Covid-19 Updates & Info

[Suliso]

For US in particular I think it also matters a lot in which state you are. Those of you in Vermont (62%) or New Hampshire (58%) could already be reaching semi heard immunity there as if you live in Mississippi (32%) you're nowhere close.

[Suliso]

As for us we're at 25% (at least one dose) and increasing at a rate of about 4% population per week. I think I can start expecting an appointment when we reach 35%.

[Deuce]

Six feet really makes no difference at all given what we now know about how the virus spreads, same about wearing masks only intermittently.

This article/study agrees.
Frightening stuff, and definitely worth reading...

Article here...
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/mit-res ... study.html

Study here...
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/17/e20 ... ticle-info

.

[ponchi101]

Totally on the money, but if the guideline had been 60 feet, you basically could only have one person per ambience anywhere in the world.
The only way my GF and I can be 60 feet apart at our place is if I open the window panes and I stand in the garden, while she stands at the door of our apartment.
Pretty good study. No wonder all these measures have had so little success.

[Suliso]

It's not all hopeless. Good ventilation helps a lot.

[ponchi101]

Agree. I said that last year. Negative pressure systems should have been engineered during these 15 months of pandemic. Extract systems installed. This is not going away just yet.
In places like Colombia, where we don't have to deal with extreme temperatures, fans moving the air out could have helped.
---0---
True story. I have my GF to vouch for me. Last year, as this started, I thought of designing an app. Voluntary reporting by people with symptoms, so you could track where you were and if people that had later declared themselves with symptoms or the disease could report themselves. Geolocation could help you make a map. I contacted my GF's cousin, who is very good at programming. She never even replied.
Today we found out that the COL GOV has issued an app that does that, and works with Bluetooth signals, and you are close to somebody with symptoms it will warn you (why somebody with self-reported symptoms would be out is another matter).
So: If PONCHI101 could think of it, it was not that hard. Really.
We need more ideas on how to deal with this, until the vaccines are everywhere.

[Deuce]

It's not all hopeless. Good ventilation helps a lot.

But, for various reasons, good ventilation is not always feasible, unfortunately.

[Deuce]

I received my first Moderna vaccine yesterday. From the outset, I felt that everyone should be able to choose which vaccine they want - some will take the first one available, regardless of what it is - and that's fine. Others - like me - prefer to do some research and make an educated decision on which vaccine to get. I simply figure that if a foreign material is going to be injected into MY body, I should have the right to decide which it will be - everyone should have that right.

So my goal was to work it so that I had a choice. And I did.
My first option was AstraZeneca - that was available to me about a month ago. I chose not to get it for various reasons... firstly, because both of my parents had a (different) form of blood cancer. In my Mom, it produced too many platelets, which increases the risk of the blood clotting. In my Dad, it robbed his blood of enough platelets.
As well, I don't like some of the things that AstraZeneca has done - playing with the numbers to make it appear that it had a greater efficacy than it actually had (and Dr. Fauci admonished them for doing that)... and changing the name of the vaccine in Europe - as of the end of March, 2021, the AstraZeneca vaccine is called Vaxzevria in most of Europe. This is nothing short of deliberate deception, trying to fool people into thinking that it's not AstraZeneca - because of the bad press they've been getting about the blood clots. I did not want a vaccine from a company whose ethics were this degree of shady. (As a related aside, 3 provinces - thus far - here in Canada have stopped giving AstraZeneca as a first dose.)

Although it's not really public information, my 'research' showed me where the Pfizer and where the Moderna vaccines were being given in my area. I made an appointment to get the Pfizer - simply because a Pfizer appointment was available before a Moderna one. I had also left my name at a pharmacy close to me that I knew had Moderna. They called me just after I had made the Pfizer appointment to offer me an appointment that was 3 days after my other appointment. I said 'OK'. I was surprised that I could have 2 different appointments at 2 different locations - but I did.
I cancelled the Pfizer appointment when I got a rare chance to play pickleball on the same day and time as the appointment (I cancelled the appointment in plenty of time for it to be filled by someone else - and it was filled within 10 minutes of my cancellation).

I had a plan going in to get my Moderna shot: I was going to ask if I could please have the shot in my rear end - just to see what kind of reaction it would provoke (it is a rather large muscle, is it not? - so it's likely feasible). But I forgot that, for some reason, when I got there. Instead, as the nurse was preparing to vaccinate me, I said "Just give me one dose, please." She was puzzled. Then I told her about an article I read the other day that told of a nurse in Italy being distracted and injecting a complete vial - 6 doses - into a woman.
Story here...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/23-old-italia ... 15489.html

I asked the nurse if I could have an empty vial - as a souvenir of these crazy times. She said she cannot give me one, as they go back to Moderna, who re-use them. I doubt very much that they're re-used - I hope they are, as it means much less garbage - but it's highly unlikely.

[mmmm8]

Why do you think it's unlikely they're reused? There are severe shortages in manufacturing everything needed for the vaccine supply and glass isn't as cheap or quick as plastic.

I imagine the main reason to no give out the vials is to avoid people having samples to manufacture fake vaccines or use the remaining biological materials in some sort of unauthorized research.

[atlpam]

I received my first Moderna vaccine yesterday. From the outset, I felt that everyone should be able to choose which vaccine they want - some will take the first one available, regardless of what it is - and that's fine. Others - like me - prefer to do some research and make an educated decision on which vaccine to get. I simply figure that if a foreign material is going to be injected into MY body, I should have the right to decide which it will be - everyone should have that right.

So my goal was to work it so that I had a choice. And I did.
My first option was AstraZeneca - that was available to me about a month ago. I chose not to get it for various reasons... firstly, because both of my parents had a (different) form of blood cancer. In my Mom, it produced too many platelets, which increases the risk of the blood clotting. In my Dad, it robbed his blood of enough platelets.

Based on your family history, totally understand your reluctance to get AZ. Congratulations on getting your first dose!

[ponchi101]

...

I asked the nurse if I could have an empty vial - as a souvenir of these crazy times. She said she cannot give me one, as they go back to Moderna, who re-use them. I doubt very much that they're re-used - I hope they are, as it means much less garbage - but it's highly unlikely.

Why do you think it's unlikely they're reused? There are severe shortages in manufacturing everything needed for the vaccine supply and glass isn't as cheap or quick as plastic.

I imagine the main reason to no give out the vials is to avoid people having samples to manufacture fake vaccines or use the remaining biological materials in some sort of unauthorized research.

Suliso would be our guide here but most likely they are chemical grade glass, and that is not cheap. Re-cycling would be a very wise investment. I remember that one time I was thinking about replacing all my glassware in my house with chemical beakers (I think they are lovely) and the prices were outrageous. So I would believe the nurse. M's reasoning also holds.
I booked my flight to Atlanta for May 25th. My niece will book me a J&J vaccine, if possible for the same day of our arrival. We will stay 21 days in case we can't get the J&J and will opt for PF/BionTech. She tells me Moderna is completely available in the area.
Here? Chinese Sinopharm. Sorry, I pass.

[Suliso]

Why do you think it's unlikely they're reused? There are severe shortages in manufacturing everything needed for the vaccine supply and glass isn't as cheap or quick as plastic.

I imagine the main reason to no give out the vials is to avoid people having samples to manufacture fake vaccines or use the remaining biological materials in some sort of unauthorized research.

Suliso would be our guide here but most likely they are chemical grade glass, and that is not cheap. Re-cycling would be a very wise investment. I remember that one time I was thinking about replacing all my glassware in my house with chemical beakers (I think they are lovely) and the prices were outrageous. So I would believe the nurse. M's reasoning also holds.

I don't know about recycling, but those vials are definitely made of a special type of borosilicate glass similar to chemistry lab glassware. Corning has developed a Valor glass brand for this purpose which is similar to ultra tough glass used on cell phone screens. German company Schott is also a major manufacturer probably using similarly reinforced product. I remember seeing somewhere that you can drop those vials from a third floor height on a concrete floor without breaking them.

As for the cost of beakers (flasks are more expensive) it shouldn't be too expensive, something like 10-50$ per piece depending on size.

[ponchi101]

I wanted beakers for drinking glasses. A set of 6 250ML, and 6 500 ML. It was well into the $300 range (I was in Venezuela, where of course everything like this is imported).
Just for vanity glasses, that was too much.

[Suliso]

I wanted beakers for drinking glasses. A set of 6 250ML, and 6 500 ML. It was well into the $300 range (I was in Venezuela, where of course everything like this is imported.
Just for vanity glasses, that was too much.

That sounds expensive albeit you wanted many and rather big. By the way beakers larger than 50 ml are rarely used in the lab these days. Not sure I even have any above 250 ml. Instead we use Erlenmeyer flasks. A large one (1 l) pictured below you can order in Switzerland for ca 15 $, small ones would be 8-10 $.

[Deuce]

I imagine the main reason to no give out the vials is to avoid people having samples to manufacture fake vaccines or use the remaining biological materials in some sort of unauthorized research.

I understand that - but I was asking for one vial, not several dozen.

Why do you think it's unlikely they're reused? There are severe shortages in manufacturing everything needed for the vaccine supply and glass isn't as cheap or quick as plastic.

For one:
"The two largest issues in process development are sterility and degradants. Reusing old vials fails both of these fronts. After injecting the contents of a vial drug product residue is left behind that can become infested with bacteria. This would need to be cleaned out of the vial, and go through an intense sterilization cycle then be tested. Even after this you would have to verify that there were no trace degradants left behind in the process, as a large portion of pharmaceutical degradants are heat catalyzed the sterilization would induce a worst-case scenario that could provide dangerous levels of degradants that are tightly controlled in the drug. And then after all of that you have to prove vial integrity, and show that the wear and tear on the vial didn’t increase the likelihood of extractables, leachables, and elemental impurities getting transferred into your product.

The FDA maintains tight controls on container closures for a reason, when you overlook small aspects of these controls people are at risk of injury and illness."

The above quotation is from the comments section here:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/a ... d-vaccines