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Not to hijack this too much but the Australian vaccine rollout has been widely panned but much of the problems come down to a choice to rely on domestically man

by jeeeb 5y ago

Not to hijack this too much but the Australian vaccine rollout has been widely panned but much of the problems come down to a choice to rely on domestically manufactured AZ vaccines. In a different timeline if the AZ vaccine hadn’t been associated with rare blood clotting, if Pfizer/Moderna hasn’t been able to scale manufacturing as well that strategy would be looking very good. It’s interesting to think that Canada and other nations that instead depended on international supply chains ultimately did much better though.

femto 5y ago
The great hope of Australia's vaccine strategy was the University of Queensland's "Molecular Clamp". Unfortunately the clamp molecule, derived from part of the AIDS virus, triggered false positives in AIDS tests. They used that particular molecule as it was available and time scales were tight. A revised version is being developed with a new clamp molecule, but it won't be ready for the current round of vaccinations. https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-04-26/university-queensland-covid-19-vaccine-research-molecular-clamp/100050240 https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-04-26/university-que...
- nradov 5y ago
  Are false positive HIV tests really such a problem? I think most elderly patients wouldn't be concerned about that.
  - pbaka 5y ago
    Oh my sweet summer child. You wouldn't believe how much "action" goes on at night in those old age retirement communities.
orra 5y ago
Where Australia really messed up was basically stopping use of AstraZeneca entirely (IIRC). Blood clot risk is much higher the younger you are[1]. It would have been far better to continue using AstraZeneca, but limit it to a certain age and older. [1] For example, 1.1 of the specific clots per 100 000 vaccinations of people in their 20s, falling to 0.2 per 100 000 in their 60s. https://wintoncentre.maths.cam.ac.uk/news/communicating-potential-benefits-and-harms-astra-zeneca-covid-19-vaccine/ https://wintoncentre.maths.cam.ac.uk/news/communicating-pote...
- _AzMoo 5y ago
  That's exactly what Australia did, except all of the FUD led to older Australians choosing to forgo AZ due to the perceived risk.
  - orra 5y ago
    Ah, didn't realise. Good they didn't ban it, but then that's still a clear failure of public health messaging. In exchange for falling behind on vaccination, Australia had some rather strict lockdowns (especially for the post-vaccine stage of the pandemic).
- treeman79 5y ago
  Clots when young are much fun. Having a unknown clotting disorder really screwed me up
  - orra 5y ago
    Yeah, sorry, doesn't sound like fun.
- jeeeb 5y ago
  I’m in my 30s and had AZ. It certainly wasn’t banned. Until recently it was the only vaccine available for over 60s even. Also FWIW. The risk of blood clots seems to be significantly higher in women than men. I think they should have focused on giving AZ to men and Pfizer to younger women. For a while though some states were giving Pfizer to men in their 40s and 50s working from home, while recommending young women go and get dosed with AZ.

by jeeeb 5y ago

femto 5y ago

The great hope of Australia's vaccine strategy was the University of Queensland's "Molecular Clamp". Unfortunately the clamp molecule, derived from part of the AIDS virus, triggered false positives in AIDS tests. They used that particular molecule as it was available and time scales were tight. A revised version is being developed with a new clamp molecule, but it won't be ready for the current round of vaccinations. https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-04-26/university-queensland-covid-19-vaccine-research-molecular-clamp/100050240 https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-04-26/university-que...

nradov 5y ago
Are false positive HIV tests really such a problem? I think most elderly patients wouldn't be concerned about that.
- pbaka 5y ago
  Oh my sweet summer child. You wouldn't believe how much "action" goes on at night in those old age retirement communities.

orra 5y ago

Where Australia really messed up was basically stopping use of AstraZeneca entirely (IIRC). Blood clot risk is much higher the younger you are[1]. It would have been far better to continue using AstraZeneca, but limit it to a certain age and older. [1] For example, 1.1 of the specific clots per 100 000 vaccinations of people in their 20s, falling to 0.2 per 100 000 in their 60s. https://wintoncentre.maths.cam.ac.uk/news/communicating-potential-benefits-and-harms-astra-zeneca-covid-19-vaccine/ https://wintoncentre.maths.cam.ac.uk/news/communicating-pote...

_AzMoo 5y ago
That's exactly what Australia did, except all of the FUD led to older Australians choosing to forgo AZ due to the perceived risk.
- orra 5y ago
  Ah, didn't realise. Good they didn't ban it, but then that's still a clear failure of public health messaging. In exchange for falling behind on vaccination, Australia had some rather strict lockdowns (especially for the post-vaccine stage of the pandemic).
treeman79 5y ago
Clots when young are much fun. Having a unknown clotting disorder really screwed me up
- orra 5y ago
  Yeah, sorry, doesn't sound like fun.
jeeeb 5y ago
I’m in my 30s and had AZ. It certainly wasn’t banned. Until recently it was the only vaccine available for over 60s even. Also FWIW. The risk of blood clots seems to be significantly higher in women than men. I think they should have focused on giving AZ to men and Pfizer to younger women. For a while though some states were giving Pfizer to men in their 40s and 50s working from home, while recommending young women go and get dosed with AZ.