Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

[disha]

It was also mentioned that the PM as well as the HM and EAM S Jaishanker who all got Covaxin were also placed on a 30 minute observation after vaccination before being allowed to leave. This can't be very helpful to maintaining high throughput. Bharat Biotech is due to report their phase 3 trial data this week or the next. It should enable ICMR to relax the observation requirements.

Suraj'san technically there is no delay. That is, there is a cache of incoming and outgoing patients. All the people who are to be observed are pooled into a room (or courtyard or hall or outside on parking lot) with masks and 6 ft. discussions (it is a different issue that people will still cluster and share gossip). Once their 30 mins are up and they have not collapsed, they are let go.

Every minute there is a person vaccinated, that minute another person vaccinated 30 mins prior is let go. And another person who has arrived and filled up his forms and waiting to be vaccinated is let in.

And vaccination is a multi-threaded operation. So as long as the input cache is full, there is no delay.

I have been urging people to go and get vaccinated early. Some cousins got premier treatment, since they were the first ones. They got chai-biskoot and in some cases the head nurse or the doctor herself administered the vaccine with due photos and all that. Something like a festive atmosphere (or an atmosphere where a shiny new car is brought to home).

As mass vaccinations picks up, the biscuits and chai will vanish. So get your vaccinations - if you can now.

[Uttam]

In the US a 30-minute observation after both doses is needed for Moderna as well as Pfizer vaccines. The observation period is not strictly enforced but is highly recommended as both vaccines have shown a rare side effect of anaphylaxis. In fact, the medical observer (usually a nurse) keeps a few doses of epinephrine injection ready in the observation area.

[Uttam]

Covid vaccines may stop spread ‘almost completely’ with jabs working ‘better than any of us could have imagined’

B
ritain’s Covid-19 vaccines may stop people passing on the virus “almost completely”, the head of immunisation at Public Health England has revealed.

Dr Mary Ramsay said grounds for hope that vaccination may achieve the holy grail of halting community transmission were emerging from new studies.

“What we don’t yet know is how long that might last and whether or not that will be enough to stop the infection spreading more widely in the population over time,” she told Radio 4’s Today on Tuesday

“But there’s really very good signs that this is going to at least reduce infection rates across the population, and hopefully ... prevent people passing it on almost completely if they’ve been vaccinated fully.”

If the hopes are fulfilled, it will be the most spectacular success yet for the British vaccination roll-out — and a huge boost to the Prime Minister’s roadmap to recovery from the pandemic.

France overnight abandoned president Emmanuel Macron’s widely-condemned criticism of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab — and reports from Germany said chancellor Angela Merkel was poised to lift her embargo on the same dose being given to over-65s.

Both leaders have been embarrassed by how well the vaccine has performed in reducing hospitalisation and deaths in elderly people, especially Mr Macron who was lambasted by scientists for alleging without any evidence that the Oxford jab appeared “quasi-ineffective on people older than 65.”

[Suraj]

It was also mentioned that the PM as well as the HM and EAM S Jaishanker who all got Covaxin were also placed on a 30 minute observation after vaccination before being allowed to leave. This can't be very helpful to maintaining high throughput. Bharat Biotech is due to report their phase 3 trial data this week or the next. It should enable ICMR to relax the observation requirements.

Suraj'san technically there is no delay. That is, there is 2 level cache of incoming and outgoing patients. All the people who are to be observed are pooled into a room (or courtyard or hall or outside on parking lot) with masks and 6 ft. discussions (it is a different issue that people will still cluster and share gossip). Once their 30 mins are up and they have not collapsed, they are let go.

Yes I know how that works, but you're missing out on the requirement for the cache (holding area large enough to manage incoming queue rate vs outgoing rate) *and* the need for medical care personnel to be deployed to handle adverse reactions, where each such case may need N medical personnel who may otherwise be deployed into vaccination. So it's not really trivial, and given the demonstrated lack of very organized planning at this point, the most direct result would be hospitals simply asking people to 'come back later'.

Uttam: thanks for the note on the post-vaccination protocol for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

[saip]

TX is going ahead and dropping its Mask mandate and allowing ALL businesses to function without any restrictions.

[Mort Walker]

TX is going ahead and dropping its Mask mandate and allowing ALL businesses to function without any restrictions.

The real killer is recirculated air from HVAC systems. Most of India outside of the metros are not wearing masks and infection+death rate is low.

[darshan]

Haha. Just when my employer upped the requirement to double up surgical masks for closed areas or kn95. All sites including Texas ones.

[arshyam]

I hope Indian commercial and military companies have similar considerations.

Yes, DRDO network is air-gapped. This is from a 2014 report: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tec ... 670851.cms

"No classified information is kept stored on the machines connected to the internet. No network of DRDO has been compromised," DRDO spokesperson Ravi Gupta said.

He said DRDO maintains a strict "air gap" between the machines having internet and the ones without the facility.

Similarly, AFNET, AWAN (Air Force Wide Area Network) and NEWN (Navy Enterprise Wide Network) are air-gapped, and movement between them is tightly controlled.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ext_Decade

Drawing a parallel with the incident, the IAF, Indian Army and
Indian Navy operate their computer networks as ‘air gapped’ from each
other and from the internet to ensure network security, however, they
have an operational necessity to access and transfer data across multiple
networks to achieve their mission. This need, in many cases, puts pressure
on combatants to bypass the security features and Standard Operating
Procedures (SOPs), thus, promoting the use of devices such as ash drives/
CDs/DVDs between the networks. The IAF has very stringent SOPs for
transfer of data between the AFNET and internet; however, incidents of
violations keep getting reported.

From our very own deejay sir: viewtopic.php?p=1802702#p1802702

The AFCell or the secure IAF only Cell network has been rolled out. The AFNet and AFCell is a totally secure thing and is independent of the Civil use mobile and net services. One will not access Google from AFNet and if some smart guy tries, I have been informed that a minimum of Court Martial would be initiated.

AFCell comes with its own handset and its loss will cause action initiated like loss of Identity Card. I did not see any SIMs in use for AFCell and nor was I told of any SIM card. It was good to see the developments and IAF guys are happy. So far it has been rolled out up to SNCO levels (not sure).

So, yes, some level of protections are built-in. The above is only publicly available information, I assume there is more that's not in the public domain. That doesn't mean the threats don't exist, of course. The above links themselves talk about attempts to breach these networks, but looks like the govt is aware of issues and taking whatever precautions they can.

[vera_k]

3.4 lakh Covaxin vials lie unused in Karnataka

After PM Narendra Modi took Covaxin on Monday morning at AIIMS, Delhi, several senior citizens here asked why Covaxin cannot be given to them.

[Atmavik]

looks like vaccine hesitancy is gone. my parents have been trying to register and get a date but are unable to find a spot. Modi'ji and other Central ministers taking the vaccine has given a confidence boost.

now the issue is supply and supply chain issues. some hospitals are listed in the app but when my parents called they were told that the hospital is yet to receive the vaccine. hope these issues are sorted out soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D888rY ... gkv_03gN3i

[Tanaji]

The issues around app crashing repeatedly still remain. For some reason the government has done this in 2 stages: first to do the registration via portal and then do the booking via an app. It is causing no end of confusion for senior citizens...

Rate was slow for day 2 as well

[Atmavik]

Covid: France approves AstraZeneca vaccine for over-65s

Macron will be calling Modi ji soon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56242617

[Suraj]

770K vaccinated on day 2 of phase 2, up from 550k on day 1. Hopefully as Cowin issues settle down the numbers will cross million per day by end of week.

[saip]

My sister and BiL are getting their shots today at a private hospital in HYD. They regd yday. They stayed in India for the past one year because of Covid19. They are from NY.

[Raja]

My family (10 adults) got vaccinated yesterday with Covidshield. They simply showed up early without an appointment and got vaccinated right away. They are all 70+. Clearly the vaccination rate could be significantly higher if the appointment logistics get smoother.

[niran]

My family (10 adults) got vaccinated yesterday with Covidshield. They simply showed up early without an appointment and got vaccinated right away. They are all 70+. Clearly the vaccination rate could be significantly higher if the appointment logistics get smoother.

on a good day around 30 percent of appointment will be cancelled it shoots up to 60 on a bad day since phase 1 was 9nly for Wuhan Virus warriors those doses came back and as usual to return the paperwork is more second phase is open to public why not vaccinate if the person qualify mucho easier both for paperwork and ASR bosses have to file.

[dhyana]

Pieces are falling into place for SII's COVAX rollout...

COVAX publishes first round of allocations
The List

The above encompasses all COVAX vaccine deliveries thru May, primarily the AZ jab- w/ lower/middle income countries primarily being given Covishield- and a small spattering of Pfizer shots.

UK to receive 10 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses from India's Serum Institute

So, this would mean both Canada and Britain getting Covishield doses. As per the earlier news re: France, who knows? But, having done a paltry 3-million jabs compared to Britain's 20+ million, they may be looking to kick-start vaccinations as well. Though, their problem may be partly self-inflicted (with significant vaccine hesitancy, etc.). In any case, the high-income countries will mostly get their shots in by 2nd/3rd quarter, while the LMIC's will barely get started.

India will have significant additional vaccine capacity coming online by 2nd/3rd quarter. This, mated w/ additional vaccine options likely being authorized, needs to to be put to full use for a massive drive.

[nandakumar]

My family (10 adults) got vaccinated yesterday with Covidshield. They simply showed up early without an appointment and got vaccinated right away. They are all 70+. Clearly the vaccination rate could be significantly higher if the appointment logistics get smoother.

on a good day around 30 percent of appointment will be cancelled it shoots up to 60 on a bad day since phase 1 was 9nly for Wuhan Virus warriors those doses came back and as usual to return the paperwork is more second phase is open to public why not vaccinate if the person qualify mucho easier both for paperwork and ASR bosses have to file.

This is how it is being done in Chennai. Day before yesterday my wife got into the nearest public health centre presented her Id proof and got herself vaccinated. Yesterday another close relative of mine went to an accredited private hospital presented his Id proof and he was given time at 12 noon. But interestingly even as he was getting ready to leave he was told to wait and he had the jab in the next 15 minutes and the entire process took less than an hour. The Chennai Corporation is reaching out to economically weaker sections of the society (if my cook's experience is anything to go by) and asking people for enrollment. They even offered transportation for those too old and infirm!

[Cyrano]

In the US a 30-minute observation after both doses is needed for Moderna as well as Pfizer vaccines. The observation period is not strictly enforced but is highly recommended as both vaccines have shown a rare side effect of anaphylaxis. In fact, the medical observer (usually a nurse) keeps a few doses of epinephrine injection ready in the observation area.

Same in India as per the GoI issued guidelines for vaccination centres. Quite a detailed prescriptive "toolkit" of guidelines where issued by GoI several weeks ago. It does recommend 30 mins of observation post injection and a waiting space must be set up for it in each center.

[chetak]

Pieces are falling into place for SII's COVAX rollout...

COVAX publishes first round of allocations
The List

The above encompasses all COVAX vaccine deliveries thru May, primarily the AZ jab- w/ lower/middle income countries primarily being given Covishield- and a small spattering of Pfizer shots.

UK to receive 10 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses from India's Serum Institute

So, this would mean both Canada and Britain getting Covishield doses. As per the earlier news re: France, who knows? But, having done a paltry 3-million jabs compared to Britain's 20+ million, they may be looking to kick-start vaccinations as well. Though, their problem may be partly self-inflicted (with significant vaccine hesitancy, etc.). In any case, the high-income countries will mostly get their shots in by 2nd/3rd quarter, while the LMIC's will barely get started.

India will have significant additional vaccine capacity coming online by 2nd/3rd quarter. This, mated w/ additional vaccine options likely being authorized, needs to to be put to full use for a massive drive.

France deserves and will get priority vaccine supplies from India if they need it.

Modi has a special relationship with Macron who has been unreservedly pro India.

[niran]

Here is another issue with the Phase 2 vaccination campaign:

For taking Covaxin dose, beneficiaries have to give an undertaking and also document of adverse event following immunization

This is a problem especially for the elderly population who find it difficult to fill the consent form. (I am sure PM Modi taking Covaxin increased the extent of this problem )

remember all vaccines are emergency use approval means full clinical trials not finished means all taking jabs are under clinical trail participants so forms have to be filled.

[niran]

Day 1 in Mumbai was a mess. The app kept crashing repeatedly. Although you can use any documents for identity verification, in practice Aadhar was the only one being used. Also it requires Aadhar to be linked to your mobile number. The app has UI issues: the icon for booking a time slot is easily missed. It requires alphanumeric elements to be in caps... none of which is mentioned anywhere. Given that this is targeted at 60+ , it has resulted in a mess at the vaccination centres.

Private hospitals are grumbling that Rs250 is too less..

Hopefully as time passes, this will get sorted soon

what app there are no app you need to go to cowin.gov.in and register co-win app is for admin not for holloi polloi

[nam]

Time our bio companies show they belong to a future superpower country by going 24/7 with vaccine production. There is no shortage of worldwide demand.

[Uttam]

Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN COVID-19 Vaccine Demonstrates Interim Clinical Efficacy Of 81%

* SAYS COVID-19 VACCINE DEMONSTRATES INTERIM CLINICAL EFFICACY OF 81%

* COVAXIN DEMONSTRATED 81% INTERIM EFFICACY IN PREVENTING COVID-19 IN THOSE WITHOUT PRIOR INFECTION AFTER SECOND DOSE

* DATA FROM 25,800 PARTICIPANTS, RECEIVED A VACCINE OR PLACEBO IN A 1:1 RATIO SHOWED THAT THE VACCINE CANDIDATE WAS WELL TOLERATED

* CLINICAL TRIAL TO CONTINUE THROUGH TO FINAL ANALYSIS AT 130 CONFIRMED CASES IN ORDER TO GATHER FURTHER DATA

Source text: (https://www.bharatbiotech.com/images/pr ... esults.pdf)

More details:

Interim Phase 3 Results: 81% Efficacy
The Phase 3 study enrolled 25,800 participants between 18-98 years of age, including 2,433 over the age of 60 and 4,500 with comorbidities. The primary endpoint of Phase 3 clinical trial is based on the first occurrence of PCR-confirmed symptomatic (mild, moderate, or severe) COVID-19 with onset at least 14 days after the second study vaccination in serologically negative (to SARS-CoV-2) adult participants at baseline.

The first interim analysis is based on 43 cases, of which 36 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 7 cases observed in the BBV152 (COVAXIN®) group, resulting in a point estimate of vaccine efficacy of 80.6%.

The interim analysis included a preliminary review of the safety database, which showed that severe, serious, and medically attended adverse events occurred at low levels and were balanced between vaccine and placebo groups. The trial's conduct and monitoring are as per Good Clinical Practice guidelines and have been outsourced to IQVIA.

Bharat Biotech expects to share further details of the trial results as additional data become available. An additional interim analysis is planned for 87 cases, and the final analysis is planned for 130 cases. All data from the second interim and final analyses will be shared via prepublication servers as well as submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.

My opinion:
This is an excellent result. The sample is small because COVID infections went down in India over the last 2 months. It is still a great result. It will probably take another couple of months or so to get data for final analysis.

[RajD]

Day 1 in Mumbai was a mess. The app kept crashing repeatedly. Although you can use any documents for identity verification, in practice Aadhar was the only one being used. Also it requires Aadhar to be linked to your mobile number. The app has UI issues: the icon for booking a time slot is easily missed. It requires alphanumeric elements to be in caps... none of which is mentioned anywhere. Given that this is targeted at 60+ , it has resulted in a mess at the vaccination centres.

Private hospitals are grumbling that Rs250 is too less..

Hopefully as time passes, this will get sorted soon

what app there are no app you need to go to cowin.gov.in and register co-win app is for admin not for holloi polloi

This is one side of the picture. But the silver lining is that although not all centers in Thane are operational yet, my friend(with comorbidity) in Thane registered himself very early this morning and got vaccinated in one of the centers there. He told me that there were several people being administered vaccine jabs who'd just walked-in taking chance and there were those also who had registered themselves and had been given slots at much later dates. All in all, I'd say a good beginning.

[Tanaji]

Niranji, you are right. But there was this huge confusion earlier that booking was to be done via app. The local papers mentioned this as well. MoH later clarified that it was not so.

[Ambar]

My mother got her first jab of Covaxin earlier this afternoon . She had registered 2 days ago and had selected a private hospital, but there seems to be a wait of 3 weeks before the private hospitals receive their first batch of vaccines, and since some slots were available at the local district government hospital, my mother went there and was administered the first dose of Covaxin without much wait. The only confusing part was when asked about Covishield, the staff mentioned their supply of covishield is for HCWs, the general population will get Covaxin. Anyways, she was asked to come back for the 2nd dose between days 29 and 40. Modiji taking the vaccine seems to have really helped as more and more people are now coming forward to get themselves vaccinated.

[Zynda]

Not able to get an appointment slot for my parents in BLR south...in fact Co-Win shows no slots are available for entire month of March. We will wait for a couple of days and if no appointment slots are still available, they may just do a walk-in. Good move by GoI to expand 24x7 vaccination...next is to expand the number of vaccination sites. Good for folks who have got themselves vaccinated so far...

[saip]

My sister and BiL got their first shots (Rs 150/- per person) at a private hospital at HYD. It is AZ vaccine.

[Suraj]

Fantastic result from Bharat Biotech. It will open up a lot of export potential for them now.

[saip]

Serum Institute may account for half of global supplies in 2021.
Racing Ahead

[durairaaj]

After all the hulla bulla created by the anti-govt renegades in media against Bharat-Biotech's covaxin, the vaccine has proved itself in Phase III and now all of the presstitutes are quiet.
covaxin-has-around-81-efficacy
If you have patience to read till the end of the article, you will find the following gem deeply buried. The vaccine that the presstitutes and mediacrooks batted for has shown less efficacy. It was even rejected by S.Africa. That did not gain any media attention.

Covishield, the other vaccine being used in the government’s campaign, has an efficacy of around 53 per cent when the second dose is given less than six weeks after the first dose.

[darshan]

It was fun monitoring Google news through various test stations. Google was minting money with twisted headlines about 81% result.

[Suraj]

Almost 1m mark on day 3!! Cumulative total up to 16.6 million now . Nicely picking up !

[Raja]

After all the hulla bulla created by the anti-govt renegades in media against Bharat-Biotech's covaxin, the vaccine has proved itself in Phase III and now all of the presstitutes are quiet.
covaxin-has-around-81-efficacy
If you have patience to read till the end of the article, you will find the following gem deeply buried. The vaccine that the presstitutes and mediacrooks batted for has shown less efficacy. It was even rejected by S.Africa. That did not gain any media attention.

Covishield, the other vaccine being used in the government’s campaign, has an efficacy of around 53 per cent when the second dose is given less than six weeks after the first dose.

1) Covidshield has been approved by Indian government. Not by "presstitutes".

2) Fact that Covaxin has shown good results does not change anything. The criticism was largely about the process not being followed and shortcuts being taken. That it seems to have worked out doesn't take anything away from that criticism. Maybe next time it will not. In the end, early approval of Covaxin barely made a dent in total vaccination rates and got itself mired with unnecessary controversy.

[niran]

1) Covidshield has been approved by Indian government. Not by "presstitutes".

2) Fact that Covaxin has shown good results does not change anything. The criticism was largely about the process not being followed and shortcuts being taken. That it seems to have worked out doesn't take anything away from that criticism. Maybe next time it will not. In the end, early approval of Covaxin barely made a dent in total vaccination rates and got itself mired with unnecessary controversy.

2.) emergency use approval for both vaccines saar, if due process was to be followed it takes half a decade minimum for a vaccine that is year 2025 for vaccine inoculation to start

[niran]

MIL got her first dose this morning at Banguluru had registered her from UP
me old man will get his 1st dose tomorrow morning in UP east he is

[durairaaj]

1) Covidshield has been approved by Indian government. Not by "presstitutes".

2) Fact that Covaxin has shown good results does not change anything. The criticism was largely about the process not being followed and shortcuts being taken. That it seems to have worked out doesn't take anything away from that criticism. Maybe next time it will not. In the end, early approval of Covaxin barely made a dent in total vaccination rates and got itself mired with unnecessary controversy.

I diagree.
Why I called them presstitutes?
Did you read the quote I mentioned from Indianexpress article. There is no mention of Oxford, Astrazeneca or Serum Institute, only 'Covishield'. However, when they were maligning Covaxin they always mentioned Bharat-Biotech again and again. Why are they not mentioning the institution name. The press reports were indicating BJP govt as being in cahoot with "Bharat"-Biotech.

Why I support EU approval of Covaxin?
In drug trials, Phase 1:-Toxicity evaluation, Phase 2:- effectiveness against disease, and Phase 3:- population level efficacy.
Cavaxin was approved based on Phase 2. It produced antibodies. Only gap is, they did not have data against mutants versions, which was almost non existent in India at that time.
The press reports and all the useful idiots, while maligning the ICMR's decision to allow emergency use, equated Covaxin's performance with placebo or even with water. In their eagerness to villify Govt's proactive approach and attempt to increase leverage in dealing with monopolistic situation with Serum Institute, they ignored the phase 2 results from Covaxin trials. If we had followed their advise and waited for Phase 3 we would have been dealing with only the little emperor Poonawala. He was constantly commeting on social media about how much Govt. has to pay and bad mouthing about Covaxin. Only after the tragic fire, he shut his mouth.

[darshan]

0.5 courts have time to spare but vaccine makers don't.
Courts want to jump lines while PM and citizens didn't.

Delhi HC Asks Vaccine Production Capacity Info From Serum Institute And Bharat Biotech, Calls For Urgency
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/delhi-hc- ... or-urgency
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli of the Delhi High Court on Thursday (04 March) directed Pune based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech to disclose their capacities to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines, reports LiveMint.

While hearing a PIL to examine the demand of Bar Council of Delhi to declare all people associated with the judicial functioning as “frontline workers" so that they could receive COVID-19 vaccination on priority, the High Court said the two institutes, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, have more capacity to provide the vaccines but it seems that they are not exploiting it fully.

[Raja]

1 million mark hit.

Hopeful that we can quickly ramp up to 5M in a single day.