Coronavirus update - NO MORE RESTRICTIONS

[Rjk]

Not quite. He said that the UK Gov purchases it and we get a share based on population.(.ie 5%). Then he said "we will decide how to use it when it is available."

All newspapers today have the vaccine as front page news, experts say its a breakthrough, WHO says same. Wales says, be cautious the data needs to be read carefully because its from a particular competitor in this field and published on their own behalf.

My daily newspaper had the table of action listing priority patients for England, nowt from Wales.

I hope for our sakes that our Wales government realises that they could have enough vaccine within a few weeks to protect 250,000 people in Wales.( 2 jabs each) They have to arrange specialist storage and distribution at extremely low temperatures and produce a priority list and an action plan.

This is nothing to do with party politics, just a siren call from me that I do not think Wales has considered mass vaccination as an imminent possibility. I'd love to be proved wrong.

I would assume that the arrangements to store and distribute a potential vaccine that looks like it'll be available in a few weeks are being looked at by someone., surely you don't believe they're really just sitting on their hands?

However, I think it is right for Drakeford to exercise caution, as if he came out with a statement saying that "hooray the vaccine is nearly here, we're all saved" then you'd see a lot of people suddenly caring a lot less about social distancing measures.

It is also worth considering that there are other companies working on vaccines - one or more of these may turn out to be more effective than the Pfizer one, or not require such extreme temperatures to give them a useable shelf life. So I can understand the comments about it being one companies message.

If we get the Pfizer vaccine here in Wales, and it sits around for weeks because we have nothing put in place for it, while people are dying in large numbers then yes absolutely the blame would stand at the door of the Welsh govermnent - however it is just speculation that that is going to happen.

[lisvaneblue]

I would assume that the arrangements to store and distribute a potential vaccine that looks like it'll be available in a few weeks are being looked at by someone., surely you don't believe they're really just sitting on their hands?

However, I think it is right for Drakeford to exercise caution, as if he came out with a statement saying that "hooray the vaccine is nearly here, we're all saved" then you'd see a lot of people suddenly caring a lot less about social distancing measures.

It is also worth considering that there are other companies working on vaccines - one or more of these may turn out to be more effective than the Pfizer one, or not require such extreme temperatures to give them a useable shelf life. So I can understand the comments about it being one companies message.

If we get the Pfizer vaccine here in Wales, and it sits around for weeks because we have nothing put in place for it, while people are dying in large numbers then yes absolutely the blame would stand at the door of the Welsh govermnent - however it is just speculation that that is going to happen.

I hope e get several effective vaccines. Pfizer is good news because the others in development work in a similar way. They will all need to be stored in the same way as the Pfizer vaccine. I doubt others will be more effective than 90%. 50% is considered good

[Rjk]

I hope e get several effective vaccines. Pfizer is good news because the others in development work in a similar way. They will all need to be stored in the same way as the Pfizer vaccine. I doubt others will be more effective than 90%. 50% is considered good

I wonder if the vaccine is known to be not effective if stored at greater than -80 C or if they haven't had time to do the work to demonstrate that yet.

[lisvaneblue]

I wonder if the vaccine is known to be not effective if stored at greater than -80 C or if they haven't had time to do the work to demonstrate that yet.

This type of vaccine is cutting edge technology. There is a lot of work going on to try and make it stable at ambient temperature. This would make a huge difference when using it in warmer climates or in areas where there is limited cold storage.

[Rjk]

This type of vaccine is cutting edge technology. There is a lot of work going on to try and make it stable at ambient temperature. This would make a huge difference when using it in warmer climates or in areas where there is limited cold storage.

My point was really it could already be more stable at higher temperatures, just they haven't had the time to demonstrate that yet, as that would require ageing the product at a temperature and repeating clinical trials - if you wanted to accelerate the time to market then the ageing studies would be the first to go.

OR

It could actually be unstable at temperatures greater than -80C.

[goats]

This type of vaccine is cutting edge technology. There is a lot of work going on to try and make it stable at ambient temperature. This would make a huge difference when using it in warmer climates or in areas where there is limited cold storage.

The Oxford one doesn’t need to be stored at -80 I heard?