MERS Coronavirus warning

[fraudstar]

There's an auld bloke I know called Henry, in his 80s, who tells me he's never had a vaccination in his life and he's never had a serious illness either. He told me he wouldn't be having the covid vaccine.

A few months pass and I bump into him again. "Did you get the vaccine?" I asked.

Sheepishly he explained he had because his daughter had gotten really angry with him, told him that she wouldn't visit him again, and hung the phone up.

So, tail between his legs, he went and got the vaccine.

Maybe the younger ones can get away with not having the vaccine, but I suspect Henry's experience is fairly common.

Now tell me, do you support your previous positions in the wake of Monday’s roadmap?

 

[Whey_Aye_Banzai]

Now tell me, do you support your previous positions in the wake of Monday’s roadmap?

Tell me what my previous positions are, and I'll tell you if I support them or not.

If it's masks, probably not.

Handwashing and social distancing; yes, definitely.

Lockdowns? As a last resort.

Vaccines, most definitely.

 

[Whey_Aye_Banzai]

Now tell me, do you support your previous positions in the wake of Monday’s roadmap?

I think gov's being overly cautious, but I'm happy enough not to whine about it and see what happens.

 

[terminal]

Here's the COVID-19 summary for Friday.
Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Friday

Canada approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for all adults 18 years of age or older. The shot has an efficacy rate of 62 per cent.

On Friday, Health Canada regulators approved the COVID-19 vaccine from Oxford University-AstraZeneca for use in Canada — clearing the way for millions more inoculations in the months ahead.

The department's regulators concluded the shot has an efficacy rate of 62 per cent and have authorized it for use in all adults 18 and older.

While it's less effective than the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines at preventing infection, the shot is 100 per cent effective in preventing the severe outcomes of COVID-19 — including serious illness, hospitalizations and death — the regulators said.

A top Canadian health specialist said in a other news story to not read too much into efficacy rates. A single number doesn't give you the full picture of how well they work. He said that so far as the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is concerned, it will protect you as well against severe illness, hospitalisation, or death as well as the Pfizer-Biontech or Moderna vaccines do, and that's what we're looking for.


South Korea started vaccinating people in care homes.

In Asia, South Korea administered its first available shots of COVID-19 vaccines to people at long-term care facilities, launching a mass immunization campaign that health authorities hope will restore some level of normalcy by the end of the year.

France ordered a weekend lockdown in Nice and the surrounding area.

In Europe, French authorities have ordered a local weekend lockdown starting on Friday evening in the French Riviera city of Nice and the surrounding coastal area to try to curb the spread of the virus.

The capital of Brazil, Brasilia, have gone into a 24 hour lockdown.

In the Americas, the governor of Brazil's capital city, Brasilia, decreed a 24-hour lockdown for all but essential services on Friday to curb a worsening outbreak that has filled its intensive care wards to the brim.

Ivory Coast have become the second country to receive vaccines through COVAX, receiving 504,000 doses of Oxford vaccine from SII in India.

In Africa, Ivory Coast has become the second country in the world, after Ghana, to receive a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from the global COVAX initiative. It has received 504,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India.

 

[terminal]

The US are closer to approving the Johnson & Johnson (Jansen) vaccine.
Johnson & Johnson's single-shot COVID-19 vaccine endorsed by U.S. advisers

U.S. health advisers endorsed a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson on Friday, putting the nation on the cusp of adding an easier-to-use option to fight the pandemic.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to quickly follow the recommendation and make J&J's shot the third vaccine authorized for emergency use in the U.S. Vaccinations are picking up speed, but new supplies are urgently needed to stay ahead of a mutating virus that has killed more than 500,000 people in the country.

That isn't all that interesting in itself, but there is something notable in the story about the vaccine itself. Unlike other vaccines, this one required only a single dose. However, the US are looking at whether making it a two dose vaccine would improve effectiveness.

As mentioned in a previous post there is a problem with reading too much into "efficacy" numbers because they don't mean quite as much as many people think they do.

Part of the problem is that different vaccines have been tested against different mixtures of viral variants. This is a result of them running trials at different times in different places where different mixtures of viruses were prevalent. This means that many of these comparisons are apples to oranges.

Another is that all of these vaccines are highly effective at preventing serious illness or death. The differences, if there actually are any, come at the less severe end of the scale and relate to whether you might get a mild illness or no symptoms at all. When viewed this way, any of these vaccines is better than none.

None the less, in Italy teachers were protesting against younger workers being given the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine while the Pfizer-Biontech and Moderna vaccines were reserved for the elderly.

Other parts of the world already are facing which-is-best challenges. Italy's main teachers' union recently protested when the government decided to reserve Pfizer and Moderna shots for the elderly and designate AstraZeneca's vaccine for younger, at-risk workers. AstraZeneca's vaccine was deemed to be about 70 per cent effective in testing.

I don't know whether Italy's decision on who gets what is related to logistics (storage temperature) or based on efficacy numbers, but all the vaccines are very good at doing what they are intended to do.

 

[terminal]

Her Majesty says get stuck in with the vaccine you slackers.
Queen Elizabeth says 'think about other people,' get a COVID-19 shot

"Once you've had a vaccine you have a feeling of you know, you're protected, which I think is very important, and as far as I could make out it was quite harmless," the Queen said in a video call with health officials overseeing inoculations across the United Kingdom.

"It was very quick, and I've had lots of letters from people who have been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine." And the shot "it didn't hurt at all," she added, likening the virus to a plague.

She made the very good point that getting vaccinated is as much about protecting other people as it is about protecting yourself. Preliminary studies suggest that someone who is vaccinated is less likely to pass on the virus to someone else.

"It is obviously difficult for people if they've never had a vaccine because they ought to think about other people other than themselves," said the Queen, who described Britain's rollout of the vaccination, one of the fastest in the world, as "remarkable."

 

[terminal]

As mentioned in a previous post, Canada has approved the Oxford vaccine. This story some interesting details which I will summarise here.
Health Canada approves AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine

The first thing to note is that two suppliers have been approved, both AstraZeneca and the Serum Institute of India (SII), the latter being the world's largest vaccine maker who are supplying a large part of the world demand for the Oxford vaccine.

The first shipment of 500,000 doses from SII will arrive next Wednesday.

The more important discussion concerns "efficacy" numbers. There are several videos in the article in which Health Canada experts explain why the numbers for different vaccines can't really be compared to one another. In a previous post I mentioned that they were tested in different places at different times against different mixtures of virus variants.

Dr. Supriya Sharma also explained that the trials were constructed in different ways, with different criteria, run for different lengths of time, and had different end points. There were no head-to-head comparisons done which measured all the vaccines in the same way against the same standard. All of this together means that there is no way to reliably compare the vaccines to one another in terms of a simple "efficacy" number. All the efficacy number can tell you is that if it is reasonably high enough, then we know the vaccine is effective. Dr. Supriya Sharma pointed out that in the trial data, none of the people vaccinated with any of the vaccines being considered including the Oxford vaccine died of COVID-19, or were hospitalised with the disease.

Dr. Supriya Sharma also addressed the question of efficacy of the Oxford vaccine among older people. She said there was nothing in the trials which suggested that it wouldn't be effective in older people, the issue was simply the limited number of older people in the trial limited the amount of data available in that age group. However, she said that real world experience with the Oxford vaccine, including the study done in Scotland, provided pretty convincing evidence that the Oxford vaccine was just as effective among older people as it was with younger age groups.

Another health expert noted that the Oxford vaccine was a fairly conventional type and that anyone with experience with vaccines would expect it to be effective in older age groups based on the way that it works.

Health Canada are recommending that the Oxford vaccine be given in two doses 4 to 12 weeks apart, and Dr. Sharma said that current evidence that waiting the full 12 weeks before giving the second dose will increase its effectiveness.

 

[TamH70]

Just got my blue envelope from NHS Scotland this morning - my appointment for the jag is next week, the 3rd of March.

Pity, it's in sodding Glasgow at that pop-up hospital they've built at the SECC when they've got a vaccination centre up and running at Paisley's Lagoon Centre, but joined-up thinking has never been part of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's SOPs.

Still, day out in the big city and all that...

 

[Graculus]

Just as a FYI

 

[lastwalt]

Just got my blue envelope from NHS Scotland this morning - my appointment for the jag is next week, the 3rd of March.

Pity, it's in sodding Glasgow at that pop-up hospital they've built at the SECC when they've got a vaccination centre up and running at Paisley's Lagoon Centre, but joined-up thinking has never been part of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's SOPs.

Still, day out in the big city and all that...

They seem to expect that everyone can drive and has a car.

 

[putteesinmyhands]

I was very pleased to find that a vaccination centre opened on my estate. A two minute drive or a 10 minute walk. Plenty of free parking. Very handy.

I'm not getting vaccinated there.

There's another vaccination centre about 2 miles away. A 10 minute drive or a 40 minute walk. Plenty of free parking. Handy if I drive.

I'm not getting vaccinated there.

Instead, I'm getting vaccinated in the centre of Luton. Being Sunday, that would be a 35 minute bus journey (if the bus turns up) and a 10 minute walk at each end. Fortunately I drive so it's only a half hour journey and there's a car park there which i hope isn't full (otherwise add 10 minutes detour and 10 minutes walk - which I'll have to allow for when I set off and so will everybody else which could lead to the car park being full). It's not free.

Still, I'm in a better situation than many others so can't complain.

 

[putteesinmyhands]

An addendum to the above:

My wife's colleague lives 200 yards from us and has been invited to have a vaccination.

In Stevenage.

As she doesn't drive, that's a 30 mile train journey to London and another 30 miles or so to Stevenage. Bus journeys at both ends. Peak fares as she'll catch either the morning peak or evening peak, depending on the time of the appointment.

Obviously, she's going to tell them to stop being stupid.

 

[terminal]

Here's the COVID-19 summary for Saturday.
Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Saturday

In Italy, Lombardy are going into a partical lockdown on Monday.

In Europe, the Lombardy region of Italy, which includes Milan, is heading toward a partial lockdown on Monday amid stubbornly high cases. Police vans blocked the entrance to Milan's trendy Navigli neighbourhood on Saturday evening after the mayor announced increased patrols to prevent gatherings during a spring-like weekend.

Auckland New Zealand are going into a 7 day lockdown after an unexplained case was found.

In Asia-Pacific, New Zealand's largest city of Auckland is going back into a seven-day lockdown after a new unexplained coronavirus case was found. Auckland earlier this month was placed into a three-day lockdown after new cases of the more contagious variant first identified in the U.K. were found.

It seems to have been a quiet news day, which is always welcome.

 

[beemer007]

Disappointing at best.

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[undervalued]

Disappointing at best.

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Yes, the bitterness seeps through.

 

[Listy]

An addendum to the above:

My wife's colleague lives 200 yards from us and has been invited to have a vaccination.

In Stevenage.

As she doesn't drive, that's a 30 mile train journey to London and another 30 miles or so to Stevenage. Bus journeys at both ends. Peak fares as she'll catch either the morning peak or evening peak, depending on the time of the appointment.

Obviously, she's going to tell them to stop being stupid.

This might be a local organization issue. For me (not that far north from you) We were given a list of all the local hospitals giving the injection, along with links to each sites automated booking systems. Then we could shop around amongst 4 hospitals to find the combo of time slot/distance/availiblity etc to pick.

 

[TamH70]

This might be a local organization issue. For me (not that far north from you) We were given a list of all the local hospitals giving the injection, along with links to each sites automated booking systems. Then we could shop around amongst 4 hospitals to find the combo of time slot/distance/availiblity etc to pick.

I would prefer that thing as well, but as I said I have to get inside Louisa Jordan on Wednesday.

... That didn't come out right, did it? Oh well.

 

[beemer007]

20+m UK 1st dose vaccinations, awsome effort & big thanks to all involved.


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[Listy]

I would prefer that thing as well, but as I said I have to get inside Louisa Jordan on Wednesday.

... That didn't come out right, did it? Oh well.

Well mine was done as part of the second tier front line staff program, and the local NHS trust organized it. I suspect yours is getting done through your GP's.

 

[Goatman]

An addendum to the above:

My wife's colleague lives 200 yards from us and has been invited to have a vaccination.

In Stevenage.

As she doesn't drive, that's a 30 mile train journey to London and another 30 miles or so to Stevenage. Bus journeys at both ends. Peak fares as she'll catch either the morning peak or evening peak, depending on the time of the appointment.

Obviously, she's going to tell them to stop being stupid.

Sympathies: seems some local Health authorities would struggle to organise a dose of clap at ' 4 Floors of Whores'