swab test for COVID-19. About a half hour later, they gave me the vaccine shot (or saline control shot).

My guess is that I'm one of the control subjects, because I didn't even feel any soreness at the site of injection. Who knows, though?

I have an app on my phone now where I fill out a "diary" entry every evening for seven days, documenting my temperature, my redness area at the site of injection (none right now), and any symptoms.

I also have a card with phone numbers that i'm to keep with me at all times, just in case I have an unrelated medical emergency and need to inform the doctors.

I also received a Visa card with a $150 balance for this visit. Woo hoo!

I am grateful to have the chance to help in a small way so that we can all return to the lives that we want to be living sooner rather than later. Science will get us through.

Let us know if you develop autism...

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I am volunteering in a COVID-19 vaccine trial, and I received the first of two injections this morning.

This is the Phase 2/3 trial for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, where I, along with roughly 30,000 others, will receive two injections three weeks apart, and then check in at the medical research center four or five more times after that. This is an observer-blind study, meaning that neither I nor the immediate study doctor knows whether I received the actual vaccine or a control placebo (a saline shot).

I am 48 years old and unmarried with no children, so I would rather put myself through this than have someone’s father or mother go through it. I am confident that this is a safe undertaking, though. At any rate, the fact that I am social distancing does not mean that I cannot have an adventure or two this summer.

A nurse gave me a brief physical. They then took my blood samples and gave me a nasal swab test for COVID-19. About a half hour later, they gave me the vaccine shot (or saline control shot).

My guess is that I'm one of the control subjects, because I didn't even feel any soreness at the site of injection. Who knows, though?

I have an app on my phone now where I fill out a "diary" entry every evening for seven days, documenting my temperature, my redness area at the site of injection (none right now), and any symptoms.

I also have a card with phone numbers that i'm to keep with me at all times, just in case I have an unrelated medical emergency and need to inform the doctors.

I also received a Visa card with a $150 balance for this visit. Woo hoo!

I am grateful to have the chance to help in a small way so that we can all return to the lives that we want to be living sooner rather than later. Science will get us through.

A huge thank you is in order for yourself and everyone else who is volunteering to play a part in helping to beat this.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by bruceames

This has been known for months. You need more time of exposure though and aerosols currents are a factor too (like ventilation flow in a restaurant). So you would have to be in the right spot for x amount of time.

From the article:

The disagreement in scientific circles as to whether coronavirus could be transmitted through the air stems from the previous detection of viral RNA in aerosols, but failure to isolate a viable virus — the difference between genetic material versus the live virus.

So while it has been suspected by some scientists for months, it has not been universally agreed upon. It now seems like there's concrete evidence that it does indeed remain airborne. This confirmation is important so it will be more widely accepted.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by MrHT

I've already had that argument with people here and had little to no success.

People don't realize that when these businesses are closed, their rent is not forgiven. Yes, they won't get evicted for not paying, but they still owe that money and need to pay it at some point. When my barber reopened his shop in June, he told me he owed $7,000 of rent for the three months he's been closed!!!

Can you imagine... $7,000?!?!! And that's just for three months! I don't even want to imagine the debt that gyms are facing right now, let alone indoor restaurants!

Well there's been some speculation about needing rent forgiveness to help with this kind of situation, for both businesses and individuals, but we can't really get into the details about discussing this in here.

The issue is restaurants will be one of those types of places that will help spread the virus. They should remain closed for now, but they should have assistance available to help them survive this. Sadly, they're on their own, so what do we do? Risk losing a ton of restaurants, or risk spreading the virus further by reopening them?

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

Herd Immunity is a myth...

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/...-00728afe0202/

Herd immunity is not a myth. That's literally how vaccines work for the population - enough people are inoculated that the virus can't spread. That can and does happen naturally, without a vaccine, but the problem is, a whole lotta people have to die before we get to that point naturally, so we need a vaccine to get us there quickly, without all the dying.

So it's a myth only in the sense that it's not an option to wait for natural herd immunity from this particular virus. Too many people would have to die to get us there.

[Penton-Man]

Today from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center/Uniform Services University Virtual Grand Rounds - https://www.facebook.com/niaid.nih/v...7454044270791/

at ~ 22min timestamp is a list of the various vaccine candidates and their current status
(the ‘Russian’ vaccine is not listed but it is thought to be an adenovirus-based vaccine)

Q&A begins around the 24 min mark with new info at ~ 28min timestamp as to the value/or lack thereof of temperature checks administered while gaining access to any facility

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Well there's been some speculation about needing rent forgiveness to help with this kind of situation, for both businesses and individuals, but we can't really get into the details about discussing this in here.

The issue is restaurants will be one of those types of places that will help spread the virus. They should remain closed for now, but they should have assistance available to help them survive this. Sadly, they're on their own, so what do we do? Risk losing a ton of restaurants, or risk spreading the virus further by reopening them?

But this is what I don't understand. It's not about whether we should reopen 100% or don't reopen at all. It's about reopening with safety measures in place. That way, you lower the risk of losing businesses and also continues to slow the spread of the virus.

Many businesses in NYC have reopened already that are FAR riskier in spreading the virus (such as barbershops, salons, massage parlors, B&M stores, etc...) and new cases are still declining. And this is because safety measures are in place, such as social distancing rules and requiring masks. Why not the same for restaurants and malls?

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Herd immunity is not a myth. That's literally how vaccines work for the population - enough people are inoculated that the virus can't spread. That can and does happen naturally, without a vaccine, but the problem is, a whole lotta people have to die before we get to that point naturally, so we need a vaccine to get us there quickly, without all the dying.

So it's a myth only in the sense that it's not an option to wait for natural herd immunity from this particular virus. Too many people would have to die to get us there.

I'm still at a loss of words on how we were able to get through previous pandemics without a vaccine or closing down businesses. Yet with Coronavirus, we are locking down, social distancing, and wearing masks, yet we still can't keep the virus under control with no way out except for a vaccine.

Hopefully, this is lesson learned that when new viruses come out, we need a vaccine available IMMEDIATELY. Maybe that sounds unreasonable, but with the way technology is moving today, anything should be possible in this day and age.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by MrHT

I'm still at a loss of words on how we were able to get through previous pandemics without a vaccine or closing down businesses. Yet with Coronavirus, we are locking down, social distancing, and wearing masks, yet we still can't keep the virus under control with no way out except for a vaccine.

Hopefully, this is lesson learned that when new viruses come out, we need a vaccine available IMMEDIATELY. Maybe that sounds unreasonable, but with the way technology is moving today, anything should be possible in this day and age.

This is one of the hardest viruses to deal with in history. Its deadly enough that we cant let it run its course and its incubation period is long enough that its extremely painful to stop it. It also has a large enough number of asymptomatic carriers to further complicate containment. (lastly we are pretty sure we could stop it looking at china, new zealand and south korea)

If we learn anything from this its hopefully to shut down borders to properly isolate outbreaks before they become pandemics next time. you cant make a vaccine overnight but we could have either contained this so every country did not have cases or at least learn to take our medicine like new Zealand and not try to reopen bars and restaurants etc every 2 weeks to a month while we have an infectious disease we have no control over in the same area.

[CyberpunkCentral]

So are things getting back to normal or what? There seems to be no consistency happening right now.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by MrHT

I'm still at a loss of words on how we were able to get through previous pandemics without a vaccine or closing down businesses. Yet with Coronavirus, we are locking down, social distancing, and wearing masks, yet we still can't keep the virus under control with no way out except for a vaccine.

Hopefully, this is lesson learned that when new viruses come out, we need a vaccine available IMMEDIATELY. Maybe that sounds unreasonable, but with the way technology is moving today, anything should be possible in this day and age.

It's because today's people care more about their personal autonomy and what they want to do than they do about following simple protocols to protect people. It's really that simple.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by MrHT

I'm still at a loss of words on how we were able to get through previous pandemics without a vaccine or closing down businesses. Yet with Coronavirus, we are locking down, social distancing, and wearing masks, yet we still can't keep the virus under control with no way out except for a vaccine.

Hopefully, this is lesson learned that when new viruses come out, we need a vaccine available IMMEDIATELY. Maybe that sounds unreasonable, but with the way technology is moving today, anything should be possible in this day and age.

But it doesn't work like that. This is one of the nastiest viruses we've ever encountered. There absolutely no way to just "immediately" come up with a vaccine. First, it instantly takes us by surprise, causing a ton of initial death and illness, flooding many hospitals to capacity. Then we move to shut things down to stop or minimize the spread as much as possible. That's all within weeks that this starts. At this point nobody including the scientists even know what they're dealing with yet. With COVID-19 we're still learning a ton about how it works and what it does to us, half a year after it hit.

It's totally unreasonable to expect a vaccine should just appear immediately. The best scientists on the planet are working on this and we're still waiting. I'm honestly surprised we've come as far as we have, with several promising vaccines being tested. There are illnesses we still don't have a vaccine for that have been around for ages.

And if you rush a vaccine out and it's not tested thoroughly and tons of healthy people die or suffer serious side effects, that will put a crushing blow on any hopes that people will take another vaccine for it when somebody else comes out with one. These things take time and that's all there is to it.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

So are things getting back to normal or what? There seems to be no consistency happening right now.

Our local government thinks there will be a viable widely available vaccine by January 1st. I think that'd be the absolute soonest, personally I can't see one ready before next August. Truth will probably be somewhere in the middle, assuming one of the phase 3 vaccines passes muster and people agree to take it. We're still in the soup of this, the other side isn't quite visible yet, it would help if there was a more coherent narrative about it so things wouldn't be so muddled.

[danman227460]

There hasn't been a pandemic to this level since the Spanish Flu in 1918. We had swine flu/avian flu etc but they did not achieve the level of COVID.

I was reading up on Swine Flu and an interesting fact stood out. It appears that people over 60 had some form of immunity against the swine flu. Compared to COVID which no one had any form of immunity against it. Which shows you how much more dangerous COVID is.

The major issue with a new virus, is that it is new. They have to sequence the virus, find what works against it, test it through clinical trials etc. It is a long and tedious process that can't be rushed because the fall out from an ineffective vaccine is worst than no vaccine.

Originally Posted by MrHT

I'm still at a loss of words on how we were able to get through previous pandemics without a vaccine or closing down businesses. Yet with Coronavirus, we are locking down, social distancing, and wearing masks, yet we still can't keep the virus under control with no way out except for a vaccine.

Hopefully, this is lesson learned that when new viruses come out, we need a vaccine available IMMEDIATELY. Maybe that sounds unreasonable, but with the way technology is moving today, anything should be possible in this day and age.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

So are things getting back to normal or what? There seems to be no consistency happening right now.

I heard on the news yesterday that Texas reached it's highest daily death toll to date. So no, until these states can get the virus under control, we haven't even started getting back to normal.

I foresee a horrific Fall up ahead. We need a National mandate requiring everyone to wear masks. Not trying to get political, but the facts are there... we need EVERYONE in the U.S. to wear a mask when leaving their homes.

[bruceames]

The high death toll in Texas was from cases last month when they were at their peak. Cases are down significantly in Texas though and deaths will soon be as well.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by bruceames

The high death toll in Texas was from cases last month when they were at their peak. Cases are down significantly in Texas though and deaths will soon be as well.

Then I guess the media is over-hyping things. Because the way they presented this, it's as if we are at our worst point and it's only going to continue to get worse as summer ends. I'm getting very nervous about this...