Novavax and the lack of Vaccine Choice

Funny stuff. You'd sometimes think it was a soft drink choice, Coke vs Pepsi, Sprite vs 7up...now Pfizer vs Novovax.

Might be a while before there are hundreds of millions of Novovax doses in the EU sitting on the shelf waiting for toddler-citizens of our nanny states to make their informed consumer choice. Your chosen vaccine is temporarily out of stock. Please don't scream and shout at the cashier and make a scene.

To expect to get a choice of vaccine (even extending to ones like Novavax, or perhaps Sputnik or Sinopharm etc that I remember other posters looking for) is a bit much. It is not a normal situation & these vaccines are not consumer products. I think we are quite fortunate to have any of them available in large quantities let alone a choice. The government not being able to give a choice of vaccine to people is not dictating IMO, particularly in case of Novavax (what started the thread) as it is not approved yet and has not been produced at scale.

Congrats on getting the vaccine (and you did sort of get a [more limited] choice in any case).

edit: I haven't been following it lately, but last I read there was no agreement between the EU and Novavax, seemed to be questions as to whether the very large quantities the EU would order (multiple hundreds of millions of doses, like the other orders) could be produced. I searched, and see there was an agreement made fairly recently - only this month https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_4061 and it is smaller, for 200m doses.

edit again: Novavax, not Nov'o'vax...

Less than 25% of the world population is fully vaccinated. With this in mind why would choice of vaccine even be rational....get what's offered, dont become a Google educated scientist.

This thread started with Novavax, but very valid points were made against that option, the reality is there are other options available for vaccines in the country, which could be potentially wasted, the system is already in place for distribution via pharmacies.

Got my Janssen jab a few hours behind you, should we be feeling guilty for being self entitled ##*!s who took vaccines that would probably have otherwise been binned, while people argue against using these vaccines to avoid waste?

There is a blind faith out there that this thing is black & white, with right & wrong answers. We are adults, we are given disclaimers to sign before taking these vaccines, where we acknowledge the risks.

The public policy to open Janssen vaccines up only to over 50's appears to be a direct copy of German policy, Germany subsequently opened it up to all age groups. The narrative here was that it was going to be difficult to get rid of these vaccines, so the option for younger age groups to skip the queue was given if they take Janssen/AZ, I haven't seen any science to back the reasoning for this up, if anything it appears to be riskier for younger people.

As an "amatuer google scientist" I found this "wierdo" conspiracy site outlining the risks of Janssen:

https://www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/covid-19-vaccine/janssen/side-effects/

I am a lot more comfortable taking a 1 in 3 million risk than risking an mRNA vaccine.

I just want to thank you for quoting that post before the edit @Danno :)

I don't have evidence that mRNA vaccines are more dangerous & never suggested they were. We are living in uncertain times, working with vaccines which haven't been fully tested, but have been allowed under emergency authorisation. I have a fundamental mistrust of anybody that can tell me with certainty that a particular vaccine is 100% safe, if that was the case there would be no need to sign a disclaimer. Credible scientists tend to deal with probability rather than certainty. That National Geographic article builds on a history of other vaccines, none of which are mRNA based.

I don't feel comfortable using an mRNA vaccine, I feel much more comfortable taking a vaccine which uses an older technology that has been used on the public over extended periods of time. I don't think anybody will really know what the best option is until years to come & we have the benefit of hindsight (but hey, that's just a misinformed rant from an inflated sense of my own knowledge).

I wouldn't have got a vaccine only for coming across this thread, there are other people in the same boat who weren't so lucky. I think it's poor form by the government, Janssen is one of the easiest vaccines to store, saying they couldn't distribute them is the equivalent to saying they couldn't deliver milk to a few shops around the country. They have made a conscious choice to not count the vaccines, to quote the Irish Times article "Sources working in the vaccination centres who spoke to The Irish Times said that in some centres there are vials which could provide more than 2,500 jabs if they were used.", if that's in some centres, I dread to think what the total figure is.

In the best case for government each of those doses will be replaced by an mRNA dose & not available for other less fortunate countries, in the worst case, each of those doses could potentially vaccinate a person who would otherwise refuse a vaccine. This is a failure of government in my opinion & a victory for the anti-vaxxers.

Ah that great we will have a medal ceremony for you Sunday morning at 6.30am at the back gate if Croke Park

I can’t comment on your choice of vaccine, but to answer your question, yes this is different, closer to a “traditional” type although not exactly the same. More here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/20/approval-new-covid-jab-germany-unvaccinated-novavax-nuvaxovid

This is good news for those who can’t take mRNA for medical reasons. the fact the govt isn’t providing an alternative to those people is scandalous.

There will always be those who choose not to get it. Their choice, IMO.

And speaking of choice, more choice in vaccines is a good thing, it reduces mistrust in the system. There’s a fair few people I’ve met who are questioning if Pfizer are running our country now since that’s all we seem to have on order (while we use remaining stock of Moderna). More variety means people feel more in control of their choices. The less reason to make up conspiracy theories, the better.

This is good news for those who can’t take mRNA for medical reasons. the fact the govt isn’t providing an alternative to those people is scandalous.

Genuine question, who cannot take mRNA vaccines for medical reasons? I'm not aware of any significant exclusions?