COVID-19: Vaccine and testing procedures Megathread Part 2 [Mod Warning - Post #1]

funnydoggy

Forgive me, back in college today after xmas break so my head is fried but how do we know they think AZ sent them to the UK? That video doesn't say it flat out

Frank Bullitt

https://twitter.com/tconnellyRTE/status/1353747726710829058

Seeing as the EU had prefinanced the development of the vaccine, this explains why they are as pissed as they are.

ACitizenErased

funnydoggy wrote: »

Forgive me, back in college today after xmas break so my head is fried but how do we know they think AZ sent them to the UK? That video doesn't say it flat out

its insinuated based on the EU demanding AZ to reveal where they've sent them

Sky King

funnydoggy wrote: »

Forgive me, back in college today after xmas break so my head is fried but how do we know they think AZ sent them to the UK? That video doesn't say it flat out

No, it's the rumour mill in action! But it is a plausible theory.

snotboogie

is_that_so wrote: »

GP/Pharmacy network will be able to deliver 75,000-80,000 a week alone. HSE want to get to 1m a month at some point.

50k per day is 1.5 million per month. Unless we get a single shot vaccine 1 million per month would take us about 8 months to reach herd immunity

Van.Bosch

ACitizenErased wrote: »

its insinuated based on the EU demanding AZ to reveal where they've sent them

Yeah - who else could it be? Is anyone else using AZ?

Can you imagine the scrambling in the AZ legal depts tonight.

NeuralNetwork

Van.Bosch wrote: »

Yeah - who else could it be? Is anyone else using AZ?

Can you imagine the scrambling in the AZ legal depts tonight.

Lots of purchasers of AstraZeneca, but it's also being produced in multiple locations around the world e.g. India.

titan18

We're pretty fecked if our supply with AZ goes to sh1t too. Won't be getting J&J til into q2 most likely so will be limited to Pfizer and Moderns for months.

froog

Gael23 wrote: »

Where will this go of AZ have sold EU vaccines to the UK?

well it's breach of contract on a massive scale. they could be sued for billions i would imagine and maybe other EU market repercussions going forward.

Sky King

titan18 wrote: »

We're pretty fecked if our supply with AZ goes to sh1t too. Won't be getting J&J til into q2 most likely so will be limited to Pfizer and Moderns for months.

I thought they were due to apply in Feb, with approval a couple of weeks after?

ElTel

Can someone post or direct me to a site/picture of the amplification graphs for a typical positive Covid19 PCR test done in an Irish lab and/or Irish hospital please.

I've read that the UK PCR test helped identify the emergence of the new British strain because it was missing an amplification curve for one of the three "bits" of the virus that they amplify.

I know different assays and platforms are used but are we (the world) looking to amplify the same three regions of the virus? TIA.

Gael23

Van.Bosch wrote: »

Yeah - who else could it be? Is anyone else using AZ?

Can you imagine the scrambling in the AZ legal depts tonight.

Hopefully they don’t have a leg to stand on

titan18

Sky King wrote: »

I thought they were due to apply in Feb, with approval a couple of weeks after?

I think a lot of their supply is going to US early. They were saying 100m vaccines for US by April which likely doesn't leave much for us here

Amirani

ElTel wrote: »

I've read that the UK PCR test helped identify the emergence of the new British strain because it was missing an amplification curve for one of the three "bits" of the virus that they amplify.

My understanding is that the UK has been doing genomic sequencing on a large scale throughout the pandemic independently to PCR testing; this it what is identifying variants. I think I read they were sampling about 10% of positives.

Edit - See here: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55413666

is_that_so

snotboogie wrote: »

50k per day is 1.5 million per month. Unless we get a single shot vaccine 1 million per month would take us about 8 months to reach herd immunity

Yeah, September is now pencilled in for those who want it, for 2 shots. BTW the adult population is 4,000,000 or so.

MerlinSouthDub

Yevon wrote: »

Am I being naive or is it unlikely that AZ have sent the supply elsewhere? It would mean that they have purposely breached the supply agreement of the most eagerly awaited vaccine in a pandemic with the eyes of the world on them. They would then need to have lied about yield issues, presumably factory operators etc would be able to debunk that if it wasnt true. They would be well aware of the absolute **** storm this news would generate, particularly after the Pfizer news.

And for what benefit?

I think its more likely that the yield issues are real. That the EU are loading on as much pressure of any sort they can in the hope that the company will pull out all the stops to cover the shortfall.

Well, we don't know. But it seems AZ were asked to explain the situation and were unable to do so, and that is why the EU are suspicious.

brickster69

Yevon wrote: »

Am I being naive or is it unlikely that AZ have sent the supply elsewhere? It would mean that they have purposely breached the supply agreement of the most eagerly awaited vaccine in a pandemic with the eyes of the world on them. They would then need to have lied about yield issues, presumably factory operators etc would be able to debunk that if it wasnt true. They would be well aware of the absolute **** storm this news would generate, particularly after the Pfizer news.

And for what benefit?

I think its more likely that the yield issues are real. That the EU are loading on as much pressure of any sort they can in the hope that the company will pull out all the stops to cover the shortfall.

Would it not be quicker to call the company in Belgium direct and ask them what the hold up is ?

ElTel

Amirani wrote: »

My understanding is that the UK has been doing genomic sequencing on a large scale throughout the pandemic independently to PCR testing; this it what is identifying variants. I think I read they were sampling about 10% of positives.

Edit - See here: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55413666

Yes. They're top of the class wrt genomic testing. It's the PCR stuff I'd like to find out about.

CIARAN_BOYLE

brickster69 wrote: »

Would it not be quicker to call the company in Belgium direct and ask them what the hold up is ?

They did have a call today and Astra Zenaca didnt give a reasonable answer. Theres another call tonight.

CIARAN_BOYLE

MattS1 wrote: »

What time is the press conference today?

Scheduled for 6:30pm

Amirani

Amirani wrote: »

My understanding is that the UK has been doing genomic sequencing on a large scale throughout the pandemic independently to PCR testing; this it what is identifying variants. I think I read they were sampling about 10% of positives.

Edit - See here: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55413666

They have been doing as much as 15% sequencing but in addition to that they were able to estimate by proxy the prevalence of the variant by looking at S gene dropout on the PCR tests that can do that.

Dempo1

What am I'm missing here, the EU having a tantrum with a vaccine company who they haven't even approved said companies vaccine?

They are also questioning why there's a possibility of less said vaccine being made available and very cross said company may have been naughty by supplying said vaccine to countries who have ACTUALLY APPROVED said vaccine?

This is just Bizzare, whatever about what's been promised I find it hard to believe said company would not start supplying those countries who want it and have approved it.

nommm

Dempo1 wrote: »

What am I'm missing here, the EU having a tantrum with a vaccine company who they haven't even approved said companies vaccine?

They are also questioning why there's a possibility of less said vaccine being made available and very cross said company may have been naughty by supplying said vaccine to countries who have ACTUALLY APPROVED said vaccine?

This is just Bizzare, whatever about what's been promised I find it hard to believe said company would not start supplying those countries who want it and have approved it.

The problem is that the EU paid AZ a load of money to secure a stockpile of vaccines prior to approval, AZ accepted this money. The production of these vaccines was funded by the EU so if the vaccines have found themselves to another country, it is a breach of contract.

Water John

I think Portugal genome sequences all postives.

snotboogie

Yevon wrote: »

Am I being naive or is it unlikely that AZ have sent the supply elsewhere? It would mean that they have purposely breached the supply agreement of the most eagerly awaited vaccine in a pandemic with the eyes of the world on them. They would then need to have lied about yield issues, presumably factory operators etc would be able to debunk that if it wasnt true. They would be well aware of the absolute **** storm this news would generate, particularly after the Pfizer news.

And for what benefit?

I think its more likely that the yield issues are real. That the EU are loading on as much pressure of any sort they can in the hope that the company will pull out all the stops to cover the shortfall.

Seems like there is a supply issue with the EU plant but the EU is taking all of the hit for this. Given the vaccine is safe and easy to transport and the fact the EU funded the development to the tune of hundreds of millions of Euro, I can see why the EU are so annoyed.

NeuralNetwork

When you look back at the kind of crazy market place that was going on for PPE a few months ago, I wouldn't rule anything out.

JacksonHeightsOwn

nommm wrote: »

The problem is that the EU paid AZ a load of money to secure a stockpile of vaccines prior to approval, AZ accepted this money. The production of these vaccines was funded by the EU so if the vaccines have found themselves to another country, it is a breach of contract.

Did the brits not basically fund the whole Oxford vaccine, no?

jackboy

Yevon wrote: »

I think its more likely that the yield issues are real. That the EU are loading on as much pressure of any sort they can in the hope that the company will pull out all the stops to cover the shortfall.

Yeah likely yield issues are real. If they don’t want to give more details there may be a reason for that like maybe they are having quality issues at their manufacturing sites. They may not want regulatory agencies descending on their sites, looking at everything, including their other products.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Dempo1 wrote: »

What am I'm missing here, the EU having a tantrum with a vaccine company who they haven't even approved said companies vaccine?

They are also questioning why there's a possibility of less said vaccine being made available and very cross said company may have been naughty by supplying said vaccine to countries who have ACTUALLY APPROVED said vaccine?

This is just Bizzare, whatever about what's been promised I find it hard to believe said company would not start supplying those countries who want it and have approved it.

The EU paid half the total cost for every dose they ordered of this vaccine back in August.

Astra Zenaca and the EU agreed a schedule for delivery at that time. If approval was delayed Astra Zenaca would build up a stockpile of doses and begin an expedited schedule of delivery after approval.

NeuralNetwork

chrisbonnie wrote: »

Did the brits not basically fund the whole Oxford vaccine, no?

They put about £65.5 million towards the R&D
The EU put about €336 million as a downpayment which was intended to fund R&D etc.