I read an article yesterday about logistical failures in the German roll out of the vaccine. Just the first day (EU started Sunday), but if those guys aren’t on top of it must be a challenge!
Actually, how about some depressing content. The EU issue is far more that they just don’t have enough, either now or on order. They apparently passed up chances to order more of the two vaccines actually available now, in order to order more of vaccines that will take much longer to arrive and seem less effective. The reason seems to be that France lobbied internally to have equal orders of vaccines from different countries. Solidarity!
I expect vaccine distribution to begin as a cluster-fuck followed by a mad scramble to fix shit with things running ok though not optimally within a few months. It didn’t have to be this way, but Trump.
That’s a stupid reason. However, if they just wanted to hedge their bets in case these first two vaccines were duds, I guess that kinds of makes sense. It really depends on what they knew about the various vaccines at the time the decision was made.
I’m pretty sure that if it’s in the freezer at appropriate temperature (different for each vaccine), it is supposedly good for six months. I think that’s the only limit to really worry about. Once it comes out of the freezer, it has a lot less time (different for each but at least several days for pfizer and much longer for moderna), but I’ve got to think that centers administering the vaccine will at least have the sense not to take more out of the freezer than they need for a given time period. It only takes a few hours at most to thaw it if they need to get more out of the freezer.
I read that it was far too late to make the decision sensible, but it was the usual anonymous source from people ‘involved’ in negotiations but official denial stuff, so who can say.
The story went that Germany was very against it and as a result went off and bought vaccines separately, which is a controversial thing after there was work to get a combined EU response. I’d say that they did it is a sign they were pissed off, but one of our German posters is probably far better placed to judge that.
It will keep analysing data from the ongoing Oxford-AstraZeneca research, so it could opt for two full doses initially - but rule on the half/full course once more data is available.
Even if they stumbled on it by accident, I would think the scientists would try to figure out why exactly it worked and had come up with some plausible mechanisms by which it occurred.
This is a really important part of the story which ended up being highly significant months later.
The Italian manufacturers used a different technique to Oxford to check the concentration of the vaccine - effectively how many viral particles are floating in each dose. When the Oxford scientists used their method, it appeared that the Italian vaccine was double strength. What to do? Calls were made to the medical regulators. It was agreed that volunteers should be given a half measure of the vaccine, on the basis that it was likely to equate to something more like a regular dose. This was partly a safety issue - they preferred to give them too little rather than too much.
But after a week, the scientists became aware that something unusual was going on. The volunteers were getting none of the usual side-effects - such as sore arms or fever. About 1,300 volunteers had only received a half-dose of the vaccine, rather than a full one. The independent regulators said the trial should continue and that the half-dose group could remain in the study.
Seems UK will go with a one dose strategy initially, with second dose 3 months later
There are already millions of doses of the Oxford vaccine in the country ready to go.
The move to a one-dose strategy will also have a major impact.
Within weeks the UK should have 1,500 local vaccination centres up and running - enabling in theory close to two million people a week to be vaccinated if supply can keep up.
That means by the end of March the majority of the people in nine priority groups could have been offered a jab.
Certainly the over-65s - nine in 10 Covid deaths have been seen in this age group - should have been done.
One dose does not offer as much protection as two doses clearly - but the evidence suggests it is effective at preventing serious illness from infection in the very least.
Enough vaccine for ‘whole population’ - Hancock
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast the first person to receive the vaccine will be on 4 January and he says there is “enough vaccine on order to vaccinate the whole population”, excluding children.
He said that the 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine ordered by the government, combined with the 30 millions doses of the Pfizer vaccine meant that he could say “with confidence that we can vaccinate everyone except children” with two doses.
He said the government had been advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation that the order or priority for the vaccine should be the same as for the Pfizer vaccine.
The highest priority groups are residents in care homes, people over 80 and frontline health and social care workers.
He said they had also been advised that the government should prioritise having as many people as possible getting the first dose as possible which “will allow us to get protection to more people quickly”.
People will get their second dose after 12 weeks, he says, which will mean that over the first three months “we can get this jab into the arm of as many people who are vulnerable to this disease as possible”.
There is no plan other than dump some vaccine to the states and let them figure it out. Expecting overloaded hospitals and Walgreens to give 500-600,000,000 jabs of not particularly easy to transport/store vaccine in the next 6-8 months even if we can produce that much is not realistic.
Maybe Biden will be significantly better but he will need to be in order to tackle the magnitude of the problem. We need a top down plan from the Federal government to have any chance.
I feel like the Trump admin has always overpromised and underdelivered especially with Covid and many news outlets continue to uncritically report what they say as if it has any bearing on reality. It is bizarre.
