Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine approved

[irie]

As expected, the MHRA has today approved the Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine.

The half dose followed by a full dose which appeared to improve efficacy to ~90% has not been approved. It is thought that the reason for the higher response in the half dose/full dose test group (under 60 years old?) may be because it enables the immune system to develop a stronger response without being overwhelmed before the administration of the second (full) dose.

The approved dose regimen is two full doses with the second dose administered 4-12 weeks after the first dose. (IIRC) this 4-12 week range between doses is considerably longer than previously indicated.

I suspect that having a longer gap between full doses gives more time for the immune system to respond to the first full dose and in doing so increase the efficacy of the second dose, in the same way that half a dose followed by a full dose within a shorter period was achieved in the small test group. But I have no evidence to back up this suspicion.

[Taipan]

My Wife's colleague's daughter is a Doc at Queens in Romford and she is holding out for this one over the Pfizer one and advised her Mum to do the same? Seems odd to me that a Doc would turn down one and wait for the other? What does she know that I don't?! Spidey sense is tingling...

[Saga Lout]

My Wife's colleague's daughter is a Doc at Queens in Romford and she is holding out for this one over the Pfizer one and advised her Mum to do the same? Seems odd to me that a Doc would turn down one and wait for the other? What does she know that I don't?! Spidey sense is tingling...

The Astra Zeneca vaccine is a traditional vaccine, using a well established method. The Pfizer vaccine is an RNA vaccine, "...a cutting-edge approach that uses genetically engineered RNA ... to generate a protein that itself safely prompts an immune response."*

"Safely" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. I'll wait for the Astra Zeneca one, I don't want to be a guinea pig.


* https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detai ... )-vaccines (Click "What types of COVID-19 vaccines are being developed? How would they work?"

[David]

My Wife's colleague's daughter is a Doc at Queens in Romford and she is holding out for this one over the Pfizer one and advised her Mum to do the same? Seems odd to me that a Doc would turn down one and wait for the other? What does she know that I don't?! Spidey sense is tingling...

The Astra Zeneca vaccine is a traditional vaccine, using a well established method. The Pfizer vaccine is an RNA vaccine, "...a cutting-edge approach that uses genetically engineered RNA ... to generate a protein that itself safely prompts an immune response."*

"Safely" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. I'll wait for the Astra Zeneca one, I don't want to be a guinea pig.


* https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detai ... )-vaccines (Click "What types of COVID-19 vaccines are being developed? How would they work?"

Also, the Oxford one will have British Chips, not 'murcan ones...though how they help I have no idea.

[Mr. Dazzle]

PAL format innit.

[Mr Moofo]

with what the alternative offers - I would take either of them ....

[irie]

The 12 week gap between first and second doses.

http://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-seco ... e-12175456

The second dose of the coronavirus vaccines will be given later than originally planned, experts have said.

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chair of the Commission on Human Medicine Expert Working Group ... said it was 80% effective when there was a three-month interval between the first and second doses.

[Yambo]

The 12 week gap between first and second doses.

http://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-seco ... e-12175456

The second dose of the coronavirus vaccines will be given later than originally planned, experts have said.

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chair of the Commission on Human Medicine Expert Working Group ... said it was 80% effective when there was a three-month interval between the first and second doses.

I wonder how they tested for that effectiveness.

[Taipan]

Anyone know how long before I can visit someone who has had the first pfizer dose? Is it after the second one, or is safe now?

[irie]

The 12 week gap between first and second doses.

http://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-seco ... e-12175456

The second dose of the coronavirus vaccines will be given later than originally planned, experts have said.

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chair of the Commission on Human Medicine Expert Working Group ... said it was 80% effective when there was a three-month interval between the first and second doses.

I wonder how they tested for that effectiveness.

Given that the original trial indicated 62% efficacy, I would also like to know how the new 80% efficacy figure was established.

It seems that a 12 week gap between first and second doses is also recommended for the Pfizer vaccine.

[weeksy]

I don't care, I just wanna know when mine is

[Taipan]

I don't care, I just wanna know when mine is

This will hopefully be adjusted now teh Oxford vaccine is out, but you will probably about August onwards...

[wheelnut]

Anyone know how long before I can visit someone who has had the first pfizer dose? Is it after the second one, or is safe now?

I don’t think being vaccinated or not makes any diffference to the current rules unfortunately.

[JamJar]

This will hopefully be adjusted now teh Oxford vaccine is out, but you will probably about August onwards...

Still a long way away for me then (I’m in group 10). By the 20th they had jabbed just over 615,000 people leaving 23 million or so ahead of me

Granted December is a difficult month to do anything but if they are only manage 2 million people a month it’s still over a year before everyone gets it.

[Taipan]

Anyone know how long before I can visit someone who has had the first pfizer dose? Is it after the second one, or is safe now?

I don’t think being vaccinated or not makes any diffference to the current rules unfortunately.

I was more wondering when i could see my In-Laws indoors, rather than freezing my stones off on their veranda!

Sadly, I just watched the press conference where they said the vaccinations would be effective at prevention from infection, but they wont have any idea about transmission for a good few months yet. So even the vaccinated may still be spreaders!

[David]

Anyone know how long before I can visit someone who has had the first pfizer dose? Is it after the second one, or is safe now?

Marathon man?

[wheelnut]

Granted December is a difficult month to do anything but if they are only manage 2 million people a month it’s still over a year before everyone gets it.

As manufacturer and supply scales up, so will distribution and delivery. Also the AZ vaccine will have none of distribution issues of the Pfizer. Still gonna be a while tho.

When they started doing the testing, they were managing a few thousand a day, now they’re up to 400k per day. Supply allowing, I suspect vaccinations will be easier.

[JamJar]

As manufacturer and supply scales up, so will distribution and delivery. Also the AZ vaccine will have none of distribution issues of the Pfizer. Still gonna be a while tho.

When they started doing the testing, they were managing a few thousand a day, now they’re up to 400k per day. Supply allowing, I suspect vaccinations will be easier.

Maybe although I suspect they wont be doing them in car parks like the test I had or send them to people to do at home like a lot of the tests today

[Mr. Dazzle]

Granted December is a difficult month to do anything but if they are only manage 2 million people a month it’s still over a year before everyone gets it.

They're talking 2 million a week as being reasonably feasible. That's about 30 weeks to vaccinate the entire country....so that's what, August?

In reality you don't need to vaccinate the entire country to make a dent in lockdown hopefully. If you can do 2 million a week (I said 'if' OK? ) you can jab 16 million people by the end of Feb - that would cover everyone who is really venerable* and also coincide with the start of spring when pressure should start easing anyway, fingers crossed.

EDIT: *And even some vulnerable people too.

[wheelnut]

Maybe although I suspect they wont be doing them in car parks like the test I had or send them to people to do at home like a lot of the tests today

With the AZ vaccine, they could set up temp buildings anywhere and do them.

I think the issue will be on the manufacturing side, rather than the delivery side, but I’m fairly optimistic it will be ramped up pretty quickly.