Covid-19 vaccinations

[Shawnino]

3 hours ago, Kate-AHF said:

 

How can you possibly conflate yellow fever with covid vax?  Could the method of transmission be more different?  I don't think it can.  There is no consistency because there is no comparison.

 

In late 2019 I sailed around most of South America.  Before I went, I had a long conversation on the YF vax with my doctor.  We discussed what ports, what activities, what the likelihood of getting bitten, and what I could do to prevent it.  We also discussed the possible complications associated with receiving the YF vax.  Together, we decided the risk of adverse side effects (for ME - not everyone) overrode the possible benefits.  Had I been travelling up the Amazon instead of circumnavigating, we would have come to a different conclusion.  

 

 

Really glad you discussed the YF situation with your physician.

Ideally of course we'd all have long discussions about everything with our health providers.

But YF, among all vaccines, is possibly the one that requires the most case-by-case assessment. 

Thanks for sharing your positive example here.

[Tranquility Base]

Johnson & Johnson has started work on a booster to help against current variants.

I believe Pfizer is doing similar work.

 

If these work, and are deemed to be necessary to increase effectiveness, then current 'fully vaccinated' timeframes may be impacted.

[Tranquility Base]

On 2/5/2021 at 7:40 AM, Tranquility Base said:

I can see the changes happening over the coming months.

 

From....

Lockdown....when is it going to end ?

to

Vaccines....when will they be approved ?

to

Vaccinations....when will they start ?

to

Vaccinations....when will I get mine ?

to

I'm vaccinated....why are we not cruising ?

 

 

Took 2.5 months.

[PhD-iva]

Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today by Kim Strassel ends w this interesting quote,

“ The Covid crisis created many new power players, but none so frightening as the public health official. The cruise  sector is evidence of the urgent need for a discussion about how best to keep that megalomaniacal bureaucracy in check.“

[TrulyBlonde]

34 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today by Kim Strassel ends w this interesting quote,

“ The Covid crisis created many new power players, but none so frightening as the public health official. The cruise  sector is evidence of the urgent need for a discussion about how best to keep that megalomaniacal bureaucracy in check.“

Kim Strassel gets it...always

[TrulyBlonde]

3 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today by Kim Strassel ends w this interesting quote,

“ The Covid crisis created many new power players, but none so frightening as the public health official. The cruise  sector is evidence of the urgent need for a discussion about how best to keep that megalomaniacal bureaucracy in check.“

Here is the link to the WSJ OpEd. I saw it on the X board.

[Tranquility Base]

It appears Pfizer will be starting clinical trails very soon on their booster (3rd) dose.

Starting with people who received their first dose 6 months ago.

Expanding out to include others over coming months.

 

This from the vaccine thread on the Celebrity forum, from someone who has 2 family members who received the phone call.

 

[Tranquility Base]

Moderna plans to have their 3rd dose booster shot available by the fall.

 

Source: CBS news.

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, Tranquility Base said:

Moderna plans to have their 3rd dose booster shot available by the fall.

 

Source: CBS news.

Great - that would be just in time for us as we had our second shot in Feb.

[pinotlover]

I’m fully vaccinated also. However, I’d like to see some actual statistical evidence on the actual need and timeline for the booster. I’d particularly like to see it come from a third party with no monetary stake in the report. For me, it’s just a bit too convenient for the pharmaceuticals to be so quickly announcing that we need to continue spending billions more for their products into perpetuity.

[Paulchili]

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

I’m fully vaccinated also. However, I’d like to see some actual statistical evidence on the actual need and timeline for the booster. I’d particularly like to see it come from a third party with no monetary stake in the report. For me, it’s just a bit too convenient for the pharmaceuticals to be so quickly announcing that we need to continue spending billions more for their products into perpetuity.

This is not coming out of thin air. Our current vaccines are quite effective against the original and the UK strain, However, they are less effective against the S African and maybe Brazilian ones - hence the need for a booster (with protection against those strains).

Likewise, don't we get flu shots annually?

[njhorseman]

3 hours ago, pinotlover said:

I’m fully vaccinated also. However, I’d like to see some actual statistical evidence on the actual need and timeline for the booster. I’d particularly like to see it come from a third party with no monetary stake in the report. For me, it’s just a bit too convenient for the pharmaceuticals to be so quickly announcing that we need to continue spending billions more for their products into perpetuity.

The pharmaceutical companies will have to submit evidence that the boosters are safe and effective just as they did for the original vaccines. The NIH is already testing versions of  boosters that could be used against the variants and any booster will have to be FDA-approved before it can be used.

https://www.prevention.com/health/a35644466/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot/

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-initiate-study-part-broad-development

https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/atlantic/news/covid-19-heres-when-moderna-booster-shot-will-be-available-for-those-who-got-both-doses/807200/

[pinotlover]

10 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

The pharmaceutical companies will have to submit evidence that the boosters are safe and effective just as they did for the original vaccines. The NIH is already testing versions of  boosters that could be used against the variants and any booster will have to be FDA-approved before it can be used.

https://www.prevention.com/health/a35644466/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot/

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-initiate-study-part-broad-development

https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/atlantic/news/covid-19-heres-when-moderna-booster-shot-will-be-available-for-those-who-got-both-doses/807200/

Neither article provides 3rd Party verification. Both companies are still saying their vaccines remain greater than 90% effective after 6 months. 
 

Sounds more like a oil change shop telling you to change oil every 3,000 miles. Yes, one must change their oil, but 3,000 mile increments aren’t necessary. But doing so provides the shop good business. 
 

I’d like to see 3rd Party verification on the normal length of protection the vaccines provide. Telling these poor countries that the vaccine is only good for 6-12 months and they must pony up huge amounts of money isn’t a working solution. Once the government stops paying for these shots, what’s it going to cost our insurance companies, thus us, for repeated vaccines? A lot of people don’t get the yearly flu shot because some one has to pay.

[njhorseman]

22 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Neither article provides 3rd Party verification.

You must have missed the part about the NIH already studying the Moderna vaccines and the part of the Pfizer press release where the describe the clinical trails planned for the boosters. What else are you looking for? This is how the process works. You develop modifications, test them and then obtain approval for their use. What third party's approval would you like? 

 

The current vaccines' efficacy can't be currently evaluated at 9 or 12 or 18 months down the road because insufficient time has elapsed. When those markers are hit we'll see the answer. In the meantime do you want the pharmaceutical companies to sit on their hands and do nothing in the hope they're effective for a longer time? If they did that and we found the vaccines lost their efficacy after a year we would then need the manufacturers to ramp up vaccine trials for the boosters and it would take months for the boosters to be ready for use...months during which the virus could start raging out of control.

Edited April 18, 2021 by njhorseman

[pinotlover]

15 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

You must have missed the part about the NIH already studying the Moderna vaccines and the part of the Pfizer press release where the describe the clinical trails planned for the boosters. What else are you looking for? This is how the process works. you develop modifications, test them and then obtain approval for their use. What third party's approval would you like?  

A third party providing evidence of the length of protection the various vaccines provide. I believe it will become necessary anyway. When it comes time for the insurance companies to start paying for the vaccines, they’re not going to pay solely on the recommendations of getting a shot on short intervals. They’ll only pay on the proven need to be revaccinated at certain intervals. They might get away with a year, but not 6 months.

 

The trials are on the effectiveness of the boosters on the different variants, not on the length of effectiveness of the current vaccines nor on their effectiveness on the new variations.

Edited April 18, 2021 by pinotlover

[pinotlover]

The ten year average in the US for people getting their flu shot was 45%, however in 2019 it was near 49%. 
 

Do you believe the number will increase significantly for Covid every year?

[Tranquility Base]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

Telling these poor countries that the vaccine is only good for 6-12 months and they must pony up huge amounts of money isn’t a working solution.

That is why we have the Global Covax program.

 

[njhorseman]

17 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

The ten year average in the US for people getting their flu shot was 45%, however in 2019 it was near 49%. 
 

Do you believe the number will increase significantly for Covid every year?

You have to use 2020 flu vaccination statistics to determine if the percent of the population getting vaccinated was meaningfully affected by COVID. It's called COVID-19 because it was identified in 2019, but that was was late December 2019, by which time most of the population that get the flu vaccine would have already done so, and the seriousness of the pandemic wasn't clearly understood until March, 2020. The pleas by public health officials to get the flu vaccine out of fear of the flu season being exacerbated by COVID were for the 2020 flu season.

[njhorseman]

42 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

 

The trials are on the effectiveness of the boosters on the different variants, not on the length of effectiveness of the current vaccines nor on their effectiveness on the new variations.

Not so. Look at this from the Pfizer press release:

"Administering a third dose will provide an early assessment of the safety of a third dose of BNT162b2, as well as its immunogenicity. This study will evaluate up to 144 Phase 1 participants in two age cohorts, 18-55 and 65-85 years of age. The study will include trial participants who received the two doses in the Phase 1 study 6 to 12 months ago in order to assess the boostability of BNT162b2. Thus, the study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of a third vaccination irrespective of the level of antibody titers of the trial participant. Participants will be assessed at the time they receive the third dose, then one week and one month after, and Pfizer and BioNTech plan to study the ability of the sera from those participants to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 strains of interest. The participants will continue being followed in the study for up to 2 years as originally planned."

[pinotlover]

Perhaps an honest omission, but for those of you that opt to receive and read emails from Cruise Critics, today had a great article about the cruise lines starting to get their crews vaccinated for the restart of cruising.

 

Great, timing article. Only problem was NCL wasn’t mentioned at all. Another earlier article wrote about how other cruise lines had gotten crews out of India. They had put them in 14 day isolation and were getting them vaccinated. NCL wasn’t mentioned in that article either. Here’s hoping NCLH has taken some proactive steps, gotten crews out, and have them in the vaccination lines also.

Edited May 5, 2021 by pinotlover

[mauibabes]

Pinot, I give Frank a lot more credit than press releases in CC. Since all the ships are various places around the globe and there are staff aboard, just maybe the core nucleus of crew to staff Marina and the other NCL ships scheduled to be the first ships to sail are already in play. The rest of the staff can be picked up via other NCL ships and private charter flights. They got them home that way so it should be no problem to collect the necessary staff.  They have committed to the August 29 Baltic trip with the published itinerary and I am betting they will have the staff to do the job. 
I have already heard chatter that NCLH and other lines will  provide shots for their staff and crews so they can all meet the CDC sailing requirements.  Cruise ports are doing it so the lines can make sure the vaccinations are readily available.

 We can take a breath and let the coming weeks play out and watch the cruise lines get ready to sail. They will get it done. 
Gerry 

[Tranquility Base]

Countries neighboring India and other countries in Southeast Asia are seeing a surge in cases.

Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia.

The rapid resurgence is placing enormous pressure on the health services and medical supplies in some of these countries.

Source: CNN.

 

The World has a very long way to go with our vaccination programs.

[Tranquility Base]

On 5/8/2021 at 1:12 PM, Tranquility Base said:

Countries neighboring India and other countries in Southeast Asia are seeing a surge in cases.

Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia.

The rapid resurgence is placing enormous pressure on the health services and medical supplies in some of these countries.

Malaysia has entered a nationwide lockdown through to 7 June due to a surge.

Low vaccination rates in many Asian countries is a concern.

[Tranquility Base]

Singapore has announced a one month lockdown due to a rise in unexplained community cases.

This is a setback as Singapore has been considered a 'Covid haven' due to their strict procedures.

Their vaccination rate is, as expected, good with over 50% with at least one dose received.

 

Once again a reminder that Globally we are a very long way from the end of this Pandemic.

Global travel will remain difficult for some time yet.

 

Hopefully this year wealthy Nations will increase their efforts in donating vaccine supply to the many low and middle income countries in need.

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Tranquility Base

[no fuss travel]

But those of you on the USA are further ahead than Canada. We still have a fair amount of our population that still do not have their first dose of vaccine and we are being told we will not get our second dose until August. We received our first dose last month.