MHRA approves Pfizer jab for use in UK

[AuntieStella]

News just breaking on BBC

@JacobReesMogadishu

I'm an NHS front line worker and will happily have it. I've also volunteered for shifts to administer it when it's rolled out to other groups.

Brilliant you’ll be part of what stops people losing their livelihoods (or worse)

Most people don't ever have to be the first to take any drugs or vaccines immediately after phase III trials end. I'd imagine they'd feel equally apprehensive if they were.

You speak of someone with the luxury of good health .People with chronic conditions are often keen to be in the phase 3 trials. Taking them as soon as they finished rather than suffer with the disease is often a no-brainer.

@Chumleymouse

I don’t think it will work, they can’t find a cure for the common cold, influenza, so I doubt they can for this.

Which of the world renowned vacinne labs do you work in? I haven't heard anyone say they are expecting a cure, where did you see that?

Once people start having it the world could turn into the film “ I am legend “ 😮

It’s not been proven that the vaccine stops you getting COVID-19 , just that it lessens symptoms.

It didn't just lessen symptoms There were also fewer cases amongst those who had the vaccine. People with fewer symptoms also generally have lower viral load and may not be as infectious.

@Chumleymouse

Once people start having it the world could turn into the film “ I am legend “ 😮

oooooh brilliant can I be Will Smith?

@JacobReesMogadishu

I'm an NHS front line worker and will happily have it. I've also volunteered for shifts to administer it when it's rolled out to other groups.

Great to hear. I hope the majority of healthcare professionals in the NHS are similar to you.

Yep I’ll be the creature that out smarts him .

I feel I should have the right to know if the person treating me does not want to have the vaccine, so I can refuse treatment

Staff in the haem unit I attend wear ‘I’ve had my flu jab’ badges during the flu season. Patients don’t get a choice about who they see, but this is a way to reassure the (often highly vulnerable) patient community that every step is being taken to protect them. We might see similar

And staff who cannot it do not receive the vaccine might need to be redeployed away from direct contact with those who remain vulnerable.

@Belladonna12

Most people don't ever have to be the first to take any drugs or vaccines immediately after phase III trials end. I'd imagine they'd feel equally apprehensive if they were.

You speak of someone with the luxury of good health .People with chronic conditions are often keen to be in the phase 3 trials. Taking them as soon as they finished rather than suffer with the disease is often a no-brainer.

Yes, I am in good health, as are most people. Which is what I said.

And as you point out, people with chronic conditions will assess the risk and be happy to take that risk for the potential benefit.

What we are seeing with the vaccine is different because totally healthy people at very low risk from COVID (again, that's MOST people) are being asked to do the same thing.

Now, they may not be balancing the risk incorrectly, but to dismiss their fears helps nobody.

@Fallsballs

This government aren’t exactly renowned for their good decisions so far re the pandemic so why would the choice of vaccine be so different ?

And I think it’s incredibly nasty to keep banging on about people’s choice not to have the vaccine, we are not in a Nazi state (yet).

Because the vaccine hasn’t been made by Boris Johnson and his mates, and the decision to approve it hasn’t either. The MHRA isn’t made up of politicians (thank God!)

It is great news.

Can someone cleverer than me tell me how they know it’s safe longer term? For example isn’t linked to autoimmunity?

I’m sure this has been considered by the MHRA, I just want to know more about how

Downing Street briefing at 10 this morning with key players not politicians should be on BBC news channel live as soon as it starts

purplefig
have a read of this from well known conspiracy theorists, the British medical journal

The author of the feature in your first link (associate editor Peter Doshi) appears to be anti-vaccination in general. He published this feature in the BMJ in 2013;
www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f3037.abstract

Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease - Peter Doshi, postdoctoral fellow;
"Closer examination of influenza vaccine policies shows that although proponents employ the rhetoric of science, the studies underlying the policy are often of low quality, and do not substantiate officials’ claims. The vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated."

Forbes magazine 2014;
"Not surprisingly, the anti-vaccine movement has embraced Doshi...And unfortunately, he seems to have accepted their acclaim: in 2009, he spoke at an anti-vaccine conference hosted by NVIC, a notorious (and misleadingly named) anti-vaccination group."

www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2014/11/03/shocking-report-on-flu-vaccine-is-neither-shocking-nor-correct/#385768a78a74

Yeah!! Bloody BMJ with their tinfoil hats.
(That article has nothing in it about the safety of the vaccine?)
(It's about government communications in public health and science engagement)

The editorial in your second link ("Covid-19: politicisation, “corruption,” and suppression of science,") is essentially an anti-Conservative government editorial, written by executive editor Kamran Abbasi who doesn't try to hide his political bias. He tweeted;

"With a nod to the demographics, the same people who gave us Thatcher, people who voted her in out of greed and self interest, have now given us Johnson and Brexit.You can fool many of the people many times over since nothing predicts behaviour like behaviour." 10:24 AM ·Dec 13, 2019

@Belladonna12

Most people don't ever have to be the first to take any drugs or vaccines immediately after phase III trials end. I'd imagine they'd feel equally apprehensive if they were.

You speak of someone with the luxury of good health .People with chronic conditions are often keen to be in the phase 3 trials. Taking them as soon as they finished rather than suffer with the disease is often a no-brainer.

Yes. Look at what happens when new cancer drugs come on-line. The concern is often that people aren't able to access them, not that they are worried about being first in line for them.

I would like to know what the refusers and naysayers are proposing as an alternative to bring this to an end. I don’t need a concrete plan. Just you know, an idea? An overview?

There is literally no other way out of this. This is it.

Michael thanks. But you didn’t answer the question.

But what’s the alternative? Stay in lockdown until when? We aren’t getting the vaccine for shits and giggles

Well that would only be necessary if EVERYBODY (or a certain high threshold of the population) decided they don't want to get the vaccine, which thankfully I don't believe will happen.

So if people aren’t prepared to take it, then they have to choose continuing to live under restrictions OR let others take all the risks for them. Any reservations I have about the vaccine are more palatable than either of these options for me

Well, yeah. What I'm saying is that there's no reason to see it as an affront that the fearful want others to "take all the risk for them". Those happy to get the vaccine have presumably decided that the benefit is worth the risk anyway, so what other people are deciding shouldn't really factor into it.

If I know someone is apprehensive about getting it, and my choice is to either call them an idiot who knows "the square root of fuck all about pharmacology and the regulatory process" and so forth, or to understand their feeling and get the vaccine myself (which I apparently planned to do anyway, right?) to demonstrate that it's nothing to worry about, I know which I'd choose.

I don't believe most people are anti-vax nutters. I think they're a little scared of something so new and many don't have any personal health risks pushing them to get the vaccine. But I also think that once they see other people getting it en masse, they'll get over their fears quite quickly.

Goldenombre - I haven’t researched this but I’d be fairly sure there a Tory financial interest somewhere.

This is such good news. It will hopefully mean that people like me can become part of society again, I'll be able to see my family and friends, do the things I like to do and to be able to work with people rather than through a screen.

I do hope that because no vaccine is 100% effective, that those I know will also have it when it is their turn in order to protect those who are vulnerable and to allow the NHS to start to recover.

No, it's not possible, it takes a gazillion years to build a vaccine, we need to learn to LIVE with it, it definitely won't be effective - there's never been a coronavirus vaccine, you're all idiots, it will never get approved.

Sorry, just having a flashback.

@Fallsballs

Goldenombre - I haven’t researched this but I’d be fairly sure there a Tory financial interest somewhere.

Then you should look into it a bit more if that would reassure you? Yes the Tory government are a corrupt bunch of incompetents, but MHRA are a globally respected organisation made up of professionals.