So, coronavirus...

[Raggs]

Price.

UK pays £3 per AZ jab
EU pays £1.59

Money talks

Where's that from? I've seen the leaks on what the eu has paid but not what the uk paid.

But yes, buying in greater bulk helps. I reckon 50% vaccinated already will pay off that difference soon enough though.

The UK is believed to have spent between £24 and £28 per dose on the Moderna jab, the Daily Mail reports. The domestically produced Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine cost the government around £3 per jab, according to the BBC, while the Pfizer/BioNTech jab has a price tag of around £15.

Meanwhile, Belgium’s Budget State Secretary Eva De Bleeker gave an insight into what the EU is paying when she accidentally tweeted a table last month that showed the price of each jab. The now-deleted tweet revealed that the EU is handing over €1.78 (£1.59) for each dose of the Oxford vaccine and €12 (£10.60) for the Pfizer version.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/951750/what-d ... -pays-what

When I chased this down the rabbit hole the first time, the only figure that people seemed to be quoting was the initial pricing put out by AZ, that it would be about £3 a dose. But not specific details to how much a country actually paid for it, and people were putting 2 and 2 together. Especially when the actual price for the EU came out, and people wanted to put the boot in.

And again, to be honest, I'm not worried about paying £3 a dose, if it means that our contract was better setup than the EU's, allowing for earlier delivery and greater completion (though we've not got all we were "promised" either). It's going to save us more money in the longer term.

[Lemoentjie]

Let's get something straight. The eu isn't exporting any vaccine. Neither is the uk. Private companies are exporting vaccine as agreed in contracts. They'd have no reason to prioritise the uk on a "feels" basis, in fact quite the opposite, so therefore it must be contractual.

Price.

UK pays £3 per AZ jab
EU pays £1.59

Money talks

Completely retarded, considering lockdowns cost the EU economies billions and billions of Euros (I'd guess over 20 billion per week) to save a couple of hundred millions pounds.

Clearly the negotiators were told 'you need to come out with a win' and focused completely on lowering the price, ignoring that the 6 hours you spend negotiating over the price you lose any benefit from it!

[Lemoentjie]

Other vaccine news: the US is lobbying in Brazil to stop the Brazilians buying Sputnik.

Sputnik costs less than $10 per dose. Now look at price of Pfizer and Moderna, much higher.

Does the US care about the lives of Brazilians, or about lining the pockets of Pfizer shareholders?

Also see why AstraZeneca isn't allowed in the US. Every dose of AZ given is a loss of $15-20 for Pfizer or Moderna, and a saving of $15-20 for the US taxpayer. Guess who wins.

[Saint]

It would appear that the lobbying is intense

The independent board that reviews data from multiple Covid-19 vaccine candidates has expressed concern over AstraZeneca's announcements on its latest findings, according to a statement posted early Tuesday by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"Late Monday, the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) notified NIAID, BARDA, and AstraZeneca that it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial," the statement says. "The DSMB expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.

"We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible."

AstraZeneca has not responded to CNN's request for comment.

Early Monday, AstraZeneca issued a press release saying its Covid-19 vaccine showed 79% efficacy against symptomatic disease and 100% efficacy against severe disease and hospitalization, citing long-awaited US trial data. The latter figure was based on five events in the placebo arm, NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a coronavirus briefing Monday.

The DSMB is an independent expert group that sees trial data before the pharmaceutical companies, the doctors running the trials, or even the US Food and Drug Administration. It has the power advise a company of positive interim findings, or to halt a trial over safety concerns. That's what happened to the AstraZeneca trial in September after a study participant developed neurological symptoms, for example.

Last year, the National Institutes of Health appointed a common DSMB to monitor Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials that were being funded by the federal government — including AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. This DSMB has 10 to 15 members with specialties including vaccine development, statistics and ethics.

DSMBs sometimes disagree with investigators over the interpretation of trial results, Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a statement to the Science Media Centre in the UK. But that's usually done in private, he said, "so this is unprecedented in my opinion."

However, he noted, he isn't concerned unless there's a safety issue, "which does not appear to be the case."

[dpedin]

Week off work and watching Politics Today on BBC now - young female journalists who knows what she is talking about getting talked over by Tory MP Steve Brine - trying to school him on difference between elimination and eradication, impact of long covid19, vaccination levels, etc and he is very unhappy about it. About sums up why we got into the feckin mess we are in.

[Fangle]

It was reported today that my state, Georgia, had the fewest new cases since June last year.

That really is interesting.

I'm assuming that Georgia is Trump Heartland and that resistance to mask wearing and lockdown is strong?

What would be the reason for that? Warmer weather? less indoor activities? fewer Trump rallies?

Georgia flipped blue for the senate seat, and given the ridiculous gerrymandering, the national election results there were v close. Calling it Trump Heartland is probably some way off the mark. The Trump heartlands are the rust belt plus Florida and a few other places.

I expect a country wide surge after the kids return from spring break.

[Saint]

So, Merkel's announced she doesn't support an export ban. Sounds like she's paid attention to what Pfizer have been telling her

[Sandstorm]

Week off work and watching Politics Today on BBC now - young female journalists who knows what she is talking about getting talked over by Tory MP Steve Brine - trying to school him on difference between elimination and eradication, impact of long covid19, vaccination levels, etc and he is very unhappy about it. About sums up why we got into the feckin mess we are in.

She was excellent. Hawt too.

[dpedin]

That really is interesting.

I'm assuming that Georgia is Trump Heartland and that resistance to mask wearing and lockdown is strong?

What would be the reason for that? Warmer weather? less indoor activities? fewer Trump rallies?

Georgia flipped blue for the senate seat, and given the ridiculous gerrymandering, the national election results there were v close. Calling it Trump Heartland is probably some way off the mark. The Trump heartlands are the rust belt plus Florida and a few other places.

I expect a country wide surge after the kids return from spring break.

I think you're correct. Scotland has seen the decline in cases slow down and are plateauing after school began to go back. However testing numbers and % reporting positive has stayed the same or risen slightly. 7 day case rates have gone up in 15-19, 20-24 and 25-29 age groups but continue to fall in the age groups who have been vaccinated. Given there are more folk in younger age groups the overall number of cases is relatively unchanged. This was anticipated and is being monitored - hospitalisations, ICU cases and deaths continue to go in the right direction but of course we don't know about the impact of contracting the virus or long covid in the younger age groups yet. We have to have all pupils back to school full time yet so this picture may change going forward?

[Calculon]

.

[Calculon]

I know it’s British and people’ shouldn’t say bad things about it but AstraZeneca aren’t helping themselves again.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... pdates-us/



@lemoentje, everybody’s winning . The US bought enough vaccines for every Americans, 300 million Moderna, 300 million Pfizer, 100 million Johnson .
They also ordered a total of 300m AZ , some will go to Mexico and Canada.

I think a lot of the critisism of the AZ vaccine has been unfair, but AZ really need to look at how they are running their trails and how they are presenting their results.

Regarding

US is lobbying in Brazil to stop the Brazilians buying Sputnik

.

I thought the Brazilians are setting up their own production facilities for sputnik v. Anyway, at the moment demand far outstrips supply for sputnik v, as it does for all the vaccines, so I can't see the US lobbying making much practical difference.

[Saint]

I know it’s British and people’ shouldn’t say bad things about it but AstraZeneca aren’t helping themselves again.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... pdates-us/



@lemoentje, everybody’s winning . The US bought enough vaccines for every Americans, 300 million Moderna, 300 million Pfizer, 100 million Johnson .
They also ordered a total of 300m AZ , some will go to Mexico and Canada.

I think a lot of the critisism of the AZ vaccine has been unfair, but AZ really need to look at how they are running their trails and how they are presenting their results.

I would agree that the AZ trials have been "messy" for all sorts of reasons; not least that some of the delays in dosages have come about as a result of holds requested of them by regulators.

At this stage though the US looks a bit silly in not approving this. We now have data on over 17 million delivered doses (or whatever the number is right now) which puts the results of any Phase III trial in the shade; to be questioning the results of a 20,000-odd trial looks a bit questionable

[Raggs]

I know it’s British and people’ shouldn’t say bad things about it but AstraZeneca aren’t helping themselves again.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... pdates-us/



@lemoentje, everybody’s winning . The US bought enough vaccines for every Americans, 300 million Moderna, 300 million Pfizer, 100 million Johnson .
They also ordered a total of 300m AZ , some will go to Mexico and Canada.

I think a lot of the critisism of the AZ vaccine has been unfair, but AZ really need to look at how they are running their trails and how they are presenting their results.

I would agree that the AZ trials have been "messy" for all sorts of reasons; not least that some of the delays in dosages have come about as a result of holds requested of them by regulators.

At this stage though the US looks a bit silly in not approving this. We now have data on over 17 million delivered doses (or whatever the number is right now) which puts the results of any Phase III trial in the shade; to be questioning the results of a 20,000-odd trial looks a bit questionable

Was thinking exactly that. We've got one of the most advanced tracking programs out there in the Siren project too. Why bother with a phase 3 trial at all at that point?

[Biffer]

Georgia flipped blue for the senate seat, and given the ridiculous gerrymandering, the national election results there were v close. Calling it Trump Heartland is probably some way off the mark. The Trump heartlands are the rust belt plus Florida and a few other places.

I expect a country wide surge after the kids return from spring break.

I think you're correct. Scotland has seen the decline in cases slow down and are plateauing after school began to go back. However testing numbers and % reporting positive has stayed the same or risen slightly. 7 day case rates have gone up in 15-19, 20-24 and 25-29 age groups but continue to fall in the age groups who have been vaccinated. Given there are more folk in younger age groups the overall number of cases is relatively unchanged. This was anticipated and is being monitored - hospitalisations, ICU cases and deaths continue to go in the right direction but of course we don't know about the impact of contracting the virus or long covid in the younger age groups yet. We have to have all pupils back to school full time yet so this picture may change going forward?

Edinburgh's 7 day rate per 100,000 will go back above 50 tomorrow

[Saint]

US officials have complained that results on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, published yesterday, included “outdated” information and presented an “incomplete view” of the jab’s effectiveness.

But AstraZeneca says this was an initial analysis, based on data up to an agreed cut-off date of 17 February, and it would share further analysis with the officials - who are on a key body involved in deciding if the jab is approved in the US - within 48 hours.

Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Health, has been at pains to stress AstraZeneca is still a good vaccine, but he wants the company to issue what he calls “the correct data”.

It is worth pointing out that more people are receiving AstraZeneca every hour in the UK than in the entire US trial.

And real world evidence has confirmed that the vaccine is highly effective, and regulators in the UK and Europe have said there is no evidence of a link to blood clots.

But clinical trials are the bedrock of medicine. And it is vital that scientists and the public have confidence in them.

[Saint]

412K doses delivered yesterday. 7 day average for 1st dose starting to drop slightly, 2nd dose still rising

[Rinkals]

It was reported today that my state, Georgia, had the fewest new cases since June last year.

That really is interesting.

I'm assuming that Georgia is Trump Heartland and that resistance to mask wearing and lockdown is strong?

What would be the reason for that? Warmer weather? less indoor activities? fewer Trump rallies?

Georgia flipped blue for the senate seat, and given the ridiculous gerrymandering, the national election results there were v close. Calling it Trump Heartland is probably some way off the mark. The Trump heartlands are the rust belt plus Florida and a few other places.

Fair enough.

I guess I'm going on Georgia's reputation for its redneck population.

I was just interested in the virus' apparent regression, given the politicisation of pandemic measures.

[Biffer]

That really is interesting.

I'm assuming that Georgia is Trump Heartland and that resistance to mask wearing and lockdown is strong?

What would be the reason for that? Warmer weather? less indoor activities? fewer Trump rallies?

Georgia flipped blue for the senate seat, and given the ridiculous gerrymandering, the national election results there were v close. Calling it Trump Heartland is probably some way off the mark. The Trump heartlands are the rust belt plus Florida and a few other places.

Fair enough.

I guess I'm going on Georgia's reputation for its redneck population.

I was just interested in the virus' apparent regression, given the politicisation of pandemic measures.

It’s interesting in a lot of areas of the USA, demographics are changing as cities grow and rural populations shrink. So in Georgia Atlanta is growing and there’s a corresponding increase in democratic voters.

Texas may go the same way in the next ten or fifteen years.

[Hong Kong]

Bugger! BioNtech is off the charts in HK today due to a packaging issue.

[Rinkals]

It’s interesting in a lot of areas of the USA, demographics are changing as cities grow and rural populations shrink. So in Georgia Atlanta is growing and there’s a corresponding increase in democratic voters.

Texas may go the same way in the next ten or fifteen years.

I suppose the redneck areas are more sparsely populated, being rural.

One would have thought that the Trump rallies would be superspreader events, but there do seem to be multiple factors which affect the spread of the virus which are still not properly understood.

In India, for example, one would assume that the spread of the virus and the commensurate death toll would be out of control, given the density of population, but they seem relatively unscathed to the point where their cricket stadiums are full of people paying scant lip service to social distancing or masks. I know that the back half England series has been behind closed doors following a minor outbreak of 67 cases, but still...

[Lemoentjie]

US officials have complained that results on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, published yesterday, included “outdated” information and presented an “incomplete view” of the jab’s effectiveness.

But AstraZeneca says this was an initial analysis, based on data up to an agreed cut-off date of 17 February, and it would share further analysis with the officials - who are on a key body involved in deciding if the jab is approved in the US - within 48 hours.

Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Health, has been at pains to stress AstraZeneca is still a good vaccine, but he wants the company to issue what he calls “the correct data”.

It is worth pointing out that more people are receiving AstraZeneca every hour in the UK than in the entire US trial.

And real world evidence has confirmed that the vaccine is highly effective, and regulators in the UK and Europe have said there is no evidence of a link to blood clots.

But clinical trials are the bedrock of medicine. And it is vital that scientists and the public have confidence in them.

It's interesting how hard people find it to believe that Pfizer are lobbying.

'AZ is big pharma too' - yes, but it's a competitor. Just because they're in the same industry it doesn't mean they're friends.

[Lobby]

The New York Times is reporting that the EU is considering new powers that would block any vaccine exports for a period of 6 weeks. Although no countries are mentioned (and the EU is also removing its previous exemptions to export controls), the NYT report suggests this move is aimed at the UK.

At the same time that the EU is considering banning the export of AZ vaccines, Berlin politicians are calling for the AZ shot to be made available to anyone who wants it, because so many AZ shots are going unused. This thread shows how vaccine appointments are working in Berlin at the moment. If you want a Pfizer shot, there are no appointments available until 13 May. For the AZ however, appointments are available at all times every day of the week.

[Raggs]

The New York Times is reporting that the EU is considering new powers that would block any vaccine exports for a period of 6 weeks. Although no countries are mentioned (and the EU is also removing its previous exemptions to export controls), the NYT report suggests this move is aimed at the UK.

At the same time that the EU is considering banning the export of AZ vaccines, Berlin politicians are calling for the AZ shot to be made available to anyone who wants it, because so many AZ shots are going unused. This thread shows how vaccine appointments are working in Berlin at the moment. If you want a Pfizer shot, there are no appointments available until 13 May. For the AZ however, appointments are available at all times every day of the week.

UK should tell the EU that we'll swap 1 of our pfizer vaccines for 20 of their AZ. They even make a bit of money off that...

[Lisbon Nick]

Politico reporting that the Italian authorities have discovered 29 million doses of the AZ vaccine at a site in Italy. The doses are believed to have come from the Halix plant in the Netherlands.

That`s a huge quantity! If true, not sure what the implications are.

[Saint]

Politico reporting that the Italian authorities have discovered 29 million doses of the AZ vaccine at a site in Italy. The doses are believed to have come from the Halix plant in the Netherlands.

That`s a huge quantity! If true, not sure what the implications are.

Despite the whispers of EU officials, it sounds very much like they just shipped from the production site to the fill and finish site. Any AZ shipped to the UK is supposed to be bulk substance for us to fill and finish in the UK - it makes MHRA testing much easier. So it seems likely that this was intended for EU consumption, but I wonder if it's allowed to be fill and finished before the EMA sign off on the plant?

[tc27]

Politico reporting that the Italian authorities have discovered 29 million doses of the AZ vaccine at a site in Italy. The doses are believed to have come from the Halix plant in the Netherlands.

That`s a huge quantity! If true, not sure what the implications are.

Despite the whispers of EU officials, it sounds very much like they just shipped from the production site to the fill and finish site. Any AZ shipped to the UK is supposed to be bulk substance for us to fill and finish in the UK - it makes MHRA testing much easier. So it seems likely that this was intended for EU consumption, but I wonder if it's allowed to be fill and finished before the EMA sign off on the plant?

UK officials flat out denying its anything to do with UK supply.

[Lisbon Nick]

Here`s the link.

https://www.politico.eu/article/italian ... la-stampa/

[Raggs]

To my knowledge, the Halix plant has not yet received EMA approval, so cannot be used in the EU. So it's not that those doses can be used by the EU at the moment anyway.

[Sandstorm]

To my knowledge, the Halix plant has not yet received EMA approval, so cannot be used in the EU. So it's not that those doses can be used by the EU at the moment anyway.

EU to ban imports of Canadian wood and Mexican tacos from Friday!

[Saint]

To my knowledge, the Halix plant has not yet received EMA approval, so cannot be used in the EU. So it's not that those doses can be used by the EU at the moment anyway.

It doesn't have approval yet, but the EMA are supposed to be on the brink of approving it. So the EU has it's eyes on all the stockpile that's been produced there. Whether these doses that have been fill and finished could be appropriated by the EU would depend on EMA batch testing processes

It's had MHRA approval for ages because it was the initial production site for the trials

[Fangle]

It was reported today that my state, Georgia, had the fewest new cases since June last year.

That really is interesting.

I'm assuming that Georgia is Trump Heartland and that resistance to mask wearing and lockdown is strong?

What would be the reason for that? Warmer weather? less indoor activities? fewer Trump rallies?

Why do you keep trolling me with Trump stuff? It’s easy to do a bit of research.

[Muttonbird]

It was reported today that my state, Georgia, had the fewest new cases since June last year.

That really is interesting.

I'm assuming that Georgia is Trump Heartland and that resistance to mask wearing and lockdown is strong?

What would be the reason for that? Warmer weather? less indoor activities? fewer Trump rallies?

Why do you keep trolling me with Trump stuff? It’s easy to do a bit of research.

You protest too much, Fangle.

[Lobby]

Politico reporting that the Italian authorities have discovered 29 million doses of the AZ vaccine at a site in Italy. The doses are believed to have come from the Halix plant in the Netherlands.

That`s a huge quantity! If true, not sure what the implications are.

Despite the whispers of EU officials, it sounds very much like they just shipped from the production site to the fill and finish site. Any AZ shipped to the UK is supposed to be bulk substance for us to fill and finish in the UK - it makes MHRA testing much easier. So it seems likely that this was intended for EU consumption, but I wonder if it's allowed to be fill and finished before the EMA sign off on the plant?

UK officials flat out denying its anything to do with UK supply.

That hasn't stopped lots of European media reporting that these were destined for the UK; La Stampa, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel etc.

[Hal Jordan]

I'm sure Georgia will safely go back to red with all the voter suppression the GOP is undertaking there and anywhere else they possibly can, the cunts.

Meanwhile, in chumocracy latest, Jenny Harries has been appointed as the first chief exec of the UK Health Security Agency. Yes, the same Jenny Harries who said airport screening is unnecessary, big gatherings (Cheltenham, shall we say?) "are not seen to be something which has a big event. So we don't want to disrupt people's lives unduly", oh and who was an anti-masker, and who thought there was no real need to test... Ideal candidate! No doubt the peerage will follow.

[Margin__Walker]

Nice. Same Jenny Harris that was on morning TV at the start of March last year basically calling Caprice a moron for suggesting that masks were a good idea and that a lockdown was required?

[Saint]

Despite the whispers of EU officials, it sounds very much like they just shipped from the production site to the fill and finish site. Any AZ shipped to the UK is supposed to be bulk substance for us to fill and finish in the UK - it makes MHRA testing much easier. So it seems likely that this was intended for EU consumption, but I wonder if it's allowed to be fill and finished before the EMA sign off on the plant?

UK officials flat out denying its anything to do with UK supply.

That hasn't stopped lots of European media reporting that these were destined for the UK; La Stampa, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel etc.

They're all claiming "EU sources"

[Insane_Homer]

[Hal Jordan]

Who knew that electing fascist arseholes that do nothing about the virus could lead to such appalling outcomes?

[Saint]

I think a lot of the critisism of the AZ vaccine has been unfair, but AZ really need to look at how they are running their trails and how they are presenting their results.

I would agree that the AZ trials have been "messy" for all sorts of reasons; not least that some of the delays in dosages have come about as a result of holds requested of them by regulators.

At this stage though the US looks a bit silly in not approving this. We now have data on over 17 million delivered doses (or whatever the number is right now) which puts the results of any Phase III trial in the shade; to be questioning the results of a 20,000-odd trial looks a bit questionable

This might or might not have anything to do with the AZ vax , but this isn’t helping

Nantes, Fr.: a 24 years old student in his 6th year of medicine was found dead ( hemorrhage due to thrombosis) few days after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

https://actu.fr/societe/coronavirus/mor ... 52719.html

I'm not sure what AZ can do about how this stuff is being reported, but the statistical evidence simply doesn't support an causal relationship with AZ at all

[SaintK]

Basically he is murdering the Brazilian population
I amazed there hasn't been the rumblings of a coup or an overthrow of Bolsonaro