So, coronavirus...

[salanya]

Great, something to look forward to in 2 months' time

I actually had 'Covid-arm' after the first jab, but luckily being an anti-histamine addict prevented it getting too bad.

[Ovals]

What did you two get? Pfizer?

Moderna for me. Just had a bit of a sore arm after the first

Moderna for me as well.

AZ for me - no side effects at all, from either jab, not even a sore arm. Mrs Oval had a sore arm for a day but that was all. I never get any side effects from the Flu jabs either.

[fishfoodie]

And in other news, I'm AZ dose 1 + 72 hours and having to dose up on paracetamol every 2 hours. My shoulder is murdering me

I won't call you a softcock just yet, as I haven't had any doses yet, & karma can be a bitch

I take heart from the fact that I've not ended up in bed for a week unlike some people I know.

I had a reaction to the flu vaccine like this once, around 15 years ago, so not anything I'm too concerned about. But I've had today off and am back to work tomorrow, and while I can use a mouse I;m going to struggle with long term keyboard use

Standby for incoming smugness Saint !

Got my 2nd jab of Pfizer today; & despite the dire predictions, from the nurse; apart from a bit more of an ache from my shoulder, I'm feeling grand

It still surprises me the difference the nurse giving the jab makes; even after years of giving blood; the first jab, I couldn't believe she'd given me the injection; because it didn't even sting; but today; I think she took a run up, before stabbing me

Very slick operation, & they were cranking thru the vaccinations. It's nice to see things working well, & everyone in good humor, & appreciating the work beng done, by often unappreciated people.

[Saint]

I won't call you a softcock just yet, as I haven't had any doses yet, & karma can be a bitch

I take heart from the fact that I've not ended up in bed for a week unlike some people I know.

I had a reaction to the flu vaccine like this once, around 15 years ago, so not anything I'm too concerned about. But I've had today off and am back to work tomorrow, and while I can use a mouse I;m going to struggle with long term keyboard use

Standby for incoming smugness Saint !

Got my 2nd jab of Pfizer today; & despite the dire predictions, from the nurse; apart from a bit more of an ache from my shoulder, I'm feeling grand

It still surprises me the difference the nurse giving the jab makes; even after years of giving blood; the first jab, I couldn't believe she'd given me the injection; because it didn't even sting; but today; I think she took a run up, before stabbing me

Very slick operation, & they were cranking thru the vaccinations. It's nice to see things working well, & everyone in good humor, & appreciating the work beng done, by often unappreciated people.

I'm around 36 hours in on jab 2 and the same arm is killing me in exactly the same way. Really odd for me, and I suspect I'm calling work tomorrow morning in a complete deja vu moment

[fishfoodie]

I take heart from the fact that I've not ended up in bed for a week unlike some people I know.

I had a reaction to the flu vaccine like this once, around 15 years ago, so not anything I'm too concerned about. But I've had today off and am back to work tomorrow, and while I can use a mouse I;m going to struggle with long term keyboard use

Standby for incoming smugness Saint !

Got my 2nd jab of Pfizer today; & despite the dire predictions, from the nurse; apart from a bit more of an ache from my shoulder, I'm feeling grand

It still surprises me the difference the nurse giving the jab makes; even after years of giving blood; the first jab, I couldn't believe she'd given me the injection; because it didn't even sting; but today; I think she took a run up, before stabbing me

Very slick operation, & they were cranking thru the vaccinations. It's nice to see things working well, & everyone in good humor, & appreciating the work beng done, by often unappreciated people.

I'm around 36 hours in on jab 2 and the same arm is killing me in exactly the same way. Really odd for me, and I suspect I'm calling work tomorrow morning in a complete deja vu moment

I hope I'm not in the same boat; because Murphy's law means, I'm giving a presentation to a bunch of VPs tomorrow; & me feeling like shit isn't going to cut any slack with my boss. If I'm still breathing; I'm going to have to do some powerpoint.

[Ovals]

Standby for incoming smugness Saint !

Got my 2nd jab of Pfizer today; & despite the dire predictions, from the nurse; apart from a bit more of an ache from my shoulder, I'm feeling grand

It still surprises me the difference the nurse giving the jab makes; even after years of giving blood; the first jab, I couldn't believe she'd given me the injection; because it didn't even sting; but today; I think she took a run up, before stabbing me

Very slick operation, & they were cranking thru the vaccinations. It's nice to see things working well, & everyone in good humor, & appreciating the work beng done, by often unappreciated people.

I'm around 36 hours in on jab 2 and the same arm is killing me in exactly the same way. Really odd for me, and I suspect I'm calling work tomorrow morning in a complete deja vu moment

I hope I'm not in the same boat; because Murphy's law means, I'm giving a presentation to a bunch of VPs tomorrow; & me feeling like shit isn't going to cut any slack with my boss. If I'm still breathing; I'm going to have to do some powerpoint.

Just tell them you have Covid symptoms - take the week off !!

[fishfoodie]

I'm around 36 hours in on jab 2 and the same arm is killing me in exactly the same way. Really odd for me, and I suspect I'm calling work tomorrow morning in a complete deja vu moment

I hope I'm not in the same boat; because Murphy's law means, I'm giving a presentation to a bunch of VPs tomorrow; & me feeling like shit isn't going to cut any slack with my boss. If I'm still breathing; I'm going to have to do some powerpoint.

Just tell them you have Covid symptoms - take the week off !!

[Sandstorm]

All back in the office this week, two blokes sent home after refusing to wear masks. 1 is a rabid anti-vaxer.

2 hours later after each had a phone chat with the Chairman and a threat of suspension without pay....they'll both be back tomorrow with a mask on.
Idiots thought they were making a stand for freedom or something - instead they just made themselves look stupid and selfish.

[Ovals]

All back in the office this week, two blokes sent home after refusing to wear masks. 1 is a rabid anti-vaxer.

2 hours later after each had a phone chat with the Chairman and a threat of suspension without pay....they'll both be back tomorrow with a mask on.
Idiots thought they were making a stand for freedom or something - instead they just made themselves look stupid and selfish.

[BnM]

My neighbour is back in the office today, he's not old enough to have had both jabs and he can work perfectly well from home.

[Saint]

We're months away from a mass re-opening of the offices. It's going to be November before anyone HAS to show up on a semi-regular basis

[Ovals]

We're months away from a mass re-opening of the offices. It's going to be November before anyone HAS to show up on a semi-regular basis

Why so ?

[Saint]

We're months away from a mass re-opening of the offices. It's going to be November before anyone HAS to show up on a semi-regular basis

Why so ?

There's a feeling of no real rush and no need to pressure people. By November there's an expectation that we will be into our new full time hybrid mode, which is effectively a 3/2 split, and between now and then there's an encouragement to start doing a day or 2 a week in the office, but that's it.. A number of our customers, particularly the larger ones, are talking about summer 2022

[Ovals]

We're months away from a mass re-opening of the offices. It's going to be November before anyone HAS to show up on a semi-regular basis

Why so ?

There's a feeling of no real rush and no need to pressure people. By November there's an expectation that we will be into our new full time hybrid mode, which is effectively a 3/2 split, and between now and then there's an encouragement to start doing a day or 2 a week in the office, but that's it.. A number of our customers, particularly the larger ones, are talking about summer 2022

My son has started going into the office 2-3 days per week - even though he can do pretty well everything remotely (IT support). His wife's employers (B&Q) haven't any plans about The Finance staff returning, yet. She's quite keen to get back, at least part of the time - She doesn't really like working from home - understandably.

[dpedin]

My office is operating at 20% capacity and folk have to book in, priority given to folk who have difficulty working at home. Modern office and ventilation is an issue - no windows open etc. We know covid is transmitted by aerosol so need to update ventilation filters etc to make it safe. Unlikely to change for a while. Delta variant really taken off now in Embra, predominately in 15-45 year olds.

Modelling still showing a peak in cases by end of July/early August but hopefully lower hospitalisations and deaths. Hospitals are running very hot at the moment, A&E very busy and staff are completely knackered. Folk saying it feels like peak winter level of busy which is not good! There isn't really any spare capacity should covid hospitalisations increase. All for not putting India on the red list 3 weeks earlier!

[Saint]

Why so ?

There's a feeling of no real rush and no need to pressure people. By November there's an expectation that we will be into our new full time hybrid mode, which is effectively a 3/2 split, and between now and then there's an encouragement to start doing a day or 2 a week in the office, but that's it.. A number of our customers, particularly the larger ones, are talking about summer 2022

My son has started going into the office 2-3 days per week - even though he can do pretty well everything remotely (IT support). His wife's employers (B&Q) haven't any plans about The Finance staff returning, yet. She's quite keen to get back, at least part of the time - She doesn't really like working from home - understandably.

A very large % of our staff are quite happy to stick with working from home completely

[SaintK]

There's a feeling of no real rush and no need to pressure people. By November there's an expectation that we will be into our new full time hybrid mode, which is effectively a 3/2 split, and between now and then there's an encouragement to start doing a day or 2 a week in the office, but that's it.. A number of our customers, particularly the larger ones, are talking about summer 2022

My son has started going into the office 2-3 days per week - even though he can do pretty well everything remotely (IT support). His wife's employers (B&Q) haven't any plans about The Finance staff returning, yet. She's quite keen to get back, at least part of the time - She doesn't really like working from home - understandably.

A very large % of our staff are quite happy to stick with working from home completely

I worked from home for almost 30 years before I retired a few years back. Admittedly I was customer facing most days but the difference it made to my homelife not having to commute every day was so positive. Had to manage my hours at my desk mind!

[Ovals]

My son has started going into the office 2-3 days per week - even though he can do pretty well everything remotely (IT support). His wife's employers (B&Q) haven't any plans about The Finance staff returning, yet. She's quite keen to get back, at least part of the time - She doesn't really like working from home - understandably.

A very large % of our staff are quite happy to stick with working from home completely

I worked from home for almost 30 years before I retired a few years back. Admittedly I was customer facing most days but the difference it made to my homelife not having to commute every day was so positive. Had to manage my hours at my desk mind!

I worked from home, on the odd ocassion. I didn't really have the discipline for it - and I always liked keeping my work and home life seperate.

I would always save up some reports, plenty of emails etc., to send in - just to make sure I looked really productive

[sockwithaticket]

As much as I'd prefer to keep work and home separate, I have an even greater preference for getting an extra 2+ hours of my day back and once there's greater freedom to roam and do things with friends there'll be more ways to enforce the sense of separation.

I hate that my employers seem to be angling hard for 3/2 hybrid because there's 0% of my current role that can't be done entirely remotely. Office, hybrid or remote needs to be left to individuals and their managers to establish what best suits the needs of the individual and the company. A mandatory number of days in the office like that, even on the low end, keeps me geographically anchored to a certain area because going further out would make the commute for those couple of days even worse. 100% wfh means being able to move further away to a cheaper area.

First jab tomorrow, weirdly excited.

[fishfoodie]

As much as I'd prefer to keep work and home separate, I have an even greater preference for getting an extra 2+ hours of my day back and once there's greater freedom to roam and do things with friends there'll be more ways to enforce the sense of separation.

I hate that my employers seem to be angling hard for 3/2 hybrid because there's 0% of my current role that can't be done entirely remotely. Office, hybrid or remote needs to be left to individuals and their managers to establish what best suits the needs of the individual and the company. A mandatory number of days in the office like that, even on the low end, keeps me geographically anchored to a certain area because going further out would make the commute for those couple of days even worse. 100% wfh means being able to move further away to a cheaper area.

First jab tomorrow, weirdly excited.

I'm seeing exactly the same thing in my employer; & agree with you completely; & from what I can tell, it's an almost uniform position across companies.

I can understand this; as wide scale WFH as a fixture, drives a host of issues. If you fall on your ass, walking from your desk to the kitchen, to get a cup of coffee, it's now a workplace accident; in the employees own home !

[Calculon]

Thanks for that!

I made a mistake, SA bough 30 million doses of bioNtech, not 20 million

Egypt will start production of the vaccine this month



In future produce them from start to finish



South Africa also aiming to be responsible for the whole production process



Which might be usefull considering the J and j debacle.

I am reliably informed that South Africa doesn't have the capability of producing vaccines.

This was the reason given for not having a moratorium on the vaccine's IP as it would be pointless.

Their will be some technology transfer from Immunitybio to enable Biovac to manufacture the active ingredients. The vaccine is a viral vector one like AZ or sputnik, iirc it uses the human adenovirus as a vector, like sputnik and J&J, but injects DNA, coding for both the cov2 spike and capsid protein.

The sinovac vaccine in Egypt is an inactivated one but even so it require both technology transfer and technical assistance from China to enable production. The Egyptians are also planning on producing the sputnik but I'm not sure to what extent this applies to the production of the active ingredients.

In terms of mRNA vaccines, bioNtech in conjunction with the EU are planning production in possibly Senegal, South Africa, Rwanda and Ghana. Their estimate is that it will take 4 years before start to finish manufacturing is taking place. So you can see that the production of active ingredients is not the answer solve Africa's current shortage of vaccines, however several African countries are moving towards production of active ingredients for future needs.

It's happening...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ansfer-hub

Will be a few years before it is up and running but excellent protentional for developing the country's biotechnology sector

[mat the expat]

As much as I'd prefer to keep work and home separate, I have an even greater preference for getting an extra 2+ hours of my day back and once there's greater freedom to roam and do things with friends there'll be more ways to enforce the sense of separation.

I hate that my employers seem to be angling hard for 3/2 hybrid because there's 0% of my current role that can't be done entirely remotely. Office, hybrid or remote needs to be left to individuals and their managers to establish what best suits the needs of the individual and the company. A mandatory number of days in the office like that, even on the low end, keeps me geographically anchored to a certain area because going further out would make the commute for those couple of days even worse. 100% wfh means being able to move further away to a cheaper area.

First jab tomorrow, weirdly excited.

I've just fitted out a head office for a global company, and working on their main Support office. The business pivoted from Pure Agile to Post-Covid design last year when they realised the cost savings on prime office space

It's a 45% Occupancy rate with a booking system.

The default from HR is back in the office 2 days a week. Realistically, some people never go back, some come back 5 days a week (usually those with very old-school management)

[Insane_Homer]

[Slick]

Is that because they have covid or because someone has and they have sent whole classes home?

[JM2K6]

Is that because they have covid or because someone has and they have sent whole classes home?

Mostly the latter, but it's even worse when you look at those:

"And the number of pupils self-isolating due to a potential Covid contact in the school quadrupled in just one week, from 40,000 on June 10 - the week after half-term - to 172,000 children on June 17."

[fishfoodie]

Is that because they have covid or because someone has and they have sent whole classes home?

Mostly the latter, but it's even worse when you look at those:

"And the number of pupils self-isolating due to a potential Covid contact in the school quadrupled in just one week, from 40,000 on June 10 - the week after half-term - to 172,000 children on June 17."

Shows how Government attempts to get everyone back to work, is almost doomed to fail; when parents don't know if they'll have their kids in school, or not ?

[The Druid]

So what's this Delta+ chappie then?
Will Doris take any notice this time or will he take to the fridge?

[tabascoboy]

So what's this Delta+ chappie then?
Will Doris take any notice this time or will he take to the fridge?

Nah, it's a "scariant" ( I believe that's the COVIDIOTS mot du jour)

[dpedin]

Is that because they have covid or because someone has and they have sent whole classes home?

Mostly the latter, but it's even worse when you look at those:

"And the number of pupils self-isolating due to a potential Covid contact in the school quadrupled in just one week, from 40,000 on June 10 - the week after half-term - to 172,000 children on June 17."

Majority of covid cases are in 15-25 year olds now. Schools are equivalent of the old chickenpox parties of the 60's!

[Saint]

So what's this Delta+ chappie then?
Will Doris take any notice this time or will he take to the fridge?

Delta+ is already in many countries including the UK (something like 16+ cases) - by the time it was identified it was already global. Delta is now reckoned to be in over 80 countries globally and is already the worldwide variant, although it remains to be seen how long that lasts

[dpedin]

Cases going up, hospitalisation and ICU admissions going up but at a much lower rate, vaccinations rate slowing, long covid numbers are about 30% of those who have covid and not yet fully understood - its going to be touch and go! 53% of population have either only had one vaccination or have not had any vaccination yet. From modelling I have seen cases will peak in early August so we have a bit to go yet. Good news is deaths have slowed considerably but there isn't really any info on longer term consequences for those who have had covid and suffer longer term serious health issues. 2020 was first year in last 44 years that deaths exceeded births. Looks like EU will require UK citizens to quarantine when entering EU so Govs traffic light system is a bit of a red herring? Fingers crossed that Delta+ isn't as worrying as some reports suggest it is! Keep wearing the masks guys.

[sockwithaticket]

I was not at all prepared for how tired I would be post-jab. Went to bed a couple of hours earlier than I normally would yesterday and have been nodding off at the desk today while attempting to work.

[Saint]

Cases going up, hospitalisation and ICU admissions going up but at a much lower rate, vaccinations rate slowing, long covid numbers are about 30% of those who have covid and not yet fully understood - its going to be touch and go! 53% of population have either only had one vaccination or have not had any vaccination yet. From modelling I have seen cases will peak in early August so we have a bit to go yet. Good news is deaths have slowed considerably but there isn't really any info on longer term consequences for those who have had covid and suffer longer term serious health issues. 2020 was first year in last 44 years that deaths exceeded births. Looks like EU will require UK citizens to quarantine when entering EU so Govs traffic light system is a bit of a red herring? Fingers crossed that Delta+ isn't as worrying as some reports suggest it is! Keep wearing the masks guys.

Vax rates are going to slow considerably - not due to hesitancy or anything like that, but down to AZ no longer being part of the portfolio as we move further and further into the under 40s. We're hitting a massive supply barrier effectively as we've cut out over half of the supply we've been using till this point, and while Moderna is picking up some of the gap it's nowhere near the difference

[Slick]

I had 2 meetings cancelled today due to kids in the family being sent home from nursery/school and the parents awaiting results. I had to cancel for the same reason earlier this week

Seems to be getting around

Maybe it’s me though

[Saint]

On a side note, I'm going to visit a customer at their site for the first time in basically 18 months tomorrow. Not risking the train and underground though - will be driving all the way in to central London.

I'm expecting this to feel VERY strange

[Sandstorm]

On a side note, I'm going to visit a customer at their site for the first time in basically 18 months tomorrow. Not risking the train and underground though - will be driving all the way in to central London.

I'm expecting this to feel VERY strange

You’ll be surprised and annoyed at how many people think social distancing is only a theory.

[Saint]

On a side note, I'm going to visit a customer at their site for the first time in basically 18 months tomorrow. Not risking the train and underground though - will be driving all the way in to central London.

I'm expecting this to feel VERY strange

You’ll be surprised and annoyed at how many people think social distancing is only a theory.

The list of instructions I've been provided with before I arrive leads me to believe that not to be the case, at least once I arrive at the office. Have no idea what to expect when walking from the car park though (around half a mile through Soho)

[Ovals]

Good friend of ours, mid, maybe late, 40s, fully vaxxed suffering badly after picking up a covid infection just over a week ago in Burnley. Hopefully the vaccine will mean she doesn't get any worse but she's pretty worried.

[mat the expat]

Have no idea what to expect when walking from the car park though (around half a mile through Soho)

I just finished a fitout in Sydney CBD - the hilarity of people nearly getting cleaned out by Trams as they have forgotten how to walk in the city doesn't get old

[ScarfaceClaw]

On a side note, I'm going to visit a customer at their site for the first time in basically 18 months tomorrow. Not risking the train and underground though - will be driving all the way in to central London.

I'm expecting this to feel VERY strange

It is a very bizarre feeling. There are people everywhere. In someways it’s like London never changed or stopped.

Make sure you leave plenty of time for the drive. Traffic is very heavy going into London. Everyone has that same “drive and skip the train idea”. Huge traffic queues in the mornings. Way worse than before the pandemic.