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Amazing news, and so happy to see a lot of good sense here from the UK. They have distanced themselves from the US with the fastest approvals of Pfizer and Ast

Amazing news, and so happy to see a lot of good sense here from the UK. They have distanced themselves from the US with the fastest approvals of Pfizer and Astrazeneca, the smartest targeting of the population (a focus on saving lives by targeting most vulnerable groups first), and the enormously helpful focus on getting some immunity first before worrying about second doses. The UK is no longer constrained by manufactured doses or anything else. The faster they put that existing supply into people, the faster they are done. They could be done with the pandemic by the end of January.

mattlondon 6y ago
> They could be done with the pandemic by the end of January. There are only 500,000 doses available for the first week of Jan according to Hancock's statement in the commons a few minutes ago, so it will be a while before everyone gets their first dose.
- mchusma 6y ago
  That would be suprising, given the quantity already produced by their partners worldwide. Because of the more standard supply chain they have many manufacturing partners. But I'll look for sources. Astrazeneca was always supposed to be a high volume player vs the others.
- vegannet 6y ago
  My understanding was always that AZ had capacity to produce many billions of doses by year (2021) end, and already had a large supply ready to go: is it possible that “first week of January” is referring specifically to the number of doses that can be administered by then which is limited by more than supply? Distribution, appointments etc. And if so, could we see the second week of January jump substantially? Access to just 500k doses would be a significant shift from the expectations that have been shared so far.
  - kingosticks 6y ago
    In Johnson's press conference just now they said the number of vaccinations was entirely limited by the available supply, not the ability to administer it, nor the distribution of it. They were explicit about this.
    - vegannet 6y ago
      That’s a shame, back in November AZ said: “Where we stand today is we have four million doses available right now and we've got enough active that we think we will be able to make a further 15 million available to the UK by the end of this year. Subject to regulatory approval, it could actually be 19 million doses by the end of this year (to the UK)." That seems like something has clearly gone wrong, if more than a month ago they were in that position and now we are so limited by available dosage.
      - kingosticks 6y ago
        Is it possible that some of what was said was aimed at getting approval? Could another country have swooped in and reserved some of the supply?
        kingosticks 6y ago
        There's more info at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55500238 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55500238 > There are thought to be more than five million doses of the Oxford vaccine in the UK, but only just over 500,000 are ready for use. > That is because vaccines have to be put into vials and batched and certified. > Sources at the NHS expressed frustration at the situation. "The NHS is ready to go, but we can only go as quickly as supply allows," one said.
- Neil44 6y ago
  I've just read we are expecing about 2M doses a week of the AZ vaccine, so I guess we won't be done by end of Jan but I would expect the numbers to be coming down swiftly by then.
aqme28 6y ago
> the smartest targeting of the population (a focus on saving lives by targeting most vulnerable groups first) Can you elaborate on this? IIRC the US recommendations take into account the population's chance of infecting others, rather than just solely the risk of death.
- Analemma_ 6y ago
  The parent's info is out of date. There was a big fuss a week or so ago about how the CDC's draft recommendations for how states should distribute vaccines prioritized "essential workers" instead of the elderly, which would've increased the total number of deaths, but these ended up not being the final recommendation. A large number of uninformed people are still raging about it though.
  - garmaine 6y ago
    The present guidelines are still substantially worse than the UK’s though. Door dashers are still put ahead of the elderly outside of nursing homes.

mattlondon 6y ago

> They could be done with the pandemic by the end of January. There are only 500,000 doses available for the first week of Jan according to Hancock's statement in the commons a few minutes ago, so it will be a while before everyone gets their first dose.

mchusma 6y ago
That would be suprising, given the quantity already produced by their partners worldwide. Because of the more standard supply chain they have many manufacturing partners. But I'll look for sources. Astrazeneca was always supposed to be a high volume player vs the others.
vegannet 6y ago
My understanding was always that AZ had capacity to produce many billions of doses by year (2021) end, and already had a large supply ready to go: is it possible that “first week of January” is referring specifically to the number of doses that can be administered by then which is limited by more than supply? Distribution, appointments etc. And if so, could we see the second week of January jump substantially? Access to just 500k doses would be a significant shift from the expectations that have been shared so far.
- kingosticks 6y ago
  In Johnson's press conference just now they said the number of vaccinations was entirely limited by the available supply, not the ability to administer it, nor the distribution of it. They were explicit about this.
  - vegannet 6y ago
    That’s a shame, back in November AZ said: “Where we stand today is we have four million doses available right now and we've got enough active that we think we will be able to make a further 15 million available to the UK by the end of this year. Subject to regulatory approval, it could actually be 19 million doses by the end of this year (to the UK)." That seems like something has clearly gone wrong, if more than a month ago they were in that position and now we are so limited by available dosage.
    - kingosticks 6y ago
      Is it possible that some of what was said was aimed at getting approval? Could another country have swooped in and reserved some of the supply?
      - kingosticks 6y ago
        There's more info at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55500238 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55500238 > There are thought to be more than five million doses of the Oxford vaccine in the UK, but only just over 500,000 are ready for use. > That is because vaccines have to be put into vials and batched and certified. > Sources at the NHS expressed frustration at the situation. "The NHS is ready to go, but we can only go as quickly as supply allows," one said.
Neil44 6y ago
I've just read we are expecing about 2M doses a week of the AZ vaccine, so I guess we won't be done by end of Jan but I would expect the numbers to be coming down swiftly by then.

aqme28 6y ago

> the smartest targeting of the population (a focus on saving lives by targeting most vulnerable groups first) Can you elaborate on this? IIRC the US recommendations take into account the population's chance of infecting others, rather than just solely the risk of death.

Analemma_ 6y ago
The parent's info is out of date. There was a big fuss a week or so ago about how the CDC's draft recommendations for how states should distribute vaccines prioritized "essential workers" instead of the elderly, which would've increased the total number of deaths, but these ended up not being the final recommendation. A large number of uninformed people are still raging about it though.
- garmaine 6y ago
  The present guidelines are still substantially worse than the UK’s though. Door dashers are still put ahead of the elderly outside of nursing homes.