COVID-19: Vaccine/antidote and testing procedures Megathread [Mod Warning - Post #1]

Russman wrote: »

Not many (any ?) GPs would have the facility to store the Pfizer vaccine though. I know it can last a bit of time in normal refrigeration but i think it’s dicey to get GPs involved in that one. They’d be much better suited to AZ/Oxford if it comes through imo.
Actually getting it to GPs could be an issue too - doses will be rationed and probably most surgeries might only get, I dunno, 50 doses or something, that’s a lot of couriers heading around the country with specialised containers. Plus adding 50 visits, before the vaccine expires, on top of their normal patients, might not be doable. Lots of smaller practices in residential areas with little parking - could be a nightmare.
It’s of course doable but there’s a lot to plan and think about. I think the Pfizer one is more suited to mass vaccination hubs and let a few vans with specialist teams visit all the care homes.

I suppose it’s a good problem to have though !

Not suggesting GPs should be involved in anything except referring their high risk patients ..I think you have misread my posts .

Russman wrote: »

Thanks,

Ohh I know there are other groups etc., I just wanted to get an idea of the numbers.

I belive it might be 31k in nursing homes.

25k in private nursing homes and 6k in public nursing homes or viceversa.

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Small piece on the vaccine task force in the Independent today essentially the job of MacCraith is to make sure the HSE and dept of health don't make a mess.

"Former DCU president Professor Brian MacCraith will convene a meeting of the Government's vaccine task force this week and told RTÉ yesterday a strategy for inoculation will be dealt with "urgently and comprehensively".

One senior government figure sees Prof MacCraith's role as keeping the HSE and the Department of Health on their toes. Another insider involved in many of the key discussions taking place in recent weeks optimistically predicts: "This will be all over by the summer. We'll be talking about something else."

Will the HSE take any notice of him though? They may treat him with the same disdain as they do the government. At the end of the day there will be no consequences for the HSE if there are issues but MacCraith will be hung out to dry.

Why is everyonme here so sure about the Pfizer vaccine?
Pfizer is the second-largest drug and biotech company in the world and the fourth-highest earner of vaccine revenues. It has seen a 7% increase in its share value this year. However, though it claims to be a standard-bearer for “quality, safety and value,” it has a corporate rap sheet a mile long, routinely mired in controversies involving alleged price-fixing, bribery, kickbacks, tax avoidance, regulatory misdirection and other unsavory practices and it has also repeatedly paid fines for environmental violations at its research and manufacturing plants.
It had to pay the largest-ever criminal fine at the time — $2.3 billion — for fraudulent and illegal promotion of four drugs in 2009
In 2016, British regulators levied a 106 million dollar fine for gross overcharging on its anti epilepsy drug which was responsible for a one year / one drug 60 million dollar national health service increased spend.
Have we forgotten 2009 and the swine flu vaccine swindle? And let´s not forget the 700 plus (30 in Ireland) young people who acquired life long narcolepsy. Dr Holohan was in charge then too.

jackboy wrote: »

Will the HSE take any notice of him though? They may treat him with the same disdain as they do the government. At the end of the day there will be no consequences for the HSE if there are issues but MacCraith will be hung out to dry.

MacCraith hugely revered in education anyway for his contributions and leadership even beyond education...

A bit more about him...

https://www.dcu.ie/president/presidents-office-professor-brian-maccraith

He’s very much a ‘can do, will do’ guy. His name as reverberates in DCU is extremely positive amongst students, and staff alike.

Miike wrote: »

70-80k nurses. 20-25k doctors. NHI claim there is 25k nursing home residents.

Now what about the people who are at home not included in those numbers plus all the other healthcare workers

I imagine they’ll have to prioritise certain types of healthcare workers. From what has happened to date I imagine people working in any capacity in a nursing home will need to be first in line.

froog wrote: »

i'm sure he's great at what we does but what does he know about managing a large scale vaccination program?

Who does though? We haven't had anything like this in the country for a long time.

We need someone who can get things done, is not afraid to make decisions and will call out people and government if they are getting in the way. They also need to have a thick skin because you're inevitably going to have people complaining.

hmmm wrote: »

Who does though? We haven't had anything like this in the country for a long time.

We need someone who can get things done, is not afraid to make decisions and will call out people and government if they are getting in the way. They also need to have a thick skin because you're inevitably going to have people complaining.

Strumms wrote: »

What does anybody know about it though? We are not sitting on a fountain of knowledge regarding this pandemic. He’ll have access to the greatest medical, logistical and wellness minds out there... he’s a majorly intelligent dude with the ability to lead. He has connections everywhere...

as has been noted a few times, this is a logistics exercise. someone with high level logistics experience for example would be a good bet. i'm just not sure what the point of putting a university president as the lead is.

Deleted User wrote: »

The main thing we need to sort in the next week is can we store it if we get it? You can figure out it's distribution after that but we need to be sure as supplies are made available to us that we can take them and have somewhere to keep them as the roll-out plan kicks into gear.

It'd be shameful if Pfizer said we have 200 cases, 1,000 doses each ready for ye and we weren't able to take them off their hands straight away.

Just going back and checking that WSJ article that was posted previously, it seems the dimensions of the storage boxes is 15.7” x 15.7” x 22” and each one can hold 5,000 doses. I’ve no idea how big a freezer capable of the low temperatures actually is, but 50 of those boxes doesn’t seem too burdensome. God help us if it is !

For the Pfizer vaccine you need only dry ice storage and not all that much of it, there are at least three companies (in Ireland) on the first page of google results alone. You can even by dry ice from an online shop for household use. One of the companies has also Pfizer as a customer listed.

The US announced today they plan to start vaccinations on December 12th.

I don't see many "vaccines won't end the pandemic" articles anymore.

I take it the general consensus is that vaccines will provide a return to normality in the next 12 months?

And once vaccinated people start pushing for the ability to go on holiday without testing, or go to events, and once the absolutely inevitable "you can only go to this event if vaccinated" stories start hitting the press, there will be a completely unstoppable push to get back to normality and over 2021, Covid will slowly fade out of the news... perhaps with the occasional cluster here and there which gets sorted quickly.