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Thought of the Day - January 6 - Vaccine War Snippets The Third Installment

Updated: Aug 1, 2021

Here we are in 2021, it has been a few weeks since the last Vaccine War update ( Thought of the Day - December 22 - Vaccine War Snippets Redux ). A lot has and has not happened since then:


Canada's Vaccines:

  1. Pfizer being the majority so far deployed;

  2. Moderna is now approved and being deployed. Moderna is also now starting first testing on children;

  3. AstraZenica - like in the US and EU, still awaiting approval;

  4. J&J - their one-dose vaccine has made early claims of 98% success in anti-body creation. Now in Phase III trials, they expect to seek approval in the March timeframe;

  5. Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline - on hold. They announced in December that the vaccine showed an insufficient immune response in older people. They hope to start a new study in February;

  6. Novavax - just starting Phase III trials;

  7. Medicago - they are currently in Phase 1 clinical trials, so still very early days.

Updates from Other Countries:

  • Israel: Leading the world by a long-shot in vaccinations using Pfizer and now Moderna (16% of their population vaccinated);

  • UAE: Second after Israel using Sinopharm, and they have now approved Pfizer (8%);

  • Bahrain: Rolling out Sinopharm (4%);

  • US: Dr. Moncef Slaoui, a board member at Moderna, has moved over to oversee the White House’s Operation Warp Speed initiative - this helps explain why the US is taking its time in approving the AstraZenica vaccine (2%);

  • UK: The UK has been using Pfizer but now is the first to approve their AstraZenica vaccine. They say the AstraZenica vaccine is effective against the UK 501 strain, but they are not too sure about the South African strain (2%);

  • EU: The EU approved Pfizer in December and approved Moderna this week. Demark is leading the EU in deployment (1%);

  • Argentina: The third country to start rolling out the Sputnik V vaccines (after Russia and Belarus), says they are getting "mild adverse reaction" in about 1% of the patients. They are also the second country to approve the AstraZenica vaccine (0.1%);

  • Mexico: Has just approved AstraZenica, joining the Pfizer approval (0.03%);

  • India: Has just approved Bharat's Covaxin along with an AstraZenica variant produced in India (branded Covishield) ahead of final trial reviews so they can commence public vaccination.

In a number of countries, including Canada, the blame game has started between central government expressing concern that the regional rollout plans are not keeping up with the massive vaccine stockpiles that they have committed to, and specific regional authorities complaining they have run out of stock. These will heat up in coming weeks as each tries to convince the population they are not the bottleneck.


For anyone looking for the latest information here in BC. BC's CDC has done a great job with current, clear and concise information (they updated their site today) : http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/covid-19-vaccine .


Cheers

Cliff

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