No more Europeans allowed here then I guess.
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Crazy that scientists can work together to make a number of vaccines in record time but countries can’t put the same resources into manufacturing them.
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They only have themselves to blame.
They backed the wrong vaccines and ordered the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines later than other nations.
They also have to navigate their own stupid rules such as supporting Sanofi’s vaccine because it comes from France and no one nation being able to start inoculations until all members are ready to commence them.
Ardern in a media interview suggested NZ would have it’s borders closed for most of 2021 - She wants her people to be vaccinated and likewise for the world - She also suggested that a travel bubble with Australia is unlikely because states continue to close their borders.
I suggest it would be strange for the TGA to put so much effort into reviewing the Pfizer vaccine and granting provisional registration if the vaccine were not available. Also considering that the Government has committed to provide 10 million doses of the still to be approved AstraZeneca vaccine which has been manufactured at the CSL Broadmeadows Facility. This is the initial order but the capacity could be as high as 50 million doses.
The British equivalent of the TGA, the MHRA, approved the use of the Oxford Uni/AstraZeneca vaccine on the 30th December, 2020.
Shot number 2 out of the way.
In a few weeks i will be able to travel to countries that will have have me and return home without quarrantine*
** Not confirmed yet.*
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Which is ironically at odds with what she said a few months ago when she suggested a bubble arrangement wouldn’t happen if states continued to be reluctant to close their borders to each other when outbreaks occurred (she was referring specifically to NSW in this instance)…
Funny how things change…
I just watched Ardern on breakfast tv here and she said that NZ is still persuing a travel bubble with Australia and the Pacific by the end of the first quarter. She did say that a problem was working out how to deal with border closures at little notice as happened on Monday (although she reiterated Australia had every right to do that). She also said we may look at a state by state bubble with Australia.
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I am so jealous.
The NZ travel bubble is currently only one way, if you are an Aussie going to NZ you must do 14 day HQ. Prior to the 72 hour shutdown, NZers didnt need to do HQ in Aust.
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What country are you in?
Israel
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I’m not sure it will be the case here.
Data from Moderna indicating their vaccine is less effective against the South African variant. They plan to develop a booster shot to deal with this.
Moderna’s vaccine is less potent against one coronavirus variant but still protective, company says
Moderna is studying adding booster doses to its vaccine regimen after finding its Covid-19 vaccine was less potent against a coronavirus variant that was first identified in South Africa, the company said Monday.
In lab research that involved testing whether blood from people who had received the vaccine could still fend off different coronavirus variants, scientists found that there was a sixfold reduction in the vaccine’s neutralizing power against the variant, called B.1.351, than against earlier forms of the coronavirus, Moderna reported.
There was no loss in neutralization levels against a different variant, called B.1.1.7, that was first identified in the United Kingdom. Both variants are thought to be more transmissible than other forms of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Moderna said that despite the reduction in neutralizing antibodies against B.1.351, the antibody levels generated by its vaccine “remain above levels that are expected to be protective.” Still, it said it was going to start testing whether adding a booster dose to its existing two-dose regimen could increase the levels of neutralizing antibodies even further, and that it was going to start investigating a booster specifically designed against B.1.351.
“These lower titers [of antibodies against B.1.351] may suggest a potential risk of earlier waning of immunity to the new B.1.351 strains,” Moderna said.
The announcement from Moderna gets at a nuance that scientists have been trying to stress as fears around vaccines and variants grew. Both the Moderna vaccine and the immunization from Pfizer-BioNTech produce such powerful levels of immune protection — generating higher levels of antibodies on average than people who recover from a Covid-19 infection have — that they should be able to withstand some drop in their potency without really losing their ability to guard people from getting sick.
“There is a very slight, modest diminution in the efficacy of a vaccine against it, but there’s enough cushion with the vaccines that we have that we still consider them to be effective,” Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases official, said Monday on the “Today” show.
The coronavirus has been evolving throughout the pandemic, and scientists had expected that eventually, the virus would change so much that vaccines would need to be upgraded to better match dominant variants. But the appearance in recent months of the variants, which picked up mutations at much higher rates than the coronavirus was adding at the beginning of the pandemic, has moved up the date at which that might need to occur.
Experts say they need to now figure out how much less effective the vaccines can get before upgrades are needed, and what the regulatory process for approving such tweaks would look like.
Pfizer and BioNTech scientists have already reported their vaccine holds up against B.1.1.7, though they have not reported data yet against B.1.351. But researchers have been more concerned about B.1.351 because it contains a different set of mutations that, at least in lab experiments, had already helped the virus evade some of the immune protection generated in people who had an initial Covid-19 case.
Some of those same mutations of concern also appear in a different variant first seen in Brazil, called P.1.
In the meantime, if mutations do arise that deliver a blow to the vaccines’ strength, experts still say people should get them. Having some immune memory to the virus (which vaccines provide, almost like a substitute for an initial infection) is better than being completely vulnerable. You might still be able to get infected, and maybe even get sick, but giving your immune system even a small edge can reduce the chances you’ll get seriously ill.
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It’d be nice if the communications specialist had bothered to specify what six-fold means. Six times the failure (i.e. ~30% failure) or a sixth as effective (~15% effective)?
I’m assuming from context it’s the former, but how do you write this article without caring/specifying what it means?!?
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It’s the latter. Here’s the link to the paper (online not yet through peer review).
The six-fold reduction means you have to use 6-fold more antibody to neutralise the South African variant compared to the other strains.
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Have my first proper cold since the start of the pandemic, so went and got tested yesterday at about 1.30pm. No queue at all, very smooth process and result back - negative - this morning at 6.
Happy days, except I still have a cold so if I try to go out in public I will be treated like a pariah (quite reasonably)
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If there’s one good thing to come from this whole thing, hopefully it’s the death of that stupid soldier on mentality when people are sick… going into their office and infecting their entire workforce… 
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And no more communal cups/mugs/plates etc.
Just because there are always ■■■■■■■■ who leave them in the sink and expect others to clean them. Remove the communality and they can’t do that.
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