LAPU-LAPU COVID 19 VACCINE

[Mike J]

3 minutes ago, Yeochief said:

Does your card have a place to add booster shots?  I got the J&J shot so mine has room on the front and back.  But you did give me the ideal to order CDC ID card protector record vaccine card cover holders with some lanyards.  Thanks for that Mike, a great ideal.

 

Mine is set up for just the two shots.  Back of the card is blank.  I would not be surprised if the Philippines has to do boosters in the future, and maybe sooner than they would like.  There is increasing evidence that the vaccines out of China are not very effective with the elderly and those currently constitute the majority of shots here.

[Mike J]

16 hours ago, robert k said:

Has anyone mentioned that the current guidance is to not mix the Jabs? That's possibly going to create an even greater logistical problem.

News article where they are considering boosters for certain groups likely to be immunocompromised.  While it does not say they would use a different vaccine, it does say the Sino vaccines are particularly ineffective with the Delta strain.   As that is the majority, so far, of the jabs here I suspect they would want to use a different vaccine as the booster.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/07/30/news/national/vaccine-boosters-eyed-for-special-cases/1808994 

The country's advisory panel on Covid-19 vaccines said it is open to giving booster shots to persons whose immune systems are compromised.

Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) member and infectious diseases specialist Dr. Rontgene Solante said the group is looking at the possibility of administering boosters to patients with low antibody response to vaccines, such as persons living with HIV, cancer patients, senior citizens, and patients taking immunosuppressive drugs such as persons with chronic kidney disease.

VEP chairman and microbiologist Dr. Nina Gloriani said the "special group" was chosen on the basis of a study in Israel. The study found that 40 percent of the 152 fully vaccinated but hospitalized patients who had been infected with the Delta variant and had a breakthrough infection were immunocompromised.

Gloriani said most of those who had gotten these breakthrough infections were older men with comorbidities associated with Covid-19 severity, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, chronic lung disease, dementia and cancer.

"Those who had higher SARS-CoV-2 viral load were linked to a substantially higher risk of poor outcome and also the poorer outcome is increase in patients with low titers of protective antibodies," Gloriani said during a briefing.

Vaccine deliveries hit 17 million doses
The vaccination target should also be increased from 75 percent of the entire population to 95 to 100 percent, which also includes children, as the Delta variant remains a "concern," she said.

"You need to vaccinate everyone because you want to prevent symptomatic infection. For us to get a better immunity at the population level, kailangan siguro nating pataasan 'yung target natin in the scenario na may Delta variant natin (we need to increase our target in the scenario where there is Delta variant)," Solante said.

Based on studies presented by Gloriani, all vaccines registered a lower efficacy because of the Delta variant. The drop ranged from 70 percent for AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria to the 2.5-fold decrease for Sinovac's CoronaVac.

Solante said that while the variants of concern may become less effective in neutralizing antibodies found in vaccines, it will remain effective because the T-cell or white blood cells will still respond to the different mutations of the variants of concern.

[robert k]

A simple no would have sufficed.

[Mike J]

1 hour ago, robert k said:

A simple no would have sufficed.

I think the one thing to keep in mind as this whole covid continues on is that the "experts" are going to adjust advice as they learn more and the virus mutates.  What is "advised or policy " today could well change in a week or a month.  That does mean the old advice was wrong, it means the advice is changing as the knowledge increases and the virus mutates.  What was "best practice" a year ago may not be the best practice today.  My own opinion is that we will see boosters at some time in the future, especially if you initial shots were from China.

[robert k]

2 hours ago, Mike J said:

I think the one thing to keep in mind as this whole covid continues on is that the "experts" are going to adjust advice as they learn more and the virus mutates.  What is "advised or policy " today could well change in a week or a month.  That does mean the old advice was wrong, it means the advice is changing as the knowledge increases and the virus mutates.  What was "best practice" a year ago may not be the best practice today.  My own opinion is that we will see boosters at some time in the future, especially if you initial shots were from China.

I have to disagree there. What is the earliest suggestion of mixing Jabs that you can find? It's not far enough back. That advise was rushed more than prudent, by any reasonable standard, especially in relation to a disease that 99%+ survive. There just isn't that much urgency.

[Mike J]

9 hours ago, robert k said:

I have to disagree there. What is the earliest suggestion of mixing Jabs that you can find? It's not far enough back. That advise was rushed more than prudent, by any reasonable standard, especially in relation to a disease that 99%+ survive. There just isn't that much urgency.

Here is an article that speaks about mixing and the trials that are taking place.  I think it gives a balanced report, I would call it cautiously optimistic based on initial trial results.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01805-2

Vaccinating people with both the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines produces a potent immune response against the virus SARS-CoV-2, researchers conducting a study in Spain have found.

Preliminary results from the trial of more than 600 people — announced in an online presentation on 18 May1 — are the first to show the benefits of combining different coronavirus vaccines. A UK trial of a similar strategy reported2 safety data last week, and is expected to deliver further findings on immune responses soon.

Pfizer COVID vaccine protects against worrying coronavirus variants

Because of safety concerns, several European countries are already recommending that some or all people who were given a first dose of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, UK, and AstraZeneca in Cambridge, UK, get another vaccine for their second dose. Researchers hope that such mix-and-match COVID-19 vaccination regimens will trigger stronger, more robust immune responses than will two doses of a single vaccine, while simplifying immunization efforts for countries facing fluctuating supplies of the various vaccines.

“It appears that the Pfizer vaccine boosted antibody responses remarkably in one-dose AstraZeneca vaccinees. This is all around wonderful news,” says Zhou Xing, an immunologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

Prime and boost
Starting in April, the Spanish CombivacS trial enrolled 663 people who had already received a first dose of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, which uses a harmless chimpanzee ‘adenovirus’ to deliver instructions for cells to make a SARS-CoV-2 protein. Two-thirds of participants were randomly picked to receive the mRNA-based vaccine made by Pfizer, based in New York City, and BioNTech, in Mainz, Germany, at least eight weeks after their first dose. A control group of 232 people has not yet received a booster. The study was led by the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid.

The Pfizer–BioNTech booster seemed to jolt the immune systems of the Oxford–AstraZeneca-dosed participants, reported Magdalena Campins, an investigator on the CombivacS study at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. After this second dose, participants began to produce much higher levels of antibodies than they did before, and these antibodies were able to recognize and inactivate SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory tests. Control participants who did not receive a booster vaccination experienced no change in antibody levels.

How can countries stretch COVID vaccine supplies? Scientists are divided over dosing strategies

That is what researchers hoped for and expected from mixing different vaccines, a strategy known as a heterologous prime and boost, which has been deployed for vaccines against other diseases, such as Ebola. “These responses look promising and show the potential of heterologous prime–boost regimens,” says Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Xing says the antibody response to the Pfizer boost seems to be even stronger than the one most people generate after receiving two doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, according to earlier trial data. But it is not clear how those responses compare with those seen in people who receive two doses of mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer–BioNTech’s, which tend to trigger an especially potent antibody response after a second dose.

Making such comparisons is “apples and oranges”, says Daniel Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London. A strong immune response to the mix-and-match strategy is “entirely predictable from the basic immunology”, he adds.

Giving people first and second doses of different vaccines probably makes sense, says Altmann. But he wonders what will happen if people need a third dose to prolong immunity or protect against emerging coronavirus variants. Repeated doses of virus-based vaccines such as the Oxford–AstraZeneca one tend to be increasingly less effective, because the immune system mounts a response against the adenovirus. RNA vaccines, by contrast, tend to trigger stronger side effects with added doses. “I do think there’s a brave new world of vaccinology to be scoped in all of this,” Altmann says.

Last week, a UK study called Com-COV, which analysed combinations of the same two vaccines, found that people in the mix-and-match groups experienced higher rates of common vaccine-related side effects, such as fever, than did people who received two doses of the same vaccine2. In the Spanish CombivacS trial, mild side effects were common, and similar to those seen in standard COVID-19 vaccine regimens. None was deemed severe.

[Mike J]

11 hours ago, robert k said:

There just isn't that much urgency.

I guess it depends on how you define urgency.  In Moalboal where I live the fatality rate for covid is currently at 9.7 percent, with two more deaths yesterday.   I realize that the lack of medical infrastructure in the area is a major contributing factor, but the numbers are what they are.  Adding to my concern is the fact that the majority of people vaccinated here received the sino vaccines which appear to have the least efficacy against covid.  As this is where almost all of my Philippine family live I definitely feel a sense of urgency.

[Yeochief]

2 hours ago, Mike J said:

fatality rate for covid is currently at 9.7 percent

What is the rate of catching covid?  Fatality rate at near 10% is very high.

 

[Yeochief]

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html  this web site is from John Hopkins

With an estimated population in the Philippines, 1 July 2021, 111,046,913.  COVID 19 positives in Philippines, 1,580,824.  COVID 19 deaths in Philippines, 27,722.  Positive cases in Philippines by % is .01423 (1.423%).  Death cases in Philippines by % is .0002496 (.02496%).  Death from positive cases in the Philippines is roughly .01753 (1.75%).

[Mike J]

53 minutes ago, Yeochief said:

What is the rate of catching covid?  Fatality rate at near 10% is very high.

 

The "catch" rate is still low.  Province areas were not hit early like the larger cities.  The population is about 36000 spread over a large area and the infection rate is currently (.0035) .35 percent.   I suspect that low incident rate is not unusual in other province areas.  The bad news is that the rate of new cases has started to climb rapidly in the past week.  Ten of the 33 active cases came in the past three days.     The nearest hospital with an ICU is about 3 hours away in Cebu City.  I think that is why the fatality rate is so high.  Two more deaths just yesterday and our puroc has had the highest number of cases.  If Delta cannot be contained here, we are in for some very serious trouble.