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THE VIRUS 2020 - the good, the bad, and the ugly

Therapeutic Goods Administration chief John Skerritt told a Senate committee on Friday the messenger RNA vaccine could be approved by early August, joining Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the pandemic war chest.

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Moderna COVID-19 vaccine close to approval in Australia

The mRNA jab could be used here by the end of this year, joining Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the pandemic defence system.
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Affable said:
Yet the data does not suggest that this should be the case. Most sources claim the Pfizer to be more effective as well as more safer for younger people than the AZ. I do not trust either of these vaccines.

Federal Government really fucked up not given Australian's the choice of which vaccine they want and bringing in more brands. Novavax is my vaccine of choice and I will be waiting for it.
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@Affable don't risk waiting for some vaccine that may never come. Just get whatever you can now and don't risk your own health or that of your friends or family. I've had two shots of Sinovac, and we'll apparently be getting an AZ booster at some later stage, and I'm good with that. It's a relief to get 95% protection against hospitalisation or death, and if the effects of the vaccines turn out not to last long then we can get another booster later. It's silly to wait if you have access to a vaccine right now. Want things to return to normal? Get a jab. It really is as simple as that.
 
Not forgetting that any decent protection requires 2 shots, several weeks apart. Start now before it's too late, if you're eligible. Consult your GP if you have any current health issues.

BTW, the AZ advice is based partially on statistical analysis, rather than age dependent interaction (at least for adults at this stage). Sadly, those statistics change depending on the presence of local spread. That is to say that without local spread, the risk of death from Covid19 is LOW, but with local spread, the risk that you will contract the virus and die is higher.

If you go back to the EU/UK media conference around the 10th of April 2021, you will see how the stats play a role. It's not quite intuitive, as statistics and probability often are not.

(Disclosure - Fully Vaccinated as of 29th July 2021)
 
This was an interesting post on another forum, a guy talking about his family and friends in Cambodia:

I’ll share my family and friends statistics and and stories about being immunised with Chinese vaccines. Mother in law, 6 brother in-laws + spouses + nieces, nephews,cousins and so on, probably around 50 in total. Through one brothers job he was able to get everyone access to be vaccinated early on. Same as our friends family, possibly 10 people so an overall count of 60 or so. Everyone took up the opportunity to get vaccinated with the exception of my mother in law, who listened to and believed all the conspiracy theory’s doing the rounds, mostly on opposition Facebook pages. Also the mother and father from the friends family resisted, the mother was immunised maybe 10 days ago and the father still didn’t believe it was something he needed to worry about.

So, this week the shit hits the fan, mother in law gets taken by an ambulance to the COVID centre and tested positive. Put on oxygen and almost dead, brother that lives with her tests positive, but no symptoms, he is immunised. House is taped up and locked down. All immediate family tested and all negative, they were all immunised with Chinese vaccine. Friends father was admitted to the Russian hospital, put on oxygen and almost dead also, he tested positive to Covid, rest of his family tested and negative, all immunised with chinese vaccine. Good news is both seem to be improving and off the oxygen. So that’s my family stats. The Chinese vacs seemed to work well.
 
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I'll just add here that the reason the AZ vaccine age advice has changed so dramatically is two-fold.

1. Earlier at the EU/UK press conferences, the original strain of Covid19 appeared to be more deadly in the older age bracket (60+ years old).
At that time (early April 2021) the presence of Covid19 local spread in Australia was extremely low (compared to other countries).
With that in mind, it was more likely that a Covid19 infection would kill an elderly person than a younger person.

2. Since then, other variants (especially so Delta), appear to be more broadly deadly across all adult age groups.
This considerably changes the statistics of who might die of Covid19 versus a clot when taking a person's age into account - it's becoming
a more level playing field across age ranges, so to speak.

So here we are with the bean-counters (statisticians) trying to advise, using the latest data which is always in flux, who is more likely to die from what for a given local spread.

All those data points are 'moving', as more data is collected, so expect changes.

This is my considered opinion, having looked/read/heard just SOME of the data from multiple sources. YMMV
 
timmy said:
@Affable don't risk waiting for some vaccine that may never come. Just get whatever you can now and don't risk your own health or that of your friends or family. I've had two shots of Sinovac, and we'll apparently be getting an AZ booster at some later stage, and I'm good with that. It's a relief to get 95% protection against hospitalisation or death, and if the effects of the vaccines turn out not to last long then we can get another booster later. It's silly to wait if you have access to a vaccine right now. Want things to return to normal? Get a jab. It really is as simple as that.
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I don’t think it is silly to wait when AZ is more risky to me than any other vaccine and Pfizer I don’t trust completely either. I only know 2 people who have had the vaccine in reality (1 Astra, 1 Pfizer) and both of them suffered from serious complications. It is not a risk that I am willing to take at this point. Further, I am against RNA technology and refuse to take the AZ due to bloodclot concerns.

February said:
All good sound advice!
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Easy for it to be when it aligns with your views and you don’t care about the health of the younger generation.
 
I have a (mostly-enforced) policy against engaging with antivaxxers and trolls so I'll bite my tongue. Suffice to say the media has overblown any AZ clot risk. You're just as likely to be struck by lightning.
 
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Antivaxxers and trolls? Let's breakdown these fallacious arguments along with the media overblowing comment.

Fallacious argument #1: anti-vaxxer - means opposed to vaccination of any kind. How can that be the case when I get yearly flu shots and am willing to get the Novavax vaccine?? Just because I don't want the Pfizer or AZ vaccine does not make me an anti-vaxxer.

Fallacious argument #2: troll - expressing an opinion that you do not agree with does not make me a troll.

Fallacious argument #3: media overblowing AZ clot risk - simply not true. I have yet to run into a media organisation saying not to get vaccinated due to the clot risk. It is more that I hear this from medical professionals. Doctors like Queensland's own CHO Dr Jeanette Young strongly advised against the COVID-19 vaccine for under 40's even though the clot risk is extremely rare.

You know though... Keep putting false accusations of anti-vaxxing, trolling as well as false information out there like you are already doing.
 
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