the no-nonsense, nothing-but-the-facts-m'am C19 thread

[Conor Dary]

UAE, Bahrain, and Chile all have good vaccination rates -- higher than the U.S. But their cases are all either increasing or not dropping. All three rely heavily on Chinese vaccines. Thus I'm worried that the Chinese vaccines may not be able to handle the variants.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NateSilve...83368806916097

[18.99s]

UAE, Bahrain, and Chile all have good vaccination rates -- higher than the U.S. But their cases are all either increasing or not dropping. All three rely heavily on Chinese vaccines. Thus I'm worried that the Chinese vaccines may not be able to handle the variants.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NateSilve...83368806916097

Only 744 participants in the first two phases of the Chinese trials, and lower reported efficacy than Pfizer, Moderna etc.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55212787

Zhu Fengcai, one of the paper's authors, said those results - based on 144 participants in the phase one trial and 600 in the phase two trial - meant the vaccine was "suitable for emergency use".

CoronaVac has been undergoing phase three trials in various countries. Interim data from late-stage trials in Turkey and Indonesia showed that the vaccine was 91.25% and 65.3% effective respectively.

Researchers in Brazil initially said it was 78% effective in their clinical trials, but in January 2021 revised that figure to 50.4% after including more data in their calculations.

[Conor Dary]

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...accine/618463/

[Halfmiler2]

NJ Governor Murphy announced that the vaccines will be available to individuals at ages 16 & older beginning on April 19th. At the moment, only Pfizer vaccines are authorized for 16 and17 year-olds.

[Conor Dary]

Brazil has become South America’s superspreader event



https://www.washingtonpost.com/world....co/xGzS0mQnME

[Conor Dary]

UK recommends under-30s use alternative vaccine to AstraZeneca

The UK has abruptly changed its guidance over the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, saying that people aged 18-29 should be offered alternative jabs, in a move that could complicate Britain’s vaccination programme.

The new guidance from the body that advises the UK government on vaccinations came as the European Medicines Agency announced a link between rare blood clots in the brain and the AstraZeneca jab.


https://amp.ft.com/content/3870ba5b-...mpression=true

[gh]

meanwhile, it's all in your head....

1 in 3 Covid-19 patients are diagnosed with a neuropsychiatric condition in the next six months, large study finds


https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/06/...in-six-months/

[TN1965]

UAE, Bahrain, and Chile all have good vaccination rates -- higher than the U.S. But their cases are all either increasing or not dropping. All three rely heavily on Chinese vaccines. Thus I'm worried that the Chinese vaccines may not be able to handle the variants.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NateSilve...83368806916097

Seems like the same problem exists in Hungary, now the second worst country behind Czech Republic. (Not counting Gibraltar and San Marino.)

https://apnews.com/article/europe-bu...8c004b9da13727

In February, the country became the first in the EU to begin using China’s Sinopharm and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines, even as polling showed that public trust in non-EU approved vaccines was low.

[Conor Dary]

Britain said on Wednesday that it would offer alternatives to the AstraZeneca vaccine for adults under 30 as European regulators described a “possible link” with rare blood clots, a setback for the world’s most widely used vaccine and a blow to the more than 100 countries relying on it to save lives amid a global surge in coronavirus cases.

Until the announcement, Britain had never wavered in its use of the vaccine, making it a holdout in Europe even as many countries detected unusual, sometimes fatal, blood clots in some recipients. But evidence has mounted that very small numbers of Britons had also been afflicted, forcing the country to reduce the use in younger people of a vaccine that is the backbone of its world-beating inoculation program.

The concern over the blood clots has threatened the pace of vaccinations far beyond Europe. At least 111 countries of varying income levels have administered doses of AstraZeneca’s shot, making it international aid groups’ most potent weapon in the battle to reduce deaths in vaccine-starved countries.

Europe’s concerns over the vaccine’s side effects are also likely to threaten global inoculation efforts, with much of the developing world depending on the AstraZeneca vaccine to tackle the pandemic. The shot is the cornerstone of Covax, a program designed to make vaccine access more equitable worldwide.


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04...onavirus-cases

[Conor Dary]

Most U.S. infections are now caused by a contagious new virus variant, the C.D.C. says.

A highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in Britain has now become the most common source of new infections in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday — a worrisome development that comes as officials and scientists warn of a fourth possible virus surge.

Federal health officials said in January that the B.1.1.7 variant, which began surging in Britain in December and has since slammed Europe, could become the dominant source of coronavirus infections in United States, leading to a wrenching increase in cases and deaths.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04...onavirus-cases

[Conor Dary]

Financial Times

India vaccine exports to restart in June if domestic infections fall



STEPHANIE FINDLAY — NEW DELHI

The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, predicted it would not resume exports of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine until June and only then if domestic coronavirus cases decline.

India suspended vaccine exports in March in an attempt to balance surging domestic demand with international orders.

On Tuesday, the country hit a record 115,269 new coronavirus infections as its second wave accelerated faster than in Brazil and the US. Cases in India have surged after the spring festival of Holi last week.

[Conor Dary]

#India's decision to slow down vaccine exports will have big impact on COVAX programme to supply vaccines in developing countries - #India's vaccination timeline for domestic population will stretch until end-2022

https://mobile.twitter.com/AgatheDem...64049152749569

[Conor Dary]

Chile’s lauded vaccine rollout fails to save it from Covid surge

Mood darkens in country that had won plaudits for its immunisation programme

Scarcely a month ago, Chile’s centre-right government was basking in praise for its model rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, as it powered ahead of the rest of the Latin America — and most of the world.

But since then, the mood in Santiago has darkened. Chile’s impressive vaccine programme has failed to spare it from a recent surge in coronavirus cases in the region, which have at least doubled in Chile and most neighbouring countries during the past few weeks.

“Nowhere are infections as worrisome as in South America, where cases are mounting in nearly every country,” Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), told a news conference on Wednesday.

https://amp.ft.com/content/89992bc9-...mpression=true

[Conor Dary]

Brazil and India now worst-hit hot spots, with record new cases and deaths


Public health experts are raising alarm over Brazil this week, as the pandemic-hit nation has reached several grim coronavirus milestones, including a record number of deaths and the possible spread of multiple more-contagious variants.

Brazilian authorities Tuesday reported nearly 4,200 covid-19 deaths — the country’s highest daily death toll since the pandemic began. The raging outbreak has been fueled by the virulent P.1 variant, and now scientists there say they have identified Brazil’s first case involving a similar, more transmissible variant discovered in South Africa.

Because of the rising number of infections and deaths, officials in Brazil’s most-populous city, Sao Paulo, say they are adding 600 new graves to municipal cemeteries each day.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ve-updates-us/

[Conor Dary]

New Zealand bans arrivals from India, including its own citizens


New Zealand plans to temporarily ban travelers from India, including its own citizens, because of the rising number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving from the pandemic-hit nation.

India is in the throes of one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks and reported more than 126,000 new cases on Thursday, a daily record.

New Zealand health officials say that they believe people are contracting the virus on the way to the airport in India, meaning that infections aren’t being picked up by preflight testing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ve-updates-us/