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

is_that_so

Gael23 wrote: »

I just find it hard to see an end in sight that’s all.

If vaccines are not it what is?

Vaccines are it but not until we get enough people vaccinated. Talking it down is to prevent people thinking that their own vaccination means an instant end of it all.

KrustyUCC

Its not good having the EU not having game changing vaccines either

Real mess of a situation on all sides

is_that_so

markodaly wrote: »

Where we want to get to, Feb 2020...
I do not think we will get there this year, but probably late next year.

Based on what?

Sweet.Science

is_that_so wrote: »

Vaccines are it but not until we get enough people vaccinated. Talking it down is to prevent people thinking that their own vaccination means an instant end of it all.

Thats your opinion a random stranger on the internet . The Taoiseach , Tanaiste and Minister for Health are saying different

Cork2021

Childish on AstraZenecas part

Cork2021

The EU just needs transparency.
It is smelling like AstraZeneca have fuçked up and given a share of vaccines to the uk that was meant for the EU

is_that_so

Sweet.Science wrote: »

Thats your opinion a random stranger on the internet . The Taoiseach , Tanaiste and Minister for Health are saying different

No, they are delivering a message suitable for the public in January 2021. They haven't a clue either, nobody does.

markodaly

is_that_so wrote: »

Based on what?

Based on the world itself, to get to a Feb 2020 type of world,we need the majority of the world vaccinated AND making sure we keep a tab on any varients, which may need some sort of booster.

Do you think the world can vaccinate 70-80% of the 8 Billion people?

Sanjuro

Cork2021 wrote: »

I’ll tell ye all one thing as much as Claire Byrne is a fine women she’s top of my Gowl list lately!

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1354375653068599296?s=21

Well at least we have some consistency of messaging between the Taoiseach, tainiste and minister for health. Would hate to think of the damage to public confidence if they were all giving wildly different and contradictory statements.





/s.

stephenjmcd

Cork2021 wrote: »

Childish on AstraZenecas part

Meh, they've said they're piece, probably not much more to say. They've committed to delivering around what would have been expected for Feb. Bought themselves a bit of time to get March sorted.

To be honest not much more can be done at the moment in my opinion

is_that_so

markodaly wrote: »

Based on the world itself, to get to a Feb 2020 type of world,we need the majority of the world vaccinated AND making sure we keep a tab on any varients, which may need some sort of booster.

Do you think the world can vaccinate 70-80% of the 8 Billion people?

Yes, I do think they can do it. COVID mutates more slowly and boosters are just like the flu jab. TBH it all depends on what damage COVID continues to do. Nobody will care if 50,000 test positive for COVID if it's no worse than a cold.

ceegee

is_that_so wrote: »

They just haven't been brought in on their part yet is the most likely explanation. It's also the media looking for someone else whining about it. There's no obvious need to just yet as we seem to be going week by week.

Pharmacists aren't going to be used to vaccinate the over 70s, no real explanation from the HSE why, presumably it was part of the negotiations with GPs.
Doesn't seem to make sense when GP surgeries are already under pressure.

markodaly

is_that_so wrote: »

Yes, I do think they can do it. COVID mutates more slowly and boosters are just like the flu jab. TBH it all depends on what damage COVID continues to do. Nobody will care if 50,000 test positive for COVID if it's no worse than a cold.

How?

There is just not enough pharma capacity in the world to create the billions of vaccines needed in the next 11 months, there just isn't and to people who think there is, its fantasy.

People still think this is just an Ireland or a EU only problem, it is a worldwide problem, hence the longer game we need to play.

Gael23

is_that_so wrote: »

Yes, I do think they can do it. COVID mutates more slowly and boosters are just like the flu jab. TBH it all depends on what damage COVID continues to do. Nobody will care if 50,000 test positive for COVID if it's no worse than a cold.

That’s not the message I got from the government last night. They want to keep out any possible new variants that the vaccine may not protect against, so having herd immunity is no longer satisfactory.

That’s just my reading

is_that_so

markodaly wrote: »

How?

There is just not enough pharma capacity in the world to create the billions of vaccines needed in the next 11 months, there just isn't and to people who think there is, its fantasy.

People still think this is just an Ireland or a EU only problem, it is a worldwide problem, hence the longer game we need to play.

J&J is a single shot, others will come online, some countries are already working on vaccination programmes. China, India, the US and EU take out a third of the global population. The big problem may well be Africa.

lbj666

ceegee wrote: »

Pharmacists aren't going to be used to vaccinate the over 70s, no real explanation from the HSE why, presumably it was part of the negotiations with GPs.
Doesn't seem to make sense when GP surgeries are already under pressure.

It would help if they knew if the go to vacine is in fact going to be approved for that age group, they probably do but the EMA havent public made their recommendation.

No point annoucing plans for rollout of Astra Zeneca in GP/Pharmacys for 70s, if theres a chance the plan has to be overhaulled.

KrustyUCC

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Meh, they've said they're piece, probably not much more to say. They've committed to delivering around what would have been expected for Feb. Bought themselves a bit of time to get March sorted.

To be honest not much more can be done at the moment in my opinion

Don't think they can get March sorted though

February delivery will be a little short but seems March delivery will be hugely short EU wide

Going to put vaccination programs well behind schedule unfortunately

is_that_so

Gael23 wrote: »

That’s not the message I got from the government last night. They want to keep out any possible new variants that the vaccine may not protect against, so having herd immunity is no longer satisfactory.

That’s just my reading

Variants will be dealt with by boosters. So why are we bothering with vaccination programmes for that purpose if herd immunity is no longer satisfactory?

Gael23

is_that_so wrote: »

Variants will be dealt with by boosters. So why are we bothering with vaccination programmes for that purpose if herd immunity is no longer satisfactory?

The end game of this was originally vaccines but now they are here we are getting tougher and tougher restrictions

dominatinMC

Malcomex wrote: »

There's still uncertainty over new variants

There's also uncertainty that if you cross the street that you might get hit by a bus too. Some posters seem to be grasping to the possibility that the variants will undermine the vaccines. When, in fact, all the evidence thus far shows that the existing vaccines still work

BigMo1

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Meh, they've said they're piece, probably not much more to say. They've committed to delivering around what would have been expected for Feb. Bought themselves a bit of time to get March sorted.

To be honest not much more can be done at the moment in my opinion

They've clearly not given a satisfactory or transparent answer to what has actually happened supply.

Personally, I'm glad The EU aren't letting this lie. People will die because of this mess.

is_that_so

Gael23 wrote: »

The end game of this was originally vaccines but now they are here we are getting tougher and tougher restrictions

For now yeah. We should see signs of these easing a bit next month with the planned return of schools. March & April should also be a better situation once the hospital numbers decline.

dominatinMC

Gael23 wrote: »

The end game of this was originally vaccines but now they are here we are getting tougher and tougher restrictions

Not a direct criticism at you, but this kind of narrative is being posted here on a much too frequent basis. It's fairly straightforward, vaccines are the end game, but in order to ensure a successful vaccine rollout (and hence endgame), tougher restrictions need to be imposed in the interim before herd immunity is reached. This also alleviates the threat of a new variant emerging which could undermine the vaccine. Thankfully, current variants don't do so, but they have served as a warning that one may do so. Having the virus circulating around in an unconstrained manner increases that risk. Temporary restrictions (until herd immunity) reduces that risk. Once herd immuity is reached, normaility resumes.
However I will caveat the above by saying that if other countries do not reach herd immunity, our borders should (and most likely will) remain policed/monitored. But I'd accept that if we could get back to living out lives in this country.

snowcat

Stark wrote: »

Still s possibility EMA might not approve AZ for over-65s this week. Wondering if this is such a bad thing. Under 65s are responsible for the vast majority of virus spread. And while vaccinating over 65s would result in a sharp drop in mortality rates compared to case loads, I have my doubts that we would see an easing of lockdown restrictions if there's still a threat of case numbers rising exponentially. Might be just what we need to actually drive down the spread somewhat and give a bit of breathing space while we continue to try and vaccinated the vulnerable with Pfizer/Moderna. It would be politically impossible to focus on super spreaders first with a full approval.

I was thinking the same. Also the under 65's are the one that put pressure on hospitals. The over 80's unfortunately most dont make it to hospital.

funnydoggy

Waiting for today's vaccine good news

Gile_na_gile

Cork2021 wrote: »

The EU just needs transparency.
It is smelling like AstraZeneca have fuçked up and given a share of vaccines to the uk that was meant for the EU

It was actually reported at the time (Dec 8 2020) in the Irish Times (someone else dug it up in a Reddit thread):
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/supply-of-covid-vaccine-doses-held-up-by-manufacturing-delays-1.4430676

The UK government’s vaccines task force acknowledged that just four million doses of the vaccine developed by Oxford university and AstraZeneca would be delivered this year. And they will all be imported from the Netherlands and Germany as plans for manufacture in England have been beset by delays.


Earlier in the year, the task force had said it envisaged production of 30 million doses in the UK by year-end.


News of the setback came as the UK became the first country to embark on a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign with a fully tested vaccine, with NHS hospitals on Tuesday beginning to administer 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which received regulatory approval last week.
The rollout follows the disclosure that the US pharma company had also been affected by manufacturing difficulties. Pfizer has said the problems are being resolved and BioNTech has insisted that five million Covid-19 vaccines will be delivered to the UK this year.


Eighty million of the 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine ordered by the UK government will be made in Britain.

So for sure, 4million doses were sent over at that time, and a promise was made for a further 20 million. I can see the AZ perspective here as well, in that the EU process was too slow, but it would seem the breach of contract did occur. This is somewhat inevitable, given the size of the EU compared to a single ex member-state. They were not exported for extra profit, but out of impatience and desires to see results on their vaccines that would help it win contracts elsewhere, I would venture.

Gile_na_gile

funnydoggy wrote: »

Waiting for today's vaccine good news

It will be next week, though, according to this statement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-results-idUSKBN29V197

is_that_so

Gile_na_gile wrote: »

It will be next week, though, according to this statement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-results-idUSKBN29V197

That may be the EMA AZ news the poster means. There was a rumour it could be today, a few weeks back.

ACitizenErased

EU believe AZ CEO broke confidentiality agreement in CNBC interview
https://twitter.com/adamparsons/status/1354391182210699266?s=21

stephenjmcd

https://twitter.com/SkyScottBeasley/status/1354390393656324096?s=19