Viral origins and vaccine supply

Thanks to Robert for his excellent clinical trial report

WHO official investigating pandemic warns world to 'manage expectations' as team leaves quarantine

Now in Wuhan, team of 13

Dutch virologist, Marion Koopmans

I think we really have to manage expectations,

if you look at some of the earlier quests for the origins of outbreaks,

they have taken years to complete.

Wuhan lab staff, first victims of coronavirus?

Chinese virology laboratory, sick, Covid-like illness in autumn 2019

US, State Department, 16th January

undisclosed information

has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019,

before the first identified case,

with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses

Lab had been carrying out research on a bat coronavirus

The CCP has prevented independent journalists, investigators, and global health authorities from interviewing researchers at the WIV

Chinese authorities, virus was a US military biological weapon

Gao Fu, Director of China’s centers for disease control and prevention

Talking to state media

The coronavirus wasn’t found in any animal samples at seafood market in Wuhan, ground zero of the pandemic

December

BBC team

Visited Yunnan to investigate a mystery illness

Killed three mine workers in 2012

Followed

Broken-down lorry

Yunnan, cave systems, jungle, site of major coronavirus research

Emmanuel Macron

AstraZeneca vaccine quasi-ineffective in over 65s

Germany

Vaccine commission, STIKO

Oxford AstraZeneca, only to people aged 64 and under

There is currently insufficient data to assess the efficacy of the vaccine for persons aged 65 years and older

Lancet, 18th November

)324661/fulltext

In participants who received two doses of vaccine,

median anti-spike SARS-CoV-2 IgG responses 28 days after the boost dose were similar across the three age cohorts

18–55 years (n = 39)

56–69 years (n=26)

more than 70 years (n=47)

By 14 days after the boost dose, 208 (more than 99%) of 209 boosted participants had neutralising antibody responses.

T-cell responses peaked at day 14 after a single standard dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19

Professor John Bell, Oxford University vaccine team

I’m not sure where he got that from

Other studies proved elderly people responded just as well in other age groups

there's really persuasive evidence that this is a protective vaccine in those populations

European Medicines Agency, Oxford AZ vaccine

Recommended the product for all adults

safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 in people from 18 years of age

European Commission

EMA authorised Pfizer, 21st December

HMRA, authorised Pfizer, 2nd December

EMA authorised Oxford AZ vaccine, 29th January

HMRA, authorised Oxford AZ vaccine, 30th December

EMA closed, 23rd December to 4th January

Increasing manufacturing capacity

Braintree, Essex

Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), Oxfordshire

US

Late January, California

200 Americans, evacuated from Wuhan

Health officials, US health department, did not wear proper PPE, bad optics

Days later, these officials boarded commercial airlines and flew to other parts of the country

Nursing home deaths

New York State Attorney General, Letitia James

Current number up to 12,743

Did not include transfers to hospital

Consistent discrepancies

Deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, about a third of deaths

Mr Cuomo, publication

Oxford, AZ, USA

AstraZeneca is ready to launch

As soon as FDA approved

US study is fully recruited

Now waiting for enough Covid cases

He says he imagines this will be in February.

20 minutes in NZ

Quarantine hotel worker

Inappropriate encounter

20 minutes in a room together