BREAKING—Oxford-AstraZeneca #COVID19 vaccine just approved for use in UK. Moreover, the vaccine campaign will now shift to giving as many people as possible their first dose—aim will be to give as many vulnerable people some protection. 🧵 bbc.com/news/health-55…
2) The decision is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
A spokesperson said: "The priority should be to give as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.
3) “the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will lead to a significant increase in vaccination as it is cheap and easy to mass produce.” — it is about 8-10x cheaper than the Pfizer / BioNTech or the Modern vaccines, and does not require freezing, just refrigeration.
4) regarding the one dose strategy—lEveryone will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of their first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection."
5) Oxford should have been approved sooner. It was also the first to peer review PUBLISH their results - before even Moderna or Pfizer / BioNTech!
6) normally the 2nd dose is delivered 28 days after 1st dose. We don’t know efficacy if delayed and delivered 12 weeks later. That said, trial shows that 3 weeks after getting their first jab, there was little to no hospitalizations. How long last? Dunno. thelancet.com/journals/lance…
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BREAKING—Wisconsin pharmacist who intentionally ruined 500 doses of #COVID19 vaccine has now been arrested. Detectives believe he knew spoiled doses would be useless.
2) “arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, all felonies. The pharmacist has been fired and police said in a news release that he was in jail.”
3) “His motive remains unclear. Police said that detectives believe he knew the spoiled doses would be useless and people who received them would mistakenly think they’d been vaccinated when they hadn’t.”
Analogy: “Drunk driving car accidents don’t kill people—metal and concrete kills people, & maybe their internal bleeding”
Wanna know what causes heart attacks in a 41 year old Congressman-elect w/ no risk factors? #COVID19 blood clots & #COVID19 oxygen deprivation. (HT @atrupar)
2) 40% of all COVID related deaths are due to Covid heart complications and direct heart damage.
3) To be clear, causation is multi factorial, but there is often an underlying key cause. That’s why death certificates can have UNDERLYING CAUSE OF DEATH codes and MULTIPLE CAUSE OF DEATH codes per deceased. COVID is often the underlying cause. Nosology is a whole field itself.
⚠️NEXT LEVEL BAD—this radical change in ambulance 🚑 rules means if an EMT paramedic cannot resuscitate a heart beat, a patient will not be transported to any hospital in Los Angeles.
➡️This is worse than rationing 🏥 care. We have reached this. #COVID19
2) “These poor patients will be pronounced dead at the scene.”
Sobering. 😢
3) And even if you do get an ambulance 🚑, you may be turned away from the hospital in LA. Some hospitals now at 140% of capacity. It’s just that bad now. stay safe everyone. latimes.com/california/sto…
Reinfection fears growing due to the other new South Africa 🇿🇦 discovered #SARSCoV2 variant (that shares the 501Y mutation w/ 🇬🇧 discovered B117). Not only faster spread, but SA experts noticing it coinciding with a lot of reinfections. Thread 🧵 #COVID19 wsj.com/articles/coron…
2) “Richard Lessells, an infectious-disease specialist—said its discovery has coincided with another worrying development: Doctors are reporting more patients, including health-care workers, who are testing positive for Covid-19 a 2nd time, after having had it in the first wave.”
3) “We are genuinely concerned, and that’s why we need to do research to understand this variant as quickly as we can,” Dr. Lessells and doctors treating Covid-19 patients in 🇿🇦 said they haven’t been able to prove whether these repeat positive tests are genuine reinfections—“