Covid-19 Vaccine - Where, How & Costs

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An interesting and informative comment;-

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JhRb5hnTseU


Key Messages;-

COVID is now considered endemic, so it’s close to certain that everyone will catch it at some point, so best prepare yourself as best you can.

Mass testing therefore becomes irrelevant, hence Germany is to end free testing in October;- many others are expected to follow suit.
 
As ever the headline only tells part of the story.
RNA vaccines seem to produce very different antibody levels
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/rna-vaccines-seem-to-produce-very-different-antibody-levels/
Here’s the related paper.

Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response Following Vaccination With BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273
The SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) have each shown more than 90% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 illness1,2but, to our knowledge, humoral immune responses have not been compared directly.


Methods
Health care workers at a tertiary care center (Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg, Belgium) who were scheduled for vaccination with 2 doses of either mRNA-1273 or BNT162b2 were invited to participate in this prospective cohort. Serologic testing was performed prior to vaccination as well as 6 to 10 weeks after the second dose (between April 27 and May 20, 2021). Total immunoglobulin levels to the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were measured with an anti–SARS-CoV-2 S enzyme immunoassay (Elecsys, Roche Diagnostics International Ltd). After vaccination, antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein were determined. Previous infection was defined as anti-nucleocapsid positivity at any point, anti-spike positivity before vaccination, and/or a history of positive polymerase chain reaction results on nasopharyngeal swab.

Antibody levels were compared after the second dose of each vaccine for the entire cohort; for those previously infected vs uninfected; and by age group (<35, 35-55, and >55 years) among previously uninfected individuals, using the ttest after log10 transformation. Correlation between age and log10-transformed antibody levels was assessed with Pearson correlation. To adjust for confounding, a multiple linear regression was fitted with inclusion of age, sex, previous infection, and time between vaccination and serologic testing. All tests were 2-sided with statistical significance set at α = .05. Analyses were performed using RStudio (version 1.2.1335). This study was approved by the local institutional review board; participants provided written informed consent.

Results
Of 2499 health care workers who received 2 doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines, 1647 participated in this study. A total of 688 were vaccinated with mRNA-1273 (mean age, 43.2 years; 76.7% women; 21.8% previously infected with SARS-CoV-2), and 959 with BNT162b2 (mean age, 44.7 years; 84.9% women; 13.2% previously infected).

Higher antibody titers were observed in participants vaccinated with 2 doses of mRNA-1273 compared with those vaccinated with BNT162b2 (geometric mean titer [GMT], 3836 U/mL [95% CI, 3586-4104] vs 1444 U/mL [95% CI, 1350-1544]; P < .001) (Figure, A).

Previously infected participants had higher antibody titers (GMT, 9461 U/mL [95% CI, 8494-10 539]) compared with previously uninfected participants (GMT, 1613 U/mL [95% CI, 1539-1690]) (P < .001). In both groups, those vaccinated with mRNA-1273 had higher antibody titers compared with those vaccinated with BNT162b2 (previously uninfected: GMT, 2881 U/mL [95% CI, 2721-3051] vs 1108 U/mL [95% CI, 1049-1170]; P < .001; previously infected: GMT, 10 708 U/mL [95% CI, 9311-12 315] vs 8174 U/mL [95% CI, 6923-9649]; P = .01). The difference in antibody levels according to previous infection was higher than the difference between the 2 mRNA vaccines (Figure, B and Table).

Antibody levels negatively correlated with age in previously uninfected participants (correlation coefficient, −0.22; P < .001), being highest among those younger than 35 years. Across all age categories, previously uninfected participants vaccinated with mRNA-1273 had higher antibody titers compared with those vaccinated with BNT162b2 (P < .001 for all comparisons; Figure, C).

The type of mRNA vaccine remained independently associated with the log-transformed antibody titer in a multiple linear regression (P < .001, Table).

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2783797
 
Richard N said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1432822819197317121
View: https://twitter.com/DJSnM/status/1432822819197317121?s=20
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That’s an interesting article it does raise your hair a bit to think Covid is possible far from done but then that was always a likely case scenario. But what you going to do, it’s going to do what it will and we just have to maximise our preparations.
Still, experience with other viruses gives evolutionary biologists some clues about where SARS-CoV-2 may be headed. The courses of past outbreaks show the coronavirus could well become even more infectious than Delta is now, Read says: “I think there’s every expectation that this virus will continue to adapt to humans and will get better and better at us.” Far from making people less sick, it could also evolve to become even deadlier, as some previous viruses including the 1918 flu have. And although COVID-19 vaccines have held up well so far, history shows the virus could evolve further to elude their protective effect—although a recent study in another coronavirus suggests that could take many years, which would leave more time to adapt vaccines to the changing threat.
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Other factors loosen the constraints on deadliness. For example, a virus variant that can outgrow other variants within a host can end up dominating even if it makes the host sicker and reduces the likelihood of transmission. And an assumption about human respiratory diseases may not always hold: that a milder virus—one that doesn’t make you crawl into bed, say—might allow an infected person to spread the virus further. In SARS-CoV-2, most transmission happens early on, when the virus is replicating in the upper airways, whereas serious disease, if it develops, comes later, when the virus infects the lower airways. As a result, a variant that makes the host sicker might spread just as fast as before.
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As ever the biggest boon to the virus is humans themselves.
Given all that uncertainty, it’s worrisome that humanity hasn’t done a great job of limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2, says Eugene Koonin, a researcher at the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Some dangerous variants may only be possible if the virus hits on a very rare, winning combination of mutations, he says. It might have to replicate an astronomical number of times to get there. “But with all these millions of infected people, it may very well find that combination.”

Indeed, Katzourakis adds, the past 20 months are a warning to never underestimate viral evolution. “Many still see Alpha and Delta as being as bad as things are ever going to get,” he says. “It would be wise to consider them as steps on a possible trajectory that may challenge our public health response further.”
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https://www.science.org/content/art...have-changed-pandemic-what-will-virus-do-next
 
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Endemic. Now there's a word that's never used in everyday conversation. All this means is that it will always be around, like the flu. And all that means is that people will get a yearly shot, just like the flu. Other treatment options are available right now. Monoclonal antibodies can prevent serious symptoms and it's not a vaccine. In the U.S., work is ongoing to create an antiviral pill or capsule. Reports state it should be available by the end of the year.

And vaccine passports will remain a part of everyday life until more effective treatments appear.
 
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Flyaway said:
Oh give me strength. Talk about wasting the courts time.

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/campaigners-gather-to-claim-there-is-no-virus/
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See my post here.
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/covid-19-vaccine-where-how-costs.35995/post-481031
There is one guy, of the absurd philosopher kind, at the end of the movie he takes an arrow (to the knee ?) and just says "This is no arrow" then collapse and die.

Can't help thinking about that idiot, when I read such news.
" COVID does not exists. This is no virus." (start coughing, then die).

There it is: Okello

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068182/characters/nm0738031

(don't know if I shall cry or laugh ?)
 
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The technology used in the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID jab has been used to design a vaccine that could help treat cancer, scientists say.

Using the same viral vector vaccine technology as the Oxford jab, researchers have designed a two-dose vaccine they hope can target tumours in humans.

When tested in mice, the vaccine increased the numbers of anti-tumour T cells that attack cancerous growths, helping to increase survival rates.

In order to create the treatment, scientists designed their vaccine to target two MAGE-type proteins that are present on the surface of many types of cancer cells.
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https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...o-design-jab-that-could-treat-cancer-12397513
 
In another case of why I'm thankful economists are not also scientists. An excerpt from an article posted on the Wall Street investment site, The Street:

"The Bureau for Labor Statistics said 235,000 new jobs were created last month, with [the] headline unemployment rate falling to a post-pandemic low of 5.2%, less than a third of the consensus estimate of 720,000."

And how did economists dream up this consensus? Meanwhile, about 10 million people in the U.S. will lose extra unemployment benefits on 6 September. Which amounts to the current jobs shortfall.
 
Flyaway had already posted that last article earlier, sorry about that. Not sure why I thought it was a different article.
 
I see yet more panic over new variants in the media today. But as one article said the easy way to tell if a new variant is really dangerous is if it starts pushing Delta out the way the same way that overcame Alpha. So far none of these variants have in any way threatened Delta’s dominance globally.
 
The media is in the creating panic business. Once and for all, here is the story. The virus will always be around. The solution: vaccines. We got rid of polio that way. Australia has stopped the strict lockdown approach. Why? There will always be infected people in-country and infected foreigners coming to visit. So, once again, vaccines for everybody and monoclonal antibody treatments. Soon to be followed by antiviral drugs.
 
Flyaway said:
I see yet more panic over new variants in the media today. But as one article said the easy way to tell if a new variant is really dangerous is if it starts pushing Delta out the way the same way that overcame Alpha. So far none of these variants have in any way threatened Delta’s dominance globally.
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The "vaccine breakthrough" has been done in record time.

It is now proven that, whoever gets correctly vaccinated will avoid a) death or b) "long covid" - which were the two huge dangers back in 2020. And that's the most important result. Not perfect, but essential to save lives.

Hence a good case can be make that the worst is kind of behind us and thus lockdowns are no longer absolute necessity. In the case of France, they have returned only in overseas territories - Caribbeans, New Caledonia, and La Réunion - where relative poverty (an utter shame, compared to the Métropole) mixed with anti-vax messages led to an explosion of contagions again.

In Métropole proper, lockdowns won't return any time soon - that part of Macron "stick and carrot" approach.

Now it is only a matter of a race between "tweaked vaccines" and "tweaked viruses" that is - variants.

But sooner or later, COVID will become "just one more flu strain to be added to the yearly flu vaccine". Three years - best case (2023) or longer (worst case) - but THIS will happen on the long term.

Consider the following fact: the Spanish flu was a cataclysm that took a very unprepared world by surprise and by storm - but by 1922 life returned to normalcy. And that - without lockdowns and with vaccine science in infancy.
 
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Flyaway said:
As ever a simplistic headline that in no way reflects the more complicated picture presented in the actual article itself.

Covid infection protection waning in double jabbed https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58322882

Also a friend who is from New Zealand has now told me that his family out there have told him to quote “Vaccination programme is getting accelerated as a priority.”
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Yeah. Had my first Pfizer shot a while ago, the second booked in a couple of weeks.

We have this govt website for information. To put things in perspective, the nation's population is about 5 million. About 27 people total have died.

The strategy here is to focus on fast and hard lockdowns and the result has been actually much less time spent in lockdown than most nations. Distribution of vaccines has been less urgent in this context, but lately it is being accelerated.

https://covid19.govt.nz/
Oh, and the 'camps' you may have heard of of Fox are four-star hotels (since tourism is obviously restricted, you may as well put them to use). Friends of mine have been through them. One blogged about the amount of champagne she went through.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/covid-19...mation-pushes-saint-jacinda-from-her-pedestal
 
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Flyaway said:
I see yet more panic over new variants in the media today. But as one article said the easy way to tell if a new variant is really dangerous is if it starts pushing Delta out the way the same way that overcame Alpha. So far none of these variants have in any way threatened Delta’s dominance globally.
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It's a bit more complex than that as you could have a variant that's more infectious than Delta, but with a lower risk of serious illness. And that's still not the full story, because a less dangerous variant causing more infections could still cause more deaths in the long run. Swings and roundabouts and mathematical models!
 
Well this is somewhat concerning.

Nearly a quarter of amber arrivals to the UK haven’t been following the government’s Covid-19 rules, according to new research.

Some 23 per cent of travellers either didn’t self-isolate for 10 days as required or failed to complete the prescribed set of two PCR tests on days two and eight of quarantine, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found.

The UK’s national statistical institute surveyed 848 travellers who arrived in the country between 12-17 July, only to find that 41 per cent misunderstood the rules or were unsure of them.
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https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/travel-uk-news-green-list-b1914832.html
 
Flyaway said:
Well this is somewhat concerning.

Nearly a quarter of amber arrivals to the UK haven’t been following the government’s Covid-19 rules, according to new research.

Some 23 per cent of travellers either didn’t self-isolate for 10 days as required or failed to complete the prescribed set of two PCR tests on days two and eight of quarantine, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found.
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To be honest, I'm surprised it's so low. And possibly it is higher, but people don't realise what self-isolation actually requires.
 
First deployed DNA vaccine for not just for Covid but ever. It appears it as much a proof concept as anything as its effectiveness isn’t anywhere as high as the others.

India has approved a new COVID-19 vaccine that uses circular strands of DNA to prime the immune system against the virus SARS-CoV-2. Researchers have welcomed news of the first DNA vaccine for people to receive approval anywhere in the world, and say many other DNA vaccines might soon be hot on its heels.

ZyCoV-D, which is administered into the skin without an injection, has been found to be 67% protective against symptomatic COVID-19 in clinical trials, and will probably start to be administered in India this month. Although the efficacy is not particularly high compared to that of many other COVID-19 vaccines, the fact that it is a DNA vaccine is significant, say researchers.

It is proof of the principle that DNA vaccines work and can help in controlling the pandemic, says Peter Richmond, a paediatric immunologist at the University of Western Australia in Perth. “This is a really important step forward in the fight to defeat COVID-19 globally, because it demonstrates that we have another class of vaccines that we can use.”
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02385-x
 
I plaid guilty. Shouldn't have started discussing mailboxes. Back to COVID...
 
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