The disparity in vaccination rates between the UK and the EU shows just how poorly the EU handled their vaccine program.
Some commentary on the reporting of and info sharing of the J&J clot issue: Every outlet I’ve read or seen has reported this clot issue as “one in a million” from ABC to CNN to Mark Levin (yes I check Patriot radio every now and again). This characterization is not true as presented. It is one in a million THAT WE KNOW OF. I can guarantee a review of medical records will show more cases with ranging outcomes and severities. That’s all.
The issue with J&J and AstraZeneca is that the type of blood clots that occur primarily in women is dangerous and deadly. It is not the same as the type of blood clot that develops in women from birth control pills. A segment in our local news covered this last night. Experts explain differences between Johnson & Johnson blood clot complication and other common blood clots https://www.wral.com/experts-explai...cation-and-other-common-blood-clots/19625742/
Covid: 'Israel may be reaching herd immunity' BBC - https://tinyurl.com/f29ev4 A leading Israeli doctor believes the country may be close to reaching "herd immunity". This happens when enough of a population has protection against an infection that it stops being able to spread - and even people who don't themselves have immunity are indirectly protected. For Covid the estimated threshold for herd immunity is at least 65%-70%. But scientists in the UK are more cautious. Dr Sarah Pitt, a virologist at the University of Brighton, urged "extreme caution" in concluding that herd immunity had been reached - something she believes will be difficult even at high vaccination rates. She said it was still too early to tell: "We need to see whether the cases in Israel continue to fall and stay at low levels." Reaching this level of population immunity is important to protect people who can't be vaccinated or whose immune system is too weak to produce a good, protective response. In Israel, more than half (5.3 million) its residents have been vaccinated and an additional 830,000 people have tested positive for the virus in the past, which should give them some natural immunity. That works out as roughly 68% of the population who are likely to have antibodies in their blood which can fight off the virus. Prof Eyal Leshem, a director at Israel's largest hospital, the Sheba Medical Center, said herd immunity was the "only explanation" for the fact that cases continued to fall even as more restrictions were lifted. "There is a continuous decline despite returning to near normalcy," he said. "This tells us that even if a person is infected, most people they meet walking around won't be infected by them." And cases are falling in all age groups including children, even though under-16s are not generally being vaccinated. Google data reflect that many countries remained under lockdown as of the start of the month, with Israel and Chile two notable exceptions. But unlike in Chile, as Israel opens up and people move around far more, cases have continued to decline. How does herd immunity work? Experts think that with no restrictions in place, someone infected with the original strain of the virus that causes Covid-19, will infect, on average three to four other people. If it's three, then, in theory, once two-thirds of the population becomes immune to the virus, an infected person will, on average, only pass it to one other person. That's enough for the virus to spread, but not enough for it to grow. You've eliminated two of those three people from the chain of transmission. It sounds simple on paper. In reality, though, it's a little more complicated. The vaccines are not 100% effective, and even when they stop people from getting sick they don't completely block infections in everyone. That means some vaccinated people might still be able to pass on the virus. Not everyone with a past Covid infection has strong or long-lasting natural immunity, and newer variants of the virus are more transmissible. This means we may have to inoculate many more people before we reach that magic threshold. But it's not all bad news. "I would say that we should not be looking for 'herd immunity' alone as a sign that we can lift all public health measures and get back to 'normal'," Dr Pitt explained. "Rather we should be looking for consistently low levels of Covid-19 infection". Is the UK close to herd immunity? The UK is likely to be a way off this milestone - if it is ever reached. Only about half the population had Covid antibodies, either from infection or vaccination, as of mid-March, according to the Office for National Statistics - though this will be higher now. Remember it takes some time after being vaccinated for antibodies to build. But the country is already starting to see the impact of vaccination on hospitalisations and deaths, with the biggest declines seen in the most vaccinated age groups. There have been big falls in infection and illness among younger people too which might suggest the vaccine is blocking some transmission - although lockdown will have had a major effect too. After herd immunity, what's next? So far, new variants don't seem to be resistant to vaccines. But a future variant which does show resistance to the vaccine, Prof Leshem explained, could mean people have less protection and the country could dip below the herd immunity threshold. This isn't insurmountable - it could be tackled with tweaks to the vaccine, as already happens with the annual flu jab. It serves as an important reminder, though - even if Israel has reached herd immunity, and if the UK follows, this is not necessarily a permanent state. We can look at what's happened with measles in recent years. The virus was considered to have been eliminated in the UK, but the World Health Organization revoked this status in 2019 after a "marked increase" in measles cases driven by a fall in the proportion of vaccinated people. Measles is highly contagious - each infected person infects roughly 15 other people - so vaccination coverage needs to be over 90% to prevent outbreaks.
CDC vaccine panel unexpectedly delays decision on Johnson & Johnson shot https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cdc-vaccine-panel-considers-limiting-160418945.html A group of vaccine experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deadlocked Wednesday on whether or how to limit use of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vacccine based on sex or age. The panel was originally scheduled to vote Wednesday afternoon on how the federal government should proceed after calling Tuesday for a pause in the use of the vaccine after receiving reports of rare blood clots in a handful of people who received the shot. The committee’s recommendations are non-binding, but top Biden administration health officials have said they would look to the CDC panel and a separate probe by officials at the Food and Drug Administration to guide their decision making on the vaccine. While many of the committee members — who include public health experts, scientists and doctors — said they needed more information before making a call, others expressed frustration about the damage that continued uncertainty would do to public confidence and vaccination efforts among underserved populations. "We’re in a position where not making a decision is tantamount to making a decision," said Nirav Shah, who directs Maine's public health agency and represents the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. The panel does not yet know when it will reconvene, but leaders said it could take more than a week to call a new session. Top Biden administration health officials had said on Monday that the J&J vaccine pause could last days to weeks. It is not clear whether the CDC panel's delay in making recommendations will drag out the federal government's timeline for deciding how to move forward with the vaccine. The CDC and FDA on Tuesday recommended pausing the use of millions of J&J doses while they investigate possible links between the six confirmed cases of clots and the vaccine. Officials stressed that these clots are of concern in part because the typical treatment for clotting — the blood thinner heparin — can make them worse. All of the known cases have occurred in women ages 18-48. One of the women died, and another remains in serious condition. But CDC officials said it may be difficult to implement sex-based limits rather than age restrictions. Several European countries have used that approach for a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca that may also be linked to clotting problems. The CDC panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is not only reviewing the six reported cases of clots among J&J recipients but discussing whether risk of using the shot outweighs the benefit. The J&J vaccine is convenient to administer because it requires only one dose and can be stored in a refrigerator. But CDC officials noted that the country has ample supply of safe and effective vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. Those shots use mRNA technology, while Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca's vaccines are based on adenoviruses. “The decision isn’t necessarily receipt of a Janssen vaccine versus remaining at risk of Covid-19,” said CDC official Sara Oliver, referring to the J&J division that makes the shot. “The decision may be receipt of a Janssen vaccine versus receipt of another mRNA vaccine.” Pfizer and Moderna have each promised 300 million doses to the U.S. by this summer. Pfizer said Tuesday that it is ahead of production schedule and can deliver all those shots by mid-July. The U.S. can easily use those two shots to vaccinate its adult population, according to White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients. But J&J was expected to play a larger role in the country’s vaccination plans by late spring, especially as the United States moves toward immunizing children and considers the potential need for booster shots in the coming months or years. Members of the CDC vaccine panel argued that a prolonged pause of the J&J vaccine could harm efforts to distribute Covid-19 vaccines equitably. Members said the shot is critical for outreach to vulnerable populations, including the homebound and homeless. Aran Maree, who leads Janssen's Global Medical Organization, said the company has determined that four of the women who developed clots, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis or CVST, had low platelet counts. Three of the patients had other blockages, including in the abdomen's portal vein. Maree said that an additional clotting case has been reported but specific details are pending. There were also two additional reported CVST cases in two different clinical trials, he said. Neither the company nor the regulators know whether any of the known cases of clotting involved people who were pregnant or postpartum, but one person was taking oral contraceptives. Maree said that five of the reported cases — one in a clinical trial and four post-vaccination — were treated with the blood thinner heparin. While heparin is commonly used to treat typical blood clots, scientists say the medicine can exacerbate the type of clots being investigated for links to the J&J vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration authorized J&J’s single-dose vaccine for emergency use in late March. At the time it noted concerns about blood clots in some trial volunteers, but said there was not enough data to establish a link with the vaccine. Although many of the people who developed clots in the trial had underlying health issues, one 25-year-old man with no prior conditions had a severe case. FDA advised providers to monitor whether more blood clots occurred in the general populations to learn more about potential risks.
5800 identified “break through” infections of the 77 million fully vaccinated in the US. Of those 5800, 396 required hospitalization and 74 died. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/04/14/...ines-cdc/index.html?__twitter_impression=true