2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

 

It was approved because the panel of independent experts who reviewed the evidence found sufficient proof of efficacy and safety.

 

That same panel was satisfied with regard to the evidence for Sinovac in people under 60 but found insufficient data on its use in people over 60 and people with chronic illnesses. WHO has neither issued approval of Sinovac nor announced it is not approved i.e. the door is still open. They may be awaiting more data, rather than having to approve it only for younger ages.

Are you aware that a third jab of Sinopharm is being offered in UAE & Bahrain?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3134084/immunity-induced-sinopharm-jab-questioned-after-uae-offers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/19/uae-sinopharm-third-dose-booster/

10 hours ago, pizzachang said:

Doesn't this simply mean that a 'expected mutation' occurred? The virus is never "going away" - like any other corona virus. isolation is only a delay and a vaccine (that really isn't a vaccine) likely carries a higher risk than immunity (even partial) acquired from recovering. Until a long-term proof is available from inoculated humans, this seems the most logical way to think about this. Testing to see if you already have antibodies, also seems like a rational, pre-vaccination procedure. IMO

This erroneous thinking has been denounced in the Lancet since last October. Waiting for herd immunity from infection is a non-starter, will lead to reinfection with more variants than we already have, many more deaths. A totally unethical proposition.

11 hours ago, lks7689 said:

Singapore using Pfizer and moderna but still people get infected by the B1617 variant. When they say effective it mean reduce but not 100% prevent. The 1 breakthrough infection was enough to spread to 100 in a matter of two weeks in Singapore. 

If that's true, it's already time for a booster, or better update their vaccines pronto!

21 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

Yes, that's what I read too, if you breathe it in then you will become infected but that's not really the issue here.

 

Being vaccinated reduces it to either an asymptomatic case or a 'mild cold like' illness.

 

But you will still test positive on a PCR test regardless of how mild it is.

With Pfizer & Moderna, chances are better that you will not be infected, due to more powerful neutralizing antibodies.

On 5/21/2021 at 7:06 PM, brewsterbudgen said:

Sorry, but I call you a "doomsday sayer".  I'm not a Covid-denier, but vaccinations are the solution not locking-down which causes more long-term damage.

Vaccinations could save, but they will be too late for the Indian variant.

23 hours ago, Petey11 said:

Cases of the 'Indian variant' in the UK seem to doubling every 4-5 days. Surge testing and enhanced vaccination been done, good news is it seems to be held back by the vaccines as a lot of cases are in the 18-35 year old cohort, the unvaccinated ones. Still a variant if concern though and seems to be out competing the UK variant. Hopefully the Thai authorities will bear down on it quickly.

The testing which they are doing in Bolton should show whether AZ is up to task as some there have had that jab, no doubt.

On 5/21/2021 at 3:43 PM, ThailandRyan said:

Yet the Sinovac vaccine is not one of those authorized as of yet and not approved by the WHO, only China has approved its use, and the WHO has only approved the Sinopharm vaccine not CoronaVac as of now.

 

"the World Health Organization's Europe director warned on Thursday (May 20), but stressed that authorised vaccines do work against variants of concern."

Sinopharm is the government vaccine, so could that be a reason that WHO approved it?

On 5/21/2021 at 2:27 PM, Sheryl said:

While it is true that the "Indian variant" is more infectious than the original viral strain it is not clear how much more infectious it is (if at all) than the so-called "UK strain" already prevalent here. Also not yet  clear if it is any more lethal.

Since the Indian variant is taking over from the UK variant rapidly in Bolton near Manchester, it's likely that it will take over in the rest of the UK unless serious lockdown measures are taken. There is little chance that there would be enough of a lockdown in Thailand to stop the Indian variant.

5 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/thailand-to-get-moderna-vaccine-by-this-october

 

https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/thailand-to-get-10-to-20-million-doses-of-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine#:~:text=The Pfizer vaccine is expected to arrive in,administered to adults as well as the elderly.

 

Moderna not until October, and that is exactly what my doctor said last Monday when I saw him, Pfizer, well that one is still up in the air, could be by September but maybe not until the 4th quarter.

 

Or were you thinking the Sinovac or AZ vaccine what was being discussed by going to a private hospital for a vaccination.  Have a good day

 

 

Have you seen any confirmation from Pfizer or Moderna or J&J that their vaccines have been ordered?

2 hours ago, ramrod711 said:

That has been my thinking as well, take what you can get and pay for a Moderna or Pfizer later. But... experts seem to be having doubts about mixing vaccines now. I'll be wanting confirmation that the practice is safe before I mix and match.

Yes, there should be trials, and they should get on with it ASAP. Give the public more options! I will ask my friend who has created many viral vaccines. People may be needing boosters sooner rather than later, and those who had AZ, J&J, will probably need boosters by another type of vaccine.

3 hours ago, Mavideol said:

why take it if only 50% effective, currently anybody with good immune system  has 50/50 %  (or more) chances of getting infected if getting the Chinese vax still have the same 50/50 % chances, why get it

Yes, that's the same correct logic that had NHS advising young people to get Pfizer instead of AZ, due to the clotting complication from AZ.

3 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

More importantly:

How does the Sinovac fare against the U.K. and Indian variants ??

and :

Is it accepted for travelling to different countries ?

It would be a good idea to check the efficacity of Sinovac as each new variant emerges. Then people who were vaccinated with it could know whether they should get a booster of something else.

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

Among the countries you mentioned only Vietnam has a reasonably sophisticated public health service. So reports from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos of low infection rates are dubious. And given the clusters of infections found in workers from those states here in Thailand, it's clear that their reporting is not to be trusted.  The only other adjacent country with a well developed public health service  is Malaysia, and it is performing quite dismally compared to Thailand, due in large part to its reluctance to limit gatherings of Muslims who constitute the majority of Malaysia's citizens.

And Malaysia just had a superspreader event - Ramadan.

15 hours ago, shdmn said:

The Brazil study is the outlier and was done before a lot of the variants so it should be discarded.  Also, buried in that Brazil study is the most important part.

 

 

What we need to know is the level of neutralizing antibodies which would stop transmission. If it keeps circulating, more dangerous variants will eventually arise, and Brazil will be back to square one. The statistics about reducing hospitalization are lovely, but it's not a panacea, and we shouldn't be misled by the Butatan study.

21 hours ago, CALSinCM said:

That's because that are huge amounts of money to be made and this is not about saving humanity, it's about the heads of pharmaceutical companies being able to add billions to their personal fortunes.  So of course the First World West will protect the intellectual property even if it decimates third world countries. 

Before Biden said that he would support patent waivers through WTO, the CEO of Pfizer was saying that they would distribute at cost or even free to very poor countries.

5 hours ago, Freeduhdum said:

One final point, are all of those deaths being properly autopsied by a pathologist to determine death, is grandpa who finally died of his colon cancer coming up positive on a test, and is thus being counted as Covid being the cause?

The way real figures are being estimated is by excess deaths, by way of comparing a Covid year to the previous year. WHO just estimated that in the world the real number of deaths last year due to Covid was 6-8mn. It will be difficult to get a good number for 2021 because record keeping in India is unable to keep up with what's happening in the countryside, i.e. where most of the Indian population lives. Even in the cities, only deaths in hospitals are being counted.

Thailand is in a much better position than India to make these calculations, though.

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If it becomes necessary to have an annual shot, like flu, can any western country afford to be giving it to other countries? At some stage the money tree dies.

The point of developing means to produce and distribute a significantly bigger supply of good vaccines is to achieve herd immunity or nearly so. Some places will have outbreaks, but then resources can be directed to mopping up. EU, UK, Japan, AU, etc should participate in building up such capacity. We want to avoid the annual booster, a really daunting hurdle, not to mention the cost as you say.

The ultimate goal for the future is to have enough capacity between existing private capacity and additional government-owned facilities to be able to produce enough vaccine for the entire US population in 4 months or so. This timeframe includes 2 months for the preparation of equipment and selection of the mRNA instructions to incorporate in the vaccine. Process of vaccine production might take around 2 months. Once US needs were satisfied, the production would be distributed internationally. Once a future virus were detected and sequenced, in a year a US production rate of 600mn doses/mo would yield 4.8bn doses for international distribution. So partners would be needed to immunize the World. The idea is: next time -- stop the virus in its tracks before the deluge of variants.

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

IMO the taxpayers are not going to accept vaccinating the entire planet at their expense, so forget about that.

Penny wise, pound foolish. What else is new? I didn't say that it would be free for all. Should depend on ability to pay.

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I'm aware of the two doses, but I take it that the second is a BOOSTER. The post I quoted specifically said boosters were not included in the 11 billion. If they are, the number of doses required should be over 15 billion.

Actually, no. The booster would be a third shot. In the Gulf they are even talking about a third shot for Sinopharm since 2 shots fell short in enough cases to be concerning.

Boosters are being developed by Pfizer and Moderna in the event that their vaccines do not produce sufficient neutralizing antibodies for emerging variants such as the Indian one. Neutralizing antibodies prevent infection and presumably transmission to others. 

7 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

I was listening to a podcast and they said there are NO vaccines made at all in Africa.  None.  So you're right, they just don't have the ability to manufacture these things.  I think India produces some 70% of all vaccines globally.

 

Even the big companies are saying it's hard to ramp up.  Very complicated.

 

I did hear a lot were wasted in Africa as the ones delivered had short expiration dates and they just couldn't ramp up quickly enough to get them in arms.

I seem to remember seeing someone from Serum Institute of India complaining that they asked the Indian government last year for funds to expand production but were refused.

Meanwhile I don't see the Biden administration doing anything to expand US vaccine production capacity. The private sector can only create capacity that can be used in the future, but the US government could rent facilities to a succession of pharmaceutical companies as the need arises. 

16 hours ago, Tony125 said:

Pfizer vaccine can be stored in a refrigerator for a month

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pfizer-vaccine-stored-refrigerator-month-080016460.html

Interesting that in another thread (Thailand aims to vaccinate 70% of people by September) the nurse (in US?) was going to put the vaccine back in the freezer if any was not used!

In that post Wasabi said: "My wife and I received our 1st Pfizer vaccine dose yesterday from a walk in appointment. The woman at the pharmacy explained this was only possible because someone else canceled. She further explained they are still required to keep the vaccines at extreme cold temperatures and then based on appointment take them out and have a 12 hour window to inject them before they have to be put back in the freezer." 

2 hours ago, mommysboy said:

 

Whatever its problems The AZ vaccine is extremely effective on all metrics.

Let's hope that continues to be true.

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Hmmmmm. I think the US and other western countries have other things to spend their money on besides giving free vaccines to the entire world population.

Taxes are already going to go up to pay for the existing massive debt, not including building more vaccine factories. Nothing is free.

If the US and other developed countries do not help the Third World, ineffective vaccines may be tried and new variants will develop through selective pressure. This will come back to bite the West (and Thailand). Keeping safe is not free!

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Not counting any boosters???????????? Did the world population just increase by 3 billion?

Please bear in mind that 2 doses are needed for each person (except J&J). You might try to read the article. Very informative.

2 hours ago, Derek B said:

Approved for use in Thailand however does that include the approval to import privately like other vaccines & medications?

Some how I think not. 

 

Why has the Sinopharm vaccine not been approved by Thailand - WHO has approved it for global use.

I'm not sure that WHO is a reliable authority. Better wait until US and UK approve it.