Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #501YV2
Most recents (13)
[Thread] 1. Just before midnight on Sunday, SA will receive its first batch of commercial #CovidVaccines: 325 260 #Pfizer doses (enough to fully vaccinate 162 630 people - each person needs 2 doses). 
2. A small study of 800 people has shown that the #Pfizer jab is 100% effective in protecting against falling ill with #COVID19 in SA (the trial was conducted while the #501YV2 variant was the most common form of the #COVID virus circulating in SA). bit.ly/3eReBtU
3. What will happen to the #Pfizer doses when they touch down at OR Tambo? They'll be transported to a central warehouse. Samples of the doses will then be selected and transported to Bloemfontein to the National Control Lab so they can be tested for quality.
[Thread] 1. SA’s commercial #CovidVaccine roll-out will start in April, the government says. Which jabs will we use? For now, J&J (the same jabs used in the Sisonke implementation study) and Pfizer. We will also consider Moderna, but no deals yet.
2. Why are we using J&J + Pfizer? SA trials showed J&J works well against the new variant, #501YV2. Pfizer hasn’t been tested in SA, but lab tests suggest it has reduced efficacy @ 501Y.V2. But because the efficacy is high (95%), even the reduced efficacy will provide protection.
3. Have the jabs been approved for commercial use in SA? Pfizer received emergency use authorisation (called Section 21 approval in SA) in March. J&J has not yet been approved (only for research), but on Monday @SAHPRA1 said an announcement will be made “within the next days”.
[Thread] 1. To which #African countries have the new #COVID virus variants 1st identified in SA (501Y.V2/#B1351) + the UK (#B117) spread? To 21 countries so far — 8 have both variants. @bhekisisa_MG has created this map in collaboration with @mediahackza and Africa Data Hub.
2. The #501YV2 variant first identified in SA has spread to almost all Southern African countries. But the #B117 variant first identified in the UK, has now also been detected in South Africa — and so has a new variant first identified in Uganda. bit.ly/3bFqN0x
[Thread] 1. How long will it take for the J&J #CovidVaccine to be approved for full registration so we can use it for wider roll-out (outside a study setting) and is there a way around it? bit.ly/3r8Wfd2
2. Full registration by @SAHPRA1 for a branded medicine can take up to two years. But for #COVIDVaccines this process has been sped up - all jabs move right to the front of the queue. bit.ly/3r8Wfd2
3. J&J has applied for full registration via a rolling review (a review process where they submitted data throughout the efficacy trial they did, instead of submitting all info at the end of the trial, so it saves time and Sahpra doesn’t have to review all the data at once).
[Thread] 1. 80 000 Johnson & Johnson #CovidVaccines will land in SA today (weather permitting, etc). Where will they go? @bhekisisa_MG’s @KeMohale made an interactive map of the 16 sites and number of doses each site will receive. tabsoft.co/2N979kd
2. The 80 000 J&J doses will go to 16 sites (2 sites in each province, except for the Northern Cape, which will have 1 - one of the Free State’s sites, Pelonomi Hospital, isn’t ready yet and will be phased in when it is. bit.ly/3rXrAPY
3. Who will get vaccinated first? #HealthWorkers. Why? They deal with #COVID19 patients + are the most vulnerable to infection. Everyone needs to register on @HealthZA’s system. Only 28% of SA’s 1.25 million workers had done so by 1pm on Tue. Register: vaccine.enroll.health.gov.za
@WHO on Wednesday released guidance on who should be given #AstraZeneca's vax & how it will be administered.
See below:
1. It's to be given 3-4 months between 1st & 2nd dose
2. ANYONE above 18years (pretty standard age for adults).
See below:
1. It's to be given 3-4 months between 1st & 2nd dose
2. ANYONE above 18years (pretty standard age for adults).
ALSO to be given to older people above 65yrs since there isn't data that shows that new variants will affect the efficacy of #AZ in this age group.
3. Like #Pfizer's, it will not be given to pregnant & breastfeeding women unless they are at risk of contracting #Covid-19.
3. Like #Pfizer's, it will not be given to pregnant & breastfeeding women unless they are at risk of contracting #Covid-19.
"We do not have enough information to recommend the vaccine in this group but don't see no reason for it not to be used if the woman is at risk," @WHO's SAGE chair Dr Alejandro craivoto said.
READ MORE HERE @NationAfrica
nation.africa/kenya/news/who…
READ MORE HERE @NationAfrica
nation.africa/kenya/news/who…
#Mkhize: [Thread] We want to use the best #CovidVaccine for SA. The #501YV2 variant has impacted on the efficacy of jabs. The results showing the impact on the #astrazenecavaccine only became available on Fri. We now know it doesn't prevent mild/moderate #COVID19 disease in SA.
#Mkhize: Government's process of procuring the #AstraZenecaVaccine started before the new results on lack of efficacy in South Africa became available.
#Mkhize: The public has concerns about the expiry date of the #AstraZenecaVaccine. The vaccine has not expired yet. The doses would have been used up by the April expiry date with our original #VaccineforSouthAfrica roll-out strategy.
#SouthAfrica on Sunday suspended the use of the #OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine after a small clinical trial suggested that the drug is not effective in preventing mild to moderate illness from the variant dominant in the country.
I spoke to @mosmasika to understand if the new data posed any risk for Kenya which is heavily relying on the #OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine.
He told me: "We should not stop our plans for vaccination just because South Africa has paused #AZ.
We should appreciate that the two countries are experiencing a somewhat different trajectory in terms of numbers and most likely circulating variants."
We should appreciate that the two countries are experiencing a somewhat different trajectory in terms of numbers and most likely circulating variants."
Madhi: When researchers looked at protection that the #AstraZeneca jab provided against mild to moderate #Covid19 disease, there was considerable protection against the original form of the virus. But the antibodies induced by the jab didn't work nearly as well for #501YV2.
There was very little difference between the protection the vaccine provided for people infected with #501YV2 and the placebo group (the group that was infected with a saline solution instead of the #AstraZeneca vaccine).
Madhi's team found that the #AstraZeneca vaccine provided almost no protection against the #501YV2 variant, also known as the #B1351 variant. There is hope: the Johnson&Johnson (Jansen) jab provides 89% protection against severe #Covid19 caused by #501YV2.
.@ShabirMadh, principal investigator of the SA arm of the #astrazenecavaccine: This slide explains who participated in the SA arm of the study: Adults between 18 and 65, everyone got 2 doses, 2000 participants. To show protection we need 60% protection, Madhi says.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca study wasn't designed to determine whether the vaccine protects against severe #COVID19 disease or not. Rather, it looked at mild to moderate disease.
Those who develop severe disease are the ones who will end up in hospital or die - it's important that vaccines protect against severe disease. But our study only looked at if the vaccine protects against mild and moderate #COVID19 disease.
[Thread] 1. NEW Early data (not yet peer reviewed) shows the #AstraZeneca #CovidVaccine, that SA will start to administer this month, doesn't appear to offer protection against mild/moderate disease caused by the #501YV2 variant identified in the country. bit.ly/3pZ30xx
2. Mild disease #COVID19 disease was defined as at least one symptom of COVID-19. Protection against moderate-severe COVID19, hospitalisation or death was not assessed in this study as the target population were at low risk (they were young and healthy - on average 31 years old).
3. The study results, which will be submitted as a preprint in the coming days, show two doses of the #AstraZeneca jab did have high efficacy against the original coronavirus non-#501YV2 variants in South Africa. bit.ly/3pZ30xx
[Thread] 1. What will happen to our #CovidVaccines when they land today? @PresidencyZA says the 1 million #AstraZeneca jabs will arrive at OR Tambo at 3pm. They’ll be received by #CyrilRampahosa, #ZweliMkhize + the Indian High Commissioner, amongst others. bit.ly/3j8aADs
2. The pallets of #CovidVaccines will then go through customs and be transported to a temperature-controlled Biovac warehouse in Johannesburg. Biovac is the pharmaceutical company that will handle the logistics of today's consignment of #CovidVaccines. bit.ly/3oFLYmI
3. Each #CovidVaccine box of vials has a temperature monitoring device that keeps a record of the jabs’ temperature at all times during the trip. A vial contains 10 doses of vaccine (with each dose to be extracted by syringe at the time of vaccination). bit.ly/3oFLYmI
There will be a scientific panel discussion on the latest developments with the new #COVID19SA variant #501yv2 currently dominating in the country. Follow along as we live-tweet the briefing starting shortly. bit.ly/38SXhTG
It's been a month since we first described the new variant and we've learnt a lot since then. So this is an update on that from the scientists that have been working on this issue. - @ProfAbdoolKarim #Covid19InSA #501yv2 bit.ly/38SXhTG
Scientists from @krisp_news led a consortium of researchers around the country that sequenced various samples of the virus and identified the new variant with over 20 mutations - @ProfAbdoolKarim #501YV2 #COVID19SA bit.ly/38SXhTG
