Covid Vaccination Argentina

[jlynch]

13 August 2021....Source: Clarin.com

por qué el Gobierno impulsa una segunda dosis distinta para AstraZeneca / Sociedad

Mientras que en Argentina se destacó la necesidad de administrar vacunas contra el coronavirus con dosis de diferentes laboratorios como

titulares.ar

"Formula Merkel"....why the Argentine gov't promotes inoculation with a different vaccine as the second dose for Oxford-AstraZeneca. The
initiative of the combined schemes includes an extra option, of which little and nothing has been said so far: the "cross" of Oxford- AstraZeneca with Moderna....Given that Pfizer and Moderna are "cousins" (both from the US, both built on mRNA platforms), it was logical to assume (as Merkel would have done) that the result of both acting as "drivers" (reinforcement) for AstraZeneca would be more or less similar....

....The Gov't not only promotes that those who started their scheme with the Russian vaccine can complete it with AstraZeneca or Moderna,
but also that those who started with AstraZeneca can complete it with Moderna....We must not forget the context: the authorities are pending the administration of second doses in the face of what they consider an imminent wave (whose magnitude no one can predict, for now) by the Delta variant, whose severe effects are only manageable with full vaccination schedules....

....As Daniela Hozbor, “Vaccinologist” at the Institute of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology (IBBM) and professor at the UNLP, explained to Clarín, “these schemes generate a more robust response even for the most difficult variants to induce protection, such as the beta variant” ("Former" South Africa)....The authors of the report also say that Moderna would be an excellent choice as a third dose for those who have received the full AstraZeneca scheme. The second issue for which it makes sense to promote heterologous vaccination is timing. The more auspicious the data from the laboratory's pooling, the easier it will be to increase the scope of vaccination, which is now progressing faster but started too slowly in the country. In the face of a potential advance of Delta (or any other variant, in the future), new safe and effective combinations will give more plasticity to any campaign....

Both the WHO and EMA still do not make recommendations on mixing (heterologous) vaccines, which means a lot of countries wont recognise someone as being fully vaccinated when mixing vaccines (even two approved ones for that country) so it may be important to take this into account.

EMA and ECDC update on COVID-19 | European Medicines Agency (EMA)

www.ema.europa.eu

"Currently, EMA and ECDC are not in a position to make any definitive recommendations on use of different COVID-19 vaccines for the two doses."

Interim statement on heterologous priming for COVID-19 vaccines

This interim statement is outdated. The latest interim guidance on heterologous schedules is available here WHO with support of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization and its COVID-19 Vaccines Working Group is reviewing the emerging evidence on the use of heterologous...

www.who.int

"WHO recommends that the same vaccine product should be used for both doses" even though later they mention -

"Studies to date of immune responses after a first dose of ChAdOx1-S [recombinant] products followed by an mRNA vaccine (i.e., BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273) show higher neutralising antibody levels and higher T cell-mediated immune responses in comparison with two doses of ChAdOx1-S [recombinant] products and similar levels to those of two mRNA vaccines (1)"

 

[Alby]

Excellent information. Thanks.

 

[Alby]

How the Pandemic Now Ends

Cases of COVID-19 are rising fast. Vaccine uptake has plateaued. The pandemic will be over one day—but the way there is different now.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[gracielle]

15 August 2021

La vacuna de Moderna mantiene los anticuerpos contra la variante Delta hasta seis meses

Así lo demostró un estudio publicado en la revista Science, que respaldó la eficacia duradera del 93% observada con la formulación durante medio año, incluso frente a las mutaciones circulantes

www.infobae.com

Moderna's vaccine maintains antibodies against the Delta variant for up to six months.
....A recent research work published in the journal Science analyzed the durability of the antibodies induced by the mRNA-1273 vaccine against the variants of SARS-CoV-2, and concluded that the activity of the antibodies caused by the formulation against the virus variants of interest (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Iota) persist six months after the second dose....The Moderna laboratory acknowledged that "additional studies will be needed to address the impact of the new variants that will surely emerge in areas of intense viral infection"....We hope that this data and the growing body of evidence in the real world will help inform health regulators on how and when to administer additional booster doses."....

....The researchers observed a trend toward lower levels of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 variants in older individuals at day 209 (up to six months). However, the differences were small and there was an overlap between the age groups. "It is important to note that many individuals in the older age group retained neutralizing activity against the variants six months after the second dose of the vaccine"....

 

[gracielle]

29 July 2021 Source: Clarin.com

Noticia económica de ARGENTINA

El uso de la capacidad instalada fue de 62% y sigue por debajo de 2023

www.cesla.com

There is a stock of 11 million doses not applied due to the low rate of vaccination....The Public Vaccination Monitor reported on July 28: there are almost 6.5 million vaccines that have been distributed in the provinces and await their application. Added to this are 4.7 million vaccines not yet distributed by the national government. In total, a stock of 11.2 million. 41.8 million doses arrived in Argentina and 30.6 were applied. At the end of June, the journalist Pablo Sigal, from Clarín, had reported on this problem, when the vaccines in stock in the provinces, without applying, reached 4 million doses. Now that number has grown 60%. And 175% if one takes into account the amount that still remains in the power of the central administration, prior to its distribution....

Dosis de refuerzo vacuna COVID-19

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www.argentina.gob.ar

Last updated: 17/8/2021 05:54:22

 

[antipodean]

29 July 2021 Source: Clarin.com

Noticia económica de ARGENTINA

El uso de la capacidad instalada fue de 62% y sigue por debajo de 2023

www.cesla.com

There is a stock of 11 million doses not applied due to the low rate of vaccination....The Public Vaccination Monitor reported on July 28: there are almost 6.5 million vaccines that have been distributed in the provinces and await their application. Added to this are 4.7 million vaccines not yet distributed by the national government. In total, a stock of 11.2 million. 41.8 million doses arrived in Argentina and 30.6 were applied. At the end of June, the journalist Pablo Sigal, from Clarín, had reported on this problem, when the vaccines in stock in the provinces, without applying, reached 4 million doses. Now that number has grown 60%. And 175% if one takes into account the amount that still remains in the power of the central administration, prior to its distribution....

Dosis de refuerzo vacuna COVID-19

.

www.argentina.gob.ar

Last updated: 17/8/2021 05:54:22

I can understand there being some National stocks of unapplied vaccines, especially AZ due to the time one must wait between doses and the fact that these really only started getting dished out in large numbers about 3-4 months ago (e.g. people I know who got theirs a few weeks before me are now getting second AZ doses)

According to the vaccine monitor some provinces such as CABA have been very successful in applying 98-100% of vaccines within 24-72 hours of receiving them consistently for many months now. Only a small reserve is kept Incase some are damaged etc. It is certain that is not due to a shortage of demand or volunteers.

However about half of the provinces.... They had more than a year to prepare their vaccine campaigns. Many of them made grand and premature announcements of the success of their campaigns but now lag significantly behind the other half of the country due to their own disorganization or inability to get their people on board.

 

[Alby]

If it is true that vaccine effectiveness wanes over say six months, and if that means in turn that each one of us is more likely to become a breakthrough case as time rolls on, my question is this: is the vaccine just as likely at the six-month mark to protect us from serious illness as it was at the start, or does its protection against serious illness also drop? Can we temper our knowledge that our protection against infection will drop with confidence that our protection against serious infection will not? I'd like to see some reporting on that.

This article has helpfully appeared and seems to provide an answer to the question I posed:

Vaccine protection seems likely to wane, but are boosters unethical?

COVID-19 vaccines cause our immune system to produce a surge of new antibodies. Over time, those levels drop, and we become vulnerable to reinfection. But the World Health Organisation has called for a moratorium on boosters.

www.smh.com.au

Among other matters, it describes a not-yet-peer-reviewed study that points to the drop in immunity (and refers to the falls that seem to now be being registered in Israel among those first vaccinated in January--presumably older people), but concludes:

“Our modelling in this paper would suggest protection against severe infection and hospitalisation will hold up better over time,” said the University of Sydney’s Professor James Triccas, a co-author on the paper.

We can make of it what we will, but it is hopeful at least.

 

[gracielle]

17 August 2021 by Raul Kollmann

Tres millones de vacunas en tres días | Llegan dosis de Sinopharm y Oxford/AstraZeneca

Entre este miércoles y el viernes se espera el arribo de más de 2 millones de dosis de Sinopharm. También está prevista la llegada de 800 mil dosis de AstraZeneca.

www.pagina12.com.ar

Between this Wednesday and Friday are expected to arrive more than 2 million doses of Sinopharm and 800,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca. The arrival of vaccines had some complications, but it will be overcome in the coming days. The shipments come on commercial flights because China put limitations on flights at its airports and that affected the ability to send Aerolineas Argentinas planes.
Also arriving this Wednesday will be about 800 thousand doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca, although it would be divided into two flights. The novelty is that these vaccines come from Mexico, finished by the Liomont Laboratory, which was the original plan. And apparently, additional shipments will continue to arrive from the Aztec country....

 

[gracielle]

17 August 2021 by Mauricio Giambartolomei

La circulación comunitaria de la variante delta será inevitable: ¿cuándo podría dispararse la tercera ola?

El ministro de Salud de la ciudad, Fernán Quirós, anticipó que podría ser en forma progresiva; qué dicen los expertos sobre la mutación del virus que más preocupa en todo el mundo

www.lanacion.com.ar

Community circulation of the Delta variant will be inevitable: when could the third wave be triggered? The City's Health Minister, Fernán Quirós, anticipated that it could be progressively....he sent an alert message. “We know that the Delta variant is very close to achieving community circulation, which is progressive. It has a first few weeks of increasing in number of cases and by the fourth, fifth and sixth week it begins to be the predominant variant. That is where it is capable of causing a little more contagion and even a third wave, ” said the official this morning.

Given this evaluation by Dr. Quiroz, is it possible to determine when the most explosive outbreak of the Delta variant will arrive? “Possibly the other variants prevented, due to zoological competition, the Delta from beginning to circulate, but it is already highly probable that it circulates in a community way ”, analyzed Dr. Luis Camera, Secretary of the Argentine Society of Medicine....Community circulation does not imply that the situation is considered serious since that will depend on the number of cases that accumulate daily and the impact that the new variant would have on the population susceptible to contracting the virus. “Delta is likely to begin to displace other variants in three or four weeks, anticipated the infectologist Ricardo Teijeiro. "It is very likely that it will increase in the coming weeks depending on the susceptible amount we have, that is, the unvaccinated, those who only have a single dose and those who did not have the disease," he added. According to his perception, the scenario of the eventual regrowth would move to September, which coincides with Quirós' appreciation. “We know that it will happen, probably by the end of August, September or the beginning of October. That is the time window. We cannot prevent the circulation of the Delta variant ”....

 

[gracielle]

17 August 2021 at 7:50pm by José María Costa and José Luis Brea

Vacunas: tras la escasez, llegan dosis de Sinopharm y aún no se sabe cuándo se liberarán los segundos componentes de Sputnik V

Son 2,8 millones las personas a las que se le venció el plazo de 21 días desde que recibieron la primera dosis de la vacuna fabricada en China; en tanto, aún no hay fecha de entrega para las segundas dosis de la vacuna rusa de fabricación argentina

www.lanacion.com.ar

Vaccines: after the shortage, doses of Sinopharm arrive and it is not yet known when the second components of Sputnik V will be released. There are 2.8 million people whose time have expired since they received the first dose of the vaccine manufactured in China. The period accepted as ideal to complete the scheme is 21 days....There will be only 10 days in August for 5,696,000 doses to arrive in the country from Beijing to complete the second of the three parts of the contract signed by the health authorities with the Chinese laboratory, which implies a purchase of 24 million doses that would arrive as follows: 8 million in July, 8 million in August, and 8 million in September. The importance of completing the arrivals and schedules of Sinopharm lies in the fact that it is the only one of the vaccines against Covid-19 that are applied in the country that does not have a heterologous regimen. In other words, it cannot be combined with either AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, or Moderna because the trials carried out in the country showed that the efficacy is lower than when applying both doses of the same vaccine....

....Meanwhile, there is still no delivery date for the second doses of the Argentine-made Russian vaccine. Two weeks ago, amid the delay in the arrival of second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to Argentina, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Argentine pharmaceutical company Richmond Laboratories had announced the approval from Moscow that enabled the first 150,000 doses produced in the country as of this week. That same day they had announced that more than 3 million second doses could be manufactured during August. However, that first batch was only released nine days later and there is still no confirmed date for the next deliveries, in addition, 1,005,000 have already been completed and await their release....What public data indicates that, in the first 16 days of August, 3,108,785 vaccination schedules were completed. This gives a daily average of 194,300 daily doses. If this rate is maintained, 6,023,300 would be covered, almost a million people less than what was announced by the national authorities, which defined August as the "month of the second doses."