(02-04-2021, 08:55 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:

(02-03-2021, 09:36 PM)ac3r Wrote: They would most certainly sell it. Shortly after they approved it in their own country, they offered to sell it to almost any other nation that wished to buy it, although naturally there was little interest in it at that point. If Canada has any interest in it, we'd of course have to approve it here first.

That said, I don't see what isn't to trust, especially now that it has been peer reviewed by the global science community. Russia isn't some backwards land of uneducated plebeians, they're an incredible nation with a rich history and have made important contributions to everything from philosophy to space travel to medicine. We trust their rockets to put our astronauts and satellites into space, right? Putin is one man and he does not control everything. Our geopolitical paranoia towards them should not play a part in something important like this, provided it was not sold to us with any caveats that deeply undermine our geopolitics.

Nobody thinks Russia is incapable of producing a vaccine. But the Russian state has shown a willingness to cheat and lie to advance their own image before. They had a very sofisticated system for cheating at the Olympics for example. And a peer review committee is mostly looking for scientific rigour not investigating for outright lies and deceit. They have already been fooled once, last time by an unscrupulous corporation.

I am not saying that the vaccine cannot work, I am just saying I don't trust the honesty of the Russian state or the independence of the vaccine producer. As others have said there is only one peer reviewed study so far. One data point,

• 250 cases in Peel: 18.1 per 100K
  
• 343 cases in Toronto: 11.7 per 100K
  
• 128 cases in York: 11.5 per 100K
  
• 9 cases in Chatham-Kent: 8.5 per 100K
  
• 42 cases in Halton: 7.7 per 100K
  
• 41 cases in Waterloo: 6.6 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 24 cases in Middlesex-London: 5.9 per 100K
  
• 12 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 4.4 per 100K
  
• 23 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 4.3 per 100K
  
• 16 cases in Windsor-Essex: 4.1 per 100K
  
• 18 cases in Niagara: 4.0 per 100K
  
• 25 cases in Durham: 3.9 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Brant: 3.7 per 100K
  
• 25 cases in Ottawa: 2.5 per 100K
  
• 12 cases in Hamilton: 2.1 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Southwestern Ontario: 2.0 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Kingston Frontenac: 2.0 per 100K
  

• 16 cases in Chatham-Kent: 15.1 per 100K
  
• 196 cases in Peel: 14.2 per 100K
  
• 393 cases in Toronto: 13.4 per 100K
  
• 125 cases in York: 11.3 per 100K
  
• 11 cases in Brant: 8.1 per 100K
  
• 47 cases in Waterloo: 7.6 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 24 cases in Windsor-Essex: 6.2 per 100K
  
• 8 cases in Lambton: 6.1 per 100K
  
• 22 cases in Middlesex-London: 5.4 per 100K
  
• 29 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 5.4 per 100K
  
• 14 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 5.1 per 100K
  
• 28 cases in Halton: 5.1 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Huron Perth: 5.1 per 100K
  
• 28 cases in Hamilton: 4.8 per 100K
  
• 7 cases in Thunder Bay: 4.7 per 100K
  
• 19 cases in Niagara: 4.2 per 100K
  
• 40 cases in Ottawa: 4.0 per 100K
  
• 21 cases in Durham: 3.3 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Southwestern Ontario: 2.0 per 100K
  

(02-11-2021, 04:32 AM)plam Wrote: I mean, this is what happens when you are looking for villains in vaccine administration:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/us/houston-doctor-fired-covid-vaccine.html

Seems like a total misadministration of justice to go after this doctor who made good faith efforts to find people to vaccinate and in the end vaccinated his wife, who is high risk. For what it's worth, household members of frontline workers will be eligible for priority vaccine in NZ.

• 258 cases in Peel: 18.7 per 100K
  
• 29 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 10.7 per 100K
  
• 116 cases in York: 10.5 per 100K
  
• 8 cases in Huron Perth: 8.2 per 100K
  
• 12 cases in Thunder Bay: 8.0 per 100K
  
• 46 cases in Hamilton: 7.9 per 100K
  
• 15 cases in Eastern Ontario: 7.4 per 100K
  
• 9 cases in Lambton: 6.9 per 100K
  
• 41 cases in Waterloo: 6.6 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 7 cases in Chatham-Kent: 6.6 per 100K
  
• 25 cases in Windsor-Essex: 6.4 per 100K
  
• 63 cases in Ottawa: 6.3 per 100K
  
• 34 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 6.3 per 100K
  
• 31 cases in Halton: 5.7 per 100K
  
• 25 cases in Niagara: 5.6 per 100K
  
• 11 cases in Southwestern Ontario: 5.5 per 100K
  
• 33 cases in Durham: 5.1 per 100K
  
• 20 cases in Middlesex-London: 4.9 per 100K
  
• 112 cases in Toronto: 3.8 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark: 2.9 per 100K
  

(02-11-2021, 09:02 PM)ac3r Wrote: Absolutely reckless and unfortunately this is one of those cases where nothing can be done about it.

(02-11-2021, 09:02 PM)ac3r Wrote: Pfenning's Organic Foods in St. Agatha is proudly advertising their business as a safe space for people who want to shop without masks.

(02-12-2021, 10:26 AM)Coke6pk Wrote:

(02-11-2021, 09:02 PM)ac3r Wrote: Absolutely reckless and unfortunately this is one of those cases where nothing can be done about it.

Pre-COVID when there were illegal marijuana dispensaries operating, by-law would use concrete highway barriers to block entrances to prevent re-occurrence.

Now when places are openly displaying non-compliance, and not just weed, but something lethal, we do nothing?  I don't get it.

Coke

• Manitoba has placed an order for 2M vaccine doses from Providence Therapeutics of Calgary. Providence has just started phase 2 trials (the much-bigger phase 3 trial is still in the future) so approval is still well in the future. The company has also purchased land for a production site but apparently no construction has started yet. This will surely arrive after the Novavax production starts in Montreal.
  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-covid-19-vaccine-update-1.5910312
  
  
• Reports from Israel (where the entire population is being monitored) show that the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine has reduced infections by 93% including asymptomatic cases (the phase 3 trial only check for symptomatic cases)
  https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210212_08/
  
  
• Some Russian scientists are not so much impressed with the phase 3 study of the Sputnik-V vaccine or the details that were published
  http://osdm.org/english/2021/02/07/commentary-on-the-publication-of-phase-1-2-sputnik-v-trial/
  
  
• A Finnish company, DSA, is about to go to production with a COVID breathalyzer device that can accurately detect an infection within two minutes
  https://dsa.fi/dsa-breathpass
  
  
• And Miami Heat is using dogs to detect COVID positive patrons with 92% accuracy
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2021/02/08/are-covid-sniffing-dogs-the-miami-heats-new-mvps/