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Update: Just confirmed our rental for next February down south. Even though the money can be refunded by mid January if need be, the Gov't and medical communities better get their acts together and get those needles in arms lickety split: up here, and down south!!

Now I'm really getting confused. AstraZeneca is now approved for use here in Canada. It's reported to be cheaper per dose (attractive to governments), easier to store (attractive for the logistics of deploying and storing), but it's "efficacy" seems to be notably less than the Moderna, Pfizer and the J &J vaccine - especially against the South African variant.

Let's see....which one do I hope to get....hmmmm

Which vaccine is the best?
There’s no “best vaccine” option.

Whichever vaccine is available first, “it’s going to protect you,” Wouters said.

There’s no ‘best’ vaccine, expert says as Canada OKs AstraZeneca shots
February 27, 2021

Guess all we can hope for is getting a vaccination sooner than later...

Accrete wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 5:55 pm

Which vaccine is the best?
There’s no “best vaccine” option.

Ya, I'm going to have to disagree on the "there's no best vaccine" option . I think one or two are better options - for us, the ones getting the shots into arms, and not the logistics of transport and storage (and oh ya, cost). One is quite a bit cheaper than the other two.

Where the logistics are concerned, sure one is better than the other two. They just don't want people waiting and trying to make choices, because we have to take what we can get. I get that. But I don't like being told that they're all the same. Or that one isn't better than the other. it's a little insulting, IMO.

Whichever vaccine is available first, “it’s going to protect you,” Wouters said.

That's for sure. Each one will "protect us". However, no matter how many times they say one vaccine is no better than the other, the stats beg to differ. Sure, no one had died taking AstraZeneca, and no one has had to be admitted to the hospital for severe illness. But, AstraZeneca's efficacy is purported to be "between 60-90%. Well, that's a pretty big spread. It's like saying for today's weather, it's going to be between 60F and 90F.

Accrete wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 5:55 pmGuess all we can hope for is getting a vaccination sooner than later...

For sure.

J. H. Rasmussen wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 6:18 pm I hope you get one of the good vaccines, and that the Canadian government can see that the less effective vaccine should only be used if there is not enough of the good vaccines.

Amen to that.

The Health professionals (doctors and immunologists etc) say to follow vaccine protocols based on evidence and data from the vaccine trials. On the other hand, the health officials (some with medical background and of course, the politicians) are now saying to delay the second doses out by 4 months, rather than the 4-6 weeks that the trial data shows as being effective.

Let's let that simmer for a bit...

The decision is backed by the National group NACI rapid response: Extended dose intervals for COVID-19 vaccines to optimize early vaccine rollout and population protection in Canada

Who knows. Maybe they won't have to do this if we get enough vaccines...

I certainly hope we get enough vaccines to follow the tested and approved protocols. I read/hear words/phrases like "ethical, and efficient allocation", "studies from outside Canada", "urgency", "reevaluating the data on second dose intervals" and a whole lot more. The scientists/immunologists, are saying there can be problems going either way. What I get from this is that the ones saying this, are being very diplomatic and not wanting to rock the boat.

All I get out of this, is that opening up the business communities across the country, as long as we have "some protection", is clearly their focus. That being said, I get why they want to open. I really do. But no matter how they try and sell this new plan of spacing out doses, I feel like we're being sold a shoddy bill of goods, and are being set up to be experimented on, based on phrasing like "abridged rationale", "looks like it will work", "should be ok to space out doses", type of phrasing.

I really get such extreme comfort (sarcastic) hearing in yesterday's presser in Manitoba, "if we find the efficacy wanes as we go forward, we can pivot to adjust our protocols".

Just how long do they think it'll take to "pivot"? A few weeks, maybe a month or more? And where do they think they'll get the extra vaccine supply all of a sudden? Do they think, heck, when Bob and Velma's antibody protection heads south, they'll suddenly have supply on hand to prop it up? Will they have to wait and get in line with the other's needing the second shot? Maybe next year they will have supply. And that scares me only half as much as the actual "experimentation" we'll be going thru.

LMD wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:14 pm

PS: Dad had it his way - staying at home almost to the end, but had to be hospitalized for a few months before he left us.

I did not know that he was ill. Very sorry for your loss.

It's been a few years, but I still think about him quite a bit, especially at this time of year as his birthday approaches.