The finance minister has just announced that they’re scrapping VAT and any other applicable taxes on FFP2 masks. He expects the retail price should be around 50 cents per mask.
I haven’t checked whether these masks are now available in the shops again, though it’s clear that a lot of people did somehow manage to get some: on my way to work this morning about half of the subway commuters were already wearing them. My own plan is to obviate the need for a mask most days by biking to work.
New Covid variants seem to have some resistance to the vaccines. Including the infamous B117
The S African variant with the E484K seems to have basically avoided detection in half of tested cases (prior infection immunity) and reduced effectiveness of 90% of cases.
What’s the proper Afrikaans for, we are so fucked now, @MrDibble
Nou is ons dik genaai should do.
Well, this is just awesome - 300k+ vaccine doses on hold:
Mixed news from the UK.
On the other hand, from the same story:
Another 33,355 positive Covid cases have been recorded - less than half the peak figure of 68,053 on 8 January.
My bold. Lockdown works. And:
A total of 4,266,577 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine, according to the latest government figures.
Elsewhere on the BBC:
10% + 4.2 million - in a tentative and slightly weird way, it sounds encouraging.
j
Only Virginia and South Carolina appear to have registered new record highs of daily cases (seven day averaged) over the three-day weekend
Just when I was starting to feel vaguely encouraged…
In remarks reported by Army Radio, Nachman Ash said a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and also lower than Pfizer had suggested.
By contrast, those who had received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a six- to 12-fold increase in antibodies, according to data released by Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer on Monday.
The issue of some vaccines being less effective after a single dose rather than two is well known, as well as the fact that protection is not immediate. While the first dose can take several weeks to promote an effective antibody response, the second dose can trigger different responses, supercharging the protection. Pfizer itself says a single dose of its vaccine is about 52% effective. Some countries such as the UK have delayed administering their second doses to try to maximise the number of people given a first dose.
My bold.
It appears that Israel is not delaying a second shot - they’re just seeing lots of cases after the first shot and before the second is delivered. Here in the UK, of course, we are delaying the second shot (for 12 weeks), so this is a worrying report. (FTR the UK is more reliant on the A-Z vaccine than Pfizer.)
j
I can confirm that. When I signed up yesterday for my first shot (tomorrow, January 20th), the app automatically gave me a date for my second shot - February 10th, exactly 21 days after my first.
Panama will receive its first shipment of 12,840 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but no word on how those will be distributed. Apparently Pfizer has to ramp up production before the next lot of the 450,000 doses that Panama ordered will be shipped, maybe starting after February 15. So I don’t anticipate getting vaccinated anytime soon.
Hey, what % of the population does that represent?
Panama’s population is around 4.2 million, so roughly 5% of the total considering two doses are needed. The first batch I think will be directed to health workers, security personnel, bed-ridden adults over 60, and nursing homes.
Panama is also expecting 1.1 million doses of the AstraZenca vaccine, 300,000 Johnson and Johnson, 1.1 million Covax, and eventually additional Pfizer. That should eventually cover the adult population, but who knows when.
96,625,755 total cases
2,065,698 dead
69,274,079 recovered
In the US:
24,806,964 total cases
411,486 dead
14,786,852 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
On the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus site, Virginia is the only state to be reporting a record daily high in new cases (seven-day-averaged). In fact, along with New Hampshire, it’s the only state with a rising trend of daily highs. I didn’t expect to be here two and a half weeks after New Years Day.
In fact, US daily reported cases appears to be trending down, as it does for most countries on that chart, and for the world as a whole. .
Looks like case numbers have been going down for a week. Guess that proves being a total shitshow works.
Just kidding. But it looks like that’s the end of the Christmas bump and there wasn’t one for New Year’s.
I bought a 50-pack of N95s back at the beginning. I read something in a reputable professional medical website that made sense to me at the time.
Get out 7 masks. Label them for each day of the week. Wear the mask for the appropriate day, then let it sit on a shelf spread open undisturbed for the next 6 days. Any viral particles adhering from the first wearing will have destructed by next Wednesday or whichever.
Once they get soiled or a strap snaps or I lose one I replace it.
I only need to wear my mask maybe a 2 hours per day on average, but so far since March I’ve used up a total of 16 masks. All the rest are still in the original sealed packaging ready to use. I have a couple that are getting close to end of life now. So ballpark in 10 months I’ve gone through 2.5 sets of 7.
Even if someone wore their mask 10 hours/day (8 at work + 2 commuting in public), they’d get a month or so out of a set of 7.
That seems much more affordable. And from a national logistics POV much less disruptive to the supply chain.
Very sensible and cost-effective protocol. 
I don’t even need a mask every day because on most days I don’t even leave the house.
Those yellow rubber band straps seem to be the weak part of the device. I’ve tied broken bands together to get more use out of a mask.
Mine have a nylon woven elastic strap that’s heat-welded to the spun fiber plastic mask material. I had one weld fail on about the third wearing. Two staples tacked it back together and it lasted another 3 months = 12 wearings before it got too dirty/stinky.
One thing’s for sure. If you have bad oral hygiene habits, you’ll quickly mend your ways. The funk of week old bad breath adhering to the inside of the mask right by your nose is … memorable.
I kinda doubt any manufacturer would agree with using an N95 mask for multiple times for months keeps it N95 by the end.
Personal observations tell me, almost nobody wears them properly and probably aren’t much better protection than a normal mask in that case. They have to be properly fitted and almost everyone I see has them sitting on their nose and around the cheek as loose as other masks.
Eta: for instance, when you’re making sure it’s on right, do the smell test. Get it on and hold a bag near your face. Smell the coffee? It’s probably not on right.
Ugg, obviously that should be “hold a bag of coffee”.