Off Topic Thread 5.0

swiwi_

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/audio-trump-berates-georgia-secretary-of-state-urges-him-to-find-votes/2021/01/03/aba64f5f-8c3c-490f-af34-618ccea732d7_video.html

Nothing needs to be said.

dregin

Dubinusa wrote: »

Lol. Nobody is doing a good job. It's unprecedented. This virus is mutating and I see western Europe is a mess. The US are rolling out a sars derivative vaccine? How is this going to work? Most medications are tested and researched for many years before being approved. This vaccine is ... 8 months of research!!! It's so frustrating, a friend died xmass nite. An old dear from Dingle.
Do we lock everything down? Is that possible? I'm lost for an answer.

SARS was also a coronavirus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome_coronavirus


The notion that it took 8 months of research to develop these vaccines is completely wrong. The 8 months were spent testing, not developing. The notion that the vaccines are dangerous because they were thrown out in a few months is nothing more than alternative facts pedaled by right wing extremists.

Paul Smeenus

Dubinusa wrote: »

Trump is an idiot. No doubt. But nobody was ready for this. Clearly, this is a scenario that not to many envisioned. As this virus mutates and spreads more, who will really find a way through? It's a global event and I think when the numbers come in from places like India, Bangladesh and other nations it will boggle the mind. Suppose the vaccine fails to work against mutant strains?

On a side note, my daughter has the virus. She got it at work, she works at a hospital. She is doing well, isolating as best she can and believe it or not, running on the treadmill. I believe that younger people are not as vulnerable as us older geezers.

I do think when this is done and dusted, that a different virus will come and cause similar mayhem.

Hope your lass makes a swift and complete recovery.

Paul Smeenus

dregin wrote: »

SARS was also a coronavirus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome_coronavirus


The notion that it took 8 months of research to develop these vaccines is completely wrong. The 8 months were spent testing, not developing. The notion that the vaccines are dangerous because they were thrown out in a few months is nothing more than alternative facts pedaled by right wing extremists.

"The research that helped to develop vaccines against the new coronavirus didn’t start in January. For years, researchers had been paying attention to related coronaviruses, which cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), and some had been working on new kinds of vaccine — an effort that has now paid off spectacularly."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03626-1

As I understand it, basically there has been a decade of research into vaccines of very, very similar Coronaviruses, and all it really took, comparatively speaking, was some tweaking to the process (and a great deal of motivation).

connemara man

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

"The research that helped to develop vaccines against the new coronavirus didn’t start in January. For years, researchers had been paying attention to related coronaviruses, which cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), and some had been working on new kinds of vaccine — an effort that has now paid off spectacularly."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03626-1

As I understand it, basically there has been a decade of research into vaccines of very, very similar Coronaviruses, and all it really took, comparatively speaking, was some tweaking to the process (and a great deal of motivation).

And money

errlloyd

dregin wrote: »

The notion that it took 8 months of research to develop these vaccines is completely wrong. The 8 months were spent testing, not developing. The notion that the vaccines are dangerous because they were thrown out in a few months is nothing more than alternative facts pedaled by right wing extremists.

I read in a New York Times article that the Moderna Vaccine was effectively developed within 48 hours back in March.

Moderna’s goal was to get from a vaccine design to a human trial in three months. The design came quickly. “This is not a complicated virus,” Mr. Bancel said.

Dr. Graham said that after China released the genetic sequence of the new virus, the vaccine research center zeroed in on the gene for the virus’s spike protein and sent the data to Moderna in a Microsoft Word file. Moderna’s scientists had independently identified the same gene. Mr. Bancel said Moderna then plugged that data into its computers and came up with the design for an mRNA vaccine. The entire process took two days.

irishbucsfan

Paul Smeenus wrote: »

"The research that helped to develop vaccines against the new coronavirus didn’t start in January. For years, researchers had been paying attention to related coronaviruses, which cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), and some had been working on new kinds of vaccine — an effort that has now paid off spectacularly."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03626-1

As I understand it, basically there has been a decade of research into vaccines of very, very similar Coronaviruses, and all it really took, comparatively speaking, was some tweaking to the process (and a great deal of motivation).

There’s been a huge amount of research into coronaviruses happening at that lab in Wuhan that all the conspiracy theorists believe is where they created it in order to bring about the new world order, proliferate 5G, end physical money and all that completely normal non-insane stuff


Interestingly, the viruses they were studying were similar but none of them could be connected to the one which brought about the pandemic (as in, and I am completely out of my depth here, they were too far away to have possibly mutated into it), but there’s thoughts that there’s a virus from 2013 that was very close and is possibly connected to the death of some workers in China around that time. There was a really interesting BBC article where they tried to track that incident down but were blocked, can’t find it now.

aloooof

Dubinusa wrote: »

Trump is an idiot. No doubt. But nobody was ready for this. Clearly, this is a scenario that not to many envisioned. As this virus mutates and spreads more, who will really find a way through? It's a global event and I think when the numbers come in from places like India, Bangladesh and other nations it will boggle the mind. Suppose the vaccine fails to work against mutant strains?

I'm no expert, but there was some good news recently from the CDC that new variant of the virus is not expected to affect vaccine efficacy:

https://twitter.com/yaletung/status/1345975696875773954

Dubinusa wrote: »

On a side note, my daughter has the virus. She got it at work, she works at a hospital. She is doing well, isolating as best she can and believe it or not, running on the treadmill. I believe that younger people are not as vulnerable as us older geezers.

Sorry to hear that, hope she makes a full and swift recovery.

Neil3030

Dubinusa wrote: »

Trump is an idiot. No doubt. But nobody was ready for this. Clearly, this is a scenario that not to many envisioned. As this virus mutates and spreads more, who will really find a way through? It's a global event and I think when the numbers come in from places like India, Bangladesh and other nations it will boggle the mind. Suppose the vaccine fails to work against mutant strains?

On a side note, my daughter has the virus. She got it at work, she works at a hospital. She is doing well, isolating as best she can and believe it or not, running on the treadmill. I believe that younger people are not as vulnerable as us older geezers.

I do think when this is done and dusted, that a different virus will come and cause similar mayhem.

My understanding is that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine (results expected this month?) is the one that will have the biggest effect on developing nations - cheaper to transport/store and only needs a single shot.

Combined with the other companies, I'm confident that at least 20% of the planet will be vaccinated by the end of the year. Anything higher than that, we're well on our way to crushing this thing.

Hope your kid makes a speedy recovery.

Clegg

I've tried to stay away from virus news as much as possible as it only makes me anxious. But there has been some goodish news on that front today.

Stephen Donnelly was on RTE radio a few minutes ago. We've received a shipment of vaccines from Pfizer two days ahead of schedule. As a result of that, they're being rolled out immediately. So we're now targeting to vaccinate 35,000 people this week rather than the original plan of 20,000.

He also said that as of yesterday 4,000 people have been vaccinated.

Neil3030

Anyone here in haulage/transport/logistics?

These new ferry services from Rosslare to Dunkirk to skip the land bridge with the UK, are the drivers going with the trucks? 24 hours at sea, 2-3 times a week?

Great to see Rosslare getting more business, but seems that once the delays in the UK straighten themselves out (currently 12-72 hours) the pushback will eventually come from drivers to use the land bridge again - they're hardly paid while sitting on the ferry, right?

Squidgy Black

Neil3030 wrote: »

Anyone here in haulage/transport/logistics?

These new ferry services from Rosslare to Dunkirk to skip the land bridge with the UK, are the drivers going with the trucks? 24 hours at sea, 2-3 times a week?

Great to see Rosslare getting more business, but seems that once the delays in the UK straighten themselves out (currently 12-72 hours) the pushback will eventually come from drivers to use the land bridge again - they're hardly paid while sitting on the ferry, right?

Nope they're paid, it's all company time, no more than if they were driving.

My uncle runs a haulage company for cold freight, some lads are delighted as it means they're getting paid for 24 hours of rest.

Bazzo

Neil3030 wrote: »

Anyone here in haulage/transport/logistics?

These new ferry services from Rosslare to Dunkirk to skip the land bridge with the UK, are the drivers going with the trucks? 24 hours at sea, 2-3 times a week?

Great to see Rosslare getting more business, but seems that once the delays in the UK straighten themselves out (currently 12-72 hours) the pushback will eventually come from drivers to use the land bridge again - they're hardly paid while sitting on the ferry, right?

I'm curious as to why the ferry is to Dunkirk(though I'm sure there are good reasons I'm completely ignorant of). The ferry time could surely be significantly reduced by linking Rosslare to a port further west in France?

The Lost Sheep

Bazzo wrote: »

I'm curious as to why the ferry is to Dunkirk(though I'm sure there are good reasons I'm completely ignorant of). The ferry time could surely be significantly reduced by linking Rosslare to a port further west in France?

Rosslare already serves Cherbourg. Probably is to dunkirk because its much closer to Holland/Germany etc

Bazzo

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Rosslare already serves Cherbourg. Probably is to dunkirk because its much closer to Holland/Germany etc

Yeah sorry, probably badly worded by me. I understand that there are already routes to Cherbourg and Roscoff, just curious as to why they've added a new route which is much longer over sea rather than just adding more ferries to the shorter routes.

Neil3030

Bazzo wrote: »

I'm curious as to why the ferry is to Dunkirk(though I'm sure there are good reasons I'm completely ignorant of). The ferry time could surely be significantly reduced by linking Rosslare to a port further west in France?

My guess is it syncs in with networks already designed to use the land bridge, i.e., landing in Calais. For e.g., Dunkirk is a 15 hour leg from Warsaw, wheres from Roscoff it'd be closer to 23 hours. (I timed that with a car though, longer for both in a truck.).

Neil3030

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Nope they're paid, it's all company time, no more than if they were driving.

My uncle runs a haulage company for cold freight, some lads are delighted as it means they're getting paid for 24 hours of rest.

So as soon as the UK sorts out the delays you'd have to imagine companies will switch back to the land bridge.

Podge_irl

Neil3030 wrote: »

So as soon as the UK sorts out the delays you'd have to imagine companies will switch back to the land bridge.

I actually doubt it. For one, the UK will never "sort out the delays" without rejoining the SM/CU, only mitigate them. Secondly, the sea-routes actually bring some benefits as the drivers can drive for their full 8 hours after disembarkation whereas the ones going via the landbridge will need to park up a couple hours after getting into France anyway.

Podge_irl

connemara man wrote: »

And money

This is a huge part of it. One of the more nonsensical elements of the Big Pharma/AntiVax conspiracies is that in reality vaccines (and indeed antibiotics) are incredibly unprofitable. You are much better off financially making medicine to treat illness then making a vaccine to stop it.

OldRio

Neil3030 wrote: »

So as soon as the UK sorts out the delays you'd have to imagine companies will switch back to the land bridge.

Talked to a neighbour or should I say we shouted at each other with a meadow inbetween. He is a transport manager for a large company moving lorries all around Ireland and Europe.
I asked about the new service. It seems his company have had to pay upfront for slots on the ferry for the next 12 months. God knows the cost of that.

pickarooney

Clegg wrote: »

I've tried to stay away from virus news as much as possible as it only makes me anxious. But there has been some goodish news on that front today.

Stephen Donnelly was on RTE radio a few minutes ago. We've received a shipment of vaccines from Pfizer two days ahead of schedule. As a result of that, they're being rolled out immediately. So we're now targeting to vaccinate 35,000 people this week rather than the original plan of 20,000.

He also said that as of yesterday 4,000 people have been vaccinated.

Meanwhile in France we have vaccinated 200 people. But wait, a committee will be formed soon to discuss it...

Neil3030

OldRio wrote: »

Talked to a neighbour or should I say we shouted at each other with a meadow inbetween. He is a transport manager for a large company moving lorries all around Ireland and Europe.
I asked about the new service. It seems his company have had to pay upfront for slots on the ferry for the next 12 months. God knows the cost of that.

Clever Danes making sure they secure at least a year of revenues in a very uncertain climate.

Neil3030

Podge_irl wrote: »

I actually doubt it. For one, the UK will never "sort out the delays" without rejoining the SM/CU, only mitigate them. Secondly, the sea-routes actually bring some benefits as the drivers can drive for their full 8 hours after disembarkation whereas the ones going via the landbridge will need to park up a couple hours after getting into France anyway.

The benefits in terms of driver rest would have been factored into pre-Brexit cost-benefit decisions that favoured the land bridge. It'll all boil down to the delays.

It's also inevitable the Sea Truck and equivalent services start sniffing around Ireland-France routes, if companies are paying drivers to sit on boats for a day.

Bazzo

A story on how easy it can be to get covid:

The other half currently has covid(and possibly me too, I suppose). She's not unwell or anything, just has a minor cough and maybe a little bit of fatigue. We know where it was picked up because we've only had one contact outside of work(where we both have to wear PPE, sanitise, minimise time of contact etc etc) and that was when we agreed to have lunch with another couple, sitting outdoors(and freezing our bollox off) as per guidelines here at the time, on the 27th. We've been pretty fastidious about following the guidelines all along but it became clear that they had not been quite so vigilant as we chatted to them at lunch. I noticed that one of them coughed a few times throughout lunch but we're all hypervigilant about that these days so chalked it down to that and thought nothing of it.

I'm driving home from work on 31st and the guy calls me to let me know that he woke up on the 29th feeling hot so went for a covid test and subsequently tested positive. When I got home the other half was coughing a bit so we decided we'd better get checked too and went for a PCR test the morning of the 1st. We got the results through yesterday - she was positive on the 1st and I was negative. I'm still totally asymptomatic and the lateral flow test I do 2x weekly for work has come back negative today but she has also had several negatives back(though she's temporarily stopped bothering with them for now) so I guess I could be asymptomatically(for now) carrying it.

Anyway I suppose the point is you can do everything right and to the guidelines - we didn't travel home for Christmas, we didn't have any meetups or socialising in the lead up - but if you end up crossing paths with just one person who's not being as careful as you the whole lot can be for nothing.

So we're stuck in the house until next weeek minimum(provided I don't develop symptoms). Send beer and wine please.

Neil3030

Get well soon Bazzo.

Stheno

Get well soon the pair of you

Podge_irl

Neil3030 wrote: »

The benefits in terms of driver rest would have been factored into pre-Brexit cost-benefit decisions that favoured the land bridge. It'll all boil down to the delays.

It's also inevitable the Sea Truck and equivalent services start sniffing around Ireland-France routes, if companies are paying drivers to sit on boats for a day.

It will, but there simply wasn't the critical mass of services available either before. A several times a week ferry vs a daily ferry makes a massive difference to the calculation.

The delays will never go away.

Get well soon to the pair of ye. I'll drink some beer and wine in the hope it helps you both recover.

Neil3030

Podge_irl wrote: »

It will, but there simply wasn't the critical mass of services available either before. A several times a week ferry vs a daily ferry makes a massive difference to the calculation.

The delays will never go away.

True. Inertia was a factor in changing, and will become a factor in changing back.

I wouldn't rule out the delays being resolved though. Much like the kid with the dead arm, the UK government have an over-riding need to cry "that didn't hurt!" right now. And the optics of clogged motorways is hard to spin positively. A massively expensive tech solution is surely being brewed up. Sure, may be at the expense of trivial matters like teachers and doctors, but FREEDOM or something.

Podge_irl

Neil3030 wrote: »

True. Inertia was a factor in changing, and will become a factor in changing back.

I wouldn't rule out the delays being resolved though. Much like the kid with the dead arm, the UK government have an over-riding need to cry "that didn't hurt!" right now. And the optics of clogged motorways is hard to spin positively. A massively expensive tech solution is surely being brewed up. Sure, may be at the expense of trivial matters like teachers and doctors, but FREEDOM or something.

Switzerland hasn't remotely managed it with a lot of money and decades of trying. The border moves quite smoothly most of the time, but massive delays also occur with reasonable regularity. It is simply impossible to rule those delays out because no matter what system you have in place it relies on people using it properly 100% of the time which will never happen.

Things will get better for sure, but the days of unfettered logistics are over.