COVID-19: Vaccine and testing procedures Megathread Part 3 - Read OP

Sanjuro

Just off the phone with my mam. 72. Booked in for Saturday April 3rd. She was so excited she was getting tongue tied trying to blurt out all the details. I haven't heard her this excited about something since her first grandchild was born 7 years ago. Absolutely delighted for her. Made my Monday.

RavenBea17b

Good news about Oxford AstraZeneca US trial results.

stephenjmcd

Sanjuro wrote: »

Just off the phone with my mam. 72. Booked in for Saturday April 3rd. She was so excited she was getting tongue tied trying to blurt out all the details. I haven't heard her this excited about something since her first grandchild was born 7 years ago. Absolutely delighted for her. Made my Monday.

Delighted for you all, my grandmother got her 2nd dose last Thursday so know the feeling you have.

Seems to be fairly on track with regards to the over 70s with all dose 2 done by Mid May.

funnydoggy

Delighted to hear people's nearest and dearest getting vaccines

rameire

Great to see people with family in the higher age brackets getting their dose of relief.

My parents age 79 and 75 are getting their first dose tomorrow morning at a GP surgery.

Happy days.

funnydoggy

Remember when people were saying "there won't be a vaccine" and then "the vaccine won't work" :pac:

RavenBea17b

I have a question about the procurement of the vaccines and medicine within Europe. As I understood it, the IVA group had been working together to procure vaccines, but EC took over Collective approach, good intentions. It was then over 2 months later for what was essentially the same contract, doses, cost etc. There was an interesting Der Spiegel article in December 2020 detailing the timeline and concerns that Germany had.
Included is a line about declining an option that would have allowed for the extra purchase of hundreds of millions of extra doses.
Do you think the EU/EC purchase bloc medications in the future? Will they review and change processes?

Now in the grand scheme of demand versus capacity, - cant produce the stuff quick enough etc it is an interesting read about the timeline.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-planning-disaster-germany-and-europe-could-fall-short-on-vaccine-supplies-a-3db4702d-ae23-4e85-85b7-20145a898abd

Micky 32

From RTE, probably a little optimistic but i’ll throw it out there:

Herd immunity in Europe possible by July

“” Europe could have herd immunity against Covid-19 by July, as incoming vaccines are expected to speed up the continent's vaccination roll-out, an EU Commissioner has said.

Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the internal market, told French broadcaster TF1: "Let's take a symbolic date: by 14 July, we have the possibility of achieving immunity across the continent.

We're in the home stretch, because we know that to beat this pandemic there's just one solution: vaccination. The vaccines are arriving."“

funnydoggy

Micky 32 wrote: »

From RTE, probably a little optimistic but i’ll throw it out there:

Herd immunity in Europe possible by July

“” Europe could have herd immunity against Covid-19 by July, as incoming vaccines are expected to speed up the continent's vaccination roll-out, an EU Commissioner has said.

Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the internal market, told French broadcaster TF1: "Let's take a symbolic date: by 14 July, we have the possibility of achieving immunity across the continent.

We're in the home stretch, because we know that to beat this pandemic there's just one solution: vaccination. The vaccines are arriving."“

Whoever wrote that is going on the PUP :pac:

funnydoggy

All the rage about vaccine rollout, when (maybe AZ aside, but Oxford have been stellar), the crowds involved with creating & manufacturing these vaccines have been doing absolutely groundbreaking, backbreaking work from day one. Outstanding.

stephenjmcd

funnydoggy wrote: »

All the rage about vaccine rollout, when (AZ aside), the crowds involved with creating & manufacturing these vaccines have been doing absolutely groundbreaking, backbreaking work from day one. Outstanding.

There really is a mountain of possibilities also with mRNA, Ozlem Tureci (who along with her husband Ugur Sahin who are the force behind BioNtTech) did an interview at the weekend where she said that her hope was within a few years we could see the mRNA technology in cancer vaccines whereby the immune system is trained to take on tumours

Klonker

Some great bits of informations and forecasting the last few days on here. The rollout has been and felt very slow to now but should really ramp up at the end of this month, especially of that AZ facility in the Netherlands gets approval. By the end of April, the vast majority of the vulnerable will have received a first vaccine and we'll be in a lot better place.

funnydoggy

stephenjmcd wrote: »

There really is a mountain of possibilities also with mRNA, Ozlem Tureci (who along with her husband Ugur Sahin who are the force behind BioNtTech) did an interview at the weekend where she said that her hope was within a few years we could see the mRNA technology in cancer vaccines whereby the immune system is trained to take on tumours

I saw that!:) It would bring a tear to your eye when you consider the implications.

lbj666

Micky 32 wrote: »

From RTE, probably a little optimistic but i’ll throw it out there:

Herd immunity in Europe possible by July

“” Europe could have herd immunity against Covid-19 by July, as incoming vaccines are expected to speed up the continent's vaccination roll-out, an EU Commissioner has said.

Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the internal market, told French broadcaster TF1: "Let's take a symbolic date: by 14 July, we have the possibility of achieving immunity across the continent.

We're in the home stretch, because we know that to beat this pandemic there's just one solution: vaccination. The vaccines are arriving."“

Thats a serious blip by RTE, quoting a flawed optimistic projection. Its a French politician, picking Bastille day as a date, Líberation et what not.

Any indicators of herd immunity would come retrospectively due to lag in data and studies anyway.

Azatadine

This looks promising:

https://twitter.com/H_Rossman/status/1373932554261303296?s=09

mollser

Off topic a bit, but thank you to all the contributors on this thread. It has lifted my spirits no end from the doom and gloom of the constant media narrative. The positive news unveiled in here is unreal, the end really is in sight! The govt should just lift this information and push it out there!

is_that_so

Azatadine wrote: »

This looks promising:

https://twitter.com/H_Rossman/status/1373932554261303296?s=09

Yep, but we need the 1m+ vaccinations a month to start to see it. Hopefully that target is no more than a few weeks away.

lbj666

[/S]

Azatadine wrote: »

This looks promising:

https://twitter.com/H_Rossman/status/1373932554261303296?s=09

Great little graphic that, I am curious at this point to see how its going for the UK now. Infections there are down 90% from peak , but so are ours so its more or as much to do with restrictions.

Any good data out there?

Hmmzis

Azatadine wrote: »

This looks promising:

https://twitter.com/H_Rossman/status/1373932554261303296?s=09

Interesting dynamics, from just eyeballing, it looks like at around 40% coverage there is a significant drop across each age group, then at 60% it looks to take a nosedive.

RavenBea17b

stephenjmcd wrote: »

There really is a mountain of possibilities also with mRNA, Ozlem Tureci (who along with her husband Ugur Sahin who are the force behind BioNtTech) did an interview at the weekend where she said that her hope was within a few years we could see the mRNA technology in cancer vaccines whereby the immune system is trained to take on tumours

I read somewhere that the spread of cancer had been halted in mice, that tumours stopped and no spread in lab test - using the new vaccine mRNA technology.

Lots of potential in theory. Interesting times ahead. - targeted treatments etc.

Qrt

My grandmother is 79 and the GPs surgery don't have a clue when she'll get done. Very mixed picture around the country evidently.

is_that_so

RavenBea17b wrote: »

I read somewhere that the spread of cancer had been halted in mice, that tumours stopped and no spread in lab test - using the new vaccine mRNA technology.

Lots of potential in theory. Interesting times ahead. - targeted treatments etc.

MS research too.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/research/biontech-ceo-turns-covid-19-vaccine-s-mrna-tech-against-multiple-sclerosis

is_that_so

Qrt wrote: »

My grandmother is 79 and the GPs surgery don't have a clue when she'll get done. Very mixed picture around the country evidently.

GP vaccinations seem to depend on numbers of age groups in individual practices and whether they've signed up to a larger group of GPs.

Jimbee

Azatadine wrote: »

This looks promising:

https://twitter.com/H_Rossman/status/1373932554261303296?s=09

Interesting but I wonder if the vaccine was administered to the younger group first would it have been even faster. Younger group being more likely to spread the virus and cause mutations. Especially when there is a shortage of vaccines.
Excuse my emotionless analysis but makes sense to put water water on the base of the fire rather than the flames.

celt262

Qrt wrote: »

My grandmother is 79 and the GPs surgery don't have a clue when she'll get done. Very mixed picture around the country evidently.

My parents are of similar age and not a peep yet to when they might get it.

is_that_so

Jimbee wrote: »

Interesting but I wonder if the vaccine was administered to the younger group first would it have been even faster. Younger group being more likely to spread the virus and cause mutations. Especially when there is a shortage of vaccines.
Excuse my emotionless analysis but makes sense to put water water on the base of the fire rather than the flames.

That is subject of debate and not ruled out but it'll only be looked at after we get through all the at risk groups. You could even see the 18-34s jumping the 55-64s if they decide to move them up.

afatbollix

RavenBea17b wrote: »

I read somewhere that the spread of cancer had been halted in mice, that tumours stopped and no spread in lab test - using the new vaccine mRNA technology.

Lots of potential in theory. Interesting times ahead. - targeted treatments etc.

I know Covid has been a bitch, Millions have died....


But imagine we come out of this with a vaccine for cancer.

My Grandfather died of lung cancer, My Grandmother died of cancer, My mother beat breast cancer last year. I'm sure everyone has lost someone to the big C.

And cause of Covid we could have the cure.

Qrt

celt262 wrote: »

My parents are of similar age and not a peep yet to when they might get it.

is_that_so wrote: »

GP vaccinations seem to depend on numbers of age groups in individual practices and whether they've signed up to a larger group of GPs.

Yeah, her GP teamed up with its sister practice in the very middle class Dublin suburbs, going to take a wild guess and say there's a larger proportion of over 70s there than in other areas, hence the delay. Oh well.

robinph

Jimbee wrote: »

Interesting but I wonder if the vaccine was administered to the younger group first would it have been even faster. Younger group being more likely to spread the virus and cause mutations. Especially when there is a shortage of vaccines.
Excuse my emotionless analysis but makes sense to put water water on the base of the fire rather than the flames.

Possibly, but to make it really useful you'd need to split it out between types of jobs and things as well.
No point in wasting a vaccine on some rich students who are living at home and studying remotely from their parents house in the middle of the countryside when you should be giving the jab to an 18-24 year old working in the supermarket stacking shelves or in the drive through.
No point in wasting a vaccine on someone working in a tech job remotely when someone of similar age working in a warehouse delivering your Amazon parcels should be getting it ahead of them, or the person driving the bus, or the emergency services staff etc...etc.

Just becomes too complicated a task to actually figure out who needs it first, and then getting those people to turn up in the right order. Much easier to jab the people in care homes who are most at risk and you can get to them easily, then just get all nursing staff to get jabbed whilst at work which happens to be where the jabs are happening and then work your way down the population in simple age categories.

I'm certain that if specifically targeted at age groups and jobs and who is mingling with others the most the rate of cases circulating would reduce quicker, but you'd not get to the most vulnerable quickly enough. If it was something that there was years to plan the more directed vaccination program for and figure out exactly the quickest plan then yes, but for covid it's just a cast of line people up and jab their arms asap.

If future years of booster shots end up being needed for more than just the vulnerable and over 65's like with the flu shot then it will be more targeted, but I expect that the younger/ healthier population won't be getting jabbed every year if it comes to getting a booster.

RavenBea17b

Has anyone seen any update of how vaccines are performing against the Breton variant in France and the variant that has been found in Belgium. - this new one is suspected t be make up over 6% of the new cases found there and does appear to be moving at pace.
I haven't spotted any papers detailing info about it, although if the spike protein is similar to Kent, then fingers crossed, there will be similar efficacy in current vaccines.
With Halix EU use approval - this week (I hope), AZ can delivery the doses that are waiting to be sent out.