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Israel, the Palestinian population unfortunately essentially completely excepted so far, has gone all in on COVID vaccination and there have been successes.
Bloomberg's Zev Chafets has the latest:
Israel should be celebrating. More than 20% of its population has been fully vaccinated. Another 15% have been given the first of two jabs and will be protected by mid-February. The government plans to have vaccinated 5 million citizens — well over half the adult population — by mid-March, just before Israel’s next election take places on March 23rd.
Never has a candidate had better talking points on the key issue of the day. Last week the Maccabi health maintenance organization — one of the four HMOs under which Israeli health care is administered — announced that of 163,000 patients who received the full two-shot protocol, 92% were Covid-free after 10 days (and the remaining 8% showed only mild symptoms). Members of a control group of unvaccinated Israelis were found to be 11 times more highly infected...
However, there is, unfortunately, a very predictable fly in the Israeli ointment:
...And yet, Israel is still struggling to contain the virus. This isn’t because the vaccine is failing, but because many Israelis still refuse to follow restrictions imposed to limit the spread of infections...
One can't help but wonder how this type of vaccine vs. public health-type thing will play out in North America, especially with the longer lead time that may facilitate the large scale circulation of more virulent variants come, say summertime.
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2:00PM Water Cooler 4/18/2024
31 minutes ago
5 comments:
I figure I'll be lucky to get vaccinated by this coming fall. Even if I get it earlier will it be any good against all the new variants sure to come. It really seems the vaccines may prevent serious sickness or death (which is good!) but not actually prevention of sickness and spreading. Although the new Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine sounds promising in all aspects but for how long? By the time we even get it assessable new variants are out and about. It really looks like a continuous booster shot program just to stay in an even game.
In my view, we've already lost valuable time. Delays, ever changing status of obtaining enough doses call into question the efficacy of a vaccination program to bring an end to this scourge. Why, in the hell, is this not a 24-7 operation? As the global economy often brags about just in time delivery, the same could be done with this. We cannot afford to keep stalling like this- it's not rocket science to poke a needle into the deltoid- many hands make light work- the unemployed could be trained up in less than a week. But alas, here we are, continuing with the flatten the curve nonsense and continual half measures, community spread, upon more half measures and it's looking further into the future that we might finally get this under control. BC Waterboy
Booey--
Agree that the variants are a concern. I have two good friends who are actual immunologists and they worry about increased variant virulence if the bugs go through folks half-vaccinated. The concern here is that weak selection pressure is often worse than no selection pressue at all as it facilitates the emergence of slightly stronger bugs - this is analagous to only taking half your antibiotics to treat a bacterial infectiion.
One bonus for the mRNA vaccines is that they can be quickly modified to code for variant sequences. Apparently, Moderna is already at work on that one. However, even if that initiative is successful there may still be regulatory issues that could slow things down and, for sure, production and distribution will still be problems.
AZ vaccine would definitely help but the data are a little squishy and the EU still has concerns about overall effectiveness in the elderly. The J&J vaccine might really help given that the trial data with one shot look decent although they indicate lower protection than provided by thePfizer/Moderna vaccines and the early data suggested better outcomes with a booster. The Russians also published very strong results with the Sputnik vaccine this week in the Lancet (see 'Interpretation' in the Summary). I'm sad to say it, but given how the State has fiddled with data in other realms, I think it will be important to see data from other trials on that one.
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BCW--
I hear you. Clearly decisions have been made to try and hold on with the expectation that a massive increase in vaccine supply is coming soon. I agree that that is is dangerous game, especially if more virulent strains take hold.
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I think of this song (originally by Everly Brothers) by Lauren O'Connell, I fill in getting back to normal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an02-7GEhnk
Booey--
Oh boy, its about time I listened to a little L.O.
Thanks!
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