====== 2020-12-31 - back to covid thingy ======

{{ :blog:2020:12:31:coivd-19_vaccine.jpg?400|https://berthub.eu/articles/vaccine.jpg}}

sooo... still in [[wp>COVID-19 pandemic]] situation. in PL there is a curfew on new year's eve, between 19:00 and 7:00. yet another thing this year we'll be doing remotely. ;)

one pretty late news is [[https://informacje.pan.pl/images/2020/opracowanie-covid19-14-09-2020/ZrozumiecCovid19_opracowanie_PAN.pdf|zrozumieć COVID-19: opracowanie PAN"]] has been published (PL only -- sorry). it is a very interesting reading on state of the art knowledge about the virus and its spread throughout PL and the world. published in mid-september, thus shortly before pandemic got totally wild in PL. busts some myths, presents reliable sources of information and tons of links.

the good news is that now we do have a vaccine against the covid-19. [[https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/| the way it works is amazing]] -- it has been developed with methods that one have never heard of during a biology lesions in high school. really breath taking, if you ask me. not only because we manged to develop, test and start to distribute totally new vaccine in under a year since 1st cases ware discovered. IMHO it also gives high hopes for similarly rapid developments in case anything new is found in next years. even though it is a bit problematic in storage and transportation, as [[https://hackaday.com/2020/11/17/the-special-fridges-behind-the-covid-19-vaccine-why-its-surprisingly-difficult-to-be-that-cool/|the vaccine requires -80*C and thus special, 2-stage fridges]], that are not a commonplace, it is still a breakthrough moment in fighting a virus... and a [[https://hackaday.com/2020/12/28/the-high-tech-valor-glass-vials-used-to-deliver-the-coronavirus-vaccine/|novel glass vials used to contain it]] as just an icing on a cake, for an engineer. :)

stay safe and see/hear you next year!