So, coronavirus...

[dpedin]

34-5% of population in UK, 33% in Scotland, same timescales as the rest of the UK for completing the JCVI groups, so I don't think so. I think there can be criticisms both sides of the border - areas of England still have much lower numbers of care home staff vaccinated than Scotland for example - so I don't think the broad percentages are worth pinning badges on.

Cheers, that is good to hear. Just seems slower but obviously not from those figures!

Yeah, wee Ruthie lies through her teeth and tries to present it as if we're miles behind. But she talks pish.

Percentage vaccinated in age groups

·60-64: 45%

·55-59: 38%

·50-54: 31%

Over 65s is pretty much everyone.

Vaccination rates are roughly the same in both Scotland and England. Embra is a bit behind most other parts of Scotland should catch up soon once the supply chain is back up to expected levels. I'm in the same age group and haven't seen nor heard of the letters with no details on them so can't comment. Spoke to GP and others just the other week and no obvious concerns re the roll out other than temporary drop in supply but should be resolved soon. In the early weeks Scotland really focused on trying to get 100% vaccination of those in care homes, house bound in high age groups etc and were criticised for slow roll out but quickly caught up. Getting a 2nd dose to those folk will slow things up a little but the vaccination capacity is now significantly higher and it exceeds current vaccine supply levels. It will be ramped up as other vaccines i.e. moderna comes on stream in volume. For detail look at this website https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotlan ... s-tracker/

[Biffer]

Cheers, that is good to hear. Just seems slower but obviously not from those figures!

Yeah, wee Ruthie lies through her teeth and tries to present it as if we're miles behind. But she talks pish.

Percentage vaccinated in age groups

·60-64: 45%

·55-59: 38%

·50-54: 31%

Over 65s is pretty much everyone.

Vaccination rates are roughly the same in both Scotland and England. Embra is a bit behind most other parts of Scotland should catch up soon once the supply chain is back up to expected levels. I'm in the same age group and haven't seen nor heard of the letters with no details on them so can't comment. Spoke to GP and others just the other week and no obvious concerns re the roll out other than temporary drop in supply but should be resolved soon. In the early weeks Scotland really focused on trying to get 100% vaccination of those in care homes, house bound in high age groups etc and were criticised for slow roll out but quickly caught up. Getting a 2nd dose to those folk will slow things up a little but the vaccination capacity is now significantly higher and it exceeds current vaccine supply levels. It will be ramped up as other vaccines i.e. moderna comes on stream in volume. For detail look at this website https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotlan ... s-tracker/

Edinburgh (and Glasgow) look like they're behind because of demographics. Much younger population, so lower percentage in the priority groups.

[Biffer]

Good news from Israel, real world data on Pfizer is it prevents 97% of symptomatic illness and 94% of asymptomatic cases.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/ ... ssion=true

Also, and rather entertainingly, the Chairman of Pfizer has been refused permission to travel to Israel because he hasn't been fully vaccinated.

[Raggs]

Good news from Israel, real world data on Pfizer is it prevents 97% of symptomatic illness and 94% of asymptomatic cases.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/ ... ssion=true

Also, and rather entertainingly, the Chairman of Pfizer has been refused permission to travel to Israel because he hasn't been fully vaccinated.

If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he chose to wait his proper turn, rather than getting an early jab.

[Biffer]

Good news from Israel, real world data on Pfizer is it prevents 97% of symptomatic illness and 94% of asymptomatic cases.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/ ... ssion=true

Also, and rather entertainingly, the Chairman of Pfizer has been refused permission to travel to Israel because he hasn't been fully vaccinated.

If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he chose to wait his proper turn, rather than getting an early jab.

Yeah, he’s had the first one but not the second. Did make me smile though.

[TheNatalShark]

Fairly lengthy article in NY Times about supposedly 30mm AZ doses in US. With the accelerated roll out in recent weeks, as says seems likely AZ won't play a part there. Hopefully they can make a judgement call sooner rather than later whether that will be the case.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/p ... LRm7QkTo3b

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Fairly lengthy article in NY Times about supposedly 30mm AZ doses in US. With the accelerated roll out in recent weeks, as says seems likely AZ won't play a part there. Hopefully they can make a judgement call sooner rather than later whether that will be the case.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/p ... LRm7QkTo3b

The US population will be given the freedom to choose any vaccine that's expensive and makes money for a US company. I doubt AZ will be approved, or at least not until after most people have been vaccinated.

[tc27]

Interesting - Biden claiming all US adults will have being offered a shot by May 1st which is even more ambitious than the UKs target 'by the end of May'. Confidence in supplies must be high.

[Paddington Bear]

Tbh the only surprise is that it's taken the Americans this long.

[Saint]

Interesting - Biden claiming all US adults will have being offered a shot by May 1st which is even more ambitious than the UKs target 'by the end of May'. Confidence in supplies must be high.

He calrifed that in the speech. They'll be able to "get in line" i.e. book an appointment from May 1st. I read that as not substantially different to the UK, where the first dose is targeted to be completed for all adults by end of July

[TheNatalShark]

My take of the phrasing of "eligible" is that all the states should have worked through priority groups?

"Let me be clear, that doesn't mean everyone's going to have that shot immediately, but it means you'll be able to get in line beginning 1 May," he said"

[tc27]

Yes fair enough - I also think if the UK daily rate goes back to 500kish now there are millions of shots available then the US will struggle to catch up and overtake

[tc27]

Rory Stewart the best PM we will never have example #355345

[ohno]

Interesting - Biden claiming all US adults will have being offered a shot by May 1st which is even more ambitious than the UKs target 'by the end of May'. Confidence in supplies must be high.

He calrifed that in the speech. They'll be able to "get in line" i.e. book an appointment from May 1st. I read that as not substantially different to the UK, where the first dose is targeted to be completed for all adults by end of July

Yes, reading his tweets it looked the same to me. It looks like they will have an equivalent website to the nhs to book, I’m wandering if it will crash at the beginning too.

[SaintK]

Well!! Where did that 12 months go?

Yes, today is the first anniversary of Herd Immunity Day — Dominic Cummings’ pseudo scientific disaster plan, pumped out uncritically by pundits.
They claim that the delay to locking down was a key factor in Britain having one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world.

On this day last year, ITV political editor Robert Peston wrote in the Spectator:

The key phrase we all need to understand is ‘herd immunity’ – which is what happens to a group of people or animals when they develop sufficient antibodies to be resistant to a disease.
The strategy of the British government in minimising the impact of Covid-19 is to allow the virus to pass through the entire population so that we acquire herd immunity, but at a much delayed speed so that those who suffer the most acute symptoms are able to receive the medical support they need, and such that the health service is not overwhelmed and crushed by the sheer number of cases it has to treat at any one time.

The kind of coercive measures employed by China in Wuhan and Hubei have simply locked the virus behind the closed doors of people’s homes. And just as soon as the constraints on freedom of movement are lifted there, the monstrous virus will rear its hideous face again.

[tc27]

Well!! Where did that 12 months go?

Yes, today is the first anniversary of Herd Immunity Day — Dominic Cummings’ pseudo scientific disaster plan, pumped out uncritically by pundits.
They claim that the delay to locking down was a key factor in Britain having one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world.

On this day last year, ITV political editor Robert Peston wrote in the Spectator:

The key phrase we all need to understand is ‘herd immunity’ – which is what happens to a group of people or animals when they develop sufficient antibodies to be resistant to a disease.
The strategy of the British government in minimising the impact of Covid-19 is to allow the virus to pass through the entire population so that we acquire herd immunity, but at a much delayed speed so that those who suffer the most acute symptoms are able to receive the medical support they need, and such that the health service is not overwhelmed and crushed by the sheer number of cases it has to treat at any one time.

The kind of coercive measures employed by China in Wuhan and Hubei have simply locked the virus behind the closed doors of people’s homes. And just as soon as the constraints on freedom of movement are lifted there, the monstrous virus will rear its hideous face again.

The scary thing is where would we be without the vaccine?

[Sandstorm]

The scary thing is where would we be without the vaccine?

Ireland

[Glaston]

Had the jab today.
Twas a little prick

Had a slight tingle in my tongue about 4 hours later but only lasted a few minutes.




Jeez, I remember being hammered when I had a Typhoid shot 40 odd years ago.
Felt like crap within a couple of hours and pretty rough for a week.



Should add, I remember school days.
The poor foreign pupils getting jabs before the summer hols would get unmercifully punched on their vaccination arm.


Would that have made us racist by the current norms?

[Biffer]

Had the jab today.
Twas a little prick

Had a slight tingle in my tongue about 4 hours later but only lasted a few minutes.




Jeez, I remember being hammered when I had a Typhoid shot 40 odd years ago.
Felt like crap within a couple of hours and pretty rough for a week.



Should add, I remember school days.
The poor foreign pupils getting jabs before the summer hols would get unmercifully punched on their vaccination arm.


Would that have made us racist by the current norms?

I remember the punching of BCGs at school. Kids are bastards.

[Saint]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

[Dinsdale Piranha]

First dose booked for Thursday at my local practice. I'm 53 so we must be nearing the end of the priority groups.

[Paddington Bear]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

[TheNatalShark]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

Those dirty Europeans in the central European country of Thailand are also using "suspending to investigate" as a smoke screen for their failure in the European procurement programme.


Fu.ck sakes the blinkers are incredible.

[Saint]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

Those dirty Europeans in the central European country of Thailand are also using "suspending to investigate" as a smoke screen for their failure in the European procurement programme.


Fu.ck sakes the blinkers are incredible.

Yeah, I agree it isn't really a European thing - but it can look/feel that way as the EU have been making noises like unsafe, unproven etc before now.

But the decision making on this issue is absolutely nuts, and while it may be being justified in terms of instilling public confidence in the process, the reality is that it's harming confidence each and every time they do this type of thing.

[Paddington Bear]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

Those dirty Europeans in the central European country of Thailand are also using "suspending to investigate" as a smoke screen for their failure in the European procurement programme.


Fu.ck sakes the blinkers are incredible.

Didn’t know about Thailand. It’s a fair question given there’s no evidence for this at all, I would love to understand (genuinely).

Fwiw I’m very impressed with my own country’s roll out, but we have a vested interest in the EU matching or bettering it. I don’t take any joy in seeing us above France in a vaccination table, national competition has it’s place on a rugby pitch

[TheNatalShark]

Yeah, I agree it isn't really a European thing - but it can look/feel that way as the EU have been making noises like unsafe, unproven etc before now.

But the decision making on this issue is absolutely nuts, and while it may be being justified in terms of instilling public confidence in the process, the reality is that it's harming confidence each and every time they do this type of thing.

But the problem is you've said it again - where have the EU or EMA said anything about unsafe or unproven? National leaders or the usual bampots in EU parliament yes, but haven't seen anything to date but defence of the vaccine by commission or EMA. Sorry if it seems a pedantic thing and you mean EU = Europe, but it plays into "us vs them"

As for the national regulators, have zero idea about them but would hope it is just something like a certainty threshold of MHRA and others of 99.99% vs 99.999% for those ones. I would wonder if they factor in public confidence in these decisions made, and that they feel this transparency is required for their public to 'maintain'/gain confidence, whilst we see it as unnecessary.


Separate, the MHRA response indicates 11 million doses administered in the UK so far, so assuming that is fairly up to date looks like the majority of doses administered so far are Pfizer, which should change I guess. Not sure why we're so secretive/unopen of the data vs other countries.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra ... 19-vaccine

Anyway, time for match of the weekend

[Saint]

Yeah, I agree it isn't really a European thing - but it can look/feel that way as the EU have been making noises like unsafe, unproven etc before now.

But the decision making on this issue is absolutely nuts, and while it may be being justified in terms of instilling public confidence in the process, the reality is that it's harming confidence each and every time they do this type of thing.

But the problem is you've said it again - where have the EU or EMA said anything about unsafe or unproven? National leaders or the usual bampots in EU parliament yes, but haven't seen anything to date but defence of the vaccine by commission or EMA. Sorry if it seems a pedantic thing and you mean EU = Europe, but it plays into "us vs them"

As for the national regulators, have zero idea about them but would hope it is just something like a certainty threshold of MHRA and others of 99.99% vs 99.999% for those ones. I would wonder if they factor in public confidence in these decisions made, and that they feel this transparency is required for their public to 'maintain'/gain confidence, whilst we see it as unnecessary.


Separate, the MHRA response indicates 11 million doses administered in the UK so far, so assuming that is fairly up to date looks like the majority of doses administered so far are Pfizer, which should change I guess. Not sure why we're so secretive/unopen of the data vs other countries.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra ... 19-vaccine

Anyway, time for match of the weekend

Once the vaccine acquisition process became an EU issue while the delivery was still down to individual countries, and sign-off/approval relies on both, the the conflation of the EU and national politicians becomes inevitable - you might try to separate the two but it;s a distinction that is actually pretty meaningless.

As has been noted elsewhere, the UK is being secretive as they;re wary of other countries looking at our deployment and potentially using that data to block exports etc. While I dislike the concept, I can understand it in light of the EU's behaviour specifically with regards to AZ. The simple, unhappy, truth is that no other country can be trusted not to interfere in supply contracts if they believe that they might gain political capital from it - and on the flip side, the current UK government is doing all it can to gain it's own capital about being ahead of the curve.

[Saint]

In the meantime, 574K doses delivered yesterday which is a big step up on the last couple of weeks; presumably the first signs of the increased AZ delivery we've been told about

[dpedin]

Jab due Thursday!

[Hong Kong]

[fishfoodie]

I was in there once; I liked the amber ale; wasn't mad about the IPA; but I might have been a little jaded on IPAs at that stage

[tc27]

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

Those dirty Europeans in the central European country of Thailand are also using "suspending to investigate" as a smoke screen for their failure in the European procurement programme.


Fu.ck sakes the blinkers are incredible.

Yeah, I agree it isn't really a European thing - but it can look/feel that way as the EU have been making noises like unsafe, unproven etc before now.

But the decision making on this issue is absolutely nuts, and while it may be being justified in terms of instilling public confidence in the process, the reality is that it's harming confidence each and every time they do this type of thing.

The crazy thing is 11 million-ish people in the UK have had AZ and the number who have subsequently died of blood clots is 12 (compared to 15 for Pzfier) - neither number is above the 'normal' rate of such events occurring in those population categories.

The US refusal to authorize is cynically based on protectionism for US pharma firms who make its rivals - but I simply cannot understand the spate of other health authorities acting in the way they have - its some kind of slavish dedication to the precautionary principle that doesn't hold because it actually endangers more people.

Anyway in good news we should see about 10 million doses given in the next two weeks.

[laurent]

Worst part on AZ is they can't provide the doses promised yet millions of them are held in the US.

I don't get the Clot stuff it's irrelevent numbers.

France is now at a better vaccination rate (1 Million/ week) in march. if the other EU countries suspend AZ I hope we are getting their doses...

We have over 5 million done on 1st injection and 2.2 got 2

so we have 1 million in january 3 in Feb and at current rate 7 at least into april. with the goal of getting all over 50 elligible mid april.

Hospital numbers are shit with the paris region at capacity however goverment is clearly avoiding 3rd confinment on economic reason (2 areas have confinment during week ends).

we are now evacuating people from paris region hospitals.

[Saint]

Worst part on AZ is they can't provide the doses promised yet millions of them are held in the US.

I don't get the Clot stuff it's irrelevent numbers.

France is now at a better vaccination rate (1 Million/ week) in march. if the other EU countries suspend AZ I hope we are getting their doses...

We have over 5 million done on 1st injection and 2.2 got 2

so we have 1 million in january 3 in Feb and at current rate 7 at least into april. with the goal of getting all over 50 elligible mid april.

Hospital numbers are shit with the paris region at capacity however goverment is clearly avoiding 3rd confinment on economic reason (2 areas have confinment during week ends).

we are now evacuating people from paris region hospitals.

Not sure what France would do with more AZ doses other than store them in the Fridge. Reports are that there's an unused stockpile of over a million as it is.

Agree thopugh that the 70 million doses being in held in the US right now is a disgrace.

[laurent]

Worst part on AZ is they can't provide the doses promised yet millions of them are held in the US.

I don't get the Clot stuff it's irrelevent numbers.

France is now at a better vaccination rate (1 Million/ week) in march. if the other EU countries suspend AZ I hope we are getting their doses...

We have over 5 million done on 1st injection and 2.2 got 2

so we have 1 million in january 3 in Feb and at current rate 7 at least into april. with the goal of getting all over 50 elligible mid april.

Hospital numbers are shit with the paris region at capacity however goverment is clearly avoiding 3rd confinment on economic reason (2 areas have confinment during week ends).

we are now evacuating people from paris region hospitals.

Not sure what France would do with more AZ doses other than store them in the Fridge. Reports are that there's an unused stockpile of over a million as it is.

Agree thopugh that the 70 million doses being in held in the US right now is a disgrace.

It's hardly a stockpile (1 week worth of doses at current usage rate)

[Saint]

Worst part on AZ is they can't provide the doses promised yet millions of them are held in the US.

I don't get the Clot stuff it's irrelevent numbers.

France is now at a better vaccination rate (1 Million/ week) in march. if the other EU countries suspend AZ I hope we are getting their doses...

We have over 5 million done on 1st injection and 2.2 got 2

so we have 1 million in january 3 in Feb and at current rate 7 at least into april. with the goal of getting all over 50 elligible mid april.

Hospital numbers are shit with the paris region at capacity however goverment is clearly avoiding 3rd confinment on economic reason (2 areas have confinment during week ends).

we are now evacuating people from paris region hospitals.

Not sure what France would do with more AZ doses other than store them in the Fridge. Reports are that there's an unused stockpile of over a million as it is.

Agree thopugh that the 70 million doses being in held in the US right now is a disgrace.

It's hardly a stockpile (1 week worth of doses at current usage rate)

But France isn;t dosing AZ at 1 million a week. The majority of the million a week is Pfizer

[laurent]

Not sure what France would do with more AZ doses other than store them in the Fridge. Reports are that there's an unused stockpile of over a million as it is.

Agree thopugh that the 70 million doses being in held in the US right now is a disgrace.

It's hardly a stockpile (1 week worth of doses at current usage rate)

But France isn;t dosing AZ at 1 million a week. The majority of the million a week is Pfizer

AZ is distributed through GP and pharmacist AFAIK so not sure about the logistics here the 1 Million is still not much of a stockpile. the docs + pharmacist it's been available for just over 2 weeks through that channel.

[Saint]

It's hardly a stockpile (1 week worth of doses at current usage rate)

But France isn;t dosing AZ at 1 million a week. The majority of the million a week is Pfizer

AZ is distributed through GP and pharmacist AFAIK so not sure about the logistics here the 1 Million is still not much of a stockpile. the docs + pharmacist it's been available for just over 2 weeks through that channel.

So, the report as of the start of the month was that out of the 1.7 million doses delivered to France by then, 600K had been issued to pharmacies and GPs, only 150K had been used. So it's sitting the the fridges centrally, and sitting in the fridges locally Pfizer in the meantime is flying off the shelves

[laurent]

But France isn;t dosing AZ at 1 million a week. The majority of the million a week is Pfizer

AZ is distributed through GP and pharmacist AFAIK so not sure about the logistics here the 1 Million is still not much of a stockpile. the docs + pharmacist it's been available for just over 2 weeks through that channel.

So, the report as of the start of the month was that out of the 1.7 million doses delivered to France by then, 600K had been issued to pharmacies and GPs, only 150K had been used. So it's sitting the the fridges centrally, and sitting in the fridges locally Pfizer in the meantime is flying off the shelves

The numbers of jabs have doubled I doubt the stock have increased. (when they allowed pharmacist to do the jab the GP had to take a week off... (This lead to a good bit of screaming with appointments having to be cancelled).

I think logistics are way to complicated

[Saint]

AZ is distributed through GP and pharmacist AFAIK so not sure about the logistics here the 1 Million is still not much of a stockpile. the docs + pharmacist it's been available for just over 2 weeks through that channel.

So, the report as of the start of the month was that out of the 1.7 million doses delivered to France by then, 600K had been issued to pharmacies and GPs, only 150K had been used. So it's sitting the the fridges centrally, and sitting in the fridges locally Pfizer in the meantime is flying off the shelves

The numbers of jabs have doubled I doubt the stock have increased. (when they allowed pharmacist to do the jab the GP had to take a week off... (This lead to a good bit of screaming with appointments having to be cancelled).

I think logistics are way to complicated

According to an article published in Politico. ......


As of 6 days ago, France reporting that it had used only 43.5% of all AZ doses provided so far, and 84.2% of all Pfizer doses provided so far. Of all vaccine delivered in France, 72.4% is Pfizer, 6.9% Moderna, and 20.7% is AZ. Some quick maths, form there, tells you that out of the 6.2 million doses France reported on that date, approx 1.3 million doses were AZ. With 43.5% of all AZ doses supplied to France actually being delivered, that would mean around 1.7 ,million doses were now sitting unused. So, yes, the unused stock would appear to have increased - AZ is being delivered to France faster than France is using it

Obviously the number could be out a bit depending on the exact day each datapoint was sourced, but broadly speaking that's there or thereabouts.