But if you want to know the effect that Covid is having, look at excess deaths. Not all of those will be actually from Covid, but from the effects of lockdown and the effects of strain on the health service and the effects of fear of catching it keeping people out of hospital who really needed to go. They are all dying because of Covid.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Can anyone explain the science to me? From what little I understand, the WHO says the fact that we have high vaccination rates coupled with high contagion rates means we are the country most susceptible to dangerous covid variants. I wanted to show the article from the BBC news site but it seems to have disappeared. I accept that they know what they're talking about, but I don't understand😟
Vaccination whilst being good for existing strains, does lead to the likely development of mutations [ same as bacteria and antibiotics ] therefore if you have lots of the virus and lots of the vaccine, there is always the chance of mutation and new variants. Hope I have managed to explain that.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
What I always find disconcerting in all this, is that the virus is spoken about as if it is some intelligent, integrated, 'Seven of Nine' hive minded,one goal 'thing'. AFAIK its still debated as to whether viruses 'live'. So mutations don't appear to 'beat' a vaccine - it's not a conscious decision by the virus - it just happens that a particular mutation may be more resilient to a vaccine or spread more easily than the base variant and then spread more.
What always makes me smile is the thought of a good virus - why do all viruses appear to be bad? Wouldn't it be good to get a virus that made you happy or more optimistic - and wouldn't such a virus be vastly more successful than any bad virus? People would be grouping together to get the happy virus and it would spread like wildfire...
It's hard for us to make sense of the random, so our brain morphs it into something we can understand. A bit like how the brain processes optical illusions, I suppose. Now the happiness virus might be a good thing - depending on what mutations become dominant in the future.😉
Yes the more people infected, means there's more chance of a mutation. So if the virus is very prevalent , (lots of people infected) then the chance of you coming into contact with the mutation is raised. Even if you are vaccinated there is still a higher risk of infection. If we can get the prevalence low, and immunity high, the virus has nowhere to go and dies out.
Happy to report that the AZ side effects were exactly as expected. There seemed no effect until about midnight, when I stared shivering and has a bit of a headache. Tossed and turned most of the night, beng woken several times by the pain when I laid on the affected side, I think. The injection site feels exactly like a bruise, but with no visible markings on the skin. Just had a coffee and now feel like doing some gardening.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
What always makes me smile is the thought of a good virus - why do all viruses appear to be bad? Wouldn't it be good to get a virus that made you happy or more optimistic - and wouldn't such a virus be vastly more successful than any bad virus? People would be grouping together to get the happy virus and it would spread like wildfire...
There is a lot of evidence that viruses are one of the main drivers of evolution as they can transfer sections of genetic material between host cells. Fascinating stuff.
Posts
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
From what little I understand, the WHO says the fact that we have high vaccination rates coupled with high contagion rates means we are the country most susceptible to dangerous covid variants.
I wanted to show the article from the BBC news site but it seems to have disappeared.
I accept that they know what they're talking about, but I don't understand😟
therefore if you have lots of the virus and lots of the vaccine, there is always the chance of mutation and new variants.
Hope I have managed to explain that.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Now the happiness virus might be a good thing - depending on what mutations become dominant in the future.😉