Covid vaccination status for CF members

[tarian]

It has been shown that antibodies remain in the host for over 6 months , which for influenza , and othe corona viruses is standard,
This rely is nothing new in the medical world and one needs to understand the biological inputs of peer reviewed papers and the brownie points universities, and hospitals gain from such publications,
A whole world chasing the nuances of a fairly common , slow mutating, virus that we have known about via its genetic family for years corona viruses
What makes watch corona viruses dffrnt is the change in the zpike proteins that sre like computer code each having a different signal
The body has inherent immunity t any virus it has seen and defeated via antibodies and Tand B cells the has ben seen up to 6 months after covid, bit even then their will still be a quicker response to this virus after infection.
That is what the immune response does.
There I a reason 89 % of infections are mild to no symptoms thr bodies immune system is well adapted to dealing with a corona virus
The reason behind the deaths of immune suppressed people is this if it passes thr immune response it gets into organs of the body.
Note no child in the UK has died under 15 we have one of the highest death rates ,
89% were over 75 , 95% has an underlying health condition.
These are figures from a country were no figures can or will be hidden or manipulated.
Take great caution of the many scientic papers coming out , science is not to far away from newspapers that like a little drama.
I speak or write as a biologist, a person who suffers many immune issues and truly understands thr immune system and my wife who writes scientific papers and works for the Scottish government, so their is no buckshot,, no I read this and that it is very simple and basic
No government will survive, get re elected, get a free hotdogs if they tried heard immunity they would never allow a certain generation of people to die,
And allow no lockdowns , plus the collateral deaths of full hospitals with covid and no other treatments.
This is a balance

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Just a follow up on if previously infected should be lower priority for vaccination, I saw this today. Spain is making it policy and the WHO supports it as a means to maximize the value of the limited supply...

Note: These preprints report new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice. Both studies involve small numbers of people, and some experts caution that much more research is needed, before introducing policy changes.

“Robust spike antibody responses and increased reactogenicity in seropositive individuals after a 1 single dose of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine” ~ by Florian Krammer et al
“Abstract:
An important question is arising as COVID-19 vaccines are getting rolled out: Should individuals who already had a SARS-CoV-2 infection receive one or two shots of the currently authorized mRNA vaccines. In this short report, we show that the antibody response to the first vaccine dose in individuals with pre-existing immunity is equal to or even exceeds the titers found in naïve individuals after the second dose. We also show that the reactogenicity is significantly higher in individuals who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the past. Changing the policy to give these individuals only one dose of vaccine would not negatively impact on their antibody titers, spare them from unnecessary pain and free up many urgently needed vaccine doses...”
Study ➥ https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...653v1.full.pdf

“Single Dose Vaccinationin Healthcare Workers Previously Infected with SARS-CoV-2" ~ by Saman Saadat, PhD et al
“Abstract:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)vaccine shortages have led some experts and countries to consider untested dosing regimens. We studied antibody responses to a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines in healthcare workers (HCW) with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection and compared to them to antibodyresponses of HCW who were IgG negative to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.HCW with prior COVID-19showed clear secondary antibody responses to vaccination with IgG spike binding titers rapidly increasing by 7 days and peaking by days 10 and 14 post-vaccination. At all time points tested, HCW with prior COVID-19 infection showed statistically significant higher antibody titers of binding and functional antibodycompared to HCW without prior COVID-19 infection (p<.0001for each of the time points tested). In times of vaccine shortage, and until correlates of protection are identified, our findings preliminarily suggest the following strategy as more evidence-based: a) a single doseof vaccine for patients already having had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19; and b) patients who have had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 can be placed lower on the vaccination priority list ..."
Study ➥ https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...843v1.full.pdf

[GordMay]

"Trust in COVID vaccines is growing"
Survey spanning several countries finds encouraging trends, but researchers warn vaccine hesitancy could slow pandemic recovery.
A survey of thousands of people in 15 countries suggests that an increasing proportion of people are willing to be immunized against COVID-19. “For the first time since the pandemic began, I can sense that optimism is spreading faster than the virus,” says behavioural scientist Sarah Jones. But the results for some individual countries paint a more complicated picture — in particular those that have a history of vaccine mistrust, such as France and Japan.
More ➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d415...f5a92-45020405

“Global attitudes towards a COVID-19 vaccine”
This report looks at attitudes towards a COVID-19 vaccine in 15 countries between November 2020 and mid-January 2021. Countries included are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The total sample is of ~13,500 people.
➥ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imp...04.02.2021.pdf

COVID-19 Behaviour Tracker
➥ https://ichpanalytics.imperialcolleg...l=y&%3Aembed=y

[sail sfbay]

Originally Posted by sailormed

...........Just out of curiosity, how many of the members of this forum are vaccinated?............

Yahoo!! My wife and I just got the first Pfizer vaccination at the Mosconni Center in San Francisco, California (reason we were able to get it there as we used our boat marina address since that county was taking 65+ vs. our home county was only taking 75+......my wife is 70 and I am 69).......checked in early, no wait, very organized and courteous staff, did not feel the shot, no arm pain, waited 15 minutes to confirm no side effects and left. Second shot already scheduled in 3 weeks. Thank goodness we do not berth our boat in the county we live in.

[JPA Cate]

San Francisco County is a wealthier county than Contra Costa County. That would have a bearing as to infrastructure for handling the necessary vaccinations.

Ann

[Bill Seal]

"A pub with no beer"

LA county just shut down all their wonderful new mega vaccination centers.
No more vaccine available.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Bill Seal

"A pub with no beer"

LA county just shut down all their wonderful new mega vaccination centers.
No more vaccine available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJW19nlzb3Q

[sail sfbay]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

San Francisco County is a wealthier county than Contra Costa County. That would have a bearing as to infrastructure for handling the necessary vaccinations.

Great observation, you make a good point!!.........It seems Alameda and San Francisco Counties are good advocates for securing vacinnation doses. We signed up with Alameda County, where our motorboat is berthed, and they scheduled it in San Francisco County. Go figure!!

It is my observation that there are more vacinnations available (based on availabe on-line vacinnation appointments) for vacinnation-elgible people and those folks are not rushing to get it. That leads me to believe the U.S. WILL NOT vaccinate 85% to achieve herd immunity. I hope I am wrong. I have contacted federal, state and county health agencies and all U.S. major news networks to request they document/report data on the number of vacinnation-elgible people and % vacinnated in each Phase/Tier group to see if the U.S trending to herd immunity.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

It's an OK version Mike but downunder we strongly prefer the ridgy didge version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5JdTmkfSaQ

[valhalla360]

More positive news:
- 7 day average up to 1.65mil per day.
- New cases down by 70% from peak (deaths following similar trend but lagging by a couple weeks).

Got our second phizer shot this morning.

[jtsailjt]

For those who would like to be vaccinated sooner, I recently stumbled upon a way to do it. I’m recently retired and it’s wintertime in Maine so I have plenty of free time. I heard that the local vaccination center was looking for volunteers to help keep the lines organized, make sure people are wearing masks, push wheelchair bound older folks through the line, lots of other non-medical tasks that don’t require much training, and I volunteered. Last week I did a 4 hour shift and plan to continue doing one or two each week until I move away from the immediate area once sailing season begins in June. At the end of my shift the full time person in charge of volunteers told me they are offering vaccinations to all the volunteers due to our increased exposure to risk as we are interacting with a continuous line of people who could possibly be infected so right on the spot I was vaccinated and have an appointment for my second Pfizer shot on the 2nd. It seems like a pretty good deal to me because it helps protect those willing to help out and having plenty of volunteers on hand helps to ensure the vaccination center can handle the maximum number of people each day which helps everyone as long as the supply lasts. I just got a notification that they’re now opening up an additional line and our shifts will now be 5 hours rather than 4. So the rate of vaccinations is increasing. [emoji106]

Of course I have no idea how things are being handled in your local area, but if you’re in generally good health and don’t mind volunteering some of your free time, there may be similar opportunities to get vaccinated months before you otherwise would be. Plus, I enjoyed meeting some of the other volunteers and chatting with some of the wheelchair bound old codgers I was escorting/pushing through the various stations (check in, register, vaccinate, 15 minute holding area before leaving). It’s a win/win situation.

[Jim Cate]

^^^^^

Good onya, mate!! What a positive and useful idea. Well done.

Jim

[hpeer]

Not the best place to post this but whatever....

The article is more a little misleading, comparing India case loads in total to US loads when India has 4x the population.

Yet it points out that there is some mystery about why SE Asia has been lightly hit.

NEW DELHI (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic took hold in India, there were fears it would sink the fragile health system of the world’s second-most populous country. Infections climbed dramatically for months and at one point India looked like it might overtake the United States as the country with the highest case toll.

But infections began to plummet in September, and now the country is reporting about 11,000 new cases a day, compared to a peak of nearly 100,000, leaving experts perplexed.

They have suggested many possible explanations for the sudden drop — seen in almost every region — including that some areas of the country may have reached herd immunity or that Indians may have some preexisting protection from the virus.

The Indian government has also partly attributed the dip in cases to mask-wearing, which is mandatory in public in India and violations draw hefty fines in some cities. But experts have noted the situation is more complicated since the decline is uniform even though mask compliance is flagging in some areas.

It’s more than just an intriguing puzzle; determining what’s behind the drop in infections could help authorities control the virus in the country, which has reported nearly 11 million cases and over 155,000 deaths. Some 2.4 million people have died worldwide.

“If we don’t know the reason, you could unknowingly be doing things that could lead to a flare-up,” said Dr. Shahid Jameel, who studies viruses at India’s Ashoka University.

India, like other countries, misses many infections, and there are questions about how it’s counting virus deaths. But the strain on the country’s hospitals has also declined in recent weeks, a further indication the virus’s spread is slowing. When recorded cases crossed 9 million in November, official figures showed nearly 90% of all critical care beds with ventilators in New Delhi were full. On Thursday, 16% of these beds were occupied.

That success can’t be attributed to vaccinations since India only began administering shots in January — but as more people get a vaccine, the outlook should look even better, though experts are also concerned about variants identified in many countries that appear to be more contagious and render some treatments and vaccines less effective.

Among the possible explanations for the fall in cases is that some large areas have reached herd immunity — the threshold at which enough people have developed immunity to the virus, by falling sick or being vaccinated, that the spread begins to slacken, said Vineeta Bal, who studies immune systems at India’s National Institute of Immunology.

But experts have cautioned that even if herd immunity in some places is partially responsible for the decline, the population as a whole remains vulnerable — and must continue to take precautions.

This is especially true because new research suggests that people who got sick with one form of the virus may be able to get infected again with a new version. Bal, for instance, pointed to a recent survey in Manaus, Brazil, that estimated that over 75% of people there had antibodies for the virus in October — before cases surged again in January.

“I don’t think anyone has the final answer,” she said.

And, in India, the data is not as dramatic. A nationwide screening for antibodies by Indian health agencies estimated that about 270 million, or one in five Indians, had been infected by the virus before vaccinations started — that’s far below the rate of 70% or higher that experts say might be the threshold for the coronavirus, though even that is not certain.

“The message is that a large proportion of the population remains vulnerable,” said Dr. Balram Bhargava, who heads India’s premier medical research body, the Indian Council of Medical Research.

But the survey offered other insight into why India’s infections might be falling. It showed that more people had been infected in India’s cities than in its villages, and that the virus was moving more slowly through the rural hinterland.

“Rural areas have lesser crowd density, people work in open spaces more and homes are much more ventilated,” said Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

If some urban areas are moving closer to herd immunity — wherever that threshold lies — and are also limiting transmission through masks and physical distancing and thus are seeing falling cases, then maybe the low speed at which the virus is passing through rural India can help explain sinking numbers, suggested Reddy.

Another possibility is that many Indians are exposed to a variety of diseases throughout their lives — cholera, typhoid and tuberculosis, for instance, are prevalent — and this exposure can prime the body to mount a stronger, initial immune response to a new virus.

“If the COVID virus can be controlled in the nose and throat, before it reaches the lungs, it doesn’t become as serious. Innate immunity works at this level, by trying to reduce the viral infection and stop it from getting to the lungs,” said Jameel, of Ashoka University.

Despite the good news in India, the rise of new variants has added another challenge to efforts here and around the globe to bring the pandemic under control. Scientists have identified several variants in India, including some that have been blamed for causing new infections in people who already had an earlier version of the virus. But they are still studying the public health implications.

Experts are considering if variants may be driving a surge in cases in the the southern state of Kerala, which had previously been hailed as a blueprint for tackling the virus. Kerala now accounts for nearly half of India’s current COVID-19 cases. Government-funded research has suggested that a more contagious version of the virus could be at play, and efforts to sequence its genome are ongoing.

With the reasons behind India’s success unclear, experts are concerned that people will let down their guard. Large parts of India have already returned to normal life. In many cities, markets are heaving, roads are crowded and restaurants nearly full.

“With the reducing numbers, I feel that the worst of COVID is over,” said M. B. Ravikumar, an architect who was hospitalized last year and recovered. “And we can all breathe a sigh of relief.”

Maybe not yet, said Jishnu Das, a health economist at Georgetown University who advises the West Bengal state on handling the pandemic.

“We don’t know if this will come back after three to four months,” he warned.

https://apnews.com/article/india-dra...241c4c463d88ce

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Not the best place to post this but whatever....

The article is more a little misleading, comparing India case loads in total to US loads when India has 4x the population.

Yet it points out that there is some mystery about why SE Asia has been lightly hit.

They missed some huge fairly obvious explanations:

Around 80-85% of deaths are in the 65+ group.

In India, only 5.4% of the population is 65+.
In the USA it's 15.6%
In the UK it's 18%

Similarly, if you take it up to 75+ or 85+ the per capita death rate goes even higher every time you increase the minimum age and the ratio in size between India and the USA/UK is even larger.

Similarly, you have comorbities represented in the overwhelming majority of deaths and if you dig in, you will find that it's generally a rich person problem. The poor from 3rd world countries, rarely get diabetes and if they get cancer, they often die fairly quickly as they can't afford expensive treatment.

If you look at much of SE Asia, Africa and other relatively poor countries, you see a similar effect. They have a young population and in a harsh environment many do not develop comorbities related to wealth or they have already died from the comorbidities that are not related to wealth. The result is you have a population that is far less susceptible, particularly to hospitalization and death due to corona.

The mild or asymptomatic cases are likely just under reported to a greater degree...particularly if you are talking about the people living in the slums.

On a per captia basis, the more developed countries have a drastically larger at risk from this disease because of population demographics.

Of course, there is a small wealthy population in India (and other poor countries), so they aren't completely immune to deaths and it may not explain 100% of the difference but it explains a lot of it.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by sail sfbay

Yahoo!! My wife and I just got the first Pfizer vaccination at the Mosconni Center in San Francisco, California (reason we were able to get it there as we used our boat marina address since that county was taking 65+ vs. our home county was only taking 75+......my wife is 70 and I am 69).......checked in early, no wait, very organized and courteous staff, did not feel the shot, no arm pain, waited 15 minutes to confirm no side effects and left. Second shot already scheduled in 3 weeks. Thank goodness we do not berth our boat in the county we live in.

72 and not yet vaccinated.. but then I am in the EU so no surprise..
But not worried about it, strong immune system..