We want the vaccine rollout to go faster because vaccinated people will help achieve herd immunity, keep our borders open, make disastrous lockdowns a thing of the past, and allow us to dust off our passports and travel again. Sounds simple and achievable, doesn’t it?
“While Australia has rolled out nearly 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, New Zealand, with a population one-fifth of the size, had only rolled out 183,000.
By mid-December, the New Zealand government had pre-purchase agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novavax and Johnson and Johnson.
In March, the Ardern government shifted its vaccine strategy, snapping up an extra 8.5 million doses of Pfizer.”
ABC 27 April 2021
The New Zealand government explained why it discarded the other vaccines in favour of Pfizer:
“The decision to make Pfizer New Zealand’s main vaccine provider was based on the fact the Pfizer vaccine has been shown to be about 95% effective at preventing symptomatic infection.”
Unite Against Covid-19 Government Website
Are we to assume that the government’s decision had nothing to do with the fact that by mid-March Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands had joined the growing list of countries including Thailand, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia suspending use of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine pending more data on bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts following vaccination?
Now that we’re astride our one-trick pony in the war against Covid-19, how well is the Pfizer vaccine working out for us so far?
On 1st April Pfizer reported excellent efficacy, up to six months after receiving the second Pfizer vaccine, saying breakthrough infections occur in just a small fraction of people.
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2, was 91.3% effective against COVID-19, measured seven days through up to six months after the second dose.
Pfizer Press Release 1st April
We need our own efficacy data before assuming a high level of protection, and the CDC reported this week on US breakthrough cases, defined as “the detection of SARS-CoV2 RNA or antigen in a respiratory specimen collected from a person
>14 days after receipt of all recommended doses of a FDA authorised COVID-19 vaccine.”
The US uses Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen vaccines but does not differentiate between them in the report.
Through April 30, 10,262 so-called breakthrough infections were reported from 46 U.S. states and territories to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Sequencing data were available for 555 of the breakthrough cases. Over 60 percent were identified as stemming from variants, including the B.1.1.7 variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom.
The CDC said breakthrough numbers are probably understated for two reasons: first, reporting is voluntary, not mandatory; and second, people may be infected but not display symptoms and therefore not get tested.
It is highly likely current vaccines using a recombinant spike protein derived from the first sequenced (Wuhan) strain from January 2020 will require regular upgrading to be effective against new variants of the virus as they appear.
Of the [breakthrough] cases, more than six in 10 occurred in females, with the median patient age being 58, according to a new report from the CDC, which stopped counting breakthrough infections as of May 1, except for those that cause hospitalization or death.
Approximately 10 percent of the patients required hospital care, and 160, or about 1.5 percent, died.
Data indicate that about three in 10 hospitalized patients were admitted for a reason unrelated to COVID-19 or with no symptoms.
The Epoch Times
The CDC regards these numbers as tolerable compared to the COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths that would have been incurred among the non-vaccinated and on May 10th the FDA extended vaccine distribution to 12-15 year olds.
From 1st May the CDC will carry out studies in vaccine efficacy.
The CDC’s report came out the same day researchers not affiliated with the university said in a pre-peer review study that variants of concern are overrepresented among breakthrough infections they studied in Washington state.
All 20 such cases at the researchers’ institution, the University of Washington, were classified as variants of concern, including 40 percent as B.1.427, known by some as the California variant.
The CDC study and the university report back up the theory that new vaccines will be needed to counter new variants of SARS-CoV2.
Viruses mutate, and SARS-CoV-2 is no exception. Throughout the current global crisis, SARS-CoV-2 has been mutating at a rate of about 1–2 mutations per month [1]. Some recent emerging variants, however, have accumulated significantly more mutations in short periods of time, causing concern around the globe [2]. Scientists predict that these mutant lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 strain will not be the only concerning variants that emerge, as continued uncontrolled transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in many parts of the world and selective pressures, such as vaccines, are creating ideal conditions for additional, significant virus evolution [3].
Thermo Fisher Scientific
At this point, our one-trick pony looks promising, but that hope won’t last. David Seymour quoted Ashley Bloomfield’s estimate of another five years of lockdown and border closure – which could easily turn into 10 years plus.
The government has not made public any investigation into COVID-19 treatments or antibody testing they may or may not have looked at to negate the dependence on a one trick pony vaccine. Nothing this government has done gives any assurance that our previous freedoms will be restored any time soon.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD
