Vaccine Progress, Approval, and Deployment

[YorkshireBear]

I understand Moderna may start seeing a rollout from next month. J&J and Novavax are still in the MHRA approval sausage machine.

No point in them working overtime to approve it though if we won't get any doses for a few months. I think considering where has approved the J&J one, it's a case of when not if, novavax I am not sure about. Aren't their early results not that spectacular?

 

[nlogax]

No point in them working overtime to approve it though if we won't get any doses for a few months. I think considering where has approved the J&J one, it's a case of when not if, novavax I am not sure about. Aren't their early results not that spectacular?

Haven’t heard much about Novavax but I’d noticed some sort of backlash against J&J in recent days being talked about online. Not sure why!

 

[HSTEd]

Aren't their early results not that spectacular?

My understanding is the vaccine has ludicrously high neutralising antibody titres.
And has total protection against hospitalisation from S.A. variant.

Long term it may be the best vaccine!

 

[cuccir]

I believe part of the drop in numbers expected in April is due to the later arrival of the Moderns vaccine.

 

[Pete_uk]

No chance of the Sputnik jab reaching these shores?

 

[birchesgreen]

No chance of the Sputnik jab reaching these shores?

Not really as "Global Britain" seems to mean picking a fight with everyone.

 

[Pete_uk]

As long as it's everyone we won't be discriminating then ☺️

 

[johntea]

Not quite sure how I feel about the proposed 'booster jabs' yet, the headline states over 70s but then goes on to affect me as they also suggest health and social care staff and the clinically vunerable!

With all the new variants they seem to keep finding, September feels rather ambitious but I don't know exactly how a 'booster' jab is meant to work

Covid: England lockdown easing still on course, says PM

Boris Johnson says the "roadmap to freedom" will continue, even as infections rise across Europe.

www.bbc.co.uk

People aged over 70 could start receiving Covid booster jabs from September to protect them from new variants, the vaccines minister has said.

Nadhim Zahawi told the Daily Telegraph the first doses would go to the over-70s, health and social care staff and the clinically extremely vulnerable.

Scientists have been developing booster jabs to combat new Covid variants.

More than 29 million people in the UK have now had a first dose of a vaccine.

Mr Zahawi said deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam thought "that if we are going to see a requirement for a booster jab to protect the most vulnerable, [it] would be around September".

Those first booster jabs would be given to those in the top four priority groups of the vaccine rollout.

 

[greyman42]

Not really as "Global Britain" seems to mean picking a fight with everyone.

We have not picked a fight with anyone as far as i can see.

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, it was the Ruskies who started spraying Novochok and Polonium around the place like confetti (alledgedly).

 

[cuccir]

I'd expect a booster jab this autumn/ winter and then annual jabs for a few years after that at least, and for the vulnerable probably permanently as we do with flu. The booster jab this winter is essential to remaining open, at least for the vulnerable but probably for all of us.

With the flu jab they identify the most deadly/transmissible strains and then produce a vaccine which responds to those - they're 'multijabs' which combat several strains. My understanding is that is the goal with covid-19.

 

[yorksrob]

I wonder, will a pharmaceutical company provide a vaccine at cost in future, given the trouble Astrazeneca has experienced.

Probably not, unfortunately.

 

[Bantamzen]

I wonder, will a pharmaceutical company provide a vaccine at cost in future, given the trouble Astrazeneca has experienced.

Probably not, unfortunately.

I wonder, did a pharmaceutical company really provide a vaccine at cost?

Probably not.

 

[yorksrob]

I wonder, did a pharmaceutical company really provide a vaccine at cost?

Probably not.

It's cheaper than the alternatives at any rate.

We can guarantee that the next one won't be.

 

[nlogax]

Government has confirmed Moderna should start being given to under 50s from the middle of April. My assumption is that it won’t immediately fill the expected gap during the lower supply period of AZ and Pfizer

 

[Yew]

Apparently we may be sending some Doses over to Ireland...

UK to offer Covid vaccines to Ireland

Britain is planning to offer 3.7 million Covid jabs to Ireland, in part to help lift the lockdown in Northern Ireland, in a move that could raise tensions with

www.thetimes.co.uk

Here's the freely available part of the article

Britain is planning to offer 3.7 million Covid jabs to Ireland, in part to help lift the lockdown in Northern Ireland, in a move that could raise tensions with the European Union.

It would be the first time the UK has exported vaccines to the EU, but the plan was described by a cabinet minister as a “poke in the eye for Brussels” because it could disrupt EU unity.

 

[takno]

Apparently we may be sending some Doses over to Ireland...

UK to offer Covid vaccines to Ireland

Britain is planning to offer 3.7 million Covid jabs to Ireland, in part to help lift the lockdown in Northern Ireland, in a move that could raise tensions with

www.thetimes.co.uk

Here's the freely available part of the article

Clearly what the Irish should do is accept this generous offer, and allow the EU to redistribute their allocation amongst the other members, thus strengthening unity.

 

[TravelDream]

I believe part of the drop in numbers expected in April is due to the later arrival of the Moderns vaccine.

The numbers expected from Moderna were tiny so it can't be. The UK government hasn't released figures on expected doses, but the Scottish government said they expected to receive just over 4000 doses per week starting in April. That suggests the UK are/ were expecting 50,000 per week which is a drop in the ocean when we're currently vaccinating 550,000 a day on average.

The big cause of the delay is India blocking exports of 5 million doses of the AZ vaccine to the UK. They've blocked it, supposedly, due to the surge in cases in India and wanting to speed up vaccinations there. The manufacturer SII are also struggling to ramp-up production as they are supposed to be producing 100 million doses per week, but are struggling on under 70.

 

[HSTEd]

Well just wait until Boris announces further delays to the vaccination program to rescue the Irish Republic from the consequences of it's choices.......

 

[kristiang85]

Excellent news from the US today; Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines have been found to be 90% effective (after 2 doses, 80% after 1 dose) in preventing Coronavirus infections in a CDC study of essential workers, even asyptomatic included. Among 2,479 fully vaccinated people, just three had confirmed infections. Among 477 people who received one dose, eight infections were reported. By comparison, among 994 people who were not vaccinated, 161 developed infections. No deaths were reported.

The full paper is here: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7013e3-H.pdf

 

[birchesgreen]

Novavax is the next vaccine coming, it'll be bottled at GSK's plant in... Barnard Castle. You couldn't make it up!

 

[87electric]

Novavax is the next vaccine coming, it'll be bottled at GSK's plant in... Barnard Castle. You couldn't make it up!

I tried to post about the many pharma companies in Barnard Castle last year, and why it was probably the reason D. Cummings was up there. But the post was banned.
It seemed the obvious reason he was up there. Maybe I'm still wrong. Coincidences? hahahahahaha.

 

[TravelDream]

Novavax is the next vaccine coming, it'll be bottled at GSK's plant in... Barnard Castle. You couldn't make it up!

You really couldn't make it up! Though Johnson's press conference was essentially a bit of government propoganda to distract from the slowing of the programme in April.

It isn't the next vaccine coming and is far from it. We are still expecting our first deliveries of the Moderna vaccine which we approved in January next month. After that, I think the J&J one will be next. It doesn't have UK approval yet, but they applied at the start of the month so it should be imminent. It already has US and EU approvals.

The Novavax one doesn't have approval yet and the GSK factory only expects to be up and running by the end of May. I wouldn't expect it to be in use until mid/ late summer at the earliest.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Mar 2021 ==

Excellent news from the US today; Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines have been found to be 90% effective (after 2 doses, 80% after 1 dose) in preventing Coronavirus infections in a CDC study of essential workers, even asyptomatic included. Among 2,479 fully vaccinated people, just three had confirmed infections. Among 477 people who received one dose, eight infections were reported. By comparison, among 994 people who were not vaccinated, 161 developed infections. No deaths were reported.

The full paper is here: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7013e3-H.pdf

Truly excellent news. If the article is a but TLDR, the CDC tested each participant each week to see if they had the virus or not and not just relying on symptoms developing. It's a real-world study and many participants were healthcare workers putting them in a higher than normal risk profile for catching the virus.
The figures show the two vaccines are incredibly effective and confirm the data released in the phase three trials. These numbers mean life back to normal is more than possible.

 

[yorkie]

An interesting preprint is now available:

Negligible impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on CD4+ and CD8+ T cell reactivity in COVID-19 exposed donors and vaccinees

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants highlighted the need to better understand adaptive immune responses to this virus. It is important to address whether also CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses are affected, because of the role they play in disease resolution and modulation of COVID-19 disease...

www.biorxiv.org

...the sequences of the vast majority of SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes are not affected by the mutations found in the variants analyzed.

Overall, the results demonstrate that CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 subjects or COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are not substantially affected by mutations found in the SARS-CoV-2 variants.

This is more evidence demonstrating what we already thought: the vaccines are highly effective against the variants and are likely to continue to be, at least for quite some time.

If anyone wants to listen to a podcast interview with Alessandro Sette, one of the authors of the paper, it is available here:

TWiV 736: Rhapsody in T with Alessandro Sette

Alessandro Sette joins TWiV to discuss the role of T cells in COVID-19, the finding that amino acid changes in SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern have a negligible impact on T cell reactivity in convalescent patients and vaccinees, and whether a next generation vaccine should include more viral...

www.microbe.tv

 

[Yew]

It seems like whenever another study is released, the vaccine effectiveness is revised upwards.

 

[TravelDream]

It seems like whenever another study is released, the vaccine effectiveness is revised upwards.

Does it?

There are the initial phase three trials
Pfizer - 95%. Moderna - 94.5%. Oxford/AZ - 70% / 79% (done two phase III trials). Sputnik V - 91.6%. J&J (single dose) - 66% etc.
All the phase three trials showed 100% efficacy in stopping death.

Then when have these figures been revised up?

The first published, peer-reviewed, real-world study came from Israel. They only use Pfizer and studies there have shown it's in the mid 90s in terms of efficacy (https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n567). That's about what the trial said.

Then there's that study above from the US which tested both Pfizer and Moderna and showed 90%+ efficacy in terms of stopping asymptomatic infection (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7013e3-H.pdf). Again about what the trials said.

Lots of the stuff is just preliminary data analysis. That's very useful, but it is more probable there are errors/ other factors involved.

Some things we see really can't be compared to the trials too. This AZ study from Scotland looks at something quite different and doesn't follow the trial's dosing regimen. (https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-c...strates-94-reduction-in-hospitalisations.html). Still, the data it presents is incredibly positive.

 

[nlogax]

Some mentions in the news today from the Novavax team whom are hoping their vaccine will receive MHRA approval towards the end of April. This would fit in nicely with the Barnard Castle fill and finish facility which is scheduled to be operational from May.

 

[brad465]

I'm seeing reports from American sources that 15 million J&J doses have been lost due to ingredient mix-ups, which doesn't sound good (not sure how many of those were destined for us). Of course as this is a one-shot vaccine that is 15 million people's worth as well.

 

[TravelDream]

I'm seeing reports from American sources that 15 million J&J doses have been lost due to ingredient mix-ups, which doesn't sound good (not sure how many of those were destined for us). Of course as this is a one-shot vaccine that is 15 million people's worth as well.

It appears to be the case. 15 million doses wasted because of a mixing error.

None were headed here though. The US has an export ban in place and has only exported 4 million vaccines so far. Those were all very soon to expire Oxford/AZ ones which were only exported as they would have to be binned if they expired (The Oxford vaccine isn't licenced in the US yet). 2.5 million were sent to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada. Also, we haven't licenced the J&J vaccine yet.

J&J were supposed to deliver 100 million doses to the US by the end of May which is looking more difficult now - though they said in their statement they would still reach that number. They've delivered just over 20 million so far so have 80 to deliver in the next two months.

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1377419306141634562

 

[kristiang85]

More good news...

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1377582147515641860

Fantastic news out of Pfizer this morning! •91.3% vaccine efficacy observed against COVID-19, measured seven days through up to six months after the second dose •100% effective in preventing COVID-19 cases in South Africa, where the B.1.351 lineage is prevalent!
Pfizer’s vaccine was 100% effective in preventing severe disease as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 95.3% effective in preventing severe disease as defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is AMAZING.