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

El Sueño wrote: »

Any source? Link? Video? Anything?

The TV channel's server hasn't the program available yet. I guess they upload the day programs only at the end of the day. The last Sunday's program is available, I will check it again tomorrow and let you know.

At the end of the day if you post nonsense sensationalist claims (such as the above or your previous claim that there wouldn't be a vaccine until 2023) you'll get called out on it.

Well, officially we haven't any vaccine yet.

Uk will have at least another 4million doses of vaccine before year end if this happens. EMA need to pull the finger out!!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9048539/amp/Pretty-high-chance-Oxford-vaccine-rolled-end-year.html

Irish Stones wrote: »

Well, officially we haven't any vaccine yet.

Who's we? 'cos the US and the UK have one now. On the island of Ireland, people are being vaccinated.

The antagonism is getting boring.

Irish Stones wrote: »

I'll check it again tomorrow and if I find the link to the program I will provide it. It'll be in Italian, I think you're good with the language enough to understand it.

I found what I was talking about.
This link takes you to a news article (2 minutes long) from a news program of yesterday at 1pm

https://www.mediasetplay.mediaset.it/video/tg5/vaccini-lobiettivo-e-partire-il-15-gennaio_F310153701390D03

The article begins with the description of the current situation in our country. We have the European record for deaths from Covid, at least we are first in something
Then it says about our vaccination campaign, with the aim (impossible, in my opinion) to give the vaccine to the whole Italian population within September, through 1,500 distribution centres and over 20,000 doctors and nurses involved.
It ends with the words (timecode 1:45) that Sanofi will give us their doses only in 2022 due to a technical issue, accounting for about 20% of the total doses we were waiting for.

The second link is from the program I told you about

https://www.raiplay.it/video/2020/12/Mezzora-in-piu-90745759-d71c-47c0-8fa9-7a65d31f5559.html

It begins with the interview to one our more famous senior doctors, founder of an NGO called Emergency. I am sure you have never heard of it, but over here it's very well known for their commitment to health care to civilians in war-torn countries. He says that he fears that the distribution in poorer countries might be slower and this might affect the success of a world vaccination. He also says that the vaccines will reduce the deaths, but won't stop the virus spreading, so unless the herd immunity is reached, the pandemic won't be stopped. He adds that the AZ vaccine has an efficacy of 62-90% which is too wide a range to be reliable and also has problem at supplying the 40 millions doses we are waiting for.
Further into the program (timecode 10:45), it says about the problems AZ had with the continuity of production, leading to a raise in the shares value when they announced the vaccine, followed by a collapse of the same shares three days later, along with the confusing data on the trials and (timecode 11:16 - 11:48) the not too representative panel of volunteers.
At timecode 13:02 - 13:40 they talk about the problems that AZ and Sanofi had in the production, and how Sanofi has to work again on the vaccine because they're using a protein from the HIV virus which might lead to a positive test for HIV when a person receives this vaccine.

A word of notice, the TV presenter in this program has a strong southern accent, that might sound unintellegible to a non-Italian speaker. The raspy voice of the senior doctor might also be a barrier to the comprehension of what he's saying.

I'm available to further translations, if you're interested.

Hopefully you Irish have the rights to access the links due to geographic and regional copyrights.

Ce he sin wrote: »

I think the poster is referring to the Sanofi/GSK vaccine which has been found in trials to be less effective than hoped for older people and whose rollout will therefore be delayed until it can be reformulated and retested.

Sanofi/ GSK is indeed put back a few months.

AstraZeneca on the other hand is not so posting that both are delayed until 2022 is rubbish as others have pointed out.

AstraZeneca & Oxford will be delayed in the USA but in Europe it looks fine to submit for approval once full phase 3 readouts are completed

Bahrain has also approved the Sinopharm vaccine for general distribution.

Official statement here

Russman wrote: »

Wonder is it fair to assume a similar time gap between interim results and full phase 3 results as Pfizer & Moderna had ? What was it, 2/3 weeks between interim & final for each ?

Yeah about that, all depends on infection levels in the areas where they're testing really.

Hopefully hear something this side of Christmas and then it slots in a few weeks behind Moderna in the EMA timeline fingers crossed

JDD wrote: »

Does anyone know when the Astra Zeneca crowd will be submitting to the EMA for approval? I know they decided to go back and do more testing on the 1 dose + half a dose regime, but any idea when that second round of Phase 3 testing will be complete?

I don't think we're far off EMA approval for Pfizer. Days away really. It's obviously going to take a little longer to approve a vaccine for 26 countries than it is for one, and we all decided that we'd go down the group approval route. I have no particular issue with whatever our regulator is here, but in general I have a higher trust in a Europe-wide approval than I would with an Irish only approval. That may be because the Irish have a lower level of trust in their government institutions then the Brits do, but that's the way I feel.

On AstraZeneca what they published was interim results. They still require phase 3 to complete, that all depends on infections in the test group really.

The second round of phase 3 is really only to benefit the FDA, they won't accept the half dose full dose in its current state and it wasn't a trial ran in the USA.

The BBC seems to hint at April as a date for widespread uptake of the vaccine. I notice RTÉ mention June today. June just seems a really long way off considering the rolling lock downs. Also surely a country as sparsely populated as Ireland can roll it out faster than the UK and it's 70 million people??

I'm assuming once the vulnerable are vaccinated then restrictions will go, what do people think?

cgcsb wrote: »

The BBC seems to hint at April as a date for widespread uptake of the vaccine. I notice RTÉ mention June today. June just seems a really long way off considering the rolling lock downs. Also surely a country as sparsely populated as Ireland can roll it out faster than the UK and it's 70 million people??

I'm assuming once the vulnerable are vaccinated then restrictions will go, what do people think?

What was said was an interview with Martin this morning on rte.

He said enough for priority groups in the early stages with larger volumes arriving March through April, May and June and what they expect is in the May / June period to be fully open.

I don't often agree with what he says but he's probably right on that timeline I'd say.

daydorunrun wrote: »

Quick question on testing-

Is it possible to get a test anomalously? Or is it the case that all details of private testing are being recorded.

Getting a pre Christmas test done but don't want any potential postive result effecting things like health and life insurance as I'm drawing down on a new mortgage in January and one of the questions on the life insurance is 'have you been diagnosed with Covid 19 in the last 6 months.

All tests are anonymous. Neither the HSE nor your GP are entitled to reveal medical details to an insurer without your consent.

Whether you tell the insurer about it, is between you and them. If you have already obtained an insurance policy and paid your first premium you don't have to tell them unless the policy document explicitly says you do.