charles tabb Loc: Richmond VA.

Sure, this is why the out of country scammers get all that money.
They know that we have thousands with out any "Common Sense".
They now believe that the Americans want to give them money.

Charles

SpikeW Loc: Butler PA

Thankfully I live on twenty acres most of which is woods and backs up on open land for maybe a mile or so. I work in my woods and sometimes I just sit there and talk to the trees. WE are not big amount showers so we hit the stores a couple of times. What would I do if there was no quarantine . Probably the same things as now. I also realize how lucky I am.

SpikeW Loc: Butler PA

Thankfully I live on twenty acres most of which is woods and backs up on open land for maybe a mile or so. I work in my woods and sometimes I just sit there and talk to the trees. WE are not big amount showers so we hit the stores a couple of times. What would I do if there was no quarantine . Probably the same things as now. I also realize how lucky I am.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

I've gone all over. I just avoid visiting

gsmith051 Loc: Fairfield Glade, TN

Sounds like a sensible and reasonably safe plan.

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

I read what David Martin sent in with interest, there are three vaccines available at the moment in the UK and a fourth one from Imperial college will shortly be available. The time between vaccinations has been extended in the UK so that more people can be vaccinated, the efficiency is supposed to be over 80% with e first one, the Oxford/Astra Zenica vaccine has been trailed for nearly six months without any negative reaction so that is good news for us in the UK, with over two million vaccinations carried out since Christmas week and that is being increased every week. In the UK the vaccination is given free as it is in the NHS whether that is the case in the USA I do not know.
One other thing the vaccine has also proved effective against the vivid variant which is good news

ricardo00

Can you supply a reference for that figure of 80%? I don't think that is true.

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

Yes I can it is what the BUS and the Chief Medical Officer for England as well as Oxford and Astra Zenica. Something g else which is true that the have been 2.6 million innoculations as up to tonight and it is being increased as pharmacies and seven giant hubs come on stream from tomorrow.
The government have brought back 30,000 retired medical staff to assist with giving more have as well as St. John Ambulance personnel.
The other thing that the health minister Matt Hancock said today is that by the autumn every adult in the UK will have been innoculated and that is all free people in the UK we do not pay to have the vaccine

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

Meant the NHS for those in the USA that is the UK National Health Service

ricardo00

Don't see how they can say that "the efficiency is supposed to be over 80% with the first one." The published clinical trial of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca study shows a 70% efficacy after the SECOND injection, so I am not sure what the quote of the BUS and Chief Medical Officer for England is referring to. The paper showing the results of the clinical trials are published in the Lancet:


Lancet 2021 Jan 9;397(10269):99-111.
doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32661-1. Epub 2020 Dec 8.

The results they state: "Vaccine efficacy for the prespecified primary analysis (combining dose groups) against the primary endpoint of COVID-19 occurring more than 14 days after the second dose was 70·4%"

By reference, I meant to a published study, not something someone says.

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

Ricardo you are wrong are you sure you are reading the paper correctly the rate for the Oford/ Astra Zenica vaccine is over 92% and I would rather listen to Chris Witty and John Van the who are the Medical Officer of Health and his deputy Can Tam this was said on National Television with the prime minister Boris Johnson present than from what I perceive to be an American especially after the disgraceful scenes that have occurred in Washington. I hope you are never going to say again the US stands for law and order.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Politics aside, I believe that you are incorrect based on published data.

Understand that, due to an error, the Astra Zeneca vaccine results are divided into 2 subsets:
- the majority of participants who received 2 full doses, 21 days apart, and
- a smaller group that received a half-dose initially followed by a full dose for their second shot

The results as reported by Astra Zeneca in the Dec 8 Lancet are as follows:

"Vaccine efficacy for the prespecified primary analysis (combining dose groups) against the primary endpoint of COVID-19 occurring more than 14 days after the second dose was 70·4%."

The above quote refers to the overall efficacy combining both dosage groups.

"Surprisingly" they found that in the small group of participants who received a half-dose first and a full dose second, the efficacy was 90%.

The efficacy in the majority of participants, who received two full doses, was only 62.1%

The article then states "Efficacy was similar when evaluated starting at 21 days after the first standard dose (192 cases), suggesting there is at least short-term protection with one dose."

So based on 192 participants, they extrapolate that the efficacy after one dose is similar to the overall efficacy, which as stated above, was 70.4% (unless it is really 62.1% assuming two full doses), but not even close to 90%.

I suggest you read the Lancet article here:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32623-4/fulltext

or as summarized in USA Today:
"As previously reported, the vaccine, called AZD1222, was shown to be 70% effective among the more than 11,000 participants, though only about 60% effective among people who received the standard two-dose regimen.

By accident, a subset of the British volunteers, about 2,700 participants, received a half-dose of the vaccine the first time and a full-dose of the vaccine the second – and were 90% protected. It’s not yet clear whether that improved effectiveness was due to a statistical fluke, or whether the lower dose primed the immune system to better protect against COVID-19."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/12/08/astrazeneca-oxford-covid-vaccine-effectiveness-reaffirmed-after-error/6488650002/

ricardo00

Well stated David! The Lancet paper is a tough read, and it should be emphasized that one cannot read much into the higher protection in the group that received the initial low dose vaccine. As you mentioned, this is a very small percentage of the total study (6% if I understand correctly) and consequently the numbers of individuals is very small. Also no one over the age of 55 received the low dose/standard dose protocol. Since the older group would be the harder one's to elicit a response, the higher protection afforded in this study could be due to the population receiving this regime. I thought at one time Oxford/Astra Zeneca said they were going to do additional studies with the low dose/standard dose regime though not sure such a trial is being done. I assume that in England (the only country that has approved this vaccine) they are giving a standard dose for both initial and boost but could be wrong about that.

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

As you guys in the USA have got it wrong you are quoting out of and incorrect news, the first dose is roughly a half dose and when the second dose is given the result is about 92% or more effective. No one who was involved in the trials and now the vaccine is being rolled has been affected by covid so far.
Over 2.8 million doses have been done so far so roughly one in twenty of the population have been inoculated and many have had the second injection as well. My own daughter who works in a care home had an inoculation today and has suffered no side effects. There is another vaccine coming in line soon and that is the IMPERIAL COLLEGE vaccine that has been developed in the UK.

Apart from that there are two drugs that reduce the effect of vivid being used in NHS hospitals, the is a high incidence of covid in the country which has led to the Nightingale hospital being used which should help the situation. Oxygen supplies ran short in a couple of places but the supply of oxygen has been ramped up so that the shortage should not happen again. The UK has innocculated more people than in the whole of Europe thank God we are no longer part last the EU

Hamltnblue Loc: Springfield PA

Fact is most people I see out there are going along their day without masks unless entering a business.
Time for people to stop cowering over a cold virus.