Vaccines appear to be nearly as effective against the Indian variant reports The Times

[MarcelineMissouri]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vaccines-are-nearly-as-effective-against-the-indian-variant-2rdqx5bdr

More evidence coming in to show that hopefully the vaccines will continue to do an excellent job.

'Nearly as effective' means either that more (vaccinated) people will catch it than expected and/ormore of them will become more unwell than expected (ie more hospital admissions than expected)

That may be a small %age proportion of the population, but a small proportion can mean a lot of people.

Hopefully the numbers will remain low enough that it'll all remain at the 'acceptable price' levels. I think we have all the systems in place to spot early if there are signs that will not be the case.

OP I am with you, this feels positive to me compared with what we had previously been hearing.

That’s good

The timing is just so unfortunate because now it's a race between the vaccination programme and the variant spreading and the government keeps giving the variant a head start first by delaying the red listing of India and now relaxing restrictions. Just a few weeks on both timings would have made such a difference so they could have got those vaccines from their stockpile into people.

Very positive. The vaccines work better than anyone had hoped anyway. A small reduction will still mean they work well enough.

@nordica

The timing is just so unfortunate because now it's a race between the vaccination programme and the variant spreading and the government keeps giving the variant a head start first by delaying the red listing of India and now relaxing restrictions. Just a few weeks on both timings would have made such a difference so they could have got those vaccines from their stockpile into people.

People are impatient and it'll undo all the hard work and we'll all pay the price. Few people under 40 have even had a vaccine yet.

A small reduction will still mean they work well enough

SAGE didn't call one way or the other on that - evidence is 'mixed'

I agree this newspaper article is going with the 'works well' enough' end of that mixture.

Hmm, Tory paper reckoning the vaccines will work ok so the Tory government can continue to relax restrictions which will allow the virus to spread. No agenda there then.

I read this this morning so thank you for posting it. Given the catastophising on Friday/ yesterday, it’s good to see some positive news

@nordica

The timing is just so unfortunate because now it's a race between the vaccination programme and the variant spreading and the government keeps giving the variant a head start first by delaying the red listing of India and now relaxing restrictions. Just a few weeks on both timings would have made such a difference so they could have got those vaccines from their stockpile into people.

“Just a few weeks..”. But after that, there will be another variant so we need to wait a few weeks until the booster dose in the autumn. In the meantime, even more businesses will have collapsed and pubs and restaurants will be throwing away their stock - again.

I totally agree about the delay in red listing India though

Thanks OP for posting this. There was a lot of catastrophising on here yesterday and people sharing inaccuracies about the vaccines not being effective. We need this balance.

Few people under 40 have even had a vaccine

You say this, but me and my sister are 33 and 30 respectively and pretty much everyone we know has had at least their first, we're the odd ones out for not having had it at all yet 🧐

Great news!

@CarrieBlue

Hmm, Tory paper reckoning the vaccines will work ok so the Tory government can continue to relax restrictions which will allow the virus to spread. No agenda there then.

Are you saying they’re making the numbers up?

My photo didn’t post