Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

Scott Morrison calls on European Union to supply outstanding AstraZeneca Covid vaccine doses

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Australia has accused the EU of ‘semantics’ after European Commission said just one shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses has been formally blocked, but Coalition says AZ has not been able to secure an export licence from Europe

Scott Morrison denies his government has presented the public with overly rosy assessments about the state of its Covid-19 vaccine rollout, as he steps up calls for the European Union to allow 3.1m outstanding AstraZeneca doses to be shipped to Australia.

While declaring that vaccine supply issues were a matter of “straightforward maths”, the prime minister also attempted to calm a growing diplomatic dispute between Australia and the EU, insisting he had not made any criticism of Brussels over its handling of the matter.

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Patients in Wales to be first in UK to receive Moderna Covid vaccine

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Nation’s mass rollout begins on Wednesday, while Scotland will administer first doses later this week

Patients in Wales will from Wednesday become the first in the UK to receive the Moderna vaccine as part of a mass vaccination programme, with the first doses in Scotland set to come later this week.

The initial jabs would be given at the West Wales general hospital in Carmarthen, the Welsh government said.

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AstraZeneca Covid vaccine: weighing up the risks and rewards

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Despite scientific advice to continue getting the jab, answers about fatal blood clots are urgently needed

Vaccines have side-effects, as do all medicines. Most often, jabs cause sore arms, a headache or a bit of nausea – none of which would be very significant when weighed against the toll of a serious virus such as Covid-19.

But sometimes the risk-benefit calculation may look less simple, as in the case of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid jab and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), the blood clots in the brain that have led to fatalities in the UK and Europe.

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Israel and Chile both led on Covid jabs, so why is one back in lockdown?

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Analysis: contrasting national outcomes highlight how easily UK could blow its chances

As mass vaccination programmes take hold around the world, some countries have begun to get on top of the virus while others have continued to struggle. Two countries that have streaked ahead with immunisations are Israel and Chile, but as Israel edges back to a new normal, Chile has been plunged back into lockdown. Can the UK and other countries repeat Israel’s success and avoid the setbacks of Chile?

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EU drug agency denies already finding causal link between AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots

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European Medicines Agency says review ongoing after head of vaccines spoke of ‘clear’ association

Europe’s drug regulator has denied it has already established a causal connection between the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and a rare blood clotting syndrome, after a senior official from the agency said there was a link.

In a statement to Agence France-Presse, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday it had “not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently ongoing”, adding that it expected to announce its findings on Wednesday or Thursday.

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UK Covid passports – who’s for and who’s against?

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Labour leftwingers and Tory libertarians oppose them, while Keir Starmer’s position appears flexible

One of the most significant political controversies of the coronavirus period is likely to be over the idea of Covid “passports” – app-based, biometric certificates that would allow people entry to potentially crowded spaces. While they are sometimes referred to as “vaccine passports”, these would not just show vaccination status. Other ways people could prove they were safe to mingle would be a sufficiently recent test showing significant Covid antibodies, or a very recent negative test for the virus.

These are distinct from the idea of a proof of vaccination to be allowed to enter overseas countries, which is less contentious.

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A year on, Keir Starmer’s grand vision is still in question | Letters

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Dr Anthony Isaacs thinks the Labour leader must unite the party and restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn, but Bruce Sawford has lost hope

No new opposition leader could have been expected to gain much media attention in their first year against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government has clearly benefited from the vaccine rollout. But after a promising start, Keir Starmer’s declining poll ratings (Keir Starmer: one year in, Labour leader’s popularity has plunged, 2 April) indicate that his cautious style and lack of defined policies have failed to gain traction. The pandemic has, paradoxically, opened the way to an alternative agenda that plays to Labour’s strengths of promoting social solidarity and investment in public services. Starmer must embrace the opportunity of the waning infection rates to move the fight away from equivocation and abstention over Tory culture wars to ground of Labour’s own choosing.

Your editorial (2 April) points to Labour’s need for a transformative agenda that both rallies the party and speaks to the wider public. To bring this about, Starmer must first unite the party. Restoring the whip to Jeremy Corbyn would be an important symbolic gesture, opening the way for the party’s factions to work together in devising popular policies to combat the corruption and market failures epitomised by our current government. The second task is to unite opposition parties around an electoral strategy as the only hope of preventing continued Tory dominance. That will be a true test of leadership.
Dr Anthony Isaacs
London

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Brazil records 70,238 new cases; Netherlands halts AstraZeneca jab for under 60s – as it happened

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Country has registered more than 12.9 million cases; 10,000 appointments scrapped, reports Dutch news agency citing Netherlands health ministry

That’s it from the global blog team for now. Thanks for following our coverage, a new blog will be going live in a few hours.

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Seven UK recipients of Oxford jab reported dead after clotting

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Experts say numbers of rare blood clots remain low and benefits of Covid vaccine far outweigh risks

Further cases of a rare blood clotting syndrome including seven deaths have been reported among recipients of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab in the UK, although experts say the numbers remain low and the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh any risks.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), runs a “yellow card” scheme to pick up suspected side-effects or other concerns for medicines and medical devices.

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‘We’re in a really good place’: is Israel nearing the Covid endgame?

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Vaccination centres are winding down and infections continue to fall as country reopens

At the peak of Israel’s Covid vaccination drive, the halls of a huge basketball arena in Jerusalem were filled with people, each anxiously waiting up to two hours until their number was called. More than 3,000 people a day were being vaccinated here in January.

On Monday, no more than 15 people lingered around long rows of empty chairs. Some barely had time to sit down before they were called to receive a jab. “They wait about 10 seconds,” said Shani Luvaton, the head nurse at the vaccination centre. She only uses half her booths for just a few hundred people a day.

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Pfizer vaccine has 91% efficacy for up to six months, trial shows

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Findings based on two doses three weeks apart are first to show shot remains effective for many months

The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech protects against symptomatic Covid for up to six months, an updated analysis of clinical trial data has found.

In a statement released on Thursday, the companies reported efficacy of 91.3% against any symptoms of the disease in participants assessed up to six months after their second shot. The level of protection is only marginally lower than the 95% achieved soon after vaccination.

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Dire situation in North Korea drives ‘collective exit’ of diplomats

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Russian embassy staff cite medicine shortages and unbearable conditions arising from strict Covid restrictions

Russian diplomats fleeing North Korea have described acute shortages of medicines and other basic goods in the country, indicating a crisis fuelled by one of the world’s strictest quarantine regimes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter posted online on Thursday, employees of the Russian embassy in Pyongyang described a “collective exit” of foreign diplomatic staff that they predicted would “unfortunately not be the last” due to unbearable conditions in the North Korean capital.

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Covid vaccine scheme ‘unacceptably slow’ in Europe, says WHO

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Hans Kluge urges ramping up of manufacturing and asks governments to share excess shots

Europe’s vaccination campaign is “unacceptably slow” while rising infection rates in most countries across the region mean its virus situation is “more worrying than we have seen in several months”, the World Health Organization has said.

The WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said on Thursday that vaccines “present our best way out of this pandemic. Not only do they work, they are highly effective in preventing infection. However, their rollout is unacceptably slow.”

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Vaccine volley: debate rages over ambivalence of tennis professionals

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The ATP and WTA support Covid-19 vaccination but some players have shrugged their shoulders as they would have to remain in tournament bubbles regardless

As the Miami Open marched towards its climax, one of the many off-court discussions that have raged on during the event is the simple question of the sport’s attitude towards vaccination during the pandemic. Players were asked during the week about their stance, and a trend of ambivalence became clear.

For Andrey Rublev, the Russian world No 8, vaccination would make little difference to him as he would still have to remain in the tournament bubbles: “I don’t know,” Rublev said. “There is no reason. Just – I don’t know. Just by the feelings, because I never have any vaccine since I was a kid, so I don’t know. I feel OK with this way. I never had any problems with my health.”

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Covid-19 live news: EMA says ‘no evidence’ to support restricting use of AstraZeneca; German leaders demand tighter lockdown

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Europe’s medicines agency says no risk factors identified; two state premiers say time for discussion is over and lockdown needed

A court in Belgium has ordered the government to either lift all coronavirus measures within 30 days or frame them properly in law, after a case brought by a human rights organisation challenged the use of ministerial decrees to implement them.

A night-time curfew and a ban on non-essential travel are among the restrictions currently in place in Belgium. The court in the capital, Brussels, said the state would have to pay fines of €5,000 (£4,256) a day if it fails to abide by the ruling.

We believe that in view of the restrictions on fundamental freedoms imposed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, a debate in parliament was essential.

While restrictions on these rights and freedoms may of course be made, given the importance of the issues at stake and the need to protect the rights to life and health of individuals, they must be fair and proportionate.

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he will be vaccinated against Covid next week, according to Reuters.

“The doctors recommended that I get vaccinated,” he said during his regular morning news conference, without disclosing which day he planned to receive the shot.

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Merkel, Macron and Putin in talks on using Sputnik V jab in Europe, says Kremlin

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Moscow says leaders discussed possibility of shipments and joint production amid shortage of doses inside Europe

Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron discussed Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and its use in Europe on a conference call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.

Moscow’s statement said that among other subjects the Russian, German and French leaders discussed prospects for the registration of the vaccine in the EU and the possibility of shipments and joint production in EU nations. It did not say who raised the topic.

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About half of people in UK now have antibodies against coronavirus

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Study by Office for National Statistics based on data from blood test results

Half of people in the UK now have antibodies against coronavirus, either through infection or vaccination, tests conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

According to the most recent coronavirus infection survey, an estimated 54.7% of the population in England would have tested positive for antibodies to coronavirus from a blood sample in the week ending 14 March 2021.

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Taliban denies killing three female Afghan polio workers

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Murders of two volunteers and a nurse come one day after relaunch of national vaccination campaign

Two female volunteers and a nurse working door to door to vaccinate children against polio were shot dead by gunmen in two separate incidents in the Afghan city of Jalalabad on Tuesday.

On the same day, government officials confirmed that an explosion had rocked Jalalabad’s health ministry headquarters but no casualties were reported.

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New Covid vaccines needed globally within a year, say scientists

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Survey of experts in relevant fields concludes that new variants could arise in countries with low vaccine coverage

The planet could have a year or less before first-generation Covid-19 vaccines are ineffective and modified formulations are needed, according to a survey of epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease specialists.

Scientists have long stressed that a global vaccination effort is needed to satisfactorily neutralise the threat of Covid-19. This is due to the threat of variations of the virus – some more transmissible, deadly and less susceptible to vaccines – that are emerging and percolating.

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UK on track to hit Covid vaccine target by July, says Oliver Dowden – video

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A third coronavirus vaccine will start being administered in the UK next month, joining the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs already in use, the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has confirmed. Britain has ordered 17m doses of the Moderna vaccine, which has a 94% efficacy rate in trials, which are expected to start arriving in April. Dowden also insisted the government was confident it would be able to meet its target of getting people over 50 vaccinated by 15 April, and all remaining adults by the end of July

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