Oh, shit. 8 out of 100 does not sound dangerous, but it is.
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2:20 min video on vaccinations in Germany.
On a personal note, I received an e-mail from my employer today telling me that our whole institution has moved to a priority group which, in the state I am living in, can already apply for vaccination appointments.
I applied, and since I also performed the application for relatives in other states, I realise the differences in the process. We are makeing a mess of it, since even within states, regional differences exist in how the process works.
At the same time, Germany has a very public discussion about âre-instating the rightsâ to vaccinated people. From a scientific viewpoint, this is crap. Vaccinated people can get infected, and a statement by the RKI which is interpreted as if this isnât the case is a classical clusterfuck in communication.
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That company is sketchy, cubed.
NYT ran this about them in March:
From the article:
An investigation by The New York Times found a hidden explanation: Government purchases for the Strategic National Stockpile, the countryâs emergency medical reserve where such equipment is kept, have largely been driven by the demands and financial interests of a handful of biotech firms that have specialized in products that address terrorist threats rather than infectious disease.
Chief among them is Emergent BioSolutions, a Maryland-based company now manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines for AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Last year, as the pandemic raced across the country, the government paid Emergent $626 million for products that included vaccines to fight an entirely different threat: a terrorist attack using anthrax.
Throughout most of the last decade, the government has spent nearly half of the stockpileâs half-billion-dollar annual budget on the companyâs anthrax vaccines, The Times found. That left the government with less money to buy supplies needed in a pandemic, despite repeatedly being advised to do so.
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Because China speaks softly, and weilds a big stick, like the US and the ICC (as this isnât just a China thing by any stretch of the imagination). The WHO is unfortunately beholden to the money coming in from its big donors.
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The Oxford AZ was due to be patent free, Bill Gateâs foundation ran with the racist colonialist trope that brown people canât be trusted to make vaccines safely and securely (a lie on so many levels) and convinced Oxford to sell the patent to AZ, then âdonatedâ vaccines to those poor brown people to try and whitewash Billâs bloodstained hands a little bit more.
I donât think Gates is looking to microchip everyone, but he is very welcome to fuck off with his defense of IP, and attempts to make himself seem a little less responsible for the problems the world has at the moment.
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The only benefit I can see is that it might encourage hesitant people to get vaccinated. There are some people who donât want to feel left out of the group, others who are motivated by the idea of having higher status or privileges, and some who want whatâs perceived to be scarce or rare. At this point it seems more important to have more people getting the initial vaccine, so theyâll be less resistant when the âyouâre gonna need booster shotsâ phase comes.
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you have to remember that a significant portion of rural oregon would like to become part of a âgreater idahoâ to get the jackbooted thugs of âliberal portlandâ off their backs.
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that also belongs with the Fucking NY Times thread.
last year âthe governmentâ meant the trump administration, and ppe was theoretically handled by kushner.
to not connect it back to whatâs already been reported about their deliberate missteps, and instead assign it to some faceless government - theyâre basically writing for the few remaining reagan republicans
( water is wet, i know )
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Yeah, always tempted to cross post anything from NYT over there as well. I share your distaste for anyone (but especially a media company with an editorial board) to trot out âthe governmentâ in anything.
The government is made up of a number of individuals who make decisions. 
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Except when they are formed of unnamed âsourcesâ media outlets allow spin for the government.
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Imagine spending 30 years trying to convince the world youâre not actually a supervillain through targeted philanthropy only to burn it all down over the course of 14 months because you canât let go of the concept of intellectual property rights.
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The debate is centered on citizen/human rights. As everyone knows, Germany has a terrible past concerning basic rights, like the right to assemble and the right to free movement. Restriction of rights, especially those explicitly mentioned in the Grundgesetz, are a very sensitive issue. In short, German courts, including our supreme court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) demand restrictions to be specific, having a clear and present cause, proven effectiveness, and to be individually considered. This is for good reasons, of course, and has helped against government overreach multiple times.
That means that motivational issues of removing restrictions like you mentioned would not even be considered, at all.
The question rather is: can restrictions, especially the curfew, but also mandatory tests before a shopping event, can be upheld when an individual is already vaccinated? The former, I would clearly say: yes. There is enough evidence that curfew does work.
The latter, no. It means that you are needed to let someone compromise your bodily integrity, it also isnât particularly effective since a lateral flow test only catches most people who are strongly effective and also do not rule out people to be in a stage of infection where coughing from lower respiratory tract is infectious (and upper respiratory tract is already non-detectable by an AG test), etc.
The above-mentioned RKI paper says something like that people who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from a natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 are as likely to be infectious as people presenting a recent negative nucleocapsid antigene test from a nasopharyngeal swipe.
The German chancellor basically already reacted to the latter, and it seems that this particular restriction will end for people who are fully vaccinated or recovered.
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Brazil is running out of vaccines. Minister of Health advised that States and Municipalities should use all doses of Coronavac and keep nothing for a second application. Now the minister admits that there is difficulty in obtaining raw materials and vaccines will probably be lacking for the population.
Fortunately my mother was able to take the two shots of Coronavac. But how many people are at risk of not having complete and effective protection?
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The devastation couldnât be more severe. Yesterday, India recorded its highest single-day death toll from COVID for the ninth consecutive day, and the highest new number of cases anywhere in the world. But the United States announced itâs immediately shipping supplies and tapping âevery resource at our disposalâ for aid, including rapid testing kits, oxygen, protective gear, and vaccine material.
I donât think India (or anyone, including you Doug Ford!) can vaccinate themselves out of a bad wave, just take the steam out of future ones, but this is good.
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Hahaha! No one could actually be in league with the virus, of course.
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Oh for fucking out loud.
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