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That is amazing. It also undercuts one of the main arguments made against suspending IP protection if the main obstacle to using it as a country’s primary vaccine is removed.
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I saw that earlier. Great news. I wonder if Moderna will follow suit shortly? Hopefully the same approval will come in the UK as well. Would this potentially bring the price of the vaccine itself down (it will obviously bring down the overall cost of rolling it out)?
This is worrying, specially for Bangladesh. So far we have given Oxford Vaccine for both the shots. However, we are having a serious supply crisis and we are now going for the Chinese vaccine for the future shots.
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Like NZ they include those in quarantine.
New Zealand’s numbers for example are ticking upward. But none of them are in the community. They are people arriving off the plane and testing positive.
Basically it’s 2 week isolation system in hotels working.
You also can’t stop citizens coming home (generally). Even if Australia/NZ temporarily halted flights from India.
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What are the requirements for travel into Oz or NZ? Negative PCR test within 48 hours? Are all arrivals quarantining? In dedicated hotels? Tests on day 2 and 8 etc?
Do you know if Oz and NZ are sequencing all their positive tests?
Canada - Variants of concerns (17-May)
B.1.1.7: 166,709
B.1.351: 1,296
P.1: 9,129
B.1.617: 363
363 vs 5 reported in the map above on 15-May. Yikes.
Important to note that the number on the map is what the country has reported to GISAID so likely to be a lag and perhaps countries are not logging with GISAID every single sequenced test?
The system has been continually evolving. Originally it was 72 hours and 12 days after arrival, all occurring within a manged isolation hotel.
This has subsequently evolved to
Proof of negative pre-departure test
Day 0, day 3 and day 12 testing in manged isolation hotel (released to go home day 14 if all negative)
If at any point they come back with a positive result, that individual is moved to special quarantine facilities.
Not sure on Oz, but imagine its something similar.
All our positive results are sequenced, in case its gets into the community we want to be able to trace it back.
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As I have stated before - I have a completely open mind on the origin of the virus. There are a number of plausible explanations and yes many unanswered questions. There is no definitive “smoking gun.” There is no scientific consensus, there is no neatly wrapped answer.
The journal “Science” as recently as 4 days ago published a short commentary upon the question of the origin of the virus. Again there are too many eminent scientists questioning the origin of the virus for it to be just deemed “conspiracy theories.”
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that the Chinese Government was placing stringent restrictions on the publication of any Coronavirus research conducted in their territory. And severely restricting any research within China from outside agencies. No Chinese document has ever definitively established that the virus originated in the wet markets of Wuhan. The contrary in fact.
This extract from the article is particularly telling - “*On May 25, (2020) China CDC chief George Gao said no animal samples from the market had tested positive, ruling it out as the source.”
Most people, when asked where did the Coronavirus originate from? would reply - “The wet markets of Wuhan.” This narrative has stuck with the public and it would appear to be incorrect.
Yet another publication, again Australian, points toward an alternative and more sinister explanation -
“The paper titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons suggested that World War Three would be fought with biological weapons. The document revealed that Chinese military scientists were discussing the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic.” The report by Weekend Australian was published in news.com.au.9 May 2021.
For every article disputing the “official” explanation of the origin of the virus there are an equivalent number or more promoting the theory that it is an entirely natural event.
As I mentioned in my original post, without definitive evidence it is more than reasonable to keep an open mind. I am not in either camp, but it is an important matter that deserves in-depth investigations. There is obviously significant scientific disquiet with the “official” explanation that elevates this investigation above the catchall label of “conspiracy theory.” Who knows, an entirely different explanation may emerge neatly tying up all the unanswered questions.
Finally I referred to the US financial involvement in the Wuhan Lab as “shady”. Probably a poor choice of language - ill-advised, lacking transparency and oversight, would probably be more temperate descriptors. This article from South Korea goes some way to explaining why and how the US was funding, in part, the WIV. It is far too complex a web to go into here - I have neither time nor inclination to attempt to explain it further - if you are interested perhaps do your own research and draw your own conclusions?
Now, where did I leave my tin-foil hat?
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So Singapore is going to adopt this strategy, previously we wanted to ensure the vaccination both does to be completed for all adults above 16 by end of the year, but with the sudden spike of the variants, they are now going for at least one dose for all eligible citizens and residents by August and spreading the 2nd dose to 6-8 weeks later. We are using Pfizer and Moderna. So guess I can register for my 1st shot tomorrow onwards. My mum took Pfizer both shots and my sister took Moderna, and my Sister had alittle more side effects than my Mum but nothing too bothersome, so I guess I will go for Pfizer.
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I wouldn’t worry too much about which vaccine you get. The side effects seem to be fairly random.
I had the AZ jab, and apart from feeling really tired for about 25-26 hours didn’t get any side effects, but I know others that did get bad side effects from both AZ and Pfizer.
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Yeah right now we only have Pfizer and Moderna, and we are able to choose so I guess I will choose Pfizer our of the two…but like you said, side effects do differ person from person
I had Moderna and just had a sore arm for two days. It’s all good man.
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ya even my sister’s side effect is pretty minimal, sore arms and rashes around the injection site and some chills…so its not bad too…
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After a very promising start, the vaccination program has come to a screeching halt in Bangladesh.
We have a stock of just 600k doses.
Vaccination (first & second dosage) and registration for vaccination has been suspended.
Indian variant: Why is UK taking a risk with the variant? - BBC News
I honestly think I read the BBC because I hate their bias so much. Visiting the BBC website is like visiting the caf - full of trash. Some of it funny in its patheticness, some of it rage-inducing. From the BBC:
But this is unlikely to be the last time the UK is faced with such a situation.
Much has been made, understandably, of the decision not to put India on the red list sooner. But this is not just a UK problem - the Indian variant has been found in 50 countries across the world, including Australia.
Fact twisting. BBC the professional news media contortionist. Australia has no cases under investigation. No community transmission (1). All cases with India variants in Australia are in isolation after international travel. From a very small number of return travellers allowed (~6,500 travellers per week now across Aus). That go into isolation. You know…so they don’t spread it into the community? 
Yes, the UK has identified the most cases after India, but it does do nearly half the world’s genomic sequencing.
Its also 4th in the world in sequencing per case, behind NZ, Australia and Iceland (2). That’s nice we have sequenced so many, but its a reflection of our method of virus containment which is absolutely pants. You don’t need to sequence a million cases if there aren’t a million cases.
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