On stability of the vaccine, and ability to distribute it, this very important from Pfizer too: "Pfizer is confident in its vast experience, expertise and existing cold-chain infrastructure to distribute the vaccine around the world. The companies have developed specially...
designed, temperature-controlled thermal shippers utilizing dry ice to maintain temperature conditions of -70°C±10°C. They can be used be as temporary storage units for 15 days by refilling with dry ice. Each shipper contains a GPS-enabled thermal sensor to track...
the location and temperature of each vaccine shipment across their pre-set routes leveraging Pfizer’s broad distribution network".
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If the UK government came late to the Moderna party, and has bought less of its vaccine than is ideal, the fault is not that of Kate Bingham and her Vaccine Taskforce. It is down to the mandate set her by the PM. He told her at the outset to purchase potential vaccines that...
could be available for use as early as possible, and preferably before the end of the year. And Bingham was clear in July that Moderna - although a world class biotech company - does not have an established distribution network in Europe. So she knew that even if its...
research delivered a good vaccine, it would not be available for use here till the end of March or beginning of April at the earliest. And so it has turned out. That said, it looks an excellent vaccine, and the 5m doses she has secured is only enough to protect 2.5m people (or...
There was a massive leap in positive tests on Monday. It is odd. I’ve checked and it is not linked to the Liverpool mass testing exercise.
To be clear, the Monday figure I’ve highlighted is categorised by date of specimen, NOT date of result. To day we had huge leap to 33,470 in positives declared, but that is distorted by the variable lags between a test being done and the result being known. The reason I cited...
the Monday jump is because it should represent an accurate figure of new detected infections on that day, and it is significantly higher than recent daily figures. And it is especially odd because the rate of infections among students has been coming down. It is a one-off...
Here is the Shakespearean yarn of how Lee Cain was forced out as director of communications. He and Dominic Cummings wanted to introduce American-style televised press briefings. But the candidate @BorisJohnson wanted as on screen press secretary @HMTAllegra - my former...
colleague - would only take the job if she reported to the PM not to Cain. Which felt like a demotion to Cain. So when the PM insisted on appointing Stratton, he felt wholly undermined. And tonight after a challenging conversation with the PM he was forced out. As I said...
the outstanding question is whether Cummings - who is immensely loyal to his ex Vote Leave team, of whom Cain was an important member - quits in solidarity. If he does, many members of the government will be thrilled or relieved. One minister told me “I have my...
I was puzzled by Jonathan Van Tan’s comment that we don’t know whether the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will prevent transmission of Covid-19 even if - as claimed - it has 90% efficacy in preventing us becoming ill. So I asked @michaelgove’s favourite people, the experts. What they...
explained was that some vaccines prevent us becoming ill with a virus but don’t prevent us having the virus and being able to infect others. This is how one put it: “if a vaccine is effective, the remaining question is ‘what type of efficacy?’ Does the vaccine...
protect against being infected (AND being sick of course), or only against being sick, or even possibly only against being seriously sick (that is not being hospitalised)? A vaccine that protects people against symptoms may not be able to also protect them from carrying...
Another striking characteristic of today’s @bankofengland projections is that UK GDP, or national income, is set to shrink by 11% for the whole of 2020, a record. We are losing more than one in every ten pounds of our income, one of the worst performances in the world: the...
fall in US GDP is forecast at “just” 3.75%, the euro-area shrinkage is 6.75% and the global decline is projected at 5.25%. Given that the virus is the same virus everywhere, it is difficult to argue that the UK’s policy response to it has been...
economically optimal, even adjusting for the UK’s disproportionate reliance on services that thrive on the kind of human contact that the virus has made dangerous. It is not over till it is over, but the combination of excess deaths and excessive economic loss in...
These are the measures to be announced by the PM at 5, as I understand it. They will last 2 December. And they are, In effect, a new “Tier 4” that will be imposed for a month initially to the whole of England. 1) All pubs and restaurants to close, though takeaways...
and deliveries will be permitted. 2) All non-essential retail to close, though supermarkets won't have to follow the Welsh example of fencing off non-essential goods. 3) There will be no mixing of people inside homes, except for childcare and other forms of support...
3) Manufacturing and construction will be encouraged to keep going. 4) Outbound international travel will be banned, except for work. 5) Travel within the UK will be discouraged, except for work. 6) Overnight stays away from home will be allowed only for work purposes...