- Millions of people worldwide have had one shot of two-dose COVID-19 vaccines.
- Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are likely 80% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 after one dose.
- A single AstraZeneca shot is probably at least 70% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. //
Stephen Evans, a professor of medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a former drug-safety committee member at the European Medicines Agency, helped Insider break down the data. //
Percentage efficacy for vaccines refers to the proportion of people that get full protection after a vaccine. With 80% efficacy, 80% of people have full protection, and 20% don't.
For those who get full protection the first time around, the second shot improves the quality of the immune response and its durability.
For the people who don't get full protection with the first shot, some will get full protection after the second dose. Some people won't ever get full protection from a vaccine because their immune system doesn't respond at all. //
A UK study found Pfizer or AstraZeneca's vaccine cut COVID-19 infections with symptoms by 72% after one dose, and protection probably held up for 10 weeks. Protection from Pfizer's vaccine rose to 90% after two doses. The study hasn't been peer-reviewed.
A US study of essential workers found that a single dose of Pfizer of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines were 80% effective against all coronavirus infections from 14 days.
A Scottish study found that a single dose of Pfizer's vaccine was 91% effective against hospitalization at 28 to 34 days following vaccination. One dose of AstraZeneca's vaccine was 88% effective against hospital admissions after the same time period.
A UK study found that a single dose of either Pfizer or AstraZeneca's vaccine cut spread of symptomatic COVID-19 within a household by up to 50%.
A South Korean study found one dose of Pfizer's vaccine was 89.7% effective at preventing COVID-19 in South Koreans aged over 60, at least two weeks after vaccination. AstraZeneca's vaccine was 86% effective at preventing COVID-19 after one dose. The severity of illness that the shots protected against was unclear — generally they're more effective at preventing COVID-19 infections that caused hospitalization or death.
An English study found that a single dose of either Pfizer or AstraZeneca's vaccine was about 80% effective at preventing hospitalization in people over 70-years-old. Protection lasted for at least 6 weeks, including against the Alpha variant first identified in the UK.
Pretend it didn't happen – expert advice on how to behave after receiving a single dose of any of the Covid-19 vaccines. //
When the immune system first encounters a vaccine, it activates two important types of white blood cell. First up are the plasma B cells, which primarily focus on making antibodies. Unfortunately, this cell type is short-lived, so although your body might be swimming in antibodies within just a few weeks, without the second shot this is often followed by a rapid decline.
Then there are the T cells, each of which is specifically tailored to identify a particular pathogen and kill it. Some of these, memory T cells, are able to linger in the body for decades until they stumble upon their target – meaning immunity from vaccines or infections can sometimes last a lifetime. But crucially, you usually won't have many of this cell type until the second meeting.
The booster dose is a way of re-exposing the body to the antigens – the molecules on pathogens that trigger the immune system – to initiate part two of the response. "You've kicked in all this fancy stuff," says Altmann. "So, once you've had your boost you'll have a higher frequency of memory T cells and ditto to some extent for the size of the pool of memory B cells you'll have. They'll also be making higher quality antibodies."
On second exposure to the same vaccine or pathogen, the B cells that remain from before are able to rapidly divide and create a menacing throng of descendants, leading to a second spike in the amount of antibodies circulating.
The second dose also initiates the process of "B cell maturation", which involves selecting the immature ones with the best receptors for binding to a particular pathogen. This happens while they're still in the bone marrow – where white blood cells are made – and afterwards they travel to the spleen to finish developing. This means B cells are not only more numerous afterwards, but the antibodies they produce are better targeted.
Buried deep inside the Ever Given is a Mitsui–MAN B&W 11G95ME-C9 two-stroke diesel engine. This engine reportedly makes 79,500 horsepower at a slow 79 rpm and is fed by heavy fuel oil or diesel. The engine drives a single propeller hanging off of the back of the ship that propels it to a speed of about 22.8 knots, or 26 mph. //
A selling point for the MAN B&W ME-C series is a compact size and electronic control. It can also run on other fuels like propane, natural gas, methanol or ethane. //
The most surprising part to me is piston diameter. It comes in at 95 cm, or 3.1 feet. For comparison, the largest engine in the world, the Wärtsilä RT-flex96C, has a piston diameter of 3.15 feet. //
We might criticise two stroke marine diesels, but they’re the most efficient non-hybridised engines around.
Yep! While researching this, I found that they’re good for 50 percent efficiency, which is pretty awesome.
A Lincoln Navigator crashed into a fire engine on Detroit’s east side on Wednesday, causing the engine to plow into a gas station in spectacular fashion. That’s crazy enough, until you learn that this is the second time that a fire engine has crashed into this particular gas station in the last two years. Even better is how the local news covered it.
It’ll take a lot to transition the U.S. off fossil-based energy: money, political will, labor. But a new report shows it won’t take new technological innovation. The study, published in the journal Joule last week, shows U.S. electricity demand can be met with currently available carbon-free tech, like solar panels and wind turbines. And we can do it in just seven years.
However, the number of confirmed cases in Chile, Turkey, and Pakistan, which chose to receive the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, has increased.
Chile administered nearly 9 million doses of the Sinovac vaccines in February, with an average of 47 doses per 100 people, making it the country with the highest vaccination rate in South America. However, the number of positive test results recorded in Chile rose instead of fell, and a new high of 7,626 cases was recorded in a single day on March 26, leading to a tight supply of hospital beds and a recent lockdown of the capital city of Santiago.
Turkey started to administer Sinovac vaccines in mid-January and at least eight million people have been injected with the vaccine, accounting for more than 10 percent of the population. But their case numbers also rebounded in late February, with 37,303 new cases recorded on March 30, the highest single-day figure since the outbreak on March 11 last year. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on April 2 that there would be a curfew during the weekends throughout the month of Ramadan.
In addition, Pakistan, which has been using the Chinese vaccine since early February, is now experiencing a third wave of the pandemic, with the national positivity ratio rising to 11 percent, the highest level since the outbreak. More than 20 cities have been “closed” due to the severity of the outbreak. //
Pakistani President Arif Alvi wrote on March 29 that he tested positive after receiving the first dose of a vaccine produced by the Chinese National Pharmaceutical Group Corp on March 15. Prior to that, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also tested positive for the virus on March 18, two days after receiving his first dose of the vaccine manufactured by the same Chinese company. //
Earlier, former head of the National Institute of Health of Peru, Ernesto Bustamante, said in a local TV program that Sinopharm’s Wuhan strain vaccine had only 33 percent effectiveness, while the Beijing strain vaccine had 11.5 percent. Sinovac was also reported to be only 50.4 percent effective according to Brazil’s data. The frequent outbreaks of defective vaccines and fake vaccines in China over the years are even more common and shocking.
A Skybus Air Cargo Douglas DC-8 was flying from Miami, Florida, to Georgetown, Guyana yesterday when it had to return to its departing airport due to flap issues. Notably, the aircraft in this incident is over five decades old. //
It is a unique experience to spot a DC-8 presently. The plane was produced between 1958 and 1972 and was a favorite among several veteran airlines.
Today, Skybus holds three units of the type. OB-2059-P, the aircraft involved in the flap incident, first joined Skybus in April 2013. However, its history traces back to July 1968, when it was introduced with Flying Tiger Line. Altogether, according to Planespotters.net, the plane was first produced 52.8 years ago at Long Beach, California. Cargolux, Air India, Evergreen International Airlines, TNT, UPS, DHL, and Peruvian Airlines are some of the other operators that have held the unit.
Glenn Kessler
@GlennKesslerWP
It’s hard for any White House to admit error, especially when the president has three times repeated the falsehood. But this is becoming a pretty deep hole. //
Will Saletan
@saletan
Last week Biden said GA’s election law “ends voting hours early so working people can’t cast their vote after their shift is over.” Fact checks debunked this claim. https://wapo.st/3ubD0Rd
Today @PressSec was asked whether the WH would issue a correction. She stood by the claim.
“Today I issued an executive order prohibiting the use of so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports, Gov. DeSantis announced in a tweet linking to his executive order, which he says serves as a stop-gap measure while Florida’s legislature crafts legislation to codify the elements of his order.
The order prohibits Florida’s government from issuing “standardized documentation” certifying, and from publishing, a person’s vaccine status: //
Likewise, businesses are prohibited from denying access and service to patrons who do not provide proof they’ve been vaccinated: //
But it goes past the practical aspects of all this. Privacy issues are a big concern. Why should a business be able to demand protected, private medical information in order to sell you a product, especially when there a myriad of reasons why you might be “safe” but still not have the vaccine? That’s not allowed on any other front, and it should not be allowed here. ///
It is problematic to be requiring a vaccine that is still regarded as "experimental" and has only been given an "emergency use authorization", not full FDA approval. The initial study that was the foundation for the EUA still has 18-20 months yet before it is completed.
On top of that, requiring individuals to provide private health details to private citizens or businesses against their will is a violation of HIPAA law and regulations.
GE Renewable Energy has made an agreement with Chicago-based Invenergy, a global clean energy developer and operator, to provide wind turbines for the 1.48 gigawatt North Central Wind Energy Facilities in Oklahoma.
One of the main objectives of the great American experiment was to move away from a system of top-down rule by the powerful elite over the powerless. Instead, our Founders understood that power belonged to the people, and was entrusted by the people to those elected to govern.
Recognizing humanity’s fallible nature, the Framers structured our constitutional republic based on the consent of the governed with the hopes that a virtuous civic society would limit the corruption often born of power.
The Constitution gives Congress defined authority to perform certain functions, like regulate commerce and engage with foreign nations—for example, through trade treaties, forging alliances, defending our borders, and—when necessary—declare war. These powers are specifically designed for a national authority.
However, in many ways, the federal government that we have today is a far cry from the one envisioned in the Constitution. Judicial overreach and the growth of the administrative state through extraneous departments and independent agencies have overtaken the Founders’ original intent. //
The result of this change is a government that relies less and less on the will of the people and more and more on decisions made by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.
The growth of bureaucracy and the administrative state is a bipartisan problem, and restoring the will of the people requires a bipartisan solution. One potential solution is to establish a federal “sunset commission,” a legislative proposal I introduced in the last Congress and again this Congress with Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.
A sunset commission would evaluate government agencies and programs and make recommendations to Congress as to whether or not those programs should continue.
Goodnight Irene
The Dutch have been using wind power for so long that it’s time to decommission the Irene Vorrink wind farm this year. The first-generation Irene Vorrink wind farm, named after a Dutch Labour Party politician who died in 1996, has been operational since 1997.
The 16.8 MW project (pictured above) features 28 Nordtank NTK600/43 wind turbines that stand in a long row, close to the shore of Lake IJsselmeer, in an average water depth of 16 feet (5 meters). The site is owned and operated by Swedish power company Vattenfall.
The site will be be repowered as part of the Windplanblauw project, which is being jointly developed by Vattenfall and wind cooperative SwifterwinT. Windplanblauw is expected to be online from 2023 and capable of powering around 400,000 households.
4COffshore reports on Windplanblauw’s details:
In total, 74 older turbines (28 of which are from Irene Vorrink) will be replaced with 61 new and more powerful ones. SwifterwinT will develop the onshore turbines and Vattenfall and SwifterwinT will develop the nearshore turbines together. The project is expected to yield 250 MW.
The life span of a wind turbine is currently around 25 years, depending on maintenance quality and environmental factors. (The oldest operating wind turbine is currently Tvindkraft in Denmark, which is now 43.)
Where do wind turbines go when they die? Technically, wind turbines are 85-90% recyclable, but their blades are currently challenging to break down. Further, blade recycling efforts have been hampered by a failure to match recovered materials to supply chain needs and end products
KLM – October 1919
KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij in full) is generally recognized as the oldest airline still in service, under its original name. It was established in October 1919. //
Avianca – December 1919
Avianca comes in very close behind KLM, founded just a few months later, in December 2019. It started life in Barranquilla, backed by German expatriates, as SCADTA (The Colombia-German Air Transport Company). //
Qantas – November 1920
Australian airline Qantas makes it to third place. Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (Qantas) started in 1920 with a mission to service the sparsely populated northern regions of the country. //
Overseas services began in 1934 when Qantas and Imperial Airways (a predecessor of British Airways) jointly formed Qantas Empire Airways Limited (QEA). The route to the UK with Shorts S23 Empire flying boats in 1938 took nine days. //
Qantas was nationalized after the Second World War, and services continued with both flying boats and aircraft such as the Avro Lancastrian and the DC4. Jet service began with the 707 in 1959. For several years in the 1980s, it operated an all 747 fleet, making its retirement particularly sad.
Lessons from a failed experiment mark new way forward.
Some invasive species targeted for total eradication bounce back with a vengeance, especially in aquatic systems, finds a study led by the University of California, Davis.
The study, published in the journal PNAS, chronicles the effort — and failure — to eradicate invasive European green crabs from a California estuary. The crabs increased 30-fold after about 90 percent had been removed. The study is the first experimental demonstration in a coastal ecosystem of a dramatic population increase in response to full eradication.
“A failure in science often leads to unexpected direction
s,” said lead author Edwin (Ted) Grosholz, a professor and ecologist with the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy. “We slapped our foreheads at the time, but with thought and understanding, it’s told us a lot about what we shouldn’t be doing and provided a way forward for us. The world should get less focused on total eradication and work toward functional eradication.” //
The scientists did not observe such population explosions of green crab at any of the four other nearby bays they were monitoring, suggesting the increase was the result of eradication efforts and not atmospheric or oceanographic changes.
The study found the population explosion was due in part to the fact that adult decapod crustacea — such as shrimp, lobster, and crab — typically cannibalize younger individuals. When most adults were removed, juveniles grew unchecked and overcompensated for the loss of adults. //
As described in the Frontiers in Ecology study, the authors advise a “Goldilocks level” approach, where the population is low enough to protect native species and ecosystem functions without risking a population explosion of the invasive species.
The electric car company said Edmunds had to drive them until they stopped. Well… //
As Alistair Weaver stresses in the video, what this shows is that you can’t just rely on government figures. We have gone even further than Edmunds’ editor-in-chief when we recommended that EVs have specific testing rules that take them into full consideration and are able to determine how energy-efficient they really are.
oldairman2000
3 hours ago edited
'Skin in the game.'
This argument regarding self-government has been part Western Civilization since Athens developed the first democracy and Rome established their republic. The fundamental requirement to participate in steering the ship of state from a self-government perspective has always been property ownership. Without property ownership, the voter has literally no stake in the very ground of the homeland he resides upon and may have to defend with his or her life. In the early days of Western Civilization, and by that I mean Greco-Roman civilization, one had to own property to even serve in the military/militia let alone vote in a citizen's assembly about important matters. Leaders in those cultures did not send slaves or vagabonds wandering the streets of their societies to fight wars to protect their societies. And they certainly did not want those types having a say in the affairs of state. They wanted people who cared about the society.
I have come to the Robert Heinlein conclusion regarding self-government, as impractical as it may be in this day and age. If you want a say in the affairs of state, you have to serve it. And there are ways to do that. Otherwise, you are not a "citizen" but simply a "civilian." There is a difference between those to concepts.
Addendum: Perhaps the best identification required to be allowed to vote in any election should be one's local, state and federal taxes paid receipts paperwork. No receipts, no ballot. //
NickSJ
3 hours ago edited
From Lee's Summit Conservative Blog:
"In 1787, while our first 13 states adopted their new constitution, Alexander Tyler who was a Scottish History Professor at the University of Edinburgh, said this about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2000 years earlier:
"“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”"
We're in the last stage of that process. America was nice while it lasted. //
davenj1 NickSJ
3 hours ago
I believe that was the Left's long game all along. //
Baldred
4 hours ago edited
Welcome to Reality. LOL
44% of eligible voters in the USA (and even higher in many Western European Countries - are already receiving 100% of their income from Government funding in the form of welfare and housing benefits and this proportion of the Electorate, dependent upon the Politicians, continues to grow exponentially.
They are ready-made slaves and drones.
Why would these Government Dependents NOT vote Democrat? They would be biting the hand that - literally - feeds them if they voted other than for Democrat candidates. LOL
Today's Democrats WANT more of the Electorate to need dependency on the Government even though, economically, it is nothing less than Communism/Marxism/Socialism and typifies life under a regime similar to the U.S.S.R and The Soviet Bloc Countries in their heyday.
Those glorious (Hahahahaha and LOL) days when many People of the Soviet Bloc were desperate enough to risk being shot-to-death climbing The Iron Curtain to escape to Capitalist Western Europe and onwards to the United States of America!
SWRichmond
2 hours ago
"political morality"
So here we are. Voting is an act of violence. If war is politics by any other means, then the converse is true. Voting enables some people to band together and decide other people should be robbed and killed. Organizing one's society around a set of rules which must be enforced, and the enforcement mechanisms paid for, necessitates organized violence.
This is why the Framers wanted government to be as tiny as possible.
Groups have been organizing to loot public treasuries for as long as there have been treasuries to loot. Government and corruption go hand in hand, by definition. They have used various justifications, but the themes always rhyme. //
ConcernedConservative
2 hours ago
Our Founders knew and respected Natural Law, and accepted the fallenness of every Man, even themselves. They knew that no one individual or arbitrary group could be completely entrusted with the power of government, and that pure democracy ignored our baser nature and was fraught with peril.
And so here we are. //
St. Joseph Terror of Demons ConcernedConservative
2 hours ago
Yep. They knew that for America to succeed, it required a moral people—a people that believe in and worship God.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the case for a vast number of those that co-inhabit the borders of this country. //
blh
2 hours ago
I have long argued for some level of qualification beyond age and being on US soil (ostensibly a citizen). I would argue for the following in priority:
Civic literacy (pass an 8th grade civics test) - show you can read and understand our system of gov't.
Own property - preferably real but must have a stake in the land and wealth of this nation
Pay in taxes - If you don't pay taxes then you cannot vote. This can be at the various levels pay state taxes but not federal? Vote in statewide elections (easy enough)
Only exclusion to the last two is to be a combat wounded veteran but there would be no exclusion to the first. If you cannot read and understand what you read then you cannot vote.
The Associated Press
@AP
·
Apr 2, 2021
Replying to @AP
Six in 10 Americans support automatic voter registration, including about three-quarters of Democrats and about half of Republicans..
The poll also finds rare bipartisan support on a measure: requiring photo identification to vote. Overall, 72% of Americans were in favor, including most Republicans and a slim majority of Democrats. //
In short, the current outrage is completely manufactured. It’s not based on a true reading of the law, nor are the complaints even a majority opinion in this country. Yet, the power corporations wield is massive, and Democrats know they can tell them how high to jump. That’s what we are seeing, but there’s nothing real or organic about the current consternation.
One "outsider" puts it well. Matthew S. Wilson, a longtime open-source developer and AWS VP/Distinguished Engineer tweeted: "It's his life's work. All of the apparatus of the FSF and GNU constructed to assist him in HIS work. To not be part of it would be breaking a commitment, and like abandoning a child. Hence, there is no succession plan, no delegation of decision-making, and tight grips of power."
RMS has long feared that he was being written out of the history of free and open-source software. Now, RMS seems intent on rewriting it by once more having an FSF leadership role. Unfortunately for him, this very effort has caused many people to see him as more of an enemy to the movement he founded than as its heroic founder.
GRANT COUNTY, Wash. - A portion of the SpaceX rocket that re-entered Earth's atmosphere last week in a dazzling light show has been discovered in Eastern Washington, officials said. //
Kyle Foreman of the Grant County Sheriff's Office says the debris was a composite overwrapped pressure vessel that would have contained pressurized helium. //
A property owner in southwest Grant County located the debris earlier in the week. The property owner notified the Grant County Sheriff's Office and deputies responded to the scene.
Sheriff's officials then contacted SpaceX about the discovery.
Foreman says a team from SpaceX responded to the scene and reclaimed the portion of the SpaceX rocket.
The piece of debris left a 4-inch-deep indentation in the ground where it landed.