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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll


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The bottom line is that the risk of Covid out weighs the risk of getting a blood clot from the vaccine and there is no evidence that the clots are linked to the vaccine. From what I understand, the AZ is a good and an effective vaccine against covid.

From what I can see from the EU, it a simple case of sour grapes.
 
While I kind of agree with your sentiments, Canada isn't in the EU and they haven't even had any instances of blood clotting, but they've still suspended it anyway...
 
I have some rather amazing news, and news that could really impact the vaccine rollouts worldwide; Pfizer-BioNTech have today announced results from a trial in 2,300 12-15 year olds in the US (the vaccine is currently only approved for 16+), and believe it or not, the vaccine was 100% effective in 12-15 year olds. Yes, you did read that right; completely effective! Not a single teen in the vaccine group caught COVID-19, compared to 18 in the placebo group. It is also worth noting that the antibody response was found to be noticeably stronger in younger people than in older adults aged 16-25.

They are now applying to the FDA to get the age limit for the Pfizer vaccine lowered to 12.

Could we potentially see something similar happening in Britain so that we can start vaccinating secondary school age children? I think this would be a great idea, and it would certainly stop the disease in its tracks even more than currently, and would really leave very limited potential for spread indeed, as it’s always been said that pre-adolescent children don’t really catch & spread COVID as effectively!

What do you guys think?
EDIT: Forgot the source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-effective-teens-478688
 
I have some rather amazing news, and news that could really impact the vaccine rollouts worldwide; Pfizer-BioNTech have today announced results from a trial in 2,300 12-15 year olds in the US (the vaccine is currently only approved for 16+), and believe it or not, the vaccine was 100% effective in 12-15 year olds. Yes, you did read that right; completely effective! Not a single teen in the vaccine group caught COVID-19, compared to 18 in the placebo group.

They are now applying to the FDA to get the age limit for the Pfizer vaccine lowered to 12.

Could we potentially see something similar happening in Britain so that we can start vaccinating secondary school age children? I think this would be a great idea, and it would certainly stop the disease in its tracks even more than currently, and would really leave very limited potential for spread indeed, as it’s always been said that pre-adolescent children don’t really catch & spread COVID as effectively!

What do you guys think?
EDIT: Forgot the source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-effective-teens-478688
My first idea was "they should start doing Covid vaccinations in the gym like they do with the polio and tetanus jabs". The fact that it's the Pfizer vaccine and it needs to be stored at -70C is a bit of a problem. They could do school trips to the local hospital though.
 
My first idea was "they should start doing Covid vaccinations in the gym like they do with the polio and tetanus jabs". The fact that it's the Pfizer vaccine and it needs to be stored at -70C is a bit of a problem. They could do school trips to the local hospital though.
That'd be an interesting permission slip. :p
 
My first idea was "they should start doing Covid vaccinations in the gym like they do with the polio and tetanus jabs. The fact that it's the Pfizer vaccine and it needs to be stored at -70 is a bit of a problem. They could do school trips to the local hospital though.
There might also be some way to do portable freezers, though; I’d assume that some of the local GP-based sites initially administering Pfizer in the early stages of the vaccine rollout certainly don’t have deep freezers under normal circumstances, so I don’t see why they couldn’t set something up in your average sports hall or drama studio like they often do for other vaccinations already performed in school. For example, I had my HPV vaccine at school in Year 9, and girls are given the cervical cancer vaccine at some stage.
 
There might also be some way to do portable freezers, though; I’d assume that some of the local GP-based sites initially administering Pfizer in the early stages of the vaccine rollout certainly don’t have deep freezers under normal circumstances, so I don’t see why they couldn’t set something up in your average sports hall or drama studio like they often do for other vaccinations already performed in school. For example, I had my HPV vaccine at school in Year 9, and girls are given the cervical cancer vaccine at some stage.
Yeah, that may work. The current schedule for teenagers includes the HPV vaccine in year 8 (which also does cervical cancer - this was girls only when we were in that year but it is now both genders), at year 9 they do the 3-in-1 teenage booster for tetanus, diptheria and polio as well as the MenACWY vaccine. If they added Covid to the childhood vaccination program then I presume it would be in year 8 as they are already injecting both arms in year 9.
 
Yeah, that may work. The current schedule for teenagers includes the HPV vaccine in year 8 (which also does cervical cancer - this was girls only when we were in that year but it is now both genders), at year 9 they do the 3-in-1 teenage booster for tetanus, diptheria and polio as well as the MenACWY vaccine. If they added Covid to the childhood vaccination program then I presume it would be in year 8 as they are already injecting both arms in year 9.
Ah, I clearly didn’t have the HPV jab in Year 8, then, as I only ever remember having one set of jabs in Year 9, and I think it may have been the 3-in-1 booster and the MenACWY vaccine in hindsight!

Year 8 would probably be a logical time to do COVID vaccines, but wouldn’t they surely want to do all schoolchildren? So anyone over 12 right through to Year 11 (or 13, if the 12s & 13s haven’t already been vaccinated through being in Group 6). Schools are said to be quite a strong vector for transmission, so if the vaccine is 100% effective in 12-15 year olds, surely they want to stop those transmission vectors right in their tracks?

I did see a suggestion that schoolchildren may get vaccinated over the summer holidays prior to the new school year; by then, other vaccine makers such as Moderna and AstraZeneca may well have reported results in adolescents and children, bolstering the potential vaccine lineup for school students even more.
 
Ah, I clearly didn’t have the HPV jab in Year 8, then, as I only ever remember having one set of jabs in Year 9, and I think it may have been the 3-in-1 booster and the MenACWY vaccine in hindsight!

Year 8 would probably be a logical time to do COVID vaccines, but wouldn’t they surely want to do all schoolchildren at that point? So anyone over 12 right through to Year 11 (or 13, if the 12s & 13s haven’t already been vaccinated through being in Group 6).
For now they will want to do everyone they can but I would assume that from next year onwards they would want to deal with the next year of students as it comes because they wouldn't want to risk a drop in immunity if a small amount of Covid survives, there have been cases in recent years where outbreaks of measles and mumps have occurred due to low immunity in children.
 
For now they will want to do everyone they can but I would assume that from next year onwards they would want to deal with the next year of students as it comes.
I know that other vaccine makers are going even younger; AstraZeneca is running a trial on 6-17 year olds, and I know that Pfizer has now started a new trial on children as young as 6 months, so the COVID jab could well become a childhood jab like the MMR vaccine and the measles vaccine, which some scientists have suggested could provide them with lifelong immunity from COVID in a similar manner to what the MMR jab and the measles jab do.
 
I suggested earlier that having three simultaneous vaccines might be too much, I've just checked the NHS calender and they give four vaccines at 1 year so giving the Covid vaccine at the same time as other vaccines shouldn't be a problem.
 
I checked the website too, and it turns out that since you and I were in Year 8 (2015/2016, assuming you’re currently in Year 13, like me?), the advice changed so that boys are now offered the HPV vaccine as well as girls; this was only changed in July 2018, and the first year that boys were offered the HPV jab as well as girls was 2019!

It says that us older boys don’t need it, though, as we’re well protected due to the girls getting HPV jabs for the past 10 years.

A random off-topic tangent, I know, but an interesting thing I discovered nonetheless!
 
So I had my second Pfizer vaccine around 2 weeks ago and had quite a bad reaction to it afterwards.

A week ago I had a new reaction.... feeling like my skin is burning around the injection site, arm, upper chest, neck and shoulders. GP is wondering if the vaccine has done something to the nerves in that region. Looking at the Yellow Card list of side effects so far I can see I’m not alone with this complaint.

Its pretty uncomfortable to say the least feeling that parts of your skin are burning but with nothing to see on the skin.

Anyone else experienced this since having the vaccine?
 
So I had my second Pfizer vaccine around 2 weeks ago and had quite a bad reaction to it afterwards.

A week ago I had a new reaction.... feeling like my skin is burning around the injection site, arm, upper chest, neck and shoulders. GP is wondering if the vaccine has done something to the nerves in that region. Looking at the Yellow Card list of side effects so far I can see I’m not alone with this complaint.

Its pretty uncomfortable to say the least feeling that parts of your skin are burning but with nothing to see on the skin.

Anyone else experienced this since having the vaccine?
Interesting... when I had my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Saturday, the arm pain caused by my jab felt more like muscular pain than burning; the best way I can think of to describe it is that it felt kind of like when you crick your neck, but if the sensation was moved to your arm. It really was very sore whenever I moved it for a day or two, and my arm felt really very heavy and painful to move. I also felt generally quite achy and tired the day after having it, although this seems quite normal. My side effects cleared up very quickly, though, and I was back to normal 2-3 days after having it.

In terms of your reaction, Gary; that does sound rather strange. How long has it been bothering you for? If it’s only been around for a short period of time, then it’s probably nothing to worry about, but if it persists or gets worse, then I’d say it might potentially be worth seeing someone about.
 
Interesting... when I had my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Saturday, the arm pain caused by my jab felt more like muscular pain than burning; the best way I can think of to describe it is that it felt kind of like when you crick your neck, but if the sensation was moved to your arm. It really was very sore whenever I moved it for a day or two, and my arm felt really very heavy and painful to move. I also felt generally quite achy and tired the day after having it, although this seems quite normal. My side effects cleared up very quickly, though, and I was back to normal 2-3 days after having it.
My arm was exactly the same after I had my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, Matt. Hurt slightly when I stretched/moved it, which wasn't exactly ideal when I often have to do a lot of moving stuff around with my arms & hands at work! :p Wasn't a major problem, thankfully.
 
Yeah, mine’s completely cleared up now. I’m interested to see whether the second dose causes anything, as many have said that the side effects are often more pronounced for the second dose...
 
I’ve got more good news for you all this evening; a US study into the immune response to COVID-19 has concluded that T cells generated by previous infection or vaccination can still generate protection against variants, even the much dreaded E484K variants (South Africa, Brazil etc.), even where antibodies do not: https://apple.news/A_ijd4HrAQ3ibCPHP1sdXkA

This means that even if you may still be able to get reinfected with a new COVID variant if you’ve had previous infection or been vaccinated due to a lack of antibodies (and that’s a big if), the T cells will likely stop you from getting severe disease, and mean that you will have far milder disease than you did the first time around.

I think this is fantastic news, and may well substantially reduce the feared impact of new variants! What do you guys think?
 
I’ve got more good news for you all this evening; a US study into the immune response to COVID-19 has concluded that T cells generated by previous infection or vaccination can still generate protection against variants, even the much dreaded E484K variants (South Africa, Brazil etc.), even where antibodies do not: https://apple.news/A_ijd4HrAQ3ibCPHP1sdXkA

This means that even if you may still be able to get reinfected with a new COVID variant if you’ve had previous infection or been vaccinated due to a lack of antibodies (and that’s a big if), the T cells will likely stop you from getting severe disease, and mean that you will have far milder disease than you did the first time around.

I think this is fantastic news, and may well substantially reduce the feared impact of new variants! What do you guys think?
That is very helpful and will buy the vaccine manufacturers some time if they have to adjust the vaccine for new variants.
 
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