Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus

Jan said:
Here is an interesting article about what does not get too much press, namely how covid anx the accompanying recession hits third world countries
mondediplo.com

The Great Lockdown hits the Third World hard

Subscribers // by Gilbert Achcar (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, November 2020)
mondediplo.com
Click to expand...
And this is especially bad in Syria.


Starting at 1:55, she talks about how the US is using the world banks to make sure that no reconstruction effort happens in Syria. Early in the clip, she states that we are the leading humanitarian donor in Syria, but we aren't actually allowing the Syrians to rebuild their country. Even worse, the sanctions we are imposing on Syria is keeping necessary medical supplies to combat covid from Syrians.


Not only do sanctions hamper delivery of medicines and equipment, as the Comment by Hussain and Sen highlights, but the situation is more grave than that. Sanctions have decimated Syria's once thriving pharmaceutical industry by making it near impossible for companies to obtain raw materials, mainly because of financial sanctions that deter suppliers and increase costs exponentially.

Food supply problems have been aggravated not only by sanctions but also by a virtual blockade by US forces that control the quarter of Syrian territory in the northeast of the country, which is the location of most of Syria's grain and oil resources.
The EU recently pledged €4·9 billion to Syria. However, the bulk of this money is not for Syria, but for neighbouring countries so that they can continue to hold millions of Syrian refugees that the EU does not wish to receive itself, and does not wish to see return to Syria under its current leadership.
 
The United States is not heading towards a nationwide lockdown like Europe. Even as states start to impose more restrictions, we will not see anything like we saw back in March / April.

A Supreme Court ruling in PA set the precedence that states don't have the power under the constitution to close non essential businesses and issues stay at home orders. Any such order would be quickly challenged. And with the conservative majority on the SCOTUS, it likely will be shot down.

In addition, several states legislators have passed laws restricting their governors and health departments emergency declaration powers in response to the previous lockdown. These states either do not allow a future lock down, limit the time period a lockdown can last or that a governor does not have the power to issue one, it would have to be decided through the state legislator.

At the national level Trump is signaling there will be no national lockdown or recommendations. He's still touting "open back up".

1605567964742.png

Data shows that lockdowns work. But we are so against them here. They are to draconian.

Bottomline is it's all about the economy. Capitalism doesn't want a lockdown because the rich can't make as much money. Who cares about the everyday worker who is at high risk and can't stay home because they have to work.
 
dhodo said:
Good news. Moderna's vaccine showing 94.5% effective and can be stored in a normal freezer.

www.npr.org

Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Shines In Clinical Trial

The vaccine is nearly 95% effective in preventing illness, according to an interim analysis of a clinical test involving 30,000 people.
www.npr.org www.npr.org
Click to expand...

Bodes well for the traditional vaccines as well, because most are using spike as the antigen.

Also, it's interesting that Moderna's synthetic nucleoside(s) make their synthetic mRNA more stable than the one(s) used by Biontech.

I'd also like to note that Moderna has already observed enough serious COVID patients in the placebo group to meet the WHO guidelines. From what I understand, they just need to get a bit more case numbers, which shouldn't take much more than a month or so. It's not clear that Biontech has enough serious COVID observations yet though - I don't think this was mentioned regarding their trial.
 
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RenegadeMonster said:
The United States is not heading towards a nationwide lockdown like Europe. Even as states start to impose more restrictions, we will not see anything like we saw back in March / April.

A Supreme Court ruling in PA set the precedence that states don't have the power under the constitution to close non essential businesses and issues stay at home orders. Any such order would be quickly challenged. And with the conservative majority on the SCOTUS, it likely will be shot down.

In addition, several states legislators have passed laws restricting their governors and health departments emergency declaration powers in response to the previous lockdown. These states either do not allow a future lock down, limit the time period a lockdown can last or that a governor does not have the power to issue one, it would have to be decided through the state legislator.

At the national level Trump is signaling there will be no national lockdown or recommendations. He's still touting "open back up".

View attachment 75105

Data shows that lockdowns work. But we are so against them here. They are to draconian.

Bottomline is it's all about the economy. Capitalism doesn't want a lockdown because the rich can't make as much money. Who cares about the everyday worker who is at high risk and can't stay home because they have to work.
Click to expand...
I would be okay with no more lockdowns as long as anyone who is experiencing covid symptoms can go to a doctor and be treated free of charge, paid for with the next stimulus bill. It is an absolute travesty that the poorest people are also often considered "essential workers" but they either have no health insurance or high deductible health insurance and are in the "underinsured" bracket of people. If we want to force people to go to work and not shut anything down, then we should also pay for their care when they get sick.
 
Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax: executives at several American laboratories developing COVID-19 vaccines have recently pocketed millions of dollars by selling shares in their companies—raising questions about the propriety of such a move in the midst of a national health crisis.

On the very day that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced preliminary data showing its vaccine was 90 percent effective against the coronavirus, its chief executive Albert Bourla sold shares worth $5.6 million.

There was nothing illegal about this, Pfizer said: the sale took place according to rules allowing company heads to sell shares under predetermined criteria, at a date or for a price set in advance, to avoid any suspicion of insider training.

Under the same rules, several Moderna officials have sold shares worth more than $100 million in recent months.

medicalxpress.com

Covid-19: As lab execs sell shares worth millions, questions arise

Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax: executives at several American laboratories developing COVID-19 vaccines have recently pocketed millions of dollars by selling shares in their companies—raising questions about the propriety of such a move in the midst of a national health crisis.
medicalxpress.com medicalxpress.com

Nothing new here, just billionaires profiting off of a drug that has yet to come to market. This makes me wonder though, why are they selling shares if this vaccine is supposed to increase profitability--and possibly send the stock higher?
 
nolalady said:
Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax: executives at several American laboratories developing COVID-19 vaccines have recently pocketed millions of dollars by selling shares in their companies—raising questions about the propriety of such a move in the midst of a national health crisis.

On the very day that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced preliminary data showing its vaccine was 90 percent effective against the coronavirus, its chief executive Albert Bourla sold shares worth $5.6 million.

There was nothing illegal about this, Pfizer said: the sale took place according to rules allowing company heads to sell shares under predetermined criteria, at a date or for a price set in advance, to avoid any suspicion of insider training.

Under the same rules, several Moderna officials have sold shares worth more than $100 million in recent months.

medicalxpress.com

Covid-19: As lab execs sell shares worth millions, questions arise

Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax: executives at several American laboratories developing COVID-19 vaccines have recently pocketed millions of dollars by selling shares in their companies—raising questions about the propriety of such a move in the midst of a national health crisis.
medicalxpress.com medicalxpress.com

Nothing new here, just billionaires profiting off of a drug that has yet to come to market. This makes me wonder though, why are they selling shares if this vaccine is supposed to increase profitability--and possibly send the stock higher?
Click to expand...
Cashing out on a news spike is a sure thing. It will almost definitely fall some in between now and the next great news and associated spike they have. If they want they can reinvest in the company at a lower point and then rinse/repeat. If it doesn't I'm sure they didn't cash all out (he probably gets more than 5 mil in stock every year, chump change) so they have more they can cash out if it goes higher.
 
dhodo said:
Cashing out on a news spike is a sure thing. It will almost definitely fall some in between now and the next great news and associated spike they have. If they want they can reinvest in the company at a lower point and then rinse/repeat. If it doesn't I'm sure they didn't cash all out (he probably gets more than 5 mil in stock every year, chump change) so they have more they can cash out if it goes higher.
Click to expand...

yea it has Receded a bit in value since yesterday. I only have enough that it cost me a couple of dollars, but imaging if you had millions in their stock.
 
I’m about to use half my vacation time just to distance myself from dumb decisions being made at work.

Help me put my feelings into something more appropriate so that I can talk, instead of curse, with my boss when that moment comes.

My work is taking this 6 feet thing as the sole saving gospel. I, however, know that chances for contraction go up drastically with exposure time, use of masks, and inadequate ventilation.

I’m a teacher in Alaska. We teach class sizes of 8 students. Our students fly in from ALL over the state for our class. Our building has ZERO ventilation in our classrooms, no windows at all. While the students are being seated 6.5 feet apart they are not required to wear a mask while at their desk (instructors are not either) and we are with them for 10 hours a day in these confined classrooms. We teach them about fishing regulations (not essential worker kinda stuff). I’m already super sketch about all this but then our boss drops the bomb, if one of our students tests positive then he will be removed from class.... but..... the class will still continue on..... because magic 6 feet rule.
 
Tys1 said:
I’m about to use half my vacation time just to distance myself from dumb decisions being made at work.

Help me put my feelings into something more appropriate so that I can talk, instead of curse, with my boss when that moment comes.

My work is taking this 6 feet thing as the sole saving gospel. I, however, know that chances for contraction go up drastically with exposure time, use of masks, and inadequate ventilation.

I’m a teacher in Alaska. We teach class sizes of 8 students. Our students fly in from ALL over the state for our class. Our building has ZERO ventilation in our classrooms, no windows at all. While the students are being seated 6.5 feet apart they are not required to wear a mask while at their desk (instructors are not either) and we are with them for 10 hours a day in these confined classrooms. We teach them about fishing regulations (not essential worker kinda stuff). I’m already super sketch about all this but then our boss drops the bomb, if one of our students tests positive then he will be removed from class.... but..... the class will still continue on..... because magic 6 feet rule.
Click to expand...
damn, I can't imagine. how are cases in general there? and your risk associations outside of work?

the lack of venitalation plus them flying in for full days is quite a lot to take on for a job. I'm sorry you're having to navigate that with what sounds like little support.
 
bfly said:
damn, I can't imagine. how are cases in general there? and your risk associations outside of work?

the lack of venitalation plus them flying in for full days is quite a lot to take on for a job. I'm sorry you're having to navigate that with what sounds like little support.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I’ve definitely felt alone with my feelings on this outside of my house

We’re on an isolated island, our hospital has 2 ventilators with a population of 6,000. So when things are good it’s comforting, but right now there’s around 40 confirmed cases on island. I would say I’m on the extremely cautious/paranoid side of things. I’m younger (37) but I have A+ blood with 96% comparative Neanderthal genome and a family history of diabetes and high blood pressure.

There are varying levels of caution between my 10 workers and I but I would say that at least 7 of them are hard yolo’ing this thing and two are very open about needing to herd immunize. I’ve saved up 60 days of vacation so I think I can tactfully navigate my way into a vaccine.... but then no vacation time left :(
 
Well, some more bad news on COVID. This preprint paper shows that 70% of low risk young people that had mild COVID have lesions to at least one organ 4 months after infection. This was a surprise to the researchers, who were trying to show that mild COVID cases did not cause organ damage.

www.medrxiv.org

Multi-organ impairment in low-risk individuals with long COVID

Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has disproportionately affected older individuals and those with underlying medical conditions. Research has focused on short-term outcomes in hospital, and single organ involvement. Consequently, impact of long...
www.medrxiv.org www.medrxiv.org


Some good news though, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has just released their complete data and it's 95% effective (the preliminary data from a week ago suggested at least 90%). They should be applying for regulatory approval very soon, so limited vaccine roll outs to critical sectors may even begin before the year is over.
 
Interesting article about the science behind the vaccine and the debate on how publicly funded research is being used as the basis for Pfizer and Moderna's vaccine, that they will inevitably cash in on. What should the obligation for these private companies be?

The vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which are likely to be the first to win FDA approval, in particular rely heavily on two fundamental discoveries that emerged from federally funded research: the viral protein designed by Graham and his colleagues, and the concept of RNA modification, first developed by Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó at the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, Moderna’s founders in 2010 named the company after this concept: “Modified” + “RNA” = Moderna, according to co-founder Robert Langer.

“This is the people’s vaccine,” said corporate critic Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program. “Federal scientists helped invent it and taxpayers are funding its development. … It should belong to humanity.”

Under a 1980 law, the NIH will obtain no money from the coronavirus vaccine patent. How much money will eventually go to the discoverers or their institutions isn’t clear. Any existing licensing agreements haven’t been publicized; patent disputes among some of the companies will likely last years. HHS’ big contracts with the vaccine companies are not transparent, and Freedom of Information Act requests have been slow-walked and heavily redacted, said Duke University law professor Arti Rai.

khn.org

Government-Funded Scientists Laid the Groundwork for Billion-Dollar Vaccines - KFF Health News

Drugmakers will walk away with massive profits, but much of the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines was done with government money.
khn.org khn.org
 
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