Some uplifting COVID information

[igraf]

To date (March 3, 2021), Israel has vaccinated 53% of the population with one dose and 39% with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.  This has lead to some very uplifting data with regard to how well the Pfizer vaccine works:

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-israel-with-hope-best-data-yet-suggests-vaccines-will-empty-covid-wards/

 

With results like this, we will be cruising again soon.

 

igraf

 

 

[KroozNut]

2 hours ago, igraf said:

To date (March 3, 2021), Israel has vaccinated 53% of the population with one dose and 39% with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.  This has lead to some very uplifting data with regard to how well the Pfizer vaccine works:

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-israel-with-hope-best-data-yet-suggests-vaccines-will-empty-covid-wards/

 

With results like this, we will be cruising again soon.

 

igraf

 

 

 

Hearing that, we're glad we received Pfizer!

[KirkNC]

3 hours ago, igraf said:

To date (March 3, 2021), Israel has vaccinated 53% of the population with one dose and 39% with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.  This has lead to some very uplifting data with regard to how well the Pfizer vaccine works:

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-israel-with-hope-best-data-yet-suggests-vaccines-will-empty-covid-wards/

 

With results like this, we will be cruising again soon.

 

igraf

 

 

I agree with everything in your post but the last sentence.  Of course if you define soon as fall/winter then I will agree that some cruises will start occurring.

[darwinsrule]

There still needs to be some place to cruise to.  Having the U.S vacinated only gives you control over COVID on U.S. soil.  We (Canada) will be a couple/few months behind you on the vaccination drive.  That means no Alaska this year but in the bigger war it is only one casualty.  The big issue is that Mexico and the islands do not have the same sort of access we (U.S. and Canada) do to vaccines. If COVID is running rampant in those locations, where exactly are ships going to?  

[Roz]

How are Puerto Rico and the USVI doing as far as vaccinations?  Are they being given allocations of vaccine just like the States?

Edited March 4, 2021 by Roz

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, Roz said:

How are Puerto Rico and the USVI doing as far as vaccinations?  Are they being given allocations of vaccine just like the States?

The US distribution plan is for 68 different locations including states and territories,  not just 50 states and DC. So, yes, they are getting their prorated share. 

[madera1]

Thanks for sharing. My 99 year old mom gets her second dose tomorrow. We took her on her first cruise 2 years ago. She keeps getting free cabin offers from playing slots but she realizes her cruising days are over.

[vswan]

I think this is going to be a slow go because of the destination locations not having the vaccine access we do. Think it might be time to think outside the box. US could cruise out of one of Florida ports and go to Mobile, NOLA, Galveston and make a stop in perhaps at a private island or Cozumel for the foreign stop. On the Pacific side there is San Diego, Catalina Island, LA, Santa Barbara, San Fran, Astoria, OR and Seattle. Would probably need to add in a Mexico stop. On the East there are the US stops on the usual Canada trips, and some go down to the coast to Florida. Know there would need to be some creativity to get the foreign port stops but it would also be new itineraries.

[CruiserBruce]

55 minutes ago, vswan said:

I think this is going to be a slow go because of the destination locations not having the vaccine access we do. Think it might be time to think outside the box. US could cruise out of one of Florida ports and go to Mobile, NOLA, Galveston and make a stop in perhaps at a private island or Cozumel for the foreign stop. On the Pacific side there is San Diego, Catalina Island, LA, Santa Barbara, San Fran, Astoria, OR and Seattle. Would probably need to add in a Mexico stop. On the East there are the US stops on the usual Canada trips, and some go down to the coast to Florida. Know there would need to be some creativity to get the foreign port stops but it would also be new itineraries.

Proposals like this have been discussed many times. Keep in mind...particularly for the West Coast cruise ideas, that under current proposals, cruises are limited to 7 days in length. 

[igraf]

12 hours ago, KirkNC said:

I agree with everything in your post but the last sentence.  Of course if you define soon as fall/winter then I will agree that some cruises will start occurring.

 

There are ongoing legislative efforts to save the 2021 Alaskan cruising season.  This can be done by allowing round trips from Seattle with or without a technical stop in Canada.  You can search for "Alaska Tourism Recovery Act" on Google for more information.

 

igraf

 

 

[KirkNC]

36 minutes ago, igraf said:

 

There are ongoing legislative efforts to save the 2021 Alaskan cruising season.  This can be done by allowing round trips from Seattle with or without a technical stop in Canada.  You can search for "Alaska Tourism Recovery Act" on Google for more information.

 

igraf

 

 

There are efforts and I believe they will be unsuccessful.  

[ontheweb]

44 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

There are efforts and I believe they will be unsuccessful.  

I agree. And for those who want it to work, it is unfortunate for you that the Congressman from Alaska proposing this is in the present minority party which leaves him with no clout.

[KroozNut]

14 hours ago, darwinsrule said:

We (Canada) will be a couple/few months behind you on the vaccination drive. 

 

Can you expand on why this might be so?🤔

[KirkNC]

24 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I agree. And for those who want it to work, it is unfortunate for you that the Congressman from Alaska proposing this is in the present minority party which leaves him with no clout.

It’s all for optics, they can say they tried.  Of course let’s ignore the fact that even if Canada was open or a work around was developed, the CDC is not letting ships sail anytime soon.  Couple that with the fact the CEO of RCI said it would take at least 90 days before they would get one ship sailing and 6-7 months to deploy the fleet.  By then the Alaska season is over.  O’ and let’s further ignore that CCL has to satisfy the judge in their environmental case.  Reality is a cruel *****.

[iancal]

14 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

It’s all for optics, they can say they tried.  Of course let’s ignore the fact that even if Canada was open or a work around was developed, the CDC is not letting ships sail anytime soon.  Couple that with the fact the CEO of RCI said it would take at least 90 days before they would get one ship sailing and 6-7 months to deploy the fleet.  By then the Alaska season is over.  O’ and let’s further ignore that CCL has to satisfy the judge in their environmental case.  Reality is a cruel *****.

Exactly.  People need to stop day dreaming about cruises opening up in the next few months and face the hard reality of the numbers.     Understand what the CDC position is.  Understand what limitations other countries are putting in place for vistiors.

 

Besides, only the most ardent supporters would actually believe what politicians say about the matter.   The goal of the cruise lines is to get you to book cruises that have no chance of leaving the dock.  Then, convince you to leave your money with then and book yet another cruise some time in the future.  

 

Mind you, there are still  those who put more credence into what self serving politicians say over what our scientists and public health experts say or recommend.   It is no wonder we are in the covid mess that we are in at the moment.

Edited March 4, 2021 by iancal

[Hobcat]

Keep in mind the southern US border is now open. Less than 200 people have have tested positive by local agencies so far. No one knows how many people have COVID that are slipping through unnoticed. As immigrants move to the interior of the country it’s likely medical services will be overwhelmed again providing more opportunity to keep the states shut down. IMO a really bad time to open the border. 

[AlanF65]

2 hours ago, Hobcat said:

Keep in mind the southern US border is now open. Less than 200 people have have tested positive by local agencies so far. No one knows how many people have COVID that are slipping through unnoticed. As immigrants move to the interior of the country it’s likely medical services will be overwhelmed again providing more opportunity to keep the states shut down. IMO a really bad time to open the border. 

Its not "open", they detained 75000 people in January. But that adds to you comment, if we assume the 75000 is 20% of those crossing illegally then that's 350,000 a month coming across the border

 

The 75,000 number is at the bottom of this article about the crash the other day and they didn't catch those 27.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/human-smuggling-probe-suv-in-california-crash-entered-through-hole-in-border-fence-officials-say/ar-BB1ecfGD?ebsb=1&enablessr=true

Edited March 4, 2021 by AlanF65

[darwinsrule]

5 hours ago, KroozNut said:

 

Can you expand on why this might be so?🤔

No in country vaccine manufacturing means we rely on imports of vaccines.  Contract delivery schedules basically is what is comes down to.  With Pfizer and Moderna, prior to the AZ approval last week, we would have enough doses to fully vaccinate 14+ million with the required two dose regime by the end of June, and enough doses for everyone (including chilidren and a few million extra imaginary Canadians) by end of Sept. AZ improves that timeline significantly.  Add in J&J and it improves as well.  J&J, AZ and potentially Novovax would put us around 24 million fully vaccinated by end of June under a best case scenario.

 

The math is a bit different however and Sept really is a worst case scenario.  38 million Canadian minus approx 6 million kids under 16.  Subtract out those who can't or won't get vaccinated and likely you are under 30 million. There is a massive push this week based upon the data from U.K. and what we have seen in Quebec to date to move toward extending the interval on the second does beyond the original guidelines of 3 or 4 weeks to 3 or 4 months.  In doing so you could in theory have a first dose to all those who want one by the end of June. That seems to provide enough protection based upon real world experience to actualy really start to open things up and get the border open.   Given everything that is happening my guess is the border opens, probably with some additional rules, by July 1st (Canada Day).  But that should all be enough to the Blue Jays back in town, and I might actually be able to get to a ball game by the end of the summer. 🙂

 

[igraf]

20 hours ago, KirkNC said:

It’s all for optics, they can say they tried.  Of course let’s ignore the fact that even if Canada was open or a work around was developed, the CDC is not letting ships sail anytime soon.  Couple that with the fact the CEO of RCI said it would take at least 90 days before they would get one ship sailing and 6-7 months to deploy the fleet.  By then the Alaska season is over.  O’ and let’s further ignore that CCL has to satisfy the judge in their environmental case.  Reality is a cruel *****.

 

Isn't it great that we went ahead and developed the vaccines even when just about everyone was saying that it would take many years to do so?  I am more of a "if there's a will then there's a way" type of guy.

 

I am vaccinated and have an airline flight scheduled for next week. I see things moving forward rapidly.

 

igraf

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by igraf

[KirkNC]

1 hour ago, igraf said:

 

Isn't it great that we went ahead and developed the vaccines even when just about everyone was saying that it would take many years to do so?  I am more of a "if there's a will then there's a way" type of guy.

 

I am vaccinated and have an airline flight scheduled for next week. I see things moving forward rapidly.

 

igraf

 

 

Glad you are vaccinated but 275 million Americans are not.

[Crazy For Cats]

Per the CDC tracker as of 6 am March 4th 8.42% of US citizens have received both doses of the vaccine.  The percentage of those receiving at least one dose is 16.37.  Several New York hospitals have received the J&J vaccine and have started giving it out.  I consider that good news.

[JeffElizabeth]

One of my pilot buddies just delivered a plane full of Covid-19 vaccines to Afghanistan.  He doesn't know if it was for American troops or the higher ups there, but that is a great trend for sure. The vaccination delivery rate continues to improve by leaps and bounds. 

[CruiserBruce]

1 minute ago, JeffElizabeth said:

One of my pilot buddies just delivered a plane full of Covid-19 vaccines to Afghanistan.  He doesn't know if it was for American troops or the higher ups there, but that is a great trend for sure. The vaccination delivery rate continues to improve by leaps and bounds. 

Delivered from where?

 

Many, many countries have contracted for doses. The 4 active, approved vaccine producers (counting AstraZenica, approved in several countries, but not the US) have contracted commitments in many countries, not just the US. Plus Russia and China, whose have produced vaccines which are just starting to be evaluated and verified by Western medical experts, are also shipping vaccines widely.

[JeffElizabeth]

2 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Delivered from where?

 

Many, many countries have contracted for doses. The 4 active, approved vaccine producers (counting AstraZenica, approved in several countries, but not the US) have contracted commitments in many countries, not just the US. Plus Russia and China, whose have produced vaccines which are just starting to be evaluated and verified by Western medical experts, are also shipping vaccines widely.

Europe. 

[HappyInVan]

17 hours ago, darwinsrule said:

Given everything that is happening my guess is the border opens, probably with some additional rules, by July 1st (Canada Day).  

 

 

Any idea what the vax rate will be in USA? 80%? 65%? 50% 🙂