The Sputnik vaccine to the rescue?

The Sputnik vacine is coming.

that's what Dr. Campbell says the Russian Covid Vaccine is being called. And he goes into detail about the  sophisticated methods used for other vaccines such as the Ebola vaccine were modified by Russia to make this vaccine.

now, the big question: Will it work?



So is it safe?

Duterte said he's willing to take the first dose, and the gov't is seeking to have it given out for their clinical trial here.

LINK

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INQUIRER.net / 04:12 PM August 12, 2020 MANILA, Philippines — An additional 4,444 patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) shot up the Philippines’ caseload to 143,749, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday. The latest data from the DOH showed that of the total number of cases, 72,348 are considered as “active” cases. Of the additional number of cases, 2,618 were from Metro Manila, 233 were from Laguna, 227 were from Cavite, 174 from Rizal and 129 from Bulacan.

as Dr. Cambell points out: If this works, it will be big, and Russia is sharing their technology to other countries.

the Philippines will probably be using the vaccine for the phase three testing of the virus.

two things about this: One: there is still bad feelings about vaccines after the botched Dengue vaccine that had it's trials here. In that case, the risk that killed kids was a known risk  that was minimized by the drug company, and there were a lot of people suspecting that hanky panky stuff was behind the program.

However, Duterte is more trusted by folks (outside of the Manila elite of course) and he said he'd be willing to get the first shot.

Another point: Duterte has made friends with Putin, and probably trusts Russia more than China, who has been promising help while screwing the Philippines in many ways.

The backstory as I remember it:

Back when Duterte got in and took over, the drug war was started, and so when he tried to get guns for the cops, the Obama administration turned him down. So he went to Putin and was promised the guns. A few months later, the extreme Muslim terrorist group decided to take over a city, and the Philippines really needed those absent guns.

There is a lot of bad blood between Duterte and the CIA and the US minions who oppose him in the name of human rights (read"the Catholic bishops")

note that information on how to manufacture the Sputnik vaccine is also being offered to Brazil who is in the midst of a big outbreak.

Brazil is getting lots of criticism for their outbreak because, like Duterte, their president is a populist and not stealing everything in sight (Just stealing moderate amounts of course) but hey, he is killing criminals who terrorize folks so let's blame the epidemic on him. Never mind that Mexico and most of South America are in the midst of a similar epidemic and have similar statistics (about 40 to 50 deaths per 100 thousand population

The problem, of course, is that the numbers are nonsense:

Lots of hyperventillation of the high number of cases in the US, which is due to testing a lot of folks, while ignoring the low death rate.

The death rate in sophisticated countries is a bit more accurate, but even there, you have to remember that in many countries people will die at home without seeing a doctor, and that in the USA, if you die of anything while testing positive, you are considered a Covid death.

I suspect that the case numbers here in the Philippines will start climbing up quickly due to a lot more testing to be done. article on numbers being tested.

in the past, our drivers that deliver rice to Manila only needed to be asymptomatic and get screened at the road blocks.

Now they need a medical clearance from the local Barangay office (saying no disease here folks) and also a negative test.

Philippine test article.

The  test  is 30 dollars, which hits our profit margin.

But sometimes the test is a "false positive", so if it tests positive, you need to get the 120 dollar test to confirm if you have an active case or not.

this article describes the problems of false positive, false negative, and the different types of tests.



one of the problems with all of this is that the story keeps changing as newer tests are being developed.

So testing will give the Philippines a way to tell if they need to clamp down on various areas to stop a huge outbreak.

But the country is starting to hit the point where the economy will be destroyed and hunger will hit the poor neighborhoods, and this could cause unrest to say the least.

So if Duterte manages to get a vaccine that works, it will be a godsend. And, as I pointed out, the common folks still trust Duterte so a lot will be willing to get the vaccine voluntarily so they can get back to work.