h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I learned from virologists quoted in my newspaper this morning that 66% percent effective does not mean the vaccine is useless in the remaining 34%. It will only be less effective, but will probably prevent both deaths and cases so severe that hospitalization is required.

The vaccine from AstraZeneca is probably as effective as those from other providers. But there have been some issues with the trial. This has led to doubts about its effectiveness. And extended the approval of the EU authorities.

There is also positive news about the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. However, it is also affected by doubts about development and testing. So it is unlikely to be approved by the EU for the time being.

Probably the best vaccines will eventually be tested on real people, and the process will get better. So maybe there's hope, though not as fast as one could hope.

all we have to hope - is hope itself


should probably be "all we have to hope FOR etc." but you get it

I'm still hanging in there.Somehow

I'll tell you again and again:
i'm not interested in men
who go out ashooting
killing and tooting
their own horns and shofars.

I so prefer sofas

I'll couch my expressions
In lofty digressions.
Sofa as I'm concerned,
What's important, I've learned

In Iowa or Maine,
I'll try to explain:
I'll hole up in my fort
In a plush Davenport.

My friend is so proud of her new walk-in closet and double door refrigerator.

I can hardly wait to show her my new T-shirt and my walk-in fridge

This thread started out on vaccines.
It's drifting --don't know what that means.
Can't say that I'm vexed.
Where will it go next?
A recipe for lima beans?

I chose my headline with care
as threads can move anywhere
topics may drift
slowly or swift
from sweet dream into nightmare

Care is a good thing to use.
That said, I am eas'ly confused.
If it's all right you,
I won't fret or stew,
And try, somehow, to feel enthused.

Why have I never seen a with a receding hairline?

Dogs do lose their fur sometimes. Maybe you didn't see one of those.

Now that you mention it I have seen old and sick dogs losing some of their fur - but not the way human males do

After days without sufficient heat in the house, it's a pleasure to read my three thermometers now. They show 23.2, 24 and 24.6 degrees Celsius respectively

The truth may be somewhere inbetween those digits I guess

NASA's Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars.

Its primary mission is to search for evidence of micrbial life on M

"
Probably the best vaccines will eventually be tested on real people"

I thought that that was the third stage of testing that all the approved vaccines have already gone through.

Or, to put it in rhyme

To beat this illness caused by bats
Which even affects our dogs and cats
The scientists have fiddled with DNA
(Which they love doing anyway)
First they looked in their microscopes
(they had cleaned the lenses, one only hopes)
Then some rats were given the shot
Then came the humans - quite a lot
The paperwork was then processed
And the doctors left to deal with the rest.

Yes, all vaccines will - eventually - be tested on humans for some time before they are approved.

My paper tells me Israel gave 600,000 citizens vaccines from Pfizer/Biontech and placebo shots to 600,000 others. The vaccinated group fared 92 to 94 percent better.

But there are still a number of vaccines that haven't undergone all tests yet and maybe some of them will show up to be even better.

The end is near
I only have
42
cans of beer

The vaccines in use currently; Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Moderna; have all been through stage three HUMAN trials already. One of the reasons these all passed stage three testing so quickly is because of how widespread the pandemic is. How the testing works is thousands of volunteers are given either the vaccine (control group) or a placebo. There isn't a set amount of time to run the test. The test ends when a certain number of people naturally contract the disease. Once that number is reached, the researchers "unblind" the test, they look to see how many of the infected people were in the control or the placebo groups. In the test for these three vaccines almost all the infections were in the placebo group showing that the vaccine is effective. And even of the few that did get infected, none of those had severe disease requiring hospitalization.

Yes indeed. And as I stated in post 21: "I learned from virologists quoted in my newspaper this morning that 66% percent effective does not mean the vaccine is useless in the remaining 34%. It will only be somewhat less effective, but will probably prevent both deaths and cases so severe that hospitalization is required."

And as I also have written earlier the top priority of our authorities is to prevent our hospitals from becoming swarmed with severely ill patients who will need ventilators and surveillance 24/7. There are only so many hospital beds and ventilators and there are lots of patients with other challenges who will also need to be attended to. We have tried to learn from the disasters in China, Italy and other countries.

And so far we have succeeded. Big time.

It is incomprehensible that we have to tell our local fact-resistant covid-19 deniers this again and again