What Are We Reading? 12 April 2021

[Georg]

AB76 wrote(45): i hadnt heard of Bohne, both Jewish which is interesting, lets hope somebody translates Bohne soon!

A keyboard where 'h' isn't next to 'r' might help avoid repeat typos ;-)

[giveusaclue]

Just got my appointment for my next jab- next Tuesday.

I am now reading the second of David Wagner's Rick Montoya series, Death in the Dolomites whose premise is much more believable than the first; he is now helping as a translator for a detective investigating the murder of an American. Not heavy going but enjoyable.

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote(45): i hadnt heard of Bohne, both Jewish which is interesting, lets hope somebody translates Bohne soon!

A keyboard where 'h' isn't next to 'r' might help avoid repeat typos ;-)"

not when the "h" key is in pieces.....needs to be tapped a few time....i sometimes forget

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "Just got my appointment for my next jab- next Tuesday.

I am now reading the second of David Wagner's Rick Montoya series, Death in the Dolomites whose premise is much more believable than the fir..."

good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..

[Gpfr]

I've just been enjoying listening to the 1st 3 episodes of The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym (R4 Book of the week). Thanks again to Lass for the reminder.

[AB76]

For me, a big influence on 19th century Germany was the wonderful Immanuel Kant and his concept of "duty" and morals

The genius of Konigsberg was somebody i didnt really appreciate at 20 or 25 but i love his approach and outlook to philosophy and have always been keener on continental than british thinkers(mainly German)

What a country Germany is, just exploring Rixdorf Editions website. Anti-Semitism" by Austrian thinker Hermann Bahr looks interesting...

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports that EU may not renew the AZ contracts - bet AZ are heartbroken! Other reports that Pfizer will increase prices in next contracts.

[Gpfr]

giveusaclue wrote: "I am now reading...Death in the Dolomites ... Not heavy going but enjoyable..."

(My computer's being temperamental & the post I'd nearly finished, disappeared - here goes again.)

In a similar vein to giveusaclue, I'm reading the latest in Kate Rhodes' series set in the Scilly Isles, Pulpit Rock.

I've just finished A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale - the 4th of his books that I've read. He often uses autobiographical elements, for example the hero of Rough Music is like him the son of a prison governor.
A Place Called Winter takes as its starting point the story of his greatgrandfather, who left a wife and child in England to go out to Canada and take up the offer of free land in return for fencing and cultivating it, in the early 20th century. Gale doesn't know much more than these basic facts, but imagines why Harry left and what happened to him in Canada.
I've liked the 4 books - though not so much A Sweet Obscurity - but the one I prefer is Notes from an Exhibition which I've mentioned here before.

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports that EU may not renew the AZ contracts - bet AZ are heartbroken! Othe..."

Hmmm.....the EU have behaved unusually over AZ, although the disgusting vaccine nationalism of our clown of a prime minister hasnt helped matters.

Which one is not for profit?

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports that EU may not renew the AZ contracts - bet AZ a..."

And which one was developed in an EU country?

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports that EU may not renew the AZ contrac..."

i think Pfizer vaccine was produced with a german team, maybe BIONtech? I should really read up more on these vaccines

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "i think Pfizer vaccine was produced with a german team, maybe BIONtech? I should really read up more on these vaccines."

Exactly, or am I being cynical? 🤔

[Georg]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports that EU may not renew the AZ contrac..."

Thanks for letting us know your opinion. Maybe you should leave it there.

[giveusaclue]

Georg wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports that EU may not ..."

Of course

[giveusaclue]

Gpfr wrote: ""In a similar vein to giveusaclue, I'm reading the latest in Kate Rhodes' series set in the Scilly Isles, Pulpit Rock.

(My computer's being temperamental & the post I'd nearly finished, disappeared - here goes again..."

I just looked Kate up on Fantastic Fiction, I think I will be adding her books to my ever growing TBR digital pile.

I've had laptop trouble too, ages to download and install today's updates which seemed to have frozen and necessitated a call to my IT expert to "take it over" and sort it. Grrrrh

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i think Pfizer vaccine was produced with a german team, maybe BIONtech? I should really read up more on these vaccines."

Exactly, or am I being cynical? 🤔"

lol...all good fun giveusaclue!

i have been pleasently suprised to have a smooth post-vaccine ride, a good number of friends in the 40-50 age group had unpleasent side-effects. all i seem to have is a bit of a sniffle

[[deleted user]]

“L’Eden Cinéma” - a lesser work of Marguérite Duras. I thought it was a stand-alone play. It turned out to be a dramatized version of Un barrage contre le Pacifique. It is difficult to see it working well on stage, because for long stretches it is more like a vocalized recitation than an actual drama. And I think MD made a sad mistake with the climax. Towards the end of the tough but engrossing novel, set in 1930s Indo-China, there is a long and brilliantly written letter by the mother and then a long and brilliantly written speech by the son, which ties it all up. In the play the speech is transposed into the letter, where it makes no sense at all.

[Berkley]

Georg wrote: "I find that very strange. Börne and Heine are the two most prominent writers of their time. ..."

I have found one book about Börne in English that I would like to read: a translation of Heine's own Ludwig Börne: A Memorial . Unfortunately it's out of my price range - over $100 (Canadian $$, that is), everywhere Ive looked so far.

It's disappointing that Continuum's 100-volume German Library series doesn't seem to contain any of his writings, as far as I can see.

But I see that Büchner's Complete Works and Letters from that series does include The Hessian Messenger, which I don't think the Penguin paperback anthology does, though I've mislaid my copy somewhere so I can't check to make sure.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "“L’Eden Cinéma” - a lesser work of Marguérite Duras. I thought it was a stand-alone play. It turned out to be a dramatized version of Un barrage contre le Pacifique. It is difficult to see it worki..."

I love the novel,"The Sea Wall" a great and bitingly realistic portrayal of white settler colonial poverty and a heartbreaking portrayal of madness in the mother. I think it would be a hard novel to adapt to the stage.

I have a Duras lined up for the summer "The Sailor from Gibralter".

I think there is a third Indo-china set novel, apart from "The Lover" and "The Sea Wall", but cant remember it. I think Duras is a superb author and rarely hits a wrong note

"The Darkroom" and "The Impudent Ones" are out in new translations

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "I find that very strange. Börne and Heine are the two most prominent writers of their time. ..."

I have found one book about Börne in English that I would like to read: a translation..."

its amazing how many german novels or writings are not translated or rare and costly

on a less literary level, in a zoom quiz yesterday german space opera Perry Rhodan was an answer to a question, has that ever been translated into english, i had never heard of it!

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "i have been pleasently suprised to have a smooth post-vaccine ride, a good number of friends in the 40-50 age group had unpleasent side-effects. all i seem to have is a bit of a sniffle."

I didn't even get that, I was very lucky, and hope the same thing applies next week - watch this space!

[Lass]

Having rejected A L Kennedy’s Sweet Sorrow a second time (sorry, Alison, have enjoyed your previous books) now re-reading Linda Grant’s first novel, The Cast Iron Shore. She hasn’t failed me yet, and most of her novels are still on my shelves. Several have had a second reading, and this should fit the current mood.

[Shelflife_wasBooklooker]

Jane Austen, Persuasion - @Hushpuppy, @lass, @gpfr: Watched the 1995 film today, thanks again for the recommendation! I had seen it soon after it came out, apparently… my memory could be much better - but never mind the déjà-vu. I particularly liked the scenes when Anne has to listen, in confidential one-on-one situations, to everyone's diametrically opposed views, which she is expected by the opposing parties to somehow impart... The comedy works well in these (much better than in the scenes where the ladies wear silly hats just so we know they are silly).

Would also like, still, to respond to HP’s review and related TLS link (great, as well as a bit saddening, these glances into the “paused” […] setup), as well as write a bit on my reading group's opinion. Anon, or so I intend.


No sex, please? If you desire so, please do not read the next paragraphs.


I finished reading Kate Lister’s A Curious History of Sex recently. I am too tired now to write a proper review, but here are a couple of favourite quotes and some impressions.

This one made me laugh:

Sigmund Freud once described female sexuality as the 'dark continent' of psychology. Given the amount of time he seemed to spend wandering around it, clearly lost and terrified of the natives, I am inclined to agree with him. (pp. 61-62)

This one made me snort:

The female orgasm is often spoken of as if it were a hidden treasure to be found only with the aid of maps, detailed instructions and a packed lunch. The intrepid sexual adventurer boldly sets out, like Indiana Jones, to navigate the mystery of the female body, read the clues, solve the puzzle and choose wisely before drinking from the Holy Grail.
The male orgasm, on the other hand, tends to be spoken of as if it were a bottle of coke; shake it up, until it explodes out the end and makes everything sticky. Job done. (p.99)

Just so you know:

There is no scientific evidence at all that oysters raise anything other than your toilet seat should you get a bad one. (p. 151)

Fine with that!


The curious history (which it is, in various senses, but more of that later, hopefully) contains lots of references to literary texts (including autobiographies and letters), too:
Gilgamesh (wild man Enkidu being tamed by Šamhat’s sexual skills), Chaucer (lots and lots), Shakespeare (e.g. on pubic hair), Boccacio (on smell), Rochester (on almost everything), Casanova (dito; and calling condoms “English clothing that brings peace to the soul”), Rousseau (being told by the object of his obsession to study mathematics in order to stem his sex drive), E.T.A. Hoffmann (the automated object of desire in The Sandman– “Ach, ach!”), Kipling (coining the phrase “the most ancient profession in the world”, in case you had not known),…

@reen: There is a chapter on “On your bike: Sex and Cycling” (without bears, though) and a brief discussion of Dublin’s Molly Malone.

[Berkley]

AB76 wrote: "on a less literary level, in a zoom quiz yesterday german space opera Perry Rhodan was an answer to a question, has that ever been translated into english, i had never heard of it! "

Yes - I remember seeing Perry Rhodan paperbacks in English on bookstore shelves as a kid in the 70s, though I never bought any, in spite of being a big science fiction fan. I've since picked up a few used copies but haven't tried reading any yet.

A friend of mine who has read them in German likes them. He's French-Canadian, but learned the language while studying over there. But you probably have to take that recommendation in context - I think he's speaking as another SF-fan who enjoys them as the unprententious juvenile adventure stories they were presumably meant to be. My impression is that the English-language equivalent might be something like EE Doc Smith, though the Rhodan series was quite a bit later.

[[deleted user]]

AB – Marguérite Duras - Yes, The Sea Wall is a terrific read, a picture that really sticks in the memory. The third of her Indo-China novels is L’Aimant de la Chine du Nord, which is #3 or 4 on the TBR pile here. Then I think it will be time to re-visit The Lover, thirty years after discovering its deeply sensual poetry.

[Paul]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports that EU may not ..."

Both the Pfizer/Biontech and AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine were developed in the EU with some outsourcing of clinical trials (as is the norm). Don't feel sorry for AZ, they deserve every last ounce of ire and legislative smacking that they receive.

[Paul]

I finished up Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy with The Ghost Road, and it was just a phenomenal achievement. It was a series of novels that never failed to take me in unexpected directions, laying down fascinating narrative bridle paths that it let become weedy. On the basis of the first novel, I really expected to be tracing Siegfried Sassoon's battle between pacifism and masculine duty into the Somme with Wilfred Owen. I would never have predicted learning how much Lewis Carroll hated little boys and loved croquet.
From the first sentence, Barker's style hooked me with its guttersnipe brutality and quick wit overlaying the tortured minds of men being fed, willingly, into the meat grinder. Rutting away in desperation, knowing that they had to pack the pleasures in befoire their time was up.
Barker's moving of the novel into the hospital for neurasthenics was a stroke of brilliance that made it stand out from the average war book, and it allowed her to create new pathways that otherwise would never have been possible. In the hands of a lesser author, the choice to forego the battlefields for the psychiatrist office would have been disastrous. Barker, instead, created Billy Prior and fleshed out Dr. Rivers to the point that the carnage in France was only an omnipresent weight.

Like I said, weaving Lewis Carroll and neurosurgeons and closeted officers into the narrative was not at all expected based solely upon the first novel in the cycle, but Barker had me firmly in hand the whole time. I would have happily read another 10 stories in the world that she created.

Just a fantastic series of novels, written in a narrative voice that never felt inauthentic. It was really the only time that I felt continually compelled to relax my one book per year rule for reading an author, but I'm glad I let it linger. It's just too bad that I can't discover it again.

Now, I'm on to reading a long-time favorite's last book, Willa Cather's Lucy Gayheart, after which I think I'll take a stab at one of Justine's favorites, A Handful Of Dust by Evelyn Waugh.

[Paul]

Have any of our German Forest Dwellers or the more germanophillic amongst us read any Jakob Wasserman? I'd never heard of him, but his works are starting to be translated quite a bit here in Italy and a few of my colleagues have started to recommend him. He looks somewhat think and impenetrable.

[Lass]

I posted a comment last night, about re-reading Linda Grant’s first (‘97) novel, The Cast Iron Shore, but it seems to have vanished. Late night confusion?

[giveusaclue]

Lass wrote: "I posted a comment last night, about re-reading Linda Grant’s first (‘97) novel, The Cast Iron Shore, but it seems to have vanished. Late night confusion?"

Perhaps the Guardian mods have strayed across here! Could you have clicked peview instead of post? Just a thought

[giveusaclue]

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports tha..."

I thought it was developed at Oxford with a large input of UK Govt money and is being sold on an at cost basis.

[Lass]

Thanks, clue. God knows, I’m all over the place at the mo. Have just sent a message to a group of friends, instead of individual. Thankfully it wasn’t anything I will regret!

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "Have any of our German Forest Dwellers or the more germanophillic amongst us read any Jakob Wasserman? I'd never heard of him, but his works are starting to be translated quite a bit here in Italy ..."

I havent read any Wasserman but i hear good things, i think he has two novels in translation or two versions of same novel by different publishers(Penguin/NYRB)

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."

Reports tha..."

oh? what have AZ been up to? i really must do some reading into the vaccines....

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "AB – Marguérite Duras - Yes, The Sea Wall is a terrific read, a picture that really sticks in the memory. The third of her Indo-China novels is L’Aimant de la Chine du Nord, which is #3 or 4 on the..."

thats the one Russ...i found it available at £9 but i already have a Duras reading for 2021, so will put the "North China Lover" on the TBR pile. There is a collection of her essays out now too, great to see her getting published more

i am eagerly anticpating "The Sailor from Gibralter", due to be read in late summer (by its location in the pile...)

[Gpfr]

Lass wrote: "I posted a comment last night, about re-reading Linda Grant’s first (‘97) novel, The Cast Iron Shore, but it seems to have vanished. Late night confusion?"

I remembered reading it - went back to check. It's there: message 72 😉

[Lass]

Gpfr wrote: "Lass wrote: "I posted a comment last night, about re-reading Linda Grant’s first (‘97) novel, The Cast Iron Shore, but it seems to have vanished. Late night confusion?"

I remembered reading it - w..."

Thanks. Think I need to lie down!

[Cabbie]

AB76 wrote: "Who would everyone say Pym reminds them of most?..."

The first name that pops into my head is Alan Bennett. I think both he and Pym have the ability to elevate the mundane into tragedy and comedy.

[Paul]

giveusaclue wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when they get called now..."..."

As I understand it, it's an Oxford invention that AZ was enlisted to put inot clinical trials and scale-up the production. In any case, AZ has been screwing around with their data, in the sense that they don;t seem to know what they're doing. They were testing efficacy without knowing how much they were actually injecting, and then they blamed the issue on an Italian producer (I know people involved in the production, and AZ is fixing to get sued). Then they got mixed bag efficacy data and didn't try to iron out the details before submitting it for approval examination. They got caught out by EU and US examiners as likely showing faulty or incomplete data. They really have done a piss poor job scientifically and ethically. While it is a time of world-wide emergency in which things are occurring rapidly, they have really fumbled at a basic level and it suggests a superficiality in their system (and AZ did not have the most stellar reputation prior to these shaningans). When all is said and done I'm thinking the EU courts are going to be leveeing some onerous fines.

That being said, the vaccine does work, it does work well, and it does work safely. So, get the vaccination.

[Hushpuppy]

AB76 wrote: "oh? what have AZ been up to? i really must do some reading into the vaccines...."

The reactions to the blood clots adverse events with the Oxford/AZ vaccine have been disproportionate - the risks are still extremely low, lower for younger women than the risks of taking the pill for instance. (Seems also like the Johnson & Johnson shows the same issues when rolled out in a v. large population, pehaps pointing at the vector-based vaccines, e.g. adenovirus here, being the problem for reasons still unknown.)

None of this should make us forget however that Oxford/AZ have fucked up big time every step of the way. They've fucked up the most fundamental thing: their RCT [edit: randomised controlled trial] protocol, administering the wrong dose of vaccine to some of their participants. They've fucked up the communication about the results of their RCT, emphasising the results from the fucked up protocol that didn't meet their initial criteria in the number of participants, omitting very conveniently that this part of their fucked up RCT did NOT include anyone over 55 yo. They've fucked up their FDA approval request, giving obsolete data that showed slightly higher efficacy. They (and the UK) have fucked up the monitoring of (or covered up??) serious adverse events: only continental European countries were reporting blood clots, and then suddenly, what do you know, the UK actually had 33 cases, oh, and then actually 77.

The decision of the UK to continue vaccinating people under 55 (this is the only country where the bar is at 30, all the others have set the bar at 55/60/65), esp. women, is worrying. The decision of Denmark to stop it entirely equally puzzling. This is not a black or white scenario.

Also, the Oxford/AZ seems to be better in the general population than in their own RCTs (good, since it was 62% only in their original, not fucked up one), but it also seems to be less efficient in immuno-de/su-pressed people than the Pfizer one.

As for the funding, this Oxford vaccine was able to be developed so fast because it rested on 20 years of development and research into adenovirus based vaccines, and as you may have seen today in the G, for this specific research in the UK:

"[the authors] were able to identify more than £228m worth of grants – the largest chunk from overseas governments including the EU, followed by the UK and then charitable foundations."

One final note: a lot of the production of the vaccines that we receive in the UK comes from continental Europe, which export a lot outside of their own frontiers. The US and UK on the other hand have a policy of "me first". Excellent and very informative summary thread here: https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/statu....

PS: @Paul, feel free to add or to correct me wherever needed!!

[Hushpuppy]

Paul wrote: "As I understand it..."

I was writing my own post, so didn't see yours before I posted mine 😊! You'll find the twitter thread interesting I think.

[Hushpuppy]

@Paul, you're on fine form, there have been some truly inspired reviews from you lately!

@Booklooker, looking forward to your comments on - and report of your book club's reactions to - Persuasion. These quotes from your other book made me chuckle.

@Magrat: I am so so sorry to hear about Bella. I'm glad her discomfort was not protracted and that she rests close to you and your remaining cavvie.

[Georg]

Paul wrote: "Have any of our German Forest Dwellers or the more germanophillic amongst us read any Jakob Wasserman? I'd never heard of him, but his works are starting to be translated quite a bit here in Italy ..."

Wassermann was one of the authors i considered after Werfel. So I did some research on his person and his books.

I really enjoyed your review of Franzen some months back:

Franzen's narrative is full. Overly full... I've come to treasure the empty spaces in books, the unasked questions, the unresolved conflicts, that leave space for me to walk alongside the character. With Franzen, there was no room for me

(when I read Unterleuten by Juli Zeh I thought of it/you. There is so much space!)

You might be interested in Marcel Reich-Ranicki's* view (apparently there was a mini-renaissance for Wassermann in Germany after the copyrights exspired in 2004):

He said: "His popularity was largely due to his verbosity. He did not hold anything back and he did not challenge his readers. There are hardly any hints or insinuations in his prose, his narrative doesn't know the indirect and he almost always foregoes irony."

He does, however praise Wassermanns imagination, his sensitivity, his gift for observation and (this might be irony): his knowledge of Freuds works.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_...

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "good news about second jab,looks like the under 40s may get a choice of jabs when the..."

interesting, thanks Paul and i had my first AZ jab on Tuesday, no side effects, all done

[CCCubbon]

Paul wrote: That being said, the vaccine does work, it does work well, and it does work safely. So, get the vaccination.
and that’s the most important thing to remember.

Now I interrupt with an unrelated to vaccines question in the hope that someone may enlighten me.
The Absolute Book is most strange. It is long, nearly 700 pages and slides between real and other worlds. Must write that I am finding it fascinating, or perhaps I am fascinated by the creativity of Elizabeth Knox in thinking up such a story.

I have mentioned before that there are a multitude of references which have kept me searching. At the moment that I am reading, the protagonist, Taryn, who is not dead but visiting, is in Purgatory searching for her dead mother who may have information that is needed. The souls in purgatory are those who let themselves down when they were alive. They have ghost things from their lives and there are elusive data files on all which most are searching for. ( this book is an exercise in expanding imagination). Whatever, her mother has been found painting a garden scene with ghost paints and then

But of course that wasn’t what it really reminded Taryn of. Really it was Moominmamma’s painted garden in the lighthouse. The one Moominmamma vanished into, leaving her handbag sitting on a kitchen chair.

Help! Can someone tell me about Moominmamma and the painted garden in the lighthouse?

[Hushpuppy]

CCCubbon wrote: "Paul wrote: That being said, the vaccine does work, it does work well, and it does work safely. So, get the vaccination.
and that’s the most important thing to remember."

Absolutely. In the general (non immuno-compromised) population, its efficacy is as good and, under certain circumstances, even better than the Pfizer. But unfortunately, because Oxford/AZ messed up so many times, the damage done to the beliefs of people who were already skeptical about vaccines is very serious. I've spent many emails and a lot of effort trying to reassure my parents' friends (my parents received the Pfizer).

[Tam]

CCCubbon wrote: "Paul wrote: That being said, the vaccine does work, it does work well, and it does work safely. So, get the vaccination.
and that’s the most important thing to remember.

Now I interrupt with an u..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins

I was a big fan as a teenager. When my dog had puppies they all got named after a Moomin character...

[[deleted user]]

Thanks MK for the info on the Cromer peregrines.

I've just had a search and there is a live webcam at www.cromerperegrineproject.co.uk

[giveusaclue]

Pomfretian wrote: "Thanks MK for the info on the Cromer peregrines.

I've just had a search and there is a live webcam at www.cromerperegrineproject.co.uk"

https://hawkandowltrust.org/web-cam-l...

[scarletnoir]

Hushpuppy wrote: "The decision of the UK to continue vaccinating people under 55 (this is the only country where the bar is at 30, all the others have set the bar at 55/60/65), esp. women, is worrying. The decision of Denmark to stop it entirely equally puzzling. This is not a black or white scenario.

Also, the Oxford/AZ seems to be better in the general population than in their own RCTs (good, since it was 62% only in their original, not fucked up one), but it also seems to be less efficient in immuno-de/su-pressed people than the Pfizer one.

Thanks for your informative post - from someone whose expertise and views in this area I trust.

First - "this is not a black and white scenario" - that's got to be right, surely? We are still in a period of incomplete data in so many ways. I'd assume that any vaccine is better than none... but...

"it also seems to be less efficient in immuno-de/su-pressed people than the Pfizer one."

Well, as I belong in that group - and have not been indoors in a shop or pub or anything, really... apart from bubbled family members - for more than a year, that's a bit concerning! (I've had one AZ dose, second to come by end of month.)

Just as well I'm not a worrier by nature - I leave that to my wife. It's called "division of labour".