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Coronavirus

Percentages for vaccine

(60 Posts)
Issipy Sun 24-Jan-21 10:40:08

The vaccine I'm due to have is listed as averaging 70% effective. Does this mean that only 70% of patients will be protected? Or does it mean that we would only get a 30% illness?

squirrelnutkins Sun 24-Jan-21 10:45:38

I'm also confused by this. There was a discussion on radio the other day where they were talking about one of the vaccines being 90% effective and Jeremy Vine said that meant 10% of vaccinated people wouldn't be protected. I take it as everyone being 90% covered with a 10% chance of getting infected. What do you think?

Blinko Sun 24-Jan-21 10:49:21

I think we need Alegrias1 on this one....

M0nica Sun 24-Jan-21 11:34:20

I think it means that 70% will be completely protected, but 30% will not be totally protected, but if they get the illness, but not seriously.

Both my children had all their childhood vaccines, but one got measles and both caught whooping cough, but in each case it was very mild version of these illnesses. This is the sort of thing that one would expect to happen if any of the those vaccinated for COVID caught the disease.

Once you have the second dose immunity goes up to about 95%. For those getting the Pfizer jab one dose gives about 90% immunity, the second jab, will again take that figure to 95%

Gransooz Sun 24-Jan-21 11:43:22

I agree with you squirrelnutkins. No-one will be 100% covered, and everyone will be 70 or 90% covered with a 30 or 10% chance of catching the virus, depending on which vaccine you’re given. But that is so much better than not having the vaccine and having 100% chance of catching it. But maybe we’re wrong ?

NotSpaghetti Sun 24-Jan-21 12:10:37

It means the vaccine prevents symptoms for 70% of people who have it.

NotSpaghetti Sun 24-Jan-21 12:13:52

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/617104/

This is about the Pfizer vaccine.
It's an audio interview but the transcript is there too.

Jaxjacky Sun 24-Jan-21 12:15:02

I’ll be grateful for any % when mine is done, I understood it that every one vaccinated would be whatever % protected.
Unfortunately two people on local social media stated ‘now I’ve had my first jab I can hug my family’, they were swiftly corrected.

Hetty58 Sun 24-Jan-21 12:21:14

No vaccine is anything like 100% effective, is it? I think the flu vaccine averages about 50%.

Therefore, I'm very glad you've raised this point. I'm alarmed that so many people see vaccination as 'the answer' - rather than a very useful precaution.

Talk of hugging grandchildren and having parties, post vaccination, is evidence that some people really don't get it!

Esspee Sun 24-Jan-21 12:35:02

Being vaccinated (two doses 3 weeks apart) does not mean you can’t catch the virus. That was made clear a very long time ago.
It is supposed to help your body fight the virus.

No idea what a random vaccination followed by who knows what gap is expected to do. (and neither does the manufacturer, the medics or the government)

EllanVannin Sun 24-Jan-21 12:40:54

I was told yesterday that the vaccine I had ( AstraZeneca ) has a high level of immunity. I don't know how high as I haven't read up about it. The second dose is in 6 weeks time.
However I still have to stick to the rules

chelseababy Sun 24-Jan-21 12:43:39

Six weeks time EllanVannin, not 12?

M0nica Mon 25-Jan-21 07:32:21

Any protection is better than none.

dragonfly46 Mon 25-Jan-21 07:37:13

We were told 12 weeks when we had our vaccines.

BlueSky Mon 25-Jan-21 08:42:39

EllanVannin

I was told yesterday that the vaccine I had ( AstraZeneca ) has a high level of immunity. I don't know how high as I haven't read up about it. The second dose is in 6 weeks time.
However I still have to stick to the rules

Ellan yes 6 weeks sounds good! Did you have the vaccination at your GP practice? Just wonder whether this makes a difference to the interval, we still have to follow the rules even when fully vaccinated, so it shouldn’t make much difference.

GoldenAge Mon 25-Jan-21 10:11:11

Issipy - it means that if you come into close contact with the virus you have a seven in ten chance of not getting it, but a three in ten chance of being infected.

maddyone Mon 25-Jan-21 10:23:51

I think the time till the next vaccine depends on which vaccine you have, so AstraZenica is about six weeks, whereas Pfizer should be three weeks but has been lengthened to twelve weeks.

maddyone Mon 25-Jan-21 10:25:08

I don’t understand exactly what the 90% protection means either.

growstuff Mon 25-Jan-21 10:30:39

maddyone

I don’t understand exactly what the 90% protection means either.

If it's true, it means that there is 90% efficacy, in other words 90% of people who are vaccinated will have less serious symptoms. As people have no idea whether they're on of the 90%, they need to continue taking precautions for the foreseeable future, until community transmission rates have come right down.

Nobody really knows what the efficacy in real life situations is at the moment anyway and they won't until community data is available.

polnan Mon 25-Jan-21 10:32:21

I fail to understand how so many people think that this , very quickly found and produced vaccine, could possibly be other than a sort of temporary one,, ie.. thank you all those who have worked on it and are working on it,, but I really do think
that there is a long way to go, and lots more work to be done, to give us a better(?) vaccine,,, progress....

SillyNanny321 Mon 25-Jan-21 10:38:30

In our area very few people are being vaccinated! It seems North East Essex have been forgotten despite having very high levels of both infections & deaths. We have a very large older population & a great many Care Homes but thousands of people have heard nothing yet! So. All the talk of how much protection we will all have is useless to all of us unless someone sorts out more than the one small centre working against all the new ones opening countrywide, not here though! Perhaps Government is thinking we may all die of old age or virus before they have to vaccinate us? More than a little fed up with this situation especially hearing of over 70’s now getting their jab! Sorry gone on a lot but have no one else to talk to, Going now ok ?

B9exchange Mon 25-Jan-21 10:46:14

Don't worry SillyNanny, they are coming to a site near you grin
www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/18994928.coronavirus-vaccine-sites-north-essex-revealed/

SillyNanny321 Mon 25-Jan-21 10:59:05

Yup so we keep getting told on a local site. Trouble is no one knows where or when. If I die of old age before I get my jab I think I will come back & haunt the whole of our Government & their Advisors ?

BigBertha1 Mon 25-Jan-21 11:22:22

Sillynanny321 my sister works in a GP practice in NE Essex and she tell me they are getting a high number of refusals for the vaccination which astounds me.

grandtanteJE65 Mon 25-Jan-21 11:22:58

Usually if you say that 90% will be safe from infection after being vaccinated, it means that out of every 100 people vaccinated, 10 will still contract the disease.

There is no way of knowing who these ten people out of every hundred will be, which is not consoling if we look at this from a purely personal point of view, however from the standards of Nietsche's ethics it obviously makes sense to vaccinate a hundred people knowing that ninety of them will remain healthy.