35 yrs ago I was in love with a girl. We seperated after a while and went our own ways for 15yrs. Than she contacted me through a business network and we got best friends. Saw here children growing up, supported her during her divorce and interduced her to her actual husband. She was one of the first of the persons I know who got C19 end of january 2020 and she hadn`t any kind of health problems because she felt like having a flu for some days.

That changed everything. She started joining facebook/telegramm groups and talking about strange theories about the virus. Told me about QANON, the chip of Bill Gates and a govermental vaccine for affectings peoples minds. She organized demonstrations and protests against our goverments and its measures like wearing masks, lockdowns, etc. All that crazy stuff you heard and read about worldwide.

I always tried to talk to her and to discuss with her. I send her a lot of pdfs and papers, incl. links to videos of interviews or statements. I wrote many emails to her. I always tried to be gentle and not to get aggressive. Sometimes I failed due to my emotions about her credulity and foolishness. She lavished me with with her proofs of pure wisdom and truth. She started stalking me digitally with this kind of messages.

In february 2021 I got on a point that I had to break tie. Because I realized that this will never be turned into conversation, a discussion about a deadly desease. I felt that we were living in seperated intellectual worlds and that the person who was one of my best friends has gone through a metamorphose. So I wrote a last email and explained my thoughts, my feelings and my sorrow for my decission. I told her from now on I will block any kind of contacting.

For a few of our species my answer to your questions is 5 x YES

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That's a very sad story, Rapax. I'm sorry to hear that such a long term friendship ended like that.

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

This is so sad. On behalf of all sensible people, thank you for trying. Hopefully, you had at least some positive impact. But even more important; kudos for walking away before you got even more hurt. That takes strength.

@brclarke
@ridingviking

Thanks a lot for your words!

But i would like to tell a story about how the pandemic situation affected me and others the good way:

Before the actual situation I was training old people (70-92yrs) in using a smartphone. Doing a workshop every 4 weeks and its free of costs. Came to this accidentally trough a neighbor who did it before and asked me if I could help because he had accepted too many participants once.

So I got to know an 81yrs old women. She is nearly blind means she has a remaining sight of 15%. She is using her computer with help of a software based magnifier and a screen reader. I got asked by her if could help her with a computer problem.

I fixed it and I recognized what difficulties blind people have to conquer if they have less skills and understanding of a computer. I offered her a personal training which forced by the pandemic situation we made by help of remote desktop software.
Teached her for health security reasons in the times of high incidences how to do online banking, how to shop secure online, how to download, transfer and listen a podcast/audiobook on her mp3 player, how to make a birthday card from a picture and so on.
Found out also that she was running into trouble with her iphone and the voice over functions nearly after every IOS update. Trained her on a better use of the iphone and set up with her shortcuts to make her iphone life more comfortable. Showed her how an ipad can function as a portable computer and how she can listen to the daily newspaper on it.

From March 2020 on I "adopted" (by her demand for friends) another 5 blind people (76-88yrs). I act as their 24/7 helpdesk and I train them remotely in handling computers, iphone/ipads and every other issue they would like to do with these devices. I organized vaccine appointments for them because the german process to this is a little complex to stand for old people. Meanwhile we meet regulary on zoom to talk, to discuss and share their belongings.

In a zoom meeting I saw a bookshelf full of motorcycle literature. I asked about and the blind guy told me that he had owned a brandfree motorcycle repair shop which he started as a mecchanic in 1965. Since he is fully vaccinated I visited him and he showed me his 5 motorcycle collection in his garage. I felt in love with his 1985 BMW R80 HPN Adventure but we haven`t yet spoken about....


So i got new valuable friends who share their life experience with me and who supported me in taking my decission of cutting off a long lasting friendship. I lost one friend which still hurts sometimes but I have won 5 new ones. I call them my Gang of Blinds and they filled up my life in the past months with awesome fun and satisfaction.

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I`m looking for a good comparison of the vaccination. How often are they got used, how often problems happens. Can someone help me out?

Currently my favorite would be the spike protein way like Sputnik / Sinopharm (chinese) / Astrazeneca delivers. Too because the chinese did use it a lot - and - before their or other vaccinatons was certified. And the people in china did was able to go back to normal life very very early.

But if we read the news, there are many "we dont knows" about that way in the last two weeks, about all three vaccinations based on that technology.

Interresting read:

https://www.mdr.de/wissen/corona-imp...nik-v-100.html

Another article about:
https://www.dw.com/de/coronavirus-wi...ina/a-56361390

Would be nice to get data about - how often a vaccination was used, which was used more often, has the better data out of that.

Seems, like this spike protein way will not be used a lot in europe anymore - Astrazeneca's - just for people over 60 years. Does people over 60 has less impact on tromboses?

Back to mrna based vaccinatons like biontech:

https://www.infranken.de/ueberregion...ng-art-5199513

Seems that it is dangerous for people till 30 years - but a no risk for a higher age.

Does somebody has a good article about the different style of vaccinations and how many people did got them? I`m too interested in ivestigations about which kind of vaccination has the best protection for england/south africa/india versions of covid.

My Mam probably can choose the kind of vaccination in some weeks.

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Give it a few weeks and I'll be eligible for your course . How depressing is that. What's even worse is that most of my friends are of similar age. With a couple of exceptions most of them have only misty eyed reminiscences of motorcycles, regarding themselves as much too old. The older I get I can't believe how people convince thenselves they're 'past it' (whatever 'it' is). Since I hit 65 I keep getting bombarded with adverts for assisted living blocks of flats as somewhere to spend my 'golden years'. A few blocks have gone up round here - usually within zimmer frame distance of a supermarket, but I keep wondering how some of the other residents would take to me starting up a two stroke on a Sunday morning and filling the place with smoke

I actually run an over 60's keep fit group locally (my fellow instructor is 81!) and it's interesting to see how different people respond to the more taxing exercises. Some push hard while others just coast, and it's nothing to do with their overall health level.

It was very sad to read your ex girlfriend story. I don't know what to say except I have experiences that parallel yours and it affects you at a very deep level. There's not a lot you can do beyond making the best you can of it.



We get the British Medical Journal every week (my wife is a member of the BMA) and I've been following the twists and turns of the various vaccines as they've been reported to the medical community over the last six months or so - since they became widely available. The big concern - since about February anyway - has been about blood clots and there's been quite a few articles about the differences between the various vaccines. The latest one I saw was about 3 weeks ago where a number of things were reported : 1. the risk of CVT (cerebral venous thrombosis) is '10 times' higher from catching Covid than from any of the vaccines. (in the ratio 39 : 4 for the Pfizer / Moderna RNA vaccine and 5 for the AstraZeneca). The numbers are incidents per million. 2. There is a second type of clotting issue with the AZ vaccine but there's no numbers given. 3. About 20% of people who get CVT from Covid die, with a similar mortality for CVT after the AZ vaccine (so overall about 1 person / million for the vaccine). There's no numbers for the Pfizer / Moderna vaccines.

There's a lot of info about how effective the various vaccines are but at the moment it's both complicated and confusing. (Very) roughly the Pfizer version boosts antibody levels faster than the AZ one but drops off faster as well - which is why you need the second shot sooner. They then give you similar 'protection' to actually having had Covid. The AZ vaccine has a slower 'rise' time but it lasted longer - hence the stretching out of the second dose interval in the UK. Quite why that should be the case I've not seen reported. There are reports of people contracting Covid after receiving vaccines but when investigated it seems that about 80% of them were incubating the virus at the time of vaccination.

Side effects between the two seem to vary. The commonest one with the Pfizer vaccine is a sore arm around the injection site lasting a few days. With the AZ vaccine its been a sort of 'low level' flu type symptom lasting a day or two and (in fewer people) a headache lasting some time. I had the AZ vaccine and had both of those - the headache lasted 10 days.

If there is a difference between the vaccines in how they work against the Covid variants that are popping up I've not seen it reported. Neither have I seen any reports (in the BMJ anyway) that the current vaccines are inneffective against any of the strains. It often takes longer to turn up in these journals though than it takes the newspapers to report it.

Because you postet german links, here is a link in german language to security protocolls for approved vaccines in germany

https://www.pei.de/DE/newsroom/dossi...html?cms_pos=5

Comparison of vaccines in english

https://www.biospace.com/article/com...accines/<br />

Data to this you find here:
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

No older people have equal risks as younger ones for thromboses.
But effectness of astra vaccine works better on older people than on younger which is the main reason for the prio group change in germany.

Remind: thromboses at astra are only sinus venous thrombosis.
Riskfactor is 2-15 cases per million.
Females are much higher affected than male because female sex hormons increase blood clotting much more than male sex hormons do.
There is allready therapy existing called HIT. it`s based on immunoglobulin or often called antibody therapy.

As longer your mum can securly wait as more evdience will be available for her decission.
Afaik all vaccine approved in germany will work for virus variants from england and south afrika.
Virus variant of india differs to the others through an addional protein spike (simply explained: a double spike protein on the cover of the virus which can connect easier to human body cells) Due to still too less evidental data from india, scientists are just working on this question.

For data of different style of vaccinations and how many people did got them, check 3rd link.

hth

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Thanks for the detailed response @Rapax and @backofbeyond

It would be very very interesting, to get an analysis of the people who did get after vaccination:

- serious sickness
- did pass away

They are not so much people (Germany), if we look deeper in the PSI Rapport. If we additional would get the information about their specific health situation, that would help too. A healthy man with 200kg, or someone with drug abusing - could bring a wrong picture quickly..

The Website https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations is very powerful, also if I will have to do an research for china - many other countries are listened! Exactly what i was looking for!

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Call me old fashioned, but I like to get medical information from qualified medical sources rather than an overlanding forum

Of course if you want to find a repair shop in Madagan or details of the border crossing in Angola then here's the HuBB is a good place to ask

(PS all medication carries a risk of side effects or bad reactions, its not something restricted to COVID vaccines)

When i had my AZ jab & i was the youngest person there (54) but i`m in the high risk group (heart disease) so vaccination was highly advised, i could have waited a few months for the Pfizer jab if i wanted (my choice) but decided to go with AZ.

Its less of a risk of thrombosis for me as i take anticoagulant medication anyhow (clopidogrel) but my mate Paul on the other hand has had previous strokes & he has to wait for the Pfizer jab to be safe, but his missus is having the AZ jab next week to protect Paul from infection.

I`m so glad to be residing in a country where the leaders listen to the health advice from the professionals & where the population listens & adheres to the governments advice & closing the borders to international tourists was the key factor, and the doors are staying shut until mid 2022.

Mezo.

I guess instead we could talk about all the overlanding we're doing.
Oh, wait...

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

Medicine is science. The main character of science is that evdience which is valid on monday can be invalid on wednesday. Medical evidence and treatments have never been carved in stone for eternity.

This you should always have in mind when you guess qualified medical sources are delivering the full proof about something. There is no final knownledge existing in medical science because it selfdevelops continously.

Which we all recognized in past 1,5 yrs. A pandemic startet with a unknown virus. The world developt knowledge about the virus, its variants and treatments including a couple of vaccines against it.

So before you judge and state a source like hubb isn`t able to share quailfied informations to interested people, you should have checked and proofed e.g. sources I offered in forms of links.

If you had done this than you had understood that my first link targets the federal instute for vaccines and biomedical drugs of Germany. That second link goes to a company which act since 1985 as a hub for careers in Life Science industry and offers news and information sources about. Third link goes to a Global Change Data Lab which is btw registered in England and Wales. It has long and higly ranked reputation since 2011 and the University of Oxford as a partner. This you can proof youself by reading 5-10 minutes on every link.

At last I see the HUBB as a very valuable information plattform which gives us users the freedom to ask for anything as long we hold the rules of digital kindness. Anything could be asked which is related in any way to traveling, overlanding or exploring the world. HUBB has so many members from all over the world and it offers a lot of "travel science". Every answer you receive has his own qualification, his own sight of things and his own experiences. That means there are a bunch of qualifications existing here. Its yours and my job to check, to evaluate and to decide for ourselfs if we trust answers as qualified.

You are free of choice whoom you trust or what you rate as qualified but if you don`t see HUBB as a swarm intelligence plattform and as a gateway for any kinds of knowledge, than of course, Yes - you are a little more than old fashioned.

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I think you missed the point

Yep. Also medical information always needs to be evaluated in context. An example from Norway.

There are a couple of things that sets Norway apart when it comes to vaccination. We've had relatively low Covid levels, our hospitals have coped well with hospitalisation, and we've had very few deaths. Also, we have one of the best systems worldwide when it comes to tracking side effects.

The blood clot risks with the AZ vaccine became very clear in Norway with six serious cases. In most other countries this would not have been spotted. The AZ vaccine was promptly put on hold. The J&J vaccine may have the same problem, data from the US is not good enough yet, but the risk is probably lower. Now, after a couple of months of serious investigations, the risks are clear. And it's all about statistics.

There is risk of getting a blood clot from the traditional vaccines (AS probably more than J&J), the same risk is higher if you get covid. So if the premise is get the vaccine or get covid, the vaccine is MUCH safer. This is why these vaccines still are very important, they are easier to distribute and administer than the mRNA vaccines. However, in the special case of Norway, the risk of getting a side effect from contracting covid while waiting a couple of weeks more for an mRNA vaccine is lower than the risk of getting the side effects from the vaccines. So in the special case of Norway, AZ does not make sense, and J&J may make sense.

This means Norway will be giving away the AZ vaccines we have to places where it makes sense to use them, and keep the J&J to be able to increase vaccination speed in case of a serious hike in covid cases. J&J will also be available for people who want to jump the queue and get the single dose, after being advised on the additional small risk by their physician. I certainly would have if I hadn't already got my appointment to get Pfizerized for the second time in a couple of weeks. The period between injections of Pfizer/Moderna will be doubled, making sure everyone gets the 70% coverage from the first shot within a couple of months from now.

But this only makes sense because we have low covid incidence levels in Norway, and we're almost through vaccinating all the high risk groups. For other countries, AZ and J&J will be the vaccines that saves thousands of lives. There is no medicine without side effects, and all health decisions are a numbers game. As we learn more, we can also make better decisions. But so far the numbers primarily tell us that all the available vaccines are great, the mRNA vaccines may be better for some places with lots of resources, while AZ and J&J (and the Chinese and Russian ones, I guess) will be the ones that save the world.

Hasn't stopped every other social media outlet on the internet (or off of it come to that) from jumping on the bandwagon. Why should this place be any different. Personally I find the travel section of The Lancet to be a mine of useful overlanding tips