COVID Vaccine !

[winjim]

Received my first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine today.
Feeling incredibly privileged to have received it well before I otherwise would have been eligible, due to my non-patient facing role in the NHS.

I used to joke that the free flu vaccine was the only tangible 'bonus' of working in public health finance, as opposed to annual cash bonuses often received in the private sector. It's funny how perception can change in the light of a global pandemic, given the incalculable value of comparatively secure employment and a medical 'queue-jump' in these frightening times.

11 weeks until my 'booster'. Expect this will be when my phone picks up my 5G signal.

No side effects as yet. Interested to see if I develop any, as anecdotally the AstraZeneca is said to induce more severe reactions than the Pfizer. I tested positive for anti-bodies in June, so also interested if that may impact on side-effects, if any residue of them remain.

Ha. I had a shocking reaction to the first dose of the AZ vaccine, but my wife just had the Pfizer one and felt awful too. So potato potato.

 

[srw]

as with most assets, nothing lost, until you actually sell.

And nothing gained either, if you take that view. I don't - mark to market is the only sensible way to value a portfolio.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

News today that of the 700,000 doses of vaccine so far handed over to the inept Scottish govt, only 300,000 have been administered. It is reported that 400,000 are still sitting in storage. No wonder Scottish vaccination rates are currently so far behind England’s.

 

[mjr]

News today that of the 700,000 doses of vaccine so far handed over to the inept Scottish govt, only 300,000 have been administered. It is reported that 400,000 are still sitting in storage. No wonder Scottish vaccination rates are currently so far behind England’s.

Whose storage, though? Last week, gov.scot said they did not have all the doses but did have a delivery schedule that would allow them to meet the target. If some has been delivered early, it's easy to see how it could take a while to ramp up to use it sooner, not least getting appointments made or setting up walk-in centres.

 

[lejogger]

AstraZeneca side effects update:

After feeling fine all afternoon and evening I woke up with fever at 2am. Took some ibuprofen and paracetamol but spent most of the remainder of the night either shivering or sweating.
I had a night of very similar fever when I had Covid-19 in March last year - which makes sense, I guess.

Not feeling wonderful today, but keeping dosed up and am able to continue working from home... albeit around browsing Cycle Chat, obviously.

 

[kingrollo]

Quick Question - Is the second dose the same as the first ? (In terms of volume of stuff injected)

 

[kingrollo]

Oh Feck.......
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...zers-vaccine-effective-expected-one-dose.html

Real-world data from Israel's world-beating rollout showed the first dose led to a 33 per cent reduction in cases of coronavirus between 14 and 21 days afterwards among people who got the jab. Another of the country's top doctors said it was 'really good news'.

But the figure is lower than the British regulator's estimate, which said it may prevent 89 per cent of recipients from getting Covid-19 symptoms.

However, Israel's data does not prove anything about possible impacts of the UK's controversial 12-week gap between doses. The country does not give any more than three weeks between the first and second doses, during which time protection is expected to be minimal at best – and the vaccine is not intended to prevent infection, but severe disease and death.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK's chief scientific adviser, today said he would expect all vaccines to be less effective in the real world than in trials. He added that Britain should look 'very carefully' at data during the vaccine rollout to see what effect its having.


Pfizer's own data shows that protection from Covid starts from about 12 days after the first dose, but that one jab can only prevent around 52 per cent of cases of disease, compared to the 95 per cent reduction offered by two. It does not offer any proof that a single dose works for longer than three weeks.

For this reason, the US pharmaceutical company refused to endorse Britain's decision to change the dosing schedule, saying there was no proof it would work.

 

[lejogger]

Quick Question - Is the second dose the same as the first ? (In terms of volume of stuff injected)

I'm not sure. With Pfizer I believe so. With AstraZeneca, I believe there was publicity before approval that they stumbled on a combination which provided greater efficacy when they accidentally dispensed an initial half dose. (Pretty sure it was half then full, but could have been the other way around.)
I forgot to ask whether this approach was actually being adopted or if they were just bunging two full doses into us - which would seem odd if they could provide greater protection using a lower quantity of vaccine.

 

[oldwheels]

News today that of the 700,000 doses of vaccine so far handed over to the inept Scottish govt, only 300,000 have been administered. It is reported that 400,000 are still sitting in storage. No wonder Scottish vaccination rates are currently so far behind England’s.

I think this comes under the category of fake news. Looking at some other social media it appears the Tories are putting out what was kindly described as misleading information regarding Scottish covid vaccinations.

 

[lane]

How many people will need to be vaccinated to stop the disease spreading? This depends on how infectious the viral strain is, how effective the vaccine is, and how much we are prepared to continue with lockdown measures. NB: These model predictions for the success of the vaccination programmes depend (i.e. assume) on the vaccine being able to limit the transmission of the virus – not just stop people getting ill. But we still don’t know (there are insufficient data) if the current batch of approved COVID vaccines stops transmission.

View attachment 569673

Critical vaccination levels depend on the estimated effective reproductive number, with the vaccine efficiency of 90%.
We could continue with very strict social distancing indefinitely, bringing R below 1 so that the number of new infections decreases. In this case, we would not need any vaccination (point marked A on the graph). But the moment control measures were relaxed, R would jump back above 1 and the epidemic would start to spread again.

Or we could continue to combine some level of lockdown with the roll out of vaccines. In this scenario (point marked B on the graph) we would see a decline in cases once 40% of the population were immune to the virus. However, this strategy relies on keeping R just above 1. The disease would probably come back as soon as further relaxation occurred.

As we want to return to our activities and freedoms without social distancing, the vaccination levels need to be much higher, taking into account how effectively the virus can spread with no additional control.

12.5% currently has some level of immunity due to having covid antibodies (previous infection) so 16.5 million vaccinations would get us roughly to 40% some time in March, by which time you are saying we could have some small relaxation and keep R to 1?

 

[Julia9054]

My son (community carer) has finally been told that him and all his colleagues will be getting vaccination appointments in the next 2 weeks

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

I think this comes under the category of fake news. Looking at some other social media it appears the Tories are putting out what was kindly described as misleading information regarding Scottish covid vaccinations.

Sturgeon isn’t denying it, in fact she’s trying to explain it away with talk of complex supply chains.

 

[lane]

Surprised of some of the criteria for allocating the vaccine. NHS non patient facing versus for example teachers?

 

[BoldonLad]

12.5% currently has some level of immunity due to having covid antibodies (previous infection) so 16.5 million vaccinations would get us roughly to 40% some time in March, by which time you are saying we could have some small relaxation and keep R to 1?

I recognise that these figures are not your's, so, not picking at you... but...

I do wonder how they arrived at this number? They have not tested the whole population (or, if they have, they have missed me out), for antibodies, so, as far as I can see, the "best" they can have done is to have tested a sub-set of the population, and then, extrapolated..... in which case, how do we know what the accuracy levels are?

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Whose storage, though? Last week, gov.scot said they did not have all the doses but did have a delivery schedule that would allow them to meet the target. If some has been delivered early, it's easy to see how it could take a while to ramp up to use it sooner, not least getting appointments made or setting up walk-in centres.

An early delivery of 400,000 doses ? Really ?