I live in fear of this covid and finally have reason to be happy I am over aged.

FIFY

quote:

Originally posted by LL:
I live in fear of this covid and finally have reason to be happy I am perfectly aged.

Read an interesting piece arguing that school children should be vaccinated first because they have the greatest potential to spread the virus.

Jf

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:

...BTW, I find it very interesting that the Russians named their vaccine "Sputnik". It means "traveler" or "voyager". It was a perfectly sensible name for a satellite. A vaccine? Not so much.

I think a likely reason for naming the Russian vaccine Sputnik is less the actual meaning in the Russian language, than as a reminder of the great Soviet triumph of their putting the very first man-made object in Space. In effect, "another major achievement, a first, for our glorious Motherland."

(The launching of Sputnik pretty much started the Space Race between the great powers, with so many repercussions - for example radically revamping the American school system, to slant it toward the sciences to help us to catch up.)

Oh, yeah, and about the vaccine - Perhaps a slight preference towards the Moderna one since it seems to be testing slightly better at the moment.

Waiting would give any takers the advantage of seeing how the two current front-runners are faring in continued success and whether any side effects have turned up.

You might have missed the update this morning....Pfizer's vaccine is around 95% effectiveness (the initial report last week was 90%); Moderna's is at 94.5%.

I’ll get vaccinated the second one is made available to me. I’m currently in isolation awaiting test results as we had a positive case in my classroom. A vaccine can’t come soon enough.

dol, good to see you around. Fingers crossed that your test comes back negative.

I asked mr wtg's doctor today (he's an MD and a PhD in genetics) if he had to pick one vaccine in particular from the current front runners which one it would be. He said "get the first one you can get your hands on, they are all looking good."

I'm starting feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and that it's not a freight train coming at me.....

Dol

School is just to scary...

Let us know

I'm with many of you--I'll take the first one that I can get my hands on. I think we all should. I was listening to someone (probably Trevor Noah's show) who said that in order to achieve herd immunity about 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated. (This is compared to about 90% for measles, because measles is more contagious, which I found interesting.)

At any rate, I can anticipate a lot of cognitive dissonance among the anti-vaxxers, who tend to skew liberal and have been some of the stronger supporters for lockdowns and masks. Will they take a COVID vaccine, or will they rely on the rest of us to behave responsibly?

I was flashing back to first grade, when we all were marched into the school "cafetorium" (now there's a word) to get the polio vaccine. It was mandatory, no discussion. I also remember kids who were sick that day being sent to the nurse's office when they returned to get the vax. We've come a long way from those times, and not for the better in my opinion.

Since my wife is in health care, she'll be one of the first to get a vaccine.

If she HAS TO get it, I want to get it as soon as it's made available to me. We're gonna stick together as close as possible on this.

Glad you're taking one for the team, Dan.

I cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone would not get it.

My friend says he'll get both of them - one in each arm.

If they come out with a third one he'll figure out some other place to inject it.

Unless I have some reason to doubt its efficacy or to think people are lying about it, I'll get it.

If Dr. Fauci gives it a thumbs up, I'll probably trust his judgment.