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General => The Stay Safe Board => Topic started by: familydar on Wednesday 30 December 20 07:58 GMT (UK)
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for use in the UK. Heard it on BBC breakfast radio
Jane :-)
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Roll out to start Jan 4th.
News says that the gap between 1st and 2nd dose is to be up to 12 weeks rather than 4 so that more people will be able to get 'some level of protection', News still coming out about the dosage so don't take my word for it!
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Great news!
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Let’s hope Amazon prime are arranging the distribution ;D >:( ;D ;D
Mike
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and hopefully it can also get approval in countries where they have neither the funds nor the infrastructure to make use of the vaccine that costs a lot more and needs specialist equipment to store and transport it.
Boo
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Having listened to the press conference, I'm not happy. They dodged the question about the efficacy of the vaccine for the elderly, saying that there weren't many elderly in the trials and they were waiting for more results. Also, no real explanation as to why the second dose was now to be given between 4-12 weeks. Further, we will still have to follow the guidelines - mask, hands distance, etc. for a good while afterwards.
I'm glad it's there but not sure, and I'm one of those who have always been happy to trust the evidence. There was too much evasion.
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I agree with you Gadget - There was an article published in early December said more analysis will be needed to see how well it works in people over 55, among those at higher risk from the pandemic.
Also that the vaccine was 90% effective when a half-dose was given before a full-dose booster, and that two full doses showed an efficacy of 62%
The vaccine’s efficacy rate may be enough to get it approved but its not a absoloutely positive result yet.
Sandra
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Think positive, it shares features with the flu jab and that controls the flu even though it’s efficiency it only about 50%.
Mike
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Apparently it will cost a fraction of the price and should also be easier to distribute, with storage temperatures of between two and eight degrees Celsius compared with minus 70 for Pfizer’s shot.
Sandra
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Apparently it will cost a fraction of the price and should also be easier to distribute, with storage temperatures of between two and eight degrees Celsius compared with minus 70 for Pfizer’s shot.
Sandra
It’s going to need heated storage round here for the next week if the weather forecasts are right :)
Mike
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I’m with gadget on this .... having listened to the briefing I felt a little uneasy that they didn’t seem positive regarding the percentage of efficacy.
There don’t seem to have been large numbers of older people used as participants in the trials...
I think I’d like a little more positivity...
I was also a little surprised that distancing, face coverings etc would be required for longer even after the 22 days from the first injection....
Having said all this I think I’m still going to have it!
Caroline
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Oh ye of little faith. I'll be in the queue, when asked to attend, for whichever vaccine I am given.
It was my understanding, no doubt you will correct me if I am wrong, that the period between injections was due to the first providing a sufficient degree of protection, should you catch Covid-19, to stop it developing into a serious illness and, therefore, more first injections can be given in a shorter time span.
However, here in Wales I don't hold out a great deal of hope. The vaccination rate here in Wales with the first lot is the lowest of the four nations. We have less than 26,000 administered to date.
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::)
Who said anything about not having it. I think a few of us were querying the results of the trials. Even the medics were commenting on the problems with the results.
I have had every jab offered - from childhood right up to pneumonia and shingles.
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::)
Who said anything about not having it. I think a few of us were querying the results of the trials. Even the medics were commenting on the problems with the results.
I have had every jab offered - from childhood right up to pneumonia and shingles*.
* PS and flu jabs every year
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Some info from The Telegraph seems to suggest one of the reasons for the changing the interval between the doses is due to data from the Oxford/AZ Phase 3 trial.
Their phrase trial had 2 groups, one in Brazil that had 2 full doses and one in the UK that had a 1/2 dose followed by a full dose, with efficacies, respectively, of 62% and 90%. The differences in efficacy was explained by the differences in dosages but they now seem to be saying it's due to differences in the intervals between the doses, and the UK group having a longer interval.
That does imply there was yet more differences between the Brazil and UK regimes, and thus more questions (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2261092-do-oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-results-stand-up-to-scrutiny/) about the trial.
It does feel like they (AZ, the government and regulators) are winging it, based on very limited data.
The Telegraph
How longer interval between Oxford vaccines is key to finding 'a route out of pandemic'
30 Dec 20202
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/30/oxford-vaccine-receives-approval/
Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chairman of the Commission on Human Medicines expert working group on Covid-19 vaccines, added: "We did look at all the data in relation to the half-dose, versus the standard dose. And we also looked at the data in relation to the standard dose standard dose regimen.
"What we identified was that the interval in the low dose standard dose regimen was actually quite long.
"And that's why we asked for additional analysis on extended interval dosing and that highlighted that actually the extended interval dosing produced quite good efficacy - very good efficacy, up to 80 per cent - at an interval of three months between the first and second dose.
"The low dose/standard dose regime - although has been quoted to have an efficacy of 90 per cent - this is confounded by the fact that the interval between the first and second dose was quite long, and we feel that that result may be related to that interval, rather than the dose itself."
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I was also a little surprised that distancing, face coverings etc would be required for longer even after the 22 days from the first injection....
Vaccine recipients may still be infected and be infectious, and thus pass it onto others. There doesn't seem to be enough data at present to say otherwise so it looks they're erring on the side of caution.
Public Health England
What to expect after your COVID-19 vaccination
22 December 2020
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-what-to-expect-after-vaccination/what-to-expect-after-your-covid-19-vaccination?priority-taxon=774cee22-d896-44c1-a611-e3109cce8eae
Can you give COVID-19 to anyone if you have had the vaccine?
The vaccine cannot give you COVID-19 infection, and a full course will reduce your chance of becoming seriously ill. We do not yet know whether it will stop you from catching and passing on the virus, but we do expect it to reduce this risk. So, it is still important to follow the guidance in your local area to protect those around you.
Science News
08 December 2020
Here’s what you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccines
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-vaccines-questions-social-distance-mask-transmission
Can you still get infected, and infect others, if you get vaccinated?
Possibly. None of the vaccines tested so far have been 100 percent effective so some vaccinated people may still catch the coronavirus.
What’s more, neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccine trials tested whether the vaccines prevent people from being infected with the virus. Those trials, instead, focused on whether people were shielded from developing disease symptoms. That means that it’s not clear whether vaccinated people could still develop asymptomatic infections — and thus still be able to spread the virus to others.
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Did I read some where that the flu injection also offer some vital protection against COVID-19 ?
Sandra
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Did I read some where that the flu injection also offer some vital protection against COVID-19 ?
There has been some studies on this but it seems to be unclear whether the flu jab has an effect or whether it's merely a correlation between the people who actively get the flu jab and their behaviour differing to those who don't.
Scientific American
A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests
27 Oct 2020
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-flu-shot-might-reduce-coronavirus-infections-early-research-suggests/
In the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital’s databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.
These findings do not prove that flu vaccines prevent COVID-19, however. “This is an intriguing study, but it doesn’t provide definitive evidence,” says Ellen Foxman, an immunobiologist and clinical pathologist at the Yale School of Medicine. There could be other explanations for the association the Radboud scientists and their colleagues found. For instance, people who choose to receive a flu shot may be more health-conscious and more likely to follow COVID-19 prevention guidelines than individuals who do not get vaccinated. Netea agrees, noting that overall behavior, rather than the shot, might have made people in the former group less likely to get sick in his study.
The Irish News
Coronavirus and vaccination: Why a flu jab could also protect you against Covid
15 Oct 2020
https://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2020/10/15/news/coronavirus-and-vaccination-why-a-flu-jab-could-also-protect-you-against-covid-2096887/
Two key studies – in Italy and in Brazil, which between them looked at more than 100,000 patients – found that routine flu vaccination cut Covid-19 hospital admissions and the need for intensive care among those infected.
For the Italian study, published in the journal Vaccines, researchers studied coronavirus rates in the over-65s to compare infection rates, hospital admissions and deaths from the virus in areas with high flu vaccine uptake and areas where few people got the jab.
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The results showed that in areas where fewer than 30 per cent of eligible patients were immunised against flu, the mortality rate from Covid-19 was around 150 for every 100,000 of the population.
But in regions where uptake hit 70 per cent (the usual rate in the UK), deaths totalled no more than 10 per 100,000 population.
The Brazil study tracked more than 90,000 Covid patients and found mortality rates were up to 35 per cent lower among those who received a flu jab compared to those who didn’t.
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Just heard that there's a world shortage of the vials that hold the vaccines so that is one of the reason s for a slower roll out than hoped.
I'm sure this was raised as a possible problem months ago. I remember seeing a piece on tele of a factory in Wrexham with little glass vials going along a production line.
(critical path analysis needed globally)
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critical path analysis
Critical path analysis + PERT - haven't heard those terms in years. In the early seventies they dominated my working day.
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Critical path analysis + PERT - haven't heard those terms in years. In the early seventies they dominated my working day.
snap ;D
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Just heard that there's a world shortage of the vials that hold the vaccines so that is one of the reason s for a slower roll out than hoped.
Can they not be sterilised and re-used?
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I’m with gadget on this .... having listened to the briefing I felt a little uneasy that they didn’t seem positive regarding the percentage of efficacy.
There don’t seem to have been large numbers of older people used as participants in the trials...
I think I’d like a little more positivity...
I was also a little surprised that distancing, face coverings etc would be required for longer even after the 22 days from the first injection....
Having said all this I think I’m still going to have it!
Caroline
Hello Caroline
In any drugs and vaccines, there is a difference between Approval and "Emergency Approval", so it is continue with distancing and masks etc., keep safe. This was a new novel virus and a changing one too.
Also I think the new SARS-CoV-2 variant is on their minds, as they referred to the S gene dropout.
The European Centre For Disease Control (ecdc.europa.eu) has the UK Executive Summary (mentioning S gene dropout) and there are huge challenges for Scientists to get and keep in front of a changing situation.
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/threat-assessment-brief-rapid-increase-sars-cov-2-variant-united-kingdom
Mark
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(critical path analysis needed globally)
Or even a basic Gantt chart
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Following on from Cuffie's Telegraph links:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/30/questions-hang-over-uks-rollout-of-oxfordastrazeneca-jab
and
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/532163-astrazeneca-vaccine-likely-wont-be-authorized-in-us-until-april