Coronavirus SARS-Cov2 (COVID-19)

[prasen9]

I suspect that a significant fraction of the medical community in TN is not taking the vaccine. I have no info but am guessing.

Maybe the Hindu newspaper effect? They are constantly negative on all these things, and go out of the way to say that things are all screwed up in India. Just the newspaper's style.

Good. Of course, I do not want them to say anything factually false. But, I am always rooting for newspapers who are anti-establishment, whoever the establishment is.

[suresh]

I suspect that a significant fraction of the medical community in TN is not taking the vaccine. I have no info but am guessing.

Maybe the Hindu newspaper effect? They are constantly negative on all these things, and go out of the way to say that things are all screwed up in India. Just the newspaper's style.

More like the Covaxin effect. One doesn't have a say in which vaccine is given to you and hence the reaction. I know that I will not get vaccinated until the Covaxin efficiency and safety data is available. Of course, I am not eligible to get vaccinated at the moment.

[suresh]

Why has the number of tests in Kerala has not gone up? Wasn't it supposed to go up.

[jayakris]

Good. Of course, I do not want them to say anything factually false. But, I am always rooting for newspapers who are anti-establishment, whoever the establishment is.

The Hindu doesn't say anything factually false. They do uphold journalistic ethics on these things very well. better than almost any newspaper out there in the world. But in their urge to be anti-establishment, they give more paper space to opinions that criticize the establishment. The normal leftist influence that journalists tend to have, adds to the problem. Now, I do believe that it is a good thing to have newspapers that take the establishment to task, but there are times when you need to step back and think if that will actually cause more trouble, when done cavalierly.

Case in point was the article where Dr. Kang was quoted on the Covaxin approval fiasco. The newspaper was factual, and so was Dr. Kang. But what caught my eye was the key item that was honestly reported but was not given any importance by the newspaper. The quote from her also said that she would take a Covaxin shot with no hesitation. That was because even she knew from whatever info that was out there that it was safe - but that was not explained by the newspaper at all. Her criticism was on efficacy. That is really nothing that the people needed to worry about (the Government needed to, because it is wasted money and effort if the vaccine was basically nothing more than a safe placebo!). But the Hindu's headline and the whole article made it only sound like the Government had some ulterior motive and that there were problems all around that may make people hesitate. Self-fulfilling prophesy. And Dr. Kang was worried about vaccine hesitancy. Rather than explain it properly, the newspaper reported it like they felt they can't blame the people if they were hesitant. Just cavalier reporting caused by the urge to criticize the establishment. The newspaper made no attempt to think about the damage they were causing. But that is just what The Hindu does. It is their style. God bless them

[jayakris]

Why has the number of tests in Kerala has not gone up? Wasn't it supposed to go up.

No sign of any increase. It was probably just hot air from the Chief minister. A week after his decision and big talk to increase tests to 100K with 75% RT-PCR, there is no sign of any increase at all. But Pinarayi sometimes does get things done if he wants to do it, so I am hopeful that it wasn't just talk. Anyway, instead, the numbers reduced last week and this week compared to the previous week! I think even the lab capacity is a problem. Kerala did not even set up enough testing labs for RT-PCR. They also did not have a proper plan to use the private hospital capacity for testing purposes, I think. They are probably worried of delays on testing too now. This late, after all these months. Pathetic mismanagement. Finally even the leftist journalists and "thinkers" in Kerala have started criticizing. Saw something even in Malayala Manorama today. It only took them about 4 months to do it, after I started criticizing. Instead, they were talking about leftist journalists sending heaps of praise on KK Shailaja to NY Times and Gulf Times. Kerala model. My posterior.

[Kumar]

More like the Covaxin effect. One doesn't have a say in which vaccine is given to you and hence the reaction.

I was not aware ! That is just not ethical!

There is talk of starting the vaccinations for elderly! How comfortable would u all feel about vaccinating 80+ olds? Already hear rumblings that vaccines are not safe for elderly (Norway effect) from people back in India

[jayakris]

Here is the weekly update of the state-wise ranking of vaccinations on a population basis (per 1000 people), at the end Saturday the 30th (8 am update on Sunday)

Code: Select all

		Total	Per 10K	Weekly
			People	Increase
Lakshadweep	807	11.529	2.486
Mizoram		9346	7.841	4.503
Tripura		29796	7.464	3.894
Andaman/Nicobar	2727	6.869	1.836
Arunachal Pra.	9651	6.417	2.088
Karnataka	315370	4.793	1.921
Odisha		206424	4.727	1.238
Telangana	168606	4.530	1.574
Kerala		158687	4.518	2.994
Haryana		125898	4.391	1.904
Rajasthan	329611	4.266	3.395
Ladakh		1128	3.850	1.945
Himachal Pra.	27734	3.799	1.944
Madhya Pradesh	298376	3.628	3.163
Gujarat		246054	3.622	2.467
Andhra Pradesh	187252	3.586	0.770
Sikkim		2020	3.042	1.596
Chandigarh	3447	2.924	1.650
Delhi		56818	2.868	1.565
Goa		4117	2.673	1.660
Uttarakhand	28791	2.584	1.641
Chhattisgarh	72704	2.531	1.531
West Bengal	243069	2.508	1.636
Maharashtra	269064	2.203	1.385
Uttar Pradesh	463793	2.061	1.511
Jammu&Kashmir	26634	2.017	1.135
Punjab		57499	1.926	0.910
Dadra/N.Haveli	692	1.922	0.964
Nagaland	3993	1.857	0.256
Puducherry	2736	1.819	0.836
Daman and Diu	391	1.533	0.424
Tamil Nadu	105821	1.398	0.616
Meghalaya	4324	1.341	0.648
Manipur		3987	1.285	0.538
Bihar		146015	1.222	0.585
Assam		38106	1.111	0.706
Jharkhand	40726	1.089	0.693
Miscellaneous	52120		
			
INDIA		3744334	2.810	1.623

Now Karnataka, Odisha, Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Rajasthan are at the top among the larger 22 states, and Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Assam and Jharkhand are at the bottom end. You can also see the vaccinations done during the latest week (since last Sunday through this Saturday). Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat did the best job this week. On a percentage basis, actually UP did the best, but that is because they did almost nothing in the first 8 days.

[prasen9]

There is talk of starting the vaccinations for elderly! How comfortable would u all feel about vaccinating 80+ olds? Already hear rumblings that vaccines are not safe for elderly (Norway effect) from people back in India

There are also rumblings about the earth being flat and is gaining some popularity. These will always be there. I am very comfortable vaccinating my 80+ year old father as is my brother, who is a doctor. This is with regard to the tested vaccines in the Western world. I also am comfortable by the Indian scientific authorities as long as some politician does not come in and unduly influence things. What I have seen politicians do is in the margins and about the efficacy of the vaccine and not its safety. So, I am very comfortable.

[depleter]

So, frontline workers can get vaccinated from today. Central govt is asking states to increase their program with more efficiency, lets see how it goes. May be we will see a 1M/day this week.

[Atithee]

I was not aware ! That is just not ethical!

There is talk of starting the vaccinations for elderly! How comfortable would u all feel about vaccinating 80+ olds? Already hear rumblings that vaccines are not safe for elderly (Norway effect) from people back in India

But, even here in the USA, we don’t get a choice between Pfizer or Moderna. I do agree that one should be told which vaccine they are getting and then it’s the recipient’s choice to take it or not.

[jayakris]

I am very comfortable vaccinating my 80+ year old father as is my brother, who is a doctor. This is with regard to the tested vaccines in the Western world. I also am comfortable by the Indian scientific authorities as long as some politician does not come in and unduly influence things. What I have seen politicians do is in the margins and about the efficacy of the vaccine and not its safety. So, I am very comfortable.

Same view as I have. I told my mom (75 years) to get it at the first chance she can - whichever vaccine it is. Covishield or Covaxin. If I can get one of either I will take it too. I could understand a week of hesitancy, but it has been like 15 days and the adverse effects are so minuscule (with even minor discomforts reported only by like 1 in several thousands, and deaths attributed to the vaccine almost non-existent after 3.7 million jabs).

Meanwhile, we had only +11.5K cases on Sunday, from about 789K cases at 1.46% positivity... The 7-day average went down by another 243 to 12K... It keeps going down. Only 3.7K cases outside Kerala and Maharasahtra.

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ICMR: 197,092,635 total tests... Sunday tests: 504,263... I guess we may only have some 8K to 9K cases tomorrow.

[Kumar]

There are also rumblings about the earth being flat and is gaining some popularity. These will always be there. I am very comfortable vaccinating my 80+ year old father as is my brother, who is a doctor. This is with regard to the tested vaccines in the Western world. I also am comfortable by the Indian scientific authorities as long as some politician does not come in and unduly influence things. What I have seen politicians do is in the margins and about the efficacy of the vaccine and not its safety. So, I am very comfortable.

I understand that lot of vaccine narratives are false! I was of the same thought of getting my parents vaccine as soon as it came out! The report from Norway-was little scary though! I definitely have apprehensions about covaxin inactivated virus vaccine for my parents ! Wondering if there are contra-indications for elderly people to get vaccine! Guess UK is already vaccinating their elderly with Oxford and that would be a good indication

Balanced article

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/norway- ... us-vaccine

[prasen9]

Thanks for the information/article Kumar. Yes, there could be a problem that we do not know but the best we can do perhaps is to take what the scientific community suggests and then hope and pray for the best.

[jayakris]

An interesting article from the US National Public Radio - The Mystery Of India's Plummeting COVID-19 Cases

Not written by an Indian scribe, so it doesn't have the usual attacks on India and the obligatory reference to slums and right-wing extremist government and all that... Generally a factual article...

So, it says the world wants to know what India is doing that is working. The only problem is - India has no clue what is working!! We do nothing special, and we all agree that we do it all inefficiently, anyway

[jayakris]

We only had just +8.6K today, from about 627K tests at 1.37%... 3.5 from KER, 1.9 from MAH and just 3.2K from elsewhere... The seven-day average fell a teeny bit to 11.9K... We had our lowest death total in almost 9 months since early may, at 94.

Only did about 191,313 vaccinations on Monday though. Was expecting a much higher number ... Total: 3,950,156...

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ICMR Update: 197,752,057 total tests... Monday tests: 659,422... Lab count: 2361