Tag: covid vaccination

Categories : COVID VaccinesTags :

South Africa to Sign On to Digital ‘Vaccine Passport’

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Blake Guidry on Unsplash

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula said that South Africa will seek to join a digital ‘vaccine passport’ scheme being tested by a number of airlines.

Presenting his departmental budget speech on Friday, Mbalula said that South Africa must ensure that it joins the growing number of countries that accepts the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) mobile travel pass for COVID vaccination.

This particular initiative was tested successfully by Singapore Airlines, and more than 20 carriers, the minister said.

“In recent months, Singapore has announced that it will accept visitors who use a mobile travel passes containing digital certificates for Covid-19 tests and vaccines,” Mbalula said.

“This makes Singapore one of the first countries to adopt this initiative. Singapore will accept the IATA mobile travel pass for pre-departure checks, where travellers can get clearance to fly to and enter Singapore by showing a smartphone application containing their data from accredited laboratories.”

The IATA’s app allows travellers to store digital information from certified labs. It will be available for download later this month. IATA aims to bring in additional changes such as QR code scanning by immigration officers.

Vaccine passports have been the subjects of debates over equitability, access and potential for abuse. However, vaccine passports are not only permissible under international health regulations, they already exist. The World Health Organization endorses certificates confirming vaccination against yellow fever for entry into certain countries. They also incentivise vaccination, a public good.

Currently, South Africa has 62 ‘major restrictions’ from other countries in place, with suspended travel, stringent requirements for entry or outright bans. Meanwhile there are 92 moderate restrictions in place on South Africa, where travel is possible subject to measures such as COVID tests on arrival.

Source: BusinessTech

Categories : COVIDTags :

At Long Last, Phase 2 of Vaccinations Gets Under Way

On By ModernMedia
Nurse administering a vaccine. Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Coming just days after a third wave was officially declared in Gauteng, and months of delays, frustration and confusion, South Africa’s COVID vaccination programme is at last rolling out on Monday.

The vaccination programme will start off mostly on old age homes, at 87 sites across 9 provinces. 

Fanned out across nine provinces and 87 sites, healthcare workers and those licensed to administer vaccines will start the mammoth task, which will kick off mostly at old age homes.

Those who are registered and eligible will receive a vaccination date and site to visit where they will either receive the once-off Johnson and Johnson vaccination – or the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine with another to be taken a fortnight later.

A vaccine site such as a pharmacy may charge up to R354.75 per dose of Pfizer, and R330 for a dose of Johnson and Johnson, according to a memo released by the department of health.

Additionally, a R70 fee for administering the vaccine will be billed to the recipient’s health insurance company or the government if uninsured.

The programme will also cover the hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers who have not yet received their vaccinations.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, health MECs and other representatives described their plans for the nation on Sunday night.

Dr Mkhize is under no illusion about what lies ahead and what it will take to get it all done.

“Five million senior citizens are targeted to be completed by the end of June, provided that the supply of vaccines flow as anticipated.”

To put this into context, that’s just 44 days for this target to be met and given some of the setbacks experienced during the Sisonke implementation study, the government will face many sceptics.

“We know that everyone has been very anxious to know what will happen and how we will start to vaccinate our most vulnerable citizens and then move onto vaccinating the general population,” Dr Mkhize said.

According to the minister, over 1.2 million senior citizens have registered to be inoculated thus far. Officials are also hoping to vaccinate an additional 700 000 health workers during this time.

Text messages are being sent out to citizens aged 60 years and over, to get help them prepare.

As the campaign begins, there should be over 975 000 doses of Pfizer vaccines in stock, which have stringent, ultra-cold storage requirements.

Dr Mkhize emphasised that Monday or this week is not open to all senior citizens 60 year and above, rather that old age homes will be the priority.

“We recommend that as many people as possible register beforehand. We will not accommodate people walking into the vaccination sites, the program has been designed to avoid long queues, that’s why we want to keep people on going in based on the message inviting them for vaccination.”

However, some provinces with smaller populations,such as Mpumalanga and the North West, have stated they would try to accommodate senior citizens who would have travelled long distances to vaccination sites.

Dr Mkhize underscored the difficulty of conducting such a programme.

“This is just to know how many vaccines you will get out of a vial and how you draw out the requisite amount, to allow us a few days to iron out teething problems and we expect there will be many teething problems so we are expected to start slow.”

Source: Eyewitness News

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Trump Encouraged to Urge Followers to Take Vaccine

On By ModernMedia

As US polls show that half of Republicans voters are reluctant to get a COVID vaccine, two former senior Trump administration officials have said that former US President Donald Trump is being encouraged to urge his followers to get the jab. 

The officials stressed that herd immunity could be threatened by Republican vaccine hesitancy, and that Trump’s followers will listen to him and him alone.

“Vaccines are widely regarded as one of Trump’s greatest accomplishments, and Trump understands that this legacy is at risk because half of his supporters are not taking the vaccine,” one of the officials told CNN. “It’s just not clear yet if he understands that he’s the only one who can fix this.”

The other official concurred. “In Trump country, if you want to call it that, there are still significant numbers of people who aren’t sure [COVID] is a real thing, despite folks getting sick, and there are lots of suspicions about the vaccine,” the source said. “They have literally said to me, ‘I want to hear from the president about this.’ I don’t think they’re going to listen to anyone else.”

Trump told Fox News last week that he would make a “commercial” about the vaccine, but did not make a firm commitment.
However, a person close to Trump disagreed he should take this approach. “He shouldn’t be pushing these vaccines. His posse isn’t exactly vaccine-approving and it could backfire,” the person said.

All the living former presidents save for Trump, and their wives, appeared in an ad campaign started last month encouraging vaccination – though Trump’s team denied he was approached to participate. This was because the team that organised the PSA did not think it was likely he would participate, according to a source close to that project.

In the Fox interview, Trump said, “I encourage them to take it. I do,” referring to his supporters, but has only spoken out a few times about vaccination.

Fifty-four percent of Republicans are either hesitant about or opposed to getting a COVID vaccine, according to a March survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and 29% said they would not get a vaccine under any circumstances.

The number of people 18 and over with at least one vaccine dose, the top 10 states are all states President Joe Biden won last November. Trump won 9 out of the bottom 10 states for vaccination.

A third former Trump official confided that as early as last summer, there were already concerns over Republican vaccine refusal.

“On Facebook I saw a ton of hesitancy for that group — just insane amounts of hesitancy already and we knew it was just going to get worse,” the official said.

That official said Trump ally Michael Caputo briefly mentioned to Trump last fall that it would be good for the president to do a vaccine PSA after the election.

One of the other former officials noted that recently, Caputo “in particular has been active in discussing” the possibility of doing a PSA with the Trump team.

“Michael takes this very seriously and sees this as a big public health problem,” said the source. “His stepping out, because he’s so connected to the president, is really going to be forceful and incredibly helpful.”

Mr Caputo served as assistant secretary for public affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services, leaving after being diagnosed with throat cancer and a rant at heath scientists saying they were undermining Trump.

Mr Caputo confirmed to CNN that he met with Trump and the two men “spoke about vaccine hesitancy and what can be done about it.”

Trump’s final year in office will define his legacy, according to historians, which was marred by the failure to contain COVID and his incitement of a mob that stormed the US Capitol.

The former  officials said they don’t want to see the vaccine development that Trump pushed undone by vaccine hesitancy, including among his own supporters.

“I see Operation Warp Speed tipping towards failure, and it really concerns me,” one of the senior officials warned. “If we don’t move half those people into the vaccinated column, we’re most likely not going to reach community immunity, and if we don’t reach it, then the president’s vaccine legacy is dead.”

The other senior official said Trump supporters would respond positively to the former president “taking ownership of Operation Warp Speed” and mentioning that he and his wife were both vaccinated.

“He could talk about how [vaccine uptake] is the way to get the country back to where it needs to be economically and socially, using his language that he uses with his supporters. I think that would be really powerful,” said the source.

Source: CNN

Categories : COVIDTags :

Mechanism of AstraZeneca Blood Clotting Detailed in Study

On By ModernMedia
Red blood cells. CC0 Creative Commons

A new study into rare cases of blood clots in the brain with low platelets seen in some patients after vaccination has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The research team behind the study were the first clinicians in the UK to spot the link between the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and rare cases of blood clotting along with a low platelet count, before identifying the correct diagnostic test for the syndrome. They recommended the treatment approach which avoids the use of heparin, an anticoagulant typically used to treat normal blood clots.

The researchers detailed the cases of 23 patients, who all presented with thrombosis and thrombocytopenia after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, and none of whom had underlying conditions which would predispose them to blood clots.

The presence of the PF4 antibody (platelet factor 4) was detected in almost all cases (21 out of 23). In rare instances, these antibodies are triggered by the blood-thinning drug heparin, a syndrome known as heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT). However, HIT was ruled out because none of the patients in this study received heparin.

The investigators therefore concluded that they were seeing a heparin-independent PF4-dependent syndrome in the setting of the AstraZeneca vaccine. They cautioned that this syndrome needs to be identified quickly if present, because its treatment is very different to that of blood clots with low platelet counts.

Co-author Professor Tom Solomon commented: “Although it is a very rare side effect, this issue of clots in the brain and elsewhere combined with blood abnormalities following COVID-19 immunization is extremely important. It is critical we understand the disease mechanisms so we can provide the best treatment for patients. Here at the University we are part of a national program collecting information on such patients.”

The researchers stressed that vaccination is still the key means to end the pandemic, and everyone should continue to receive a vaccine when offered one.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Marie Scully et al. Pathologic Antibodies to Platelet Factor 4 after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccination, New England Journal of Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2105385

Categories : COVIDTags :

SA’s Phase 2 Vaccination Rollout to Commence Soon

On By ModernMedia

South Africa’s Health Department said that it was preparing to vaccinate 5.5 million people over the age of 60 by October.

Phase two will commence from mid-May to the end of October, and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize visited hospitals in Mitchells Plain to assess its readiness for the expanded rollout. The Health Department is aiming to vaccinate as many people before a possible third wave.

Dr Mkhize said that plans to inoculate 16 million people during phase two remained on track.

“After that, after October of course everybody else who has not been vaccinated will have to come in, starting with those who will be in congregate settings and risk and so on.”

Dr Mkhize said that all the paperwork and contracts with Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer had been concluded. However, the use of the J&J vaccine is still waiting on an ethics committee’s signoff for the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority’s (Sahpra) recommendation to allow resumption of that vaccine’s trial.

Last week, the SA trial was temporarily stopped after regulators in the US paused the J&J vaccine rollout in that country after six women developed a rare blood clot. Sahpra has now recommended a conditional lifting of the suspension, although its US counterpart is expected to take two weeks to assess the clot problem.

Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela at Saphra said that the protocol would now have to be altered and safety regulations tightened.

“The screening and monitoring of the participants, particularly those with high risks of blood clotting,” Dr Semete-Makokotlela said. “Secondly, the safe management and immediate management of any participants who may present with any vaccine-induced thrombosis.”

Source: Eyewitness News

Categories : COVIDTags :

Department of Health COVID Vaccine Rollout Phase 2 Outlined

On By ModernMedia

The Department of Health’s COVID vaccine rollout has been fleshed out in a presentation, including details on how the vaccines will be distributed, and the jobs earmarked for the shots.

A presentation from the department indicates that the government has secured around 51 million vaccine doses, with 20 million from Pfizer and 30 million from Johnson & Johnson (J&J). However, it is unclear how the current pause in J&J administration in South Africa due to concerns about rare blood clots will affect immunisation schedules.

However, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that South Africa has secured a further 10 million Pfizer vaccines.

“We can now guarantee that the number of people that will be vaccinated with Pfizer has increased from 10 to 15 million,” he said.

With the 30 million of the single-dose shots from J&J, the current planned rollout will cover about 45 million South Africans.

Dr Mkhize said that both the Pfizer and J&J agreements cost around $10 (R145) per vaccine, with non-refundable clauses.

“The agreements state that down-payments that have been made in advance by the department shall not be refundable by the manufacturer to us in any circumstances. This is another onerous term that we had to settle for,” Dr Mkhize told the committee.

Meanwhile, government was sent an email from J&J, which stated that the company will not sign off the 20 million doses until they receive a letter from the Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, expressing support for the local investment that they made in Aspen Pharmacare.

“We’ve been taken aback by this, as there are clauses in the agreement that express this support and acknowledge that this production will not just be limited to South Africa and the continent, but also targeted for the global market,” said Dr Mkhize.

The department indicated that the Pfizer vaccine will likely go to major metropolitans due to its larger pack size and refrigeration requirements, while the J&J vaccine with its less stringent refrigeration needs would be allocated to rural areas.

South Africa’s Phase 2 of the vaccine rollout is planned to begin in May and run until October, with essential workers over 40 and the elderly to be targeted in the programme. This is to include a focus on old age homes and care facilities, plus identifying those with co-morbidities.

The department provided an overview of occupations covered under the vaccine rollout, to include, among others, the police, army, social and municipal workers, and faith and traditional leaders. Private sectors could include mining, retail, transport, and manufacturing.

Source: BusinessTech

Categories : COVIDTags : 1 Comment

Blood Clotting Concerns Resulting in Vaccination Delays

On By ModernMedia

Vaccination programmes are facing increasing delays because of concerns over AstraZeneca’s very rare blood clotting incidents.

Australia and Greece are the latest governments deciding to offer young people alternatives to AstraZeneca’s vaccine. This will delay inoculation campaigns by around a month in Australia, France and Britain. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said most countries lacked vaccines to cover health workers and others at high risk from exposure to the virus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said high income countries had on average vaccinated one in four people whilst low income countries the figure was one in over 500.

“There remains a shocking imbalance in the distribution of vaccines,” he told a press briefing on Friday.

The WHO and GAVI vaccine alliance’s COVAX mechanism seeks to secure vaccines for poorer nations. GAVI alliance head Seth Berkley said AstraZeneca’s supply chain had in fact “picked up” when asked whether the vaccine was being shunned.

“As countries decide they are going to prioritise one vaccine or another, that may free up doses, and in so doing we will try to make sure those doses are made available without delay, if countries are willing to make that happen,” he said.

Australia doubled its orders for Pfizer after its health body recommended that people under 50 receive an alternative vaccine. Greece followed Britain’s example in recommending that people under 30 seek an alternative jab.

AstraZeneca said it was working with regulators “to understand the individual cases, epidemiology and possible mechanisms that could explain these extremely rare events”.

Sabine Straus, chair of the EMA’s safety committee, said that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) received reports of 169 cases of the rare brain blood clot by early April, after 34 million doses had been administered.

Most of the cases reported had occurred in women under 60.

On Friday, the EMA said that if a causal relationship is confirmed or considered likely, regulatory action will be needed to minimise risk. It is also investigating Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) vaccine over reports of blood clots. US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci however said there were no red flags reported for the J&J vaccine.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is the cheapest and most high-volume vaccine to date to curb the pandemic and avert damaging lockdowns, but supplies have been beset by delays.

However, new data in the EU, beset by delays, showed that the pace of vaccine deliveries was picking up. Germany said it was accelerating inoculations but needed a new lockdown as well.

“Every day in which we don’t act, we lose lives,” Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, said.

Hong Kong Health Secretary Sophia Chan said the city would defer its order of the AstraZeneca vaccine this year “so as not to cause a waste when the vaccine is still in short supply globally”, adding that the government was considering buying a new, more effective type of vaccine.

All the countries recommending age limits for the AstraZeneca shot have emphasised that its benefits far outweigh the risks of catching COVID for older people. Even so, some people have been put off; in Madrid half of over 60s meant to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine turned up, a day after Spain’s recommendation that younger people get a different shot.

In France, where vaccine hesitancy is high, the top health body recommended that those over 55 who had received a first dose of the AstraZeneca shot get a new-style messenger-RNA vaccine for the second one: either the Pfizer/BioNTech one or Moderna’s.

Source: Reuters

Categories : COVIDTags :

COVID Vaccines and Vaccination Certificates Sold on Darknet

On By ModernMedia

According to an article by BBC News, COVID vaccines and vaccination certificates are being widely sold on the darknet.

Prices can range from  $500 (R7500) and $750 for doses of the AstraZeneca, Sputnik, Sinopharm or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Some even allow for emergency delivery with an overnight service. There are also fake vaccination certificates being sold for as little as $150.

Also known as the ‘dark web’, the darknet is a part of the internet that can only be accessed with specific browser tools. One such tool is Tor, a browser specially designed for anonymity.

Cyber-security company Checkpoint says that they have seen the number of adverts triple from when vaccines first become available, to 1200. The sources of the adverts appear to be the US, UK, Spain, Germany, France and Russia.

Oded Vanunu, head of product vulnerabilities research at Check Point told the BBC: “It’s imperative for people to understand that attempting to obtain a vaccine, a vaccination card or negative Covid-19 test result by unofficial means is extremely risky, as hackers are more interested in your money, information and identity for exploitation.”

Mr Vanunu also shared that,  as part of their research, his team purchased a Sinopharm vaccine dose from one of the vendors for $750, but are yet to receive it. His team believes that this particular vendor was a scammer, but others might be selling real vaccines.

Check Point is urging countries to protect their vaccine documentation by implementing a QR code system to make forgeries more difficult.

Source: BBC News

Categories : COVID TransplantsTags :

COVID Vaccination in Immunosuppressed Patients Produces Weak Response

On By ModernMedia

An article by Dorry Segev, MD, PhD for MedPage Today reveals poor results for COVID vaccination in immunosuppressed patients, with concerning implications. 

Dr Segev professor of surgery and epidemiology and associate vice chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr Segev and colleagues launched a national study of vaccine immune responses in immunosuppressed solid organ transplant recipients. Among 436 COVID-naïve participants who received their first mRNA vaccine dose, only 17% of them mounted detectable antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.  The researchers also found that those taking anti-metabolites (eg, mycophenolate or azathioprine) were less likely to develop antibody responses, with 8.75% with detectable antibody found in those taking anti-metabolites versus 41.4% in those not taking them.

“Naturally, we were disappointed to see these findings, as we were hoping to be able to tell our immunosuppressed patients that the vaccines seemed to work well for them. Given this observation, the CDC should update their new guidelines for vaccinated individuals to warn immunosuppressed people that they still may be susceptible to COVID-19 after vaccination,
Dr Segev wrote. 

The current CDC guidelines are worded in a way that suggests vaccination translates into immunity, Dr Segev pointed out, but the study demonstrates that for most transplant recipients, as well as other immunosuppressed patients that the vaccine does not automatically confer immunity. This could also be a concern for the some 37.9 million people around the world living with HIV, although the effects of achieving viral suppression with antiretroviral therapy have so far not been well investigated in relation to COVID. Vaccine trials so far have not had sufficient numbers of participants living with HIV to draw any conclusions.

Notably, their previous research did show that rates of COVID infection and mortality were not greater for immunosuppressed transplant patients. 
Dr Segev noted that there are some implications for immunosuppressed patients; firstly, that they should at the very least receive the second dose of their vaccination (the current research is only on the effects of the first dose), and secondly, immunosuppressed patients should be aware that they may not necessarily be immunised after receiving a vaccination. They should speak to their provider about an antibody test to determine if the immunisation has been achieved.

The researchers are continuing to investigate other aspects of immune response besides antibodies, such as T and B cells, and are also looking at other vulnerable populations.

Source: MedPage Today

Categories : COVIDTags :

Netherlands and Ireland Suspend AstraZeneca Vaccine Over Blood Clots

On By ModernMedia

In the wake of reports from Norway of blood clots in people shortly after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Netherlands and Ireland have suspended its use.

The Dutch Health ministry on Sunday said that there was still no evidence of a direct link between the vaccine and possible adverse effects from Norway and Denmark, and there were no reported cases in the Netherlands.

“We can’t allow any doubts about the vaccine,” Dutch health minister Hugo de Jonge said. “We have to make sure everything is right, so it is wise to pause for now.”

Earlier on Sunday Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, said that deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which makes up 20% of the country’s 570 000 doses given so far, should be “temporarily deferred” with immediate effect as recommended by the country’s National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC). However, he emphasised that there was no proof that blood clots had been caused by the vaccine.

The first blood clots were reported in Austria, and prompted a wave of concern, with Denmark suspending the AstraZeneca vaccine, along with the north of Italy. These latest cases in Norway resulted in three hospitalisations and one death.

The Norwegian Medicines Agency said the four people who had the AstraZeneca injection all had reduced numbers of blood platelets. It added: “People under the age of 50 who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine and feel increasingly unwell more than three days after vaccination, and who notice larger or smaller blue spots in the skin (skin haemorrhages) must consult a doctor or out-of-hours medical service as soon as possible.

“Similar incidents have been reported in other European countries, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is considering whether there may be an association with the coronavirus vaccines. So far, no conclusion has been reached.”

Professor Karina Butler, head of NIAC, said it was acting out of an abundance of caution but wanted a better understanding of this unanticipated cluster of “very serious” clotting events in younger people.

There were similarities to other cases reported elsewhere in Europe, she added. It was necessary to know “was there a possibility of a relationship with the vaccine, something which was rare but very serious and could have significant outcomes”, she said to Virgin Media News.

The agency did not yet know whether more blood clots were happening than expected in the population generally. “But they do seem to have clustered together at a level and in younger people – I mean less than 65 – where we wouldn’t necessarily have expected them to happen and thus the question was should we just pause until we get that information, because above all we want to maintain confidence in the vaccine programme so that people can feel that what they are getting is safe, that any serious safety signal is being thoroughly investigated,” she said. 

In a statement, Dr Glynn said: “It has not been concluded that there is any link between the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca and these cases. However, acting on the precautionary principle, and pending receipt of further information, the NIAC has recommended the temporary deferral of the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca vaccination programme in Ireland.”

Source: The Guardian