Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

Probably relevant to the original question:

I'm an epidemiologist. I'll be glad to get whatever vaccine I'm offered (focuses on Australia)

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/me...im-offered/ar-BB1dJoZg?ocid=ASUDHP&li=AAnZ9Ug

 

The author is missing the forest for the trees (as is easy to do as stated in the article). Any vaccine in your arm might have short-term benefit if the virus is currently circulating (which it is not in Australia), but the long term benefit is based on preventing spread and preventing disease with the highest efficacy. The AZ vaccine provides zero benefit if the virus is not circulating in Australia and does not have sufficient efficacy for the states to remove their test/trace/quarantine programmes. So I can't see why anyone would consider it useful over the alternatives.

 

Yes, it can, the "original antigenic sin", or Hoskins effect. If the circulating antibodies still work to prevent sufficient activity in germinal centres (despite poorer neutralising ability), then the major result of a subsequent vaccine will simply be as a 'booster', eg clonal expansion of existing B-cells, rather than any improvement in the neutralising quality of the antibodies.

Any vaccines down the track will need to be for variants with significantly different spike proteins, even more so than the current "South African variant".

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1361980984963522561

 

I am a bit worried about getting vaccinated because I have a history of bad reactions to various drugs, (antibiotics in particular), not anaphalactic shock but once my eyelids and lips swelled up very badly, and it took 2 weeks to get under control.
I am currently still recovering from another allergic reaction (2 1/2 months ago) to I don't know what. I cannot take any kind of steroid medication, and anti-hystamine also cause problems.
The fact that I live on my own and have no outside help (although I can call on neighbours occasionally to do things, but could not get anyone to care for me if I go downhill for any period of time) adds to the dilemma.
I see that some people on the forum are now being offered the vaccine so I'm going to have make a decision soon.

 

I have just been offered the vaccine after requesting to be put in Group 6 (using the ME Association letter). I am a little cautious of getting it with not knowing how it will affect me, but I will almost certainly go ahead and get it.

 

The benefit really depends on what your risk of contracting the virus in the first place. If it is circulating significantly in your community (by that I mean people are contracting it in public from unknown contacts) then a vaccine dose usually outweighs the risks.

 

That's true, but that's just current risk. We don't know about the future. My current risk is probably low. I don't really go out that much.

 

I live in the UK, and have a vulnerable family member, so yes keen to get them vaccinated (and me too). One of the issues would e.g. be ending up in hospital (for something other than covid) and picking up covid when you're there. OK you can limit your contacts to a greater/lesser extent but hospital visits (planned/unplanned), dentist ----

 

@Snow Leopard reply is much better but the short answer to me is no - e.g. they are talking of giving Pfizer/AstraZenica (almost) interchangeably in the UK. Also, my impression is that vaccination may be annual (new variants) so it may be a case of a new vaccine every year.

 

Haven't they been warning people who suffer from allergic reactions not to get (one or more of) the vaccine(s)?

 

No, they've been warning such people to inform their healthcare providers and only be vaccinated in places where a quick medical response to an anaphylactic reaction is likely.

 

I don't think this affects many people in the West but might be interesting to some in other countries whose government may have ordered from the Russian Sputnik vaccine. In Hungary this vaccine is not recommended for:

- people with chronic kidney or liver disease, endocrine diseases
- people with significantly abnormal thyroid values, not properly treated diabetes, hematologic diseases, epilepsy and diseases of the central nervous system, acute coronary syndrome, acute cerebrovascular event, myocarditis, endocarditis, pericarditis
- people with autoimmune diseases (stimulation of the immune system may lead to a flare and special caution is necessary for those patients whose autoimmune diseases can lead to a severe or life-threatening condition)
- people with malignant tumour

This is based on the unofficial instructions that came with the vaccine and was posted by the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition and the Hungarian Medical Chamber.

The document in pdf in Hungarian: https://www.ogyei.gov.hu/dynamic/Sputnik V vakcina magyar nyelvu tajekoztato.pdf

However: there has been some debate that this is actually based on an older document from October and the newer Russian instructions only say we should be cautious with the above diseases, as opposed to not recommending the vaccine to these people at all.

Right now we use Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, Astrazeneca and ordered Sputnik and one of the Chinese vaccines (and I think some others too that haven't arrived yet). People are really not thrilled by the latter two at all, to say the least, and the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna vaccines seem to have the biggest support. What may happen: most people reject the Russian and Chinese one, the ones that will be more available, and will wait for the ones that they trust more. So probably lots of money down the drain.)

As for me, I'll wait for those too, even if it takes a much longer time.

 

I had a phone call from my GP surgery yesterday offering the COVID vaccine. I said no thanks. Due to hearing difficulty at the time (just clearing up at last, I think) I'm not sure whether she asked whether I was saying no to ANY Covid vaccine, but I said no. Hopefully this won't mean that I can't have any Covid vaccine in future, in case things change.

 

That seems like a lot of words to say precisely nothing useful, and in so doing avoid clarifying what he means, if anything, or make a decision, one way or the other.

 

You seem to know a lot about this stuff. What do you make of this:

https://futurism.com/neoscope/pfizer-covid-vaccine-effective-one-shot

I also read something about it having 89/91% efficacy after one shot in a trial in Israel.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00448-7/fulltext

This is what I could find about that, but I don't understand it one bit to be honest.

Would like your opinion on it, and if my post is spreading misinformation I'd like it deleted but I don't know how to flag a moderator straight away.