So, coronavirus...

[Biffer]

dpedin, never change

Could I ask you and Biffer a serious question, not political?

We do seem to be falling further back with our vaccinations in Scotland, is this the case? I heard from neighbours last night that many of the 60-65 group in Edinburgh have been sent a letter this week to say their jabs are due but with no time or date (in error apparently) meaning they are having to call a really busy switchboard and delaying things.

34-5% of population in UK, 33% in Scotland, same timescales as the rest of the UK for completing the JCVI groups, so I don't think so. I think there can be criticisms both sides of the border - areas of England still have much lower numbers of care home staff vaccinated than Scotland for example - so I don't think the broad percentages are worth pinning badges on.

Cheers, that is good to hear. Just seems slower but obviously not from those figures!

Yeah, wee Ruthie lies through her teeth and tries to present it as if we're miles behind. But she talks pish.

Percentage vaccinated in age groups

·60-64: 45%

·55-59: 38%

·50-54: 31%

Over 65s is pretty much everyone.

[tabascoboy]

Do we have any idea on the chance of getting Covid for a less than fit forty something who has had a wrist injury?

Just asking for a friend.

Seen the funny answers, but that;s just regular Group 10.

Based on your profile, you are in priority Group 10. Given an uptake of 75%, there are between 4,816,849 and 9,572,351 people in front of you in the queue for a first dose of COVID vaccine across the UK.
Given a vaccination rate of 2,465,155 a week and an uptake of 75%, you should expect to receive your first dose of vaccine between 07/04/2021 and 04/05/2021.

You should then get your second dose by between 30/06/2021 and 27/07/2021.

That's based on the average rate over the last 7 days, so if we really do see a large influx of doses over the next week then the dates will come forward significantly

Mine became available weeks before the estimate from that site I had about 2-3 weeks ago, actual dates for the jab appointment does depend where you live - my area seems to be really cracking on with it.

you should expect to receive your first dose of vaccine between 07/04/2021 and 21/04/2021.

In fact it's next week.

[Saint]

Do we have any idea on the chance of getting Covid for a less than fit forty something who has had a wrist injury?

Just asking for a friend.

Seen the funny answers, but that;s just regular Group 10.

Based on your profile, you are in priority Group 10. Given an uptake of 75%, there are between 4,816,849 and 9,572,351 people in front of you in the queue for a first dose of COVID vaccine across the UK.
Given a vaccination rate of 2,465,155 a week and an uptake of 75%, you should expect to receive your first dose of vaccine between 07/04/2021 and 04/05/2021.

You should then get your second dose by between 30/06/2021 and 27/07/2021.

That's based on the average rate over the last 7 days, so if we really do see a large influx of doses over the next week then the dates will come forward significantly

Mine became available weeks before the estimate from that site I had about 2-3 weeks ago, actual dates for the jab appointment does depend where you live - my area seems to be really cracking on with it.

you should expect to receive your first dose of vaccine between 07/04/2021 and 21/04/2021.

In fact it's next week.

It's also the UK average. There's obviously some differences between regions, bit it's a decent indication

[Hal Jordan]

I'm Group 6 due to a non-wanking related underlying health condition, so yesterday I booked my jabs online for late March and early June.

[Insane_Homer]

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ ... re_twitter

Boris Johnson’s £37bn Test and Trace service is facing a fresh row after it emerged that the government is refusing to publish details of meetings held by its chief Dido Harding.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has confirmed that it holds the information but is refusing a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request – because to do so “would exceed the appropriate cost limit” of £600.

Campaign group The Good Law Project, which submitted the request, asked what ministers hoped to hide by failing to make the details public.

Test and Trace faced withering criticism on Wednesday in a new report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee, which concluded there was “no clear evidence” that it had made a significant impact on the Covid-19 pandemic.

MPs also attacked the “staggering” cost of the system and concluded ministers were treating taxpayers “like an ATM machine”.

It will cost more than £600 for Dido to tell us who she met with?

[Jockaline]

Evil EU continues to block access and talk down the efficacy of the AZ vaccine, wrongly suggesting it is currently causing blood clots in recipients, so should be banned.

Utterly irresponsible.

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid ... ed-austria

I had my AZ vaccine a week last Sat. I have a bad cough as a smoker/COPD, but was coughing up blood spots in flehm on Monday this has never happened before. Phone the GP who asked me to come straight away and then sent me straight to the hospital to rule out a blood clot in lungs. The doctor at the hospital was 95% sure I don't have a clot, based on an x-rays and bloods, but I was feeling better on the Tuesday anyway so I wouldn't discount the potential for one forming in others, and that I was lucky it didn't get that bad.

It surprised me how urgently the GP reacted, and the hospital urging me to stay for the tests, so suspect that medical community are aware and alert to this, and that it's not just nonsenses from the EU. The vaccines are new and there will always be some risks. Any potential issues should not be buried, and the more openness the better, so this far from irresponsible, the opposite in fact.

FYI: I was close to walking out as the hospital as the unit I needed to stay in for hours was dealing with suspect covid patients and was a high risk place to be in my option. I will be anxious for the next week wondering if I've caught it two weeks before having some immunity and having spent the last year working from home and being very careful given my respiratory condition.

[Raggs]

Evil EU continues to block access and talk down the efficacy of the AZ vaccine, wrongly suggesting it is currently causing blood clots in recipients, so should be banned.

Utterly irresponsible.

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid ... ed-austria

I had my AZ vaccine a week last Sat. I have a bad cough as a smoker/COPD, but was coughing up blood spots in flehm on Monday this has never happened before. Phone the GP who asked me to come straight away and then sent me straight to the hospital to rule out a blood clot in lungs. The doctor at the hospital was 95% sure I don't have a clot, based on an x-rays and bloods, but I was feeling better on the Tuesday anyway so I wouldn't discount the potential for one forming in others, and that I was lucky it didn't get that bad.

It surprised me how urgently the GP reacted, and the hospital urging me to stay for the tests, so suspect that medical community are aware and alert to this, and that it's not just nonsenses from the EU. The vaccines are new and there will always be some risks. Any potential issues should not be buried, and the more openness the better, so this far from irresponsible, the opposite in fact.

FYI: I was close to walking out as the hospital as the unit I needed to stay in for hours was dealing with suspect covid patients and was a high risk place to be in my option. I will be anxious for the next week wondering if I've caught it two weeks before having some immunity and having spent the last year working from home and being very careful given my respiratory condition.

You're surprised that your GP reacted urgently to you coughing up blood?

I may be completely off here, but I don't think you need to have a recent vaccine history, for a GP to get worried when someone starts coughing up blood, especially as a smoker...

[Saint]

Evil EU continues to block access and talk down the efficacy of the AZ vaccine, wrongly suggesting it is currently causing blood clots in recipients, so should be banned.

Utterly irresponsible.

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid ... ed-austria

I had my AZ vaccine a week last Sat. I have a bad cough as a smoker/COPD, but was coughing up blood spots in flehm on Monday this has never happened before. Phone the GP who asked me to come straight away and then sent me straight to the hospital to rule out a blood clot in lungs. The doctor at the hospital was 95% sure I don't have a clot, based on an x-rays and bloods, but I was feeling better on the Tuesday anyway so I wouldn't discount the potential for one forming in others, and that I was lucky it didn't get that bad.

It surprised me how urgently the GP reacted, and the hospital urging me to stay for the tests, so suspect that medical community are aware and alert to this, and that it's not just nonsenses from the EU. The vaccines are new and there will always be some risks. Any potential issues should not be buried, and the more openness the better, so this far from irresponsible, the opposite in fact.

FYI: I was close to walking out as the hospital as the unit I needed to stay in for hours was dealing with suspect covid patients and was a high risk place to be in my option. I will be anxious for the next week wondering if I've caught it two weeks before having some immunity and having spent the last year working from home and being very careful given my respiratory condition.

You're surprised that your GP reacted urgently to you coughing up blood?

I may be completely off here, but I don't think you need to have a recent vaccine history, for a GP to get worried when someone starts coughing up blood, especially as a smoker...

Yeah. At this point there's a lot of AZ been injected (at a guess 20-30 million doses at least), and even the EMA are saying that there's no difference in these events between immunised and non-immunised. The fact that it only seems to be happening very recently implies that if there is a real issue it's batch/quality control related

[Jockaline]

Evil EU continues to block access and talk down the efficacy of the AZ vaccine, wrongly suggesting it is currently causing blood clots in recipients, so should be banned.

Utterly irresponsible.

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid ... ed-austria

I had my AZ vaccine a week last Sat. I have a bad cough as a smoker/COPD, but was coughing up blood spots in flehm on Monday this has never happened before. Phone the GP who asked me to come straight away and then sent me straight to the hospital to rule out a blood clot in lungs. The doctor at the hospital was 95% sure I don't have a clot, based on an x-rays and bloods, but I was feeling better on the Tuesday anyway so I wouldn't discount the potential for one forming in others, and that I was lucky it didn't get that bad.

It surprised me how urgently the GP reacted, and the hospital urging me to stay for the tests, so suspect that medical community are aware and alert to this, and that it's not just nonsenses from the EU. The vaccines are new and there will always be some risks. Any potential issues should not be buried, and the more openness the better, so this far from irresponsible, the opposite in fact.

FYI: I was close to walking out as the hospital as the unit I needed to stay in for hours was dealing with suspect covid patients and was a high risk place to be in my opinion. I will be anxious for the next week wondering if I've caught it two weeks before having some immunity and having spent the last year working from home and being very careful given my respiratory condition.

You're surprised that your GP reacted urgently to you coughing up blood?

I may be completely off here, but I don't think you need to have a recent vaccine history, for a GP to get worried when someone starts coughing up blood, especially as a smoker...

I got the impression antibiotics were the go to as likely an infection, the blood clot concern was something particular to my circumstances, which might have been my recent vaccination. I did ask if it might to connected to the vaccine, but she just said too early to tell.

I was impressed with the GP. A friend died a few years from DVT blood clot in the lungs, she never coughed up blood spots, but was intermittently unusually breathless. She was given the run around, initially by a locum at her GPs - just to rest up. It didn't go away, and then was back and forward to the GP who eventually booked in for outpatient x-ray, no urgency at all even though she had been on a number of long haul flights and had history of high blood pressure. I will forever feel guilty that I didn't encourage/take her to A&E.

[TheNatalShark]

It surprised me how urgently the GP reacted, and the hospital urging me to stay for the tests, so suspect that medical community are aware and alert to this, and that it's not just nonsenses from the EU. The vaccines are new and there will always be some risks. Any potential issues should not be buried, and the more openness the better, so this far from irresponsible, the opposite in fact.

Hope you stay alright and improve. Congrats on receiving!

Don't worry it was facetious, sympathy that may not convey due to personal experience and the existence of similar but genuinely intended comments. Have high confidence in the relevant authorities and them taking whatever precautions they feel relevant for their patients, and hope that it just returns as just a precaution and normal service resumes for all.

[Jockaline]

It surprised me how urgently the GP reacted, and the hospital urging me to stay for the tests, so suspect that medical community are aware and alert to this, and that it's not just nonsenses from the EU. The vaccines are new and there will always be some risks. Any potential issues should not be buried, and the more openness the better, so this far from irresponsible, the opposite in fact.

Hope you stay alright and improve. Congrats on receiving!

Don't worry it was facetious, sympathy that may not convey due to personal experience and the existence of similar but genuinely intended comments. Have high confidence in the relevant authorities and them taking whatever precautions they feel relevant for their patients, and hope that it just returns as just a precaution and normal service resumes for all.

Thanks, feel back to normal now, seems to have been a 24 Hr event. I might not have even called the GP if it hadn't been for the blood spot on the morning following the previous day, which was quite bad/alarming. I just thought I'd share my experience.

There's no doubt the EU have been behaving badly re: AZ, and UK vaccine jealously, and I can understand if when they actually have some serious/real facts/concerns they aren't taken seriously. There's a lot of good very clever people in the EU, maybe not so much in the political class though, but the same applies here unfortunately.

[dpedin]

34-5% of population in UK, 33% in Scotland, same timescales as the rest of the UK for completing the JCVI groups, so I don't think so. I think there can be criticisms both sides of the border - areas of England still have much lower numbers of care home staff vaccinated than Scotland for example - so I don't think the broad percentages are worth pinning badges on.

Cheers, that is good to hear. Just seems slower but obviously not from those figures!

Yeah, wee Ruthie lies through her teeth and tries to present it as if we're miles behind. But she talks pish.

Percentage vaccinated in age groups

·60-64: 45%

·55-59: 38%

·50-54: 31%

Over 65s is pretty much everyone.

Vaccination rates are roughly the same in both Scotland and England. Embra is a bit behind most other parts of Scotland should catch up soon once the supply chain is back up to expected levels. I'm in the same age group and haven't seen nor heard of the letters with no details on them so can't comment. Spoke to GP and others just the other week and no obvious concerns re the roll out other than temporary drop in supply but should be resolved soon. In the early weeks Scotland really focused on trying to get 100% vaccination of those in care homes, house bound in high age groups etc and were criticised for slow roll out but quickly caught up. Getting a 2nd dose to those folk will slow things up a little but the vaccination capacity is now significantly higher and it exceeds current vaccine supply levels. It will be ramped up as other vaccines i.e. moderna comes on stream in volume. For detail look at this website https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotlan ... s-tracker/

[Biffer]

Cheers, that is good to hear. Just seems slower but obviously not from those figures!

Yeah, wee Ruthie lies through her teeth and tries to present it as if we're miles behind. But she talks pish.

Percentage vaccinated in age groups

·60-64: 45%

·55-59: 38%

·50-54: 31%

Over 65s is pretty much everyone.

Vaccination rates are roughly the same in both Scotland and England. Embra is a bit behind most other parts of Scotland should catch up soon once the supply chain is back up to expected levels. I'm in the same age group and haven't seen nor heard of the letters with no details on them so can't comment. Spoke to GP and others just the other week and no obvious concerns re the roll out other than temporary drop in supply but should be resolved soon. In the early weeks Scotland really focused on trying to get 100% vaccination of those in care homes, house bound in high age groups etc and were criticised for slow roll out but quickly caught up. Getting a 2nd dose to those folk will slow things up a little but the vaccination capacity is now significantly higher and it exceeds current vaccine supply levels. It will be ramped up as other vaccines i.e. moderna comes on stream in volume. For detail look at this website https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotlan ... s-tracker/

Edinburgh (and Glasgow) look like they're behind because of demographics. Much younger population, so lower percentage in the priority groups.

[Biffer]

Good news from Israel, real world data on Pfizer is it prevents 97% of symptomatic illness and 94% of asymptomatic cases.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/ ... ssion=true

Also, and rather entertainingly, the Chairman of Pfizer has been refused permission to travel to Israel because he hasn't been fully vaccinated.

[Raggs]

Good news from Israel, real world data on Pfizer is it prevents 97% of symptomatic illness and 94% of asymptomatic cases.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/ ... ssion=true

Also, and rather entertainingly, the Chairman of Pfizer has been refused permission to travel to Israel because he hasn't been fully vaccinated.

If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he chose to wait his proper turn, rather than getting an early jab.

[Biffer]

Good news from Israel, real world data on Pfizer is it prevents 97% of symptomatic illness and 94% of asymptomatic cases.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/ ... ssion=true

Also, and rather entertainingly, the Chairman of Pfizer has been refused permission to travel to Israel because he hasn't been fully vaccinated.

If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he chose to wait his proper turn, rather than getting an early jab.

Yeah, he’s had the first one but not the second. Did make me smile though.

[TheNatalShark]

Fairly lengthy article in NY Times about supposedly 30mm AZ doses in US. With the accelerated roll out in recent weeks, as says seems likely AZ won't play a part there. Hopefully they can make a judgement call sooner rather than later whether that will be the case.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/p ... LRm7QkTo3b

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Fairly lengthy article in NY Times about supposedly 30mm AZ doses in US. With the accelerated roll out in recent weeks, as says seems likely AZ won't play a part there. Hopefully they can make a judgement call sooner rather than later whether that will be the case.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/p ... LRm7QkTo3b

The US population will be given the freedom to choose any vaccine that's expensive and makes money for a US company. I doubt AZ will be approved, or at least not until after most people have been vaccinated.

[tc27]

Interesting - Biden claiming all US adults will have being offered a shot by May 1st which is even more ambitious than the UKs target 'by the end of May'. Confidence in supplies must be high.

[Paddington Bear]

Tbh the only surprise is that it's taken the Americans this long.

[Saint]

Interesting - Biden claiming all US adults will have being offered a shot by May 1st which is even more ambitious than the UKs target 'by the end of May'. Confidence in supplies must be high.

He calrifed that in the speech. They'll be able to "get in line" i.e. book an appointment from May 1st. I read that as not substantially different to the UK, where the first dose is targeted to be completed for all adults by end of July

[TheNatalShark]

My take of the phrasing of "eligible" is that all the states should have worked through priority groups?

"Let me be clear, that doesn't mean everyone's going to have that shot immediately, but it means you'll be able to get in line beginning 1 May," he said"

[tc27]

Yes fair enough - I also think if the UK daily rate goes back to 500kish now there are millions of shots available then the US will struggle to catch up and overtake

[tc27]

Rory Stewart the best PM we will never have example #355345

[ohno]

Interesting - Biden claiming all US adults will have being offered a shot by May 1st which is even more ambitious than the UKs target 'by the end of May'. Confidence in supplies must be high.

He calrifed that in the speech. They'll be able to "get in line" i.e. book an appointment from May 1st. I read that as not substantially different to the UK, where the first dose is targeted to be completed for all adults by end of July

Yes, reading his tweets it looked the same to me. It looks like they will have an equivalent website to the nhs to book, I’m wandering if it will crash at the beginning too.

[SaintK]

Well!! Where did that 12 months go?

Yes, today is the first anniversary of Herd Immunity Day — Dominic Cummings’ pseudo scientific disaster plan, pumped out uncritically by pundits.
They claim that the delay to locking down was a key factor in Britain having one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world.

On this day last year, ITV political editor Robert Peston wrote in the Spectator:

The key phrase we all need to understand is ‘herd immunity’ – which is what happens to a group of people or animals when they develop sufficient antibodies to be resistant to a disease.
The strategy of the British government in minimising the impact of Covid-19 is to allow the virus to pass through the entire population so that we acquire herd immunity, but at a much delayed speed so that those who suffer the most acute symptoms are able to receive the medical support they need, and such that the health service is not overwhelmed and crushed by the sheer number of cases it has to treat at any one time.

The kind of coercive measures employed by China in Wuhan and Hubei have simply locked the virus behind the closed doors of people’s homes. And just as soon as the constraints on freedom of movement are lifted there, the monstrous virus will rear its hideous face again.

[tc27]

Well!! Where did that 12 months go?

Yes, today is the first anniversary of Herd Immunity Day — Dominic Cummings’ pseudo scientific disaster plan, pumped out uncritically by pundits.
They claim that the delay to locking down was a key factor in Britain having one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world.

On this day last year, ITV political editor Robert Peston wrote in the Spectator:

The key phrase we all need to understand is ‘herd immunity’ – which is what happens to a group of people or animals when they develop sufficient antibodies to be resistant to a disease.
The strategy of the British government in minimising the impact of Covid-19 is to allow the virus to pass through the entire population so that we acquire herd immunity, but at a much delayed speed so that those who suffer the most acute symptoms are able to receive the medical support they need, and such that the health service is not overwhelmed and crushed by the sheer number of cases it has to treat at any one time.

The kind of coercive measures employed by China in Wuhan and Hubei have simply locked the virus behind the closed doors of people’s homes. And just as soon as the constraints on freedom of movement are lifted there, the monstrous virus will rear its hideous face again.

The scary thing is where would we be without the vaccine?

[Sandstorm]

The scary thing is where would we be without the vaccine?

Ireland

[Glaston]

Had the jab today.
Twas a little prick

Had a slight tingle in my tongue about 4 hours later but only lasted a few minutes.




Jeez, I remember being hammered when I had a Typhoid shot 40 odd years ago.
Felt like crap within a couple of hours and pretty rough for a week.



Should add, I remember school days.
The poor foreign pupils getting jabs before the summer hols would get unmercifully punched on their vaccination arm.


Would that have made us racist by the current norms?

[Biffer]

Had the jab today.
Twas a little prick

Had a slight tingle in my tongue about 4 hours later but only lasted a few minutes.




Jeez, I remember being hammered when I had a Typhoid shot 40 odd years ago.
Felt like crap within a couple of hours and pretty rough for a week.



Should add, I remember school days.
The poor foreign pupils getting jabs before the summer hols would get unmercifully punched on their vaccination arm.


Would that have made us racist by the current norms?

I remember the punching of BCGs at school. Kids are bastards.

[Saint]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

[Dinsdale Piranha]

First dose booked for Thursday at my local practice. I'm 53 so we must be nearing the end of the priority groups.

[Paddington Bear]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

[TheNatalShark]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

Those dirty Europeans in the central European country of Thailand are also using "suspending to investigate" as a smoke screen for their failure in the European procurement programme.


Fu.ck sakes the blinkers are incredible.

[Saint]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

Those dirty Europeans in the central European country of Thailand are also using "suspending to investigate" as a smoke screen for their failure in the European procurement programme.


Fu.ck sakes the blinkers are incredible.

Yeah, I agree it isn't really a European thing - but it can look/feel that way as the EU have been making noises like unsafe, unproven etc before now.

But the decision making on this issue is absolutely nuts, and while it may be being justified in terms of instilling public confidence in the process, the reality is that it's harming confidence each and every time they do this type of thing.

[Paddington Bear]

Ireland become the latest country to suspend the use of AZ based on what is effectively anecdotal evidence. Completely ignoring the data from now 17 million doses delivered with so signs at all of any increase in blood clotting events

Utterly bonkers

What is going on here? Political cover for delivery delays?

Those dirty Europeans in the central European country of Thailand are also using "suspending to investigate" as a smoke screen for their failure in the European procurement programme.


Fu.ck sakes the blinkers are incredible.

Didn’t know about Thailand. It’s a fair question given there’s no evidence for this at all, I would love to understand (genuinely).

Fwiw I’m very impressed with my own country’s roll out, but we have a vested interest in the EU matching or bettering it. I don’t take any joy in seeing us above France in a vaccination table, national competition has it’s place on a rugby pitch

[TheNatalShark]

Yeah, I agree it isn't really a European thing - but it can look/feel that way as the EU have been making noises like unsafe, unproven etc before now.

But the decision making on this issue is absolutely nuts, and while it may be being justified in terms of instilling public confidence in the process, the reality is that it's harming confidence each and every time they do this type of thing.

But the problem is you've said it again - where have the EU or EMA said anything about unsafe or unproven? National leaders or the usual bampots in EU parliament yes, but haven't seen anything to date but defence of the vaccine by commission or EMA. Sorry if it seems a pedantic thing and you mean EU = Europe, but it plays into "us vs them"

As for the national regulators, have zero idea about them but would hope it is just something like a certainty threshold of MHRA and others of 99.99% vs 99.999% for those ones. I would wonder if they factor in public confidence in these decisions made, and that they feel this transparency is required for their public to 'maintain'/gain confidence, whilst we see it as unnecessary.


Separate, the MHRA response indicates 11 million doses administered in the UK so far, so assuming that is fairly up to date looks like the majority of doses administered so far are Pfizer, which should change I guess. Not sure why we're so secretive/unopen of the data vs other countries.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra ... 19-vaccine

Anyway, time for match of the weekend

[Saint]

Yeah, I agree it isn't really a European thing - but it can look/feel that way as the EU have been making noises like unsafe, unproven etc before now.

But the decision making on this issue is absolutely nuts, and while it may be being justified in terms of instilling public confidence in the process, the reality is that it's harming confidence each and every time they do this type of thing.

But the problem is you've said it again - where have the EU or EMA said anything about unsafe or unproven? National leaders or the usual bampots in EU parliament yes, but haven't seen anything to date but defence of the vaccine by commission or EMA. Sorry if it seems a pedantic thing and you mean EU = Europe, but it plays into "us vs them"

As for the national regulators, have zero idea about them but would hope it is just something like a certainty threshold of MHRA and others of 99.99% vs 99.999% for those ones. I would wonder if they factor in public confidence in these decisions made, and that they feel this transparency is required for their public to 'maintain'/gain confidence, whilst we see it as unnecessary.


Separate, the MHRA response indicates 11 million doses administered in the UK so far, so assuming that is fairly up to date looks like the majority of doses administered so far are Pfizer, which should change I guess. Not sure why we're so secretive/unopen of the data vs other countries.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra ... 19-vaccine

Anyway, time for match of the weekend

Once the vaccine acquisition process became an EU issue while the delivery was still down to individual countries, and sign-off/approval relies on both, the the conflation of the EU and national politicians becomes inevitable - you might try to separate the two but it;s a distinction that is actually pretty meaningless.

As has been noted elsewhere, the UK is being secretive as they;re wary of other countries looking at our deployment and potentially using that data to block exports etc. While I dislike the concept, I can understand it in light of the EU's behaviour specifically with regards to AZ. The simple, unhappy, truth is that no other country can be trusted not to interfere in supply contracts if they believe that they might gain political capital from it - and on the flip side, the current UK government is doing all it can to gain it's own capital about being ahead of the curve.

[Saint]

In the meantime, 574K doses delivered yesterday which is a big step up on the last couple of weeks; presumably the first signs of the increased AZ delivery we've been told about

[dpedin]

Jab due Thursday!