LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Some of Britain’s meat processors will run out of carbon dioxide within five days, forcing them to halt production, the head of the industry’s lobby group warned on Monday. A jump in gas prices has forced several domestic energy suppliers out of business and has shut fertiliser plants that also produce carbon dioxide (CO2), used to stun animals before slaughter and prolong the shelf-life of food. The shortage of CO2, also used to put the fizz in beer, cider and soft drinks, has compounded an acute shortage of truck drivers in the UK, which has been blamed on the impact of COVID-19 and Brexit. Continue reading “UK and US meat industry warns some firms have just five days’ CO2 supply”
America is months behind us on covid19 booster shots
Israel’s top COVID-19 experts say that they view the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel’s decision to recommend vaccine booster shots only for Americans over the age of 65 or those in specific risk groups as a vindication of their own country’s massive inoculation campaign. Israel was the first country in the world to begin a widespread booster shot campaign this summer, and Israeli data was used during the FDA panel’s deliberations. Yet while Israel is now offering the booster shot to anyone over the age of 12, the advisory committee decided to limit it to specific high-risk populations for now. Continue reading “America is months behind us on covid19 booster shots”
Vaccinated Israelis driving September peak in new infections. Blame the anti-vaxers and the high holidays
Israel has been one of the focal points of the pandemic in 2021 owing to its rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. By late February, authorities had administered at least one dose to 50% of the population, with much of Israel’s immunisation programme using Pfizer vaccines. Society then in effect reopened across the summer of 2021. However, since then Israel has reported significant outbreaks, with over 10,000 confirmed new cases being recorded each day in early September. A main part of the problem has been vaccine coverage. After its fast start, Israel’s rollout slowed. There have not been any clear interruptions to vaccine supply, so factors such as hesitancy or access to healthcare may have been an issue. For example, there’s evidence of uptake being lower among Arab and ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups. The share of the population having received one dose increased from 50% in February to only 68% in September. Children aged 12-15 have been included in the rollout since June 2021, yet despite this, currently only 62% of the population have had two doses.This has left Israel behind many other countries in terms of coverage, including the UK. Having around 30% of the Israeli population completely unvaccinated means that there’s approximately 2.7 million people who are potentially susceptible to infection and illness. There are also concerns that the immunity offered by the Pfizer vaccines may be waning over time, although much of the research on this is still at an early stage (meaning it is still awaiting review by other scientists). Israel’s hospital data is, though, showing that vaccinated people are susceptible to infection. Recent reports suggest that nearly 60% of hospitalisations are in the fully vaccinated. However, as experts have suggested, these figures don’t necessarily mean that vaccines have lost their effectiveness. The same sort of trend has been seen in the UK, and may simply reflect the fact that the elderly are more likely to be vaccinated while also being more susceptible to disease – factors which combine to inflate COVID-19 cases and deaths among the vaccinated.
A further factor is the more transmissible delta variant, which has now taken hold in Israel. This form of the virus is driving the current series of outbreaks, and its greater ability to spread may partially explain the rise in cases too.
The other big part of the problem has been Israel ending its restrictions. Dr Asher Salmon, director of the Department for International Relations at Israel’s ministry of health, suggested in July that Israel “may have lifted restrictions too early”. It’s the latest in a long line of examples showing how community transmission can be easily sustained when national policy encourages the mixing of susceptible people with no or few restrictions in place. The tragic consequences of relaxing restrictions in India shows how devastating it can be when decision-making goes awry. The COVID-19 Stringency Index created by Our World in Data is a composite measure of the strictness of the COVID-19 containment policies in each country around the world. As of August 28 2021, Israel’s restrictions score was 45.4, far less strict than New Zealand, where outbreaks continue to be limited in scope (96.3), but comparable with the UK (44.0), which is reporting around 30,000 new cases per day. Countries watched the initial vaccine rollout in Israel, gauging the vaccines’ impact and using this information to inform their own immunisation campaigns. Amid concerns about waning immunity, there are once again reasons to observe what happens next in Israel, as it is now implementing a booster programme, giving third doses of vaccines.
In terms of the effectiveness of boosters, early reports are encouraging. In those receiving a booster, the risk of a confirmed coronavirus infection appears to decrease 11-fold relative to individuals who have received two doses. However, the relevant study is still in preprint, so its findings have yet to be formally reviewed.
The use of boosters is controversial. There have been continuous calls for higher-income countries to share their vaccine stockpiles with lower-income ones. This has not yet happened to any great extent. As of early September, only 5.4% of the African continent has received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine. The World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on booster shots until at least the end of September, but it seems unlikely any country will be altering their policies accordingly – including Israel. Israel’s vaccine rollout, overall, has arguably been implemented very successfully. But the country is also an example of what can happen when restrictions are relaxed too quickly. What it shows is that all countries – regardless of their current vaccine status – need to maintain longer-term plans for how to minimise the impact of COVID-19, during this current pandemic and beyond when controlling smaller outbreaks.
UK records 164 COVID deaths, 30,144 new cases… US hospitals buckling under delta surge: 25% of ICUs are over 95% full
The burden on US hospital ICUs has more than doubled since June.
The current surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the hypertransmissible delta variant is straining hospitals across the US, particularly in the South. Twenty-five percent of hospital intensive care units around the country are now above 95 percent full. That percentage is up from 20 percent in July and just 10 percent in June, according to data tracking by The New York Times.
The spike in critical care follows a surge in cases and hospitalizations. Average new daily cases in the country skyrocketed from around 12,000 a day in late June to 150,000 or so in mid-September. Hospitalizations have likewise risen, shooting up from an average of nearly 17,000 a day at the start of July to around 100,000 now. Though cases and hospitalizations are starting to plateau or decline slightly, they are still extremely high. Deaths, meanwhile, are increasing. In the past two weeks, deaths have increased 40 percent to the current average of nearly 1,900 per day.
Most of the cases and nearly all of the hospitalizations and deaths remain among the unvaccinated. Around 60,000 people in the US have died of COVID-19 since the start of July. With highly effective vaccines freely available, nearly all of the current deaths are preventable.
Now, along with the surge, public health experts fear strain on health care systems will lead to additional suffering and death in non-COVID patients. Hospitals in several states have been forced to ration treatments and enact crisis-care standards.
Hospitals in Alabama have exceeded 100 percent capacity of ICU beds. The Alabama Hospital Association on Tuesday reported that there were 1,592 ICU patients in the state and only 1,549 staffed ICU beds, an excess of 43 patients. The seven-day average of positive tests for the Yellowhammer State is 19 percent, suggesting that transmission is still extremely high. Alabama is one of the least-vaccinated states in the country, with only 40 percent of the population fully vaccinated. Generally, the hospitals and ICUs most overburdened are in the South, where vaccination rates are relatively low and transmission of delta has soared. In Texas, 169 out of 506 reporting hospitals have ICUs above 95 percent full, which is up from just 69 in June, the Times notes. In Florida, 24 hospitals have reported having more ICU patients than beds in the last week. In Mississippi, 94 percent of the entire state’s ICU beds are full. But the South isn’t the only place where hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. Last week, Idaho’s health department activated its crisis standards of care in 10 northern hospitals. Likewise, Alaska’s largest hospital—Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage—implemented crisis standards over the weekend. The hospital announced the decision in a two-page letter sent Tuesday. “The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapist,” according to the letter, which was signed by Providence Chief of Staff Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw. “[W]e must prioritize scarce resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit most. We have been required to develop and enact policies and procedures to ration medical care and treatments, including dialysis and specialized ventilatory support… Due to this scarcity, we are unable to provide lifesaving care to everyone who needs it.” The letter also noted that, with the crush of COVID-19 patients, some people seeking emergency care were sitting for hours in their cars outside of the hospital, waiting to be seen by a doctor.
UK records 164 COVID deaths, 30,144 new cases
Figure brings the total UK death toll to 135,147; Russia reports 20,329 new cases in 24 hours; anti-lockdown protesters clash with police in Melbourne
- Prove your Covid status if you want to party, UK students told
- People with chronic conditions most at risk from Covid even after jabs
- Victoria police and anti-lockdown protesters in violent clashes
- Freshers’ week drive to give Covid jabs to students in England
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Pfizer and Israel study efficacy of COVID-19 vaccine wanes over time… Get the booster shot!
Pfizer said that data from the U.S. and Israel suggest that the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine wanes over time, and that a booster dose was safe and effective at warding off the virus and new variants. “Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier,” Pfizer said in its presentation, which was posted on the FDA website. The drug giant is partnering with Germany’s BioNTech SE to make the shots. The decrease in effectiveness is “primarily due to waning of vaccine immune responses over time,” rather than the delta variant, Pfizer researchers said in the presentation. FDA staff also posted its report for the panel’s consideration Wednesday, summarizing much of the same data that Pfizer presented earlier. Like Pfizer,
the FDA staff found that a booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine was safe and raised antibody levels. Still, the staff said it hasn’t yet independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or conclusions of some relevant studies, such as the Israel study, which will be summarized in Friday’s meeting.
The staff’s 23-page briefing paper noted that the likely benefit of a booster shot would depend on how much the third shot reduces disease relative to the first two. If the first two shots are still highly effective, then the efficacy of the booster shot “is likely to be more limited,” the staff said. Overall data in the U.S. indicate that the first two shots of the vaccine still protect against severe disease and death, the staff said. The staff also noted that it is not currently clear whether there will be an increased risk of inflammation of the heart and heart lining after a booster shot, and that potential risks of a booster shot also must be considered. It didn’t offer a clear indication of which way the agency was leaning, which it often does before meetings. While its vaccine continues to provide strong protection against hospitalizations and severe disease in the U.S., Pfizer said in its report, the data from Israel and elsewhere suggest that a reduction in efficacy against infection may be followed by reduced effectiveness against severe disease, especially among vulnerable elderly people.Early unpublished data from an Israeli health maintenance organization suggest that a third booster dose is highly effective in areas where the delta variant is dominant, according to the Pfizer document. Giving a third dose to people more than 60 years old was associated with 86% effectiveness against testing positive for COVID starting at least a week after the booster, Pfizer said. Pfizer also detailed immune response results from a final-stage trial of booster shots in over 300 people, showing that a third dose bolstered blood antibody levels. One month after the third dose, levels of the protective antibodies were more than triple what they had been a month after the second shot. No new unexpected side effects were identified from safety data associated with boosters in the final-stage study, according to the Pfizer report. Consideration of a booster dose six months after a second dose of its shot is warranted, based on similarities between the outbreaks in Israel and the U.S., Pfizer said.
U.S. FDA advisers recommend COVID-19 boosters for 65 and older after rejecting broad approval
(Reuters) – A panel of expert outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted on Friday to recommend COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for Americans 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness, after overwhelmingly rejecting a call for broader approval.
An influential Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Friday rejected a proposal to distribute booster shots of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to the general public, paring back those plans to unanimously recommend the third shots to people age 65 and older and other vulnerable Americans.
“It’s likely beneficial, in my opinion, for the elderly, and may eventually be indicated for the general population. I just don’t think we’re there yet in terms of the data,” said Dr. Ofer Levy, a vaccine and infectious disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital.
The panel voted 16-2 against distributing the vaccines to Americans 16 and older, before unanimously embracing an alternate plan to give boosters to older Americans and those at a high risk of suffering from severe illness if they get the virus. That’s previously included people with diabetes, heart disease, obesity and other so-called comorbidities. The nonbinding decision by the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee comes as the Biden administration has said it wants to begin offering booster shots to the general public as early as next week, pending authorization from U.S. health regulators. While the agency hasn’t always followed the advice of its committee, it often does. A final FDA decision could come in a matter of hours. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has scheduled a two-day meeting next week to discuss plans to distribute the third shots in the U.S. “We are not bound at FDA by your vote, just so you understand that. We can tweak this as need be,” Dr. Peter Marks, the agency’s top vaccine regulator, reminded the panel after the votes. He asked the group for suggestions on what other populations the FDA should consider for boosters, like front-line health workers and other occupations that face more exposure to Covid. The committee vote was expected to be a controversial one as some scientists, including two senior FDA officials who were involved in the meeting Friday, have said they aren’t entirely convinced every American who has received the Pfizer vaccine needs extra doses right now. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said he wasn’t surprised they didn’t recommend the shots for people 16 and older. Fauci, who has publicly backed boosters, hesitated in an interview Friday on to guess what the committee would ultimately decide. “I don’t want to get ahead of the advisory committee at the time that they’re deliberating,” he said. In a paper published days before the advisory committee meeting, a leading group of scientists said available data showed vaccine protection against severe disease persists, even as the effectiveness against mild disease wanes over time. The authors, including two high-ranking FDA officials and multiple scientists from the World Health Organization, argued Monday in the medical journal The Lancet that widely distributing booster shots to the general public is not appropriate at this time. In outlining plans last month to start distributing boosters as early as next week, Biden administration officials cited three CDC studies that showed the vaccines’ protection against Covid diminished over several months. Senior health officials said at the time they worried protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death “could” diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were inoculated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout. Before the vote, some committee members said they were concerned there wasn’t enough data to make a recommendation, while others argued third shots should be limited to certain groups, such as people over age 60 who are known to be at higher risk of severe disease. Some members raised concerns about the risk of myocarditis in younger people, saying more research is needed. Dr. Hayley Gans, a voting member, said she was “struck” that the FDA was asking the committee to look at the totality of the evidence presented Friday because some data, including on safety, was still insufficient. Another member, Dr. Paul Offit, said he would support boosters for people over 60, but had trouble backing third shots for younger groups due to a higher risk of myocarditis. Before the vote Friday, the committee listened to several presentations on data to support the wide distribution of booster shots, including from health authorities from Israel, where officials began inoculating the nation’s population ahead of many other countries and began offering third shots to their citizens in late July. Phil Krause, an FDA vaccine regulator and a co-author of The Lancet paper, was critical of the findings presented Friday, saying much of the data had not been reviewed by the federal agency or had not been peer-reviewed. He said the models used were complex and scientists have to ensure it “is giving you the correct results.” “That’s part of the difficulty at looking at this kind of data without having the chance for FDA to review it,” he said.
In documents made public by the FDA on Wednesday, Pfizer said an observational study in Israel showed a third dose of the Covid vaccine six months after a second shot restores protection from infection to 95%. The data was collected from July 1 through Aug. 30 when the fast-spreading delta variant was surging throughout the country.
In a presentation Friday, Dr. Sharon Elroy-Preiss of Israel’s Health Ministry argued that if officials there had not begun distributing boosters at the end of July, the nation likely would have exceeded its hospital capacity. Health officials began to see a trend, she said, of individuals in their 40s and 50s who were fully vaccinated become critically ill with Covid. “We didn’t want to wait to see those results and we knew that we needed to vaccinate a larger portion of the population in order to get the numbers down quickly,” she told the committee. Israeli health authorities expected severe cases to average 2,000 by late August, she said. “We were able to dampen that effect and our severe cases are roughly 700 or less and have stayed stable, even though we still have days at 10,000 confirmed cases.” She also said the booster shots were well tolerated by many people, citing data that showed there was only one case of myocarditis, a rare heart inflammation condition that’s been linked to mRNA vaccines, out of roughly 2.9 million people who received the extra doses. Pfizer’s booster side effects are also comparable with those that emerge after receiving the second vaccine dose, Dr. Joohee Lee, an officer at the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, said during the meeting. Of the 289 booster recipients ages 18 to 55 monitored in Pfizer’s phase three trial, 63.8% developed fatigue, 48.4% had headaches and 39.1% experienced muscle pain. The FDA studied side effects in 2,682 recipients of Pfizer’s second Covid dose, ranging from 16 to 55 years old, reporting fatigue among 61.5% of patients, headaches among 54% and muscle pain among 39.3%. One adverse event — swelling of the lymph nodes — occurred in 5.2% of booster recipients but just 0.4% of those who received their first two doses. “The majority were mild to moderate and they did resolve,” Lee said of the lymphadenopathy cases. “Although one is reported to be ongoing at this time.”
Mystery solved Heart Muscle Inflammation Clots caused by accidental vaccination into veins…… problem avoided in 2 seconds
Accidental intravenous injections of BioNTech jabs may cause heart muscle inflammation, research conducted by the University of Hong Kong has found. The team advised that those who administer jabs briefly withdraw the syringe plunger to exclude blood aspiration to ensure that the needle is not accidentally in a vein before the injection is given. According to global statistics, 50 per million doses of mRNA vaccine including BioNTech ones could trigger myocarditis or pericarditis – inflammation of the heart muscles and tissues surrounding the heart. The 12 to 29 age group is more prone to the condition, especially after the second dose. But most patients rapidly recovered from this potentially life threatening side effect, and mRNA vaccines are deemed safe, with the risks markedly outweighing the side effects. But research led by Dr. Can Li, Dr. Anna Zhang and Professor Yuen Kwok-Yung pointed that accidental intravenous injection could trigger heart conditions. In the study, researchers injected the mRNA vaccine into the thigh muscles of mice via the standard intramuscular routes and compared the outcomes with those of mice injected with the intravenous route. “We found that the heart of those mice receiving intravenous vaccine developed obvious myocarditis and pericarditis within 24 to 48 hours. This heart damage is greater even after a second dose of vaccination 14 days later,” according to the team. The hearts of mice which received intramuscular injections saw no such damage, leading the team to believe that accidental intravenous injections may cause the heart conditions. “As health authorities have previously advised that there is no need to aspirate a needle before injection, there is a risk that in rare circumstances, the injection may inadvertently be injected intravenously,” the team said. “We therefore advise that the practice of intramuscular injection should revert to the conventional way. That means a brief withdrawal of syringe plunger to exclude blood aspiration to ensure that the needle is not accidentally located in a vein before the injection is given.” Another possible method to reduce risk is to change the injection site from the shoulder muscle to the lateral side of thigh muscle, they added.
US closes in the red with COVID vaccines in focus
Shares on the major stock market indexes in the United States ended the trading session on Friday with losses after the US Food and Drug Administration voted against using Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccines as booster shots for the general population.
On the data front, worse-than-expected September’s consumer confidence report seemingly impacted the sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.48%, or 166 points, as the session ended with Dow Inc. down by 2.89%. The Nasdaq 100 concurrently tumbled 1.18%, as Copart dived 5.46%. The S&P 500 plunged 0.92% at the same time. Unum Group plummeted 6.04%, as the benchmark’s worst performer. The euro surrendered 0.29% compared to the dollar, selling for 1.17306 at 3:59 pm ET.
FDA votes against Pfizer booster shot for general public
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted unanimously Friday to recommend Pfizer (PFE)/BioNTech’s (BNTX) third dose for Americans 65 and older, and for those with high risk of contracting a severe case of COVID-19. The vote authorizing a booster for 65 and older was the panel’s second decision of the afternoon, following a ruling against booster doses for Americans 16 and over. The second vote also approved emergency use authorization rather than a supplemental approval of the already fully-licensed vaccine. A CDC advisory panel meeting, slated for next week, will delve further into who will qualify for the additional dose. Dr. Lena Wen, visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, told Yahoo Finance the vote achieved a balance. The vote comes after a heated debate in recent weeks over the need for booster or additional shots, which both mRNA companies — Pfizer and Moderna (MRNA) — have advocated for. “This is a reasonable ‘middle ground’ solution and gives discretion to physicians and patients to decide who is high risk. That level of individual decision-making is key,” Wen said. “Of course, it’s true that the unvaccinated are the major problem when it comes to spread of covid, but it shouldn’t mean that those vaccinated don’t deserve to be better protected with an extra dose if they so choose,” Wen added. Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s leading expert on vaccines, touched on the recent controversy in his introductory remarks. “We know that there may be differing opinions of the interpretation of the data regarding the potential need for additional doses, and we strongly encourage all the different viewpoints to be voiced and discussed regarding the data, which is complex, and evolving,” Marks said. He added the meeting focused on almost real-time analyses compared to what is happening in the world, and the goal remains slowing the spread of COVID-19, which is killing almost 2,000 Americans daily. The question the advisory panel was originally given to consider only used the U.S. data, a small dataset, despite the presentations including data from the U.K. and Israel. Marks instructed the panel to consider all the data, noting, “This is not a legal proceeding, this is a science proceeding, so you can take all the data into account.” The meeting precedes a September 20 start date for additional doses, announced last month by the White House COVID-19 Response Team, despite U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showing some Americans are already receiving third doses. Last month, the CDC recommended additional doses for immunocompromised people. A CDC advisory panel will meet next week to discuss recommendations for who should receive a booster dose. At a Response Team briefing Friday, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said the administration is already communicating with pharmacies, nursing homes and state officials to help roll out additional doses. But whether or not the average American also needed boosters had been a growing debate for weeks. Measuring antibody levels after a vaccine, which tend to wane, versus relying on memory cells, which can recall how to fight the virus, as is typical in vaccinations, was at the heart of the debate in the science community. A Pfizer official acknowledged that “its a much more complex story” than just antibody titers — even as the company relied on that data to advocate for additional doses. Meanwhile, some who opposed third doses believed those doses could be better used in countries with low vaccination rates. Marks also addressed that at the start of the meeting Friday, noting that the committee is only supposed to weigh on the data and need for shots, and not on global vaccine equity or operational concerns in rolling out a booster campaign in the U.S. The decision Friday heavily leaned on data from Israel, as well as the U.K., which has been a point of concern. In days prior, both mRNA vaccine companies discussed and advocated for boosters. A new report from the CDC Friday showed that Moderna’s vaccine remained stronger in protecting against hospitalization compared to Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). Both mRNA company CEOs have previously told Yahoo Finance that additional doses are inevitable. But when those doses will be needed — annually or sometime after a third shot — remains unknown. Moderna president Stephen Hoge said as much in a recent interview. “We don’t really know” if a third shot will be the final or if more are needed, he said. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla penned an open letter advocating for boosters based on the company’s clinical trial data and data from Israel. But the FDA previously cautioned that some studies from Israel, including a few published this week, have not been independently verified by the regulatory agency. Bourla also addressed the concerns about equitable distribution of vaccines globally. “I believe …that the introduction of booster doses should not change the number of doses that each country receives. No commitments already made by Pfizer to a country will change if boosters are approved,” Bourla said. Meanwhile, the U.S. is reportedly gearing up to buy an additional 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine for global donations, according to the Washington Post.
Delta variant warning: Lockdown ‘may still be required’ despite heroic vaccine rollout
SCIENTISTS have raised new concerns about the rapid spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus, warning new restrictions “may still be required” even after a successful vaccine rollout. The Covid warning comes after the Government did not rule out a “firebreak” lockdown in response to rising infections and hospitalisations with COVID-19, but only as “a last resort” measure. The Delta variant was first reported in India last year and has quickly proven to be more easily transmissible and resistant to Covid antibodies. The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 variant has since spread to more than 90 countries and has emerged as the leading cause of infections in the UK, US and Israel, among others.
Even more worryingly, the variant was found to be eight-fold less sensitive to the antibodies produced by the Pfizer–BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines.
A press release issued by Springer Nature states: “The research suggests that continued infection control measures may still be required in the post-vaccination era.” The study’s authors tested the Delta variant on lab models of the human airway to see how it replicates. Delta was found more effective at replicating than the Alpha variant, also known as the Kent variant. The scientists believe the advantage is the result of the “predominantly cleaved configuration” of the virus’s spike protein. Spike proteins are tiny structures all over the virus’s body that allow the coronavirus to enter human cells to replicate. In the case of Delta, the spike protein allows the virus to replicate at much faster rates than the Kappa variant. The study was carried out over a six-week period between March and April this year. The scientists studied the infections of 130 healthcare workers from three hospitals in Delhi who have received two doses of the AstraZeneca jab. The vaccine was found to be less effective against the Delta variant in these patients, compared to other strains. The authors warned in their paper: “Compromised vaccine efficacy against the highly fit and immune evasive B.1.617.2 Delta variant warrants continued infection control measures in the post-vaccination era.” Scientists have been sounding the alarm on the Delta variant, following worrying reports about the long-term efficacy of Covid vaccines.Data published in Israel, for instance, suggests protection against the virus effectively “vanishes” about six months after being jabbed. However, vaccines are still seen as the quickest way out of the pandemic and there are no plans in place for another lockdown here in the UK. It was reported this week the Government has been considering a brief lockdown during October’s half-term school holiday. An official spokesman for the Prime Minister has since confirmed this is not the case but the Government has not entirely ruled out a firebreak lockdown either.He said: “We have retained contingency plans as part of responsible planning for a range of scenarios, but these kind of measures would only be reintroduced as a last resort to prevent unsustainable pressure on our NHS. “I think we’ve been clear throughout that we will take action, and indeed we have done when necessary to protect our NHS.” According to a report in the i newspaper, an anonymous insider within the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said plans had been drawn up as a result of a recent spike in hospitalisations. The source said: “It would be sensible to have contingency plans, and if a lockdown is required, to time it so that it has minimal economic and societal impact. “We are going to be at a peak, albeit an extended peak, quite soon, so it’s not really the same situation as last year, when failure to reduce prevalence would have resulted in collapse of the NHS and people dying in car parks. “Hospitals might be overflowing before deaths reach the same level. Acting early will prevent this level.”
Buy Home test kits here results for your eyes only…
Be Smart!