Covid, Phase II. Commonsense is the order of the day.

[Spursex]

French government would have botched D-Day given their Covid vaccination record, Paris mayor says

Macron administration hits back that if Anne Hidalgo was in command of Normandy landings, 'the ships would never have left America'

By Henry Samuel Paris 11 January 2021 • 1:30pm

Emmanuel Macron's vaccination fiasco suggests he's no Churchill, says Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo Credit: Reuters

D-Day would have foundered if Emmanuel Macron’s French government was behind it given its Covid vaccination “failings”, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has claimed.

The comments sparked an angry row with the centrist Macron administration, which retorted on Monday that if Paris’ Socialist town hall had organised the Normandy landings then “the ships would never have left America”.

Mr Macron has come under intense criticism from opposition politicians and some experts over the sluggish launch of Covid vaccinations after only 516 people received jabs in the first week. Red tape and a lack of logistical foresight have been major sticking points.

The country is now speeding up, with the health ministry on Monday announcing that the 100,000-mark had now been surpassed. That, however, is still way behind the UK, where around two million people have had a first jab. Neighbouring Germany has vaccinated around 700,000 people.

In the light of such comparisons, Ms Hidalgo told Le Journal du Dimanche that Mr Macron was no Winston Churchill and that, “Given such failures, D-Day on June (6), 1944 would have failed.”

She echoed calls by local politicians to divest powers to French towns and regions in acquiring and distributing vaccines rather than enlisting the help of private consultants McKinsey.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has taken aim at Emmanuel Macron's vaccination woes Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images Europe
Piqued, government spokesman Gabrial Attal countered that Ms Hidalgo’s reasoning was questionable given that “the French government wasn’t tasked with managing D-Day”. The feat of pulling off the largest amphibious assault in history befell Britain and America.

He then took aim at Paris town hall’s shambolic handling of the latest version of the capital’s delay-plagued Vélib’ bike rental scheme.

“If the Normandy landings had been managed as Anne Hidalgo managed the Vélib’, the ships would never have left America,” he added, pointing out that the capital’s electric rental scheme was also a hugely costly fiasco.

“(The mayor) has shown that when it comes to logistics, she is capable of turning gold into lead” despite the fact that there were “more civil servants working for Paris City Hall than the European Commission", he went on.
Ms Hidalgo on Sunday hinted that she may run for president in 2022, saying: “I will play my part to the full.”

The Socialists were left in tatters after Mr Macron’s surprise presidential and legislative triumph in 2017 and Ms Hidalgo is one of the country’s highest-profile remaining Left-wing figures after clinching a second term last year.
Her campaign received a boost after the initial Macron candidate pulled out over a sex tape scandal.

 

[Spursex]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-55625276

 

[Greavswasthegreatest]

Its as you say EX but as well as the refusers.... it is the accepters who do not turn up and do not phone so someone else can have the dose that really annoy me

 

[Spursex]

German grab threatens EU Covid vaccine scheme

Oliver Moody, Berlin | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Maria Wilczek, Warsaw
Tuesday January 12 2021,
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/topic/brexit

The Polish MEP Witold Waszczykowski — in 2015 when he was foreign secretary with his German counterpart Walter Steinmeier — accused Berlin of “selfish behaviour”



The EU is trying to prevent its collective scheme for buying and sharing vaccines from unravelling after Germany was criticised for breaking ranks to secure 75 million extra doses for itself.

Brussels warned member states yesterday against buying their own vaccines after Germany unilaterally ordered 50 million shots from two suppliers, as well as about 26 million doses that had been turned down by other countries.
Witold Waszczykowski, the former foreign minister of Poland, who is an MEP for the ruling Law and Justice party, accused Germany of ignoring the rules that applied to the rest of the EU. “It is selfish behaviour to buy medicine by yourself, disrespecting common decisions,” he said. “It is another example of the German policy of respecting their own interests above the interests of other EU countries.”

Frédérique Ries, a Belgian MEP on the European parliament’s public health committee, said there was nothing wrong with Germany buying other’s unused allowances but its deal with Pfizer was “worrisome” and showed “a total lack of solidarity”.
Germany maintains that it has followed the rules. In theory the 2.3 billion doses of six different vaccines ordered by the EU are to be divided according to each country’s population.

Above this allowance, Berlin bought about five million doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine and 21 million of the Moderna vaccine after they were rejected by other member states.
It is thought that these countries, including Poland and Belgium, initially declined to buy all the doses to which they were entitled because of concerns about the cost, experimental nature and difficulty in delivering them.
Separately, Germany ordered an additional 30 million doses directly from Pfizer and 20 million from CureVac. Both vaccines were developed by German companies with state funding. The order was made under a memorandum of understanding struck with the two companies last summer.
The extra doses will not be delivered until all the others have been distributed across the EU. “It’s not correct to say that Germany secured vaccines at the expense of other countries,” a German health ministry spokesman said.

However, the unilateral deal may lead to a rebuke from Brussels; member states signed a legally binding agreement that only the EU can deal with vaccine manufacturers on their behalf.

Yesterday Stella Kyriakides, the European health commissioner, announced that she would demand details of any parallel negotiations countries might be conducting in their own right — in effect a warning against following Germany’s example.

There are signs that the bloc’s solidarity over the vaccine is fraying. Krzysztof Szczerski, chief of staff to President Duda of Poland, railed against the “disloyalty of individual states” and said: “Poland should consider individual discussions with suppliers if the European vaccine purchasing system completely fails.”

Cyprus has also appealed to Israel, which has already inoculated more than 20 per cent of its population, to supply it with vaccines.

Tensions over the vaccines’ slow delivery and who gets how much of each are expected to surface at a video conference of EU leaders on January 21.

The situation has been further complicated by the European Commission’s refusal to disclose exactly how many vaccines it is distributing to each state. It argues that the manufacturers have a right to commercial confidentiality.

An EU source said the principle of splitting doses in line with population was a “fair approach” but countries were free to reshuffle the doses among themselves.
Jan Zahradil, a senior Czech conservative MEP, said the European parliament would demand full transparency from the commission on both allocation and prices.

“There are a lot of rumours and contradictory speculation,” he said.

 

[Greavswasthegreatest]

The EU is a collective until there is a crisis and then they break ranks and worry about themselvees

 

[Spursex]

The EU is a collective until there is a crisis and then they break ranks and worry about themselvees

Germany are once again doing what they did at the start of this crisis - buy every PPE it can get it's hands-on and stop any of it from being exported to Italy, both they and France did that when Italian doctors and medics were dying fighting it - it was an utter disgrace and now of course, neatly buried by a commission investigation that will take 5 years to report.

 

[meee93]

It does bring to the surface the questions of what/how/when we are going to help the poorer countries that can't afford the same medical budgets as we can

 

[Spursex]

It does bring to the surface the questions of what/how/when we are going to help the poorer countries that can't afford the same medical budgets as we can

We already have in at least we're charging just the cost of the vaccine and it's production; however we have prioritized ourselves, but once that's a few more months advanced the overseas dev agency will be paying for much of it to be 'sold' to poorer countries.

India's own vaccine is on stream now (even if it didn't complete Phase III trials first and that too is expected to be 'low-cost' (it's similar tech to ours).

I think the bigger issue will be availability for these poorer countries and it could be that they see no substantive supply until 2022.

 

[Spursex]

Lockdown will remain in place for as long as needed, Matt Hancock says

By
April Roach

The coronavirus lockdown restrictions will remain in place in England for as “long as they are necessary”, the Health Secretary has said.
Matt Hancock told Sky News it was “impossible to know” when restrictions could be eased.
“We will keep the restrictions in place not a moment longer than they are necessary, but we will keep them in place as long as they are necessary,” said Mr Hancock.

“These measures that we have got in place that we hope to be able to lift, and we should be able to lift when we have been able to protect through vaccination those who are vulnerable – right now the vaccination is not in a position to do that.”
The Health Secretary added that the vaccination programme was “on track” to deliver the jab to the 14 million most vulnerable people by February 15.

The latest NHS figures showed 2,431,648 in the UK have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, but London’s councils and Mayor Sadiq Khan have called on the Government to accelerate its vaccine programme in the capital.
The health service continues to come under significant pressure as official figures showed UK deaths from Covid-19 having passed 81,960.


Some patients at King’s College Hospital patients could be sent to hotels to free up beds for critical coronavirus cases.
When asked about the plans to move patients into hotels, Mr Hancock said: “There are huge pressures on the NHS and we are looking to all different ways that we can relieve those pressures.
“We would only ever do that if it was clinically the right thing for somebody. In some cases, people need sit-down care, they don’t actually need to be in hospital bed.
“It isn’t a concrete proposal by any means but it is something that we look at as we look at all contingencies.”
Mr Hancock was unable to say whether the latest data showed the country had hit the peak of the latest wave of infections. He said it all came down to “the behaviour of everyone”.

“We brought in this national lockdown, the rules are really simple, which is to stay at home unless you absolutely have to leave,” Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast.
“We know that this can work because we know that the only way that the virus spreads is when people meet each other, or on surfaces.
“So, we can all play a part in making this happen – I know I must sound like a broken record on that but it’s so important.
“Together we can make this the peak if enough people follow the rules, which are incredibly clear.”

Pressed again on if this was the peak, he said: “Well, we don’t know, we published the data every day. I hope that it is. But we watch it like a hawk.
“Everybody watching this programme, we could all do our bit. Every time that you think, ‘should I do that, should I go out for this reason, should I meet up with this person?’ it’s those individual decisions all together that determine whether this virus continues to spread and continues to increase its spread.”

 

[Spursex]

Sinovac: Brazil results show Chinese vaccine 50.4% effective
Published
32 minutes ago


Related Topics

• Coronavirus pandemic

The Chinese vaccine is one of two that the Brazilian government has lined up
A coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac has been found to be 50.4% effective in Brazilian clinical trials, according to the latest results released by researchers.
It shows the vaccine is significantly less effective than previous data suggested - barely over the 50% needed for regulatory approval.
The Chinese vaccine is one of two that the Brazilian government has lined up.
Brazil has been one of the countries worst affected by Covid-19.
Sinovac, a Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company, is behind CoronaVac, an inactivated vaccine. It works by using killed viral particles to expose the body's immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response.
Several countries, including Indonesia, Turkey and Singapore, have placed orders for the vaccine.

• What do we know about China's Covid-19 vaccines?
• How do I know the Covid vaccine is safe?

Last week researchers at the Butantan Institute, which has been conducting the trials in Brazil, announced that the vaccine had a 78% efficacy against "mild-to-severe" Covid-19 cases.
But on Tuesday they revealed that calculations for this figure did not include data from a group of "very mild infections" among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.
With the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.
But Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases.
The Sinovac trials have yielded different results across different countries.
Last month Turkish researchers said the Sinovac vaccine was 91.25% effective, while Indonesia, which rolled out its mass vaccination programme on Wednesday, said it was 65.3% effective. Both were interim results from late-stage trials.

Can vaccines be compared?
By Philippa Roxby, BBC Health reporter
The latest figures for China's coronavirus vaccine show just how difficult it is to compare vaccines.
On the face of it, the 50% effectiveness figure isn't as good as Oxford's 70% or Pfizer and Moderna's 95%. But trials are run very differently in different countries - the numbers of volunteers enrolled varies wildly, as do the criteria used to test how much protection the vaccines offer.
A figure for efficacy is reached by looking at how many people developed Covid after being given the vaccine, compared with how many were affected when given a dummy injection. Normally, that is based on people developing obvious symptoms but in this Brazilian trial, people with no symptoms also appear to have been included.
So it's only when the full data from all trials of this vaccine are published that scientists can analyse its real efficacy, and compare like with like. Only limited data for this Sinovac vaccine is currently available - and experts say that is confusing the picture.
In the long term, many vaccines against Covid are needed to vaccinate the world and, inevitably, some will perform better than others - but giving as many people as possible some protection is the priority.

There has been concern and criticism that Chinese vaccine trials are not subject to the same scrutiny and levels of transparency as its Western counterparts.
Both the Sinovac vaccine and the vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca have requests for emergency use authorisation pending with regulators in Brazil.

media captionFrom fear to freedom: China's painful year fighting Covid-19
The latest news comes as Brazil is dealing with a major spike in cases. The country currently has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world at over 8.1 million, just behind the US and India.
The BBC World Service's Americas editor Candace Piette says the country is suffering one of the world's deadliest outbreaks but as yet, has not announced when its vaccination programme will begin.
The delay has been caused in large part by the government's haphazard and divided approach to vaccination, says our correspondent.

 

[Spursex]

If proved as effective as it was in the smaller trails this could be a huge breakthrough...

Covid: Large trial of new treatment begins in UK
By Justin Rowlatt
BBC News
Published
3 hours ago



Kaye Flitney is one of those enrolled on the clinical trial
A large-scale trial of a new treatment it is hoped will help stop Covid-19 patients from developing severe illness has begun in the UK.
The first patient received the treatment at Hull Royal Infirmary on Tuesday afternoon.
It involves inhaling a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection.
The hope is it will stimulate the immune system, priming cells to be ready to fight off viruses.
Early findings suggested the treatment cut the odds of a Covid-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease - such as requiring ventilation - by almost 80%.
It was developed at Southampton University Hospital and is being produced by the Southampton-based biotech company, Synairgen.
A course of treatment with the new drug could cost around £2,000, which is not that expensive for a hospital treatment.
"To be viable it will have to represent good value for money," Synairgen's chief executive Richard Marsden said.

Alexandra Constantin, 34, was the first person to receive the treatment as part of this new trial, after she was admitted to the hospital with coronavirus on Monday.
She has a young daughter at home she is desperate to get back to.
Demonstrating the treatment, the nurse handed her a nebuliser that makes the drug into a fine mist, which Alexandra inhaled as deep into her lungs as she could.

How does the treatment work?
Interferon beta is part of the body's first line of defence against viruses, warning it to expect a viral attack.
The coronavirus seems to suppress its production as part of its strategy to evade our immune systems.
The new drug is a special formulation of interferon beta delivered directly to the airways via a nebuliser which makes the protein into an aerosol.
The idea is that a direct dose of the protein in the lungs will trigger a stronger anti-viral response, even in patients whose immune systems are already weak.
Interferon beta is commonly used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Previous clinical trials conducted by Synairgen have shown that it can stimulate an immune response and that patients with asthma and other chronic lung conditions can comfortably tolerate the treatment.

The results of a smaller, phase two clinical trial of the treatment conducted last year were promising.
It suggested the chances of a Covid-19 patient in hospital getting severe disease - requiring ventilation, for example - were reduced by almost 80%.
Patients were two to three times more likely to recover to the point where everyday activities were not compromised by their illness, Synairgen claimed.
It said the trial also indicated "very significant" reductions in breathlessness among patients who received the treatment.
In addition, the average time patients spent in hospital is said to have been reduced by a third, for those receiving the new drug - down from an average of nine days to six days.
But the trial was small, just 100 patients, and more testing is needed before it can be authorised for use.
This new "phase three" trial is much larger. It will involve more than 600 patients in 20 countries.
As in the earlier trial, half the participants will be given the drug, the other half will get what is known as a placebo - an inactive substance.
The team running the trial say they hope it will be completed by early summer.
If the results are anywhere near as good as in the earlier trial, they expect authorisation for the drug to be used in patients in the UK and other countries to follow shortly afterwards.

media captionSynairgen CEO Richard Marsden explains how the treatment uses the protein interferon beta to help fight the virus
"If we had a positive study, we would hope to move rapidly into scaled manufacture and delivery of the drug in clinical practice," said Prof Tom Wilkinson, of the University of Southampton, who is overseeing the trial.
He added that he believes the new drug - if it proves effective - will be a complement to the vaccines that are being rolled out.
He also pointed out it would take a long time for the whole world to be vaccinated. There will need to be treatments for people who miss out on vaccination or choose not to get the jab.
There is also the risk the virus mutates and vaccines become less effective - meaning people begin to develop the disease again.
The treatment is the result of the discovery by a team from Southampton University that people with lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often had low levels of interferon beta.
"We thought why not boost patients' interferon beta levels by getting them to inhale the protein," Prof Donna Davies, who was part of that team, said.
She said research has now shown that Covid-19 can suppress the interferon beta response. But experts warn that drugs often do not live up to the promise of early trials.
"This is exciting, but we have to see what the phase three results show," says Dr Lamis Latif, a south London GP who has been working in emergency care with Covid-19 patients.
"We've had other drugs in similar circumstances, we've had hydroxychloroquine, for example, but again, when that reached further trials, it wasn't as promising as it initially made up to be.
"So that's something to really take note for this current drug."

 

[Spursex]

COVID-19: What does it take to vaccinate 14 million people in six weeks?



Wednesday 6 January 2021 13:22, UK

The government has promised to vaccinate nearly 14 million people by the middle of February, but experts say it will be an "ambitious" challenge.
Around 1.3 million people in the UK have now received one of the two vaccines currently being rolled out, but the distribution effort will have to be scaled up significantly if the target is to be reached.

So far, the most that have been put in arms in the course of a week is around 610,000 doses, but the government plans to ramp that up so, potentially, two million doses a week will be distributed.
The 13.9 million total that is needed, according to COVID vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi, is made up of all residents in care homes and their carers, everyone over 70 years old, all frontline healthcare and social care workers and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable.
Mr Zahawi told Sky News the UK will have to roll out more than two million jabs a week to meet its target, and acknowledged it would require a "Herculean effort".

So, how will they get there and what may be some of the hurdles the effort will have to overcome?
1. Manufacture
More from Covid-19
Currently, two vaccines have been given approval to protect against COVID-19 in the UK: the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which was approved in early December and the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate which was licensed in late December.
The Pfizer vaccines destined for the UK are manufactured in Belgium.


They're produced in vials which contain about five doses each, placed in trays of around 100, and these trays are stacked in bespoke freezer boxes which keep the vaccine at -70C.
Once thawed, they can be stored for up to five days in a fridge.
AstraZeneca, which has the capacity to make vaccines in the UK, will get its initial doses from Netherlands and Germany, due to a "quirk of the programme".
Ian McCubbin, manufacturing lead for the government's vaccine taskforce, said the vast majority of the 100 million doses it will produce for the UK will be made in Britain, with only those needed right at the start of the rollout coming from Europe.
Two firms, Oxford BioMedica, of Oxford, and Keele-based Cobra Biologics will make the vaccine with another firm, Wockhardt, in Wrexham, providing what is known as "fill and finish" capability.



Getting the vaccines that are produced abroad to the UK should not be a problem as the government has said it will provide military aircraft in the event of blockages.
The vaccines makers have said it will not be manufacturing capacity that will prevent the government reaching its target.
Pfizer said on 2 January that "deliveries are on track" and a key member of the AstraZeneca team told The Times it will be able to supply two million doses a week by the third week of January.
But the so called "fill and finish" part of the process could continue to hold up supplies, with England's deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam saying a shortage of materials needed to produce and package vaccines could slow down the national rollout.
For this and other reasons, chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned at the end of last week vaccine shortages were likely to cause problems for "several months".
It has led the British Medical Association to say it needs "a guarantee" that supply lines are in place.


2. Approval
Even if supplies can be guaranteed, they still have to meet the approval of regulators - a process that can hold up distribution.
In early January, almost 3.5m doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were understood to be awaiting approval by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), with only 530,000 cleared for use following a process known as "batch testing".
Each individual batch of biological medicines like vaccines has to undergo independent testing to ensure it is safe, a process that can take up to three weeks.
3. Distribution/logistics
The biggest factor in distributing the vaccines is the temperatures they have to be stored at, with AstraZeneca being much easier to store and transport.
Whereas the Pfizer option needs moving in trays with dry ice being used to keep the interiors of the boxes cold, the Oxford/Astra candidate can be kept at fridge temperature (2C to 8C).



Since the Pfizer jab started to be distributed, the government has built up a network of vaccination centres and hubs, with around 730 in England so far.


"Pharmacies have a great track-record in vaccinations. Although some pharmacies are already up and running delivering COVID-19 vaccinations there is as yet no national plan to let pharmacies vaccinate their local communities: the NHS and government must now set out this plan.
"Pharmacies have been open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic offering healthcare advice close to people's homes: we must now make the most of this formidable healthcare network to help with this latest challenge."
Similar calls were made by the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
Mr Zahawi said hospitals were used first in the rollout so it can be done in a "careful way", followed by GPs and then by pharmacies.
4. Administration
Once the vaccines have made it to the distribution points, they still have to be put into people's bodies.
Some have claimed it is similar to the effort required to inoculate adults every year against influenza, but for flu the UK usually reaches only around 70-75% coverage of the key demographic of the over-65s, according to Prof Nilay Shah, of Imperial College London, which is around nine million people out of 12 million in total. He adds that this is usually achieved over the period from September to January, five months.
A number of commentators have said that it could be a lack of qualified staff that holds up distribution.


This an increasingly acute issue as healthcare workers themselves become affected by ballooning COVID infection rates across society as a whole.
But doctors themselves say there could be a range of other factors that could slow the process down.
Dr Richard Vautrey, the British Medical Association's GP committee chair, told Sky News: "To reach this target within the time frame set out by government there will need to be a step-change.
"Once they have supplies, GPs need to be given the flexibility to let them focus on the vaccination campaign as a priority, and there must be honesty around what services will need to be paused to allow this to happen.
"Crucially, we need to be able to deliver vaccines from as many practices as possible, rather than larger sites - and with the launch of the AstraZeneca vaccine NHS England must allow us to do so.
"We also need a clear and consistent national vaccination plan, a reliable IT system, and bureaucracy must be greatly reduced, not least by slashing red tape preventing retired doctors and other healthcare workers from assisting the effort.
"But vitally, given the intense pressures on the NHS currently, if doctors and their colleagues, including those giving the vaccinations, are able to continue caring for patients they must be protected themselves - those risking their own health on the frontline must be vaccinated as soon as possible."



The NHS is recruiting people to help with the distribution and has placed adverts in an attempt to recruit more people to help, but the numbers required are significant. Prof Shah said Imperial College estimates that 15,000 will be needed to reach a total of 250,000 vaccinations a day and double that for the half a million a day needed to exceed the two million doses that will likely be available.
If AstraZeneca is able to produce two million doses by the third week of January and Pfizer even more, a lack of qualified staff to carry out the distribution offers the prospect of doses sitting and waiting to be injected, with no one able to do the work.
5. Monitoring
As the vaccinations are dispensed, it will be essential to continue to monitor the distribution effort, to make sure it is being successful, which will also limit the speed at which it can progress.

 

[Spursex]

This is especially critical as the government is pressing ahead with a plan to administer the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to as many people as possible, before offering the second after 12 weeks - way beyond the 21 days that its efficacy was tested against.
The effectiveness of this will only become apparent if accurate and detailed records are kept of what happens to many of those who are given the alternative regime.
Conclusion
Experts say reaching the target could be possible, but it would depend on a whole series of actions being coordinated.
Prof Nilay Shah, head of department of chemical engineering, Imperial College London, said: "Our analysis indicates that at steady-state it would be possible, with a great deal of co-ordination of manufacturing, logistics, rapid training of vaccination administration personnel, co-operation of patients, it should be possible to reach daily vaccination levels of 300,000 to 500,000 doses per day.
"These levels are several times higher than those achieved in peak influenza vaccination but in principle are achievable with additional resources and effective co-ordination.
"At 400,000 doses per day, assuming we move to seven-days-a-week operation, that is 50 days, which would get us to mid-Feb (for 100% coverage). It's an ambitious target and needs everything to click every day.
"If the aim is for the first dose for the top four priority groups by mid-February, then we would need to hit 200,000 doses a day, again this is achievable but everything needs to go right every single day."

 

[Spursex]

This is what these anti-vaxxers/deniers do, the fcukwits: (watch the video)


Covid: NHS doctor 'receives 20 to 30 abusive messages a day'


Covid: NHS doctor 'receives 20 to 30 abusive messages a day'

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, an intensive care registrar, says NHS staff are facing "devastating" abuse online and at protests.
She thinks it’s driven by coronavirus sceptics and anti-lockdown activists.
In response Dr Batt-Rawden, who is president of the Doctors' Association UK, started her own campaign for people to post blue hearts on social media to show their support for health workers.
Video by Jamie Moreland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-55616041

 

[Departed]

Moderna expects its Covid-19 vaccine protection to last at least a year. The drugmaker’s chief medical officer told investors the firm will also test to see if a third, or booster dose, can extend immunity.

 

[Pompey Yid]

This is what these anti-vaxxers/deniers do, the fcukwits: (watch the video)


Covid: NHS doctor 'receives 20 to 30 abusive messages a day'


Covid: NHS doctor 'receives 20 to 30 abusive messages a day'

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, an intensive care registrar, says NHS staff are facing "devastating" abuse online and at protests.
She thinks it’s driven by coronavirus sceptics and anti-lockdown activists.
In response Dr Batt-Rawden, who is president of the Doctors' Association UK, started her own campaign for people to post blue hearts on social media to show their support for health workers.
Video by Jamie Moreland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-55616041

These numpties are exactly what said EX...Fcukwits.

 

[Nick Real Deal]

I had my flu vaccine today and got told for Covid I was in group 7 . With Angina and breathing issues as a result I would put myself at risk. My doctors surgery wont be carrying out the deep chill vaccine but will be doing the Oxford version when supplies are sufficient which currently they are not.

 

[RafasLeftFoot]

I had my flu vaccine today and got told for Covid I was in group 7 . With Angina and breathing issues as a result I would put myself at risk. My doctors surgery wont be carrying out the deep chill vaccine but will be doing the Oxford version when supplies are sufficient which currently they are not.

i Hope it is sooner then later

 

[Spursex]

Whitehall sources predict all over-50s will get Covid vaccine by end of March

Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor
Friday January 15 2021, 12.01am, The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/topic/health

All over-50s could be vaccinated by the end of March under plans to increase the provision of coronavirus jabs.
The government is preparing to more than double the pace of the programme next week with vaccines for as many as half a million people a day.

Ministers believe that they will have enough doses to hit Boris Johnson’s target of inoculating the 15 million most vulnerable people by February 15.


Interactive

When will I get the Covid vaccine?

Most of us will have to wait many months to get the jab. Use our calculator to find your place on England’s priority list
Find your place in the queue
A senior Whitehall source told The Times they were increasingly confident that all 32 million over-50s could receive their first vaccine dose by mid to late March.
Confidential figures published by the Scottish government suggest that 3.8 million vaccinations will be carried out next week alone, eclipsing the 3 million carried out so far. At present, the daily vaccination rate is 248,000.


The figures suggest that by March 14 2.8 million will have been vaccinated in Scotland, equivalent to more than 32 million across the UK. The NHS has set a target of vaccinating the over-50s by the end of April. “We have the supply coming in,” the Whitehall source said. “Once we get to the over-60s things will speed up dramatically and distribute at scale through pharmacies.”
However, a senior source said that there was still uncertainty around supply of the vaccine and the government was focused on the February 15 target.

There were 48,682 new cases of Covid-19 reported yesterday, an increase of 2 per cent on the 47,525 cases on Wednesday, and there were a further 1,248 deaths.
The publication of the figures by the Scottish government infuriated ministers amid concerns that other nations could put pressure on vaccine makers if they knew how much was being deployed.

As the NHS published figures showing wide variation of vaccine distribution across England yesterday, Downing Street insisted that all regions were getting their “fair share”.
The first regional breakdown showed that nearly 50 per cent of over-80s in the North East & Yorkshire had received at least one dose of the vaccine, but just over 30 per cent of those in London had.
On average, 36 per cent of over-80s across England had received their first dose before January 10.


Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said that the city was not getting its fair share of doses. “I am hugely concerned that Londoners have received only a tenth of the vaccines that have been given across the country,” he said.
“The situation in London is critical with rates of the virus extremely high, which is why it’s so important that vulnerable Londoners are given access to the vaccine as soon as possible.”
Mr Khan added that he would talk to Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine minister, “to ensure that we urgently receive an amount of the vaccine that reflects our size, density and . . . level of need”.
However, a spokesman for the NHS in London, which is responsible for administering the vaccines, said the capital was getting what it should and was on track to meet its target of vaccinating all the over-70s by mid-February. “The NHS coronavirus vaccination programme, the biggest in the health service’s history, has got off to a strong start with a quarter of a million Londoners receiving their first vaccination against Covid, giving significant protection to those most at risk,” he said. “We have more than 100 vaccination sites up and running across London . . . and more are opening all the time.


“London is getting its fair share of vaccine supply for the priority groups we have to vaccinate by mid-February.”
The regional figures may be affected by vaccine availability, the speed of vaccination centres, and the numbers of people coming forward for the jab.
Mr Johnson hinted at discrepancies on Wednesday when he told MPs: “There are parts of the country where they have done incredibly well. We are well over 50 per cent now in the North East & Yorkshire, less good in some other parts of the country.”
In fact, because the prime minister’s figures included those who had had both doses, only about 48 per cent of the over-80s in the North East & Yorkshire have had an injection.
The East of England had one of the lowest vaccination rates at about 30 per cent. The Midlands, North West, South East and South West were all at about 35 per cent.
Ministers have promised to keep the regional statistics updated, as well as publishing daily totals.
A spokesman for Downing Street said: “We’ve rolled out the vaccination programme across the country and we’ve ensured that every area receives a fair share of the vaccinations and we will continue to do that.
“You will continue to see the vaccination programme accelerate through this month and throughout February, and the PM’s been clear that we will ensure there is a vaccine centre close to everybody by the end of the month.”
Across England only 2 per cent of those younger than 80, most of them healthcare workers, have been given their first dose but again London, at 1.24 per cent, is below average.
Overall, about 10 per cent of the over-80s have had both injections, but this is likely to be static for several weeks as the NHS prioritises getting the first dose to as many people as possible.
We will bring the stories of the day to life with warmth, wit and expertise. Listen for free on DAB radio, your smart speaker, online at times.radio, and via the Times Radio app
Start listening
Hold-ups in the Welsh health system have been blamed for the slower introduction there compared with the rest of the UK. The Welsh government has been criticised over the past week for vaccinating a smaller proportion of its population than the other nations.
The Commons Welsh affairs committee was told that in Wales the proportion of people who had had the first dose was 3,215 per 100,000, compared with 3,524 in Scotland, 4,005 in England and 4,828 in Northern Ireland.
Simon Hart, the welsh secretary, said: “Somewhere in the system in Wales there is a significant balance, even as we speak, of vaccines which have been delivered and haven’t been issued to either GP surgeries or other clinical settings.”

 

[Spursex]

CORONAVIRUS
Coronavirus: German daily deaths hit a record 1,244

Oliver Moody, Berlin
Friday January 15 2021, 12.01am, The Times
Coronavirus

A crematorium in Meissen, in the east of the country. Germany dealt with the first wave relatively well but has been struggling during the winter
JENS SCHLUETER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Share
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-german-daily-deaths-hit-a-record-1-244-qlhhbbgtb

Germany’s health minister has suggested that the hardlockdown could be extended until March because the restrictions have failed to reduce the infection rate substantially.
Jens Spahn’s remarks came as the country reported a record 1,244 coronavirus deaths within 24 hours. Frustration is rising at the slow rate of vaccination.
The Robert Koch Institute, which collates Covid-19 statistics, said it had registered 25,164 new cases over the previous day. The number of infections diagnosed in the past week stands at 151.2 per 100,000 people, three times the government target.

The country came through the first wave of the pandemic last spring relatively well compared to other European countries, with fewer than 10,000 deaths in a population of 83 million.
Since then, however, the death toll has quadrupled, to 43,881, after the infection rate continued to rise despite a “lockdown-lite” introduced in November.


The caseload has stabilised since the rules were tightened on December 16 with the closure of schools and all but essential shops.
Yet there is concern that two mutant strains of the virus that appear to be significantly more contagious — the B.1.1.7 variant, thought to have first appeared in the UK, and 501Y.V2, from South Africa — have arrived in Germany.
The extent to which they have spread through the population remains unclear.
The only realistic path out of lockdown appears to be inoculation. Mr Spahn has promised that everybody will be offered a coronavirus vaccine by the end of June.



As of yesterday the country had vaccinated just over 1 per cent of its population. As across much of mainland Europe the campaign has been hampered by bottlenecks in the production of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Several German states also say that strict data protection laws prevent them from accessing their residency registers to identify people who can be vaccinated, leaving them dependent on guesswork and a database supplied by the privatised postal service.
Mr Spahn, 40, said that the country had ordered a more than adequate supply of the vaccines.
“We have no problem with the [total] quantity. What we have now is a scarcity,” he told Maischberger, a television talk show.
The lockdown measures are due to expire on January 31 but Angela Merkel has suggested that they could be extended by as much as ten weeks.
However, the economy, Europe’s largest, is likely to escape a second recession, according to the Hans Böckler Foundation, a think tank. It put the probability that GDP would shrink in the first two quarters of this year at 10 per cent.
Last year the country suffered its most abrupt economic collapse in the half-century since quarterly records began, shrinking by 10.1 per cent from April to June following a 2 per cent contraction from January to March.


Times Radio

Tune in

We will bring the stories of the day to life with warmth, wit and expertise. Listen for free on DAB radio, your smart speaker, online at times.radio, and via the Times Radio app
Start listening
Some of the lost ground was clawed back over the next six months but GDP fell by a net 5 per cent over last year as a whole, according to data published yesterday by the federal statistics agency.
This time however, businesses appear to be optimistic that they can continue operating and demand for exports will rebound as the Chinese economy recovers and the Biden administration takes power in the US.
The Ifo Institute for Economic Research, which is based in Munich, has forecast growth of 0.5 per cent for the first quarter of this year. Timo Wollmershäuser, an economist at Ifo, said: “So far industry and its related services are continuing their recovery, largely untouched by the wave of infections and the measures taken by the state.”