I'd say that I'd have no problem with vaccine passports once everyone has been offered at least one vaccination, but before then I'd be more wary about creating a two-tier system.

Will vaccines for Easter Sunday be 0 tomorrow?

So seems like vaccine passports ARE being rolled out in the UK and are being introduced pretty soon.

 

With less than 4,000 people testing positive daily (and that number is quickly decreasing) out of 66 million people, and 31 million people (and rising) vaccinated, and deaths/hospital admission numbers also falling off a cliff with every passing day I really can't see the need for domestic purposes anytime soon, let alone by the summer. Slippery slope and I'm pretty uncomfortable about it.

 

Thoughts?

 

Vaccination uptake rates will go down now because of the blood clot news story and also because younger people in general with have more vaccine hesitancy probably.

Which blood clot news? The one where there was a 0.003% or something like that of it developing? I don’t think that would have as much of an impact.

 

Your second point, maybe, but if the vaccine passport goes ahead then it might spur the younger generation into getting the vaccine (even though I don’t think it’ll happen until everyone has been offered the first vaccine).

I see a lot of noise about younger people being hesitant to get vaccinated and it seems like absolute bullshit to blame things on young people ONCE AGAIN as the media has done since day 1.

 

Where on earth does the idea come from? Everyone I know is chomping at the bit to get one and just hasn't been allowed to be offered one yet. It's like the media has this weird obsession with blaming younger people for not doing things they aren't able to do and framing it as a choice. "Young people are destroying X industry/not buying houses" alarm articles are exactly the same thing.

I’m not sure where the notion of young people refusing the vaccine is coming from. From my experience, the vaccine refusers have been aged between 45 and 65 including my parents. My parents who have now refused 3 times and yet I’ve not had the offer and would gladly accept before I’m back in school at full capacity a week tomorrow.

How do they get offered three times?

Which blood clot news? The one where there was a 0.003% or something like that of it developing? I don’t think that would have as much of an impact.

 

Your second point, maybe, but if the vaccine passport goes ahead then it might spur the younger generation into getting the vaccine (even though I don’t think it’ll happen until everyone has been offered the first vaccine).

 

There is some data that the AZ vaccine is causing blood cots in younger people, predominately women, although there are a few cases in men too. But they need to establish a link, although it does seem as if there is something there. But the cases are absolutely minimal and the mud being slung does seem somewhat politically motivated, there are other side effects of the Pfizer vaccine too but the media doesn't seem to want to report on these.

 

Anyway, I don't think it will mean young people don't take the vaccine, but certainly the scientists need to establish something pretty soon quickly. While the numbers might be 0.00005% now, when you get on to the younger cohorts that could become 1.5% pretty quickly. I'd say there is certainly a case for giving women under 55 a different vaccine, to mitigate any potential risks cos you could actually have a higher risk of mortality from the jab as catching covid.

I see a lot of noise about younger people being hesitant to get vaccinated and it seems like absolute bullshit to blame things on young people ONCE AGAIN as the media has done since day 1.

 

Where on earth does the idea come from? Everyone I know is chomping at the bit to get one and just hasn't been allowed to be offered one yet. It's like the media has this weird obsession with blaming younger people for not doing things they aren't able to do and framing it as a choice. "Young people are destroying X industry/not buying houses" alarm articles are exactly the same thing.

Speaking from a Dutch perspective. The intend to get vaccinated is lowest among the below 30 groups. Main reason would be that they won't get sick so why take a vaccine that has been developed in such a short time

Part of the problem with the blood clot story is that a lot of people have a very poor perception of risk. There is a suspected risk of blood clotting among people with Covid. However, that risk is so low (and a link has not been proven) that it hasn't been reported until now. It is even being suggested that the risk of blood clots from Covid is significantly greater than any risk from the vaccine.

 

There is now work ongoing to see whether there is a way of identifying people at higher risk of clots. However, again because the numbers are so low, that may never yield any results.

 

There is a risk involved in everything we do. Most of us just accept those risks and get on with things. Indeed, many people over the last few months have said they aren't worried about side effects such as feeling ill after having the jab. The risk of feeling ill is far greater than the risk of blood clots so, if we accept the former, we should accept the latter.

How do they get offered three times?

 

They’ve never taken up the offer?

I’m not sure where the notion of young people refusing the vaccine is coming from. From my experience, the vaccine refusers have been aged between 45 and 65 including my parents. My parents who have now refused 3 times and yet I’ve not had the offer and would gladly accept before I’m back in school at full capacity a week tomorrow.

 

 

Sadly it doesn't work like that though. :( Wish it did. A question. If you could pay to have it tomorrow would you?

They’ve never taken up the offer?

 

And do they just keep offering again after the first refusal?

And do they just keep offering again after the first refusal?

 

So far they’ve phoned twice after the first refusal. They didn’t hear anything this past week.

The Blood Clots thing isn't political that's such bullshit.

 

https://www.dw.com/en/astrazeneca-whats-the...osis/a-56901525 - Thats actually a really good article on the links between AZ and the Blood Clot events. Its from Deutsche Welle, which is like the German BBC except their one job is to make impartial news and given Germanys history, they are very f***ing good at being impartial. The BBC should be taking extensive notes tbh.

 

 

 

Its also worth noting that the number of events in the UK has absolutely rocketed this past month: https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-uk...-jab/a-57083963

 

 

 

Why was the UK so slow to see clotting events? Its simple really. The UK mainly administered Pfizer to NHS Staff and Careworkers because it arrived and was approved first. Then, the absolute majority of the AZ roll out has been to the over 60's. It is rare that an under 60 has been jagged with AZ in the UK, but that has changed in the last month or so with more under 60s now eligible, hence the rise in cases. This rise will continue because AZ is the jag that the UK has built its entire programme around.

 

 

Germany and some other EU countries initially restricted AZ to under 65s because AZ submitted garbage data to the EMA (Note the FDA has openly called out AZ for submitting shite data and not a single person who likes to cry political/brexit at how the AZ roll out in the EU is going has had jack shit to say about that. V. interesting.) which means that the initial batches of AZ in the EU went to under 65s in the health and care sector - a sector with a gender split in favour of women who are the ones most susceptible to this issue.

 

 

 

Effectively the EU numbers on blood clots are more front loaded that the UK ones because of the profile of the roll out of the vaccination, which is why to claim it is political is a rather dense thing to do, especially in the face of rising numbers in the UK.

 

 

 

 

Now, do I believe that the incidence rate is high enough to warrant scaremongering and vaccine stops? Not at all. Its rare but other jags/medicines have similar risk profiles and we still use those happily.

 

 

 

GPs in Germany can give out vaccines from Tuesday so I have signed up with my doc for their waitlist and just have to hope that me in Group 2 should get an appt pretty soon. They're starting with the BioNTech one which is the one I really want for science reasons (I think the mRNA tech is super cool and really want to receive the first vaccine ever approved with this novel technology) - that the data for it suggests it stands up better against variants is a nice bonus.

It's getting worse and worse in Brazil - very worrying, especially when you consider they estimate that 76% of the population of Manaus caught the virus in the first wave and yet cases are through the roof here again. Herd immunity?

 

 

Although not to completely doom and gloom, there was some v postive news on the Pfizer vaccine trials today:

 

@1379064102824316929

Brazil, as a direct result of the inaction of the president, Are placing the entire planets recovery from Covid into jeopardy. The P1 variant has proven to be able to beat natural immunity to the wild strain which is concerning enough but the situation is so bad the virus is mutating further. Brazil is now a danger to us all.

The stuff out of Brazil is pretty mad- I knew it had gotten really bad a couple of weeks ago but those numbers are mad. I think it puts to bed that having natural immunity is not really the way out (similar to the flu). Vaccines are the way to go, I saw some stuff out Israel which was a snapshot of what life could be like.. but then listening to the press conference today some worrying news out of Chile!

Ch4 News tonight reporting that the UK are now looking at the AstraZeneca vaccine and may remove it from the roll out!

What's happening in Brazil is so heartbreaking. I do hope things improve, but they're technically going into autumn now so it doesn't look like the seasons will be working for them.

 

Also has anyone seen what's happening in India? There's been a massive surge there in cases with record amount of cases topping 100k recently. This could be really bad. India may be the next hotspot after Brazil.