scuba127
Contributor
Just for clarification, what does "effective December 1st Bonaire will be open to all American States" mean? Direct flights to Bonaire from the United States?
Bonaire slowly reopening....
- Thread starter tursiops
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scuba127
Contributor
Just read on Bonaire Insider that Bonaire hopes to restart direct flights from the U.S. on 1 December 2020.
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The timing for restarting flights from the US does not seem opportune. I wonder what other requirements will be in place?
scuba127
Contributor
Wonder how a vaccine will effect those requirements? Its my understanding that vaccinations of americans "could" begin in December 2020.
If the claimed efficacy rates and shipment schedules hold, covid will be all but eradicated in a few months. Moderna is claiming 94.5% efficacy. Higher than the polio vaccine. They're also claiming the ability to produce enough to vaccinate 15 million (or 30 million initial doses) people will ship this year. Healthcare workers will likely get priority.
darook
Contributor
I would love to get there in the next several months but will probably wait until the Fall as I am not sure the whims of the officials will be predictable. In the interim I hope to dive the BHB and other domestic locations.
drrich2
Contributor
I don’t know how closely you guys follow the vaccine-development effort; Pfizer has submitted an application for emergency use authorization for an mRNA vaccine and hopefully we’ll have it soon; it needs to be stored at -70 degrees C (-94 degrees F), which is a big problem for storage and transportation; it's 2 shots, 21 days apart. Moderna also has a mRNA candidate up and coming, and its cold-requirement isn’t as extreme.
But StatNews.com has an article at Bill Gates worries about dysfunctional Covid-19 vaccine distribution - STAT with some info. I haven’t seen making the news that’s potentially a big deal next year. If Gates’ hopes work out well, 2 of the more conventional vaccines may produce much higher antibody levels (which isn’t the end-all, be-all; I’ve read elsewhere even without high antibody levels, once you’ve had it, t-cells may retain the ‘memory’ and provide effective immunity). That said, higher antibody levels sound like a good thing!
He said the vaccines likely to reach the market a bit after the initial shots could have advantages. While Pfizer and Moderna have been the first companies to report early, encouraging results in late-stage clinical trials of their mRNA vaccines, Gates said the levels of antibodies elicited are much higher in more conventional vaccines being developed by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson; AstraZeneca’s comes in a little below the mRNA ones. Gates also said the cold-chain requirements and the cost of scaling up mRNA vaccine production “is not as attractive” as the other approaches.
“The fact that Novavax and J&J are above Pfizer makes us very hopeful that in the first quarter [of 2021] those vaccines will get approved and those we can make in many hundreds of millions per month in these developing world factories.”
So there's a lot going on in the vaccine development sphere. From some notes I've been keeping as of Nov. 19, Dr. Fauci estimated health care and other essential workers can get a vaccine by late Dec. or Jan., and healthy general public people will have it available from April to July. On the other hand, per the New York Times, Nov. 18 he said Dec., Jan. and Feb. are going to be terribly painful months, but he doesn't think Americans are going to change their behavior.
So if anyone's looking at vaccine prospects to inform trip planning to Bonaire or elsewhere, that's the current situation as best I've gleaned.
But StatNews.com has an article at Bill Gates worries about dysfunctional Covid-19 vaccine distribution - STAT with some info. I haven’t seen making the news that’s potentially a big deal next year. If Gates’ hopes work out well, 2 of the more conventional vaccines may produce much higher antibody levels (which isn’t the end-all, be-all; I’ve read elsewhere even without high antibody levels, once you’ve had it, t-cells may retain the ‘memory’ and provide effective immunity). That said, higher antibody levels sound like a good thing!
He said the vaccines likely to reach the market a bit after the initial shots could have advantages. While Pfizer and Moderna have been the first companies to report early, encouraging results in late-stage clinical trials of their mRNA vaccines, Gates said the levels of antibodies elicited are much higher in more conventional vaccines being developed by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson; AstraZeneca’s comes in a little below the mRNA ones. Gates also said the cold-chain requirements and the cost of scaling up mRNA vaccine production “is not as attractive” as the other approaches.
“The fact that Novavax and J&J are above Pfizer makes us very hopeful that in the first quarter [of 2021] those vaccines will get approved and those we can make in many hundreds of millions per month in these developing world factories.”
So there's a lot going on in the vaccine development sphere. From some notes I've been keeping as of Nov. 19, Dr. Fauci estimated health care and other essential workers can get a vaccine by late Dec. or Jan., and healthy general public people will have it available from April to July. On the other hand, per the New York Times, Nov. 18 he said Dec., Jan. and Feb. are going to be terribly painful months, but he doesn't think Americans are going to change their behavior.
So if anyone's looking at vaccine prospects to inform trip planning to Bonaire or elsewhere, that's the current situation as best I've gleaned.
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