Coronavirus Thread: Worldwide Pandemic
- Thread starter 88m3
- Start date
Althalucian
All Star
Got the Pfizer. I'm ready to live again, brehs.
BK The Great
Veteran
Why are they opening up? 
Cases still going up
Cases still going up
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
The world's poorest countries are at India's mercy for vaccines. It's unsustainable | Achal Prabhala and Leena Menghaney
The world's poorest countries are at India's mercy for vaccines. It's unsustainable
Achal Prabhala
This is what happens when a third of humanity depends on one manufacturer for Covid jabs. We need to waive patents now
As the UK’s vaccination programme was “knocked off course” due to a delay in receiving five million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, a far more chilling reality was unfolding: about a third of all humanity, living in the poorest countries, found out that they will get almost no coronavirus vaccines in the near future because of India’s urgent need to vaccinate its own massive population.
It’s somewhat rich for figures in Britain to accuse India of vaccine nationalism. That the UK, which has vaccinated nearly 50% of its adults with at least one dose, should demand vaccines from India, which has only vaccinated 3% of its people so far, is immoral. That the UK has already received several million doses from India, alongside other rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and Canada, is a travesty.
The billions of AstraZeneca doses being produced by the Serum Institute in India are not for rich countries – and, in fact, not even for India alone: they are for all 92 of the poorest countries in the world.
Except they’re now being treated as the sovereign property of the Indian government.
How did we get here? Exactly one year ago, researchers at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, frontrunners in the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, stated that they intended to allow any manufacturer, anywhere, the rights to their jab. One of the early licences they signed was with the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. One month later, acting on advice from the Gates Foundation, Oxford changed course and signed over exclusive rights to AstraZeneca, a UK-based multinational pharmaceutical group.
AstraZeneca and Serum signed a new deal. Serum would produce vaccines for all poor countries eligible for assistance by Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance – an organisation backed by rich countries’ governments and the Gates Foundation. These 92 nations together counted for half the world – or nearly four billion people. India’s fair share of these vaccines, by population, should have been 35%. However there was an unwritten arrangement that Serum would earmark 50% of its supply for domestic use and 50% for export.
The deal included a clause that allowed AstraZeneca to approve exports to countries not listed in the agreement. Some countries which asked for emergency vaccine shipments from Serum, including South Africa and Brazil, were justified: they had nothing else. Rich countries like the UK and Canada, however, which had bought up more doses than required to vaccinate their people, to the detriment of everyone else, had no moral right to dip into a pool of vaccines designated for poor countries.
Paradoxically, when South Africa and India asked the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive patents and other pharmaceutical monopolies so that vaccines could be manufactured more widely to prevent shortfalls in supply, among the first countries to object were the UK, Canada and Brazil. They were the very governments that would later be asking India to solve their own shortfalls in supply.
The deal did not include restrictions on what price Serum could charge, despite AstraZeneca’s pledge to sell its vaccine for no profit “during the pandemic”, which led to Uganda, which is among the poorest countries on Earth, paying three times more than Europe for the same vaccine. (An AstraZeneca spokesperson told Politico that the “price of the vaccine will differ due to a number of factors, including the cost of manufacturing – which varies depending on the geographic region – and volumes requested by the countries”.)
As it became clear that the western pharmaceutical industry could barely supply the west, let alone anywhere else, many countries turned to Chinese and Russian vaccines. Meanwhile, the Covax Facility – the Gavi-backed outfit that actually procures vaccines for poor countries – stuck to its guns and made deals exclusively with western vaccine manufacturers. From those deals, the AstraZeneca vaccine is now the only viable candidate it has. The bulk of the supply of this vaccine comes from Serum, and a smaller quantity from SK Bioscience in South Korea. As a result, a third of all humanity is now largely dependent on supplies of one vaccine from one company in India.
Cue the Indian government’s involvement. Unlike western governments, which poured billions into the research and development of vaccines, there is no evidence that the Indian government has provided a cent in research and development funding to the Serum Institute. (This did not stop it turning every overseas vaccine delivery into a photo-op.) The government then commandeered approval of every single Covax shipment sent out from Serum – even, according to one well-placed source within the institute, directing how many doses would be sent and when.
The Indian government has not publicly commented on its involvement in the vaccine shipments and has refused requests for comment.
Last month, faced with a surge in infections, the Indian government announced an expansion of its domestic vaccination programme to include 345 million people, and halted all exports of vaccines. About 60m vaccine doses have already been dispensed, and the government needs another 630m to cover everyone in this phase alone. One other vaccine is approved for use – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin – but it is being produced and utilised in smaller quantities. As more vaccines are approved, the pressure on Serum might decrease. For now, however, the bulk of India’s vaccination goals will be met by just one supplier, which faces the impossible choice of either letting down the other 91 countries depending on it, or offending its own government.
The consequences are devastating. To date, 28m Covax Facility doses have been produced by Serum for the developing world – 10m of which went to India. The second largest shipment went to Nigeria, which received 4m doses, or enough to cover only 1% of its population. Given the new Indian government order of 100m doses, further supplies to countries like Nigeria may be delayed until July. And given the Indian government’s need of 500m more vaccine doses in the short run, that date could surely be pushed out even further.
This colossal mess was entirely predictable, and could have been avoided at every turn. Rich countries such as the UK, the US, and those of the EU, and rich organisations such as Covax should have used their funding of western pharmaceutical companies to nip vaccine monopolies in the bud. Oxford University should have stuck to its plans of allowing anyone, anywhere, to make its vaccine. AstraZeneca and Covax should have licensed as many manufacturers in as many countries as they could to make enough vaccines for the world. The Indian government should have never been effectively put in charge of the wellbeing of every poor country on the planet.
For years, India has been called “the pharmacy of the developing world”. It’s time to rethink that title. We will need many more pharmacies in many more countries to survive this pandemic.
The world's poorest countries are at India's mercy for vaccines. It's unsustainable
Achal Prabhala
This is what happens when a third of humanity depends on one manufacturer for Covid jabs. We need to waive patents now
As the UK’s vaccination programme was “knocked off course” due to a delay in receiving five million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, a far more chilling reality was unfolding: about a third of all humanity, living in the poorest countries, found out that they will get almost no coronavirus vaccines in the near future because of India’s urgent need to vaccinate its own massive population.
It’s somewhat rich for figures in Britain to accuse India of vaccine nationalism. That the UK, which has vaccinated nearly 50% of its adults with at least one dose, should demand vaccines from India, which has only vaccinated 3% of its people so far, is immoral. That the UK has already received several million doses from India, alongside other rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and Canada, is a travesty.
The billions of AstraZeneca doses being produced by the Serum Institute in India are not for rich countries – and, in fact, not even for India alone: they are for all 92 of the poorest countries in the world.
Except they’re now being treated as the sovereign property of the Indian government.
How did we get here? Exactly one year ago, researchers at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, frontrunners in the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, stated that they intended to allow any manufacturer, anywhere, the rights to their jab. One of the early licences they signed was with the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. One month later, acting on advice from the Gates Foundation, Oxford changed course and signed over exclusive rights to AstraZeneca, a UK-based multinational pharmaceutical group.
AstraZeneca and Serum signed a new deal. Serum would produce vaccines for all poor countries eligible for assistance by Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance – an organisation backed by rich countries’ governments and the Gates Foundation. These 92 nations together counted for half the world – or nearly four billion people. India’s fair share of these vaccines, by population, should have been 35%. However there was an unwritten arrangement that Serum would earmark 50% of its supply for domestic use and 50% for export.
The deal included a clause that allowed AstraZeneca to approve exports to countries not listed in the agreement. Some countries which asked for emergency vaccine shipments from Serum, including South Africa and Brazil, were justified: they had nothing else. Rich countries like the UK and Canada, however, which had bought up more doses than required to vaccinate their people, to the detriment of everyone else, had no moral right to dip into a pool of vaccines designated for poor countries.
Paradoxically, when South Africa and India asked the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive patents and other pharmaceutical monopolies so that vaccines could be manufactured more widely to prevent shortfalls in supply, among the first countries to object were the UK, Canada and Brazil. They were the very governments that would later be asking India to solve their own shortfalls in supply.
The deal did not include restrictions on what price Serum could charge, despite AstraZeneca’s pledge to sell its vaccine for no profit “during the pandemic”, which led to Uganda, which is among the poorest countries on Earth, paying three times more than Europe for the same vaccine. (An AstraZeneca spokesperson told Politico that the “price of the vaccine will differ due to a number of factors, including the cost of manufacturing – which varies depending on the geographic region – and volumes requested by the countries”.)
As it became clear that the western pharmaceutical industry could barely supply the west, let alone anywhere else, many countries turned to Chinese and Russian vaccines. Meanwhile, the Covax Facility – the Gavi-backed outfit that actually procures vaccines for poor countries – stuck to its guns and made deals exclusively with western vaccine manufacturers. From those deals, the AstraZeneca vaccine is now the only viable candidate it has. The bulk of the supply of this vaccine comes from Serum, and a smaller quantity from SK Bioscience in South Korea. As a result, a third of all humanity is now largely dependent on supplies of one vaccine from one company in India.
Cue the Indian government’s involvement. Unlike western governments, which poured billions into the research and development of vaccines, there is no evidence that the Indian government has provided a cent in research and development funding to the Serum Institute. (This did not stop it turning every overseas vaccine delivery into a photo-op.) The government then commandeered approval of every single Covax shipment sent out from Serum – even, according to one well-placed source within the institute, directing how many doses would be sent and when.
The Indian government has not publicly commented on its involvement in the vaccine shipments and has refused requests for comment.
Last month, faced with a surge in infections, the Indian government announced an expansion of its domestic vaccination programme to include 345 million people, and halted all exports of vaccines. About 60m vaccine doses have already been dispensed, and the government needs another 630m to cover everyone in this phase alone. One other vaccine is approved for use – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin – but it is being produced and utilised in smaller quantities. As more vaccines are approved, the pressure on Serum might decrease. For now, however, the bulk of India’s vaccination goals will be met by just one supplier, which faces the impossible choice of either letting down the other 91 countries depending on it, or offending its own government.
The consequences are devastating. To date, 28m Covax Facility doses have been produced by Serum for the developing world – 10m of which went to India. The second largest shipment went to Nigeria, which received 4m doses, or enough to cover only 1% of its population. Given the new Indian government order of 100m doses, further supplies to countries like Nigeria may be delayed until July. And given the Indian government’s need of 500m more vaccine doses in the short run, that date could surely be pushed out even further.
This colossal mess was entirely predictable, and could have been avoided at every turn. Rich countries such as the UK, the US, and those of the EU, and rich organisations such as Covax should have used their funding of western pharmaceutical companies to nip vaccine monopolies in the bud. Oxford University should have stuck to its plans of allowing anyone, anywhere, to make its vaccine. AstraZeneca and Covax should have licensed as many manufacturers in as many countries as they could to make enough vaccines for the world. The Indian government should have never been effectively put in charge of the wellbeing of every poor country on the planet.
For years, India has been called “the pharmacy of the developing world”. It’s time to rethink that title. We will need many more pharmacies in many more countries to survive this pandemic.
mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
This rich governments hoarding this vaccine is a metaphor. This behavior will hurt us all, and it’s no surprise the Gates Foundation has a hand in this bullshyt.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Why are they opening up?
I was actually down there yesterday and saw them testing the rides
BK The Great
Veteran
I was actually down there yesterday and saw them testing the rides
Last summer was a mess down there, I know first hand nobody cared about this virus just of seeing people act like it was a regular day at the beach all hugged up together. I’m currently trying to get my first shot as well but the spots I know don’t have them available. I’m gonna have to keep checking.
Signs of collapse abound in Brazil - CNN
Signs of collapse across Brazil as Covid spirals out of control. Bolsonaro seems to have little response
Analysis by Matt Rivers, CNN
Updated 10:16 PM ET, Sat March 27, 2021
(CNN)You can hear the frustration in the nurse's voice as he narrates the video, walking closer to an open window.
"You have to be an engineer to make this work," he says. "You have to be like MacGyver."
The video moves past a woman on oxygen, the tube running down from her nose to the gurney she's sitting on and, eventually, out that open window.
It runs to another window, the green tube swinging in the breeze above an open courtyard a half-dozen stories below. The tube ends at an oxygen hookup in the wall of the other room.
This is the only way that woman, a Covid-19 patient at this hospital in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, can get oxygen. The room where the oxygen source is located is so overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients, she has to sit in what is otherwise a hallway, her life-saving oxygen precariously fed to her.
The scene is a microcosm of what is playing out across Brazil right now amid a brutal and out-of-control wave of Covid-19.
On Thursday night, Brazil's Health Ministry reported the gruesome figure of more than 100,000 new Covid-19 cases confirmed in a single day, the country's highest such figure since the pandemic began.
So far, a total of 303,462 people have died in the country from the virus, according to official data.
But it's the seven-day averages that paint an even bleaker picture.
At 15,963 deaths from March 19-25 and 14,610 deaths in the previous week, those are the highest such numbers of the pandemic so far and they are trending in the wrong direction.
Brazil has recorded roughly 24% of all coronavirus deaths worldwide over the past two weeks, according to JHU data.
A Covid-19 variant, P1, continues to rip through the country as experts agree it is more contagious and potentially produces more severe illness than previous strains. Even younger people are not spared.
Of Brazil's 26 states plus its federal district, only one or two on any given day have ICU occupancy rates below 80%.
More than half are above 90%, which means if the healthcare systems haven't yet collapsed already in those states, they are at imminent risk of doing so.
Health systems have been inundated with patients they can no longer adequately take care of due to a critical lack of space and supplies.
As Brazil suffers through its worst days of this pandemic so far, there are signs of collapse at every level of the healthcare system in nearly every state across the country.
Signs of collapse
First responders, hospital personnel and even cemetery employees have told CNN they've been brought to their knees by this latest wave.
"It's a war scenario," said paramedic Luis Eduardo Pimentel in São Paulo. "I can barely describe what I'm seeing, it is so sad what is happening to the country."
He described non-stop Covid-19 calls, unnecessary deaths, and hospitals so overburdened, they take supplies from wherever they can.
CNN spoke to him after his shift ended, earlier than expected, after a hospital took the gurney he had brought his Covid-19 patient in on -- the hospital had run out of beds.
Other examples are myriad.
In a video given to CNN last week, 12 ambulances with patients inside are seen waiting outside a São Paulo hospital for bedspace to open up inside.
CNN visited a Covid-19-designated hospital on Thursday that had stopped accepting patients because they had run out of room. In a section normally reserved for 16 semi-intensive care patients, nearly double that amount were being treated.
Several had already been intubated and would normally have sent to an ICU, but no such space existed in the hospital.
When ICU rates hit 90%, as they did in Sao Paulo on Thursday, they're effectively full, said Geraldo Reple Sobrinho, the state's President of the Council of Municipal Health Secretaries. "In reality, that means total bed occupancy because every time there is a patient who is discharged or dies, you need time to clean this bed and change the equipment. It takes four, five hours."
In the meantime, more and more patients keep dying. On several recent days, there have been so many deaths that burials in São Paulo cemeteries are happening every few minutes.
Crematoriums have not been able to keep up. In a video shared with CNN, at least two dozen coffins can be seen waiting to be cremated -- the demand is about three times what the facility can handle in a single day.
The government response ... or lack of it
As his country has reeled during this latest outbreak, President Jair Bolsonaro has yet to take any significant steps to try and implement a coordinated national response.
He did deliver a televised address to the country on Tuesday night, saying 2021 would be the "year of the vaccine."
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro gives a press conference at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia on March 24.
But critics derided the 3-minute speech as a half-hearted attempt at a public-relations rescue on a day where Brazil set its own record for most coronavirus deaths recorded in a single day.
The federal government appeared to commit another own goal the following day, with the Health Ministry announcing that it would require more information from municipalities reporting Covid-19 victim information.
That sparked immediate concern that the additional requirements would lower the number of Covid-19 deaths that were reported.
Those concerns appeared to be immediately justified as Wednesday's reported death toll was nearly 1,200 fewer than the previous day.
By the end of the day Wednesday, the Health Ministry suspended the new reporting requirements after severe backlash from states and the public.
Absent a coordinated federal response, any restrictions put in place designed to stem the spread of the virus have been left to individual states.
Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Minas Gerais are among the states that have implemented nightly curfews, even as the Bolsonaro administration filed suit in Brazil's Supreme Court declaring that only the federal government has the right to impose such restrictions.
The court this week sided with the states, however, calling Bolsonaro's argument "totalitarian."
CNN's Natalie Gallón, journalists Marcia Reverdosa and Eduardo Duwe and CNN's Kara Fox contributed to this report.
You know, it astounds me how retarded Dictator-wannabes are. Trump could have easily won the election if he cared about COVID-19, instead he brushed it off and lost because of it. Bolsonaro has even MORE support it seems, but he too played it off and now he put himself in a corner.
The common thing with dictatorships is to keep control of the people.
You don't keep control by ignoring this thing.
Json
Superstar
These dudes ran on “ look out for yourselves first” against the liberalism “ we are the world” but a world wide pandemic requires international cooperation.
And like any good scam, it only works as long as the mark isn’t asking questions or looking the wrong way.
Hood Critic
The Power Circle
Community Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Associated with a Local Bar
Got their first vaccine shot and immediately started raw dogging outside.
Got their first vaccine shot and immediately started raw dogging outside.
AquaCityBoy
Veteran
This virus stay with its foot on our necks.
AquaCityBoy
Veteran
Got the first Pfizer dose scheduled for Thursday. Decided to go ahead and get it even though I was in no rush. I'm not an anti vaxxer anything; I just don't expect anything fun (concerts, conventions, festivals) to come back until this time next year at least. Even the ones planning to come back this year are trying to do it in Q4, which means they'll probably get postponed because it'll be cold AF and too close to the holidays.
I bought six pairs of sneakers this weekend and I have no idea what I'm wearing them for.
I bought six pairs of sneakers this weekend and I have no idea what I'm wearing them for.
The axe murderer
For I am death and I ride on a pale horse
Scust