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Coronavirus

Covid19 Vaccines in Production

(78 Posts)
Buffybee Mon 18-May-20 11:53:08

Good news!
Of course we know our wonderful Scientists at Oxford and Imperial College have been working on finding a vaccine and are now carrying out trials.
It’s still fingers crossed that the vaccine will work but.....
The Government has made a deal with AstraZenica, they are going into mass production and will have 30 million vaccines ready by September in the hope that the vaccine works.
I think we all realise a vaccine is the only real way out of this pandemic and our Government have already ploughed more than a quarter of a Billion into the search for the vaccine.
Wonderful news and I hope it will give some hope and lift everyone’s spirits, as it has mine. ?

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 19:32:06

FarNorth I know for a fact that the first vaccines to be available are going to NHS Workers, next Care Workers and then 'the most vulnerable ', who of course will be able to choose whether or not to have the vaccine.
I, for one, will be on the front row!
This virus is not going to disappear so easily, if ever and I don't want to spend the rest of my life, cooped up inside or constantly fearful when I do go out of contracting the virus.

maddyone Tue 19-May-20 19:30:34

Obviously the citizens of the UK would get ‘first dibs’ but it certainly would help repay some of the debt if it was sold to the rest of the world.
I’m crossing my fingers.

NfkDumpling Tue 19-May-20 19:24:18

Buffy, the word you need to note in the passage you quote isn’t “immediately” but “enables”. It doesn’t say that the money means production will start but that it enables it to start immediately the vaccine becomes available.

A good sign nonetheless, that no time will be wasted if this vaccine works. I hope it does, it’ll help repay our enormous debt!

FarNorth Tue 19-May-20 19:23:18

I did read that Buffybee, as well as other reports.
All, it seems to me, could be interpreted either way.

Do you have views on rushing the first available vaccine doses to 'the most vulnerable' btw?

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 19:22:41

MayBee70, there may have been a different vaccine which stopped the virus causing pneumonia but didn't produce antibodies.

But that is not the one which they are testing right now, which is a vaccine to prevent people from catching the virus, not just the pneumonia symptom.

MayBee70 Tue 19-May-20 19:17:58

I'm sure it said on the news that a large factory to produce the vaccine was being built? Will Astra Zeneca manufacture it in this country?

MayBee70 Tue 19-May-20 19:16:09

I thought the Oxford vaccine seemed to stop the virus causing pneumonia but hadn't been found to produce antibodies.

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 19:12:18

FarNorth go to growstuffs link from Oxford University at 12.00 today and scroll all the way down to the end, 2nd item down (at the moment) you will see:-
Funding and manufacturing boost for UK vaccine programme.
Professor Sir John Bell says We now have a partner in AstraZenica who are ideally positioned to help us evaluate the vaccine, manufacture it and distribute it to the UK citizens as well as the rest of the World.
We don't need to build a facility as growstuff thinks. Astra Zenic a is the facility.

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 18:56:33

You are quite right Bluebell
I will be on the front row to have this vaccine as soon as I can possibly have it.

BlueBelle Tue 19-May-20 18:53:24

buffybee we will all wait with baited breathe to hear how you get on as the first volunteer to try the new very new vaccine

FarNorth Tue 19-May-20 18:50:39

Also from that Telegraph link :

"On the partnership with AstraZeneca, Sir John [Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University] said: “Once we get an approval by the regulators we don't want to have to go back to the beginning and work out how we manufacture it at scale."

Isn't that saying that manufacturing capacity is being got ready now but that they cannot start production until the vaccine has been approved by regulators?
And wouldn't that happen after it's proved itself in the trials?

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 18:45:54

The above is for growstuff

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 18:45:16

Yes I know you had a link from AstraZenica but it was an old link.

The Oxford University Link was where I found the comments from Professor Alexander Douglas, which was dated only yesterday 18/5/2020
And I’m sorry but he does say that the manufacturing of the vaccine is to start IMMEDIATELY. You’ve even quoted the comment yourself.
Directly under my comment at 13.19 quoting the full paragraph from Dr Alexander Douglas, read the comment from suzie, she understood and commented on it.

FarNorth Tue 19-May-20 18:42:45

"Mr Hancock told MPs in the Commons: "... if it does (work) it is likely to be one of the first available in the world, then we have agreement to make sure that 100 million doses are available for the UK, the first 30 million of which will be right at the start for the most vulnerable."

That quote from Matt Hancock was in growstuff's Telegraph link.
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/covid-coronavirus-vaccine-latest-news-uk-trials/

Am I the only one who thinks that sounds reckless?
The human trials will have been on healthy people, so there will be no info on how 'vulnerable' people might be affected.
If time is not going to be taken, to evaluate the effects on people who are not in good health, wouldn't it be better to vaccinate large numbers of healthy people, then there will be less of the virus going around to pose a danger to vulnerable people.

Am I missing something?

growstuff Tue 19-May-20 18:32:58

And I cannot understand why you can't understand plain English Buffybee, The first link I posted was from Oxford University. Another one was from AstraZeneca. The facility to manufacture the vaccines hasn't even been built yet. The earliest it will go into production is summer 2021. There is no way in the world that anybody is about to start producing vaccines immediately.

I've had enough of this. It's like bashing one's head against a brick wall.

B9exchange Tue 19-May-20 17:59:28

Did I dream it, or was there a report from the US today that they had developed and tested a successful vaccine?

The Oxford one is looking promising, it works on monkeys, and has been injected into 1000 volunteers, now remains to be seen if enough of them develop antibodies. It seems a strange notion that our numbers are going down so fast there may not be enough of the virus left in the community to provide the volunteers with a good exposure!

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 17:41:22

Yes! Tweedle you either catch it and become immune or die.
So, the only way us older people and vulnerable people will be able to “safely” and comfortably re-join society is when a vaccination is found to be viable.
Which, by the way, we hope and pray the one being tested by Oxford University is going to be ‘the one’.

Tweedle24 Tue 19-May-20 17:34:00

I wonder if those who say that the virus will go away are right? The 18-19 Spanish flu did go away but, according to a documentary I saw, this was because the ‘hosts’ either died or , recovered and became immune.

This time, with all the isolating etc., there will be many vulnerable, non immune people who will either come out and catch the virus or remain as hermits.

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 17:12:23

If they had a vaccine they would have sold it at an extortionate price, when this outbreak was at its peak.
But with their record, who would want to inject themselves with something from there.
I’m hoping we will not now be including China in out 5G construction.

JenniferEccles Tue 19-May-20 16:16:41

I can’t help wondering if at some point the Chinese will announce that they have developed a vaccine and offer it to a desperate world at a highly inflated price of course.

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 15:54:56

Correction 18/5/2020

Buffybee Tue 19-May-20 15:54:17

growstuff all the links you are giving now are just from journalists, the one that I prefer to believe is from
The University of Oxford 28/5/2020
and the quote is from the leader of the research group, Professor Alexander Douglas.
He states This funding enables manufacturing to start immediately.

I cannot fathom why you can not comprehend the meaning of “immediately” which according to my understanding and the Oxford Dictionary means “at once”
“instantly”.

MayBee70 Tue 19-May-20 15:10:42

The trouble with plasma is there isn't enough to go round; I think one infected person can be used to treat several others. Trump is supposedly already taking hydroxychloroquine which can be fatal if not medically supervised; think he's going against medical advice. Another report I saw said that current medication can be repurposed but it's never as good as something specifically manufactured. From what I heard last night the American vaccine sounds more hopeful than the British one, unfortunately. And the Israeli's have developed a 'monochlonal antibody' [I've probably spelt that wrong] that is very effective but will be expensive to manufacture. I'm saving up now for it !

growstuff Tue 19-May-20 14:49:57

Another link about vaccines, from the DT:

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/covid-coronavirus-vaccine-latest-news-uk-trials/

Please not the number of times the word "if" is used.

Alok Sharma is hoping the manufacturing facility will be open by summer 2021.

JenniferEccles Tue 19-May-20 14:11:03

I believe a certain D. Trump has volunteered to test whether a drug used for malaria might be beneficial!
Very public spirited of him!!