What do the numbers mean !
Pfizer vs AstraZeneca vaccine: first comparative data
The number one question that people in the UK when chatting to each other in the past few weeks is “Which vaccine did you have?”! Yesterday (22nd February) the Scottish Government published preliminary data from their first 1.1 million people who had been enrolled in the national vaccine roll out programme. This programme, like the rest of […]
New Israeli data show good protection after one dose of Pfizer vaccine
New data published yesterday in the Lancet appeared to show that there is very good protection from becoming infected with Covid-19 two weeks after one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. In this post I describe the results, what are their limitations and what they mean. I also relate the results to similar data from AstraZeneca. What did […]
Why our T cells could take out anxiety about whether the vaccines are effective: new variants or not!
As vaccine rollout grows apace, the media are full of concerns that vaccines may not protect everyone, and may prove much less useful against new variants of the Covid-19 virus. The EU announced this afternoon support for researching new vaccines. In this post, however, I want to give a fuller introduction to the less well-known aspect […]
Short term side effects following Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines: data from first 7 million UK jabs
The clinical trials of all currently used vaccines studied relatively small numbers of people. As volunteers they were also healthier and younger than the general population. Now, after millions of doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines have been given in the UK, we have much more data which apply especially to older people and other […]
Mixing vaccines: taking two doses of different vaccines seriously!
This week has seen research supporting the idea that having the two doses from different vaccines would be more effective than two doses of the same vaccine. This idea is being taken seriously and thus this week there were announcements of two trials: In the UK with AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines as the different doses In […]
New data on AstraZeneca vaccine:
What’s the same, what’s new and what we still don’t know Yesterday (2nd February) the Lancet released a non-peer-reviewed publication on further analysis evaluating the results from the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. I believe some of the media coverage was misleading! Data were provided which address 3 specific questions: What is the level of protection […]
Vaccines in the elderly: yet more data today!
It’s been a very busy day keeping track of all the news emerging this afternoon, UK time, on the different vaccines! In this second but short post today, I provide an update on the European decision on the AstraZeneca vaccine and give very brief comments on the Janssen and Novovax vaccines. EU decision on AstraZeneca […]
Germany argues too little data to approve AZ vaccine for over 65’s: what are the facts?
Yesterday Germany did not recommend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 65. The EU is going to announce their ruling today (29th January). Given that the over 65’s are the most vulnerable, and the first target for vaccination in most countries, this is a disturbing conclusion. Its potential impact is all the greater as […]
Why children need to be vaccinated and why this might not happen (quickly enough)
Most readers of this blog have focused on vaccines for themselves and their elderly relatives: widespread vaccination for children seems a long way off. New data are very clear: children contract and transmit the infection, if anything, more easily than adults. In this post I summarise the recent data from both sides of the Atlantic on […]
Could one dose of vaccine be sufficient? Some interesting new data
Media yesterday reported on research published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. That study looked at the immune response to one versus two doses of vaccine and suggested that we might only need one dose to get immunity to the virus. In this post I critically review these data and examine how they […]
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