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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Zoos and amusements parks in the Netherlands have been allowed to re-open from today. Efteling is already up and running while Toverland re-opens next week.
 
It would appear that Boris Johnson will be making an address tomorrow, outlining plans to return “normal life” in England by Easter 2021, including a break from restrictions for between 3 and 5 days over Christmas: https://apple.news/AGyYxSSw7TqKaHHG68LcHvA

Key points of interest include:

  • When the national lockdown in England ends on 2nd December, the country will go into a modified version of the previous tier system. It is rumoured that pubs & restaurants will be allowed to open until 11pm with last orders at 10pm, but that the tiers will be significantly toughened in other aspects.
  • There will possibly be a break from restrictions over the Christmas period, with up to 3 households possibly being allowed to form a large bubble. This break will last for between 3 and 5 days (the length hasn’t been agreed yet) before a return to the toughened tiers between January and March.
  • By March 2021, it is hoped that a vaccination program will be in full swing, with a substantial percentage of the population either having been vaccinated or due to get vaccinated.
  • The government is mulling over the idea of introducing “COVID passports”, which will allow those who have been vaccinated to effectively return to normal life.
The government and SAGE are said to be agreeing the final details today before an announcement from Boris himself tomorrow.


What do we all think of these new proposals, if proven true tomorrow?
 
It’s the beginning of the end ???

A day which I honestly never thought would come back in March (as my posts here would suggest) I just didn’t think a vaccine would be possible quickly enough to shape the pandemic... But I’ve never been happier to eat humble pie!!! We now have a cheap, easy to administer, and effective vaccine... With millions of doses ready to go!!!

Oxford interim results show an efficacy of 90% on one of their dosage regimes. It suggests reductions in transmission in asymptotic patients... And best of all, it shows 100% prevention of serious / hospital cases!!!

This jab costs a couple of quid, began manufacturing globally in different countries months ago, and does not require a cold chain of the likes of Pfizer / Moderna.

The MHRA and other nation’s regulatory bodies have been conducting ‘rolling reviews’ since October, so could receive final approval very soon.

Whilst now is NOT the time to let your guard down... I believe today IS a day to celebrate. Today is the beginning of the end!!!

????
 
Nicky Borrill said:
It’s the beginning of the end ???

A day which I honestly never thought would come back in March (as my posts here would suggest) I just didn’t think a vaccine would be possible quickly enough to shape the pandemic... But I’ve never been happier to eat humble pie!!! We now have a cheap, easy to administer, and effective vaccine... With millions of doses ready to go!!!

Oxford interim results show an efficacy of 90% on one of their dosage regimes. It suggests reductions in transmission in asymptotic patients... And best of all, it shows 100% prevention of serious / hospital cases!!!

This jab costs a couple of quid, began manufacturing globally in different countries months ago, and does not require a cold chain of the likes of Pfizer / Moderna.

The MHRA and other nation’s regulatory bodies have been conducting ‘rolling reviews’ since October, so could receive final approval very soon.

Whilst now is NOT the time to let your guard down... I believe today IS a day to celebrate. Today is the beginning of the end!!!

????
Click to expand...
Boris and Matt Hancock are now both heavily citing Easter 2021 as a desired point of return to near-normality (for the UK, at least), so I think the end may well be closer than we expect!

It should be pointed out, however, that we do have 2 other vaccines already shown to have higher efficacy (Pfizer and Moderna), so technically speaking, the end could have even begun a few weeks back!

The AstraZeneca candidate, however, despite having lower efficacy, is cheaper and easier to store, so it will be helpful for low to middle income countries.
 
Matt N said:
Boris and Matt Hancock are now both heavily citing Easter 2021 as a desired point of return to near-normality (for the UK, at least), so I think the end may well be closer than we expect!

It should be pointed out, however, that we do have 2 other vaccines already shown to have higher efficacy (Pfizer and Moderna), so technically speaking, the end could have even begun a few weeks back!

The AstraZeneca candidate, however, despite having lower efficacy, is cheaper and easier to store, so it will be helpful for low to middle income countries.
Click to expand...
Those vaccines are very exciting, but for a return to normality, vaccinations need to be available globally, even in the poorest and most remote places.

The cold chains involved with those make them incredibly difficult to transport, store and administer. Plus the cost of each jab ($37 Moderna / $20 Pfizer) is out of reach to many countries. On top of this, compared to the manufacture and supply chain Oxford and Astra have already put in place, the numbers they expect to produce next year are relatively small.

The oxford jab can be stored at domestic fridge temperatures, costs a couple of quid ($3 to $4,) is being manufactured all around the globe, and they expect to make at least 3 billion doses in 2021!!!
 
To put into perspective how absolutely phenomenal the vaccine effort for COVID-19 has been, the current record holder for quickest vaccine to hit the market is the mumps vaccine, taking 4 years to develop. On average, vaccines take about 10 years to develop, with some even taking 20-30 years or even more.

With this in mind, what we are seeing now is history in the making for vaccine development; the fact that we are seeing not 1, not 2, but 3 vaccines for COVID-19 hitting the market after less than a year of development is a scientific breakthrough of epic proportions, and a testament to the true power of science & technology. And that’s without taking into account that they all have pretty high efficacy!
 
was anyone else a bit surprised that when we have 1 dose regimen with an effectiveness of 70%, and another with a 90% effectiveness, the media went with the 70% figure?
 
Nicky Borrill said:
I’ve hardly seen mention of the 70 :/ where are you based?
Click to expand...
In his defence, when I read the [BBC] breaking news article when it came out it was pushing the 70% only. No mention of 90%.

I wonder if it's a case of headline grabbing get the story out, which then after review has been corrected/updated. (e.g. 70% effective across the whole population, but 90% effective at 60+, or something)

But yes, 90% is a lot more exciting (not that I wouldn't take 70% at this point).
 
70% was mention last night in the government 'briefing'; but I think it's important to say the Oxford vaccine is relatively inexpensive compared to the other vaccines at a estimated cost of £1-£2 per dose, so under £5 per person for the two doses required and it can be stored easily and administrated easily.

This is extremely good value for money, considering Night Nurse - a off the shelf medicine is around £5 per 100ml for the end user.

It's interesting on the whole time scale of the 'people who need it' will get the vaccine; I understand myself, just about to reach the grand old age of 30 will more than likely not be offered the vaccine for a long time. I fine by this, and I'd be happy just to see the most valuable worldwide get vaccinated - as we can't as a country get back to it, if the rest of the world is far behind on getting people vaccinated.
 
Bentleya said:
70% was mention last night in the government 'briefing'; but I think it's important to say the Oxford vaccine is relatively inexpensive compared to the other vaccines at a estimated cost of £1-£2 per dose, so under £5 per person for the two doses required and it can be stored easily and administrated easily.

This is extremely good value for money, considering Night Nurse - a off the shelf medicine is around £5 per 100ml for the end user.
Click to expand...
At that price I'd probably buy two lots and get myself 140% vaccinated as well, just to be safe. :p
 
The 70% is a nothing number... There were 2 dosage regimes, one of those regimes yielded an efficacy of 62% (I think) the other 90%... The average across both was 70%. But they obviously won’t use both dosages.

The reason they have not just gone with the data from the better (90%) regime, is because, on it’s own, there hasn’t yet been enough cases in that regime to put the data in front of regulators. Using the data from both regimes means they have enough data to submit, and the combined efficacy is plenty high enough to get approval.

That’s all second to the headline fact anyway, and that is that nobody, NOT A SINGLE PERSON, got serious disease, or ill enough to be hospitalised. That’s what it’s all about, reducing deaths and the strain on health services. Honestly if this vaccine didn’t prevent infection at all, but prevented serious illness, that would be a huge win for the world.

Preventing 90% of cases, and 100% of serious disease is INCREDIBLE!
 
Sorry yes, I should point out that I'm not trying to bash anything here. I'm simply corroborating the fact that the 70% number was published (without all the necessary context) by BBC during their breaking news.

Totally understand all of the actual numbers that you post, just also pointing out the dynamic nature of how these things are reported.
 
This time yesterday (when the news broke) every report that I saw was leading on the 70% number, while still reporting the 90% 2-dose number. Which I thought was odd as the previous 2 vaccines had all been reported as 90+% after two doses.

By lunchtime they had changed the way that they were reporting, whether someone had had a word with them or they had realised what they were doing was not a very good way of reporting this and changed their angle.
 
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