Covid 19 aka Coronavirus

[alan.barker]

Hindsight mmmm but it's still with us.
Just had my 7th jab.
So easy and like the Flu jab free and why not. Another jab which for me is a good idea for Shingles.
Alan

[mark030358]

Interesting that there is a “Class Action” regarding the Astra Zenica vaccine, rushed out by the UK govt. it had allegedly only a 3% chance of preventing you catching the virus. And was released with a government indemnity against prosecution. That’s Tories for you ehhh?

Cheers

[englishmaninwales]

Class action being taken. Must therefore be an ineffective product
The class action is around safety for thrombosis and thrombocytopenia in younger age groups not the overall efficacy.
Might be wise to await the outcome before spouting off. (It’s spelt Astra Zeneca BTW).

Cheers.

[UAB807F]

I don't know where the 3% number comes from, I seem to recall the results showing over 70% for the first jab, increasing after the second dose. Compared with some of the annual Flu vaccines, that's pretty impressive.

And it's easy to be clever in hindsight. I do have some experience of drug development and apart from actually finding something that works, the next problem is trials. First is getting a good cross section of volunteers and then you have timescale, the longer you trial, the more chance you have of finding side effects.

Get in your Tardis and pop back to 2020. Everyone in the world was screaming for a vaccine after seeing the rise in deaths. The Tories weren't the only party pushing to get AZ manufacturing a vaccine, everyone else was just the same and not just the UK, the whole world was after something.

So the government indemnity was given because they realised that these vaccines (not just AZ but Pfizer, etc) were coming out with much shorter testing than any of these companies would have preferred. But deaths were rising and regardless of the colour of the resident in #10, they had to do something. And it wasn't just the Tories, the WHO also backed the AZ vaccine which, as you might have forgotten, was manufactured on a non-profit basis in the early days unlike the other players.

Yes, side effects arose and some were badly affected. The distribution age groups were changed as knowledge grew about the effects in younger people, that's what you would expect to happen.

Brian

[Spyder fan]

Ah! early 2020, what an interesting time that was.

So many new things to get used to

1) keep 2 metres apart
2) wear a mask when in the shops
3) stay at home and only go out for 1 hour for exercise.... did that include the shops?
4) work from home unless you were a builder or a medical worker or anyone associated with supporting medical workers and builders. They were called Key workers.... I sold locks for a living so that made me a Key worker
5) when you got to the shops you had to observe the 1 way system, no going back if you missed something, you had go all the way round and start again.
6) they didn't allow you to shop in pairs, so I missed out on all those snacks I used to sneak into the trolley
7) Your phone became your friend with all those delivery apps
singing happy birthday whilst washing your hands became an OCD experience
9) realising that politicians really are corrupt
10) thinking 1 year after the first lockdown when we had sort of got used to bending the rules or finding the boundaries that there was no way we would ever be so compliant again.

The above written with all due respect to those that lost loved ones or had a very tough time during the covid lock downs, I'm truly sorry for anyone who lost a loved one due to covid or was prevented from being with a loved one when they were at the end of life due to this awful pandemic.

[mark030358]

Class action being taken. Must therefore be an ineffective product
The class action is around safety for thrombosis and thrombocytopenia in younger age groups not the overall efficacy.
Might be wise to await the outcome before spouting off. (It’s spelt Astra Zeneca BTW).

Cheers.

You are quite right about the effects with younger cohorts and this indeed is part of the action. However the actual the efficacy is/was allegedly closer to 1%. As for effective product, the “LOL” you use is very apt. No more comments from me, let’s see where ther apples fall.

But I think we can say with relative certainty we had a corrupt (PPE) and poor government dealing with this pandemic.

Regards

Mark

[The Veg]

My professional experience: I'm a field service engineer (fancy title for a traveling repairman) for a manufacturer of analytical instruments used in plastics-factories. In March/April of '20 there was a three-week period during which I didn't go anywhere. But them once our customers figured-out their protocols for having people in their buildings, things got balls-to-the-wall-busy and stayed that way until fairly recently. When all the restaurants went to carry-out service only, they used containers made by our customers. All those medical supplies suddenly needed? Lots of plastic in those. People fixing their cars and houses? More plastic. And so it goes. I did coast-to-coast flights with a mask on, tested weekly, completed a million health-questionnaires, etc. Here's hoping we never have to go back to all that.

[elanfan1]

I’m classed as vulnerable and I’ve recently had my eighth jab. I’m grateful for them as the 2 bouts of covid I’ve had have been mild. Not nice sitting waiting for them to turn nasty which luckily they didn’t. First bout acquired in hospital around March 22 comprised sneezing and runny nose I had no idea I was positive. Second bout in August 23 acquired in a dialysis unit where my wife also caught it despite religiously wearing a mask. This was worse Than the first.

Mask wearing in dialysis has only recently been dropped. My wife still wears hers, many of the nurses still do but it’s not enforced. I had a hospital appointment earlier this week most weren’t wearing masks. There seems to be little in the news about it. It’s still about but there’s little concern.

[UAB807F]

However the actual the efficacy is/was allegedly closer to 1%. As for effective product, the “LOL” you use is very apt. No more comments from me, let’s see where ther apples fall.

Mark, can you show me where you've found this 1% number from ? It's so ridiculously low that it's hard to believe organisations such as the WHO, BMJ, Lancet, etc all backed the AZ vaccine.

IIRC the minimum efficacy of 50% is required for approval and from what I recall the AZ one was lower than Pfizer and later Moderna vaccines, but still over 70% ?

Brian

[englishmaninwales]

Class action being taken. Must therefore be an ineffective product
The class action is around safety for thrombosis and thrombocytopenia in younger age groups not the overall efficacy.
Might be wise to await the outcome before spouting off. (It’s spelt Astra Zeneca BTW).

Cheers.

You are quite right about the effects with younger cohorts and this indeed is part of the action…

…Regards

Mark

I know that, thank you! You seemed to imply in your original post it was about efficacy.

Malcolm