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Covid-19 #30: Vaccines and All That JJAZ


Fragile Bird

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18 minutes ago, Padraig said:

Its a fair question.

I suppose you'd have to see what these people explicitly said.  The politico article reported that the European Council President had said that the "U.S. had imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory."  Despite everything, this could be true.  Because didn't somebody previously say that this EO still allowed for the export of vaccine, as long as Biden (or some US department) approved it?

No, it flat out says no exports until there is enough vaccine for all Americans who want to be vaccinated, and that decision can’t be made by Biden, but by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Administrator of the US Agency of International Development, the Chief Executive Officer of the  US International Development Finance Corporation, the Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of the US, and the heads of other agencies, who “shall facilitate international access to United States Government Covid-19 Vaccines for allies, partners and others, as appropriate and consistent with all applicable laws”.

35 minutes ago, Padraig said:

Rather than lies, obfuscation.

No, that would be lies, plain old lies.

37 minutes ago, Padraig said:

We don't know how much AZ the EU got.  It may have only gotten the same amount as Canada.  Just earlier.

But yes, I imagine you are right that EU having J&J to trade probably helped.

Canada got 1.5 M doses, Mexico got 2.5 doses. The amount found in Italy was a lot more than that, 29 M doses.

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5 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Canada got 1.5 M doses, Mexico got 2.5 doses. The amount found in Italy was a lot more than that, 29 M doses.

That's a different story. :)   There is so much going on!

Most of those 29m was produced in Halix in the Netherlands (not the US).  Halix is mentioned in the politico article.  It's output was stored in Italy until Halix was approved by the EU in late March.

5 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

decision can’t be made by Biden, but by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Administrator of the US Agency of International Development, the Chief Executive Officer of the  US International Development Finance Corporation, the Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of the US, and the heads of other agencies, who “shall facilitate international access to United States Government Covid-19 Vaccines for allies, partners and others, as appropriate and consistent with all applicable laws”.

That's a lot of people but they must have approved the transfer of AZ vaccine to Europe then?  Unless those people deny it, I don't see why we wouldn't believe the politico article.  The US gained from the transaction too.

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So if 60 M AZ doses are supposed to be available, does that mean that they have tested the AZ doses being held back at the Emergent plant and they’re ok? Or does it mean they hope the millions of doses at the plant might be ok? Or does it mean they assume the personnel J&J have placed in the plant are going to turn things around very quickly and get millions of doses rolling off the slow line that AZ has been put on (they took the manufacturing off the fast line)? Or will they be from Catalent?

I wonder how soon we’ll find out.

And my brother told me a man who received the J&J vaccine has had a cerebral blood clot. Just in time for the announcement that vaccinations would resume. Or was it one of the first vaccinations administered since the restart?

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1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

Surprise, surprise!

The story, already hundreds of years long, but never out-of-date, of insider trading, or something like.

You weren't surprised, but I have to admit I was, at least a teeny bit.

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I've just turned on the tv for the first time since early this morning, and what do I see scroll by at the bottom of CNN's page? US embassy staff in India finally got vaccine doses two weeks ago. Embassy staff in Europe and elsewhere got vaccine doses months ago, but India? 

Amazing.

No vaccine doses for India meant no vaccine doses for India, right?

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In my area, now people 60 ys or older can try and get vaccinated. Pluspeople working in medical institutions, supermarkets and the like. Nobody is allowed to choose which vaccine (because shortage). It's not my turn yet, but if this is still the case when it is, I'm unsure what to do. 

I just watched a podcast waxing poetic about Biden's empathy and I'm ready to swing a pitchfork. (Yeah, it's nice he'll finally share the AZ at least, I guess.)

And I know there are countries much worse off, which is why an empathetic person would lift the patent protections, but alas...

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1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

I've just turned on the tv for the first time since early this morning, and what do I see scroll by at the bottom of CNN's page? US embassy staff in India finally got vaccine doses two weeks ago. Embassy staff in Europe and elsewhere got vaccine doses months ago, but India? 

Amazing.

No vaccine doses for India meant no vaccine doses for India, right?

Also, 

"Two die and more than 100 test positive in coronavirus outbreak among US diplomatic staff in India"

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/politics/us-diplomatic-staff-coronavirus-india/index.html

Quote

US personnel, family members and locally employed staff in India only began receiving their Covid vaccines within the past two weeks, one of the sources said. Within the past six weeks -- even as India's case rates were ticking up and staff had not yet been vaccinated -- there were two high-level trips by Biden administration officials to the country.

From an internet search this has been going on all winter and fall in Asian nations, that US diplomatic staff members are getting sick, sometimes dying.

 

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I got my first shot earlier today.  Waiting to see if any side effects hit me.  They said I couldn't leave for fifteen minutes and gave me a cool sticker like the "I Voted" ones.  Also got a goodie bag with treats and a pen.  Second shot will be in a month. 

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Two news on vaccine issues today

One is related to our beloved AZ vaccine

Apparently a number of scientists are suspecting that other components than the vector or its payload are causing the issues. It can be the preservatives or it can be residual proteins from the vector creation process. The two possibilities are concerning, specially the last as it would point to something wrong in their quality control process. But the flip side of the coin is those problems might be fixable.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/do-preservative-and-stray-proteins-cause-rare-covid-19-vaccine-side-effect

 

The second is related to the Sputnik vaccine. Brazil has rejected it, citing lack of information, transparency and concerns about its safety. The WTF part is they found that the viral vectors in the second dose (a different vector than the first one) can reproduce. Yes, you are reading correctly. Somehow, those Ad5 virus were able to replicate. when they shouldn't! This problem was found in all samples examined.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/brazil-health-regulator-rejects-russia-s-sputnik-vaccine-1.5403539

There are few technical technical details at the moment. In my layman understanding of the things the part of the adenovirus genes that makes them able to reproduce is deleted and the code for the SARS-CoV-2 spike is inserted instead. If the adenovirus were able to replicate in the lab, they should have also ruined the cell cultures where they were grown. WTF!

 

 

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A bit more news regarding the Emergent plant that produced J&J and AZ vaccines

This one might interest you Bird.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/more-than-half-canadas-astrazeneca-vaccine-came-from-u-s-plant-accused-by-fda-of-quality-control-problems

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/21/health/fda-emergent-johnson--johnson-vaccine-bn/index.html

It seems that the FDA is keeping close watch of that plant.

---

Regarding the Sputnik. I think it's fair to say they are having problems with the production of the booster shot (the Ad5 part of the vaccine). The signs are there for all the world to see. The news from Brazil are just the confirmation. First, we got the news of the "Sputnik Light", basically using only the prime shot (Ad26), much like the J&J vaccine. Second, there was in the news just yesterday that the interval between the shots can be increased up to three months to increase efficacy. It seems to me they are not being very transparent and using these announcements as way  to gain time.

They should just team up with CanSino (an Ad5 vaccine) and be done with it.

 

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Several of our friends back in Chicago are Indian and they’ve told us that COVID is just rampant now in India.  They all have family members and friends back home who have just recently been infected.  That sounds more alarming than I expected because their per-capita infection rate is about the same as what the US had a couple of weeks ago.

One of our friends flew back home for a week to be with her mother, who was hospitalized (and lucky to get a hospital bed because she was early in this wave).  Our friend was vaccinated already, but she also brought along her 3yr old daughter.  And now the 3yr old has returned to daycare in Chicago with no quarantine period.  I know kids are at much lower risk of transmitting but that sounded irresponsible.  Our friend said that well-off Indians are rushing to the airports right now.

I hope the situation there doesn’t accelerate further.

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In more positive news, my wife got her second Moderna shot on Friday.  She had flu-like symptoms all day Saturday but then felt normal again by Sunday.

I just got my second Pfizer shot.  I have a really busy week, so I’m just hoping I can still power through the Zoom meetings tomorrow.  We’ll see.

edit: unfortunately, the nurse told me today that the flow of people has really slowed already at the vaccination site.  That’s a concern.

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6 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

The WTF part is they found that the viral vectors in the second dose (a different vector than the first one) can reproduce. Yes, you are reading correctly. Somehow, those Ad5 virus were able to replicate. when they shouldn't!

Does that mean that one is being infected with an actual live virus?  An adenovirus is a cold virus.  So you are being given a cold?  Or am I misinterpreting that?

Sputnik is certainly maintaining the adenovirus curse.  I don't think Slovakia has sorted its issue with Sputnik neither.

6 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

Apparently a number of scientists are suspecting that other components than the vector or its payload are causing the issues. It can be the preservatives or it can be residual proteins from the vector creation process. 

Hmm.  Hopefully they can figure it out.

Ireland has now made AZ available to over 50s, as well as over 60s.  J&J will be the same.  We are very conservative here but it could have been worse.  And its possible that the age restriction could be reduced further if new data comes in.  J&J will also be allowed for the hard to reach (e.g. homeless) at any age.  Hopefully now that this is all cleared up, we can start making rapid progress.

Not sure will this be paywalled but this New Yorker article goes deep into the J&J question.  15 women and 1 man (but the man was affected in the trials) have being affected.  The gender imbalance is way worse than the AZ situation.

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

unfortunately, the nurse told me today that the flow of people has really slowed already at the vaccination site.  That’s a concern.

Indeed.

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Also, faux noose Tucker Carlson tells his millions to attack people wearing masks outdoors (and indoors too) because seeing people in masks is uncomfortable for the viewer, it's unscientific, and it's aggressive to others and it's just like exposing oneself -- just like you know, in Britain, the equivalent Karens at lockdown/mask protests are wearing yellow stars because wearing a mask and distancing in a pandemic that kills people is just like being Jewish in nazi germany.

One wonders if India will experience the same sort of death toll from this pandemic as it did during the Great Influenza of 1918-22?  17-18 million died, which number doesn't include all those who got ill, or those who suffered long and often permanent effect from getting it -- and those were at least as awful as long haul covid and the other conditions that are affecting patients here.

As for the rich Indians leaving India, well, of course -- that's what rich people do, everywhere and every time.  Beyond that though:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/04/india-covid19-moral-failure/618702/

India Is What Happens When Rich People Do Nothing
The chamber of horrors the country now finds itself in was not caused by any one man, or any single government.

by Vidya Krishnan
 

Quote

 

...India’s experience of the pandemic will be defined by this enormous second wave. But the chamber of horrors the country now finds itself in was not caused by any one man, or any single government. It is the greatest moral failure of our generation.

India may be classified as a developing or middle-income country, and by international standards, it does not spend enough on the health of its people. Yet this masks many of India’s strengths in the health-care sector: Our doctors are among the best trained on the planet, and as is well known by now, our country is a pharmacy for the world, thanks to an industry built around making cost-effective medicines and vaccines.

What is evident, however, is that we suffer from moral malnutrition—none of us more so than the rich, the upper class, the upper caste of India. And nowhere is this more evident than in the health-care sector.

India’s economic liberalization in the ’90s brought with it a rapid expansion of the private health-care industry, a shift that ultimately created a system of medical apartheid: World-class private hospitals catered to wealthy Indians and medical tourists from abroad; state-run facilities were for the poor. Those with money were able to purchase the best available care (or, in the case of the absolute richest, flee to safety in private jets), while elsewhere the country’s health-care infrastructure was held together with duct tape. The Indians who bought their way to a healthier life did not, or chose not to, see the widening gulf. Today, they are clutching their pearls as their loved ones fail to get ambulances, doctors, medicine, and oxygen.

I have covered health and science for nearly 20 years, including as the health editor for The Hindu, a major Indian newspaper. That time has taught me that there is no shortcut to public health, no opting out from it. Now the rich sit alongside the poor, facing a reckoning that had only ever plagued the vulnerable in India....

 

Pretty much the same thing right here in River City, er, the USA.

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