The vaccines | vaxxed boosted unvaxxed? New poll

How's your immunity looking? Had covid - vote twice - vax status and then again for infection status

  • Vaxxed but no booster

  • Boostered

  • Still waiting in queue for first vaccine dose

  • Won't get vaxxed (unless I have to for travel/work etc)

  • Past infection with covid + I've been vaccinated

  • Past infection with covid - I've not been vaccinated


Results are only viewable after voting.
That bad huh? My aunt got the Pfizer she's been sick ever since too. Guess that means the vaccine is working.

I remember reading somewhere that if you get sick after the first shot chances are you've had the rona. I think it was about the AZ vaccine, not sure if the same applies to Pfizer as well.
That’s the one I took :nervous:
 
From experience, seemingly pretty rare. When a family member of mine was in hospital, the doctors thought he had it and half the doctors in the place came down to see him as a live GBS case. Was a complete merry-go-round.
So 3 people getting it a week or so after getting the vaccine might be related..

Even if it is, its 3 known cases in about 3m doses (3m by the end of Jan/early Feb)..
Looks like all 3 were Covishield ... which is the Oxford/AZ vaccine.
 
My girlfriend had her vaccine yesterday morning. Was fine yesterday, though woke up feeling rough and has been vomiting this morning. Any advice on the best thing to do/ get her to ease the symptoms?
Rest and rehydration would be the starting point.

Do you know which one it was? I think Pfizer had more instances of vomiting than the others, but as long as it doesn't get worse and she can avoid getting dehydrated, it should fix itself in a day or so.
 
Saw this in my news feed.
karnataka: Two hospitalised over rare disorder days after taking jab

so I googled to see if there was any more coverage of it.
there was another article.. from Himachal.. (different state.. way to the north of India)
‘Himachal health worker’s death not due to jab’


So 2 separate articles of 3 people.. in a couple of days...

No clue what GBS is.. How rare is it?

It’s very rare. Worth bearing in mind that the AZ studies were paused because of demyelinating adverse events and this would be one of the biggest safety concerns about these (or any) vaccines.

To put things in perspective, GBS has a baseline incidence of 1 in 100,000 per year. So when you vaccinate millions of people you can expect that at least some of them will have got GBS by now, whether or not the vaccine is causative.
 
It’s very rare. Worth bearing in mind that the AZ studies were paused because of demyelinating adverse events and this would be one of the biggest safety concerns about these (or any) vaccines.

To put things in perspective, GBS has a baseline incidence of 1 in 100,000 per year. So when you vaccinate millions of people you can expect that at least some of them will have got GBS by now, whether or not the vaccine is causative.
I know I've mentioned it before, but I had demyelination after Hep A and Typhim vaccines given at the same time. I never got a firm diagnosis, but my muscle weakness was only on my right side, so that in itself ruled out GBS (which I believe has bilateral symptoms).
 
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Rest and rehydration would be the starting point.

Do you know which one it was? I think Pfizer had more instances of vomiting than the others, but as long as it doesn't get worse and she can avoid getting dehydrated, it should fix itself in a day or so.
Was Oxford/ AZN. She's improving already, with some rest and paracetamol, so exactly as you've said. Thanks.
 


This obstinacy on this point is something else, it's from all levels too
 
I'm in an age grouping that means I'll likely be vaccinated in June/July. That means I'm more likely to get the Oxford rather than the Pfizer jab as things stand as Australia only has 10m Pfizer jabs confirmed and another 10m on option to protect against our production of the Oxford vaccine hitting trouble.
 
Bit of nice personal Covid news from me if anyone wants further positivity about the vaccine rollout.

My mates who I used to live with at Uni, and who are still living together in Sheffield, tested positive last week.

That’s great news mate!
 
Bit of nice personal Covid news from me if anyone wants further positivity about the vaccine rollout.

My mates who I used to live with at Uni, and who are still living together in Sheffield, tested positive last week.

6 of them in the house. 4 boys and 2 girls. Boy 1 and Girl 1 tested positive 10 days ago. Boy 2 Boy 3 and Boy 4 all tested positive 7 days ago. All doing fine and are basically symptomless but still abiding by the quarantine.

Girl 2, who goes out with Boy 2 so they sleep in the same bed, has tested negative twice now; the most recent negative being this morning. The part that makes this a positive story is Girl 2 is classified as a front line worker and so got the vaccine a month ago.

Obviously too small a sample to draw anything larger from but I thought it was heartening news regardless.

Only one question really, are they all just you?
Neo's gonna getcha!
 
Vaccine effects continue to be pretty clear in the proportion of hospital deaths in the over-80s. I guess the green line might start to flatten off in the next couple of weeks.

Not sure if this has been highlighted already, but the proportion of Covid deaths that are over-80s has been consistently falling throughout January (this is data for English hospitals only). Maybe an early sign that the vaccine program is having some effect?

pubchart
 
Just been reading that. Results are great. Efficacy against SA variant even better in this analysis than they were in their first press release.

Also, UK has 30m doses ordered, which is basically enough already for every adult that hasn't already had a dose of AZ/Pfizer, so I think we should be able to mop up all the lower risk groups fairly quickly if supply comes soon, and also hopefully redistribute a chunk internationally.
 
Also, UK has 30m doses ordered, which is basically enough already for every adult that hasn't already had a dose of AZ/Pfizer, so I think we should be able to mop up all the lower risk groups fairly quickly if supply comes soon, and also hopefully redistribute a chunk internationally.

Yeah, when you tot up the numbers of all the vaccines ordered by the EU/UK there’s going to be hundreds of millions of doses left over by the end of this year. Although I guess the rationale is that they don’t want to be left with their dick in their hands if it turns out the duration of response is only 6 months.
 
Yeah, when you tot up the numbers of all the vaccines ordered by the EU/UK there’s going to be hundreds of millions of doses left over by the end of this year. Although I guess the rationale is that they don’t want to be left with their dick in their hands if it turns out the duration of response is only 6 months.
You would hope if we do have spares and no need for them that we'd donate them elsewhere, right?
 


More research confirming vaccine resistance of SA variant. In the discussion section of the preprint they speculate that the Brazilian/South African variants evolved because of the extremely high rates of prior infection. That gave selective pressure in favour of mutations that can escape the immune response in people who caught covid already.

Which is something that needs to be taken very seriously in countries that open up after vaccination campaigns.
 


More research confirming vaccine resistance of SA variant. In the discussion section of the preprint they speculate that the Brazilian/South African variants evolved because of the extremely high rates of prior infection. That gave selective pressure in favour of mutations that can escape the immune response in people who caught covid already.

Which is something that needs to be taken very seriously in countries that open up after vaccination campaigns.


It would be interesting to see if we can get some case control studies in the future with any future individuals who've had two vaccines and ended up getting severe infections/hospitalisations and identify if there are certain strains that will still wreaking havoc despite the inoculation to guide what to use as immunogen when we inevitably tinker around to update the vaccine. Perhaps maybe something to consider even with the single jab patients who are falling ill.

Also the clinical correlation to low neutralising antibody titres with infections or severe disease remains to be seen. I'd be inclined to presume so since the inverse *seems* to be true but who knows.

Also this interesting bit, possibly more optimistic bit, regarding T-cells
However, even if antibody responses to the new variants are not able to prevent infection, they may moderate severity. In addition T-cell responses to spike may not be disrupted by the mutational changes and be able to limit spread to the lower respiratory tract and prevent severe disease.

News today that Moderna is working on a variant-targeting "booster" jab
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/sci...er-shot-targets-south-african-variant-rcna310
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/...vid-vaccine-address-virus-variant/6802803002/

The company says it has produced enough of its variant-specific candidate vaccine, called mRNA-1273.351 to begin testing it in people.
It will test several variations of a booster, the company said, including a single, low-dose shot of the variant-specific vaccine; a shot that includes both the original vaccine and the variant-specific one; and a third low-dose version of the original vaccine.

Yeah, science!
 
It would be interesting to see if we can get some case control studies in the future with any future individuals who've had two vaccines and ended up getting severe infections/hospitalisations and identify if there are certain strains that will still wreaking havoc despite the inoculation to guide what to use as immunogen when we inevitably tinker around to update the vaccine. Perhaps maybe something to consider even with the single jab patients who are falling ill.

Also the clinical correlation to low neutralising antibody titres with infections or severe disease remains to be seen. I'd be inclined to presume so since the inverse *seems* to be true but who knows.

Also this interesting bit, possibly more optimistic bit, regarding T-cells


News today that Moderna is working on a variant-targeting "booster" jab
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/sci...er-shot-targets-south-african-variant-rcna310
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/...vid-vaccine-address-virus-variant/6802803002/



Yeah, science!

:lol: Science will save the day, no doubt.

Mind you, the more I read about these variants the more it makes me wonder if science could be causing problems too. Specifically monoclonal antibodies. Saturating the virus with a single type of antibody seems much more likely to create specific escape mutations than “natural” immunity which will blitz the virus with all sorts of different antibodies (on the plus side, hopefully this also means that homegrown immunity will still find a way to get at the virus despite lab tests showing varying degrees of resistance).

I’m sure there’ll be a tonne of interesting research in the years ahead picking the bones out of all the various innovative therapies that affected the pandemic, in positive and negative ways.

Basically, if we all put our heads together I reckon we can find a way to blame rich twats like Donald Trump and their early access to unproven treatments for making things worse for the rest of us!
 
The Oxford vaccine is being rolled out to those aged 60+ here in India starting a week from now. What is the latest perspective on this one, with regards to efficacy after 1 dose(in preventing deaths), and its efficacy against the new, more virulent strains?
 
I'm not surprised, and in the carehomes sector, I think it's easy to see the justification. You can almost create a kind of localised herd immunity if you do it right. I guess we'll soon see if they hit recruitment or other problems.

In broader society I'm more nervous, particularly as it can easily become another kind of systemic discrimination, compounding fear and conspiracy theories, rather than tackling them.

That said, I won't be surprised to see strong incentives to vaccinate coming later in the year, particularly once any adult who wants it can have it. I can imagine schemes that mean the vaccinated qualify for things like reduced testing or quarantine on foreign travel for example.

In the next few months, particularly while younger adults aren't vaccinated, I can't imagine vaccine passport style rules about pubs etc. That would just seen wrong, particularly when many of those younger ones are going to work every day.

However I can imagine them being used around some specific activities though (probably on a honesty basis, rather than an enforcement one) particularly activities that tend to have older participants. I wouldn't begrudge a 50+ fitness group, or a group of charity volunteers, or even the organisers of health walks asking members to confirm that they've been vaccinated before attending.
 
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I'd be all for governments hugely encouraging all vaccines with tax penalties, medicare surcharges etc

There are various things you should do to get the benefits of being part of society like pay tax and get vaccinated.
 
Interesting results from the latest REACT study - antibodies from PBT vaccine first dose look like they start to wane slowly after about 6 weeks. Would be an argument for bringing forward some of the second doses for the initial groups, as they seem to have done in Wales. Depends on balance of supply availability and risk to the remaining unvaccinated groups, but given the current improving situation in terms of cases and hospitalisations (and the upcoming availability of the J&J single doser) I'd be in favour.

 
Interesting results from the latest REACT study - antibodies from PBT vaccine first dose look like they start to wane slowly after about 6 weeks. Would be an argument for bringing forward some of the second doses for the initial groups, as they seem to have done in Wales. Depends on balance of supply availability and risk to the remaining unvaccinated groups, but given the current improving situation in terms of cases and hospitalisations (and the upcoming availability of the J&J single doser) I'd be in favour.



Interesting.

With the excellent results coming out of Israel from the use of Pfizer vaccine in elderly patients it seems even more of a bad call to not prescribe as per license in that cohort. Pushing out the second dose of the AZ vaccine always made sense but not for Pfizer. Especially for the elderly. I hope they get away with it.
 
Wife is a carer and she has been booked in for her 2nd Pfizer jab next week , 6 weeks after the first.
 
Can someone educate me on this: I was under the impression that antibodies declining is to be expected so long as the immune system is then trained to effectively produce them should it come into contact with the virus?
 
Interesting.

With the excellent results coming out of Israel from the use of Pfizer vaccine in elderly patients it seems even more of a bad call to not prescribe as per license in that cohort. Pushing out the second dose of the AZ vaccine always made sense but not for Pfizer. Especially for the elderly. I hope they get away with it.

I think at the time it was still the right call, given the programme was constrained by supply levels, and we were going through a horrendous wave of hospitalisations, the logic of sticking as many doses in as many elderly arms as possible was the right one. I just think now, with things rapidly improving in the number of people in hospital, it would be reasonable to reassess that gap.
 
Can someone educate me on this: I was under the impression that antibodies declining is to be expected so long as the immune system is then trained to effectively produce them should it come into contact with the virus?

I guess the concern is that, if they've declined a lot, the second dose doesn't supercharge your immunity to the same level. I don't know if that's reasonable or not, and I'd say the Pfizer vaccine starts from such a high level of effectiveness based on the 21 day gap, that there's some room for manouvre in any case.
 
I think at the time it was still the right call, given the programme was constrained by supply levels, and we were going through a horrendous wave of hospitalisations, the logic of sticking as many doses in as many elderly arms as possible was the right one. I just think now, with things rapidly improving in the number of people in hospital, it would be reasonable to reassess that gap.

That wave passed without any real help from the vaccines though. Which we’ve seem from the data showing similar reductions in cases/hospitalisations across all age groups. Which was always likely to happen. Lockdown to control that wave, vaccinations to prevent the next one.

The UK’s accelerated vaccination program puts you in a good spot to reopen quicker than most but that should really be in a context where the vaccines have been given every possible chance for maximum efficacy. There are potentially dire consequence for everyone, all over the world, if you get another wave spreading amongst a populace with only partial protection from these vaccines. And this isn’t even being wise with hindsight. It seemed like a risky/hasty decision at the time.

Anyway, here’s hoping they follow the data now and get as many as possible back for their second jabs as quickly as possible.
 
I'd be all for governments hugely encouraging all vaccines with tax penalties, medicare surcharges etc

There are various things you should do to get the benefits of being part of society like pay tax and get vaccinated.
I’d flip it, give tax incentives to those who get vaccinated
 
That wave passed without any real help from the vaccines though. Which we’ve seem from the data showing similar reductions in cases/hospitalisations across all age groups. Which was always likely to happen. Lockdown to control that wave, vaccinations to prevent the next one.

The UK’s accelerated vaccination program puts you in a good spot to reopen quicker than most but that should really be in a context where the vaccines have been given every possible chance for maximum efficacy. There are potentially dire consequence for everyone, all over the world, if you get another wave spreading amongst a populace with only partial protection from these vaccines. And this isn’t even being wise with hindsight. It seemed like a risky/hasty decision at the time.

Anyway, here’s hoping they follow the data now and get as many as possible back for their second jabs as quickly as possible.

If, at the end of December/start of January, with 3k admitted a day and numbers in hospital blowing through the previous peak, you were calmly thinking lockdown would sort things out on it's own by March, then you'd have been more confident than pretty much anyone else.

Also, the vaccination programme has had a clear effect on reducing hospitalisations and deaths of the highest risk groups, above and beyond the reductions in younger age groups due to lockdown.