Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution' • Hacker News Board

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#221

Post by onetimemanytime » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #178

onetimemanytime wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ummmm....we can wait and get another vaccine? The vaccine is done on HEALTHY people, we're not talking about meds on terminal stage cancer patients with nothing to lose.

Ummmm... I already have been vaccinated and it feels amazing not having a fear of death over me. Guess what. I'm going on vacation to a beach in a few weeks because you know, science.

I hope not, but those can be famous last words. Even if AZ works as marketed, it's no where near 100%. Then we have different strains

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#222

Post by hef19898 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:08 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #185

Nursie wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure at this point. When it was one suspicious death, countries suspending the vaccine definitely seemed like an overreaction, and unfortunately this particular vaccine has been something of a political football and subject of a lot of noise. But as more blood-clot deaths emerge... you gotta think caution is wise. OTOH yes, we in the UK have administered a lot of this stuff, and you'd think someone would have…

> But as more blood-clot deaths emerge... you gotta think caution is wise. Last I saw it's 30 blood-clot deaths. Given the number of people that have received the vaccine that's a tiny, tiny amount. Even if those 30 were directly linkable to the vaccine (and so far no such link has been proven) you could still make the argument that the benefits of mass vaccinations outweigh the concern. I don't envy anyone in charge…

Some anti baby pills cause 8-12 trombose cases in 10,000 women. And they are properly tested, approved and on the market.

Usually I don't read notes coming with meds, but I am almost sure that even everyday stuff has potentially deadly side effects in the ball park number of the blood cloths AZ is causing.

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#223

Post by zajio1am » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:08 PM UTC

the-dude wrote: post #79

The EU commission has framed AZ as not trustworthy from the moment the first delivery targets could not be met. This has influenced public opinion in NL quite a bit ( in DE too I suspect ). I can read in the local comment sections that people want to decline the AZ vaccine as they don't trust it , and it is only 60% effective . They would rather have Pfizer, even Sputnik or rather no vacination at all than AZ. These…

> The EU commission has framed AZ as not trustworthy from the moment the first delivery targets could not be met.

AZ was considered less trustworthy than Pfizer or Moderna vaccines several months before that due to irregularities in phase 3 clinical trials (original dosage leads to ~62% efficacy, while inadvertently given half-dose to a part of test subject leads to higher efficacy): https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

Conflicts between AZ and EU commission seems silly compared to that and IMHO lead more to discreditation of Ursula von der Leyen.

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#224

Post by mywacaday » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:08 PM UTC

Poor reporting to not include that Italy, France, Ireland, Bulgaria, Denmark and The Netherlands have all paused the vaccine along with Norway which is mentioned. Expect better of Reuters.

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#225

Post by colechristensen » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #9

The pandemic has made me believe we need to be greater consiquentalists in our polices. It's pretty obvious that on the whole the AstraZeneca vax will save more people than are killed from the side effects. We don't not live in a 0 risk existence.

In the US, ~160,000 people over the age of 85 have died while 216 people under the age of 18 have died. Covid represents a proportion of deaths from all causes of 13.5% for 85+ and 0.58% under 18. The trend in between the age group extremes continues in an expected way.

You can't make the same decisions about risks when you have one side so skewed by age. There is absolutely no guarantee that side effects from vaccination would be a preferable risk for younger populations or that vaccination side effects would have comparable age-related effects.

Covid response isn't a religion, it's not "we have to do everything" or "we shouldn't do anything", responses need reason not gut reactions.

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#226

Post by jedisct1 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

jansan wrote: post #37

How many countries have stopped AZ fo far? - Denmark - Norway - Ireland - Netherlands - Iceland - Bulgaria - Romania (only partly, see child comment) Am I missing any?

France (announced today).

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#227

Post by sampo » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

rossdavidh wrote: post #201

So, does anyone know why Astra/Zeneca is not approved in the U.S.? Did they not try, or it's still ongoing, or did they have problems?

My understanding is, FDA requires data from trials run on US population. Trials from other countries are not sufficient alone. AstraZeneca is currently running a trial in the US.

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#228

Post by est31 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

patrickmcnamara wrote: post #215

est31 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that the real reason? In times of crisis one must be wary of propaganda. AstraZeneca has recently announced they'd deliver even less to the EU because of Italy's interception of the delivery headed to Australia [0]... Europe having to halt the vaccinations with AstraZeneca due to none being in stock makes europe lose far more face than halting them because of quality concerns... [0]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a…

Where does it say that AstraZeneca are delivering less because of Italy's interception of vaccines?

> AstraZeneca on Friday said unspecified export restrictions now rendered plans to bring in large amounts of doses made outside Europe unlikely. It said it now expects to provide 100 million doses to the EU in the first half of this year, down from earlier commitments of around 270 million.

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#229

Post by zain » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

rossdavidh wrote: post #201

So, does anyone know why Astra/Zeneca is not approved in the U.S.? Did they not try, or it's still ongoing, or did they have problems?

They haven’t submitted to the FDA for emergency use authorization yet because their trials aren’t done yet. Their trials started well after Pfizer/Moderna and are longer than J&J. They’re expected to apply in the next 3-4wks.

Re: Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccinations as a 'precaution'

#230

Post by detaro » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

the-dude wrote: post #79

The EU commission has framed AZ as not trustworthy from the moment the first delivery targets could not be met. This has influenced public opinion in NL quite a bit ( in DE too I suspect ). I can read in the local comment sections that people want to decline the AZ vaccine as they don't trust it , and it is only 60% effective . They would rather have Pfizer, even Sputnik or rather no vacination at all than AZ. These…

> The EU commission has framed AZ as not trustworthy from the moment the first delivery targets could not be met.

source? Yes, there is some negative opinion about this, but at least in Germany it's much more based on media citing "government sources" and general FUD tactics than anything the commission has said.