Vaccine Megathread - See OP for threadbans

eoinbn wrote: »

As I said in the post that you replied to - the UK were claiming .2 per 1,000,000 and now it could be as high as 10 per 1,000,000. We just don't know yet. The information is filtering in.
We also don't know the breakdown of who has got the 6.7m J&J doses. How many were in the low/no risk groups for the clotting issue(older age groups).

The sample size is 6.8 million, more than enough to extrapolate from, so yes we do know.

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Maybe they can develop a method of predicting who will be at risk of blood clots.

The scientists seem to be zeroing in upon the AZ clotting resulting from an immune system response that triggers a massive effect on Platelet Factor 4. This appears to be a syndrome that is similar to a known condition called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT).

As to how they could predict the likelihood of one person in a general population being a likely candidate for this HIT-like effect, I suspect that, once again, scientists in the field will now be working flat out on that.

The positive on this is that, as greater attention is now being directed at the syndrome, clinical treatment may now focus earlier on ppl who are assessed to have developed a low platelet count and treat them before the clotting occurs.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Had we just gone by age pretty much every 65+ person would have had a first shot by now. Major missed opportunity. But even with the lower proportion done we've seen the effects on deaths and hospitalisations.

I agree to a point. But the ICU nurses etc who are deep in the worst of it all everyday, always needed to be first. Then it should have gone by age. Much simpler rollout that way. Instead you have consultants pulling lists of patients, GPs pulling lists etc.

As an example I’ve been just invited for another jab as there is no clear communication or method of tracking in the HSE...

Turtwig wrote: »

Cases take time to present, be reported and officially identified. Your sample size is not 6.8 million (yet). There is considerable uncertainty in the detection rates. The incidence level is far too low to confidently extrapolate from.

We need more time and study of data. Hence what the EMA asked for.

The FDA is using 6 in 6.8 to make decisions.

ddarcy wrote: »

It’s literally a supply and demand problem. The HSE has halted everything until next week at the MVCs (or so it seems). So they’re trying to figure things out on that end.

But I’m sure cohort 4 who are going though GPs that were always going to get Pfizer/ Moderna, nothing has changed for them.

Cohort 4 were going to be getting AZ including those being done at their GP.

Deleted User wrote: »

Meanwhile there’ll be people screaming to stay locked down while we wait and see whether these blood clots affect 1 in a million or 4/5 in a million.

This is it. We'd need to see 30 odd or so more serious cases in the US before it even reaches the level of AZ numbers.

Necronomicon wrote: »

I've been chewing my nails wondering when he was going to get the call. Well, we found out this morning (on my birthday, no less!) that he's getting his first shot today! I've been hoping beyond hope that he'll get to see his granddaughter on her first birthday in late May, and now it doesn't feel like a pipe dream anymore.

Great news and happy birthday to you!!

bucketybuck wrote: »

It highlights a problem with our governments approach since the very start, they completely ignored the human element in all this.

The young people of this country have been treated disgracefully in this past year, they had everything taken away from them while never being treated as anything more than collateral damage. Their jobs, their education and their chances all taken away and then told to stop whining and "hold firm".

Now they are being told to take a vaccine that possibly could kill them to protect against a virus that doesn't hurt them, all to protect people that did nothing for them. And we wonder why they may have stopped giving a damn?

I'm not young and I'll have my vaccine in the next few weeks, but I can completely see how extremely poor messaging and communication this past year has led to a situation where a lot of people may no longer care how selfish they are or are not.

The people who may "no longer care how selfish they are or not" can't blame the gubbermint actions or messaging on Covid for making them selfish as you suggest. I have not seen a single case in my own circle of young people of said 'selfishness' beyond the normal attitudes that people had pre-Covid. Rather, I have seen huge evidence in that circle, of concern for their Grannies, Parents, Neighbours that is born out of fear of losing them to Covid. Granted, as is likely in youth, some precautions slip, particularly when peer- pressure is involved, but I lay that at the proclivities of youth rather than a change of attitude to one of selfishness.

We all need to keep in mind that all this upheaval results from a runaway pathogen rather than from Government action. The whole thing is mind-blowing in terms of its potential as understood a year ago, and I believe we have navigated as best we can through the white water rapids thar are Covid- we have navigated as well or better than many other countries, and have focused on saving lives above all else. I think that, as a nation, we ought to be proud of that!

When history comes to be written, Ireland will be seen to have done its best to protect life and limb in dreadfully uncertain times, and we ought to take some pride from that.

ACitizenErased wrote: »

In good vaccine news:
https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1382148098743529479?s=20

Hilarious, the pro lockdown merchants getting their cage’s rattled banging on their keyboards in response to the tweet. Maybe they have been listening to Claire Byrne’ s lurve chats with Mc Conkey too much on the radio. :pac:

SusanC10 wrote: »

https://reut.rs/3abFpDN

"The EU Commission has decided not to renew COVID-19 vaccine contracts next year with companies such as Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Italian daily La Stampa reported on Wednesday citing a source from the Italian Health Ministry."

And the Pfizer price is 60% higher in the new contract.

Different European countries have implemented different cut-off points for the AZ vaccine: 30, 40, 50 and 60. Surely they can't all be right: and arguably out of the 4 are wrong, although the cut-off age may depend on the prevalence of the disease.

Also, it would appear that the clotting risk is much greater for women than for men. If for men the risk is < then 1 per million, then is there a case for confining the age-restriction to women? It need not need to a significant delay for women, just a re-juggling of the queues in the larger mass-vaccination centres. Or are we traumatised at being accused of gender discrimination?

ACitizenErased wrote: »

The sample size is 6.8 million, more than enough to extrapolate from, so yes we do know.

J&J has only been administered for the last 5 weeks in the USA. You can't be definitive based on 5 weeks of data.