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Coronavirus
Danza91
TS Member
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...on-in-vaccine-supplies-from-29-march-12248909
A 'significant reduction' in vaccine supplies from 29th March. Well, that's good news.
A 'significant reduction' in vaccine supplies from 29th March. Well, that's good news.
Rojo
TS Member
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56375307
Listened to the interview on the Radio 4 on the way from work earlier and it's a great listen regarding AZ vaccine and it's side effects. Most of the show is covered in the article however interestingly a segment on the air about long covid, sterility and pregnancy in general is missing from the article. Well worth a listen if you've got time!
The bit that picked up for me is that there is a trend of long covid being fixed by vaccine and the hypothesis was the vaccine finally resetting people's immune system that had been stuck on overdrive.
Listen here
P.s I think Dave has covered 90% of the points raised in this interview already in his posts on this thread
P.p.s I'm not showing off at listening to Radio 4, my car radio has reset itself inexplicably and I'll be back to warbling along to Smooth FM as soon as The Archers is on
Listened to the interview on the Radio 4 on the way from work earlier and it's a great listen regarding AZ vaccine and it's side effects. Most of the show is covered in the article however interestingly a segment on the air about long covid, sterility and pregnancy in general is missing from the article. Well worth a listen if you've got time!
The bit that picked up for me is that there is a trend of long covid being fixed by vaccine and the hypothesis was the vaccine finally resetting people's immune system that had been stuck on overdrive.
Listen here
P.s I think Dave has covered 90% of the points raised in this interview already in his posts on this thread
P.p.s I'm not showing off at listening to Radio 4, my car radio has reset itself inexplicably and I'll be back to warbling along to Smooth FM as soon as The Archers is on
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Matt N
TS Member
Out of interest, is it known whether all new vaccine appointments are being halted, or is it only under-50s and those not in a priority group?
Only asking because I’m in group 6 and have been unable to book a first dose appointment (well, I originally booked one for the start of March, but had to cancel it due to it being AZ and me only being able to have Pfizer due to age). Does this mean I’ll be waiting until the supply picks back up, or would I potentially be able to get one within the next couple of weeks?
Only asking because I’m in group 6 and have been unable to book a first dose appointment (well, I originally booked one for the start of March, but had to cancel it due to it being AZ and me only being able to have Pfizer due to age). Does this mean I’ll be waiting until the supply picks back up, or would I potentially be able to get one within the next couple of weeks?
Dave
TS Founding Member
As has been mentioned that source might not be as far away from the Mail as you may believe...
Just to be clear I am saying this is a political issue, it’s just not brexit retaliation. If the EU choose to go down that route it will be related to the northern island border issues, they see AZ as a Swiss vaccine and their only beef to press has been Pfizer sending vaccines to the UK, but AZ not sending vaccines from the UK to Europe but that’s their own fault for weak contracting.
Rob
TS Team
I think there has possibly been a slight overreaction in the media (shock horror) to the news of supply issues of the AZ vaccine. It sounds like we are due to get 10 million does of AZ from the Serum Institute in Inida; 5 million of these have been delivered and passed safety checks but there is set to be a delay of a few weeks on the other 5 million doses. We will still be getting between 1 and 2 million doses of AZ vaccine per week that are produced domestically. And unless the EU block exports we will still be getting Pfizer coming through.
The main issue with a supply delay in April is simply that April would be the time we really need to start increasing the numbers of people getting their second dose. And with no surplus supply that we perhaps expected there might be we will have to slow down the rollout of first doses.
We should also start getting Moderna doses from late spring which will help with first doses again.
If you just read headline you would think we are getting next to no vaccines delivered for a month which just is not true!
Most of my information can be found in this BBC News article.
The main issue with a supply delay in April is simply that April would be the time we really need to start increasing the numbers of people getting their second dose. And with no surplus supply that we perhaps expected there might be we will have to slow down the rollout of first doses.
We should also start getting Moderna doses from late spring which will help with first doses again.
If you just read headline you would think we are getting next to no vaccines delivered for a month which just is not true!
Most of my information can be found in this BBC News article.
As far as I'm aware, just all new vaccine appointments for those under the age of 50. Priority groups 1 to 9 are still being booked. So you should be fine.
I get the impression from Matt Handcock last night that the vaccine centres and GP's were under pressure to roll out as much vaccine as possible to get the vaccine numbers up, that is why many under 50's not on the priority group getting their vaccines. He is now asking that the vaccine centres and GP's to now concentrate on the priority groups 1 to 9. This will explain why so many vulnerable people are still waiting to be called up while so many of our friends and family on social medial under the age of 50 (some in their 20's and a Mr Shandbrook got his over the weekend) not on the priority groups were getting their vaccines.
Fortunately Jess has now had hers a few days ago and in 3 weeks time we can end our year of shielding and I can relax my OCD approach to anything coming into the home. I'm looking forward to getting my sanity back
Dave
TS Founding Member
Indeed in someways this is us being a victim of our success, we did a ton of 1st doses in Jan/ feb and now those 2nd doses are due and this Indian batch was meant to allow us to keep 1st doses going. Without it we have to pull back for 2nd doses.
Look at it this way, we need the second dose to fully get the benefits of the vaccine so it’s not like April will in anyway be wasted.
Look at it this way, we need the second dose to fully get the benefits of the vaccine so it’s not like April will in anyway be wasted.
Craig
TS Administrator
Ahh I was stressing over all this yesterday, but after sitting back and thinking about it, and seeing the further information coming out last night I'm not quite as bad today.
We're a victim of minister's backdoor briefing to newspapers about being ahead of target, and journalists making assumptions based on supply being a constant consistent volume - which was never going to be the case. The headlines in recent weeks have shouted about the programme being massively ahead and over 40's being vaccinated by Easter, resulting in other age groups also being vaccinated earlier. This assumption was made on the highs of supply now being seen this week, and that amount of supply continuing. The government from an official briefing point of view have been careful to maintain the later date of end of July for all adults, an "under promise and over deliver" approach as they have been doing in recent months.
Realistically though with second doses now coming into play from those vaccinated in January, there was always going to be a drop in April regardless. The 5 million drop in deliveries clearly appeared to have taken the government by surprise, and has given them a bit of a reality check hence the letter yesterday. There's been a real push to get the vaccinations out as quickly as possible to push the numbers as high as they can, and in some areas if this has meant (albeit very quietly) moving further down the age groups it's currently available to as priority groups aren't contactable for then so be it. Yesterday's letter following the drop in supply has changed that, and made them directly address this to prevent any potential issues further down the line. The key indicator for the government lifting lockdown restrictions is reducing pressure on the NHS, so the reduced supply has made them reaffirm the importance of reaching those in priority groups who have been uncontactable, haven't booked or are unwilling to have the vaccine. That was indicated in the letter yesterday:
So the reduction in supply has perhaps made the "unofficial" targets slip, but despite the panic in the papers I doubt the end of July target has slipped as it already had the "lumps and bumps in supply" that Matt Hancock referred to yesterday built into it.
We're a victim of minister's backdoor briefing to newspapers about being ahead of target, and journalists making assumptions based on supply being a constant consistent volume - which was never going to be the case. The headlines in recent weeks have shouted about the programme being massively ahead and over 40's being vaccinated by Easter, resulting in other age groups also being vaccinated earlier. This assumption was made on the highs of supply now being seen this week, and that amount of supply continuing. The government from an official briefing point of view have been careful to maintain the later date of end of July for all adults, an "under promise and over deliver" approach as they have been doing in recent months.
Realistically though with second doses now coming into play from those vaccinated in January, there was always going to be a drop in April regardless. The 5 million drop in deliveries clearly appeared to have taken the government by surprise, and has given them a bit of a reality check hence the letter yesterday. There's been a real push to get the vaccinations out as quickly as possible to push the numbers as high as they can, and in some areas if this has meant (albeit very quietly) moving further down the age groups it's currently available to as priority groups aren't contactable for then so be it. Yesterday's letter following the drop in supply has changed that, and made them directly address this to prevent any potential issues further down the line. The key indicator for the government lifting lockdown restrictions is reducing pressure on the NHS, so the reduced supply has made them reaffirm the importance of reaching those in priority groups who have been uncontactable, haven't booked or are unwilling to have the vaccine. That was indicated in the letter yesterday:
So the reduction in supply has perhaps made the "unofficial" targets slip, but despite the panic in the papers I doubt the end of July target has slipped as it already had the "lumps and bumps in supply" that Matt Hancock referred to yesterday built into it.
Craig
TS Administrator
Who knew?
Also another thing worth noting is that the effect the vaccine has had on hospitalisations is far better than I think what anyone anticipated. We're down 25% based on the previous week on hospital admissions, and deaths are down nearly 30% too. In addition, school testing seems to have brought far fewer positive results than feared, with only 2,588 positive results from 4.6 million tests administered. The key in addition to that lower number is that those cases have been caught early to prevent things getting out of control, which wasn't the case in September. So bad news on the vaccine front, but positive in plenty of other factors!
Dave
TS Founding Member
Thought this was an interesting article on the NHS and the wider UK health economy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56422187
The person providing their opinion is an NHS chief exec but is someone who has worked in many different countries health systems (they are Dutch), they point out the difficulty we had as the service always runs at over 95% capacity (you shouldn’t run a hospital above 80% for any significant length of time) and points out that every success story in the pandemic (ramp up of ITU capacity and vaccination for example) was run by the NHS whereas all the failures (PPE provision and test and trace) where run by private outsource companies....
Obviously those who work in the NHS all their lives are often bias, but this is someone who has worked elsewhere, seen the inside running of it and has come out with praise. Shame so many of the governments backers are keen to see it collapse.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56422187
The person providing their opinion is an NHS chief exec but is someone who has worked in many different countries health systems (they are Dutch), they point out the difficulty we had as the service always runs at over 95% capacity (you shouldn’t run a hospital above 80% for any significant length of time) and points out that every success story in the pandemic (ramp up of ITU capacity and vaccination for example) was run by the NHS whereas all the failures (PPE provision and test and trace) where run by private outsource companies....
Obviously those who work in the NHS all their lives are often bias, but this is someone who has worked elsewhere, seen the inside running of it and has come out with praise. Shame so many of the governments backers are keen to see it collapse.
Ownership and editorial content are completely separate unless you are somehow suggesting the i is right wing?
edit. Not that I care either way, I could easily of found a similar story in the Guardian but the i just happened to be on the front page and popped up on my news feed.
Alsty
TS Member
Good news is that the European Medicines Agency has confirmed the AZ vaccine is safe, and Germany, France, Italy and Spain will now resume using the jab.
As expected, it seems that it was much ado about nothing and the suspension was an overreaction. Let's hope they haven't damaged its reputation enough to slow down their already pitiful vaccination rates.
As expected, it seems that it was much ado about nothing and the suspension was an overreaction. Let's hope they haven't damaged its reputation enough to slow down their already pitiful vaccination rates.
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...-a-large-amount-of-virus-say-experts-12250258
A new report seems to back up the theory that holidays last year weren’t the best idea.
The same mistake should not be made this year and holidays abroad should remain banned for as long as necessary even if it displeases Mr O’Leary.
Dave
TS Founding Member
When you read it what it actually says is the government didn’t properly evaluate Greece as a risk and that travel corridor should have been restricted sooner. It goes on to say that other travel corridors worked well in suppressing transmission. It doesn’t make a conclusion on the overall impact of foreign travel either way.
I’m not convinced foreign travel will start up in June but the government isn’t likely to restrict it completely, particularly now we have vaccinations.
I suppose the question now is getting asked how much permanent restriction on your life are you happy with? Because what seems to be a surprise to a lot of people is this virus is never going to go away. So you either ban travel forever (in which case ban football, concerts, theatres, clubs, pubs and restaurants forever too) or you start to accept the inevitable need to live (and sadly sometimes die) alongside this virus.
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My opinion is the risk should be evaluated in the round, do we NEED to travel for foreign holidays to countries far far behind in their vaccination programs than we are? Is it worth the risk?
Why not just sit this year out and holiday at home? We are potentially in such a good position come the end of April why put that at risk so Barbra can have her two weeks in Benidorm?
Your right though Dave, this virus won’t go away however history of previous coronavirus show in the end it will weaken as we become more immune to it, the vaccine has just speeded that up hopefully.
Why not just sit this year out and holiday at home? We are potentially in such a good position come the end of April why put that at risk so Barbra can have her two weeks in Benidorm?
Your right though Dave, this virus won’t go away however history of previous coronavirus show in the end it will weaken as we become more immune to it, the vaccine has just speeded that up hopefully.
Dave
TS Founding Member
I don’t disagree regarding the risk but you can say that for every restriction currently in place, we don’t need pubs, we certainly don’t need football and you can do your shopping online.
I don’t think we can decide which restrictions to lift based on our own preferences for leisure time, it has to be evidence based and fair.
As I say I’m not convinced foreign travel will relax this summer unless the common destinations get their act together with vaccination and their case rates.