VAKCINA

Sotir wrote:

ćaća wrote:Takođe ljudi ovde prilično pizde kako je moguće da su i Sanofi i Institut Pasteur zajebali istraživanje sopstvenih vakcina.

Онако статистички, на глобалном нивоу мислим да је преко 50% вакцина које су развијане успешно прошло или на путу да прође верификацију. И то су све успеле скоро из првог покушаја, за мање од годину дана.
И то је више него одличан успех.

buffalo bill wrote:

23 January 2021

Our worst policy error
With its disastrous vaccine procurement policy, the EU committed the ultimate mistake: it has given people a rational reason to oppose European integration.

buffalo bill wrote:

23 January 2021

Our worst policy error
With its disastrous vaccine procurement policy, the EU committed the ultimate mistake: it has given people a rational reason to oppose European integration.

By Wolfgang Münchau


It looks like I might have been a bit premature when I predicted that austerity would go down as the EU’s worst policy error during my lifetime. In one sense this prediction from the time of the eurozone crisis will probably turn out to be correct. Austerity triggered economic divergence that will be hard to reverse.

But the EU vaccine’s policy must be a close contender for that title. As of January 22, the EU had vaccinated only 1.89% of its population, whereas the UK vaccinated 9.32%. Moreover, the daily rate of increase is faster in the UK. UK vaccinations not only started earlier, the gap is still widening.

You can't blame logistical errors. What happened is that the EU did not secure enough vaccines. That, in turn, slowed down the pass-through. The Commission's headline numbers are not deliveries. Already in November, the head of Moderna warned that the EU was dragging out negotiations. AstraZeneca, which is distributing the Oxford vaccine, said deliveries to the EU will take longer than previously anticipated. Pfizer, which distributes the German BioNTech vaccine, is now warning the EU of supply bottlenecks because of problems with a production site in Belgium.

What happened here is that the EU did a Brexit trade deal with the pharma industry: it tried to lock in a perceived short-term price advantage at the expense of everything else. Instead of prioritising the speed and security of supplies at any price, the EU prioritised the price. The EU paid 24% less for the Pfizer vaccine than the US, for example. For the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the price gap is 45%. The UK almost certainly paid a lot more. It is no wonder that the manufacturers are prioritising orders on a first-come, first-serve basis, and from countries that pay the full price. The price difference is macroeconomically irrelevant. But if vaccine shortages lead to longer lockdowns, the indirect effect of that short-sighted policy will be massive.

At one point, the cost of this policy error will also be measurable in terms of human lives. This is not possible now because we don’t know the future spread of the virus. We know that the UK mutant has arrived on the continent, but has not yet unleashed its full pandemic force. In the most benign scenario, the current lockdown might prevent the worst. In the worst case scenario, the vaccination delay would be a calamity that could costs tens of thousands of lives.

So why did EU governments shift responsibility for vaccination procurement to the EU in the first place? Angela Merkel reasoned that it would have strained EU cohesion if Germany had procured privileged supplies of the BioNTech vaccine. What she did not consider is that the EU is ill-equipped for this task. To this day, the EU's DNA is that of a producers' cartel. Its priority is not to secure supplies, but reduce costs and achieve some balance between French and German interests. Triangulation is what Brussels does for a living. Whatever-it-takes is not part of its culture.

On a broader perspective, the vaccine disaster is the culmination of a trend that started with the Maastricht Treaty. Until then, the EU did only a few things well: the customs union, the Schengen travel zone, and to a lesser extent, the single market. The EU's competencies have progressively widened since, but the results are mostly disappointing. In the early 2000s, the EU obsessed about the Lisbon Agenda for structural reforms, which brought few concrete benefits. Nor did the Juncker investment programme a decade later. The vaccination disaster differs in only one respect: it will be blamed for the loss of human lives.

There will undoubtedly be calls for resignations. But for me, the more important issue is the conclusions EU citizens will draw from it. For starters, the EU has just provided a hindsight argument in favour of Brexit. The UK would not have proceeded with vaccinations as quickly if it had subjected itself to the same policy. The last thing the EU ever wants to do is give people a rational, non-ideological reason for euroscepticism.

It has just done that.

NEW: AstraZeneca refusing to attend a meeting with EU officials planned for this evening - according to Commission

Instead they will respond in writing to EU Health Commissioner @SKyriakidesEU demand for more information

— Darren McCaffrey (@DarrenEuronews) January 27, 2021

Летећи Полип wrote:

Erős Pista wrote:
 Brexit sad zaista izgleda kao racionalna odluka.

Uh, u poslednje vreme baš nešto slabo vidim. Ako možeš ovo nekim malo većim fontom.

boomer crook wrote:ne mislim da su SAD na aparatima ali da ce biti ono EU ce se pozeleti trampare ali trampare nece biti. dugorocno bajden moze da bude gori za EU.

buffalo bill wrote:What happened here is that the EU did a Brexit trade deal with the pharma industry: it tried to lock in a perceived short-term price advantage at the expense of everything else. Instead of prioritising the speed and security of supplies at any price, the EU prioritised the price. The EU paid 24% less for the Pfizer vaccine than the US, for example. For the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the price gap is 45%. The UK almost certainly paid a lot more. It is no wonder that the manufacturers are prioritising orders on a first-come, first-serve basis, and from countries that pay the full price. The price difference is macroeconomically irrelevant. But if vaccine shortages lead to longer lockdowns, the indirect effect of that short-sighted policy will be massive.

#WarOnCovid
What the world can learn about immunity from Israel’s vaccine rollout

Israel's extraordinary vaccination program has provided a wealth of information about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and it's impact.

By Abigail Klein Leichman  JANUARY 27, 2021, 7:00 AM

More than 1.3 million Israelis have already received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.

The extraordinarily fast and organized vaccination campaign in Israel is unmatched per capita anywhere in the world.

By design, this fast rollout is providing Pfizer – and the rest of us – with the first critical real-world data on brand-new mRNA vaccines.

This type of vaccine instructs cells to make a “spike” protein that triggers the immune system to produce antibodies against the matching spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.

“Pfizer knows the data they will get from Israel is good and accurate. They see our rate of vaccination is very efficient so they can report post-marketing data to the FDA quickly,” says microbiology expert Dr. Natan Keller, vice-chairman of Sheba Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board Committee and past president of the Israeli Society of Infectious Diseases.

FDA emergency use approval for the Pfizer vaccine was based on a study of 24,000 vaccine recipients and 24,000 placebo recipients, says Keller.

Israel now has data from more than 2.7 million who got at least one dose and the number increases by about 100,000 per day.

ISRAEL21c gathered information from local experts and national health-maintenance organizations (HMOs) on what Israel has learned about the vaccine and its efficient distribution.

We will continue to keep you updated as new data emerges, and as the Moderna mRNA vaccine comes into use in Israel.

VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS

What we know

Pfizer-BioNTech’s studies showed the mRNA vaccines to be about 95 percent effective within a certain amount of time after the second dose.

“We know Pfizer’s data was quite accurate,” says Keller. “Effectiveness is in the high 90s after the second dose — Pfizer says eight days, but I recommend 14 days for full immunity.”

Studies from the Clalit and Maccabi HMOs support Keller’s recommendation. Even so, Maccabi saw a 60% drop in Covid-19 hospitalizations among members aged 60 and over as little as two days after the second dose.

“Based on our data, we know most people infected after the first dose were infected within the first two weeks of vaccination,” says Keller. “We also know that statistically, the disease is less severe in the vaccinated [even one dose] than in the non-vaccinated.”

Indeed, Maccabi reported that although 20 members got infected with Covid-19 after the second dose — out of 128,600 in total – they experienced only mild symptoms and recovered at home.

Also encouraging was a Sheba study that found employees who received both doses had more antibodies against the novel coronavirus than did recovered Covid-19 patients.

What we don’t know

“For now, nobody knows how long the vaccine protects,” says Keller. “We may need updated vaccines every year or two.”

Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of Sheba’s Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit, and her staff will follow up for more than a year with vaccinated volunteers to continue studying the interaction between the virus and the vaccine.

Regev-Yochay said it is unlikely that vaccinated people can still spread the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others, but that’s not yet proven.

Nor is there scientific data supporting some countries’ decision to delay administration of the second dose due to high morbidity and vaccine shortages.

“Waiting longer might be better, the same, or it could be worse,” says Ella Sklan, PhD, of Tel Aviv University medical school’s department of clinical immunology and microbiology.

“Since 21 days between doses in the Pfizer trials and 28 days in the Moderna trials were the only conditions tested and proved efficient, any deviation from these schedules is an experiment,” Sklan tells ISRAEL21c.

“That’s why most health agencies do not recommend delaying the second dose. However, for other vaccines, though with different mechanisms of action, you can give the second dose half a year later and they work fine.”

SIDE EFFECTS

“Israel’s public health system has special software developed years ago for very efficient vaccination logistics and follow-up on side effects,” says Keller.

“In general, vaccine side effects are extremely rare. With the Covid vaccine, mostly people have been reporting minor side effects from the first dose when they come for the second dose,” he says.

These effects are mainly soreness or pain at the injection site in the arm, which passes after a day or so.

“This comprehensive data is from medical staff or people above age 60, so we know most of the real side effects and it seems quite safe including minor side effects,” concludes Keller.

VACCINE VS. MUTATIONS

“Right now, the virus has infected almost 100 million people in the world and that creates a lot of chances for mutations to emerge,” says Sklan.

However, she adds, “We see only one to two mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome per month — which is not a lot compared to other viruses. Most mutations don’t cause any recognizable change in the virus and some actually harm the virus. It’s rare that a mutation gives a virus an advantage.”

She and Keller agree with experts who assume that the existing vaccines will be effective against most new variants.

“The mRNA vaccines [from Pfizer and Moderna] contain the sequence coding the spike protein — a large protein made up of 1,273 amino acids in a 3-dimensional structure,” Sklan explains.

“The antibody response generated by the vaccine is against multiple areas on the spike protein. Thus, if there are mutations, for example in 10 amino acids, we assume it will have some impact on the effectiveness but will not completely block the ability of the antibodies to neutralize the virus. In addition, aside from antibodies, we have other immune components that can attack the virus as well.”

HERD IMMUNITY

Achieving herd immunity — indirect protection that occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population has immunity — depends on the number of infections in a community and other factors, says Sklan.

“But it will be difficult to stop infections if a large proportion of the population, such as children, are not vaccinated,” she adds.

Pfizer’s vaccine is approved for ages 16 and over; Israel has started vaccinating 16- to 18-year-olds. The pharma company is now doing trials on 12- to 16-year-olds. The Israeli government may be the first country to consider vaccinating children under 16 who are at high risk of if they get infected. For now, Sklan says, no vaccine developer is testing in children under 12.

“The only thing we can do, until the vaccine is approved for younger age groups, is get as many people as possible vaccinated in the age group that can get it, because that will lower the number of infections in the general population, the number of severe Covid-19 patients and the probability of the emergence of new variants.”

Israel’s Health Ministry is now advising pregnant women to [get] vaccinated, citing several severe Covid-19 cases in pregnant women and “no evidence of harm resulting from vaccination during the entire pregnancy.”

Dr. Ran Balicer, epidemiologist and chief innovation officer for Clalit Health Services, and an adviser to the World Health Organization, recently tweeted, “If we can reach 60% [vaccination] coverage by March, viral transmission will likely be heavily disrupted and transmission dynamics considerably changed for the better.”

VACCINATION LOGISTICS

SYN-RG-Ai Integrative Solutions used its expertise in crisis management to help Israeli government agencies accomplish a swift and efficient rollout of the Covid vaccines.

“Israel’s vaccine campaign was so successful because the Israeli government used the day-to-day apparatus of our HMO system that touches every citizen,” says Col. (Ret.) Avi Cohen, cofounder of SYN-RG-Ai.

“Great logistics won’t help if people don’t come,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “In Israel there are few who do not want to take the vaccine, compared to 40% in some European countries.”

Full research and clinical data from Pfizer and Moderna were provided to primary-care physicians in the HMOs. These physicians were the first to get vaccinated as an example to their patients.

Logistics were adjusted for each place. For example, in towns with inadequate transportation options, minibuses were available to take people to the nearest city to get vaccinated.

SYN-RG-Ai is advising several foreign governments and hopes to bring the Israeli model to other major cities, states and nations.

Cohen advises every country to put vaccination logistics into the hands of trusted organizations that work closely with citizens day to day, such as community volunteer groups.

“If you operate through the strongest and most trusted such group in each area, it works,” Cohen says.

LOOKING AHEAD

Even as more data comes in on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, Sheba’s Keller says preventive measures of masks, social distancing and handwashing remain essential.

“Because there are always some people who will not get vaccinated — or who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons including that they are under 16 or in chemotherapy, or immune deficient — it is very important not to stop taking precautions for many months,” he says. “We have a responsibility to protect them too.”

Clalit’s Balicer added that precautions also are necessary because no Covid-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective. “There is no complete protection,” he said.

Marius Lăcătuș wrote:hejluje taj hack koji su kinezi uradili sa umrtvljivanjem živog virusa.
kaže da je tehnološki zbog tog hacka najteže da se napravi.

There are two significant advantages with these inactivated [virus Chinese] vaccines that should greatly impact our vaccine distribution program in the Philippines.

First, these vaccines can be stored in a standard refrigerator at temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, and can remain stable for up to 3 years. This would make distribution of these vaccines in the Philippines substantially cheaper and easier as compared to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which require a supercold or an ultracold chain with freezers at temperatures of -70 to -80 degrees Celsius.

Second, in principle, these inactivated vaccines should be more resilient and should be more effective against any and all SARS-CoV2 variants than the Western vaccines. Why? The Pfizer, Moderna, and AZ vaccines are composed of one part of the virus called the Spike protein. The most significant mutations in the SARS-CoV2 variants change this Spike protein, making these variants more able to escape the Western vaccines. Just a few days ago, there was a worrisome report that the South African 501.V2 variant lowers the effectiveness of antibody-based drugs against COVID-19, suggesting that this variant will lower the efficacy of the Western COVID-19 vaccines.

In contrast, these Chinese vaccines introduce the entire inactivated virus into vaccinated individuals. Novel virus variants of SARS-CoV2 would have to change everything about themselves to escape these inactivated vaccines. The probability of this happening is vanishingly small. Therefore, these vaccines would be valuable weapons against COVID-19, especially in light of the growing concerns with the B117 variant from England and the 501.V2 variant from South Africa.

Margit Savović wrote:Vozila sam slalom od maja sa koronom i mogla sam da nastavim tako jer ovaj virus iskustveno mene konkretno moze za kiku da povuce.

A plant where doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are produced and stored has been evacuated after receiving a suspicious package.

North Wales Police said officers were at Wrexham Industrial Estate in Ash Road, Holt.

Vaccine producer Wockhardt UK said: "Upon expert advice we have partially evacuated the site."

First Minister Mark Drakeford said he was working with police and the military to find out more.

Police said a cordon had been put in place near the Wockhardt plant and the public have been asked to keep away.

There are no reports of any injuries.

The BBC understands that the bomb disposal unit is on site.
...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-55822838