Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

Which protects you more against Covid – vaccination or prior infection? | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

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For the Delta variant at least, the latest analysis suggests they are roughly equivalent

In the United States, the issue of whether “natural immunity” from prior infection is as good as vaccination is becoming politicised.

Fortunately, the Office for National Statistics has released results from a sophisticated analysis of its Covid-19 infection survey that address this issue. Helped by test-and-trace data, it identified respondents’ “infection episodes” and used other data to infer whether participants were previously vaccinated, had a previous infection or neither.

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Australia Covid live updates: Victoria to have freedom of movement from Friday as state records 1,935 cases; 296 cases in NSW

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Victoria may reach jab milestone allowing greater freedoms this week, while figures show worrying number of school closures from outbreaks

The full rundown on Covid in NSW today, brought to you by AAP:

NSW has added a further 296 locally acquired infections to its Covid caseload along with four more deaths.

Some 480 people with the virus remain in hospitals across the state, 119 of them in intensive care.

Meanwhile, Halloween enthusiasts are being warned to keep trick-or-treating Covid-safe.

“If you and your family are planning to celebrate Halloween this year ... aim to keep the celebrations outside, provide closed packaging for treats and instead of communal lolly bowls consider other ways to distribute your treats,” NSW Health’s Jeremy McAnulty advised on Saturday.

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‘Nervous giddy excitement’: relieved Melbourne residents enjoy weekend out of lockdown

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The world’s lockdown capital emerges for its first Friday night of freedom, but not everyone joined the party

From St Kilda to Coburg the traffic is heavy in Melbourne for the first time in months. The bars are filling up and friends are having long hugs as the world’s lockdown capital sheds its Covid restrictions and opens up.

“Melbourne is back!” yells one man out of his car window on Lygon Street in the inner-city suburb of Carlton.

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‘I need to work’: Italy’s green pass rule triggers rise in Covid jab uptake

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Rule that pass must be presented to access workplaces forces hand of many vaccine-hesitant Italians

At the vaccination hub outside Termini train station in Rome, a steady flow of people have been turning up for their first Covid vaccine dose in recent days. The mood is begrudging. “If I didn’t have to do it, I wouldn’t,” said Rosanna Barbuto, a supermarket worker. Catalin, 41, who works in a factory, said: “I’m taking it because I need to work.”

They are among the vaccine-hesitant who caved in after Italy made it mandatory for all workers to present a so-called green pass to access their workplaces. The rules are the strictest in Europe and require workers to present proof of vaccination, immunity or of a negative test taken within the previous 48 hours. Some see Italy’s cautious approach as the key to its current low infection rate.

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FDA backs Moderna and J&J boosters as it OKs mixing Covid vaccines

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CDC will consult panel this week before finalizing recommendations for who should get boosters and when

US regulators on Wednesday signed off on extending Covid-19 boosters to Americans who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine and said anyone eligible for an extra dose can get a brand different from the one they received initially.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decisions mark a big step toward expanding the US booster campaign, which began with extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine last month.

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Deaths among the double vaccinated: what is behind the Australian statistics?

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A small number of people become severely unwell with Covid even if they are fully vaccinated, but the data suggests they mostly suffer from other conditions as well

On Tuesday, there were 356 Covid-19 patients being treated in intensive care wards throughout Australia. Of those, 25 were fully vaccinated.

While the data points to the extraordinary efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines in preventing people from becoming severely unwell, being hospitalised and dying, it does raise the question: why do a small number of people become seriously ill and, in rare cases, die, despite being fully vaccinated?

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Without Covid-19 jab, ‘reinfection may occur every 16 months’

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Reports grow of repeat infection as experts warn prevalence among school pupils puts older people at risk

As Covid-19 infections surge in England, people are increasingly reporting catching Sars-CoV-2 for a second or even third time.

New analysis has suggested that unvaccinated individuals should expect to be reinfected with Covid-19 every 16 months, on average.

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Covid live: no contingency measures for UK despite high deaths; Pfizer jab 93% effective in keeping children out of hospital

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UK reports further 223 deaths but UK government says no to plan B for now; US study shows success in preventing hospitalisation of 12- to 18-year-olds

The Czech Republic is embroiled in a political crisis with the ill-health of far-right president Miloš Zeman coinciding with a general election, and it is also seeing rising Covid numbers.

Robert Muller reports from Prague for Reuters that the Czech Republic detected 2,521 new cases of Covid yesterday, the highest daily tally since late April.

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Offshoot of Covid Delta variant on the rise in England

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UK Health Security Agency monitoring AY.4.2 as daily cases at highest level since late July

A newly detected coronavirus variant is on the rise in England, with the virus believed to be an offshoot of Delta.

According to a briefing from the UK Health Security Agency, released on Friday, “a Delta sublineage newly designated as AY.4.2 is noted to be expanding in England”, with the body adding that the variant is being monitored and assessed.

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Religious exemptions threaten to undermine US Covid vaccine mandates

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In California hundreds of public employees, including police and firefighters, are claiming ‘sincerely held’ objections to the vaccine

This month, California became the first state to require Covid-19 vaccines for all schoolchildren but the provision came with a loophole: students will be granted religious exemptions.

California, which currently has the lowest coronavirus case rate in the US, has been issuing a series of sweeping mandates, requiring that healthcare workers, state employees, care workers and schoolteachers staff all get the vaccine. But in each case, Californians are able to ask for personal belief exemptions – and they are doing so in droves.

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Afghanistan to restart polio vaccination programme with Taliban support

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The WHO and Unicef campaign will restart after three years, and the hardliners say they will assist and allow frontline female staff

Afghanistan will restart nationwide polio vaccinations after more than three years, as the new Taliban government agreed to assist the campaign and to allow women to participate as frontline workers, the UN said on Monday.

The World Health Organization and Unicef said the vaccination drive would begin on 8 November with Taliban support.

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Valneva Covid vaccine could be as effective as Oxford jab, study suggests

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Vaccine produced by French company uses inactivated Sars-CoV-2 virus and can be stored in fridge

A coronavirus jab based on traditional vaccine technology might be as effective as the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, data suggests, offering new hope for global vaccination efforts.

Vaccines currently approved for use in the UK deliver instructions for producing the coronavirus “spike” protein to cells in order, which triggers an immune response. However, the jab produced by the French pharmaceutical company Valneva involves delivering the whole – but inactivated – Sars-CoV-2 virus.

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Concern over jab delay for pupils in England as age group cases soar

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With schools struggling to vaccinate before winter arrives, ministers are urged to allow children to receive vaccines at different venues

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Ministers are facing demands to allow younger teenagers to attend Covid vaccination centres, amid concerns that jab rates among this age group are three times lower in England than Scotland.

The vaccination rate among 12- to 15-year-olds in England currently stands at just 14.2% according to official data, compared with 44.3% in Scotland. The huge disparity has led to complaints that England has been held back by administering vaccinations solely through schools.

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Pregnant women at risk from NHS workers’ mixed messages over safety of jab

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Expectant mothers tell helpline that midwives are advising them against vaccines despite threat posed by virus

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Pregnant women are being advised by some health professionals not to have the Covid vaccine despite an edict from the NHS that they should encourage them to get the jab. One in six of the most critically ill Covid patients requiring life-saving care are unvaccinated pregnant women, figures released last week show.

Yet messages sent to the Vaccines and Pregnancy helpline, launched on 20 August to help pregnant women navigate information about the vaccine, suggest that some midwives are advising against the jab.

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Gordon Brown urges emergency Covid vaccine airlift to Africa

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Former UK prime minister says operation could be under way within days if world leaders signed off

More than 100,000 lives can be saved in Africa by undertaking the emergency airlift of 240m unused vaccines in the next fortnight, Gordon Brown has urged.

The former prime minister called on a group of rich nations to back “the biggest peacetime public policy decision” by supporting an October airlift that would see unused vaccines handed to parts of the global south struggling the most.

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Covid ‘vaxathon’: over 2.5% of New Zealanders get jabbed in one day

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Celebrities encourage turnout as response surpasses Jacinda Ardern’s call to administer 100,000 shots

New Zealand’s “Super Saturday” of Covid vaccinations has proved a hit, with more than 2.5% of the population responding to the call to get jabbed on a single day.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, set an ambitious goal of administering 100,000 shots on the day, aiming to push vaccination rates towards her 90% goal.

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Chicago mayor files complaint against police union for defying vaccine mandate

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The city’s Fraternal Order of Police encouraged members to ignore the city’s vaccine requirement

The Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has filed a complaint in court against Chicago’s largest police union and its president after the union issued a directive for officers to ignore a citywide mandate to report their vaccination status, the latest in a battle between government officials and first responders over vaccine mandates.

In a statement issued Friday morning, Lightfoot announced that she had instructed the city’s law department to file a complaint for injunctive relief against the Chicago chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police union and its president, John Catanzara, for actions the mayor regarded as encouraging an illegal strike.

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Why Britons are tolerating sky-high Covid rates – and why this may not last

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Analysis: as Covid cases reach 40,000 a day, scientists think normalisation is partly to blame for the lack of public reaction

It is one of the conundrums of the current phase of the Covid pandemic: the UK has among the highest number of infections across the world and a death toll that continues to steadily climb, yet the national mood seems sanguine. So is this down to British stoicism, a Keep Calm and Carry on mentality?

Not according to experts. They talk of many factors being at play – and warn it may not last.

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‘Phenomenal’ turnaround: how Australia is vaccinating its way to freedom

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After a slow start, vaccine uptake in three Australian states and territories has risen swiftly


Bars and restaurants along Sydney’s harbour foreshore bustled with the sounds of clinking glasses and full kitchens as thousands of people poured into venues after Covid restrictions ended this week.

Across the city, cinemas filled up and queues formed outside pubs. Salons buzzed with the sound of clippers as people jumped at the opportunity to tame their lockdown hair. Some beachside restaurants are booked up until February.

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Coronavirus live: Russia reports more than 30,000 daily cases for first time; Hungary cases on rise

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Russia registered 31,299 new cases in one day; Hungary records 1,141 new infections

The UK health minister Sajid Javid has become the latest government figure to say “sorry” about the coronavirus pandemic. Appearing on the BBC this morning, Javid, who became health secretary just short of four months ago following the resignation of Matt Hancock, said:

Yes, of course I’m sorry. Obviously I am new in the role but on behalf of the government I am sorry for, during the pandemic, anyone that suffered, especially anyone that lost a loved one, a mother, a dad, a brother, a sister, a friend. Of course I am sorry for that.

Also all those people that may not have lost someone but they are still suffering - there are many people sadly suffering from long Covid, we still don’t know the impact of that. Of course I am.

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