Fantastic Vaccine Results in US

[mpeirce]

I read an article in the Post yesterday that explored the efforts underway to come up with a so called vaccine passport - credentials documenting that you were vaccinated. The EU is reportedly planning to require such credentials for travel within the EU.

I wouldn't be surprised if the EU requires these "passports" but I can't imagine the US doing so.

 

[mh]

Pressure may mount for people to get vaccinated whether they are skeptical or not.

I read an article in the Post yesterday that explored the efforts underway to come up with a so called vaccine passport - credentials documenting that you were vaccinated. The EU is reportedly planning to require such credentials for travel within the EU. Some employers will likely require employees to have such credentials or to wear masks. Risk/benefit analyses are subjective matters. I can visualize a lot of anti mask, anti vax folks lining up for their shots so they can get on a cruise ship.

I was wondering why the vax credential app thing wasn’t happening a while back. I’m glad it seems to be being adopted.

 

[JoeWras]

Very true and yet they've been rejected for use every time. This is the first time they've been approved. That to me is a little concerning. I have had my first shot though and get my second Friday.

"rejected" is a loaded word.

Many of the obstacles of mRNA vaccines are in the delivery method to assure that the vaccine is effective. For example this includes the cold storage requirements, although there are other issues too technical for me to understand.

It takes an extraordinary event like the pandemic to push through these issues.

 

[Out of Steam]

I wouldn't be surprised if the EU requires these "passports" but I can't imagine the US doing so.

Americans are far more likely to do what a corporation requires than what governments require. If their employer, hospital/physician, airline, or seeing their favorite sports team requires a vaccination, most will do it.

 

[tmm99]

In fact, we did hear about it with Astra Zeneca - even though the "danger" was marginal. We now have further data from millions of vaccinated subjects and no red flags are flying.

I hope you're right... Just yesterday, parts of Germany and Canada stopped giving AstraZeneca to people under 60 and 55, respectively.

What's scary to me is NACI initially said not to give AstraZeneca to people over 65. Then they said it's OK for everyone, and now they're saying it's not good to give to people who are 55/60 or younger... And this vaccine is not as effective as Pfizer or Moderna. Raise your hand if you want this vaccine! (I hear there are tons of un-used AstraZeneca in various countries at this point...)

 

[dirtbiker]

Very true and yet they've been rejected for use every time. This is the first time they've been approved. That to me is a little concerning. I have had my first shot though and get my second Friday.

This is not accurate at all, and is the type of thing that gets inaccurately passed along, and creates fear of the vaccine. This is still a new technology making steady progress with dozens of drug candidates in phase 1 and 2 trials currently in many different areas including vaccines, cancer, immunotherapy, cardiology, and genetic diseases. Steady progress includes some moving further along in trials, and others being reworked or 'rejected,' but it's certainly unfair to say "they've been rjected for use every time."

I am glad to hear you've had your first shot though.

 

[meierlde]

I was wondering why the vax credential app thing wasn’t happening a while back. I’m glad it seems to be being adopted.

Other than a desire to do it online, there already exists a system to handle this. If you have ever gotten a typhoid yellow fever or other vaccination, you may have gottena card or booklet that contains the vaccinations you have gotten,

Of course this is not digital but it does have space for extra vaccinations.

 

[Chuckanut]

I hope you're right... Just yesterday, parts of Germany and Canada stopped giving AstraZeneca to people under 60 and 55, respectively.

The UK has vaccinated millions of people with AZ vaccine. It's the most common vaccine in use in the UK. It's allowed the UK to easily vaccinate many vulnerable older people because it is not hard to store and use. It's extremely effective against serious disease and death. It's been a huge success.

The governing officials of Canada and the EU have bungled the vaccine rollout when compared to the USA, Israel and the UK. They may need a scapegoat.

 

[explanade]

Other than a desire to do it online, there already exists a system to handle this. If you have ever gotten a typhoid yellow fever or other vaccination, you may have gottena card or booklet that contains the vaccinations you have gotten,


Of course this is not digital but it does have space for extra vaccinations.

I think there are concerns about them being forged.

Apparently people have faked test results to enter countries for instance which require recent negative test results.

 

[explanade]

The UK has vaccinated millions of people with AZ vaccine. It's the most common vaccine in use in the UK. It's allowed the UK to easily vaccinate many vulnerable older people because it is not hard to store and use. It's extremely effective against serious disease and death. It's been a huge success.

The governing officials of Canada and the EU have bungled the vaccine rollout when compared to the USA, Israel and the UK. They may need a scapegoat.

But AZ has also bungled trial data repeatedly and have bungled the manufacturing.

 

[Al in Ohio]

I hear we have about 30,000,000 doses of the AstroZenica vaccine in storage waiting to be approved. That's enough to fully vaccinate another 15 million people.

We are going to donate that to other countries.

 

[beanctr88]

What does the group think about this scenario? I apparently was infected in March 2020 in New York right as the outbreaks started, right before the City went into shutdown mode, but was never symptomatic.

Since June 2020 I have donated convalescent plasma every 4 weeks and my blood has been tested for the antibodies 13 times that I am aware of, testing positive for the antibodies each time. I am A+ and feel that donating the plasma is my way of helping those who haven’t been as fortunate in fighting COVID off. My understanding is A+ people usually have more problems with COVID.

Being over 50, I am now eligible to get the vaccine. I am not against getting it, but once I get the vaccine I am ineligible to donate convalescent plasma and provide this help to others. To be clear, I get flu shots most years, have my Shingrix shots and am current on every vaccine for my age.

I have planned to get the vaccine all along, but am stymied as to what to do right now. Should I:
1. Get vaccinated as soon as I can get an appointment?
2. Delay my shots until many more people get theirs so my plasma can still help the hospitalized? If so, how to best decide how long to wait?

 

[REWahoo]

1. Get vaccinated as soon as I can get an appointment?

^ This.

You have already gone above and beyond and there is no need to risk the possibility you could get sick again from some other variant and spread the disease to others and/or have a very serious illness. Get vaccinated.

 

[gayl]

Recent CDC chart of weekly deaths per 100,000 people showing drastic drops in deaths in older age groups since January 2021. For age group 80+, weekly deaths have dropped from 61 per 100,000 to less than 1. For age group 65-79, weekly deaths have dropped from 16 per 100,000 to less than 1.

What a difference!

Thank you,, can you please post the link? I'm having trouble finding the graph. This is what i find: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow...iants-a-concern-for-unvaccinated-109180485623

 

[Alan]

^ This.

You have already gone above and beyond and there is no need to risk the possibility you could get sick again from some other variant and spread the disease to others and/or have a very serious illness. Get vaccinated.

+1

 

[Alan]

The UK has vaccinated millions of people with AZ vaccine. It's the most common vaccine in use in the UK. It's allowed the UK to easily vaccinate many vulnerable older people because it is not hard to store and use. It's extremely effective against serious disease and death. It's been a huge success.

17 million people in the UK have received the AZ vaccine and there have been 4 instances of this blood clot. Studies are underway to examine the possibility that it is a side effect but meanwhile the regulator is recommending continued use.

Drugs have side effects. Just try reading the information sheet that comes with a bottle of tylenol.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...e-to-receive-the-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca

A further, detailed review into five UK reports of a very rare and specific type of blood clot in the cerebral veins (sinus vein thrombosis) occurring together with lowered platelets (thrombocytopenia) is ongoing. This has been reported in less than 1 in a million people vaccinated so far in the UK, and can also occur naturally – a causal association with the vaccine has not been established.

The MHRA’s advice remains that the benefits of the vaccines against COVID-19 continue to outweigh any risks and that the public should continue to get their vaccine when invited to do so.

 

[audreyh1]

Thank you,, can you please post the link? I'm having trouble finding the graph. This is what i find: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow...iants-a-concern-for-unvaccinated-109180485623

Post #4 was kind enough to post the direct CDC link. You then have to click on age to get the OP graph.

Here's a link to the chart. You can hover over the chart to see the data points. The 3rd group is 55-64.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographicsovertime

 

[gayl]

Oops. Missed that. Sorry

 

[dirtbiker]

What does the group think about this scenario? I apparently was infected in March 2020 in New York right as the outbreaks started, right before the City went into shutdown mode, but was never symptomatic.

Since June 2020 I have donated convalescent plasma every 4 weeks and my blood has been tested for the antibodies 13 times that I am aware of, testing positive for the antibodies each time. I am A+ and feel that donating the plasma is my way of helping those who haven’t been as fortunate in fighting COVID off. My understanding is A+ people usually have more problems with COVID.

Being over 50, I am now eligible to get the vaccine. I am not against getting it, but once I get the vaccine I am ineligible to donate convalescent plasma and provide this help to others. To be clear, I get flu shots most years, have my Shingrix shots and am current on every vaccine for my age.

I have planned to get the vaccine all along, but am stymied as to what to do right now. Should I:
1. Get vaccinated as soon as I can get an appointment?
2. Delay my shots until many more people get theirs so my plasma can still help the hospitalized? If so, how to best decide how long to wait?

With regular positive testing for antibodies, you know you have the antibodies to fight the virus, so you are protected. To what degree, we are uncertain, unfortunately. However, if you have a high enough antibody count to donate plasma to be used to help others, reason would stand that you have a high enough antibody count to fight off an infection. It really is unclear whether the vaccine would provide you any benefit, other than as a travel passport, so to speak. If it were me (I can't donate blood because of military deployments to Europe during mad cow. lol), I'd probably wait to get it until I needed it for travel or other reasons... But I might also just go ahead and get it as soon as possible to avoid any possible future delays. Tough call.

 

[Aerides]

What does the group think about this scenario? I apparently was infected in March 2020 in New York right as the outbreaks started, right before the City went into shutdown mode, but was never symptomatic.

Since June 2020 I have donated convalescent plasma every 4 weeks and my blood has been tested for the antibodies 13 times that I am aware of, testing positive for the antibodies each time. I am A+ and feel that donating the plasma is my way of helping those who haven’t been as fortunate in fighting COVID off. My understanding is A+ people usually have more problems with COVID.

Being over 50, I am now eligible to get the vaccine. I am not against getting it, but once I get the vaccine I am ineligible to donate convalescent plasma and provide this help to others. To be clear, I get flu shots most years, have my Shingrix shots and am current on every vaccine for my age.

I have planned to get the vaccine all along, but am stymied as to what to do right now. Should I:
1. Get vaccinated as soon as I can get an appointment?
2. Delay my shots until many more people get theirs so my plasma can still help the hospitalized? If so, how to best decide how long to wait?

That's a really good unique question. And yeah convalescent plasma is good to donate...BUT, if you pass on the vaccination you may still catch Covid again (since it's been a year?) and then pose a risk to those around you. IE, a risk that may outweigh any benefits of your personal donation.

I'd probably get the vaccine, and gamble for FDA guidance to change re plasma in a few months once they know more.

(I'm a rare blood type but no longer eligible to donate anything since I didn't leave the UK until 1982, and they still have the mad-cow guidance blocking me...)

 

[Time2]

17 million people in the UK have received the AZ vaccine and there have been 4 instances of this blood clot. Studies are underway to examine the possibility that it is a side effect but meanwhile the regulator is recommending continued use.

Drugs have side effects. Just try reading the information sheet that comes with a bottle of tylenol.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...e-to-receive-the-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca

What I have heard about the blood clot numbers, Yes, people got blood clots after a vaccine, however, the incidence of blood clots in the AZ group was lower than for people in the general population. The "expert" I heard hinted at, but didn't want to say, the vaccine might be protective of blood clots. I will add, it wasn't much lower.

 

[audreyh1]

More great vaccine news!

Pfizer and BioNTech say vaccine prevents Covid-19 in adolescents (ages 12-15)

Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday that their Covid-19 vaccine prevented symptomatic disease and was well-tolerated in a Phase 3 study of adolescents ages 12 to 15.

The companies say they will submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration as an amendment to the vaccine’s emergency use authorization, and will also submit the results to other regulators around the world.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/31/pfizer-covid19-vaccine-adolescents-data/

This is particularly good news and timely, as the 13-17 year old group seems to be particularly vulnerable at catching and spreading variant B117. Also, the US probably can’t reach herd immunity without at least a good chunk of children vaccinated.

 

[garyt]

This is not accurate at all, and is the type of thing that gets inaccurately passed along, and creates fear of the vaccine. This is still a new technology making steady progress with dozens of drug candidates in phase 1 and 2 trials currently in many different areas including vaccines, cancer, immunotherapy, cardiology, and genetic diseases. Steady progress includes some moving further along in trials, and others being reworked or 'rejected,' but it's certainly unfair to say "they've been rjected for use every time."

I am glad to hear you've had your first shot though.

Rejected may be a poor choice of words but the fact is they've been studied for many years and never put into use. I'll try to find the article I read on it and post it.

 

[dirtbiker]

Rejected may be a poor choice of words but the fact is they've been studied for many years and never put into use. I'll try to find the article I read on it and post it.

I should have been more clear in my post, but drugs not going onto FDA approval while being studied is completely normal. On average, a drug takes 12 years to go from pre-clinical testing to FDA approval. Of drugs in the pre-clinical testing phase, only 1 in 1000 ever make it to human testing. Only 1 in 5 of those get FDA approval, which means that only 1 in 5000 drugs ever go from pre-clinical to FDA approval. And take into account that mRNA drugs/vaccines are an entirely new class of medications, with the potential to revolutionize pharmacologic treatment of many diseases, and their track record looks even better.

 

[Alan]

More great vaccine news!

Pfizer and BioNTech say vaccine prevents Covid-19 in adolescents

https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/31/pfizer-covid19-vaccine-adolescents-data/

This is particularly good news and timely, as the 13-17 year old group seems to be particularly vulnerable at catching and spreading variant B117. Also, the US probably can’t reach herd immunity without at least a good chunk of children vaccinated.

Excellent news indeed. I had not heard that yet.