Thursday, February 18, 2021

MathiasR

Been working without positive results all morning on the Breakout

problem. Aftr working pointlessly on it all day yesterday, I now know

where the roblem is. In an enigmatic file under lib which defines the notion

of clas. So no I know it is absolutely crucial to putting my balls in play in

the game, from the ground up.

Progress, I guess...

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Vaccine Deliveries

source: La Presse

author: Mélanie Marquis

translation: MicrosoftEdge/doxa-louise

Production slowdowns

"The disruption is behind us," Pfizer says

(Ottawa) The "turbulence" of February is a thing of the past, as Pfizer's plant in Puurs, Belgium, has increased its production capacity. However, Canada will remain at the mercy of this plant because "in the short term" the company does not "anticipate" the manufacture of vaccines in Canada. Interview with Fabien Paquette, Managing Director and Head of Vaccines at Pfizer Canada.

The timing was not ideal. An upgrade of the facilities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when all the countries of the world were awaiting vaccines? "Certainly there's never a good time," he says. In doing so, however, Puurs is now able to manufacture 2 billion doses rather than 1.3 billion doses for 2021.

But yes, "in Canada, what it meant was a two- or three-week slowdown in February," says Paquette. "It's not just Canada that has been affected by the slowdown, every country in the world has been affected"; the impacts were "pretty similar," but variable according to timetable, and now "the disturbances are behind us," he says.

For the immediate future, no manufacturing prospect in this country, however. "In the short term, we don't anticipate that this will happen," he says. Building a production plant takes years. On the other hand, a dialogue has begun between the company and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne. "We're in talks," Paquette said, without providing further details.

Pfizer vaccines prepared in Puurs, Belgium

No patent infringement

In Europe, the pharmaceutical company has partnered with Sanofi and Novartis to help it manufacture the vaccine in the final stage. "We send the product to them and they put it in the vials and encapsulate it," explains Fabien Paquette. But from there to give the "recipe" to others and to give up intellectual property, there is a step that the company is not ready to take, ensuring displeasure from NGOs that demand it.

'What needs to be appreciated is that intellectual protection, patents, is a guarantee of innovation. We have to be able to keep that.' -Fabien Paquette, Managing Director and Head of Vaccines at Pfizer Canada

"Pfizer and BioNTech have invested billions of dollars to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, and if these investments have been made, it is thanks to the innovation of previous products. And the revenue we're going to generate with this vaccine will allow us to discover the next vaccine against cancer or other diseases," he continues.

Faster, more expensive?

In the meantime, the pace of Pfizer-BioNTech's deliveries to Canada is accelerating. By the end of June, we will receive 10.8 million doses instead of 8 million. By the end of September, 40 million doses will arrive. Did Ottawa pay more to get them faster? Contracts are confidential, Paquette replies. The government is paying 'the fair price,' he says.

Nor will it be said whether the doses delivered last December were delivered more quickly than expected. According to a preliminary analysis by Statistics Canada, the federal government spent $16 million on Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at an average price of $37.70 per dose. The figures circulating elsewhere, however, tend to show that Moderna's offeringss are more expensive.

In vitro studies conducted in recent weeks have shown that there is good protection against South African and British variants. Efficiency data for the Brazilian variant are expected to be released soon. "This is the advantage of messenger RNA vaccines for variants: you can make a genetic modification quickly," says Fabien Paquette.

On Tuesday, the head of the Public Health Agency of Canada,Der Theresa Tam, expressed serious concerns about the variants. There have been more than 540 cases of British (B117) contamination in the country, 33 of the South African variant (B1351) and one for the Brazilian variant (P1). Most worrying is that community-based spread has been observed in at least four provinces, as well as an increase in outbreaks, she noted.

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Navalny (Defamation Trial)

source: Libération

author: Lucien Jacques, Moscow correspondent

translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise

RUSSIA

Navalny libel lawsuit between hot and cold

Prosecuted for defamation against a veteran of the Second World War, the regime's opponent saw his trial turn into a free for all. This latest episode spoils a little more the image of Russian justice and power, but also that of Alexeï Navalny, whose personality continues to provoke

Alexei Navalny on February 12, in front of the Babushkinsky court in Moscow. (AP)

This Tuesday, the Babushkinsky court in Moscow looks like a building under siege, surrounded by police cords, police parked nearby, ready to embark at the least disturbance... The everyday of yet another trial involving Alexeï Navalny . It is inside the building that the fight is taking place: “Navalny against the veteran” Ignat Artemenko, 94 years old, former World War II. Tuesday, the third hearing Tuesday was cut short, like the previous two, February 5 and 12, which had turned into chaos and interrupted at the end of the day.

The case defies understanding, even by the standards of Russian justice, never stingy for a Kafkaesque trial against opponents of the Kremlin. It dates back to the summer of 2020, during the campaign which led to the adoption by referendum of a constitutional reform allowing Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036. At the time, the pro-Kremlin channel Russia Today broadcast a clip in which different personalities called to vote yes: actors, singers ... Among them, Ignat Artemenko, one of those old men with a chest covered with medals who are the object of a real cult in Russia. At the time, Alexeï Navalny spotted the video and made a sharp comment about the participants, whom he called “traitors” and “lackeys”.The message could have gone unnoticed, but Ignat Artemenko filed a complaint against the opponent for defamation. It is this case, diluted by his poisoning in August , followed by his spectacular return to Russia in January, which brings Navalny before the Babushkinsky court in Moscow.

"Selling Grandfather "

The context is paradoxical: unlike his other cases, where prison sentences have been requested or pronounced against him, Navalny risks at most a heavy fine. But for once, the accusation against him finds an echo in Russian society, very attached to respect for veterans. It also strikes directly at the opponent's weak point: his divisive personality, which prevents many Russians from supporting him. And if the objective was to attract Navalny, very comfortable when it comes to transforming a courtroom into a political platform, in a mud fight, the Kremlin propagandists can rejoice: he rushed headlong into the trap. From the start of the first hearing, on February 5, the trial degenerated into a spectacle where the absurd disputes it with sadness, the chaotic with the revolting.

During his testimony by videoconference, Artemenko does not hear the questions put to him and ends up falling ill. Navalny argues that the former soldier is reading, without understanding anything, a text written in advance, shouts that judges and prosecutors "will burn in hell" for having helped Putin "to hide behind an old man to whom [they have] stuck medals ”. The questioning of witnesses turns into a farce, the judge canceling one by one all the questions asked by the defense and systematically declining the lawyers' requests. Then the trial turns into a screaming match between the grandson of the veteran, called to the bar, and Alexeï Navalny, who, from the accused's box, calls him a "grandfather salesman"and accuses him of having been paid to file a complaint. The prosecutor ostensibly bursts into tears as she reads in detail the veteran's service records and, in her indictment, accuses Navalny of participating in a " campaign to discredit the victory in the great patriotic war ". Since then, each audience has added elements to the ongoing circus. Tuesday, Alexeï Navalny apostrophized the prosecutor, throwing him a provoking: "You want to shoot me?"

"Against the foundations of the Russian nation"

“ The goal is to demean Navalny on the moral plane,” advances columnist Mikhail Shevchuk. To show that he is not fighting against corruption, but against the very foundations of the Russian nation. The verdict could have been announced at the first hearing, it has certainly been ready for a long time, but the sponsors of this trial have an interest in keeping Navalny there as long as possible. Let him get angry and slip up. " In the state media , selected excerpts from this long deposition have been blown out to present Navalny as a provocateur and a negationist, a "Führer in boxers," quipped the presenter Vladimir Soloviev.

The next session has therefore been scheduled for Saturday February 20. The judge will read the verdict then, probably a fine of around ten thousand euros, the maximum penalty for defamation, required this Tuesday by the prosecutor. But the filth of this trial will stick for a long time: to Navalny, to the Russian justice system and to the Kremlin propagandists, who will have once again demonstrated, if necessary again, that no means are too base for them.