Covid-19 Updates & Info

[ti-amie]

P1

[Suliso]

What may save you, but not us is high vaccination rates in US. The most vulnerable are already protected. Most countries in EU are going up already or at a plateau. Again UK probably in the best position due to high vaccination rates.

[Suliso]

By the way it's (expletive) that EU low vaccination rates compared to US/UK are because of slowness of signing contracts. The real reason is that US/UK keep all vaccines produced in their countries to themselves there as EU does not. If they did Canada would have 0% vaccination rate right now as they have no capability of making their own and Israel success story wouldn't have happened either for the same reason. Maybe we should have been more greedy...

[ti-amie]

[Deuce]

By the way it's (expletive) that EU low vaccination rates compared to US/UK are because of slowness of signing contracts. The real reason is that US/UK keep all vaccines produced in their countries to themselves there as EU does not. If they did Canada would have 0% vaccination rate right now as they have no capability of making their own and Israel success story wouldn't have happened either for the same reason. Maybe we should have been more greedy...

I have heard that the U.S. currently has significantly more doses than they need to vaccinate the entire population, including the 2 doses where required. And they won't share. If true, this is indeed mighty greedy.
I don't know if the same is true of the U.K.

The U.S. has just agreed to LEND a tiny portion of their overstock to Mexico and Canada (2 Million and 1 Million doses of AstraZeneca, respectively)...

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

This is awful and also shows why you can't condemn an entire state because of a few loonies (the jury is out on Florida though)

[JazzNU]

Saudi Arabia, UAE expand COVID-19 vaccination drive

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and neighbouring United Arab Emirates said on Sunday health authorities have expanded COVID-19 vaccinations to all citizens and residents aged 16 and above as Gulf states race to bring the virus under control.

Riyadh said the health ministry will start inoculating its population aged 16 and above with Pfizer vaccines, while its citizens and residents aged of 18 and above will have Astrazeneca shots.

It did not provide further details.

The government said on Saturday around 3 million vaccines had been distributed across 500 vaccination centres.

The UAE, the region’s commercial and tourism hub and a global travel centre, has set a blistering pace for its vaccine rollout to keep its economy open for business. It ranks second globally behind Israel for doses per 100 people.

The Emirati health ministry urged its citizens and residents aged 16 and over to register for COVID-19 vaccinations, a statement published on state media late on Saturday said. The move, it said, comes after nearly 73% of elderly Emiratis, residents and those with chronic diseases have been vaccinated.

The country is providing four types of vaccine free of charge.

The UAE’s daily COVID-19 cases surged to nearly 4,000 in late January from about 600 in September after Dubai opened its doors to visitors during the peak winter tourism season.

The rate has fallen after authorities tightened restrictions at public venues but stopped short of imposing new lockdowns. Some restrictions have since been eased but mask-wearing in public and social distancing are still required.

The UAE, which does not give a breakdown for each of its seven emirates, registered 2,013 new infections on Saturday to take its total tally to 438,638 with 1,433 deaths.


Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by David Goodman and David Evans

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN2BD06T

[JazzNU]

Third dose of Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine needed for some in UAE after low immune response

by Paul Schemm


DUBAI — A "very small number" of people in the United Arab Emirates are being invited to receive a third shot of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine after antibody tests indicated they did not have a sufficient immune response following two doses of the Chinese-made vaccine, its distributor confirmed Sunday.

There have also been reports out of China of people being initially unresponsive to the vaccine and requiring additional doses.

Walid Zaher, the chief researcher for G42 Healthcare, which distributes the Sinopharm vaccine in the UAE, told Dubai Eye radio that a study was underway to give some people third doses.

“When some people are found to be not really responsive to the vaccines, which is expected with all vaccines, there was an initiative to approach these people and give them a third shot of the Sinopharm vaccine, which has shown, within the context of the study, to boost their immunity,” he said.

Zaher said anyone with low levels of antibodies after a test could ask their doctor to contact health authorities and an appointment would be made for them to have another dose, but generally it’s the officials that approach the person.

He likened the third shot to a flu booster shot and said the amount of people who need it is a “very small number.” The need for a third shot was first mentioned March 10 to the National newspaper by the spokeswoman for the country’s health sector, Farida al-Hosani.

Doctors told the Wall Street Journal there were cases of people with little or no antibody response after two doses of Sinopharm.

The revelations could raise doubts about the effectiveness of the vaccine, which is being widely used around the world as countries scramble to inoculate their populations. Many of the more effective Western-made vaccines have been snapped up by wealthier nations.

The Sinopharm vaccine has a self-reported efficacy rate of 79 percent, which global health experts say is more than adequate, but its data has not been publicly released. In addition to the UAE, the vaccine has been purchased by countries such as Egypt, Cambodia, Senegal and Peru.

In China, over the weekend, medical authorities also announced that a clinical pathologist had become infected with the coronavirus despite being vaccinated weeks earlier. They did not specify which vaccine she had used, but her facility is known to administer the Sinopharm one.

“Perhaps she needs to get a third shot as the two doses of inactivated vaccine had failed to create enough antibodies in her,” Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state broadcaster China Central Television on Saturday. “Or she is one of the few who happen to be unresponsive to the vaccine.”

The UAE has distinguished itself with an aggressive vaccination program that initially used Sinopharm, which conducted Phase 3 trials in the country, and was later expanded to include Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Russia’s Sputnik V.

Nearly 73 percent of the elderly population and 56 percent of all adults have received at least one vaccine dose, authorities said Saturday.

As of Sunday, everyone in the country is eligible for a vaccine, authorities said, after restricting injections for the past six weeks to those with special needs.

The UAE has the second-highest national vaccination rate in the region after Israel, with more than 7 million doses given to a population of 9 million. The vaccine is free to all citizens and residents.

The UAE saw an explosion of new coronavirus infections in January after tourists from all over the world flocked to Dubai, which had marketed itself as a restriction-free holiday destination.

The number of new daily cases quadrupled to nearly 4,000 in January and only now has dropped down to about 2,000 new cases a day.


Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mi ... story.html

[Suliso]

In Israel 81% of adults have received at least one dose of vaccine and 71% have been fully vaccinated. All of them with Pfizer vaccine.

With most adults vaccinated, Israel’s large inoculation centers start to close

As pace slows, Tel Aviv shuts major sites; focus shifts to smaller communities as health providers run mobile units in various places with low rates of vaccination

With the vast majority of Israelis age 16 and up already vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, big vaccination centers in the country’s main cities have started to close as the focus shifts to smaller, mobile stations in smaller communities.

More than 5.1 million of Israel’s 9.3 million population have received at least one vaccine dose, and over 4.5 million have gotten both shots.

With at least 3 million others unable to get inoculated since they are under the age of 16, the vaccination pace has slowed down dramatically since those who want to get vaccinated have mostly already done so.

A massive vaccination center at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square has been taken down, with works on a planned light rail planned to begin there next month, the Globes business daily reported.

The huge tent complex run by the municipality along with the city’s Ichilov hospital has been used by the Maccabi and Meuhedet health providers to inoculate many thousands of residents.

Another big center at a stadium in northern Tel Aviv is also being closed down, as sports events are slowly returning. It wasn’t immediately clear what would be done with the large vaccination centers set up in Jerusalem. Health providers will now give vaccines in some of their existing clinics.

In addition, health providers and the Magen David Adom ambulance service have shifted their focus to small, mobile vaccination centers in different places every day, with focus on communities where immunization rates are relatively low, particularly in predominantly Arab locales.

Those who have recovered from COVID-19 at least three months ago can also get a (single) vaccine dose.

Officials have said vaccination of kids under the age of 16 could possibly begin in the summer, if trials show the shots are safe for them.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-most ... lose-down/

[JazzNU]

Just curious. Is there a European country that you think would have agreed to share data with Pfizer the way that Israel has? I'm rather amazed at that aspect.

But I'm also shocked at countries like the UK taking the manufacturer's word for their research. We've got so many class actions here because you can't trust what they tell you, we've been down that road before. There are people here who won't take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for love or money. I'm sure you're thinking it's because of the efficacy numbers, but no, it's because J&J's talcum powder sickened or killed their sister, cousin, or friend.

[Suliso]

Remember that the particular vaccine was discovered at Oxford. Trust in their own premier university is probably high. At least in Switzerland we don't seem to have such an adversarial relationship with our own pharma industry. In Basel in particular they employ close to 30k people and pay very well.

Not sure about data sharing, but also health systems tend not to be as centralized as the one in Israel. UK perhaps, but I think Pfizer preferred a smaller country.