With mere hours left before the year of 2020 ends, AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine “AZD1222” has officially been approved for emergency authorization by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the United Kingdom.
And with this update comes several questions, so we’ll do our best to give you all of the critical information…
Price: AstraZeneca-Oxford is currently selling their COVID-19 vaccine at $3-4 per dose, which will come out to a total of $6-8 for a full treatment of two doses (spaced out 12 weeks apart).
Distribution: It is expected that 100 million doses will be purchased by the UK government for use across its entire adult population. The vaccines were rolled out yesterday and the first vaccinations will start on January 4th.
Advantages: This vaccine can be stored at refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, which makes it much more practical to deliver and store than the COVID-19 vaccines from either Pfizer or Moderna. Other claimed advantages include:
- After patients receive a dose, they will not have to be monitored for 15 minutes to check for any immediate side effects and/or adverse reactions
- AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot is fully confident in the ability of the vaccine to be equally effective against the new coronavirus mutation rapidly spreading across the UK.
- The COVID-19 vaccine is based on using a “harmless chimpanzee virus to transport genetic material that triggers an immune response to the coronavirus”, unlike the mRNA technology used by Pfizer and Moderna
Effectiveness: Despite the claim made by AstraZeneca-Oxford that their COVID-19 vaccine was 90% effective if the first dose was a half-dose and the second dose was a full-dose, the MHRA has not approved the vaccine to be used in this manner. Using their original protocol of two full doses, the vaccine’s efficacy rate is lowered to 62%.
Priority: The first COVID-19 vaccine doses will be given to the most vulnerable and at-risk populations. Essential healthcare workers will probably get vaccinated at around the same time if not a bit later, followed by the rest of the adult population (who will be notified when it’s their “turn” via the National Health Services).
The only question left to answer is when Europe and the US will also approve AstraZeneca-Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization.
My best guess would be somewhere within the first six months of 2021 if everything goes according to plan.
The Food and Drug Administration in America wants to see a US-based study before making any kind of authorizations, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) wants to see more data made available for further review.
But if recent history is any predictor of what’s to come for COVID-19 vaccines, the writing is already on the wall for approval.
What do YOU think about this newest COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca-Oxford being approved in the UK? Will it be more effective and far safer than the other vaccines floating around, or will it be equally dangerous (if not more)? Reply to this newsletter and let us know!
6 Days After Getting Vaccinated for COVID-19, a Nurse Tests POSITIVE For COVID-19!
This is the type of headline you wouldn’t expect to see so quickly after a vaccine meant to be used on hundreds of millions of people was quickly developed and released, but here we are.
The story goes like this… a 45-year-old emergency room nurse in San Diego received the COVID-19 vaccine. His arm was somewhat sore for one day, but six days later he started feeling seriously ill. Fatigue, muscle aches, chills were what he reported. The next day, he visits a nearby hospital and it turns out he has COVID-19.
According to medical experts who talked to ABC10 News, this was too be expected and should not be a cause for concern:
“There’s more than one possible explanation… He may have already been infected when he got vaccinated, since the incubation period can be up to two weeks long, or he could have been infected after getting the shot.”
And…
“’We know from the vaccine clinical trials that it’s going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to start to develop protection from the vaccine,’ an infectious disease specialist says. And after the first dose, that protection is thought to reach about 50%—it could get up as high as 95% after the second dose.”
The nurse reports feeling better despite experiencing some fatigue, but I really hope this incident is an exception and not the norm.
It would be a real shame if we STILL have to impose lockdown restrictions, destroy small businesses, and be forced to wear a mask after all this time and money was spent to rush the development of the COVID-19 vaccines…
Meanwhile, an Old Man Receiving the COVID-19 Vaccine DIED Shortly After!
It’s one thing if you get some unpleasant side effects after taking Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, but death is a completely different story.
That was the unfortunate outcome for a 91-year-old patient in Lucerne, Switzerland who died shortly after getting vaccinated. It should be noted he was also suffering from several co-morbid diseases before he got the shot.
Swissmedic, the drug regulator in Switzerland, responded to this incident with the following comment:
“Clarifications by cantonal health authorities and Swissmedic determined that, as a result of the illness history and disease course, a link between the death and the COVID-19 vaccine was highly unlikely.”
While the Swiss authorities are smart enough to label this incident as “natural cause of death,” they did not say exactly how long after he received the shot he died.
Meanwhile, a 75-year-old man in Israel has reportedly died just two hours after getting the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer, with a fatal heart attack ending his life. This wasn’t the first heart attack in his life, and he was also suffering from malignant disease.
At this point, it’s almost like playing Russian roulette with your lifespan when you get injected with the COVID-19 vaccine. And who knows what the odds of survival are? I sure don’t, and neither does anybody else…
Can a Natural Plant Extract Help Treat COVID-19?
In today’s world of non-stop obsession over vaccines and novel pharmaceutical treatments for COVID-19, it’s refreshing to see natural and affordable PRE-EXISTING solutions end up being effective.
Bloomberg reports on the health ministry in Thailand approving a herbal plant extract to treat early stages of COVID-19 (i.e. within 72 hours of a positive test). More details about the treatment were also shared in their report:
“Andrographis Paniculata, commonly known as green chiretta, will serve as an alternative treatment to reduce the severity of the outbreak and cut treatment costs.
The extract from the plant, known as Fah Talai Jone in Thai, can curb virus and reduce severity of inflammation, ministry says citing studies.
Human trials showed patient conditions improved within three days of the treatment without side effects if the medicine is administered within 72 hours of testing positive.”
I would be really interested to see this type of treatment get reviewed by the FDA and other health regulatory agencies around the world. I can’t imagine this plant extract costs a lot of money to manufacture and distribute.
Plus, you can bet good money that the majority of Americans would MUCH rather take a natural plant extract than one of the currently approved vaccines.
