Some thoughts on covid 19 restrictions

ASs some regulars may know I sometimes have a few health problems that at times restricts my access to the countryside so many of the restrictions that we have endured, and are still enduring, do not feel strange to Chris and myself. My immune system is pretty shot up at times so I'm quite good at avoiding numbers of people, I'm maybe not as anti social as it seems, and I've never been a lover of shopping unless its books. When we were recommended to shield in our own homes we actually realised we could walk the riverside fields with permission from the owners and had little chance of meeting anyone so we felt quite happy there. When restrictions eased we have four small nature reserves within a couple of miles of home with plenty of space to avoid close contact but still both watch birds and talk about birds with others doing the same, quite a little anti social bird club we are. There has been good birds aplenty and as winter has drawn closer the wintering Thrushes arrived we have been doing counts on them. One of our local reserves has got a wonderful Starling murmuration,60,000 birds at least, which we managed to social distance the grandsons to. We have found by visiting the busiest of the reserves late afternoon most birders have gone home and we enjoy the spectacle of birds going to roost. We do miss visiting our local moorland but they are outside the 3 mile radius we put on ourselves, they will still be there when all this is over and we settle down to our new normal. Because I am in that at risk category we seem to be swimming in hand sanitiser but Chris keeps an eye on what I get up to. I just hope other folk are coping as well as us and getting the support we have been getting, take care out there we will beat this lot somehow.

  • I won't ask why you show as Wendy S when I reply to you, Pete!!
  • Glad to hear you had your booster shot, TJ. I did wonder if you would get it as scheduled.
    For anyone worried about getting a vaccine--please don't be and rest assured. Only those people who already know they are likely to have a bad reaction to things, especially to the point of carrying an epi-pen in case of a severe allergic reaction, need to let their doctor know about that and discuss whether or not they should have the vaccine or not. All other adults will most likely be fine with a vaccine jab. For any concerned that a single jab might not work, I think I remember that the effectiveness of the first jab in the testing was something like 70 percent, which is 70 percent better than you might have without any vaccine injections at all. The second jab then boosts things to a bit higher level--anything is better than nothing. Also, remember that of everyone in the trial, of those few who had a reaction to the virus subsequent to having the vaccine jab, NO ONE had a severe reaction to the virus. Please ignore any of the stuff you see on social media--anyone who knows about drug design and testing of new possible drugs has complete confidence in these vaccines which have now been approved. Also, do not be alarmed by the speed at which the vaccines were developed, tested and approved. While normally it can take 10 years more or less to develop a new drug for anything, many companies dropped research on other drugs and threw everything they had, namely most or every drug design team, at finding a vaccine. Also, some of the testing procedures which are usually done in a deliberate order, were done simultaneously. This is a huge risk for a drug company because having thrown resources at developing and testing potential drugs for any purpose, not all of them will work and will have had to be abandoned, something which normally happens all of the time (which is part of the reason why drugs are so expensive), but under normal conditions, if a drug fails at any point in development and/or in testing, and tweaking the drug does not improve the drug's effectiveness, that drug is dropped fairly quickly in preference to heading down other lines of investigation. The testing of the vaccines has been just as rigorous as is normal, but to get a vaccine in the quickest possible time, much work and testing was done at the same time rather than sequentially. This note has been vetted by Mr GB, retired drug designer.
  • The only people who have had an allergic reaction are people with a know recognised allergen problem. This vaccine is no different to the annual flu jab but provides a much better life saving opportunity. I used to work in drug development running clinical trails on a global basis and have been involved in all phases of development
    In normal times a new drug goes through Ph1 studies, first into man with male healthy volunteers who are monitored & kept in a specialised clinical unit. Once that process is complete then look at the data in terms of safety and efficacy. If all the data is looking good then they carry on the next studies.They then design Ph2 trials with a bigger population group again looking at safety & efficacy. When all those studies are completed and data reviewed and all is looking good they then go onto Ph3 trials with thousands of people from all ages and ethnicities still looking at safety and efficacy. With these vaccine studies they went through the same process but looked at the data as it was collected so they were reviewed continuously to enable them to run all the right Phases of clinical trials in parallel and not sequentially, this has been done before with some drugs and shaves years & years off the development cycle.
    In the height of the AIDs crisis in the 80's similar process was used to get the first drugs to market to save lives.

    Being on the CEVP list with compromised immune system I an in the 4th group to be vaccinated but currently in our area no one is being given the vaccine. So not expecting a jab until Feb/Mar at best.
  • Well said, Ann. These anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists need to be dealt with - they will cause unnecessary suffering and death with their baseless claims.
  • Tony T said:
    Being on the CEVP list with compromised immune system I an in the 4th group to be vaccinated but currently in our area no one is being given the vaccine.

    Blimey.  Where do you live?

  • In a village between Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds. There is a site in BSE but not in any villages yet.
  • Thanks, Tony and Clare. Great to have confirmation, Tony--thanks! One main issue might be that some people distrust experts, unfortunately. I recall our not-so-esteemed MP telling us during the Brexit row that "we've had enough of experts." With folk like that it is sadly no wonder that some end up doubting everyone and only listen to other uninformed folk.
  • Nice part of the world. I imagine the villages on this side of the county will have a bit of a wait as well.
  • Unknown said:
    I recall our not-so-esteemed MP telling us during the Brexit row that "we've had enough of experts."

    Blimey.  Who is this complete knob?