Novavax trial thread number 3

[Frazzled2207]

Yet more chat about novavax, (un)blinding, general vaccine passport stress, approval (please please please) and more.
Those involved in other vaccine trials also welcome.

Ooh @Frazzled2207 let me know how you get on. I've emailed. Off to trawl fb for the post.

I've got a quiet weekend next weekend so might try and go towards the end of this week. Promising that NIHR are at least entertaining deployed vaccinations.

@andadietcoke
they are useless at emailing.

anyway I just called and said that I was unhappy with the uncertainty and wanted to be unblinded. Lady (Debbie?) was very nice about it and said that hopefully (did not promise) Dr Baxter will call me back today.

I think it's a bit different for you as you are fairly sure you had it in the autumn right? I still haven't got a clue but feel I want to know to be able to make an informed decision now as to go and get Moderna or not.

I know nobody really knows, but what do people think the chances are of Novavax having approval by the end of September?

DH is on the crossover trial and we're due to go on holiday in the October half term. Where we're going allows vaccinated people to skip quarantine. We can cancel the holiday before the end of September and don't want to go if DH has to quarantine.

Don't know whether to try and persuade him to get an approved vaccine. He's certain his real shot was last October.

He gave the GP the latter saying he was on a trial so also don't know if that filters through to the vaccine people who would then prevent him getting a new one?

Yep, I'm pretty positive mine was the autumn.

@Level75 this is the same position I'm in. We're supposed to be going to the US at the end of October. I don't want my vaccination status to be the reason we can't go and I'm worried that at that point I'll be 1y post-vaccination with no booster. I'm going to get vaccinated with an approved vaccine this week I think.

@Level75
I've wondered about the medical records bit, but there are loads on the FB group who've now got an approved vaccine and nobody has specifically had this issue. Your husband should be prepared to lie though if asked if he's been on a trial.

Novavax's latest communiation says approval in q3 so by september very possible I think. BUT that could be worthless unless where you're going also recognises it. UK and possibly India will recognise it before other countries. It's a big mess and not all novavax's doing. For example all travel to the US is off for the forseeable partly because the US don't recognise Astra Zeneca yet which is quite a lot of people.

@andadietcoke
is the cruise still on at least? Hope you're looking forward to that.

Does anyone know if people having approved vaccines after novavax are having side effects from the new vaccine?

DH is on the phone to the trial and they are spinning him a line about them interfering and becoming ineffective.

He's been transferred to a doctor now so will update...

I think I have read (not specifically to novavax) if you mix vaccines you do get slightly worse side effects.
But on the facebook group people have had 'the usual' side effects but not heard of anyone being particularly ill
Cobblers about having a mix making you less immune if that's what they're suggesting!

Not much of an update. The doctors basically said it should get approved in Q3 but I think she's confusing the final application (which Novavax said will happen in Q3) with approval itself. Sue can't speak for the MHRA.

I've tried to find out how long approval will take and it's surprisingly hard to tell. It's not clear when Pfizer applied for approval (approval was "based on data submitted between 30 October and 2 December"). It was approved by MHRA on 7 December I think. Astrazeneca was submitted to MHRA on 1 November and approved on 30 December. Johnson and Johnson was submitted during the last week in February and approved on 28 May. So approximately 1 week (Pfizer), 2 months (AstraZ) and 3 months (Johnson).

Can't say any of that makes me comfortable about getting approval by the end of September.

I lost you all after the first thread filled up. Good to find you all again!

Having caught up on this thread, (sorry didn't read thread 2) I have now downloaded the nhs app and my event trial pass appeared a few days later. This seems as much use as a chocolate teapot though really!

Thankfully I have no plans to travel abroad at the moment ... my passport ran out a few months ago anyway and I haven't got around to renewing it yet!

In other news, I had a call from the lead consultant at my London trial site to say that she'd had to unblind me as they, essentially, had cocked up

When I had the trial jabs, I had sore arm/tiredness type symptoms for 3 out of the four injections, with the fourth causing a big red rash on my upper arm that was sore and itched for over a week. It completely confused me and I thought I must have had the famed 'placebo effect'. Turns out that I had the vaccine last autumn and so should have had the placebo in March. They gave me placebo for injection 3 but vaccine for injection 4! So the reactions make total sense.

Anyway she kept apologising and said that I shouldn't worry and it will essentially be the same as having a booster this autumn. It does, however, make me think that I now can't jump ship and have a recognised vaccine which I would have been tempted to do if I needed to travel and I'm worried about if there is a general booster program linked to the flu jab and how that would work for me
So many questions that I thought of after our conversation.

Glad to hear that some of you are managing to still stick to your plans and hoping that those wanting to go abroad will be able to do so.

Level75 we’re in the same position regarding wanting to go away at October half term. As it’s a trip to the in-laws, it’s possible that DH and DD could go without me (although not sure what the isolation rules will be for children anyway), but it would be a shame. I wouldn’t expect Novavax to be approved by the end of September, plus it’s the EMA approval that’s relevant (assuming you’re travelling in Europe), not the UK one.

I am also awaiting a call from Dr Baxter to get unblinded. I’m already very clear what I’m going to do if I got the real thing last year, but hopefully he can give some advice regarding the risks if I had it more recently.

I've heard back from the Stockport trial. They have a letter for me, but only have my postcode?!?! Well that explains why I never received the new address labels but I don't think anyone else has received a letter either.

I haven't received any address labels

@Daftapath
bloody nora that's bad. I am now thinking again that perhaps I got 4 placebos because I had zero side effects at all! Others have told me that that just isn't possible but clearly f*ck ups like this do happen.

@andadietcoke
and they didn't think to contact you and ask? That's really shoddy. No letter here.

Surprise surprise not heard back from Dr Baxter yet but will be calling again first thing tomorrow.

Ive just asked to be unblinded, just so I know 100% when I had the real one. I am 99.9% sure it was in May, but I want to absolutely know.

Greece have been accepting Novavax for entry since May. They’ve also said they’ll accept Covishield/AstraZeneca. It’s up to individual EU states which vaccines they accept. As always EU hopes to influence their decisions.

It's Mauritius we're hoping to go to. Really hard to track down accurate info as it's all newspaper reports rather than from government sources.
I read one report saying the vaccine needs to be approved by Mauritius. AZ is approved (which I've had) as is Sinovax and that Russian one but not Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson! Crazy

Let alone Novavax obviously

Is this the letter you’re waiting for? Got this last week.

I just got unblinded in a very disorienting three-way conversation! I got the real thing in November, so I’ll be off to try to get Moderna as soon as I have some free time this week.

@QueenOfThorns
Great
I have had a voicemail but we missed each other
Fairly sure will be going for Moderna on Friday

@JosephineDeBeauharnais yes that's the one. Not sure anyone from Stockport has had it though.

@QueenOfThorns did they offer any advice on getting a deployed vaccine?

@andadietcoke They didn’t offer any advice, but they knew that was my reason for unblinding, and at least didn’t try to talk me out of it. I didn’t ask about it because I got the answer I wanted!

Other things I learned: if you haven’t been asked for your NHS number, it’s probably because they already have it (they checked and had mine on record), also, the Stockport letters were apparently being sorted out today, so I expect they’ll appear sometime soon. I told them that I hadn’t had my address labels previously, so they promised to check that they have my address and email if they haven’t.

they said themselves they would be sent out w/c 20th June so that's pretty shockingly late. Not that I think they'll be very useful anymore.