South Africa has paused the rollout of the AZ vaccine

Withdrawing before I say something I regret

The furthest I've been in a year was to the medical centre for my vax, which was out of area.
The furthest I'd be going at any time given decent weather later would be to the local park and seaside 10 minutes away so not exactly in the line of fire of any virus lurking.

"House arrest " is no bad thing anyway during the winter or inclement weather. I don't go out of my way to be out in it.
I've continued to go to local shops---maskless, for nearly a year and thankfully haven't had the misfortune to suffer a cold.

BlueSky

Washerwoman

If it prevents serious illness or death that will do for me.Honestly the news last night.The BBC can't wait to give us bad news.

Same here Washerwoman!

I don't quite understand what you are saying here. Atm there is no evidence ie there is an absence of evidence as to how well AZ works against the SA variant. The SA authorities are being responsible in reacting as they have atm - they have paused their roll out until more information is available. As the SA variant is in the UK what was the BBC supposed to do? Not report anything? All that matters is that they reported it accurately ( don’t know if they did because didn’t watch it).

Washerwoman

If it prevents serious illness or death that will do for me.Honestly the news last night.The BBC can't wait to give us bad news.

Same here Washerwoman!

Ellanvannin I will gladly have any vaccination if it helps towards the U.K. and the world being able to function alongside Covid-19 and its variants/mutations. (I’ve had the Pfizer one and The Husband had Astra Zeneca)

We have been shut away for 320 days, I haven’t been outside my postcode like many millions of others. This is not living its house arrest, it’s not a healthy existence mentally or physically for any age group.

I'm so sorry to read that EV, I know you were reluctant. But what a shame if you don't take the second dose, what has changed your mind?

GrannyGravy13

suziewoozie yes I can understand the rush to be the first to land the scoop . I do wonder if all the conflicting news reports are fuelling the conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers, which in turn can lead to confusion for some folks.

Agree entirely - I think the irresponsibility of many reporting research findings is appalling and that includes some politicians

I agree that ‘clinical trial nerds’ are welcome on threads like this.
Facts are so important.

suziewoozie yes I can understand the rush to be the first to land the scoop . I do wonder if all the conflicting news reports are fuelling the conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers, which in turn can lead to confusion for some folks.

Alegrias I was wary of being vaccinated to start with, I'm more so now. One's enough for me.

GrannyGravy13

Alegrias1 I agree, I do wish the media would only report factual news as opposed to maybe/might be. It can lead to misunderstandings and scares folks unnecessarily.

But to be fair to the media (?) governments and pharmaceutical companies have all been playing the early release game. Some of the reporting by some media is excellent of course but no one can stop the utter prats on all forms of social media and certain rubbish ‘journalists’ in print and on air

No more vaccinations for me I'm afraid.

Clinical trial nerds are always welcome, I'd say

I liked the mean, mode, median post!

Because of it Dottynan.
One man's meat is another man's poison----which is very true.

In one person it caused blood clots. Nobody but nobody knows what goes on inside the body of each individual person.
These vaccinations are done on a " one size fits all" turnout and this isn't always going to be the case.

If we have a certain medication to treat a certain symptom and there are side-effects, we change that medication because we can. No choice with a vaccine.

I’m sure that the Astra Zeneca vaccine was not ‘cobbled together’.
I’m also sure that it was vigorously tested. The speed of approval was unusually fast because everything was thrown at it and every step prioritised.
Due to mutations, work will be ongoing and boosters will be required when our fantastic scientists have a handle on the next mutation and the one after that.
It is incumbent on every one of us to have the vaccine and to continue to stick to the rules, hands, face, space.

If it prevents serious illness or death that will do for me.Honestly the news last night.The BBC can't wait to give us bad news.

suziewoozie I have not got a science background, I rely on a wide range of experts, if they are sloppy with words and explanations who do folks like me turn to for information?

Alegrias1

DH and I were talking about this at lunchtime. Neither of us are medics or virologists or anything like it, but we're both scientists.

DH hadn't been following this and when I explained it was an unreviewed paper leaked by the Telegraph on Friday night, he was amazed at the amount of discussion going on about it. Median age, size of the trial, the meaning of "minimal", how many SA cases in the UK etc.

There are only going to be more and more trials and more and more results that mean things will change. If we individually try to understand what everything will mean then it won't be COVID that gets us, it will be stress.

I sympathise with much of this post but given thE huge amount of uninformed comment that will inevitably result from earlier and earlier reporting of pre peer reviewed results, I think it’s helpful to have clinical trial nerds like me around.

Alegrias1 I agree, I do wish the media would only report factual news as opposed to maybe/might be. It can lead to misunderstandings and scares folks unnecessarily.

Oh don't say that EV - people will believe you!! ?

GrannyGravy13

suziewoozie

The median age was 31 not the average. The upper age was 40 which is the really relevant fact

Average / Median depends where you are getting the information. The American Professor of epidemiology who is based at one of the Scottish Universities repeatedly said “average age” on the news this morning.

People are very lazy in using the word average even Professors and it’s really not good enough. There are three measures of dispersion - mean, median and mode and in clinical research it’s incredibly important which is meant. I actually went to the actual trial results and found the information that the median age was 31 (which means half were below and half above this age) However by itself this did not tell us how many older people were in the trial so I looked at the range which was twenty something ( forget exactly) with a top age of 40 which is really relevant

And if it isn't Covid or stress, it'll be the bloomin' vaccine !

EllanVannin did these people die because of the vaccine or regardless of the vaccine

DH and I were talking about this at lunchtime. Neither of us are medics or virologists or anything like it, but we're both scientists.

DH hadn't been following this and when I explained it was an unreviewed paper leaked by the Telegraph on Friday night, he was amazed at the amount of discussion going on about it. Median age, size of the trial, the meaning of "minimal", how many SA cases in the UK etc.

There are only going to be more and more trials and more and more results that mean things will change. If we individually try to understand what everything will mean then it won't be COVID that gets us, it will be stress.

Thanks Suzie very informative.