At an individual level they give you decent protection. Certainly against severe illness. The real kick in the balls is that the delta variant is so contagious the vaccines are significantly less effective against transmission. Which means the much talked about “herd immunity” is pretty much off the table now. In Israel they had almost eradicated the virus just by vaccinating adults. Now they’re vaccinating young children and case numbers are still rising.
Is the herd immunity gone gone ?
There must be some stage when it happens?
I’m honestly not sure. As well as being much more contagious, the new variants seem better able to reinfect people who caught previous variants.
If you need 80% of the population immune for herd immunity, while vaccines are only partially effective at preventing transmission and prior infection doesn’t give great protection either then it looks like we’re pissing in the wind. And that’s based on the delta variant. Feck knows what curveballs are on the way with future variants. I remember when the alpha (uk) variant seemed like the worst possible plot twist and now it seems pretty tame.
The good news is that the vaccines do give excellent protection. In a fully vaccinated population this thing really does become the “bad flu” that covidiots have been pretending it is all along. I’d say the chances of getting rid of it altogether are slim to none but the chances of it becoming no more of a worry than new strains of flu are pretty high.
Me too. That's because I'm on a vaccine trial and was double jabbed with the still unapproved vaccine - Novavax.
I'm trying not to get too wound up about it, but I am wound up about it. I do think the AZ issue will soon be sorted, but Novavax is still in the realms of ???.
I could have had a real one back in February, but the NIHR asked me to stay in the trial because it should have approval in April. On April Fools Day, at a follow-up checkup, I was told it was "any time now" - I suspect the date should have been a warning to me
It's a funny situation to be in. It's not really anyone's fault - except for Novavax management maybe. They didn't have the capacity to ramp up production and their attempts to subcontract the work have gone really slowly.Your predicament with Novavax has made the front page of the BBC today. It getting press may hopefully force something to be done about it quicker I guess.
Covid: Call to let Novavax volunteers have second vaccine - BBC News
Almost forgotYour predicament with Novavax has made the front page of the BBC today. It getting press may hopefully force something to be done about it quicker I guess.
Covid: Call to let Novavax volunteers have second vaccine - BBC News
@jojojo, no good deed goes unpunished!Almost forgot
The NIHR/MHRA are still adding Novavax trialists this time in the form of people who had a first dose of AZ or an mRNA vaccine and who got a second dose of Novavax - again not a combination suitable for foreign travel in particular. Hopefully that means that they've thought of a way forward (or are expecting Novavax approval ) rather than they've caught another set of mugs.
You means there’s a Pexbo in Dublin?My brother (39) and sister in law (40) in Dublin have both got COVID now, both booked in to get vaccinated this week. Both run businesses which have to close for two weeks. feck this virus.
Indeed. On the bright side my GP record no longer says, "refused vaccine" instead it's a "incompatible with vaccine."@jojojo, no good deed goes unpunished!
Me and the wife both got Moderna and both told that 2nd would be worse. Both of us got the side effects for about 2 days then grandI'm getting my first shot on Wednesday (Moderna). Anyone know if the side effects are more common on the 2nd shot for Moderna like they seem to be for Biontech?
(And sorry if this has been discussed previously, I've not kept up with the thread)
There’s only one Pexbo and he’s in Bristol, but there’s Pexbo blood in DublinYou means there’s a Pexbo in Dublin?
Thanks! I had my first on Wednesday with very little side effect, arm was a bit sore until yesterday but not really a bother. Hopefully the 2nd will go as swimmingly but I won't schedule anything for the following 2 days just in case.Me and the wife both got Moderna and both told that 2nd would be worse. Both of us got the side effects for about 2 days then grand
Probably wise. At very least I’ll expect being very tiredThanks! I had my first on Wednesday with very little side effect, arm was a bit sore until yesterday but not really a bother. Hopefully the 2nd will go as swimmingly but I won't schedule anything for the following 2 days just in case.
Since April, health care providers in France have routinely given a third dose of a two-dose vaccine to people with certain immune conditions. The number of organ transplant recipients who had antibodies increased to 68 percent four weeks after the third dose from 40 percent after the second dose, one team of French researchers recently reported.
But in the United States, there is no concerted effort by federal agencies or vaccine manufacturers to test this approach, leaving people with low immunity with more questions than answers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health in fact recommend even against testing to find out who is protected. And academic scientists are stymied by the rules that limit access to the vaccines.
“There should be already a national study looking at post-transplant patients getting booster shots,” said Dr. Balazs Halmos, an oncologist at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, who led a study showing that some cancer patients did not respond to the vaccines. “It shouldn’t be our little team here in the Bronx trying to figure this out.”
An estimated 5 percent of the population is considered to be immunocompromised. The list of causes is long: some cancers, organ transplants, chronic liver disease, kidney failure and dialysis, and drugs like Rituxan, steroids and methotrexate, which are taken by roughly five million people for disorders from rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis to some forms of cancer.
“These are the people being left behind,” said Dr. Jose U. Scher, a rheumatologist at NYU Langone Health who led a study of methotrexate’s effect on the vaccines.
The third-dose approach has widespread support among researchers because there is clear precedent. Immunocompromised people are given booster doses of vaccines for hepatitis B and influenza, for example.
Several studies have indicated that a third coronavirus vaccine dose might succeed in patients who did not have detectable antibodies after the first or second dose. But research has lagged.
Moderna is gearing up to test a third dose in 120 organ transplant recipients, and Pfizer — which produces some immunosuppressant medications — is planning a study of 180 adults and 180 children with an immune condition.
The N.I.H. is recruiting 400 immunocompromised people for a trial that would track their levels of antibodies and immune cells for up to 24 months, but has no trials looking at a third dose.
“It takes time, unfortunately, especially as a government agency,” said Emily Ricotta, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “We have to go through a lot of regulatory and approval processes to do these sorts of projects.”
Dr. Fauci said that 99.2 percent of Covid-related deaths in June occurred among unvaccinated people. “It’s really sad and tragic that most of all of these are avoidable and preventable,” he said
Managed to move my second jab forward three weeks which is decent! August 4th now instead of the 28th.
People I know in the UK who've gotten Pfizer/Moderna are saying that's impossible and they're being told to just wait the eight weeks.
It's random, I got a message bringing my 2nd jab early to 6 weeks.
People I know in the UK who've gotten Pfizer/Moderna are saying that's impossible and they're being told to just wait the eight weeks.
It seems he's saying he managed to reshedule it.
I got my first Pfizer jab on the 3rd June and the 2nd on the 29th June at the same medical centre. I'm not sure how that will effect me going forward as I thought it would be an 8 week gap in between.People I know in the UK who've gotten Pfizer/Moderna are saying that's impossible and they're being told to just wait the eight weeks.
Had my first shot (Pfizer) on June 12th with no problems other than a sore arm for a couple of days. Had my second shot on Saturday evening. Next morning, i was feeling a bit fatigued and, since the afternoon, i had the symptoms of a mild hangover. No fever at all, just a minor headache and occasionally some nausea. I feel fine today.
That's not even 4 weeks!?
I thought the minimum was 3 weeks but could be extended, e.g. the standard procedure in Belgium is 5 weeks for Pfizer and Moderna (and 8 or 12 weeks for AZ).I thought there was an 8 week gap for a reason?
Thats 3 weeks, which is the minimum time frame it is licensed for and what pfizer recommends. Most countries have been doing it for 3-6 weeks.
The UK took a public health decision to prolong the dosing interval to get on top of what was at the time a terrible situation. An informed decision, taken with lots of factors in mind but a bit of a leap regardless.
That's not even 4 weeks!?
You're in the UK? The different gaps between doses is mostly down to availability (or so they're telling us). Here (in Greece) it's 21 days for the Pfizer vaccine, 28 days for Moderna and 8(!) weeks for the AstraZeneca one. That's how you can choose the vaccine you want, by selecting the dates on the platform. But it's been reported that we've been receiving more m-RNA vaccines (and Johnson) for quite some time now (due to a fallout between UK and the EU), thus the 8-week period between doses for the AstraZeneca.
Looks to me, and I’m no doctor or scientist, but no one really knows. It’s all been a massive mess, I’ve had the two vaccines now but it hasn’t filled me with confidence the more I see reported.
while I’m in this thread I may aswell have a little moan at the word jab. Have injections or vaccines always been referred to as jabs? Hearing someone’s been double jabbed or someone saying I’ve had my jab just doesn’t seem right to me, it’s all I hear now, jab this jab that, but again, what do I know.
Ah ok, I see. Doesn't exactly help promote trust though with all the mixed messages...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57682233
Interestingly when I rebooked online it didn't offer me anything in advance of the 8 weeks but it seems those that have had them after 4 are the ones who've been directly contacted by their doctors surgery. Again, mixed messaging.