I agree. I’m also a little bit peeved that qualifications can be both widespread while the reality in the actual detail of the qualification is night and day.
For example Engineer. The difference between an engineer that can fix your washing machine and a Chartered Engineer are miles apart but both are categorised as Engineers> Doesn’t feel right to me.
What’s even more frightening is I have a certificate to say I’m a Person of Specialist Knowledge. Doesn’t state in what though 
From tomorrow on The Netherlands will use the AstraZeneca vaccine again.
Apologies. the first time I read that it went like this
"From tomorrow the Neanderthals will use the AstraZenica vaccine again. "
I had heard that Boris gets his jab tomorrow as well. Coincidence??
It’s been a long week and I’m not done yet.
In our case, AZ was only vaccinated to the age group u65 and all cases in which thrombosis occurred were mostly younger women so far. I just watched an interview in which a doctor explained exactly that it behaves presumably very similar like the birth control pill (in connection with smoking).
And for this reason he would advise this group against a vaccination with AZ until that is clarified in more detail and we all have more data.
A few days ago there was a bad incident in my immediate environment after a vaccination as well. A friend of my aunty suffered a stroke a day after the vaccination and is still unresponsive. Since then we’ve had countless discussions here about whether she now would like to be vaccinated at all because my aunt is now totally insecure.
Absolutely the right decision.
But the damage is done. European nations with high skepticism would be wise to focus on other vaccines. Most important thing is public perceptions of safety.
Perception and reality are different things, and there needs to be a drive to encourage confidence in all vaccines. Divert supplies of AZ to countries with low skepticism (within Europe first) . The richer countries promote using Phizer, JJ or moderna etc
It’s a difficult decision, but it must be approaching a tipping point in some places where AZ bad press is detrimental to all vaccine uptake. Given most places have no choice.
I thought Boris had aready had Covid, no?
I think there has to be at least open discussion and we’re not getting that.
I have health issues and heard something about the AZ vaccine that requires me to speak to my doctor at very least and hope he’s informed and up to date.
Declarations like ‘it’s safe’ really doesn’t help!
He tricked me. He’s still going…
Yes and he was really ill with it, but he’s still being vaccinated tomorrow. I dont think whether you’ve had it or not actually matters as far as the vaccination programme goes. It does raise an interesting question though. Some, not all of these people will have anti bodies and perhaps that shot would be better served giving it to someone who hasn’t had the virus.
That obviously leads to more questions as there’s a whole host of people out there who don’t know if they’ve actually had it or not - no symptoms etc.
I guess I’m answering my own question here in just give it to everyone in order of priority based on age, health, risk, occupation etc.
Yes, they should get vaccinated. There is no evidence of any safety concerns from vaccinating individuals with a past history of COVID-19 infection, or with detectable COVID-19 antibody so people who have had COVID-19 disease (whether confirmed or suspected) can still receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
You can have the vaccine 28 days after you had a positive test for COVID-19 or 28 days after your symptoms started, so you may need to wait.
Lots of good information here about AZ and Pfizer which may help to answer questions or concerns
https://www.ouh.nhs.uk/working-for-us/staff/covid-staff-faqs-vaccine.aspx
That report claims the US stockpile is 7m, but I’ve seen it reported elsewhere as 10s of millions (we preordered 100 million). Either way that still leaves an amount left on ice that is difficult to defend. With 3 already approved and Novavax around the corner, we’re quickly leaving Emergency Use Authorization territory and so even if they can finish their US trials soon it may never get approval here. And even if it does, it’s almost certain to do so only after we’ve reached full vaccination status.
Under those circumstances, it is difficult to understand the justification of sitting on them. I wonder if there is concern about it further hurting AZ’s reputation around the world if its seen as the one the US doesn’t want.
Just seen a stat from the BBC that should be relayed again and again when talking about the vaccine.
The odds of getting a blood clot from AZ vaccine is 1 in 460,000.
The odds of getting a blood clot from Covid infection is 1 in 3
That’s what needs to be the message. Given we are in a pandemic, where do you want to place your bet.
"In Germany, there are now 13 reported cases of such blood clots in cerebral veins in a temporal connection to vaccinations with AZ, as announced by the Federal Ministry of Health. Three patients died. In total, there are twelve women and one man aged 20 to 63 years. Despite more than 1.6 million vaccinations, this is more than an average amount of cases. "
I read yesterday that, like Johnson, the French prime minister, Jean Castex, is also having the AstraZeneca vaccine today in a deliberate attempt to start repairing the damage done to its public perception.
AZ certainly needs some messaging like this to recover from the damage that the suspension has had. Technically it isn’t an apples to apples comparison as it has ignored the odds of getting COVID to allow a direct comparison - maybe irrelevant in Europe as the odds are so high of catching COVID, but if you live with the mountain goats in the Himalayas then obviously you have a much greater chance of a blood clot after the AZ vaccine than going without it altogether (just to use an extreme example) since the risk of COVID infection is almost nil.
Its similar to the way the risks are balanced in Australia with regard to shark fatalities. ‘You have a greater chance of being struck and killed by a meteor’. If you spend 6 hours a day, 7 days a week in the water at Tweed Heads around dusk is the risk really that low? Context is always important.
This is some really interesting insight. It’s crucial that the lessons learned over the last year are not forgotten and that we retain a beneficial legacy from this global crisis.