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It seems that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not effective against the South African variant [0]. [0]: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2102214?fbclid=I

It seems that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not effective against the South African variant [0]. [0]: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2102214?fbclid=IwAR3zOZYHFGj2gIwH6V1kbOJim55Cwk7JkPfe6cOyh0eaeBHy-p-kELY0hM4 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2102214?fbclid=I...

amelius 6y ago
That's wrt mild to moderate cases. It might still be effective against severe cases.
- modularform123 6y ago
  They didn’t design the study to look for severe cases in South Africa and this variant isn’t widespread in other countries where the vaccine is in use, so it will be hard to get evidence on effectiveness against severe disease anytime soon.
- theduder99 6y ago
  good point, it might raise our IQ as well!
- paulmd 6y ago
  nevertheless, you have to actually support that hypothesis with research. Just the fact that it's ineffective against mild to moderate doesn't mean it will be effective against more severe cases. it might also be ineffective against severe cases, making it just entirely ineffective against those strains. a year later and people are still trying to twist studies into support of their favored medical treatments without actual supporting research...
  - dbetteridge 6y ago
    It is being worked on, animal studies only so far with human studies to come as SA rolls out their 100k doses of AZ I am sure. Animal model study - Syrian hamsters https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab083/6124512 https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid...
  - VBprogrammer 6y ago
    > a year later and people are still trying to twist studies into support of their favored medical treatments without actual supporting research... This isn't something he has made up on the spot. It's been repeated countless times in the British media and presumably has some scientific basis. Either that or the whole field is keeping quiet on the basis that the UK has a large supply of the AZ vaccine and it's better to stop deaths from the current dominant strain than to wait for a better vaccine. Since the second option requires the cooperation of vast number of people I tend to believe the former.

amelius 6y ago

That's wrt mild to moderate cases. It might still be effective against severe cases.

modularform123 6y ago
They didn’t design the study to look for severe cases in South Africa and this variant isn’t widespread in other countries where the vaccine is in use, so it will be hard to get evidence on effectiveness against severe disease anytime soon.
theduder99 6y ago
good point, it might raise our IQ as well!
paulmd 6y ago
nevertheless, you have to actually support that hypothesis with research. Just the fact that it's ineffective against mild to moderate doesn't mean it will be effective against more severe cases. it might also be ineffective against severe cases, making it just entirely ineffective against those strains. a year later and people are still trying to twist studies into support of their favored medical treatments without actual supporting research...
- dbetteridge 6y ago
  It is being worked on, animal studies only so far with human studies to come as SA rolls out their 100k doses of AZ I am sure. Animal model study - Syrian hamsters https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab083/6124512 https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid...
- VBprogrammer 6y ago
  > a year later and people are still trying to twist studies into support of their favored medical treatments without actual supporting research... This isn't something he has made up on the spot. It's been repeated countless times in the British media and presumably has some scientific basis. Either that or the whole field is keeping quiet on the basis that the UK has a large supply of the AZ vaccine and it's better to stop deaths from the current dominant strain than to wait for a better vaccine. Since the second option requires the cooperation of vast number of people I tend to believe the former.