# Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [January 1, 2021, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428 "2021-01-01T08:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/362 "2021-01-30T00:59:27Z")
If memory serves, what I remember reading about the vaccines is that they won’t prevent one from becoming infected – rather, they significantly lower the chance that the infection will manifest as actual illness. If that’s accurate, then Lynch’s positive test result shouldn’t be surprising, as it sounds like he was exposed from a staff member. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/363 "2021-01-30T01:00:30Z")
Well, if it works 90-95% of the time, it’s not going to work 5-10% of the time. Eta: though what Kenobi said is somewhat true, it was my understanding that the phase 3 trials did show 90-95% efficacy in people not testing positive not just “being ill”. I’m open to correction and will probably look it up immediately after posting. Lol. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/364 "2021-01-30T01:17:23Z")
I can’t immediately back up my recollections but I do know that the Israelis are definitely testing as they go. We’ll get that on their over 65 demographic in a few weeks, hopefully. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/365 "2021-01-30T03:20:55Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > If memory serves, what I remember reading about the vaccines is that they won’t prevent one from becoming infected – rather, they significantly lower the chance that the infection will manifest as actual illness. It does not serve. What you’ve likely read is that at this time they do not have enough data to prove the vaccines prevent infection. Which is not at all the same thing as saying they know for sure that they don’t prevent infections. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/366 "2021-01-30T03:28:55Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > It does not serve. What you’ve likely read is that at this time they do not have enough data to prove the vaccines prevent infection. Which is not at all the same thing as saying they know for sure that they don’t prevent infections. Thank you for the clarification. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/367 "2021-01-30T03:31:13Z")
Woah woah. You’re not really wrong. I’ve posted this before: > **[Few vaccines prevent infection. Here is why that's not a problem](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-07/why-few-vaccines-prevent-infection/13037274)** > > Most vaccines that are in routine use today do not stop a virus in its tracks, but they have been invaluable in controlling the rate of infection. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/368 "2021-01-30T03:49:50Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > I started looking around at this and I can’t tell what is true. It appears that they have some combination of excellent COVID death reporting in concert with vastly underreported case counts, or if they just suck at keeping people alive (I’m doubtful of this, but still uncertain), or something else entirely. One thing that a lot of people don’t know about Belgium is that they didn’t have a proper sworn-in government between May 2019 and October 2020 ([cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Belgian_government_formation)) So if you believe (as I do) that both the amount of death in each country and the efficiency of a testing regime are heavily dependent on the organisational skills of the government in charge, this all makes total sense. Death reporting is fine, because the people doing this have been doing it forever and need no oversight. Testing efficiency is way down and overall deaths way up, because both of these depend on an effective government overseeing the process and making decisions. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/369 "2021-01-30T03:54:17Z")
> [@](#): > > A Massachusetts congressman who has received both doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine has tested positive for the virus. It he was tested because he had COVID symptoms, that’s one thing. If he was tested because he’s a VIP, I don’t think this means anything. Even if the false positive rate is very low, and even if the test was repeated, if thousands of VIP’s are being tested every week or two, there are going to be be some. This is in addition to the possibility that the test was accurate but the virus load insignificant. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/370 "2021-01-30T05:46:17Z")
102,635,253 total cases 2,216,418 dead 74,329,277 recovered In the US: 26,512,193 total cases 447,459 dead 16,199,572 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 102,041,000 total cases > 2,201,043 dead > 73,867,291 recovered > > In the US: > > 26,338,607 total cases > 443,769 dead > 16,070,127 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/372 "2021-01-30T07:07:47Z")
> [@FigNorton](#): > > I know this is a bit of a hobby horse for you, so not to continue the hijack, but I think Belgium’s numbers and methods might interest you. They seem to have a high covid case count compared to other western countries but they don’t have the “extra deaths”, which might suggest their accounting method is more accurate. The high number of deaths might suggest “their accounting method is more accurate”, but the shape of their infection/death curves suggests otherwise. Iin the middle stage of the severe outbreak, the number of deaths stabilized when it should have been still rising. Either the number of infections counted was too small in the early stage of the outbreak, or the number of deaths included was too great before the peak. Possibilities include (exaggerating for clarity) 1. “in the early stage of the outbreak, when not many people were infected, everybody that got infected died” 2. “in the early stage of the outbreak, when not many people were infected, anybody that died got counted as COVID” 3. “in the early stage of the outbreak, when not many people were infected, only the deaths were counted, not the cases” 4. “in the middle of the outbreak, when a lot of people got infected, they were infected with something that didn’t cause any deaths” Some of those suggestions are more likely than others, there may be a mix of reasons, but whatever the true reason, it has to account for the number of deaths leveling off at almost the same time as the number of new cases, (rather than 3 weeks later). All the outbreaks in Belgium show the rise in deaths lagging the rise in cases, and all subsequent outbreaks show the fall in deaths lagging the fall in cases, but something odd seems to have been happening with their statistics at the time of the biggest outbreak. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/373 "2021-01-30T11:00:55Z")
IIRC, in the Astra-Zeneca study they routinely tested for infection as well as for overt signs of disease, and the indication was that there was _some_ effect on infection rate. None of the other studies thus far published had any evidence in re whether the vaccine had an effect in infection rates (again, IIRC). j ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/374 "2021-01-30T11:55:31Z")
I would say that those were not really “anti-lockdown”. It’s just that the curfew is easy to rebel against and people are getting REALLY bored. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/375 "2021-01-31T02:19:59Z")
And another entry in the “FFS, what is wrong with people” category: > **[Anti-vaccine protest briefly shuts down Dodger Stadium vaccination site](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/anti-vaccine-protest-briefly-shuts-down-dodger-stadium-vaccination-site-n1256283)** > > The fire department closed the entrance for about an hour as protesters attempted to enter the parking lot. > Anti-vaccine protesters briefly forced officials to close the [Covid-19](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/coronavirus) vaccination site at Dodger Stadium on Saturday as hundreds of people waited in their cars to receive doses, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said. > No one was arrested, but the Los Angeles Police Department deployed “a sufficient amount of officers” to the stadium, a spokesperson said. L.A. police also said that all vaccines would be administered despite the delay. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/376 "2021-01-31T03:26:41Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > It he was tested because he had COVID symptoms, that’s one thing. > > If he was tested because he’s a VIP, I don’t think this means anything. > > Even if the false positive rate is very low, and even if the test was repeated, if thousands of VIP’s are being tested every week or two, there are going to be be some. This is in addition to the possibility that the test was accurate but the virus load insignificant. You left out the one that applies, IIRC. He was tested due to being exposed to someone who had it – someone in his office, I believe. ETA:. I did recall correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/377 "2021-01-31T05:19:40Z")
103,138,668 total cases 2,229,505 dead 74,759,867 recovered In the US: 26,655,740 total cases 450,381 dead 16,328,950 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 102,635,253 total cases > 2,216,418 dead > 74,329,277 recovered > > In the US: > > 26,512,193 total cases > 447,459 dead > 16,199,572 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/378 "2021-01-31T07:21:13Z")
Has anyone seen reports lately about the drug Aplidin (generic name: plitidepsin) to kill the virus? It’s a known drug, used mainly to treat multiple myeloma (a type of cancer) that somebody noticed seems to wipe out the Covid virus. > **[New drug may be potent against the coronavirus](https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/535915-new-drug-may-be-potent-against-the-coronavirus/)** > > Researchers use a chemical compound originally found in a sea creature to stop the virus causing COVID-19 in lab experiments. The drug does not inhibit or block any part of the virus. Rather, it inhibits a protein in the human cell that the virus needs in order to replicate. Thus, it is expected that mutations in the virus will not be able to circumvent this. (Googling for more information, it appears that the story is being picked up by many news sites. Poking around a bit, I didn’t see any stories that had much more information than any other stories.) ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/379 "2021-01-31T07:41:43Z")
I’d possibly pay that research more attention if they weren’t [a lot of the same people who told us hydroxychloroquine was promising back in April](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/New-UCSF-study-finds-potential-drugs-for-treating-15235804.php). While I would love for us to find something that would easily make this all go away, we’ve seen that promise before. Let them get through some real human trials and see where it lands. In the meantime, we have vaccines that have actually worked their way through the process and have been proven effective. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/380 "2021-01-31T07:48:18Z")
In other words, you’re saying “If at first you don’t succeed, give up” ? ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/381 "2021-01-31T08:07:37Z")
No, I’m saying it’s not a good idea for doctors to give their patients a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, pliltidepsin, ivermectin, amodiaquine, zuclopenthixol, nebivolol, astemizole, clofazamine, regeneron, molnupiravir, fluvoxamine, statins, dexamethasone, hydrocortisone, tocilizumab, sarilumab, interferon beta, toremifene, and a bunch of other drugs too numerous to mention. I’m all for testing each and every one of those (and more and newer options as they come up) in human trials using controlled testing methodologies and at least some of those trials are underway. Others have already been eliminated. If any of those drugs turns out to be a miracle cure, I’ll shout it from the rooftops. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/382 "2021-01-31T08:55:28Z")
@Senegoid, I can see in hindsight that [my hydroxychloroquine post you responded to](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/379) appears to attack the authors of the paper. I have no beef with them now, nor back in the early days when we were doing lab tests on every drug known to man. It’s when the media and/or doctors pick it up and run with it that I truly take issue. The media gives people unfounded hope with each new study and many doctors seem willing to blindly follow along. Again, it wasn’t meant as an attack on you and I apologize for what is obviously snarkiness towards the authors of the study, who don’t deserve it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428.md?page=20)