Coronavirus Goes Fourth

[Gfted1]

9 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Hey now, why were you on Tinder ?

 I wouldnt even know how to act as a single person. A "humor" site I like to visit, theChive (be careful rated PG), has a category specifically for Tinder profiles that make my eyes pop.

[Sarex]

Wow, theChive... I think I haven't been there since I discovered reddit. Though there were some very pretty ladies to be found there.

[Darkpriest]

On 3/20/2021 at 10:16 PM, Zoraptor said:

Even if it were a serious request I wouldn't even consider it momentarily. Covid is one thing, but anyone wanting to avoid that is infinitely better going to, and may Allah smite me for saying the word, Australia.

I couldn't in good conscience advise anyone to move to NZ until they fix the housing market appreciating at 30%+ p/a (who would a thunk no capital gains tax and zero interest rates would result in that? Only those with a functioning brain and IQ above ambient temperature, which apparently describes no one at Treasury or in Government here) and at 20x the average annual wage, before tax. Rents up 30%, wages up 1%, and 'experts' are baffled why the economy is in recession despite the housing bubble. Easy answer, 50% of the population has had their disposable income reduced by having to pay rent increases which are then used to repay the banks rather than being spent in actual businesses. So stimulus, much economic activity etc etc. Oh well, you know what they say; there is only one type of person who believes in infinite growth in a finite system: economists, politicians, and idiots and they'll ride the bubble all the way down to oblivion. 

Unrwlated to corona, but I've just read this. Not sure how old this piece of opinion is. 

---------

Reserve Bank of New Zealand recently had house prices added to its inflation-fighting mandate; and NZ has just seen its government also introduce measures to cool housing:

A NZD3.8bn fund to unlock more land for housing development – which won’t make any difference, as housing developers only build when prices are high;

Government first home grants available to more people - which will also push prices up further;

The extension of the period in which profits on the sale of investment property are taxed to 10 years from five – which won’t bother people if prices are rising 20% y/y; and

Phasing out the ability of investors to claim mortgage interest as a tax-deductible expense.

 

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[Amentep]

16 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

^Well youre never going to meet a nice lumberlass and have giant kids that way.  

 

3 hours ago, Malcador said:

Tinder.

Surely for lumberlasses, it'd be Timber...?

...

I'll get me coat.

[Malcador]

Hey, there's a niche dating app for everything. Can use "Timber...for when you've got wood" for the ads.

Need to make one for cRPG fans.

[Gromnir]

HA! Good Fun!

[Zoraptor]

It appears that as demanded by the British press- at least prior to everyone piling on their vaccine instead of the Russian one- Vladimir Putin has had his first Sputnik shot.

4 hours ago, Darkpriest said:

The extension of the period in which profits on the sale of investment property are taxed to 10 years from five – which won’t bother people if prices are rising 20% y/y; and

Phasing out the ability of investors to claim mortgage interest as a tax-deductible expense.

Those two ought to do something at least.

The big problem is that the only way to get the money to buy a house is to already own one- or have your parents own one- since you can borrow against both. A lot of property speculators in NZ chain purchases and have multi million dollar mortgages so are cash poor despite being asset rich and owning multiple million dollar properties. They absolutely rely on the tax breaks because they simply don't have the cash to pay tax, annual tax bills of 30k are going to be extremely hard to pay. Inevitably they will try to pass the cost on to their tenants, but they simply won't be able to make 200$ p/w increases to cover costs. Then, when they come to sell they'll have to pay ~200k as a lump sum. I'm not a massive fan of our government's previously feeble response, but these measures should have the intended effect. Won't send the investors to debtors prison, but applies a certain cost for their rampant speculation, over leveraging and consistent rent gouging.

That piece is literally hours old, the announcement was less than a day ago.

Edited March 23, 2021 by Zoraptor

[InsaneCommander]

6 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

 I wouldnt even know how to act as a single person. A "humor" site I like to visit, theChive (be careful rated PG), has a category specifically for Tinder profiles that make my eyes pop.

Checked that category now. Lmao.

[rjshae]

[Zoraptor]

Lots of moves towards blocking vaccine exports. Apart from the US (already in place) and Europe's moves towards it India has also implemented a ban as of today. Which will, ironically, further cut the EU's supply since the EU had whined its way into getting supplies that were meant to be going to low income countries- and are again now they're staying in India.

Attempts to increase production by waiving patents are also being blocked by the usual suspects- UK, Europe, US. Ironically- or not- the countries that have been accused of 'vaccine diplomacy' have supported patents being waived despite that effecting their vaccines as well*. Indeed, mRNA vaccines won't get manufactured by 3rd parties even without patent protection since they're too complicated and require specialised equipment, storage and supplies; it will be the 'vat grown' ones that will be.

Ironically, the Oxford vaccine would have been open source if not for Bill Gates insisting that it not be.

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, Zoraptor said:

Ironically, the Oxford vaccine would have been open source if not for Bill Gates insisting that it not be.

If they open sourced it, people would find out about the microchips before they were already injected with them and it was too late. 

[Zoraptor]

Another interesting story coming out of the EU: 29 million doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine found at Italian plant. The EU briefed the press as it being a secret cache hidden away and about to be clandestinely sent to the UK. Turns out it was actually about to be sent to Belgium for bottling.
 

Quote

 

During a surprise raid over the weekend, an elite unit of Italian military police acting on EU orders discovered 29 million jab doses hoarded at a factory near Rome.

The discovery appeared to confirm the EU's long-held suspicion that AstraZeneca was giving the UK special treatment, secretly exporting doses to its home country while failing to deliver on contracts agreed with Brussels.

Yet, as EU officials admitted on Wednesday, the allegation, briefed to the Continental press, simply wasn't true.

In fact, most of the doses discovered in the Italian factory were destined for the EU itself, with the remainder headed for poorer countries across the world.

 

via the Torygraph.

[Elerond]

38 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Another interesting story coming out of the EU: 29 million doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine found at Italian plant. The EU briefed the press as it being a secret cache hidden away and about to be clandestinely sent to the UK. Turns out it was actually about to be sent to Belgium for bottling.
 

via the Torygraph.

There don't seem to be any details where doses where meant to go after Belgium. AZ says that doses final destinations were COVAX program and EU, but amount don't match to amounts that AZ had given previously.

Big sunk of those doses are from AZ's Halix factory which AZ had not sought EMA's approval until recently. Which means that doses made there can't be sold in EU or send to COVAX program until it has EMA's approval. 

Where UK has demanded that vaccines produced in AZ's factory needs to be shipped there because of their contract with AZ 

[BruceVC]

30 minutes ago, Elerond said:

There don't seem to be any details where doses where meant to go after Belgium. AZ says that doses final destinations were COVAX program and EU, but amount don't match to amounts that AZ had given previously.

Big sunk of those doses are from AZ's Halix factory which AZ had not sought EMA's approval until recently. Which means that doses made there can't be sold in EU or send to COVAX program until it has EMA's approval. 

Where UK has demanded that vaccines produced in AZ's factory needs to be shipped there because of their contract with AZ 

Elerond the EU mustn't deny the UK access to vaccines, remember its not the fault of the UK that the EU has been so disorganized and bogged down with EU red tape and bureaucratic    hurdles  that is has failed to order enough vaccines expeditiously 

And you know I support the EU on almost all matters but its normal organized legal structures have been responsible for this vaccine slowdown for EU citizens

Lets not blame the UK for its successful vaccine rollout, lets rather address systemic problems within the EU and how it has fallen short of its vaccine response

 

[Elerond]

26 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Elerond the EU mustn't deny the UK access to vaccines, remember its not the fault of the UK that the EU has been so disorganized and bogged down with EU red tape and bureaucratic    hurdles  that is has failed to order enough vaccines expeditiously 

And you know I support the EU on almost all matters but its normal organized legal structures have been responsible for this vaccine slowdown for EU citizens

Lets not blame the UK for its successful vaccine rollout, lets rather address systemic problems within the EU and how it has fallen short of its vaccine response

 

EU aren't denying UK's access to vaccines they just setting new prioritization rules for export authorizations for vaccines which will drop UK down in prioritization list because they have their own vaccination production (which all go to domestic use) and they are ahead of most of the world.  New rules would rise among other things South Africa and Brazil ahead of UK when it comes to export authorizations.

But because UK relies in their strategy so much in vaccines produced in EU, these new authorization scheme will most likely slow down UK's vaccination program 2 months, if they aren't able to get vaccines from other sources, which looks unlikely considering that US and India have banned vaccine exports. UK doesn't want vaccines from China or Russia (who don't seem to have enough production currently capacity actually offer much help). 

[BruceVC]

21 minutes ago, Elerond said:

EU aren't denying UK's access to vaccines they just setting new prioritization rules for export authorizations for vaccines which will drop UK down in prioritization list because they have their own vaccination production (which all go to domestic use) and they are ahead of most of the world.  New rules would rise among other things South Africa and Brazil ahead of UK when it comes to export authorizations.

But because UK relies in their strategy so much in vaccines produced in EU, these new authorization scheme will most likely slow down UK's vaccination program 2 months, if they aren't able to get vaccines from other sources, which looks unlikely considering that US and India have banned vaccine exports. UK doesn't want vaccines from China or Russia (who don't seem to have enough production currently capacity actually offer much help). 

Fair enough, I thought you were upset with the success of the UK vaccine rollout and were playing the "EU Nationalism " card because the EU has been slow in its vaccine delivery

This by the way is one benefit of  BREXIT for the UK. I have never supported all the reasons for BREXIT but I can see in this specific example it has made sense 

[Zoraptor]

1 hour ago, Elerond said:

There don't seem to be any details where doses where meant to go after Belgium. AZ says that doses final destinations were COVAX program and EU, but amount don't match to amounts that AZ had given previously.

Big sunk of those doses are from AZ's Halix factory which AZ had not sought EMA's approval until recently. Which means that doses made there can't be sold in EU or send to COVAX program until it has EMA's approval. 

Where UK has demanded that vaccines produced in AZ's factory needs to be shipped there because of their contract with AZ 

As the article I quoted stated, the EU has admitted that the doses were not going to the UK.

I disagree with the article on it being the EU's most embarrassing day though, even limited to covid related stuff. The day they decided to preferentially order 300 mln Sanofi vaccines sight unseen was far more embarrassing- though technically I guess that embarrassment was spared until it outright failed Phase 2 trials and is now due in 2022 at the earliest. That is, of course, why they were scrambling to order Astra Zeneca doses so late in the piece.

[Darkpriest]

7 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

As the article I quoted stated, the EU has admitted that the doses were not going to the UK.

I disagree with the article on it being the EU's most embarrassing day though, even limited to covid related stuff. The day they decided to preferentially order 300 mln Sanofi vaccines sight unseen was far more embarrassing- though technically I guess that embarrassment was spared until it outright failed Phase 2 trials and is now due in 2022 at the earliest. That is, of course, why they were scrambling to order Astra Zeneca doses so late in the piece.

And EU still does not want to look into a Russian vaccine. 

It will also be interesting to look at, how the EU help funds will be distributed nd which countries will be real beneficiaries of ECB printer going Brrrrrr

[Elerond]

7 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

As the article I quoted stated, the EU has admitted that the doses were not going to the UK.

I disagree with the article on it being the EU's most embarrassing day though, even limited to covid related stuff. The day they decided to preferentially order 300 mln Sanofi vaccines sight unseen was far more embarrassing- though technically I guess that embarrassment was spared until it outright failed Phase 2 trials and is now due in 2022 at the earliest. That is, of course, why they were scrambling to order Astra Zeneca doses so late in the piece.

Like I said there seem to be no information where they were meant to go. AZ says that EU and COVAX program, but considering as most of them are from Halix factory which AZ has not applied approval from EMA, that seems bit strange.

EU still has not given any official statement about their investigation about those doses. So admitted isn't probably right term to use at least yet.

[Elerond]

3 minutes ago, Darkpriest said:

And EU still does not want to look into a Russian vaccine. 

It will also be interesting to look at, how the EU help funds will be distributed nd which countries will be real beneficiaries of ECB printer going Brrrrrr

Sputnik is under EMA review. But Sputnik probably will not help EU any way as Russia don't have enough production capacity. Russia offered to Finland technology and patents to produce Sputnik here, but there isn't any realistic scenario where we could produce significant amount of doses before autumn 

[BruceVC]

52 minutes ago, Darkpriest said:

And EU still does not want to look into a Russian vaccine. 

It will also be interesting to look at, how the EU help funds will be distributed nd which countries will be real beneficiaries of ECB printer going Brrrrrr

Also Putin only took his own Russian vaccine a few days ago, in this  time of vaccine hesitancy it doesnt say much when the president of your own country wont take his own vaccine that is being distributed towards other countries and you expecting countries in the EU  to accept 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/23/europe/russia-putin-vaccination-intl/index.html

[Darkpriest]

13 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Also Putin only took his own Russian vaccine a few days ago, in this  time of vaccine hesitancy it doesnt say much when the president of your own country wont take his own vaccine that is being distributed towards other countries and you expecting countries in the EU  to accept 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/23/europe/russia-putin-vaccination-intl/index.html

I remember a Pfizer president not taking its own vaccine and selling stocks after a spike in valuation, yet no one is questioning that vaccine. 

 

There are some gray areas around AZ vaccine, efficiency, testing etc, yet you still have it promoted. 

 

Sure, it would be great to have Putin or Xi having their shots done on camera, but is it neccessary? 

 

Even Fauci said, that data on Sputnik looks like its effective

https://hughhewitt.com/dr-anthony-fauci-on-variants-immunity-new-therapies-and-reaching-the-skeptical/

Edited March 25, 2021 by Darkpriest

[BruceVC]

1 minute ago, Darkpriest said:

I remember a Pfizer president not taking its own vaccine and selling stocks after a spike in valuation, yet no one is questioning that vaccine. 

 

There are some gray areas around AZ vaccine, efficiency, testing etc, yet you still have it promoted. 

 

Sure, it would be great to have Putin or Xi having their shots done on camera, but is it neccessary? 

Yes its very necessary in this era of vaccine hesitancy that if you Russia or China and you promoting your own vaccine to other countries that you publicly demonstrate confidence in your vaccine. So even though I trust these vaccines and I would use them, but I trust all the main vaccines and test data , the optics matter

A president of any  country publicly taking the vaccine is theater but  its important to those people who still distrust taking vaccines 

[Sarex]

Serbia will soon start producing Sputnik V and Sinofarm vaccines on it's own. This is good news, not on an account that we are lacking in vaccines and need it because of that, but that this should jump start our pharmaceutical capabilities that were killed off during the early 2000s. Our research institute Torlak produced Polio vaccines that were so sought after and so complicated to make, it was exporting them during the embargo we had in the 90s.

[BruceVC]

2 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Serbia will soon start producing Sputnik V and Sinofarm vaccines on it's own. This is good news, not on an account that we are lacking in vaccines and need it because of that, but that this should jump start our pharmaceutical capabilities that were killed off during the early 2000s. Our research institute Torlak produced Polio vaccines that were so sought after and so complicated to make, it was exporting them during the embargo we had in the 90s.

This is good news for Serbia and the world as we have shortage of vaccines, I assume you just producing them but you dont have the IP  for how they are created? Like India at the moment