Tag: covid vaccination

Categories : COVID General Interest VaccinesTags :

After Receiving Vaccine, Queen Elizabeth Encourages Others

On By ModernMedia

After receiving her COVID vaccine, Queen Elizabeth encouraged those who were wary to think of others and do the same.

She and Prince Philip received their vaccine in the initial wave of vaccinations for the elderly in the UK. Prince Philip, 99,  is currently in hospital for a non-COVID related illness. There are concerns about the health of her husband Prince Philip, but the palace says that he is responding to treatment, but likely to remain in hospital for a few more days.

“Once you’ve had a vaccine you have a feeling of you know, you’re protected which I think is very important and as far as I could make out it was quite harmless,” the 94-year old monarch queen said in a video call with health officials supervising inoculations across the UK.

“It was very quick, and I’ve had lots of letters from people who have been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine. And the jab – it didn’t hurt at all,” she added, likening the virus to a plague.

Earlier this week, the UK’s vaccine minister said that 11% to 15% of people were hesitant about receiving a vaccine, especially among minority groups.

“It is obviously difficult for people if they’ve never had a vaccine because they ought to think about other people other than themselves,” said the queen.

She praised the “remarkable” Britain’s rollout of the vaccination, one of the world’s fastest. Other members of the royal family including Prince Charles and his son Prince William, have been visiting vaccination centres over the last two weeks to convey their thanks to staff and volunteers for their work.

Data from Public Health England suggest that the vaccines are 80% effective in preventing serious COVID in the elderly.

Source: Reuters

Categories : COVIDTags :

Ghana Receives First Vaccines from Covax

On By ModernMedia

Wednesday was a day to celebrate in Ghana as the country took delivery of the first 600 000 vaccines from the Covax inoculation scheme for poorer countries. According to the AFP, some 217 million people have been inoculated so far. 

The Covax scheme, which is led by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations , is seeking to ensure low and middle-income countries equitably receive vaccines. head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cheered on the first delivery of the Covax vaccines with an enthusiastic tweet.

“At last!” he wrote. “A day to celebrate, but it’s just the first step.”

Healthcare experts had long been warning that global access to vaccines was necessary to put an end to the pandemic. Thus far, some 112 million people (and likely more, especially in Africa) have been infected with COVID and 2.4 million people have died from the disease. The recession has caused millions of job losses, and set back development in many areas.

The delivery of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines was broadcast live on Ghanian TV, and will be administered in Ghanaian cities from Tuesday. About two billion doses are expected to be distributed this year under the Covax scheme, although it is unclear if this goal will be met, given the difficulty many advanced nations have experienced in getting vaccines. The European Union, for example, has suffered setbacks in deliveries from AstraZeneca and Pfizer. EU member nation Hungary has meanwhile decided to forge ahead with its own vaccine acquisition, ordering five million doses from Chinese firm Sinopharm, and this week began its first vaccinations.

The Ivory Coast is set to receive the next batch from Covax later this week. 

Source: Eyewitness News

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Confusion Results in Vaccine Priority for ‘6.2cm’ Tall UK Man

On By ModernMedia

As a result of an error at his GP surgery, a healthy man aged 32 was offered an early COVID vaccination because his height was recorded as 6.2cm – giving him a calculated Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28 000.

Liam Thorp, political editor at The Liverpool Echo’s, said he was left “really confused” after he was offered the vaccine ahead of the government’s rollout, sharing the “frankly surreal” experience in a Twitter thread.  Vaccinations are not expected to begin until later in the year for the UK’s under-50s without underlying health conditions, perhaps as soon as March.

Manchester Evening News politics and investigations editor, Jennifer Williams, replied: “Should they not have been in touch before to see how the man the size of a thumb was getting on?” And palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke said: “This, for me, is the single best tweet of the entire pandemic, Liam. And may I please commend your decency in not exploiting your remarkable BMI to jump the queue?”

Despite being “on the chunky side”, Thorp didn’t think of his himself as obese. He said he was “uneasy”, thinking that he still ought to accept the invitation for vaccination, he contacted his GP about the situation whereupon he learned of the error which resulted in his height being recorded as 6.2cm – a mixup of his height as 6ft 2in (188cm). This resulted in his bizarre BMI of 28 000.

“If I had been less stunned, I would have asked why no one was more concerned that a man of these remarkable dimensions was slithering around south Liverpool. But he was very apologetic and really nice and I think he was just relieved that I found it so funny,” recalled Thorp.

Dr Fiona Lemmens, chair of NHS Liverpool clinical commissioning group, said: “I can see the funny side of this story but also recognise there is an important issue for us to address.”

Source: The Guardian

Categories : COVID Medical IndustryTags :

Over Half of SA Has Had COVID, Says Discovery CEO

On By ModernMedia

From the number of excess deaths in South Africa, it appears that over half of South Africa has been infected with COVID at least once.

The CEO and founder of the Discovery Group, Adrian Gore, has said in an interview on 702’s The Money Show that he believes over half of the South African population has had COVID. He believes that there is “absolutely no ambiguity” that the “sky high” excess death rates recorded in SA are attributable to COVID. He said that the excess deaths point to over 50% of the SA population having been infected with COVID so far.

The latest data released by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) puts the number of excess deaths in SA over the course of the pandemic at 137 731 – nearly triple the official death toll from COVID. Nearly 5000 Discovery members and 12 staff members have died. 
Last week, SA National Blood Service released a study showing that 32% of people in the Northern Cape up to 63% of people in the Eastern Cape had contracted COVID. Gore said that this high infection rate would hopefully reduce the impact of the third wave predicted to arrive in the colder winter months.

“We are hoping that a third wave may take longer and might be less because we think the infection rate has been high.” He said, adding that if the first and second phases of vaccination targetting healthcare workers and vulnerable individuals was completed by mid-year, a third wave might be completely avoided.

He said that young, healthy people who can afford a vaccine should not be able to get one before those who were older and more vulnerable. “Not following this process would mean low-risk people get vaccinated before the clinically vulnerable, resulting in unnecessary illness and death. This cannot and should not happen,” he said in a Linkedin post.

He also refuted the rumour that Discovery was not paying contributions towards non-members’ vaccinations. In fact, he said on The Money Show, that medical aid schemes have extra cash to pay for this since members had been going for fewer treatments during the pandemic. This amounts to some R24 billion in surplus, as revealed by regulatory filings, which would be right in the middle of cost estimates for SA’s entire vaccination programme as opposed to the 30% amount that medical aid companies were being expected to contribute.

Source: Business Insider

Categories : COVIDTags :

Real-world Results for Pfizer Vaccine Match Trials

On By ModernMedia

Encouraging results have been reported from Israel, where the real-world efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine closely matches that seen in clinical trials.

Israel has engaged in the world’s most aggressive COVID immunisation schedule, with some 30% of its population vaccinated by late January with at least one dose.

Israeli health fund Clalit matched 600 000 vaccinated individuals to an equal number of unvaccinated individuals. Those who were vaccinated experienced a similar rate of positive COVID tests as was observed in clinical trial data, equating to a 94% effectiveness. Crucially, almost no severe cases of COVID were observed in vaccinated individuals. This pattern was also seen in the over-70s age group, which is generally underrepresented in trials.

Public health doctor Prof Hagai Levine said that high vaccination coverage of the most susceptible groups was key. However, he said that he could not give an answer as to what number needed to be vaccinated before containment measures could be eased. 

“We still don’t know what the impact is on transmission,” he said. But he added that “the vaccine is useful for personal protection”.

The greatest drop in cases was seen in the over 60s age group, and in areas which had been vaccinated, indicating that this was not the result of lockdown. However, many people still remain unvaccinated, resulting in tens of thousands of cases. Prof Segal noted that the fall in cases was not as rapid as had been hoped, due to the B.1.1.7 or UK strain becoming dominant in Israel.

“We still have to exit our lockdown very cautiously,” he warned, or else hospitalisations would spike again.

The fact that the same rate was observed in clinical trials is important news for other countries, which are watching to see the effects of Israel’s vaccination programme.

Source: BBC News

Categories : COVIDTags :

SA to Expedite 80 000 Doses of J&J Vaccine

On By ModernMedia

South Africa will accelerate the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it has been reported.

SA has secured orders for 9 million doses of the vaccine, of which the first 80 000 are expected to arrive in the country next week. Since immunity with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is achieved with a single dose, this will be enough for 9 million people in South Africa, barring some inevitable wastage. Results from clinical trials in South Africa show that the vaccine has an effectiveness of 57%, 28 days after vaccination.

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, University of Cape Town, who was involved in a South African trial last year, explained that there is a delay between the results of a clinical trial and the licence being granted for commercial use. She has urged the need for rapid vaccine rollout, and had also tested positive for COVID herself along with her family during the festive season. As a stopgap measure, an interim vaccination plan with 80 000 doses will be put into action at 32 locations around the country.

Explaining the programme, Prof Bekker said: “Can we together bring this expedited plan forward so that we can make sure we, as quickly as possible, rollout phase one recipients – mainly healthcare workers – into a kind of emergency programme.”

Prof Bekker describes the expedited rollout as being different to a clinical trial.

She continued, “This is not clinical research in the clinical trial concept; it really is programme evaluation, and many eyes are on it at the moment to make sure that we have covered all aspects – ethical, safety and scientific. We will not move without those approvals.”

Source: Eyewitness News

Categories : COVIDTags :

Wrong Syringes in Japan Will Waste Millions of Vaccine Doses

On By ModernMedia

When it begins inoculations, Japan will lose millions of vaccine doses because of a lack of the ‘low dead space’ syringes needed to extract the maximum number doses from each vial.

Japan had ordered 144 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine on the assumption that each vial equated to six doses. Low dead space syringes leave less vaccine in the syringe after injection, especially around the base of the needle, and result in minimal wastage. However, since low dead space syringes are in short supply in that country, regular syringes will have to be used which can only withdraw enough vaccine for five doses. This will result in the wastage of up to 24 million doses of vaccine.

“The syringes used in Japan can only draw five doses,” health minister Norihisa Tamura said, quoted by the Kyodo news agency. “We will use all the syringes we have that can draw six doses, but it will, of course, not be enough as more shots are administered.”

In large-scale vaccination programmes, the wasted vaccine in each vial becomes an issue. Skill is a factor in preserving the vaccine, but the amount of dead space in a syringe and the achievable accuracy also has a significant effect. One study showed that the amount that can be withdrawn from each vial can vary by as much 42% depending on the type of syringe used.
The US and EU have also reported shortages of low dead space syringes, and this may result in competition and supply shortages.

Japan is set to begin the first round of inoculations with 10 000 to 20 000 healthcare workers, and from there giving priority to other healthcare workers and vulnerable individuals. Inoculations for those aged 16 to 59 are not expected to begin until July.

Source: The Guardian

Categories : COVID PoliticsTags :

EU Demands AstraZeneca Vaccine Produced by UK Plants

On By ModernMedia

In another twist to the EU’s seemingly never-ending vaccine procurement problems, the EU health minister has demanded that vaccine production from AstraZeneca’s UK operations be sent to EU countries to make up for the company’s shortfall at its two European plants. 

EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides dismissed AstraZeneca’s argument that it the UK take precedence.

“We reject the logic of first come, first served,” the commissioner declared. “That may work at the neighbourhood butcher’s [shop] but not in contracts and not in our advanced purchase agreements. There’s no priority clause in the purchase agreements.”

The Anglo-Swedish company had triggered fury in Brussels when it was revealed that it would only be able to deliver 25% of the agreed vaccine doses when they received approval as expected this Friday. However, AstraZeneca assured the UK government that it would meet its commitment of supplying 2 million doses a week. UK government sources insisted that only once AstraZeneca had fulfilled its order to provide the UK with 100 million doses would its vaccine production be allowed to be released to serve other countries.

The EU meanwhile is flagging far behind, with only 2% of its adult population vaccinated compared to 10% of the UK’s. Kyriakides pointed out that in its contract with AstraZeneca, four European plants were listed as suppliers and two of those were located in the UK, and she expected them to work for EU citizens.

An AstraZeneca spokesperson said: “Each supply chain was developed with input and investment from specific countries or international organisations based on the supply agreements, including our agreement with the European commission.

“As each supply chain has been set up to meet the needs of a specific agreement, the vaccine produced from any supply chain is dedicated to the relevant countries or regions and makes use of local manufacturing wherever possible.”

Kyriakides said the argument was unacceptable, emphasising that the company had a moral duty to treat the EU similarly to the UK, adding that there was no “priority clause” that would justify UK residents benefiting first from doses made there.

Germany meanwhile has said that it is facing 10 weeks of vaccine shortage.
However, there is encouraging news as Israel reported a 92% effectiveness with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outside trials. Only 31 of 163 000 Israelis caught COVID within ten days of the innoculation reaching its full strength. None were hospitalised.

Source: The Guardian

Categories : COVIDTags :

Sceptical South Africans Want More Vaccine Info

On By ModernMedia

Professor Carin Runciman, Director of the Centre for Social Change at UJ, has said that most people who are sceptical about COVID vaccines simply want more information. 

An online survey of 10 000 South African adults conducted with the Human Sciences Research Council showed that 67% were likely to take the vaccine if it were offered to them. Runciman said that many of the participants had indicated that they wanted more information before they could decide to take it.

Government and scientists came for criticism recently for giving mixed messages about vaccines, which are a few days away from their first rollout in South Africa. With the first million doses arriving in SA from the end of January, an ambitious target of 31 000 vaccinations a day has been announced, though with few firm details. The majority (70%) of the vaccines are to be AstraZeneca, although given their delays in supplying the EU and the bloc’s subsequent restrictions on vaccine exports, that may impact on SA’s vaccination programme.

Opinions also differed according to age and race. In a very strange result, those with higher levels of education were less likely to want to take a vaccine than those with a lower level. Age and race also played a factor, although no explanation was offered for the discrepancy. “Black African adults were more likely to want to take the vaccine – 69% for black African adults, 55% for white adults – those who [are] older are more likely to want to take the vaccine compared to those that are younger. Those that have a less than matric education are much more likely to want to take the vaccine than those with a tertiary education.”

Source: Eyewitness News

Categories : COVIDTags :

EU to Restrict AstraZeneca Exports to Tackle Vaccine Shortage

On By ModernMedia

In response to AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine production and delays, the European Union has warned that it will tighten exports of the company’s vaccine to countries outside its borders.

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides warned it would “take any action required to protect its citizens”, adding that she had requested detailed delivery schedules and a meeting next week with the company. She added that “in the future, all companies producing vaccines against Covid-19 in the EU will have to provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries”.

The vaccine, developed by Oxford University and the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, is still yet to be approved in the EU but should receive it by the end of January, with distribution set to start on the 15th of February. The EU has been suffering from a number of vaccination programme setbacks, including a previous announcement last week from Pfizer that its own deliveries were being delayed in order to upgrade manufacturing capabilities at a plant in Belgium, provoking ire amongst EU politicians. Italy’s PM has resigned over handling of the pandemic.

The EU had signed a deal in August to secure 300 million doses from AstraZeneca, with an option for another 100 million. Last week, AstraZeneca had announced a slowdown in delivery due to “reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain”. The problem is thought to be from a manufacturing plant also in Belgium, which is run by an AstraZeneca partner firm. The exact size of the shortfall is not known but some believe it to be a drop of 31 million doses, or 60% of those meant to be delivered by the end of the quarter.

Where this leaves low and middle-income countries counting on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines is unclear, but it certainly will add to mounting tension between countries seeking vaccines for their populations amidst the spread of more contagious COVID variants. President Cyril Ramaphosa warned in an address to the World Economic Forum that vaccine nationalism was a growing concern and threat to global recovery. The African Union’s vaccine task team has thus far managed to secure only 270 million doses.

Source: BBC News