COVID Vaccine !

[Venod]

Came via email from my employer (the NHS)

So i wonder if this is only for NHS staff, there will be a lot of people (the wife and I included) who have had the first Pfizer jab, our 12 weeks are not up until May.

 

[midlife]

So i wonder if this is only for NHS staff, there will be a lot of people (the wife and I included) who have had the first Pfizer jab, our 12 weeks are not up until May.

I'm not sure. The plan was to hold enough Pfizer vaccine behind so all could get their second Pfizer jabs while moving over to AZ. Don't know if the Pfizer vaccine has a sell by date even stored at minus 70 and that is the reason for stopping?

 

[bitsandbobs]

You persist in not answering the points about the ownership of these vaccines and who has contracted to receive them under what contractual terms. I'd also be careful about chucking terms like nationalistic and populist around.
I'm no fan of boris but I haven't really noticed much in the way of triumphalism over the UK's performance vis a vis europe.

You haven't been paying attention then!

 

[Ajax Bay]

Slightly different topic but this just came through. Seems like we have run out (are running out) of Pfizer vaccine and second jabs will be AZ..... Covid vaccinations Please note that the last second doses of the Pfizer vaccination will be given out at XXXon Friday 2 April and at XXX on Sunday 4 April. If you had the Pfizer vaccination as your first dose and do not yet have an appointment for your second dose, please contact the vaccination team using the contact details below. If you book for a second dose after those dates, you can still receive the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine.​

So I wonder if this is only for NHS staff, there will be a lot of people (the wife and I included) who have had the first Pfizer jab, our 12 weeks are not up until May.

Last month they started a trial to see whether mixing doses made a difference to effectiveness, called the Com-COV study, but it was not due to report (interim findings) till June iirc: Comparing COVID-19 Vaccine Schedule Combinations – Com-COV
@Venod - @midlife (in JCVI Gp 2 - Healthcare worker) had his first jab on 7 Jan and his second on 11 Mar (9 week gap). Hospitals will differ but most of the NHS in JCVI Gp 2 will have had their first jab by 25 Jan. If his 'gap' experience is typical, 9 weeks from there is 29 Mar.
Of course it may just be a 'hurry up' communication in his hospital.
It may be this is just for NHS frontline staff and the great unwashed will be given the same make of vaccine for their second dose [Edit:] (and giving NHS staff Oxford-AZ as the second dose whatever is husbanding the Pfizer stock for that and mitigating anticipated supply fluctuations).
The Pfizer supply will have stabilised by May, @Venod . The Oxford-AZ vaccine supply is more secure in the face of EU shenanigans as it's coming from UK (Keele, Oxford and Wrexham). The UK took a calculated risk to not leave millions of Pfizer doses on the shelf for the second jab, and is feeling that squeeze. The supply of Pfizer (total 40M) was spread across Q1 and Q2, and aiui, into Q3.
Interesting to see that, implicitly, the (presumably very well informed, by science if not data/evidence) judgement is that it's better to go with a different second dose (at 12 weeks) rather than extending the 12 week gap, or that supply of Pfizer is uncertain in April.

 

[mjr]

Just like the UK has the legal means to stop the export of lipids from the UK, without which the Pfizer plants in the EU will grind to a halt.

Great plan, in as far as mutual destruction ever is, except that Pfizer also buy lipids from Canada (and the US but that goes to US plants) and there are two more licensed producers being built in Germany which should be ready soon, and the Janssen vaccine is expected in a few weeks.

I do have sympathy with the argument that the UK should come to an accommodation with the EU given their respective positions, but the EU's crass approach to the whole issue is unlikely to facilitate that.

Nor is the UK's. No one comes out of this well.

 

[mjr]

The EU is not following a collective approach. It still wants to vaccinate the young and healthy of the EU before the elderly of Brazil or Ghana or Bangladesh. It's just a different kind of 'nationalism'.

I suspect you would have objected even more if the EU started vaccinating people abroad before Europeans!

 

[classic33]

I suspect you would have objected even more if the EU started vaccinating people abroad before Europeans!

This is something not limited to one country or even countries. It's global. The sooner all those that can be vaccinated, are vaccinated, the better.

I realise you feel as though you've not been included, under 50 years old. But what about those who look at the countries where production is taking place, wondering "Will we ever see any of it?"

There's even countries stopping them getting the help they need, solely to make a political statement. Countries aren't producing the vaccine. Companies within those countries are.

Pfizer are seeing final testing and packing done done at one of it's plants in ireland. It's either passing through the UK, 62 corridor, or passing over the UK, twice.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I still find the idea that the SII (Pune, India) is shipping vaccines to the UK oddly odd. Surely these supplies are needed not just in India but in adjacent countries.
I have previously speculated that AZ may wish to send its vaccines from India to the UK so that it can send batches produced in UK factories to the EU. Note that the AZ-EU contract prohibits supply from factories other than those in the EU or in the UK (Clause 5.4 in the contract) so this would be neat (if inefficient) arrangement but would likely be acceptable to the UK, effectively satisfying the terms of the AZ-UK contract (no, I have not seen it).

 

[midlife]

That's my wife's AZ first jab done at local practice. Went super smooth, camper van with awning in middle of the car park with cars going round it on a one way system. Arrived for appointment on time and a few minutes later all done

 

[potsy]

That's my wife's AZ first jab done at local practice. Went super smooth, camper van with awning in middle of the car park with cars going round it on a one way system. Arrived for appointment on time and a few minutes later all done

Just back from having mine too, 3 mile walk there and back, all very efficient and friendly.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Looks like Moderna for me !

 

[mjr]

Looks like Moderna for me !

Ooh get you, designer drugs(!) Oxford's not good enough for you?

 

[MrGrumpy]

Well....... more a case of all you older folks have snaffled the AZ !! Btw I’m only assuming as the second doses are now being pushed out now

 

[AuroraSaab]

Had ours the other day. OH had no side effects, though we both felt tired in the evening. Next day he was ok, I had a slight headache all day. Queued for 5 minutes and asked to wait in the car for 15 minutes afterwards. Had the AZ one.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Looks like Moderna for me !

A couple of moons ago I posted the (carelessly published) Scottish supply graph: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/covid-vaccine.267960/page-152#post-6311862 We can assume the other nations' supply profile mirrors it.
That shows small amounts of Moderna supply from W2 April for 4 weeks and then double (bitd to allow second jabs at the 28 day point) til the graph's end date. But I assume that the 12 week gap will be used for the mRNA Moderna vaccine as well, so that will allow double the number to receive earlier first doses, with second doses not required till early July. The UK ordered 17M doses of this the most expensive vaccine and supply is spread Q2-Q4 2021.
The EU has had Moderna supplies since mid January.