NWR new zero tolerance covid thread

Sad as it is a good vaccine and the world needs them
I really feel for the Oxford team, despite the trial and comms errors. Macron and other people in positions of leadership who used AZ/Oxford as a scapegoat have done the world a disservice. Lives were lost as a result of their fostering of vaccine hesitancy.
 
I really feel for the Oxford team, despite the trial and comms errors. Macron and other people in positions of leadership who used AZ/Oxford as a scapegoat have done the world a disservice. Lives were lost as a result of their fostering of vaccine hesitancy.

That does make for depressing reading. I know two vax-avoiders suddenly, having thought I didn't know any. I don't know either well and don't know their specific reasons for avoiding. One is in his lmid-50s, the other is only 22, and wouldn't have been in line for A-Z anyway.
 
Those who have had the AZ vaccine manufactured in India and administered in the UK are generally pissed off that it hasn't been recognised by the EU and therefore it is up to individual Member States as to whether they accept it for travel. I know Italy doesn't. It is suggested that it is identical to the AZ vaccine manufactured in the UK, but it turns out a lot of it was imported here. Interestingly, as some of you may know, we have some family connections with Nepal. I'm told no one there will agree to having the AZ because there is a general perception that Nepal has been used as a testing ground for Indian manufactured vaccines in the past. This has certainly not helped Nepal's vaccination programme, though they have not been able to access very many doses of any Covid vaccine, as is the sad state of affairs for many countries outside of "The West". IMHO very shortsighted due to allowing new variants to develop in countries swamped by the virus.
 
That does make for depressing reading. I know two vax-avoiders suddenly, having thought I didn't know any. I don't know either well and don't know their specific reasons for avoiding. One is in his lmid-50s, the other is only 22, and wouldn't have been in line for A-Z anyway.
I can sort of understand it in the young where the risk in being unvaccinated is lower, although at a population level being unvaccinated present a risk to others.

But being anti-vax in one's 50s suggests either a poor grasp of basic arithmetic, alarming credulity, or both. If it's credulity I hope nobody tries to sell them a dodgy pension transfer.
 
I can sort of understand it in the young where the risk in being unvaccinated is lower, although at a population level being unvaccinated present a risk to others.

But being anti-vax in one's 50s suggests either a poor grasp of basic arithmetic, alarming credulity, or both. If it's credulity I hope nobody tries to sell them a dodgy pension transfer.

Well, he's a pretty singular sort of guy - alternative might be a good description, though very intelligent and very successful in his own field.
 
Well, he's a pretty singular sort of guy - alternative might be a good description, though very intelligent and very successful in his own field.
Sorry Tom, my explanation was simplistic and needlessly disparaging.

For me it's more disturbing when anti-vax views are held by otherwise well-informed people. It reinforces my sense that we are a society rather vulnerable to all manner of cons and demagoguery.
 
Has anyone here venturing to France been turned away for having feelthy rosbif AZ vaccine?
No. Isabelle and I go to many concerts and opera and our certificates who mention AZ vaccine are accepted everywhere.
British media have made a show of Macron mistake who, when briefed that AZ had not included over 60 years old patients in the trials concluded it didn’t work. The reality was nobody knew. In France, the Prime and health ministers publicly got the AZ injection to try to correct the damage caused by Macron… but British media were only interested in making a UK France battle and are indeed responsible for the exposure of Macron mistake across the World for weeks .
For the rest, the biggest mistake was for HMG to choose AZ a company with no experience in vaccines ( and a britoswedish company with a French CEO and a Swedish president, no British at the top).
Oxford (financed by EU) betrayed by AZ chosen by HMG health minister…
 
No. Isabelle and I go to many concerts and opera and our certificates who mention AZ vaccine are accepted everywhere.
British media have made a show of Macron mistake who, when briefed that AZ had not included over 60 years old patients in the trials concluded it didn’t work. The reality was nobody knew. In France, the Prime and health ministers publicly got the AZ injection to try to correct the damage caused by Macron… but British media were only interested in making a UK France battle and are indeed responsible for the exposure of Macron mistake across the World for weeks .
For the rest, the biggest mistake was for HMG to choose AZ a company with no experience in vaccines ( and a britoswedish company with a French CEO and a Swedish president, no British at the top).
Oxford (financed by EU) betrayed by AZ chosen by HMG health minister…
Perhaps the lesson for all countries is that there will always be consequences, usually negative ones, when political leaders pretend to more scientific knowledge than they, or science, actually have.
 
I forget - are Politico to be trusted?!
You be the judge. I noted that at the bottom of the article are links to one that posits that the US spying on its allies as both normal and 'smart" and another that argues for government regulation of encryption services and devices so that no stone is left unturned in the pursuit of criminals.
 
I know a couple of highly intelligent people who are not getting the vaccination. Both of them say the same thing: there is no data on the long term effects of the vaccine and that in a situation like this better vaccines will develop anyway. Given that any new vaccine, even if it tests to be 100% effective at preventing Covid, will always have the “what are the long term effects” hanging over it, I presume that means neither of them will be taking the vaccine in the short term.
 
I know a couple of highly intelligent people who are not getting the vaccination.
Being highly intelligent demonstrably does not prevent you from coming to unsound conclusions. My favourite example is Linus Pauling, who was a distinguished chemist that won Nobel Prizes for both Chemistry and Peace. But later in life, in the absence of clinical evidence, he convinced himself that high dose vitamin C helps against several diseases including cancer, and aggressively advocated its use. He was simply wrong about vitamin C.

I am pretty sure that any rational comparison of the short- and long-term risks of delaying vaccination would demonstrate that your friends came to the wrong conclusion too. But irrespective of risk, who knows what will happen to them in particular? They have presumably survived so far without too much harm, and might well get lucky. I just hope they don't pass Covid on to someone else who might not be so fortunate.
 
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I personally believe Linus Pauling was right, but I’m not sure this is the forum to discuss that!

The vaccines don’t seem to be vaccines in the traditional sense of providing immunity - in fact they are not particularly effective at preventing infection. They seem to be good at preventing hospitalisation & death which is obviously the most important thing but if those choosing not to take them are not in a vulnerable category, their chances of hospitalisation & death are very low anyway so they may not see the point in taking a risk.
 
Being highly intelligent demonstrably does not prevent you from coming to unsound conclusions.

Einstein went to his grave denouncing quantum mechanics as a load of nonsense - "God does not play dice with the universe" - but we now have plenty of evidence that it is a real thing, even if we're still a long way from properly understanding it.
 
Einstein went to his grave denouncing quantum mechanics as a load of nonsense - "God does not play dice with the universe" - but we now have plenty of evidence that it is a real thing, even if we're still a long way from properly understanding it.
I’d have thought the god part proves the point better then the quantum mechanics. ;)

(I am aware of Einstein’s views on ‘God’)
 
What does being a "real thing" in this context really mean, though? Any more than just being an extremely sound predictive model?
It means that it's a theory that accurately describes the way that the universe works - that what we call quantum phenomena are actual phenomena. Newton's law of universal gravitation is also just an extremely sound predictive model, but that doesn't mean that gravity isn't a 'real thing'. 'Extremely sound predictive models' are the basis of all science - they are ways of explaining the phenomena that we see around us by describing fundamental underlying laws.
 
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