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

Beasty

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No anti-vax stuff in this thread - it's to discuss the various vaccines available and how they are getting rolled out, as well as testing procedures

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Deathofcool

leahyl wrote: »

Did anybody hear/read this, this morning - from RTE website:

"As the roll-out of GP vaccinations of the over 85s gathers pace, the protection given by even one dose of vaccine may already be impacting on the official data.

102,000 vaccine doses were given to residents and staff in nursing homes by Sunday last.

The disease incidence among the over-85s fell 57% last week alone - by far the highest reduction for any age group.

166,000 vaccine doses were also given to healthcare workers and by the end of last week they were accounting for 5% of weekly cases, down from 13% three weeks earlier."

Good news

Great news. Would be supported by this info also

https://twitter.com/Coronavirusgoo1/status/1362343935025295361?s=20

ACitizenErased

Gael23 wrote: »

Concerning news from Pfizer regarding the SA variant

What's the issue if it prevents serious disease? Isn't that the whole point

Cork2021

Good news about the dosing regime for Pfizer. Might speed things up even further especially for younger recipients

https://twitter.com/coronavirusgoo1/status/1362343935025295361?s=21

hynesie08

Gael23 wrote: »

Concerning news from Pfizer regarding the SA variant

Not really

Even if the concerning variant significantly reduces effectiveness, the vaccine should still help protect against severe disease and death, he noted. Health experts have said that is the most important factor in keeping stretched healthcare systems from becoming overwhelmed.

hmmm

Gael23 wrote: »

Concerning news from Pfizer regarding the SA variant

My new favourite person on Twitter (who works for Moderna) posts lots of interesting stuff about variants and vaccines that is both very technical, very accessible and really helps to set the mind at ease.

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1360921398512914442

stephenjmcd

Gael23 wrote: »

Concerning news from Pfizer regarding the SA variant

If your going to come in with a line like that at least provide some background.

Anyway I went off and did a little Google search and got the below.

UTMB professor and study co-author Pei-Yong Shi said he believes the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will likely protect against the variant.

“We don’t know what the minimum neutralising number is. We don’t have that cutoff line,” he said, adding that he suspects the immune response observed is likely to be significantly above where it needs to be to provide protection.

That is because in clinical trials, both the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar shot from Moderna Inc conferred some protection after a single dose with an antibody response lower than the reduced levels caused by the South African variant in the laboratory study.

Not to mention this also on the account linked by hmm

[Url]

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1362180674761986049?s=19

[\url][/url]

stephenjmcd

hmmm wrote: »

My new favourite person on Twitter (who works for Moderna) posts lots of interesting stuff about variants and vaccines that is both very technical, very accessible and really helps to set the mind at ease.

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1360921398512914442

I think it was yourself hmmm that posted that twitter account before and I must say I've found myself looking at it a good bit.
Some excellent insight with a strong focus on T cells.

JP100

Gael23 wrote: »

Concerning news from Pfizer regarding the SA variant

The vaccines will ultimately win this battle but some people just seem to love to continue the doom and gloom around all of this. Weren't you the lad as well who posted in here a day or two ago about an 81 year old woman saying she was told she wouldn't be vaccinated until Easter which simply can't be true either.

[Deleted User]

hynesie08 wrote: »

Not really

And it still produces a significant antibody response. Just less than the massive response against original variant.

Would class this as good news

ACitizenErased

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1362180674761986049?s=20

landofthetree

https://twitter.com/TimesofIsrael/status/1362360850950983680

ACitizenErased

Funny how when you search Pfizer on Google the only news website that appears at the top with the SA story is.... RTE. Shock.

dominatinMC

stephenjmcd wrote: »

If your going to come in with a line like that at least provide some background.

Anyway I went off and did a little Google search and got the below.

UTMB professor and study co-author Pei-Yong Shi said he believes the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will likely protect against the variant.

“We don’t know what the minimum neutralising number is. We don’t have that cutoff line,” he said, adding that he suspects the immune response observed is likely to be significantly above where it needs to be to provide protection.

That is because in clinical trials, both the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar shot from Moderna Inc conferred some protection after a single dose with an antibody response lower than the reduced levels caused by the South African variant in the laboratory study.

Not to mention this also on the account linked by hmm

[Url]
https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1362180674761986049?s=19
[\url][/url]

Key line above. After a few days of relative bliss (i.e. no scaremongering talk of variants), it appears that the media have latched on to this latest study with plenty of clickbait headlines for dramatic effect. It feels like the media are raging against the dying of the light at times

landofthetree

leahyl wrote: »

Did anybody hear/read this, this morning - from RTE website:

"As the roll-out of GP vaccinations of the over 85s gathers pace, the protection given by even one dose of vaccine may already be impacting on the official data.

102,000 vaccine doses were given to residents and staff in nursing homes by Sunday last.

The disease incidence among the over-85s fell 57% last week alone - by far the highest reduction for any age group.

166,000 vaccine doses were also given to healthcare workers and by the end of last week they were accounting for 5% of weekly cases, down from 13% three weeks earlier."

Good news

Pretty much the same as in Israel.

dominatinMC

ACitizenErased wrote: »

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1362180674761986049?s=20

Someone should send this to RTE!

stephenjmcd

landofthetree wrote: »

Pretty much the same as in Israel.

Have also heard from family working in hospitals of some staff testing positive after being in close contact with covid positive paitent for a prolonged period, the staff in question had 1 dose of Pfizer vaccine and were due the 2nd dose, however after testing positive the majority were asymptomatic and their close contacts didn't test positive.

All the information is being fed back into NIAC so it does indeed look like we're beginning to see the impact of vacincation and some proof of reduced transmission and of good efficiency after 1 dose has kicked in.

That's just anecdotally what I've heard, I'd presume there'll be data collected across the country and some sort of report put together on the impact of vaccination so far.

Gile_na_gile

Deleted User wrote: »

And it still produces a significant antibody response. Just less than the massive response against original variant.

Would class this as good news

It depends on whether or WHEN a new booster can be introduced to halt the spread of the SA and Bristol variants (all of which feature the same E484K mutation, I read) as vaccination against vanilla Covid and B.1.1.7 makes an impact. We don't know yet how the mRNAs stack against it in the population but we'll see soon.

The Novavax trial might be a good proxy since it had a similarly high original efficacy, and that was 49.4% efficacy against the SA variant in Phase 2b trials. Perhaps the better vaccines might block some transmission and thus bring R below 1 for that as well.

timsey tiger

Gile_na_gile wrote: »

It depends on whether or WHEN a new booster can be introduced to halt the spread of the SA and Bristol variants (all of which feature the same E484K mutation, I read) as vaccination against vanilla Covid and B.1.1.7 makes an impact. We don't know yet how the mRNAs stack against it in the population but we'll see soon.

The Novavax trial might be a good proxy since it had a similarly high original efficacy, and that was 49.4% efficacy against the SA variant in Phase 2b trials. Perhaps the better vaccines might block some transmission and thus bring R below 1 for that as well.

Seems likely that there won't be a need. Remember that a bit less than fantastic is still very good. AZ may be a different story, but we are awaiting further updates.

Level 42

A few days ago phfizer announced it was great against SA variant now its gone opposite what's going on

ACitizenErased

Level 42 wrote: »

A few days ago phfizer announced it was great against SA variant now its gone opposite what's going on

RTE trying to freak the **** out of old people is what's going on

stephenjmcd

timsey tiger wrote: »

Seems likely that there won't be a need. Remember that a bit less than fantastic is still very good. AZ may be a different story, but we are awaiting further updates.

I remember months ago when the talk was that a vaccine being 60% effienct would be an excellent result, then Pfizer and Moderna came along first and blew it out of the water with results in the 90s.

Now when people see the words reduced efficency they seem to think a vaccine is essentially worthless, as you point out not the case. I think people have seen the bar set high and then when there's a media report on reduced efficiency think that's it game over for that vaccine.

Just goes to show how high the standard that was set, however falling a little below that 90% standard is far from a failure and is still excellent

patrickc

I got my vaccine yesterday.

I got offered it twice this week as it happens!
I am an essential keyworker working with multiple different people in a day.

Gile_na_gile

timsey tiger wrote: »

Seems likely that there won't be a need. Remember that a bit less than fantastic is still very good. AZ may be a different story, but we are awaiting further updates.

We don't really know, to be fair. Perhaps it will then become an endemic mild illness for some of those with vaccination against original covid. Depends on what future potential there is for mutation. Data from Israel, UK, and USA should enlighten us second-movers soon.

[Deleted User]

Why are people talking about rte? It's because you're in Ireland. The Financial Times story is first on my Google Discover thing when I open Chrome on my phone.

hmmm

ACitizenErased wrote: »

RTE trying to freak the **** out of old people is what's going on

It's not enough I think for the media to say that they quoted the findings correctly i.e. "may reduce antibody protection by two-thirds" because most people reading this won't know what that means - it sounds like you're getting only a third of the previous protection. I know they're Reuters/AP reports posted almost verbatim, but I'd have thought the state media would have a responsibility to provide some level of interpretation as they have health & science staff who could vet this stuff.

The reality is that the protection provided by the vaccine was well above the line required, and is a bit lower now - but still above the protection line. "Protection" is a bit of a nebulous term anyway, it could mean you are more likely to still get symptoms but don't get severe disease etc.

Van.Bosch

The daily stats seem to be released later than usual today. I look for these daily now with more joy than the evening cases numbers.

Maybe as vaccines are now due for Monday which was day 1 of GPS, it takes longer to collate.

[Deleted User]

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Funny how when you search Pfizer on Google the only news website that appears at the top with the SA story is.... RTE. Shock.

On my work VPN which is routed through the UK the first result is:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/south-african-covid-variant-may-cut-pfizer-vaccine-protection-by-two-thirds

On my personal device the top result is:

https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0218/1197841-coronavirus-global/

ACitizenErased

Deleted User wrote: »

On my work VPN which is routed through the UK the first result is:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/south-african-covid-variant-may-cut-pfizer-vaccine-protection-by-two-thirds

On my personal device the top result is:

https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0218/1197841-coronavirus-global/

Meanwhile the only Pfizer articles that show when you search the Irish Times, Examiner and Independent:

Pfizer vaccine likely effective against South Africa variant – study
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/pfizer-vaccine-likely-effective-against-south-africa-variant-study-1.4483020

Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine 'extremely effective in the real world'
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-extremely-effective-in-the-real-world-40096894.html

Single Pfizer vaccine dose is highly protective after 21 days, research shows
https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40220210.html

hynesie08

Van.Bosch wrote: »

The daily stats seem to be released later than usual today. I look for these daily now with more joy than the evening cases numbers.

Maybe as vaccines are now due for Monday which was day 1 of GPS, it takes longer to collate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FergalBowers/status/1362353814448336899/photo/1

Data is there.

eagle eye

It'd be great if one dose is enough, we can ramp up vaccinations and be in great shape by the end of May.