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Astrazeneca vaccine for the over 65s

Started by katzenjammer, February 03, 2021, 12:22:56 PM

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katzenjammer

Anyone know why the UK is convinced that the AstraZeneca vaccine is fine for over 65s and EU countries aren't?


Cuellar

Not enough data apparently. Not many over 65s in the trial.

katzenjammer

Sure, that explains why EU countries are being cautious but not why the UK aren't concerned

Cuellar

Because fuck the EU, that's why. We're winning the vaccines.

katzenjammer


Cuellar

Honestly I've obviously got no idea. The answer seems to be 'yes, the sample size of over-65s was so small as to be meaningless, but it'll probably work just as well'. Seems like Germany and Belgium etc. would rather follow the trial.

idunnosomename

ARE BRAVE OXFORD VACCINE. IT MAKES YOU SHIT UNION JACKS

Ignatius_S

Quote from: katzenjammer on February 03, 2021, 12:22:56 PM
Anyone know why the UK is convinced that the AstraZeneca vaccine is fine for over 65s and EU countries aren't?

That's not really the case - regulators in the UK and the EU believe that it is safe for over-65s and offers protection against COVID, but we don't know the exact  level of protection.

This has a good overview: https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-how-effective-is-the-oxford-astrazeneca-vaccine-for-over-65s

JamesTC

Quote from: idunnosomename on February 03, 2021, 01:06:13 PM
ARE BRAVE OXFORD VACCINE. IT MAKES YOU SHIT UNION JACKS

I once eat a TARDIS cake and shat blue for a couple of days.

gilbertharding

Quote from: katzenjammer on February 03, 2021, 12:48:21 PM
Sure, that explains why EU countries are being cautious but not why the UK aren't concerned

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/28/germany-recommends-oxford-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-not-used-over-65s

It's hard to know, reading this, why they think it's no good for over 65s. It was tested on them (6% of the trial) and apparently gave the correct immune response.

Of course, it's *impossible to conceive* that the German authorities might be motivated by political expediencies, isn't it?

Cuellar

Here, apparently, is the data the Germans used:

https://twitter.com/olivernmoody/status/1354781400071860230/photo/1

It says that estimated efficacy in over 65s is around 6%, but there was only one infection in that age group in the trial, so it seems to be based on one person's response (if I've got that right).

Cuellar

And here's what the head of AstraZeneca had to say on that matter:

QuoteThe issue with the elderly data is not so much whether it works or not. It´s that we have today a limited amount of data in the older population. You have to think that the program we have today was run by Oxford, it was the Oxford program. And Oxford is an academy group. They´re very ethical, and very academic. So they didn´t want to vaccinate older people until they had accumulated a lot of safety data in the 18 to 55 group. They said it was not ethical to vaccinate old people until they had enough safety data in younger people. Other companies took this risk, went ahead and vaccinated older people faster or earlier. If you start earlier, you have more data. Essentially, because Oxford started vaccinating older people later, we don´t have a huge number of older people who have been vaccinated.

https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/01/26/news/interview_pascal_soriot_ceo_astrazeneca_coronavirus_covid_vaccines-284349628

Fr.Bigley

Quote from: Cuellar on February 03, 2021, 12:26:38 PM
Not enough data apparently. Not many over 65s in the trial.

The roster for BBC light entertainers of the period would beg to differ. 

MojoJojo

Quote from: Cuellar on February 03, 2021, 04:40:08 PM
Here, apparently, is the data the Germans used:

https://twitter.com/olivernmoody/status/1354781400071860230/photo/1

It says that estimated efficacy in over 65s is around 6%, but there was only one infection in that age group in the trial, so it seems to be based on one person's response (if I've got that right).

The confidence interval on that 6% is so large that it's basically meaningless. There was 1 infection in the control group and 1 in the vaccinated group - so the 6% comes from the vaccinated group being slightly larger.

However, the safety data is pretty good and there are indirect signs of effectiveness (e.g. antibody production)... so it's really not clear that you'd want to be blocking approval over this. You'd probably want to prioritise the vaccines that have been shown to be effective in the over 65s to the over 65s but the approval process seems like the wrong way to do that.

poo


The Dog

What is its efficacy in the left handed population? Have they tested that? How about the gays?

Cold Meat Platter

Quote from: poo on February 03, 2021, 04:56:58 PM
PINT OF SPUTNIK V PLEASE MATE

SPUTNIK is an anagram of IT SPUNK. No thanks, Ivan.

JesusAndYourBush

Because if it's fine for you if you're 64, some magical shit doesn't suddenly happen to you when you're 65 to prevent the vaccine working, and the EU are being daft ninnies.