COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[Manc in London]

Hopefully the government will embark on a public awareness campaign to allay any fears and expose any myths being perpetrated by the anti-vaxxers.

I would expect they will but we all know that some people will never be persuaded and some of those will base their views on something completely irrational.


Anyone know if the vaccine contains animal products? I guess some will not have it if it has.

 

[everythingchangesbutblue]

Can you recall how many doses of this vaccine the government ordered?

100 million i think.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Brilliant news.
Tbh it's been a bit quiet on the anti-vaxx front (at least the more conservative ones). Probably as sick to death of life at the moment as everyone else...and this is sounding like a fast track way out of this.
I've also seen a lot of 'debunking' articles on the web over the past week. Perhaps it's embarrassing them into submission.

Whilst this AZ/Oxford news is fantastic there's still a huge amount of optimism around the mRNA vaccines: not only for COVDI19 but for other potential diseases (and cancers) in the near future. Think it's surprised a lot of people and already a few are heralding it as important as the discovery of penicillin.

Yes, this is the bigger thing for the mRNA things. A real major breakthrough, Nobel-winning stuff really.

 

[squirtyflower]

100 million i think.

That would cover 50million people then

Plus 20 million people from the Pfizer vaccine and 5million for the Moderna sees the whole of the UK covered

 

[MillionMilesAway]

100 million i think.

That's what I heard, as that's all that we need. A big plus is that it is easier to spread anywhere in the world.

 

[Chippy_boy]

There was an interesting article in the Guardian yesterday talking about the various developments on COVID vaccines and other treatments.

Both the pfizer and Moderna vaccines are both pretty similar and work in similar ways: they are injected into the muscle and from there they work their way into the bloodstream and stimulate the production of antibodies. But both have question marks though, for example how long such antibody resistance would last. Also the extent to which a heathy, but infected vaccinated person can still infect someone else.

Something which had not really occurred to me is that other types of treatment are also being researched, which potentially could be a whole lot better. Coronavirus gets in to your system through your mucous membrane, and therefore if we could kill it there, then for the virus it's game over. It never gets to make it further into your body.

There's research going on into such treatments which could take the form of a simple nasal spray or inhaler. And the advantages of these - as well as not having to arrange millions of injections - would be that people didn't carry the infection around and would not infect other people, so the disease would die out much more quickly.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

That would cover 50million people then

Plus 20 million people from the Pfizer vaccine and 5million for the Moderna sees the whole of the UK covered

And then some - I doubt that they'll vaccinate the young

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

Fantastic news from Oxford/Astrazeneca. Good enough is good enough - slightly lower efficacy than reported for Pfizer/Moderna doesn't matter.

Hopefully sufficient supplies to get our whole population vaccinated by the middle of next year, and to make a decent start on the entire world. This vaccine is cheap enough for any country (being provided at cost initially, 5-10x cheaper than Pfizer/Moderna)

Need our blues to improve quickly, 'cos we might just, if everything goes perfectly and with a following wind, see a full crowd for the FA cup final the way this is going now.

Rejoice! The end is in sight!

[and FFS keep up the social distancing. A lot of people could die yet in the next six months]

its very very good news. I class myself as quite a strong character, Im not easily upset and always try to make the best of things while suporting my family. Its also fair to say I have had more than my fair share of knocks in life especially that last year. However these past few months have been very difficult. Trying to keep a small business going and staff moral up has been hard work. Also to keep my families spirits up has been tough at times. I was in the City centre on Friday and it was really sad to see how quiet it was and it really brought things home to me again. The news has been constantly negative the last 9 mths which hasnt helped. Luckily I still have an income, my immediate family are still healthy and we have food on the table every night, and as a small business i am proud to say we have not had to lay any body off and i am convinced we will survive, so we are very fortunate. But I dont mind admitting that trying to remain optimistic has been really hard work. Goodness knows how others less fortunate have faired with livelihoods lost let alone their very close loved ones lost. That said I am convinced sunnier times lay ahead next year. Stay sensible and safe.

 

[everythingchangesbutblue]

That would cover 50million people then

Plus 20 million people from the Pfizer vaccine and 5million for the Moderna sees the whole of the UK covered

Even more if the 1 and a half dose thing becomes reality.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

There was an interesting article in the Guardian yesterday talking about the various developments on COVID vaccines and other treatments.

Both the pfizer and Moderna vaccines are both pretty similar and work in similar ways: they are injected into the muscle and from there they work their way into the bloodstream and stimulate the production of antibodies. But both have question marks though, for example how long such antibody resistance would last. Also the extent to which a heathy, but infected vaccinated person can still infect someone else.

Something which had not really occurred to me is that other types of treatment are also being researched, which potentially could be a whole lot better. Coronavirus gets in to your system through your mucous membrane, and therefore if we could kill it there, then for the virus it's game over. It never gets to make it further into your body.

There's research going on into such treatments which could take the form of a simple nasal spray or inhaler. And the advantages of these - as well as not having to arrange millions of injections - would be that people didn't carry the infection around and would not infect other people, so the disease would die out much more quickly.

Interesting. I hadn't heard of those options - I assume they are down the line as they are theoretical, but that solution has merit of it can be made to work.

The three made so far all work by capping the spike protein, with the idea of stopping the virus getting into the cell.