Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs effective against Indian variant - study

[JanuaryJonez]

I was really buoyed up when I saw this headline, but then read that two doses gives just 60% protection against the Indian variant, as opposed to Pfizer's which gives 88%. Disappointed

Covid: Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs effective against Indian variant - study [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57214596]]

* [Title edited by MNHQ]*

@IcedPurple

I think people’s strong desire to take vaccines for covid may wane once it becomes clear how impossible the variants will be to control. Right now they’re lining up to take them on the promise of freedom and potential lowered risk.

"Impossible to control"?

Yet they are in fact, being controlled?

This is proof that the @RedcurrantPuff was spot on when she said that some people are enjoying this and dreading it coming to an end. Cue indignant denial.

Are they being controlled though @IcedPurple? Looking at the situation in Bolton and other areas of the UK would suggest otherwise? But you know that, hence why you’re trying to make it appear that I’m revelling in this.

I wonder when the others will be along...

@AnxiousWreckAgain

Thanks for explaining that, made me feel better

@JanuaryJonez

RedcurrantPuff I'm certainly NOT in the rubbishing vaccines camp - I was just expecting the AZ to be a bit more effective than 60%!

I'm certainly not dreading restrictions coming to an end either, as my family and most of our friends have been leading relatively normal lives for months now.

Then read the entire bloody thing & stop posting things you haven't fully understood.

Are they being controlled though @IcedPurple? Looking at the situation in Bolton and other areas of the UK would suggest otherwise? But you know that, hence why you’re trying to make it appear that I’m revelling in this.

Your posting history is what makes it clear that you are revelling in it.

I'm afraid that sadly unfortunately the vaccines are highly effective. Sorry.

@Dustyboots

I predict that Vaccines for Covid will be discarded in a years time.

Chasing variants will become impossible.

No they wont because there is zero alternative, there is no over the counter treatment, so vaccination is the only thing that will allow us to live normally and go on hols etc.

However, these are 1st gen vaccines, they'll improve and become wider spectrum ones that will be effective against all theoretical variants before they emerge, a predictive vaccine if you like.

Then read the entire bloody thing & stop posting things you haven't fully understood

Ah the vaccine police, determined to crush any alternative points of view.

No reason to be so aggressive is there?

Op please, please can you at least TRY and read the entire explanation before posting such drama lama posts.

Everyone will be well protected with AZ, ffs this is now officially driving me nuts.

@AlmostSummer21 I posted pretty benign things and you seem to be completely overreacting.

@Bluethrough

Then read the entire bloody thing & stop posting things you haven't fully understood

Ah the vaccine police, determined to crush any alternative points of view.

No reason to be so aggressive is there?

Are you surprised people are fed up when yet more half truths are posted closely followed by the usual suspects spreading doom and gloom?

[quote JanuaryJonez]@AlmostSummer21 I posted pretty benign things and you seem to be completely overreacting. [/quote]
I don't think it's benign, when your title is misleading. As Almost said, read and post with accurate title. You may make some posters worried with misinformation because of it. It's malicious rather than benign.

🤪

Malicious? 😂

I'm too busy to be malicious - I was just looking for some reassurance really.

Have you even read the article OP?

You’re implying that there is a cause for concern with vaccine efficacy, yet the first line of the article is literally saying the opposite: The Pfizer and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines are highly effective against the variant identified in India after two doses, a study has found

The health secretary is even quoted as saying that the data means he’s increasingly confident that we’ll be going ahead with the next stage of easing.

Are you intentionally trying to scare people?

As I understand it, AZ is a "slower grower" than Pfizer.
Pfizer - There seems to be a slight drop in efficacy at 10 weeks post dose 1, which is remedied by dose 2.
AZ - no such drop - it keeps growing; it just takes longer.

Both end up at roughly the same point.

If you need the reassurance, read the entire article. That would be reassuring for a start.
I assume you can read better than me, a non native English speaker.

I’ve had one dose of Astra so far and I’m taking my chances of that then getting sodding covid. Just last week I was in hospital and saw 3 people move onto ventilators. None of them had had a vaccine.

I think these particular figures are based on data on real life vaccinations collected by PHE rather than trials. Fewer people have had 2 x doses of AZ because Pfizer was rolled out first and many people who have had it aren't 2-3 weeks past 2nd shot so not yet at peak effectiveness. That means that when they did this study some of the people who had AZ weren't fully protected, but the researchers weren't concerned because they were only comparing how they worked against the different variants. I think an early study into effectiveness after 1 shot underestimated because the effects didn't kick in until 10 days later and people took more risks as soon as vaccinated!

@JanuaryJonez

RedcurrantPuff I'm certainly NOT in the rubbishing vaccines camp - I was just expecting the AZ to be a bit more effective than 60%!

I'm certainly not dreading restrictions coming to an end either, as my family and most of our friends have been leading relatively normal lives for months now.

But why? Ok, that's not fair, because it's not exactly a well-remembered thing, but early in the pandemic scientists were hoping that we'd be lucky and at least one of the vaccines would be 50% effective, and that would be enough.

Nobody could have foreseen that the new mRNA vaccine technology would be as effective as it is, and it's great but it's really screwed the general perception of just how great it is to have vector vaccines and the like achieving 60% effectiveness - within a year. It's astounding.

@CharlotteRose90

I’ve had one dose of Astra so far and I’m taking my chances of that then getting sodding covid. Just last week I was in hospital and saw 3 people move onto ventilators. None of them had had a vaccine.

Curious, do tell how you found out they hadn’t been vaxxed? Did they have signs on their beds saying they were unvaccinated?

Most of the people disagreeing with me on here I don't think HAVE read the full article.

My disappointment was that the headline implied that both vaccines were good against the Indian variant, then further reading showed that the AZ gave 60% and Pfizer 88%, with some waffle after that about reasons for this discrepancy.

@CharlotteRose90

I’ve had one dose of Astra so far and I’m taking my chances of that then getting sodding covid. Just last week I was in hospital and saw 3 people move onto ventilators. None of them had had a vaccine.

Eh? Were you on a covid ward? Why would you know what was happening with covid patients?

@JanuaryJonez

Most of the people disagreeing with me on here I don't think HAVE read the full article.

My disappointment was that the headline implied that both vaccines were good against the Indian variant, then further reading showed that the AZ gave 60% and Pfizer 88%, with some waffle after that about reasons for this discrepancy.

Shhh! OP can’t you see it?! You’re potentially implying the vaccines aren’t our absolute saviour and end to all our troubles, therefore you’ll have ‘them’ descend onto your thread to disrupt, belittle and try to make you look like a fool, like you are mistaken and couldn’t understand the words you were reading.

They do it a lot, I’m surprised one of them hasn’t branded you a demented doom master revelling in misery and grief yet.

@PinkSparklyIncorrigibleDunce

Yes i am surprised, whats the point in shouting down people because you don't agree with their POV ?

Its a forum, you'll rarely change any ones beliefs.

The bottom line is that AZ is less effective at this stage of the vaccine rollout than Pfizer is, by quite a margin, there maybe valid reasons for this and it may change (or might not)
The India variant will, apparently be the variant most commonly found in the UK, & possibly europe too very soon.

Its great we've even got a vaccine, let alone several but the (current) findings are what they, its 60% vs 88%

@Thewiseoneincognito haah no I wish there were signs actually. No they were all in the bay across from mine and put there because they had tested positive. We know they didn’t have the vaccine but the nurses were talking about it. It was a gastro ward definitely not a covid ward.

@OliveTree75 nope definitely not a covid ward thank god. The nurses talk about the patients and said none of them had had the vaccine. You get asked if you have had it when you get a bed on the ward.