Our policy is that we must try to find eligible people first. There is a ton of paperwork from the state if we vax someone in a noneligible group.
People don’t answer their phones is the biggest issue though!
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Our schools went back in person last week although we are still in lockdown. Pupils have to be tested twice a week with the rapid tests. I’m not sure about teachers. The numbers in my council area shot up.
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I was happy to hear this about Africa, but then I read a Wall Street Journal article about South Africa which displayed excess deaths. Sometimes I think Dr. Klotman takes numbers at face value. The data just isn’t complete or straightforward.
Only about 1.5 million South Africans, around 2.5% of the population, have tested positive for Covid-19. But it is clear that the actual level of infection has been much higher. Since cases first started surging in May, the country has recorded more than 145,000 excess deaths, of which 85% to 95% are likely due to Covid-19, according to the South African Medical Research Council. That means that about one in 500 people in South Africa—where the median age is a decade below the U.S.—has died of the disease over the past 10 months.
South Africa’s Drop in Covid-19 Cases Adds to Questions About Waves of Infections - WSJ (You may need to google the title to get around the paywall)
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A friend of mine who is in the UK posted pictures of her kids testing. What a massive undertaking!
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Purely for info…
It’s secondary schools only. Primary schools (up to age 12) aren’t testing.
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Good reminder. I forgot all my nieces and nephews are all in secondary school now. Primary is up to 11 here, is it 12 in Scotland?
I think that answer is a bit misleading. Of course the virus does enter a vaccinated person’s body, antibodies are present primarily in the bloodstream where they can encounter the virus and zap it before it can multiply to any great extent. Generally, if it is zapped before it makes you sick, it is unlikely to make anyone else sick, either.
An actual infection implies that the virus is multiplying. That is different from a few viral particles that happen to get in.
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Thanks for that clarification. What about the vaccines being intramuscular and not mucosal? Is there difference in risk based on the site/method of vaccination? Are the T-cells that form able to distribute and localize sufficiently into mucous membranes where first contact with virus is most likely, thereby lowering the risk of spreading active virus on to someone else?
Thank you for putting these summaries together! No pressure to keep it up, but I do appreciate the effort.
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That’s getting a bit above my pay grade, but T-cells generally can go anywhere. It just takes them a little while. Instead of B-cell generated antibodies that rapidly spread, T-cells have to travel or be sensitized locally. They certainly are in mucous membranes, and can be called in and/or converted very quickly by cytokines and other chemical messengers and helper cells.
They’re very important in long-term immunity.
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Yes, it can be. For birthdays between December and February parents are given a choice of whether kids do an extra year at nursery or go straight to P1, so if they stay at nursery then some of those kids turn 12 in P7.
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I didn’t know that, very interesting!
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Sorry, I forgot to answer this. It should not matter. I will use myself as a teaching case 
:
With my first vaccine, I had literally no reaction. With second, within a day the injection site was a quite swollen and red. This is those T-cells in action. They “learned” from the month before and were ready to go the next time the antigen showed up. Fortunately, the amount of vaccine is much larger than they can handle- but they tried!
Now, this won’t happen to everyone, it doesn’t mean the vaccine didn’t take. I actually have delayed hypersensitivity reactions to other shots. My T-cells work overtime, all the time and may over-react, but everyone’s T cells will do this, perhaps not as obviously.
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I got to be bossy and direct traffic! 4 hours of splitting all incoming cars into 3 lines for the checkin tent.
I originally signed up partially to get a shot, but really wanted to keep the volunteer shift after getting one another route.
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Nice! My daughter volunteered at a clinic on her campus and was handling the consent forms.
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This was yesterday’s coverage. 10k shots in 2 days!
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Very nice!
DH and I spent 5 hrs today booking second Pfizer appointments for people who had just received their first, and were doing the 15 minute observation period. That drive-through site had been doing them daily, but is now trying to wind down and had added a last-minute afternoon for shots. We signed up to help, and it seemed like 99% of those people were getting their first shot, so it was a good thing to have open.
BTW, we were told to NOT take any photos that showed the vaccine recipients or their vehicles due to health privacy laws. I won’t snitch. 
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Finally had a chance to dig into this question a little. Apparently Slovakia has been one if the hardest hit. My understanding is they re-instituted their mask mandate in October.
I’m not finding it easily, but I’ll keep an eye out.
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Thank you!