Mmm have to pull you up here Benny.
Science doesn’t ‘pride’ itself on anything. Science is not an entity, is a method to generate probabilistic outcomes describing our surrounds, based on the best available evidence at the time.
To assert that it ‘doesn’t work’ is fallacious.
This better be “has” not “will”, NSW are already far enough ahead. Vic needs to be given doses to catch up.
It depends how deep you want to go, or how technically inclined the people you’re talking to are. Ask questions, don’t lecture…
How big is the chip?
What is it made of?
How is it powered? Will it run out of batteries?
Does it record? Does it have a microphone?
Does it transmit?
Ask them questions and then get them to compare to something like a smartphone, or a security camera, which have the tracking/surveillance capabilities that are being discussed, but need to be BIG in order to fit all the hardware in. Or do any oif them have pets? Get them to compare the chip that we implant to reunite lost dogs etc with their owners. Firstly, they’re actually fairly sizeable (whereas a hypothetical evil vaccine chip would need to be invisibly small to fit through the tiny syringe that the vax get administered through). But also, to scan those, we have to get a specialised device and press it hard up against the area the chip was inserted. It’s a clumsy, obvious, manual process, and it’s certainly not done by satellite or anything. The same goes with the magnetic security tags in retail shops, they’re big and obvious and you need special equipment very close by to detect them at all.
It MIGHT be worth getting them to talk about the sheer implausibility of the technical aspects of it all. And once you’ve done that, hopefully you’ve opened a crack in the mental armour.
Going to be an incredibly bright summer for NSW - Hope and optimism in the bad LGAs
Currently working on a plan for economic prosperity
Thanks for the advice everyone. Some of those articles are really spot on hit close to home. Cutting my family (and wife) is clearly not an option though! My strategy to date has been to largely ignore it, but now my wife has changed her thinking it’s become really challenging, and I’m going to have to face it shortly.
I know getting the vaccine is the right thing to do, and if it wasn’t for my wife’s position I would have already booked in to get it. Deep down I know my hesitancy is around the fact that if I choose to get the vaccine it’s going to cause major problems between my wife and I. I’m being sympathetic and listening to her side of things, but that’s only probably going to make things worse shortly.
I’m hoping my work makes me get the vaccination to go back to work (I work in tourism), so that will end that. She also works casually in a retail outlet, but I have no idea if they will force their workers to be vaccinated or not. I’m not sure what her position is on this, it may push her to get it, or alternatively she may choose to resign.
Then there’s the potential issue of me being vaccinated and her not, and then us not being able to do anything together or go anywhere as a family in the future. This is the angle that I think might have the most success with on her, but it’s going to have to be a very soft touch approach.
It’s just a ■■■■ situation and it’s dominating my life & thoughts at the moment.
The problem with dealing with that is the sheer amount of nonsense that you can find regarding developing technologies. They will counter with proof of patents for technology that is literally being pursued by companies to create this stuff. They just say the companies already have created it and it was funded by the CIA/NSA.
And btw I know this stuff because I follow it on YT and other places to see what is being discussed. They have answers to your supposed logical rebuttals.
I wish the police force well in controlling the 5 vaccinated visitors per home rule
It’s a pretty toxic place though. An ordinary person like yourself feels sad. It takes a different type to mock people for killing themselves, like most of the comments there.
Ha!
I’d be finding some technical info about 5G antenna size and comparing it to the size of the vaccine needle. It’s physically impossible.
But I doubt you’d have much success against the nuttiest of conspiracy theories. I like to ask how certain someone is, considering that the risk is death if they are wrong. It might shake the tree, probably not.
End of the day, you’ve got to decide if this is worth the effort.
Interesting article discussing the obstacles for developing / testing new vaccines in light of the existing ones already in place. And how the agreements for using those vaccines seems to hamper trials being conducted.
The world still needs more — and better — Covid-19 vaccines. But a major hurdle stands in the way of the development of new vaccines, as well as the critical studies needed to determine the best way to use these important tools, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) warned in a letterpublished Tuesday in the journal Nature.
Unless countries that have purchased vaccine doses and companies that have already brought vaccines into use agree to find ways to resolve the problem, manufacturers that trail the first wave of producers may not be able to prove that their vaccines work. Not only will that slow efforts to vaccinate the planet, it will block development of next-generation vaccines, and it will stymie efforts to answer key public health questions, like whether boosting with a different vaccine would generate better protection, or whether giving smaller — fractional— doses could protect more people more quickly.
The letter was signed by CEPI’s director of vaccine research and development, Melanie Saville.
In an interview with STAT, CEPI’s U.S. director, Nicole Lurie, said the organization has been trying for months to break the logjam, to no avail. “We’re going round and round in circles.”
The problem stems in part from the fact that at this point in the pandemic, it isn’t considered ethical to test new vaccines against placebos; instead they would have to be tested against one of the existing shots. But getting one’s hands on licensed or authorized vaccines for study purposes is nigh on impossible; all available doses have been snapped up by countries keen to vaccinate as many of their citizens as possible.
Contracts for those doses contain rigid stipulations about how the vaccines can be deployed. The doses often have to be used in the country that made the purchase; when the Biden administration wanted to share AstraZeneca doses with Canada and Mexico in March, it loaned the doses to get around the restrictions. Contracts also often stipulate that doses that have been purchased must be used for outbreak control, not for research purposes, Lurie said.
There’s little upside for companies to make doses of their vaccines available for study purposes. With global demand vastly exceeding current supply, manufacturers can sell every dose that they can make.
And there are potential downsides. If a clinical trial testing a new vaccine shows it performs better than the vaccine to which it was compared, that doesn’t help future sales of the comparator vaccine. Likewise, if a study showed that it would be better to use a different vaccine as a booster shot — called a heterologous boost — that could undercut plans by manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna to sell third shots of their vaccines.
There are many questions that need answering about the best way to use Covid vaccines. And the only way to answer them is to conduct studies — studies that would require doses of vaccines like Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax, as well as the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines and shots made by manufacturers outside of North America and Europe.
“Whether it’s interval [between doses], whether it’s heterologous prime-boost [studies], whether it’s boosting strategies, fractional dosing, whatever … you need an authorized vaccine” to test against, Lurie said. “And we can’t get access to vaccines. That’s the basic issue.”
The problem shouldn’t be insurmountable. The South Korean vaccine manufacturer, SK Bioscience, announced recently that it is beginning a Phase 3 trial of a vaccine it is developing in conjunction with vaccine giant GSK, which is supplying a boosting compound known as an adjuvant. The clinical trial will compare the SK vaccine against AstraZeneca’s vaccine. SK Bioscience also produces the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On the health policy studies front, so-called mix-and-match trials are being conducted both in the United States and in Britain. The aim is to see whether using two different vaccines is more effective than using the same vaccine for both priming and boosting doses.
The U.S. trial, being conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is studying combinations of the three vaccines authorized for use in this country: the Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines. The U.K. trial, being conducted by the University of Oxford, is studying combinations of the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines — which are all authorized for use in Britain — as well as a vaccine made by Novavax, which is in the process of seeking emergency use authorization from the British regulatory authorities.
But in both cases, the trials are only being conducted using vaccines authorized for use in the country in which the study is being conducted. That means that questions that have global ramifications — for instance, could some of the Chinese vaccines be more effective if boosted with a Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or Novavax vaccine? — won’t be answered by these studies. None of the Chinese vaccines has been authorized in either the U.S. or the U.K.
Lurie said CEPI is willing to finance some of these crucial studies, but “moving forward on any of those things is contingent upon us getting vaccine.”
The amount of vaccine doses needed is not massive. A Phase 3 trial of a new vaccine might require 20,000 doses of a comparator vaccine. A Phase 2 trial measuring immunogenicity — the levels of antibodies vaccine doses generate — would need substantially fewer. The British trial, called Com-COV2, is giving just over 1,000 volunteers a third dose of a vaccine that differs from their original vaccination regimen. The U.S. trial is smaller still, involving about 150 people.
Lurie said the problem could be solved, if countries buying vaccine modify the contracts with suppliers. A number have initially indicated willingness, she said, but progress has stalled when they realize the amount of work involved.
“We have a global problem to solve,” Lurie said. “We’re stuck with the vaccines we have unless we can move forward.”
Senior Writer, Infectious Disease
Helen covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development.
Ask your wife is she so concerned about the vaccine, why did she let you get it?
you mean…
I’m a scientist by training, shifted careers after a while. I do have a good feel for the reality of how science happens.
The scientific method focuses on the ideal of changing theories to fit the data. But scientists are human. There’s politics. Most scientists adapt as they should. Some don’t, or they hold onto specific core beliefs because they’ve built their entire career on that foundation.
Science is a beautiful, messy, human process. It has all the weaknesses of humanity, but enough talented minds to overcome it together.
NSW leading the way, but sorry we can’t give you a roadmap on economic recovery
Gladys confident that when we get to 80% double dose all the other States will open their borders to us.
Journos querying the restrictions that will continue to apply to 12-15 yo
Freedoms will only apply to the double dosed or exempt
like actually the ■■■■?
My brother in law is a successful farmer using modern techniques and even embracing (near) organic practices. He was going to get the Vax but his mates talked him out of it. Apparently it is a city “thing” and the politicians are just trying to control us. Anyway, he gets sick and the doctor said get vaxxed or he doesn’t get treatment. Guess what - now vaxxed and what was the fuss about. He hasn’t told his mates though, he said it wouldn’t be worth the hassle.
This “NSW leading”, “gold standard”, “first” etc etc, just ■■■■■ me.
They really do think they are better than everyone else.
Just absolutely stupid rhetoric.
Gladys not suggesting that case numbers will go down
Can’t afford to have the vaxed mixing with the unvaxed
they all do it mate. should be selling second hand cars…