Vaccine Passports -- The Debate

Vaccine passports/certificates. Photo by Getty

"Given the reduced/no effectiveness of two doses, depending when the last dose was, there is a risk of these people having an infection, perhaps unknowingly, and transmitting to someone else in such a setting [places restricted to those with vaccine 'passports'."

"[The vaccinated are much likelier to have mild illness], So they may be more likely to be out and about, despite being infected. By excluding all the unvaccinated people from these places, we are in essence keeping them safer from the vaccinated people, who may be asymptomatically or pre-symptomatically infected with     COVID, but still able to transmit, especially when everyone is unmasked."

"If we drop the vaccine passports, the unvaccinated are going to go into those spaces. Right now, they may be living the life of a hermit, and have managed to stay safe that way. But if we get rid of vaccine certificates, they're like sitting ducks."

Dr.Jeff Kwong, epidemiologist, senior scientist, ICES (Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences)

"But the passports? They may be a good stick, but I'm not sure how effective they are for slowing transmission."

"We've seen it affecting families, splitting families apart. [Once vaccines became polarized], all reason went out the window."

Professor emeritus David Streiner, psychologist, McMaster University

"Because it makes people think that they are in a safe space [vaccine certificates may be harmful]; they were, pre-Omicron, but no longer."

"Vaccine certificates may prove valuable again at some point, but the two main purposes -- motivating people to get vaccinated and protecting people by keeping spaces confined to those at low likelihood of infection -- are clearly no longer relevant."

Dr.Andrew Morris, infectious diseases specialist, Toronto

"In the fall, when people were talking about implementing mandates, and some of my colleagues who were unvaccinated were facing termination, I thought to myself, what, exactly, is the risk reduction gained by terminating unvaccinated health-care workers."

"And that just led to a broader exploration for the actual numbers behind that."

"We were in these in-between phases of the waves. Obviously now infection risks are rising. It's a totally different situation."
"But I think we should think very carefully about whether or not, in a pluralistic democracy, we are sure that the benefits we may extract from [vaccine mandates and passports] outweigh the harm of creating a class of citizens who are not allowed to fully participate in society."

"We are starting to look at our fellow citizens in a way that they are not equal citizens to us, because they have made decisions that we don't agree with. And I think that's a very dangerous thing to do."

Aaron Prosser, psychiatry resident, McMaster University

Ontario had previously indicated that requiring proof of vaccines in settings such as restaurants, bars and cinemas would no longer be required after Jan.17, but a senior official said the government is taking that end date off the table. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

This is a debate on reducing the risk of transmission of COVID-19. The debate over vaccines is long past. Their well acknowledged capacity to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death in vulnerable adults is no longer open to debate. The value of the COVID vaccines has been proven time and again; not a 'cure' but a means to prevent a worse-scenario response to the incursion of a predatory pathogen that has cut a wide swath through the world's population in illness and in a massive death count globally.

 

A new study produced in Canada explores whether vaccines reduce transmission risk. And according to the study results they do. For a limited time frame. Two doses, the world now knows, are not likely to protect against infections by a virus that is highly contagious as Omicron has proven to be. Six months following the second dose "it kind of wanes down to, like, zero", stated Dr. Kwong, lead author of the study.

 

Updated data examined by his team indicated effectiveness against infection can recover following a third dose with an mRNA vaccine to about 60 percent. A higher rate of protection, he agrees, "but still not great", certainly not as high as had been the case with the previous, Delta strain. Based on two objectives; prevention of transmission, and keeping people out of hospitals and alive, the concept of vaccine passports gained recognition and became an important part of the anti-COVID arsenal.

 

Vaccines proved their usefulness in diminishing the worst-borne-out threats of COVID, but it was soon realized that they don't stop transmission and infections; all the more so with particularly wildly contagious Omicron. An observation that led to questions over whether passports remain relevant, and why the controversial issue hasn't been more fully addressed by the governments mandating their use. 

 

Making life a little more difficult for people who decline the shots, passports were seen as a method of encouraging vaccine uptake; no vaccination, no entry to settings such as gyms, theatres, restaurants, sports events or liquor and cannabis stores. Once Quebec expanded its vaccine certification scheme to cannabis and liquor stores the number of first-dose bookings quadrupled.

 

It is Dr.Kwong's contention that vaccine passports serve to protect the unvaccinated, at this juncture. His views are not universally shared; many health professionals feel the coercive use of passports to try to force the unvaccinated to comply divides people, creating adversaries out of the vaccinated and the vaccine-hesitant or -defiant. The question of the percentage in the population required to achieve 'herd immunity' with COVID goes answered as yet -- and how many people need to be excluded to result in prevention of one transmission?

"I think we're in this stage of producing fatigue about it: Okay, I've got my two shots, my booster. Enough already. Let me go on with my life", observed Dr.Streiner, professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioural neuroscience, McMaster University. The risk of public pushback concerns him. Dr.Streiner's study estimated in the pre-Omicron era, at least 1,000 unvaccinated people would be needed to be excluded in prevention of one SARS-CoV-2 transmission in most settings.

New data envisages a surge in daily hospitalizations in coming weeks amidst signs the Omicron wave may be peaking,  just as it appears to be doing in Britain and the United States. The variant may be running out of people to infect, according to The Associated Press. "It's going to come down as fast as it went up", commented Dr.Ali Mokdad, University of Washington scientist.

Where There is a Need, There is a Way

"At the beginning it was not clear whether he would be able to move his arms, his hands, and play music again."

"It was a shock for me and I realized there is a need for this kind of technology."

"Without doing it digitally this would never be possible to play music in real time."

"It takes away the actual action of strumming a chord."

Zacharias Vamvakousis, creator, "Eyeharp"

Alexandra Kerlidou, 21, who suffers from cerebral palsy, plays the "Eyeharp", a gaze-controlled digital software    Reuters

"I felt strange, I had never imagined such a thing", said Alexandra Kerlidon from her home in Lesbos, Greece, a student whose existence has been compromised by cerebral palsy. "I cried, her mother too" Anastasios Kerlidou said, hearing his daughter first play the Eyeharp. Yes, the Eyeharp. It is part of a program that offers a range of musical instruments whose choice enables those who cannot move their hands or speak, to 'play', through computer-generated software, in obedience to eye movement.

A friend of the Eyeharp's creator -- Zacharias Vamvakousis -- who was a musician, had been involved in a motorcycle accident. They had been scheduled to play a concert together at the time. But his friend was no longer able to do any of the things he had once taken for granted; his limbs unwilling/unable to respond as a result of the accident's severely disabling consequences. So he was inspired by both compassion and his creative genius to come up with an answer to the dilemma.

Himself both a computer scientist and a musician, Vamvakousis created a digital eye-tracking program from a technology already in wide use in gaming, security and medicine; a program geared to monitor eye movement through the performance of commands. As the eye rests on musical notes spaced on a wheel on the screen, the response on average is the playing of three to four notes each second. No fewer than 25 musical instruments can be selected to 'play'.

It takes discipline and concentration to succeed with the program ... since the player must direct eyes from wandering too swiftly over to the following note. Alexandra plays the Eyeharp, gaze-controlled digital software allowing those like her with severe disabilities, to play music. She cannot imagine her life without music.

 

Reuters

Co-Living in California : Diminished Expectations?

"If you think about the most private things that you do, a lot of them are related to the bathroom."
"So that's probably the hardest part [to become accustomed to in co-living]."
Jon Dishotsky, co-founder, CEO, Starcity, San Francisco

"People talk all the time about what they dream of, and I decided to stop talking about it and just do it. I was looking for more meaning."
"The more I live her, the freer I feel."
Carla Shiver, 38, Starcity renter

Starcity caters to workers who earn less than $90,000 a year.

Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty Images

Where a niche opportunity appears, there an entrepreneur will arise. There is a not-unreasonable expectation in Western society that if you're a member of the middle-class you can always work your way upward and eventually become a home-owner. If not own your very own home, then be able to rent one that suits your station in life. If you live in San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, Tokyo, London, perhaps not.

In San Francisco the search for a reasonable rental opportunity consumes the interests of those working as servers, teachers, lounge musicians, copywriters, merchandise planners, bookstore salespeople simply searching out a decent place to live. Wages in the service industry are not overly generous, and those earning those wages are not overly optimistic that they will find a place of their own serving their modest needs.

Along came a new development company whose vision is to serve those hopelessly searching out modest living arrangements. And have they got a deal for you! That is, if you're not too fond of acquiring things in abundance. In these new accommodations shared bathrooms are the norm for those renting a bedroom -- furnished, mind -- and little else. No kitchen(ette), no living room, no bathroom.

Common space at a Starcity building in San Francisco.  

Starcity

Three buildings comprising 36 units each have so far been developed by Starcity And it's on a roll. There are nine additional properties in development stage. And the company has an assured list of eight thousand people signed up and anxious to take advantage of their offer. With that kind of demand Starcity is in the process of buying up a dozen additional buildings, a one-star hotel included.

Parking garages, office buildings and old retail stores are all prospective future Starcity properties awaiting development. So far, $18.9 million in venture capital has been raised, enabling the hiring of a team of planners, giving the company the confidence to promise that it will have hundreds of units open in and around the San Francisco Bay Area in 2018, and thousands scheduled by 2019.

Residents of these properties are given a bedroom, about 10 - 20 square meters in size. Some units will offer a private bath at a higher rent. The company figures, however, a ratio of one bathroom for every two to three bedrooms equals large-scale affordability. Starcity rooms rent furnished for $1,400 to $2,400 monthly, with utilities and WiFi included. Whereas an average one-bedroom apartment in the city rents for $3,300.

Furnished bedroom; bed, night table, chair    Starcity

The demographic lining up for the opportunity to rent these Spartan bedrooms furnished with bed, chair and night-table are those who earn $40,000 to $90,000 annually, most in the age range of early 20s to early 50s. Those who become accustomed to living in these arrangements appear to feel quite comfortable about their decision.

The experience of Carla Shiver, originally from Albany, Georgia, typifies an accommodation to a different lifestyle. When she lost her position at Verizon last year the company offered her a transfer-job at a store in San Francisco. She earns roughly $85,000 a year. Sounds like good money but aware she could never afford a house in San Francisco, she decided to take the plunge.  She drove west with her Yorkie-Pomeranian, choosing to leave her husband behind with divorce proceedings.

Now she rents a room for $2,200 a month, with a queen-size bed, bedside table, and a chair. She shares a bathroom with other renters, along with a kitchen and living room. She can have Starcity staff do laundry for $40 a month, clean her room for $130 a week and arrange for dog care if she decides to. The responsibility for everything being looked after lies with building managers who restock bathroom and kitchen supplies and plan community events.

Starcity residents have access to a communal kitchen and living room.

Caroline Cakebread/Business Insider

"Most of the residents, who range in age from their early 20s to early 50s, have no political philosophy around communes nor any previous experience in them."
"Moving in was a practical decision they each made. But after they arrive, what they are most surprised by is how much the building changes them."
Nellie Bowles, The New York Times