I have heard some quite interesting discussions on TV yesterday re the effect of first shot immunity also for the other vaccines. One of the things that stuck out to me is that apparently there may be benefit in delaying the 2nd shot by a month or so, as the immunity from the first shot is quite significant and the response to the 2nd shot is even more effective if more time goes between the shots, along with much less pronounced side effects on the 2nd shot.
Not sure if that is what the docs present here read as well, but it may well have a positive effect on the shortages, if we could focus on getting the first shot on as many folks as possible and add the 2nd shot once we get more vaccines.
there may be benefit in delaying the 2nd shot by a month or so, as the immunity from the first shot is quite significant and the response to the 2nd shot is even more effective if more time goes between the shots, along with much less pronounced side effects on the 2nd shot.
Yes; this is correct for the AZ one, where 3 months seems to be a good time – even though the original trial didn’t say that. This has been known in the UK for some time. For the Pfizer one, this period seems less, IIRC, and 3-4 weeks is probably a better period.
Yes a 3 month wait has a dramatic effect on vaccine availability; it almost doubles your supplies for the first 3 months of the vaccination implementation. Countries which don’t implement this and want to vaccinate with AZ will run out of supplies much sooner.
Peter wrote:
Countries which don’t implement this and want to vaccinate with AZ will run out of supplies much sooner.
And then there are those who shun AZ and others who are now out. Like Switzerland.
The way I see it, we vaccined about 400k people and keep the rest of the vaccines for them to get their 2nd shot. The next batch for about 500k people may be delivered for use in April or May. Which means as a “normal” citizen, I don’t think we will see any vaccinations this year at the rate we are going.
At the same time, they are now crumbling to the pressure of right wing interest groups and will relax measures significantly, all that while Germany and France are tightening up to prevent the 3rd wave triggered by the UK and SA mutations, so we are sure to get a full third wave. Right now, we have about 1300 per day (on an 8 million population) and I suspect we shall be up at 10k again pretty sharpishly in mid to end of March.
I’ve never felt this let down by this country before to this extent. The whole thing is a total disgrace.
Czech Republic is breaking ranks too along with Hungary, on non-EU-approved Sputnik vaccine
Here in Brighton they are starting the over-50s and are looking for anyone who wants it. The NHS boking site is here and it doesn’t seem to filter by age so anybody can try it. They don’t want to publicise this too widely because the opposition and the media will kick up a stink about disadvantaged people elsewhere in the country. I don’t know why this extra space… could be a lot of anti-vaxxers in (fashionable) Brighton.
I don’t think the A-Z vaccine uses nanospheres, it’s a traditional vaccine. I’ve had it and am now past the 3 weeks for full activation of first dose. No problems at all.
BUT: only nanosphere vaccines are connected with Bill Gates, which is why my W10 computer is as slow as ever. Angela probably has the same problem and thought waiting would be worthwhile.
Serbia is also happily vaccinating with Sputnik 5.
While here we are now looking at April or May to finish vaccinating our old people.
I would not be surprised if a lot of Serbians will flock back home to get vaccined rather than sit tight here.
The latest debate (and their are trials underway) is the combination of a vaccine from one manufacturer, followed by a different vaccine for the second.
If this is found to be effective or more effective it will not help the stance taken by the EU, assuming always of course they are any closer to securing sufficient supplies for the second round.
The second round considerations are perhaps sometimes forgotten. It is all very well having enough for the first round, but I suspect politically you will be on the receiving end if you cant follow up on the second round, so not only do you need to secure enough supplies to operate a proper roll out, you need enough for the second phase as well.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
It is all very well having enough for the first round, but I suspect politically you will be on the receiving end if you cant follow up on the second round, so not only do you need to secure enough supplies to operate a proper roll out, you need enough for the second phase as well.
In the UK we are now only 4-5 weeks away from the point where all these people who had their first jabs at the rate of 300k-500k per day will have their second jabs (12 weeks later) fall due.
We will need twice the supply and twice the capacity in order to maintain our first jab rate.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
It is all very well having enough for the first round, but I suspect politically you will be on the receiving end if you cant follow up on the second round, so not only do you need to secure enough supplies to operate a proper roll out, you need enough for the second phase as well.
This was reportedly the reason for the slow rollout in the US, as the second doses were kept in reserve as their supply wasn’t guaranteed. My understanding is that’s resolved by now.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00183-5/fulltext
This is quite an interesting summary of the possible driving factors of the resurgence in Manos.
Early days to know which of the 4 is having the greatest effect.
