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Good news about Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

Summary:
Covid 19 vaccinations are going well. Quite a number of vaccines have been approved. And these are being used. At the time of writing close to 100 million ‘jabs’ have already been provided, not just of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine but also of the Sputnic, AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines. And the pace is quickening, for instance in countries like Brazil and Morocco (which uses AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines in its 3.000 vaccination centres). Look here for the scientific results of the Russian Sputnik vaccine. Look here for the results of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. Look here for the Cuban/Iranian efforts (Cuba has not enough Corona cases to test it at home). Look here for Indian efforts, one for a vaccine which supposedly can be stored at 37 degrees Celsius. I’m

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Covid 19 vaccinations are going well. Quite a number of vaccines have been approved. And these are being used. At the time of writing close to 100 million ‘jabs’ have already been provided, not just of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine but also of the Sputnic, AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines. And the pace is quickening, for instance in countries like Brazil and Morocco (which uses AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines in its 3.000 vaccination centres).

Good news about Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

Look here for the scientific results of the Russian Sputnik vaccine. Look here for the results of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. Look here for the Cuban/Iranian efforts (Cuba has not enough Corona cases to test it at home). Look here for Indian efforts, one for a vaccine which supposedly can be stored at 37 degrees Celsius.

I’m not competent to say anything about the dependability of the data mentioned in the links. But it strikes me that the Johnsson and Johnsson vaccine, which seems to be about as good as the Russian and Chinese vaccine (looking at the numbers) gets a much better press than the Sputnik and Sinovac vaccine.The question is: do vaccines work in ‘real life’? Unfortunately, the jury is still out. New cases in rapidvaxxers like Israel, the UK and Denmark are falling rapidly and even very rapidly (UK) and to remarkably low levels (Denmark) and information about new cases and hospitalizations of the ‘vulnerable’ (read: the old) in Israel are somewhat comforting. Death rates in the UK and Israel are, however, still uncomfortably high.

There is a vaccine quarrel between AstraZeneca and the EU. About this: even when AstraZeneca produces and distributes less than it promised, total supply will still increase. Also, the EU should have negotiated a much better contract which gave them 100% knowledge about numbers produced and distributed as well as ownership of patents. The bottom line: stocks of vaccine in the Netherlands are increasing as the government did not trust professionals to make the decisions about who, when and how to vaccinate and left these decisions to people without knowledge about vaccination campaigns. AstraZeneca is quite right when it decides, in such a situation, to ship 10 to 14 million doses of its vaccines to Brazil (using the much maligned Covax program).

Merijn T. Knibbe
Economic historian, statistician, outdoor guide (coastal mudflats), father, teacher, blogger. Likes De Kift and El Greco. Favorite epoch 1890-1930.

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