Covid-19 Vaccine - Where, How & Costs

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I don't think the government had much choice, a single dose is only 33% effective against the Delta variant, so the majority of the population are not protected to a high degree, it might lessen the seriousness but the recent Lancet article didn't seem to think one dose was doing much against the infection rate.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-highly-effective-against-b-1-617-2-variant-after-2-doses

Also the change in symptoms seems to worrying the experts, much more cold like so many people might shrug it off as a cold if they don't have it bad, and of course with lots of snotty tissues and sticky fingers its going to spread even quicker than just cough droplets.

The likely reality is by the time everyone has had 2 doses we'll onto Epsilon or Zeta and facing a whole new ball game again. Which is why some politicians like Gove this morning are willing to live with potentially 100s of deaths a day as just par for the course forever. Which I suppose we will have to adjust to as a society if we aren't to knee-jerk back and forth every six months.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...sing-in-england-will-not-be-pushed-back-again
 
WHO was prepared to accept 50% efficacy as the mark of a satisfactory vaccine, all of the approved vaccines are running well ahead of that. What's clear is that even in cases where the vaccine doesn't stop people getting infected, it does tend to lead to a less serious infection, meaning fewer admitted to hospital, fewer of those needing ventilation, and fewer of those dying.
Some collated figures on efficacy vs Alpha and Delta variants (B.1.1.7/Kent/UK strain and B1.167.2/Indian strain) in a new Guardian article (from a Public Health Scotland paper in the Lancet + Public Health England reporting):


TLDR:

2 weeks after 2nd dose*, vs infection:
...................Alpha Variant.......................Delta Variant
Pfizer.......................92%....................................79%
AZ.............................73%....................................60%

* Note this favours Pfizer, AZ protection increases over several more weeks.

3 weeks after 2nd dose, vs symptomatic infection:
...................Alpha Variant.......................Delta Variant
Pfizer.......................93.4%.................................88%
AZ.............................66%....................................60% (67% later)

3 weeks after 2nd dose, vs hospital admission:
...................Alpha Variant.......................Delta Variant
Pfizer.......................95%....................................96%
AZ.............................86%....................................92%
 
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france will seemingly drop the mask(s) (ho ho ho ha ha lame joke incoming) late June, outside (NOT inside).
 
Just why the Delta variant is so dangerous it really is the Swiss Army knife of variants. It appears to be both more transmissible than first thought and more immune resistant.

 
Just call me THE VOICE OF DOOM!!!

At the press conference today Chris Whitty highlighted the possibility of a winter COVID & Flu wave this year.


They've found out which groups are the most likely to catch COVID even if vaccinated. It more impacts young rather than old.


It's possible we could face another pandemic in 2028 as there is evidence of an approximate seven year pattern of which new coronavirus strains emerge. Hopefully we will better prepared next time.

 
Last winter the US had a very low flu season. The media tried to make that sound like a bad thing. But wearing a face mask meant that people who sneezed or coughed nearby were usually 6 feet/2 m away and the airborne droplets had less chance of infecting those around them. So the best advice is to keep those face masks on during the winter in places like shops and malls and other areas where large groups of people are present. I realize that some would rather not but it will be better than not wearing them.
 
Got J&J today. Feel great. Got it through the EU program while abroad as a non-resident. Only an ID was needed.
Vaccination center (show-up type) was fully active but without any waiting line.
Great stuff.
 
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AZ celebrates the court rejecting (deliberately steep) delivery obligations demanded by the EU, but this seems premature. If correct, the real significance of the ruling could be that it finds the company in breach of the "best reasonable efforts clause"... Considering the potential longer term implicantions, that's not what a victory looks like. Of course, UK exclusivity clauses prevented AZ from supplying the EU from British sites, but as I've been pointing out all along, that is AZ's problem, not the EU's. Too clever by half - it's *their* responsibility to ensure they do not overpromise and account for other contractual commitments in pledges made to the EU.
 
Overpromises?!!! How many hundred of thousands of ppl are alive today because they stuck to their goal and delivered?

This litigation (if any) is shameful. Europeans certainly would have loved to see the same abnegation for the rule of law in other medical litigations but not here. Hard to see this cabal as popular.
 
Desperate politicians will do anything to avoid responsibility for disasters.
 
Respectfully, I have little regard for politics. In this case, everything is squarely on the companies, all of them. Generally, scientists don't write contracts. Those in charge no doubt consulted those involved in actual production to get their best estimate. I'm sure no politicians were involved in formulation, production and quality control. That delays could occur due to material shortages or contamination or just bad batches which had to be removed from the supply, or even the weather. The temperature and storage requirements were also an issue. I read about hospital staff having to undergo training to make sure the jabs were stored correctly, removed at the correct time and administered properly. According to business news site Bloomberg, over 2.55 billion jabs have been delivered. That's 2.55+ billion syringes and band-aids, etc.

Considering a time frame of 15 months, I view this whole thing as quite remarkable, and the scientists aren't done yet. They want to toss the needles and the rest and deliver a pill/capsule by the end of the year.
 
As Brazil passes 500,000 deaths the mortality rate in the country only increases.
A study published in Lancet Journal by Hallal and his team at the beginning of the year estimated that three of every four deaths could have been avoided if Brazil followed basic pandemic protocols. Four of every five deaths could have been prevented if the government had fought the disease as well as the average country, Hallal's team estimated.
A Parliamentary Inquiry (CPI) this spring into the handling of the pandemic by various levels of government, led by Brazil's senate, is investigating whether the federal government intentionally delayed the vaccine rollout in line with its herd immunity strategy.
Bolsonaro and his supporters say the senate's investigation was aimed at weakening the federal government.
The CPI found that the Brazilian government ignored 81 emails from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which offered its first vaccine deal last August, at half the price offered to the United States.
 
As Brazil passes 500,000 deaths the mortality rate in the country only increases.
A study published in Lancet Journal by Hallal and his team at the beginning of the year estimated that three of every four deaths could have been avoided if Brazil followed basic pandemic protocols. Four of every five deaths could have been prevented if the government had fought the disease as well as the average country, Hallal's team estimated.
A Parliamentary Inquiry (CPI) this spring into the handling of the pandemic by various levels of government, led by Brazil's senate, is investigating whether the federal government intentionally delayed the vaccine rollout in line with its herd immunity strategy.
Bolsonaro and his supporters say the senate's investigation was aimed at weakening the federal government.
The CPI found that the Brazilian government ignored 81 emails from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which offered its first vaccine deal last August, at half the price offered to the United States.

They should name the Brazilian variant the "arsehole" - related to Bolsonaro legacy.
 
I already refer to Delta as Narendra Modi's Pet Plague, I'm all for calling any viral variant that arises from a country's political malfeasance directly after that country's leadership where and when the malfeasance was committed.

Bolsonaro and Modi have both already proven themselves Hostis Humani Generis.
 
Funnily enough, Modi sounds like "maudit", the french word for... DAMNED.

"Les Indiens sont maudits !"

The english word, moody, is hardly better... !
 
Why wouldn't a piece of paper do the trick. Why would you upload something already official. Digital documents are more prone to mass falsification than a paper one. Here we are not looking after a fugitive that would try to sneak past airport customs but prevent a serie of non-related contaminated people to evade screening.
With digital documentation, we just incentivize the potential fraud...

There are still major countries out-there where you fill your custom duty document on a cardboard on the fly prior to entry and it does the trick...

I don't get it.
 
Why wouldn't a piece of paper do the trick. Why would you upload something already official. Digital documents are more prone to mass falsification than a paper one. Here we are not looking after a fugitive that would try to sneak past airport customs but prevent a serie of non-related contaminated people to evade screening.
With digital documentation, we just incentivize the potential fraud...

There are still major countries out-there where you fill your custom duty document on a cardboard on the fly prior to entry and it does the trick...

I don't get it.

Because how else does a person inside Canada see and review a document in the possession of someone outside Canada? The alternative is to discover that someone hasn't got the right paperwork AFTER they have landed in Canada, and then put them on another plane back to wherever they came from.
 
That's how immigration works...

Usually passengers are screened by ground crew. Nothing prevent them to review if all their passengers have the document.
 
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