DON'T PANIC.... well, maybe a little bit.

No idea how the wrong number was inputted considering we had Flash doing the typing.
 
All from today’s Kompas…

B.1.617, the variant in India, is double-mutation from L452R (USA variant) and E484K (South Africa variant). It has two spikes instead of one in their protein. It is more infectious and more deadly. It can avoid the antibody formed from vaccination.

On 21 April, a chartered flight from Chennai, India arrived in Jakarta with 127 passengers. No report if the passengers are quarantined or not. But another article mentioned about the existence of syndicate at the airport in Jakarta which can “help to avoid quarantine”.

On 23 April, all flights from India are banned.

Source:
  • Mudik “Rahmatan” dan Tragedi India, page 6.
  • Bantuan Medis dari Negara Lain Mulai Mengalir ke India, page 4.
  • Kasus Melonjak, Pangawasan Jangan Lengah, page 1.

I’m really worried of the Indian variant spreading in Indonesia, let’s hope and pray everything will be fine after Lebaran.
 
The Indonesian FDA has given emergency use authorization to another Chinese made vaccine, this one made by Sinopharm. It has been shown to have an efficacy of around 80% and is an inactivated vaccine, similar to the Sinovac one.

This vaccine will be made available for the private vaccination program. There are 15m doses are on order, expected to arrive soon.

 
More news on the Sinovac vaccine:

Indonesia tracked 25,374 health workers in Jakarta for 28 days after their second dose.
It protected:
100% from death
96% from hospitalization
94% against (symptomatic?) infection

The article didn't break down the numbers and 28-days is a short time, but good news nonetheless!

 
More news on the Sinovac vaccine:

Indonesia tracked 25,374 health workers in Jakarta for 28 days after their second dose.
It protected:
100% from death
96% from hospitalization
94% against (symptomatic?) infection

The article didn't break down the numbers and 28-days is a short time, but good news nonetheless!

This is huge, especially in the government's not-so-thinly-veiled attempts to use vaccines as a tool for reopening lucrative sectors of the economy (ie: international tourism). Even with the limited duration, the sample size is impressive. Additionally, the group monitored is among the most at-risk of all groups.
 
It does seem that Sinovac may actually be quite a good vaccine in the real world environment.
However those numbers are confusing, I don't think they relate to effectiveness (which would require comparison with a control group), they are just saying that, for example, no-one who had the vaccine died within 28 days, and that 4% got hospitalised (around 1000). Not sure what that really tells us.

One thing's for sure. The Indonesian vaccination drive is currently giving 250,000 vaccinations per day (8m/month), which is terrible. In a year's time the country will still be a long way from even 50% coverage unless they start speeding things up a lot. So we could be still looking at hotel quarantines for 2 years or more.

Indonesian target for herd immunity: 181m people fully vaccinated (362m vaccinations).
Current vaccinations given: 22.6m
Vaccinations still needed: 339.6m
Current rate per month in April and May: 8m per month
Months needed at current rate (339.6/8 = 42.5 months = 3.5 years)
Projected herd immunity date: November 2024.
 
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they are just saying that, for example, no-one who had the vaccine died within 28 days, and that 4% got hospitalised (around 1000). Not sure what that really tells us.

That's right and an extremely important difference. 4% hospitalized doesn't at all mean it was 96% effective at preventing hospitalization, it's much worse than that.

If there had been a control group and 10% of them had been hospitalized, that would make the vaccine 60% effective at preventing hospitalization.
 
It does seem that Sinovac may actually be quite a good vaccine in the real world environment.
However those numbers are confusing, I don't think they relate to effectiveness (which would require comparison with a control group), they are just saying that, for example, no-one who had the vaccine died within 28 days, and that 4% got hospitalised (around 1000). Not sure what that really tells us.

One thing's for sure. The Indonesian vaccination drive is currently giving 250,000 vaccinations per day (8m/month), which is terrible. In a year's time the country will still be a long way from even 50% coverage unless they start speeding things up a lot. So we could be still looking at hotel quarantines for 2 years or more.
The difficulty is in getting a control group when you have vaccinated nearly 100% of the population. How many non-vaccinated healthcare workers would even be available to participate in the control group?
 
I like the idea of a vaccine that protects 100% against death.
The wording in the article made me giggle a little, nay a lot.
 
Amongst the African handcrafts I used to sell were African brass rings which I used to sell for $4.

"Live forever African rings. Money back guarantee." They seemed to work as I never had anyone ask for their money back. Perhaps I should sell them here. They would be every bit as good as the magnetic necklaces and bracelets.
 
Did your company register for ‘Vaksinasi Gotong Royong’? If yes, that means your company is willing to pay to vaccinate all your employees. Not only all the employees but including their families if you don’t want to be seen as a “stingy company”. That would require a big budget as the vaccine is not cheap. If you have 100 employees, you will need to appropriate funding for at least 300 persons. That’s a lot of money. If your company is doing good, then no problem being generous.

But I see some companies jumping queue, not only that, they don’t need to spend a dime. That’s not fair.

Some weeks ago, I heard that OJK (monetary board) organized mass vaccinations for employees of banking institutions. If these are state-owned banks, perhaps I’ll just keep quiet. But my banker is ‘private-sector bank’. And thousands of their employees were vaccinated for free (SINOVAC). Aren’t they supposed to register like other companies and pay for the vaccine (SINOPHARM)?

My next question is, why is KADIN handling the registration process? Why not distribute the vaccines to hospitals for anybody to buy? The government can easily control it as free vaccine is SINOVAC while paid vaccine is SINOPHARM.
 

I guess Indonesia is lucky to have the inactivated-type vaccines (Sinovac and Sinopharm) instead of the mRNA-type (Pfizer and Moderna).
 
I guess Indonesia is lucky to have the inactivated-type vaccines (Sinovac and Sinopharm) instead of the mRNA-type (Pfizer and Moderna).
The concern is about natural infections and has zero relevance to mRNA vaccines, as is pointed out specifically at the end of that video.

If anything, the inactivated virus vaccines would be more likely to enter the genome since they contain parts of the actual virus. I won't fault you for your ignorance of mRNA as it is a confusing thing for anyone like myself who never had much interest in cellular biology, but spend one hour of focused reading and the mechanisms and principals become clear. mRNA technology has been something scientists have been excited for nearly 2 decades to begin using in practical ways specifically because its mechanisms are inherently exceptionally safe.
 
If you rather get a Pfizer or JnJ vaccine, I saw adverts for "Medical Tours" to the US, including flight+hotel+vaccines advertised by local travel agencies just now. Not going to post links, but you should be able to find them easily.
 

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