2019 Novel Coronavirus Covid-19 Discussion

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#2720775 8-Jun-2021 16:39

Handle9:

Do you support a mixed vaccine strategy or Pfizer only? The strategy changed and so to the back of the queue you go.

NZ has only ever had a one vaccine strategy, 8th March NZ signed an agreement to order enough Pfizer Vaccine for the whole country.

Explain how anything has changed for NZ's supply

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#2720776 8-Jun-2021 16:40

DS248:

?

I am in the over-70 category and everything I have seen has in effect said "Don't call us, we'll call you" (& no one has). Personally, for now I am happy to wait

Last I heard most Group 2 have still not been vaccinated. And with the current vaccine supply there is only sufficient for a small fraction of Group 3 until the start of July.

When my wife had her first vaccination shot last week pretty well everyone else other than her would have been in the over 70 category. I don't know how they obtained their booking.

If you think you're missing out ring the local 0800 Covid number and ask to make a booking.

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Handle9

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#2720777 8-Jun-2021 16:40

JPNZ:

Handle9:

Do you support a mixed vaccine strategy or Pfizer only? The strategy changed and so to the back of the queue you go.

NZ has only ever had a one vaccine strategy, 8th March NZ signed an agreement to order enough Pfizer Vaccine for the whole country.

Explain how anything has changed for NZ's supply

Lol. Going from mixed supply to a single source isn't a change in strategy? Mmmkay.

JPNZ

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#2720778 8-Jun-2021 16:43

Handle9:

Lol. Going from mixed supply to a single source isn't a change in strategy? Mmmkay.

14 days after we started vaccinations, they decided to order 8.5 million more doses of Pfizer (on top of the initial order of 1.5 Million placed prior to that)

You telling me a 14 day window in Feb has had an effect? Get real..

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#2720779 8-Jun-2021 16:47

JPNZ:

Handle9:

Lol. Going from mixed supply to a single source isn't a change in strategy? Mmmkay.

14 days after we started vaccinations, they decided to order 8.5 million more doses of Pfizer (on top of the initial order of 1.5 Million placed prior to that)

You telling me a 14 day window in Feb has had an effect? Get real..

You think that you can walk into Countdown and pickup 8.5 million vaccines with zero lead time? Okey dokey.

wellygary

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#2720781 8-Jun-2021 16:56

Handle9:

Lol. Going from mixed supply to a single source isn't a change in strategy? Mmmkay.

Yes, is was a change, but it made the rollout faster,

When the AZ agreement was announced the timetable was

""Our first priority will be to vaccinate border workers and essential staff who are at the greatest risk of getting COVID-19. We expect vaccines to be delivered to our front line workers in the second quarter of 2021.

“Our aim is to then commence vaccination of the general public in the second half of the year."

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/two-new-vaccines-secured-enough-every-new-zealander

While you could argue we are nearly in the 2nd Half, we are already partially into the general public (non border/essential workers)

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#2720834 8-Jun-2021 17:23

Pfizer has become greatly sought after.
Europe has been grilling vaccine suppliers exporting too much.
Countries that thought they had more time were hit by surges like Japan.
Pfizer has been shown to have good results against variants etc.

Then you have problems with supply of pre cursors for other vaccine efforts.

China export delay halts Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine production in Brazil
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3133285/china-export-delay-halts-sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-production

Brazil to halt Sinovac vaccine production as Chinese supplies held up
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/brazil-biomedical-center-says-shipment-chinese-vaccine-ingredients-delayed-2021-05-12/

So we in a better position that most with no community spread are lucky to not be constantly bumped in the queue.

If you don't have manufacturing capability including precursors, and even simple things like special syringes.

You just have to take what you can get ?

More reason to keep high standard of vigilance at borders and care.

Fred99

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#2720843 8-Jun-2021 18:10

As I understand it, the equipment used to make the mRNA vaccines doesn't scale. They have to use small high shear high pressure "jet" mixers to produce the nanoparticles. Increasing the size doesn't work, they have to increase the number of mixers and use them in parallel - and that's the bottleneck.

Edit - found a photo:

To increase volume for conventional vaccines, you mainly just need a bigger tank.

Buster

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#2720845 8-Jun-2021 18:13

JPNZ:But.... as we were told over and over again we would be at the front of the queue... Sure looks like the back when you look.

That's only 37 OECD countries. There's more countries in the World caught up in this Global pandemic than that and NZ is not at the bottom.

Scott3

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#2720847 8-Jun-2021 18:15

JPNZ:

Handle9:

Lol. Going from mixed supply to a single source isn't a change in strategy? Mmmkay.

14 days after we started vaccinations, they decided to order 8.5 million more doses of Pfizer (on top of the initial order of 1.5 Million placed prior to that)

You telling me a 14 day window in Feb has had an effect? Get real..

In Mid? 2020 NZ ordered:

1.5m pfizer

8.5m AZ

10m Novovax

5m J=J (single dose)

It was never disclosed, but I think Pfizer / AZ mixed roll out was plan A.

I think J+J was the main backup plan, that could be swapped into primary position if trial data from their single dose showed similar protection to the 2 dose vaccines.

I think Novovax was the dark horse. - was the only vaccine that prevented the virus growing in primates noses in animal trials, hence the most likely to prevent transmission without symptoms. In the event that the other vaccines didn't stop / slow transmission without transmission, this vaccine would have been the only route to herd immunity. Turns out Pfizer etc are pretty good at stopping transmission, so this is no longer a unique selling point.

Clearly deciding in Feb 2021 not to use the AZ vaccines we ordered, and place another order for 8.5m pfizer vaccines is a change in strategy.

I think it was a great decision. But it seemed that in Feb 2021, pfizer doses were all sold out untill July 2021. As such, the doses from that 2nd order are yet to start arriving. Very lucky that we got in ahead of the rush on Pfizer as a result of the very rare blood clot stuff.

If an all pfizer roll out was a serious option in mid 2020, I'm sure we would have ordered 5m courses at that point.

In feb 2021 it appeard that pfizer was meeting (Beating based on government timelines - but they may have under promised) its delivery time-frames, while there was drama around AZ, countries threatening to block exports etc. Also clinical trail results for pfizer were at face value a lot better than AZ, and it seemed more likley that we could get herd immunity using the more effective pfizer dose. J+J & Novovax were months away from completing clinical trails, let alone going into production at that stage.

So yeah, a big change, but a good one.

Scott3

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#2720849 8-Jun-2021 18:21

JPNZ:

But.... as we were told over and over again we would be at the front of the queue... Sure looks like the back when you look.

I think that was just Chris Hopkins in November 2020. A Stupid thing to say.

There was no way little NZ with no onshore covid-19 vaccine manufacture, and meaningful community infection was going to come in ahead of the likes of the USA, UK etc, which were desperate...

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#2720855 8-Jun-2021 18:29

JPNZ:

KrazyKid:

I'm not sure what you expect us to do differently at this stage. The vaccines arriving in quantity are 6-8 weeks away (end of July).

I'm sure you realise that even after the 1 million doses announced today arrive, its only enough to keep us just under target (based on the MOH website) and we will need a lot more than that in August, September and October.

We had planned to give around 1m jabs in July, today's announcement is just confirmation of what was already planned.

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#2720864 8-Jun-2021 18:50

Technofreak:

Scott3:30min is extremely fast given the 20 min observation period. At that speed I guess you went in, and one clinician too you through everything, rather than getting passed from person to person like we were. I was extremely pleased with the 1 hour turn around.

Yeo 30 minutes was pretty quick, probably to do with the time of day. My wife's visit the next day was about 1 hour 20.

No I dealt with 4 people, 6 if you count the person at the door who took my ID with then to verify I was eligible and the person running the 20 minute observation room.

One person gave me the form to fill in, another who entered my details and verified my information (no questions about travel etc) and gave me my vaccination card, another who was controlling the flow to the vaccination cubicles and finally the nurse who administered the vaccine.

29 mins from walking in the door to walking out the door today for my 2nd jab.

One person at the door greeting arrivals who gave me the required paperwork, handed that to the next person. Sat down for prob 20s before I got called out to go for the jab, and then out of there to wait for 20 mins.

I don't think they're going to be able to scale this efficiency, but I hope that wait times when the large community vaccination centres are operational aren't hours or people will just get frustrated.

Batman

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#2721225 9-Jun-2021 13:52

vaccine supply got a top up of 1 million doses https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300328388/live-covid19-vaccine-update-from-the-ministry-of-health

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#2721227 9-Jun-2021 13:59

longer story

but according to this it's here in July https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-rollout-update-melbourne-mourners-caught-sneaking-into-new-zealand/CKVGGMVY67UEWKA44Z5JZGU3FQ/

"there have been more than 750,000 doses of the vaccine administered so far, an increase of 107,000 in the last week.

Almost 500,000 people have had one dose - 498,670 people - and more than 276,000 have had two doses."

At last week's update, about 235,000 people in New Zealand had been fully vaccinated - about 9 per cent ahead of delivery targets, though Auckland Metro was almost 23,000 doses behind schedule.

Yesterday Hipkins said the biggest gaps in vaccinations among border workers - who are meant to be at the front of the queue - were at ports.

He was commenting on figures released to the Weekend Herald showing 3800 non-MIQ border workers are yet to have a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

It's unclear how many of them are subject to a public health order, which requires all MIQ workers and all Government employees at the border to be fully vaccinated in order to work on the front lines.

The Government also wants an estimated 50,000 household contacts of border workers to be fully vaccinated to create a vaccinated safety barrier at the border.

But only half of them have had at least one vaccine jab."

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