Useful article for anyone worried about the new COVID 19 vaccines https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...xxers-coronavirus_uk_5fbcf15cc5b66bb88c615c22 Real opinion of a real medical cell biologist
Hmm tough call, do we listen to someone who earns a living as an alleged pop star or someone who earns a living as a medical cell biologist.
I haven't read the whole thread but to anyone who is considering not having the vaccine, please make sure you discuss this with your other half and children. It is them who will be left without you. I'm sure my good friend who died last night would have jumped at the chance of having a vaccine, albeit too late for him. Dead within 10 days with no (known) underlying conditions at the age of 59.
So sorry to hear that Ade. My condolences to you and your family. It really is frightening how quick this can kill someone. We have all had occasion where we interpret the rules to fit our agenda but the time has definitely come to just follow the rules and save as many as we can.
@SleepyOwl and @littleade, my condolences on the losses of your friend and your sister-in-law. I know here are others on this forum who have also lost friends and loved ones, too. As Wessa said, this virus is nothing to be messed with. Mr. Sandi and I are eager to be vaccinated and tell anyone who tells us they aren't getting the vaccine or are going to wait and see that we'll take their place in line. We of course want to lessen the probability that we'll contract COVID but also to lessen the probability that we'll infect others. One of the things I've observed time and again as I've gotten older is a general belief among people that "bad things happen to 'other people', but not to me". A tragic car accident, cancer, death of a child, and...now in our faces everyday....COVID. I'm sure this way of thinking is somehow psychologically self-protective and serves our fundamental need for safety and security. But...we ARE the "other people". Since COVID hit I've observed this sort of thinking even more frequently. I've read about or heard about a number of people who thought this virus was no big deal or even a hoax but who changed their tune after they themselves became very ill or who had a friend and/or family member who died. When things become personal, perspectives change. I'm with you, SleepyOwl, the time has come (and is overdue in my opinion) "to just follow the rules and save as many as we can".
Searching for some stats on COVID and the NHS I came across this site. A really interesting set of visuals: https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/nhs
Cal might say it’s all made up, by the MSM, but those at the sharp end say otherwise: One of London’s biggest hospitals has warned it is on track to become virtually Covid-only amid a surge in cases in the capital that has left it scrambling to convert operating theatres, surgical recovery areas and stroke wards into intensive care units for the very sick. As the daily coronavirus case numbers in the UK continued an apparently inexorable rise, hitting a record 55,892, with 23,813 people in hospital and 964 reported deaths, the chief executive of University College London hospitals trust (UCLH), Prof Marcel Levi, said admissions were already spiralling beyond the first wave in the spring. Every hospital in London was facing the same demands on beds and staff, and University College hospital was taking admissions from other hospitals that were less well able to cope, he told the Guardian. “This is much more than we had in March and April,” said Levi, an acute medicine doctor. The 500-bed hospital has 220 Covid patients, with the numbers increasing by 5% a day, but the real pressure is on intensive care where there are now 70 very sick patients, as there were in the spring, and the number is rising fast. “Usually in our ITU we have about 35 patients so we are already doubled in size at UCLH. We are further surging upon the request of London to 92 patients in the next week, and thereafter probably we will have to grow even further,” he said. Doctors in England despair over disregard for Covid restrictions At the hospital, whole floors are having to be dismantled and rebuilt to the standards required for intensive care wards. As they did in March, they have had to convert five floors and equip them with oxygen and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines that help people breathe. It came as a nearby hospital reportedly told staff it was in “disaster medicine mode”. The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, has more than 90 patients in adult critical care units and the “number of people with Covid continues to rise rapidly”, according to an email sent to staff. It adds: “We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the fact we are now in disaster medicine mode. We are no longer providing high standard critical care, because we cannot. While this is far from ideal, it’s the way things are, and the way they have to be for now.” Just under half of all major hospital trusts in England – 64 out of 140 – have more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave of the virus. This includes 11 of the 14 acute trusts in eastern England and 12 of the 19 acute trusts in south-east England. The NHS said on Thursday it was making sure the Nightingale hospitals were “reactivated and ready to admit patients”. Levi paid tribute to his “amazing” staff, who volunteered to give up their leave over Christmas and the new year to help save lives. But they are severely stretched: intensive care nurses normally work with one patient; now they may have four or five under their care. Elaine Thorpe, a critical care matron at the hospital, said they set up 20 new intensive care beds on Christmas Eve that were full by New Year’s Eve. “The biggest thing for me is I’m dreadfully worried about my team. Nurses are having to spread themselves thinly. We’re going back to the levels where we were before, where it was one ICU nurse looking after what will be four patients, or more. And we’ve had lots of tears already. “This is happening all over London. UCLH is not quite feeling it the way that the other hospitals are, but a little stretch on an ICU nurse is too much of a stretch and you know we’re already doing way beyond what we would not want to do. And they’re just terrified as well. We’re living it again already.” The tears are partly because nurses are unable to give their patients the dedicated care they want to provide, as well as the distress that Covid inflicts on everyone. Thorpe tells of nurses listening to families at home pouring out their hearts via iPads to severely ill relatives in ICU, who may be able to hear but cannot reply. But there are also tears of frustration that people are still taking risks with the virus. “It’s not about us not stepping up and doing our job. We’ve all sacrificed Christmas and New Year but it’s not about that. We’re here for the patients. But it’s in the hands of the public to stop this, and it’s not listening and tonight [New Year’s Eve] is obviously going to make things even worse,” she said. She has seen high-profile people on Twitter claiming that hospitals and intensive care units are empty. “I just don’t understand and my team don’t understand it, and that’s the really hard thing,” she said. We were almost there, she said, with vaccines on the way. If people had given up Christmas and new year, it could have been different, she said, but now “this is going to be weeks. None of us can see this stopping any time soon.” Cue Cal claiming the hospitals are no busier than normal and that there are still empty beds so it’s all nonsense.
@Judd Dredd - what do you make of the suggestion that people that have had the first Pfizer vaccine don’t get their second jab until 12 weeks to allow more folk get the first jab...
When you misrepresent me you merely represent yourself. https://twitter.com/cheungronny/status/1345307828119089152?s=21
Here we go again! I don’t deny the pressures. You really ought to read what I actually write. The pressures are self evident but less than 10% of Covid patients are now needing mechanical ventilation so most are more High Dependency. Note, however, Covid is barely 20% of total bed occupancy in hospitals about 90% full but 60% manned. I don’t doubt staff are knackered, demoralised etc. Read carefully: My central contention is that the PCR test is a major part of the problem. Its false positive rate significantly overstates disease prevalence and sidelines otherwise healthy staff who are probably guilty of enjoying a break. Who wouldn’t? However, the whole s***show is more nuanced with multiple actors with widely different motives some of whom are coining it. Your lot?
