Any vaccine in a storm
If you get a chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine, don't wait for a "better" one.
Europe has a problem: a huge stockpile of COVID-19 vaccines produced by AstraZeneca, and hardly anyone willing to use them:
After battling with AstraZeneca over shipment delays, and even casting doubt over its Covid-19 jab’s efficacy, EU countries are seeing stocks of the company’s shots pile up — unused.
As of Friday, France had administered 16 per cent of the 1.1m doses of the two-injection vaccine it received since the first delivery in early February, according to health ministry data. As of Thursday, Germany had given a little over one-fifth of the 1.45 million doses, about the same proportion as Italy, which has received over 1m doses. Spain has used just under a third of a total of 808,000 doses as of Friday.
The situation has prompted several European leaders to talk up the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in recent days, with one French health ministry official even calling for a “collective rehabilitation campaign” to improve its reputation.
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Chief among the reasons for the lower acceptance of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was a policy choice made by many countries to restrict its use for older people until more data on its efficacy became available. In France, that meant the shot is being offered only to people aged between 50 and 64 with comorbidities and healthcare workers, while Spain has advised it not be used on those older than 55 years old. Germany and Italy are offering the jab to everyone younger than 65.Health experts say negative headlines have damaged the vaccine’s reputation, bolstering the perception that it is a lesser option to BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna jabs, which both rely on so-called mRNA technology and boast higher protection rates. A study suggesting the AstraZeneca vaccine was less effective against the variant that has emerged in South Africa caused healthcare workers’ unions in several European countries to demand that their members get the mRNA-based vaccines instead.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca jab showed efficacy of between 62 and 70 per cent in clinical trials last year. That compares with more than 90 per cent effectiveness for the BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna jabs. But all of them offer nearly full protection against hospitalisation and deaths.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was just approved for use in Canada, though its use is not being recommended for people over 65 years of age at this time.
As someone with parents waiting to get the shot, that’s disappointing. Senior citizens are at greater risk from COVID-19 than younger people, so they should be a higher priority. But if they can’t be given a particular vaccine at this time, I’m more than happy to step in and get it.
Meanwhile, some media outlets are trying to play off the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine against more highly touted ones:
Dr. Fauci, by contrast, warns against vaccine-shopping:
Anthony Fauci pushed back against any tendency to shop around or wait for a preferred coronavirus vaccine among the three that are now approved for use in the U.S.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was asked on ABC’s “This Week” about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which got the go-ahead on Saturday from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The one-dose J&J shot was found to be highly effective at preventing severe COVID-19, but has a lower efficacy rate than the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc. vaccines, raising concerns that some people may opt to wait rather than being vaccinated with it.
“We’ve got to get away from that chain of thought,” Fauci said on ABC. “The only way you really know the difference between vaccines is by comparing them head to head.”
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“You now have three highly efficacious vaccines, for sure,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If I would go to a place where they had J&J, I would have no hesitancy whatsoever to take it.”
“The efficacy against severe disease greater than 85%, and there have been no hospitalization or deaths in multiple countries, even in countries that have the variants,” Fauci said of the Johnson & Johnson shot. “Be careful when you try to parse this percent versus that.”
Personally, my preferred vaccine is whichever Health Canada-approved one I can get first. Even if Canada approves Russia’s Sputnik V or some of the Chinese vaccines, and I get the chance to take them, I’m rolling up my sleeves.
If there’s a tsunami coming and someone in an old beater is wiling to take me to higher ground, I’m not sticking around and waiting for a Lexus. In an emergency like this, “good enough” is indeed good enough.
Speaking of which, when I heard that the head of the Canada Pension Plan skipped off to Dubai to get vaccinated instead of waiting his turn here in Canada, I thought…good for him, honestly.
The chief executive of the fund that manages Canada Pension Plan investments has resigned after it was revealed that he decided to travel to the United Arab Emirates, where he arranged to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
CPP Investments said Friday that Mark Machin tendered his resignation after discussions with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) Thursday night.
The resignation comes after Machin on Thursday evening sent a memo to staff, in which he said he received a COVID-19 vaccination while on a "very personal" trip to Dubai.
Machin said in the email viewed by The Canadian Press that he remains in Dubai with his partner "for many reasons, some of which are deeply personal."
"This was a very personal trip and was undertaken after careful consideration and consultation," the memo reads.
The federal government is actively discouraging Canadians from travelling abroad and recently implemented stricter quarantine measures for those returning home.
Machin told staff he followed all travel protocols related to his role as head of the pension fund while on the trip.
We Canadians are proud of our public-health system, and feel relieved that we rarely see headlines like “girl selling lemonade to fund her own brain surgeries” up here. (To be fair, that much-talked-about Alabama case involved medical travel expenses, for which fundraisers are actually pretty common in this part of Canada. But at least we don’t have to worry about co-pays for life-saving operations.) We think our system is much more fair, and that even rich people don’t get to jump in front of everyone else.
In reality, of course, wealthy Canadians - and politicians - leave the country to pay for medical treatment all the time, so it’s not surprising to see them doing the same for vaccines.
Good. More for the rest of us. They’re not jumping the line. They’re leaving the line altogether and letting everyone else move slightly ahead.
Assuming Machin did indeed follow all travel protocols, he didn’t put anyone else at risk by travelling. And, when he returns to Canada, that’s one more person who’s been vaccinated at a time when we need as many people to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
Is it “fair” that some people have the resources to do this? Maybe not. But if Machin had stayed in Canada and waited, he wouldn’t be any less wealthy, but he would be a greater risk for transmitting a deadly virus.
(In other news, I’ve just rendered myself that much more unelectable in Canada.)
“105 cubic feet of party room up back.” The Aussies knew how to make the seventies just a little more bearable.
The ways in which efficacy is stated are not always helpful for people who don't know what the figures refer to. For greater clarity on what really matters here, instead of focusing on "efficacy between 62 and 70 per cent in clinical trials", maybe reports on vaccines should point out more strongly that "*all* of them offer nearly full protection against hospitalisation and deaths".
After all, that's what we're really after - preventing serious illness and fatalities.
The more people get vaccinated, the sooner, the better it is for herd immunity and preventing further mutations. Elderly parents are high on the priority list. But if mine can't get one yet and I can, then I can still offer my parent some protection by being vaccinated myself.