When the Covid-19 vaccine gets to Thailand ...

[Jun]

Here is the official Astra Zeneca announcement regarding the "Oxford" vaccine. Relevant, as the only one I know of where Thailand has signed a licensing deal.
Announcement (link): https://www.investegate.co.uk/ArticlePr ... 700071391G

"One dosing regimen (n=2,741) showed vaccine efficacy of 90% when AZD1222 was given as a half dose, followed by a full dose at least one month apart, and another dosing regimen (n=8,895) showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart. The combined analysis from both dosing regimens (n=11,636) resulted in an average efficacy of 70%. All results were statistically significant (p<=0.0001). More data will continue to accumulate and additional analysis will be conducted, refining the efficacy reading and establishing the duration of protection.

An independent Data Safety Monitoring Board determined that the analysis met its primary endpoint showing protection from COVID-19 occurring 14 days or more after receiving two doses of the vaccine. No serious safety events related to the vaccine have been confirmed. AZD1222 was well tolerated across both dosing regimens.

No hospitalisations or severe cases of the disease were reported in participants receiving the vaccine.

Clinical trials are also being conducted in the US, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Kenya and Latin America with planned trials in other European and Asian countries. In total, the Company expects to enrol up to 60,000 participants globally."

[Daleinpattaya]

Whole world is asking who’s going to get the vaccine, how much will it cost, when will it be available, etc.

I just bumped into an interesting website from Duke University in the United States… Appears to be regularly updated… And has a series of very interesting charts and graphs… Certainly seems to have some of the answers to the above questions

COVID-19 | Launch and Scale Speedometer

https://launchandscalefaster.org/COVID-19

[Gaybutton]

Whole world is asking who’s going to get the vaccine, how much will it cost, when will it be available, etc.

Thailand is not even on the list shown in the article of which countries will be getting the vaccine first, probably because there are so few cases in Thailand and it is under control. Maybe also because Thailand is a relatively poor country. My guess is the vaccines, at least according to the article, will first be going to the countries where it is most needed and countries that can pay for it.

[Jun]

Thailand HAS signed a licensing deal for the Astra Zeneca Oxford vaccine and that information seems to have been omitted from the Launch & Scale Faster article above.
I presume this is an error, since no country is providing full details about the detailed state of current vaccine manufacture (e.g. production schedule for number of doses per week and existing stocks). So they should include every announced licensing deal.

As far as I know, Thailand has only backed one horse in the vaccine race so far.

[gera]

Here is the official Astra Zeneca announcement regarding the "Oxford" vaccine. Relevant, as the only one I know of where Thailand has signed a licensing deal.
Announcement (link): https://www.investegate.co.uk/ArticlePr ... 700071391G

Though only time will tell what vaccines really work (if any) , the current Astrazenica data is bad because 90 percent efficiency rate for one of the two regiments is based on only 3000 samples which is not not statistically representable. From statistical viewpoint the overall efficiency estimate of 70 percent makes more sense. This should be compared with 95 percent of Biontech-Pfizer. Russians now give 95 percent of efficiency of Sputnik V vaccine which is based on the same platform as Oxford vaccine. Do I trust these numbers? No. Obviously, they lie as usual. Due to the nature of adenovirus vector approach i doubt that further boosts for both Oxford vaccine and Sputnik V ( as well as J and J vaccine) will be effective. And this is a major difference in comparison with MRNA vaccines ( Pfizer , Moderna). i have to say that I do not understand how Moderna come up with their 94 percent efficiency estimate based on their public data.

[Jun]

The Astra Zeneca vaccine is up to 90% efficient, although questions may rightly be asked about the sample size for the dosing regime that got 90%.

I have no idea if further adjustments to the dose might improve results. I hope someone is asking questions about experiments for dose size.

It was up to 90% efficient at presenting infection and nobody in the vaccine group had a severe infection or died. This latter point is very important, as any vaccine which prevents severe infection and death is an improvement on where we are now.
Unfortunately they did not announce the number of severe infections or deaths in the placebo group. If the placebo group is representative of the general population, we can expect severe cases and deaths. However, the trials are done on healthy volunteers, which means it's not representative.
Of course, the sample size for severe cases and deaths should be low at this stage.

I would like to see some clarity on the severe infection & death results, but to be fair, the Astra Zeneca regulatory announcement was more comprehensive than any of the others.

[bkkguy]

the first (unofficial) hints of the vaccine situation for Thailand - or at least for Thais in Thailand? mid 2021 at the earliest, the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccine produced locally by Siam Bioscience Group in Pathum Thani, no mention of price or availability for different groups - eg us falung "aliens"!

Thais to get 1st Covid shots by mid-2021, Bangkok Post, 25 Nov 2020

fortunately I have a good stock of grains of salt ...