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Original poster

Astrazeneca less effective against mild illness in SA variant

301 replies

bathsh3ba · 07/02/2021 10:03

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55967767

NB this was a sample of 2000, not yet peer reviewed.

I'm beginning to wish they wouldn't report incomplete findings so publicly. All the commentary suggests it's too early to say if this is a big problem or not - so why tell us?!

OP posts:
inquietant · 08/02/2021 10:04

We should be able to open up everything as planned, because the death rate should be greatly reduced by the numbers now vaccinated.

No 'opening up' has been planned yet - because we don't know yet whether we can.

If we open up when cases are high, we will grow our own variants and potentially return to the start.

Patience + science = success

Porcupineintherough · 08/02/2021 10:05

I would strongly support stringent border controls. Far better for our people and economy that things could safely open up inside the uk, even if travel in and out was restricted.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 08/02/2021 10:08

Patience + science = success

How much longer are you willing to be patient for? If this is going to go on indefinitely I can't see any point in having the vaccine - I'm needle phobic so why would I put myself through it if there's no benefit?

(I will have it obviously but I can't help feeling like that)

mollypuss1 · 08/02/2021 10:14

@inquietant

We should be able to open up everything as planned, because the death rate should be greatly reduced by the numbers now vaccinated.

No 'opening up' has been planned yet - because we don't know yet whether we can.

If we open up when cases are high, we will grow our own variants and potentially return to the start.

Patience + science = success

Of course opening up has been planned, there is already a roadmap. It’s just not been made officially public yet.
JaneNorman · 08/02/2021 10:19

@Porcupineintherough

I would strongly support stringent border controls. Far better for our people and economy that things could safely open up inside the uk, even if travel in and out was restricted.
It wouldn’t make any difference against the SA variant because the more recent U.K. strain has already started to show the same mutation.
Doomsdayiscoming · 08/02/2021 10:21

Last week: omg EU hands off our precious az

This week: hi EU want to swap some az for Pfizer?

Thiscantreallybehappening · 08/02/2021 10:22

IMO:

We need to get to a place where the scientists can predict how this virus is likely to mutate so we can get the vaccine developed before the mutation appears, like we do with the flu vaccine. I am sure the scientists must be working on this. By the time we get to the Autumn the virus will have mutated again so the booster jab will help but we need to get ahead. At the moment we are reacting not predicting but we will do this. Look how far we have come in a year.

Yes, I agree stricter border controls I think would help stop imported mutations. We could then work on getting our numbers down to stop/reduce home grown mutations.

In the meantime, we have a great vaccination programme and we need to all be on board and continue with that because it will take us forward.

MrsMauryBallstein · 08/02/2021 10:26

@Doomsdayiscoming

Last week: omg EU hands off our precious az

This week: hi EU want to swap some az for Pfizer?

Yep! The flag wavers have gone a bit quiet.
BlueBlancmange · 08/02/2021 10:34

@Thiscantreallybehappening

IMO:

We need to get to a place where the scientists can predict how this virus is likely to mutate so we can get the vaccine developed before the mutation appears, like we do with the flu vaccine. I am sure the scientists must be working on this. By the time we get to the Autumn the virus will have mutated again so the booster jab will help but we need to get ahead. At the moment we are reacting not predicting but we will do this. Look how far we have come in a year.

Yes, I agree stricter border controls I think would help stop imported mutations. We could then work on getting our numbers down to stop/reduce home grown mutations.

In the meantime, we have a great vaccination programme and we need to all be on board and continue with that because it will take us forward.

Yes, I've heard they are working on ways to predict how the virus will mutate. We're so lucky science is as advanced as it is, and that there are people clever enough to have made that the case.
MarshaBradyo · 08/02/2021 10:36

Yep! The flag wavers have gone a bit quiet.

Those doomers are getting happy again. Are you feeling happy about it all?

inquietant · 08/02/2021 10:38

Of course opening up has been planned, there is already a roadmap. It’s just not been made officially public yet.

Plans change.

inquietant · 08/02/2021 10:39

@MarshaBradyo

Yep! The flag wavers have gone a bit quiet.

Those doomers are getting happy again. Are you feeling happy about it all?

I think some of us were just cringeing at the flag waving aspect. I'm just glad any vaccines work against the SA variant, forgive me for not being such a dickhead as to care where each was made.
CuriousaboutSamphire · 08/02/2021 10:39

Yep! The flag wavers have gone a bit quiet. Well, the ones who have a science background haven't! We didn't say AZ was better in the first place. We just understood that each vaccine has it strengths and weaknesses and that newspapes will always shout the negative shite!

What is scary is the posters who now absolutely believe AZ to be ineffective - read back through the thread to see it!

As usual posts repeating the reality are ignored - stay calm, it works, we don't have any reliable data about the variants, they are too new, there will be many more, virologists know all of this!

MarshaBradyo · 08/02/2021 10:40

I dgaf.

I do when posters bang on about things going wrong here as if it’s something to post about.

MarshaBradyo · 08/02/2021 10:41

That was to Inquietant of course a vaccine is good

Az Ox still has its place

CuriousaboutSamphire · 08/02/2021 10:42

I think some of us were just cringeing at the flag waving aspect. I'm just glad any vaccines work against the SA variant, forgive me for not being such a dickhead as to care where each was made. Much of that flag waving was a response to the "England has fucked up again/ooh nasty colonialists" rhetoric! It's hard to try and explain/defend something like that without sounding like you're flag waving!

Dongdingdong · 08/02/2021 10:43

Well, we want it to be effective enough to prevent severe disease & hospitalisations, not just deaths.

@MiaMc well... it is, so not sure what your point is Confused

inquietant · 08/02/2021 10:43

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Patience + science = success

How much longer are you willing to be patient for? If this is going to go on indefinitely I can't see any point in having the vaccine - I'm needle phobic so why would I put myself through it if there's no benefit?

(I will have it obviously but I can't help feeling like that)

That's an unanswerable question, I can't predict when my patience will run out!

Of course having the vaccine is wise - vaccine + suppression is better than just vaccine or just suppression.

It is just science. It isn't magic, or wishes, or trickery - just science. Those vaccines are fantastic science in action, but they are not magic.

speaksofty · 08/02/2021 10:44

Border closure is the only forward now. It is painfully obvious.

Dongdingdong · 08/02/2021 10:47

Yep! The flag wavers have gone a bit quiet.

@MrsMauryBallstein What are you on about? Sorry to burst your bubble, but the AZ vaccine is proven to be effective against the SA variant in that it prevents severe illness, hospitalisation and death. What more do you fecking want?

inquietant · 08/02/2021 10:47

@MarshaBradyo

That was to Inquietant of course a vaccine is good

Az Ox still has its place

I said the vaccines were amazing, so don't put false words in my mouth.

I'm embarrassed when I hear people in real life saying they don't want the German vaccine, they want the British vaccine. People like that are fools and embarrassing.

If you're not cringing at vaccine nationalism, you're a fool too.

MarshaBradyo · 08/02/2021 10:50

Inquietant I don’t know anyone like that. So no it doesn’t apply to me at all.

But your insult is irritating as expected.

inquietant · 08/02/2021 10:50

What more do you fecking want?

Do people not understand if vaccines don't prevent transmission, then the virus will spread and mutate.

If only the SA virus spreads amongst those vaccinated, then that will quickly be the dominant strain and that's the one that will mutate going forwards.

Porcupineintherough · 08/02/2021 10:51

@Dongdingdong sorry but that's not true. That's why people, including our government, are worried. There is no evidence that the az vaccine prevents severe disease from the SA variant. It may, or it may not, we dont know yet but it's not looking good. It does work well against other strains though.

inquietant · 08/02/2021 10:52

@MarshaBradyo

Inquietant I don’t know anyone like that. So no it doesn’t apply to me at all.

But your insult is irritating as expected.

There was no insult to anyone specific, only to fools in general.