Vaccine Pre-Requisite

[Kerry Liles]

A different approach to immunization? A nasal spray that provides protection for several hours...

https://sparkmed.stanford.edu/phase-...mmunity-agent/

[Sid Belzberg]

FYI
https://geozr4zgiy5e6jztggnl4nzv3e-a...onavaksinering

[Aris Marghetis]

Some new rules that will have to be enforced when OTB chess returns and players speak to each other....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ctZPNppUt4

Pargat, I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes, thanks!!

[Pargat Perrer]

Some new rules that will have to be enforced when OTB chess returns and players speak to each other....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ctZPNppUt4

[Dale Hoshizaki]

I just got the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Sunday. We're having some difficulty with getting the vaccines into people, due mainly to inefficient health care bureaucracy as far as I can tell, so most of the ER physicians/nurses/hospital health care workers have not received anything yet...I was fortunate to be finishing a shift in the ER when a nearby nursing home called, saying they had a few doses left from the day's vaccinations, so I walked over with some of the nurses and got the shot. Went well, no side effects, just a slightly sore arm from the injection

[Neil Frarey]

{ Hmm. No spelling or grammatical errors. Punctuation looks ok. There is an unattributed quote but .... why quibble? Overall, appears to he well written.}

Okay people!! Very funny. Who figured out Neil's password?

Pandemic Peter ... strikes again!!!

COVID-esque virus spreading from thread to thread ... LOOL!!!

[Peter McKillop]

They do work. Masks are meant to keep droplets inside the mask. They act as a barrier for spraying out droplets. Not as a shield from preventing droplets from coming in.

But I do think those clear acrylic panels are almost a complete waste. Air circulation goes in all directions...

“These barriers are designed to prevent large spray-born droplets, which are released when someone talks loudly or coughs at close range,” she told me. “But you also have to account for the smaller particles that can go around the plexiglass barrier and stay airborne for longer periods of time, which someone can still inhale.”

...that's why people should wear a mask! Keep as much of those 'large spray-born droplets' inside the mask as possible.

{ Hmm. No spelling or grammatical errors. Punctuation looks ok. There is an unattributed quote but .... why quibble? Overall, appears to he well written.}

Okay people!! Very funny. Who figured out Neil's password?

[Peter McKillop]

....

In the U.S. especially I fear that the uptake of the vaccine in the general population will be unacceptably low for the same reason Trump still managed to get 70 million votes.

.....

[Dilip Panjwani]

Aren't you making the assumption that people who have had Covid but have "recovered" are now immune? I am not sure I have seen that documented anywhere. It seems like a common assumption but I am not sure there is a lot of research on that. (please feel free to point to such information).

If the first encounter did not produce immunity, we would have had about 600,000 cases of a second infection in USA. How many have been reported from that country? Less than 6? Or is it just 1?

[Kerry Liles]

Fauci says 70% immune could be considered herd immunity for COVID19.
So given the rapidly rising percentage of those already infected once, multiplied by a factor to account for untested infected cases, and the fast pace of vaccination expected, all bode well for a big OTB chess tournament in the USA in mid 2021...

Aren't you making the assumption that people who have had Covid but have "recovered" are now immune? I am not sure I have seen that documented anywhere. It seems like a common assumption but I am not sure there is a lot of research on that. (please feel free to point to such information).

In the U.S. especially I fear that the uptake of the vaccine in the general population will be unacceptably low for the same reason Trump still managed to get 70 million votes.

[Dilip Panjwani]

Can you give us your benchmark numbers for achieving herd immunity?

Fauci says 70% immune could be considered herd immunity for COVID19.
So given the rapidly rising percentage of those already infected once, multiplied by a factor to account for untested infected cases, and the fast pace of vaccination expected, all bode well for a big OTB chess tournament in the USA in mid 2021...

[Bob Gillanders]

Herd immunity is well on its way in the US...should be achieved in early 2021...

Well, it's early 2021 now, and yesterday (Jan 1) numbers reported

USA
new cases 166,044
new deaths 2,129

Canada
new cases 2,129
new deaths - none

being a holiday, it is likely numbers for Jan 1 are underreported?

Can you give us your benchmark numbers for achieving herd immunity?
When will Canada achieve herd immunity?

[Dilip Panjwani]

Herd immunity is well on its way in the US...should be achieved in early 2021...

[Lucas Davies]

Those were the same health professionals who said masks were not useful before they said they were.

If masks worked, we would have beat the virus. I wear mine whenever I am out in public but I am not stupid enough to think that it offers any protection. No one else should be under that illusion. The virus is spreading not because people are not wearing masks. It is spreading because that's what a virus does. I do get irritated when people violate social distancing which they do all the time.

That's like saying that seatbelts don't work because people still die in car accidents. Masks don't eliminate the spread of the virus; they mitigate it, and if everyone consistently wears them when appropriate, it significantly reduces the spread. Even if they did have 100% effectiveness then we still wouldn't have beaten the virus because of the enormous number of people who refuse to wear them. You can easily find multiple meta-analyses that show the effectiveness of masks, e.g. https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...77893920302301

[Neil Frarey]

If masks worked,

They do work. Masks are meant to keep droplets inside the mask. They act as a barrier for spraying out droplets. Not as a shield from preventing droplets from coming in.

But I do think those clear acrylic panels are almost a complete waste. Air circulation goes in all directions...

“These barriers are designed to prevent large spray-born droplets, which are released when someone talks loudly or coughs at close range,” she told me. “But you also have to account for the smaller particles that can go around the plexiglass barrier and stay airborne for longer periods of time, which someone can still inhale.”

...that's why people should wear a mask! Keep as much of those 'large spray-born droplets' inside the mask as possible.