Hacker News Reader

Comment by calsy | Hacker News Reader

Are there ever any hopeful reports published about Covid-19. It's just one constant miserable study after another in the news. Yeah we get it we need to be hiding under our beds in fear of the invisible entity that could strike. It is relentless, obviously people just cant get enough of it cause it has been front page news for 1 1/2 years now.

View on HN

> Are there ever any hopeful reports published about Covid-19

Vaccine administration data (about 31 million doses are currently being administered per day, and production continues to ramp).

Like, I'm not sure what you're looking for. No-one is going to publish a (credible) report saying "actually, covid is nice". The main avenue for hope is vaccination, and while that's not going perfectly, if you told someone in May 2020 that by July 2021 we'd have administered 3.8 billion vaccines, they would probably have been very sceptical, to say the least. It is the most rapid vaccine programme in history.

This study is honestly quite hopeful. For the last year we've been bombarded with propaganda that long covid is going to cause brain damage and turn you into a fogged up idiot. This study which is not even controlled or pre-post tested at all, and which is primed to show worse effects than the truth due to placebo effects, shows less than 1 IQ point loss for people who don't need hospitalization. Compared to what doomers want us to believe, this is great news.

Certainly. There was a study on low long term impacts on children for example.

Bad news spreads easier than good. The news is mostly bad but some good news is what I mentioned above + high vaccine efficacy against severe disease.

How vaccines affect long covid type stuff is a big open question, but early doctor anecdotes suggest they lower it. That would be great news.

> study on low long term impacts on children for example

How can that be proven? This pandemic is less than two years old.

I think it looked at effects six months out. It’s of course theoretically possible for an effect to manifest after 60 years but not six months, but normally you’d expect some short run differences too.

Just what I've seen today in the news:

- positive study results validating stretched vaccine schedules

- more and easier vaccine availability locally

- infection rate in the region trending slightly downwards

- some new theories/results (didn't read the full article) regarding immunity in children

- some signs vaccine scepticism in some US states is decreasing

Yes, there are regular hopeful reports published about vaccination and other measures reducing deaths and illness.

The majority of reports regarding vaccination are those chastising anyone who hasn't dared got their shot yet along with continued threats of restrictions to our lives until an almost impossible target is met in the near future. Those 'other measures' that include lockdowns, limited social interaction and financial hardship are not positive at all.

Why is the target impossible? We have had successful nationwide vaccine programs in the past. Polio is a distant memory because of this.

How long did it take for polio vaccinations to reach the target set for the Covid thresholds and are we willing to accept the threat of restrictions to our lives until then?

To meet these targets the majority of children must be vaccinated. Between the low risk posed to children and the governments (that's Australia btw) horrible mixed messaging regarding age groups and vaccination, a large portion of parents will be reluctant to vaccinate their children.

So whats the current approach to getting those vaccination numbers up? Just keep ramming home the fear of covid and restrictions while naming and shaming all who are ruining life for everybody. I wonder how that will go?

I only asked why the target is impossible.

Never said the target was impossible, I said it was impossible 'in the near future'.

Ok, why is the target impossible in the near future?

I answered that.

Hahahaa. The media sells you fear because they know it will keep you tuned in. It doesn't matter what thr current 'issue' is. They will always sell whatever will most likely keep you coming back.

News is pure entertainment. Its like a horror movie.

It's more than the media. The politicians (at least in my country, France) are using it to take much more power than a democracy should ever allow.

the most alarming thing in france is that almost everyone in the middle/upper social groups is completely convinced the government is right and that it's worth it (aka : it'll get us rid of covid).

The only people worried about constitution at the moment are weirdos, extremists, and a very small number of people genuinly concerned about human rights in their own country.

I'm more and more seing this covid period as a perfect example on how this country could turn into a totalitarian regime as long as it's for the good cause(tm). It also another example on how china is definitely becoming a major cultural influence over the world.

I believe it is much larger number of people who have reasoned concerns about the governments approach.

The narrative being pushed to us is anyone who might have a different opinion to that of the authorities is a 'weirdo' or 'conspiracy theorist'. At any protest, the media will always show that 'anti-vax, bill gates conspiracy' guy holding up his sign and lumping everyone into that group. The majority of those protesting are rational people worried about their jobs, their businesses closing, their children's education and what the economic fallout will do to basic services like health, education, infrastructure.

Same for Canada.

In the US we have seen unelected people in previously ignored roles relish the new found attention and power they have received.

Pointless lockdowns with arbitrary milestones that they are able to prescribe, daily zoom briefings where all eyes are on them as they explain “the science”.

For many, this is their 15 minutes of fame. Don’t expect them to give up that power and pseudo-celebrity easily. The attempts to scare and bully people will get more desperate as these people see their time in the spotlight coming to an end.

In the UK were almost 70% vaccinated (adults, 2 jabs). So it's getting back to BAU here.

In Australia I believe its around 13.6% vaccinated at this stage. If we were able to match the UK vaccination numbers at this moment, we would be a shining example of managing CovID. But we screwed up, we dropped the ball on vaccinations and pretended we could continue to keep Covid at bay indefinitely, and failed.

Canada had 47 million vaccinations (so ~23M if we’re assume 2 doses) with a total population of 37M. Google says “at least one dose” is 70% while “2 doses” is 54.4% of the population.

People are definitely taking the vaccination program seriously. The big question now is getting the final long tail vaccinated. While obviously there will be a subset which will always resist it.

The numbers coming out of the US show 99% of the deaths are unvaccinated people along with 97% of people hospitalized.

The numbers coming out of the US are not representative of what other countries have been seeing. Apparently it's more like 60% of people who're hospitalized that are unvaccinated in the UK, for example, and that's pretty in line with other countries with reasonably successful vaccination campaigns.

Yes but the magical news stats from "experts" say I could die if I crossed the road without looking so I'll stay at home and order off amazon... </wishingiwasjoking>

Why not just... Look before crossing?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com