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    I don’t know what to say. This could go on for a long time.

    Comment


      Caputo appears to be in genuine need of medical attention.

      Even by the standards of this batshit administration.

      Comment


        Originally posted by fospheny View Post

        I can't see the article behind the paywall. However, as someone who works in the industry, I think 2024 is not feasible. For one, there is a global shortage of borosilicate glass. We are struggling to get enough vials to cover our production needs for the next few years, Given the supply of vials is a single deliverable, out of a myriad of things that go into producing a dose unit for a patient, I fully expect a range of similar challenges and issues across the board. 2024 seems way too ambitious (and that is before governmental and company politics come into it)

        some extracts


        The chief executive of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer has warned that not enough Covid-19 vaccines will be available for everyone in the world to be inoculated until the end of 2024 at the earliest. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, told the Financial Times that pharmaceutical companies were not increasing production capacity quickly enough to vaccinate the global population in less time. “It’s going to take four to five years until everyone gets the vaccine on this planet,” said Mr Poonawalla, who estimated that if the Covid-19 shot is a two-dose vaccine — such as measles or rotavirus — the world will need 15bn doses. Based in the western Indian city of Pune, the family-run Serum Institute has partnered with five international pharmaceutical firms, including AstraZeneca and Novavax, to develop a Covid-19 vaccine and committed to produce 1bn doses, of which it has pledged half to India. The company may also partner with Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute to manufacture the Sputnik vaccine. Mr Poonawalla said that the commitment far exceeded the capacity of other vaccine producers. “I know the world wants to be optimistic on it . . . [but] I have not heard of anyone coming even close to that [level] right now,” he said in a video call from London.
        ...

        he company is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, producing 1.5bn doses of vaccines annually for use in more than 170 countries to protect against many infectious diseases, such as polio, measles and influenza.

        ...


        “We’re... diluting equity so that we have enough capital to manage the raw materials and equipment we need in the next one or two years to operate at this scale,” he said. In April, Mr Poonawalla placed orders for 600m glass vials and other materials to prepare for mass production of the vaccine. Yet he fears that distribution in India, the country with the world’s fastest-growing coronavirus caseload, will be difficult because there is not a sophisticated cold chain system to transport the vaccine safely to its 1.4bn people. “I still don’t see a proper plan on paper to do that [in India] beyond 400m doses,” he said. “You don't want a situation with the vaccine where you have capacity for your country but you can’t consume it.”

        Comment


          The USA has reached 600 deaths per million population, or 0.06% of the population that has died from Covid-19.

          Comment


            Presumably a global vaccination programme for COVID would take away resources from other equally needed ones like malaria? If so, I'd be worried about spikes in other deaths.

            Comment


              Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
              Presumably a global vaccination programme for COVID would take away resources from other equally needed ones like malaria? If so, I'd be worried about spikes in other deaths.

              Excellent point. I wonder if fospheny can confirm if this would be the case.
              Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 15-09-2020, 12:10.

              Comment


                As there's been some discussion regarding getting tests and the results in the UK I'd like just to give you my recent timeline, though I don't know how typical it is.

                I had a fever at the start of last week. I tried to order a home test on Tuesday afternoon/evening without success. I had a few goes. Successfully got one on Wednesday morning which arrived late on Thursday, having been dispatched from the Glasgow centre. I posted it back Friday midday and got the (negative) result by both text and email yesterday evening. They indicate that processing is slower at weekends and on public holidays so, given that, I was quite impressed with how quickly I received the yay or nay.

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                  The Irish government has unveiled its new Covid strategy - as of tonight, Ireland will be on level 2 of 5, but Dublin is expected to be placed on level 3 next week. All pubs will be opened next Monday, except in the capital, which will also see the spectator ban continue. In other counties, sports events can have a maximum attendance of 200, if the venue has a capacity greater than 5,000, otherwise it will only be 100. All in all, the uncertainty hardly builds confidence in Stephen Donnelly as Health Minister.

                  Comment


                    It's not level 3 in Dublin, it's like 2 and a bit. Nothing like clear messaging is there.

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                      Leo will no doubt be briefing against his own govt before the 6 one news is on.

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                        While we are all worrying about the virus, it's good to see some good old fashioned human error

                        Coronavirus: 18,000 test results published by mistake


                        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54146755

                        Comment


                          What is it they do at six o'clock that delays the news, again?

                          Comment


                            Well, here it's if the hockey game runs long....

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                              Hehe, no, in Ireland, the news is at a minute past, not at six, by schedule, because of a thing. I can't recall if it's a national anthem or a prayer or...ah, I looked it up, it's church bells.

                              Since 1950, RT? has broadcast a one-minute period of silence except for the ringing of a church bell linked to the Angelus, a Catholic prayer, at 12:00pm [sic] and 6:00pm. Though periodic calls have been made for its removal, a number of religious faiths outside Catholicism notably the Church of Ireland, have called for its continuation, regarding the minute as offering a chance for reflection amid a busy television schedule. (The broadcast no longer carries Catholic imagery, and instead focuses on images of people contemplating.) Because of this, the radio and television news bulletins start at 6:01pm, hence the name.

                              Some critics have mounted a campaign to abolish the Angelus on RT?, mostly in the Letters' pages of the Irish Times, though this is despite the fact that the Angelus at 6:00pm is one of RT?'s most popular television programmes and is Ireland's most watched religious programme, with an average of 433,000 viewers every day.[8] It is unclear whether RT? would move its bulletin back one minute to 6:00pm as that would mean that the newscast would be in direct competition to get viewers at exactly the same time as other stations.

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                                Another BBC headline. Probably the most 2020 headline we'll see.

                                Coronavirus: Ebbsfleet Covid-19 test centre shut to become lorry park

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                                  https://twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1305903183580090368

                                  ​​​​​​All because:

                                  https://twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1305899348983676928

                                  Comment


                                    Meanwhile, 357 cases and 3 deaths in Ireland today, of which 218 were in Dublin.

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                                      Originally posted by TonTon View Post
                                      Hehe, no, in Ireland, the news is at a minute past, not at six, by schedule, because of a thing. I can't recall if it's a national anthem or a prayer or...ah, I looked it up, it's church bells.
                                      Don't knock it - gives you a chance to watch the headlines on BBC, and the RTE, before committing to watch one or the other!

                                      Comment


                                        Originally posted by fospheny View Post

                                        Don't knock it - gives you a chance to watch the headlines on BBC, and the RTE, before committing to watch one or the other!
                                        You also get to see some of the most self conscious "acting" on TV.

                                        Comment



                                          Originally posted by Nocturnal Submission View Post


                                          Excellent point. I wonder if fospheny can confirm if this would be the case.
                                          I believe that this would be exactly the case, and I meant it obliquely when I mentioned company politics. The things that make pharmaceuticals are in this case a finite resource (to the extent that you just cannot ramp up to that many doses with the resources to hand). There are limitations in refrigerated shipping, vials, plants, man hours, cold chain warehouse space (most companies have stocked up on product and raw materials initially due to Brexit, and in a serious way since March with COVID) etc etc.

                                          I will give one concrete example of an excipient called Captisol (also called SBECD). It is used in loads of medicines (injectables) - it gets things into a solution that are not normally soluble. We use it in one of our products, which is literally life saving for some cancer patients. Many other companies use it in bread and butter antibiotics (but life saving nevertheless) as well as more cutting edge therapies. I cannot imagine the company I work for giving up our purchase options on Captisol to allow a competitor use it in their therapy (for example Gilead's COVID treatment remdesevir). For one, the shareholders won't tolerate the hit to the bottom line. But most importantly, if your loved one needed a medicine to stave off cancer, how happy would you be if that product was not manufactured due to a shortage of Captisol, or glass vials which were redirected to a COVID vaccine (to what would be perceived as a healthy person)

                                          Comment


                                            School attendance is around 88% compared to the normal 95% plus.

                                            From Monday onwards I'm expecting to see a spike in cases.

                                            We've got about 50 from 1,000 students in quarantine or waiting for a test or results. Of course we've not been told this.

                                            It appears that schools where a student tests positive are sending that year group home for two weeks, but teachers who taught them are still in school.

                                            Comment


                                              Originally posted by Antepli Ejderha View Post
                                              School attendance is around 88% compared to the normal 95% plus.

                                              From Monday onwards I'm expecting to see a spike in cases.

                                              We've got about 50 from 1,000 students in quarantine or waiting for a test or results. Of course we've not been told this.

                                              It appears that schools where a student tests positive are sending that year group home for two weeks, but teachers who taught them are still in school.
                                              Yes, that happened at my nephew's school. Yr 9 sent home, but yr 9 teachers still at work. There is also a child in his class (yr 11) who has the symptoms but can't get a test. They haven't been told to isolate. My mother has nonetheless decided to keep him at home.

                                              I advised her to contact the school to get them to email all worksheets etc so she can teach him at home, which should counter any talk of unauthorised time off.
                                              Last edited by ooh aah; 16-09-2020, 06:17.

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                                                BBC Breakfast are reporting from Bolton, "the Covid Capital of the UK". Their council's Chief Executive is on telly and at pains to express that the testing chaos is nothing to do with the council but entirely the fault of the companies the government has contracted to run them.

                                                Comment


                                                  The USA has exceeded 200,000 deaths from Covid-19.

                                                  Comment


                                                    India is the second country to reach 5 million+ confirmed cases of Covid-19, and has a death toll of 82,000+.

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