Covid-19 Politics

[broncofan]

I don't know enough about the vaccine manufacturing process to know if making more initially was feasible. But it does seem like it would have made sense in terms of risk/reward to have subsidized the production of Johnson & Johnson since at least December. I also don't know how many doses are promised to other countries so don't mean to sound nationalistic.

There is concern about the variants we've seen. There are three of them so far and while the UK one has characteristics that make it more dangerous (more transmissible possibly more deadly) the South African one has drifted enough that it evades some of our antibody response. Still, Johnson & Johnson is nearly 50% effective against the South African variant in actual trials and Pfizer and Moderna likely offer modest protection.

It is concerning any time a virus mutates but I read a thread from a virologist who said that it's not unexpected given how much transmission there has been in a year. Her point was that there has been antigenic drift throughout the year but these variants are the first that show significantly different characteristics in terms of transmissibility and antibody response. That does not mean that it's a fast moving target or that it's going to be as tough to protect against as the flu which in some years reformulated vaccines only offer 35% protection. Here's virologist Angela Rasmussens's thread about the differences in rates of mutation between flu and sars-cov-2. I'm including the conclusion because the rest is way above my comprehension. https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/...57302694117376


Edit: I should also point out that she is offering a correction to Tom Frieden who is the former CDC director. Most virologists I've followed agree with her viewpoint. I'm not saying he's acting in bad faith or scaremongering but amusing that his glib, frightening conclusion has many more likes than hers.

[Laphroaig]

If vaccination is not compulsory I assume you could choose to pass and then opt in later. The government wants to get as many people vaccinated as possible, so it would not make sense to not let people change their minds.

Possible but while I'm not sure (and by my estimation am unlikely to get the vaccine myself until summer at the earliest) I don't believe you know in advance which one you'll be given. It would be like continually rolling the dice and hoping to eventually roll a double 6.

[blackchubby38]

Governor Cuomo has gotten a lot of praise for how he has handled the pandemic. But its interesting to see how some of that shine is starting to come off.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/n...ials-quit.html

This line here is pretty infuriating:

“When I say ‘experts’ in air quotes, it sounds like I’m saying I don’t really trust the experts,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference on Friday, referring to scientific expertise at all levels of government during the pandemic. “Because I don’t. Because I don’t.”

[Stavros]

We had this nonsense during the Brexit debate when Michael Gove was asked to name an economist who backed his Brexit campaign - "Michael Gove has refused to name any economists who back Britain’s exit from the European Union, saying that “people in this country have had enough of experts”. "
https://www.ft.com/content/3be49734-...4-abc22d5d108c

The sad fact is that plans are made by experts to anticipate a crisis, be it in public health, a major accident etc, but when it happens, polticians with their 'eyes on the prize' intervene, and usually to make a bad situation worse. That this is the worst public health crisis in 100 years ought to have tempered Mr Cuomo's approach, but evidently it emboldened him to scale the heights of glory. That this is not unique, in either the US or the UK or for that matter, in Europe, suggests we have a generation of politicians who do not compare favourably with those we had in the past, so it is not just an Institutional failure. I daresay New York will get through this over the next year, but when the history comes to be written, I will trust the experienced historians of medicine and society, rather than the memoirs of any man, or woman, seeking to cement their place in history, often with prose that actually reads like cement.

[blackchubby38]

We had this nonsense during the Brexit debate when Michael Gove was asked to name an economist who backed his Brexit campaign - "Michael Gove has refused to name any economists who back Britain’s exit from the European Union, saying that “people in this country have had enough of experts”. "
https://www.ft.com/content/3be49734-...4-abc22d5d108c

The sad fact is that plans are made by experts to anticipate a crisis, be it in public health, a major accident etc, but when it happens, polticians with their 'eyes on the prize' intervene, and usually to make a bad situation worse. That this is the worst public health crisis in 100 years ought to have tempered Mr Cuomo's approach, but evidently it emboldened him to scale the heights of glory. That this is not unique, in either the US or the UK or for that matter, in Europe, suggests we have a generation of politicians who do not compare favourably with those we had in the past, so it is not just an Institutional failure. I daresay New York will get through this over the next year, but when the history comes to be written, I will trust the experienced historians of medicine and society, rather than the memoirs of any man, or woman, seeking to cement their place in history, often with prose that actually reads like cement.

You mean a book like this right:

https://www.amazon.com/American-Cris...s%2C158&sr=1-1

[cleats50]

You are so wrong. Faucci is scum. He fucked up AIDS response and now this

[Stavros]

You mean a book like this right:

https://www.amazon.com/American-Cris...s%2C158&sr=1-1

One of those WTF?! moments as I had not heard of this before. I assume it is now on the reading list for Columbia students of American fiction?

[fred41]

One of those WTF?! moments as I had not heard of this before. I assume it is now on the reading list for Columbia students of American fiction?

Just to add to the WTF ?! Moment - he also won an Emmy.

[broncofan]

I watched Cuomo's press conferences and thought he spoke well and was good at offering hope and encouragement during tough times. But that's not the only job of a governor obviously. New York has not done a great job with the virus and Cuomo has not had a good relationship with health experts in his state and as blackchubby's post shows, has derided them as well.

I don't know enough about him and while I was inclined to like him it takes some balls to write a book about your leadership ability when you've done no better than average during a crisis. Reminds me of Giuliani bringing up 9/11 every other sentence thinking it was his crowning moment and would lead him to the white house. We know how that turned out.

People make a lot of judgments based on how someone speaks and presents himself. Cuomo came across as credible but his attempt to capitalize on an international crisis is pathetic. Genuinely pathetic...

[broncofan]

Reminds me of Giuliani bringing up 9/11 every other sentence thinking it was his crowning moment and would lead him to the white house.

And I'm not saying anything about Giuliani's performance during 9/11 because I don't really know but I just think that when you overplay your hand about how you responded in a crisis eventually people tire of it even if you were initially lauded.