England’s NHS app will be available to use as a vaccine passport from Monday, the government has said - but only for those who have had both doses of the jab.
A paper version will also be available - by calling 119 but not through a GP.
Both will be available from Monday, 17 May, when the ban on foreign travel is eased.
The NHS app is separate to the NHS Covid-19 app, which is used for contact tracing.
People can already use the NHS app to:
request repeat prescriptions
arrange appointments to see their doctor
view medical records
It can also show vaccine statuses, including for coronavirus, but currently this feature must be enabled by a GP before it appears on the app.
The new update will contain a separate feature to display coronavirus vaccine records, so the government said there should be no need to contact GPs.
The app will not show coronavirus test results, but the NHS plans to incorporate this in the future, the government website said.
It advised people register to use the app at least two weeks before travelling.
A paper letter can be requested only at least five days after a second vaccine dose and can take five days to arrive.
Pre-departure test
“There are not many countries that currently accept proof of vaccination,” the government advice warns.
“So for the time being, most people will still need to follow other rules when travelling abroad – like getting a negative pre-departure test.”
The government has announced 12 countries people in England can travel to, without having to quarantine when they return.
But not all of these destinations allow UK tourists.
For example, travel to mainland Portugal and the Azores is currently for essential purposes only.
The list will be reviewed every three weeks.
Countries can be added or removed at short notice
Shalom
Ontario will no longer give AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as 1st dose due to blood clot risk | CBC News
Ontario, Canada discontinues using Astra Zeneca Vaccine for first doses due to an increase of blood clotting in the last few days.
I wonder if the people that already got the first dose of AZ can get the second dose of AZ? Wow!
That's a very good point, covered in the artcile:
- I'd hate to be in their shoes - as for what that does for those sitting on the fence about vaccination - not good.The province has asked the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) to provide direction on the mixing and matching of different brands of vaccine for first and second doses.
Just heard on the news a few mins ago, that we should be able to get our second dose, but they are not sure yet, and are looking into it more. But it is very scary. I didn't want to get this vaccine, but it was the one most immediately available and glad I did as I was exposed a few days ago to a child with Covid. I'm not sure if it would help but it is better than not having a vaccine imo.
Not sure if its warranted or not, but AZs reputation is trashed. I was just talking with my sister in Italy yesterday, she said that she went to get vaccinated last week, and that in her region, you don't have a choice of what vaccine you get,you show up and you get what they have available.
She said when she saw that what was available was AZ , she turned around and left. and she was not the only one.
She kept going back, until they had , I am not sure if she said Moderna or Pfizer, one of the two. I think there will soon be a lot of AZ available for any country that wants it or has no other choice.
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.
^AZ is a decent vaccine, and its efficacy rates are pretty good. It is just that there is a risk of blood clots. The risk is pretty low, but recently it is getting too high I guess to continue it, hence why it is on hold. I know many people that have the first vaccine in Canada. In Canada, it was offering the AZ vaccine at select pharmacies for people 40 and up for quite awhile now. I could have waited, but didn't know when I would get the pfizer, but it so happened I could have gotten the Pfizer a few weeks after. I've been told by many I made the right choice and the government is saying get the first vaccine offered to you, because the risk of blood clots is higher if you get Covid.
I think you did the right thing. The chances of getting a blood clot are very small as compared to your chances of getting sick from Covid, dying from it, or having debilitating effects for the rest of your life from having had covid. I am not sure what happened with AZ. but I am sure there are some politics involved there. Anyway blood clots are easily treated and preventable. If there is such a risk of blood clots why aren't those vaccinated with AZ given baby aspirines (89 mg) for a week or so.
Thailand's figures for today, 1983 new infections, 34 more deaths (new record).
Philip Lewis on Twitter: Some anti-vaxxers believe a conspiracy that the vaccinated will “shed” harmful proteins onto the unvaccinated. This conspiracy is leading some anti-vaxxers to protect themselves from the vaccinated by *wearing a mask and social distancing*
Not the institute itself, certain projects there have had US funding. Years ago until the present. Including exactly the kind of research that could have involved variants similar to Covid.
People in Wuhan got training from the US's Galveston National Lab. Galveston, which had its own leak some years ago.
I think you are right.
Denmark is giving them away at the moment.
It was the plan that people could jump queue if they wanted the AZ or Jannsen.
Now that is on hold too.
It seems that there are lasting problems platelets wise and they want to research it more.
(as I understand it, the AZ contain something that shouldn't be in a vaccine)
Let's see
If other countries don't report problems, I guess they are OK
Last edited by helge; 12-05-2021 at 03:03 PM.
More on the question "Where did Covid start?" This article is very long and in places very technical. If you have a week with nothing to do and an appetite for acronyms then have a go at it. I think he tries to balance the possibilities and he sets out the science. Maybe have some Tylenol handy, I think I hurt my brain.
Lab-Made? SARS-CoV-2 Genealogy Through the Lens of Gain-of-Function Research | by Yuri Deigin | Medium
A very brief extract, not the technical stuff:
Could something like this have caused the Covid-19 pandemic? Several options are possible — from a leak during development of a potential vaccine to fundamental research on laboratory recombination of the bat and pangolin viruses. Some particularly ambitious researcher could even decide to combine the two “fashionable research themes” — adding a furin site and transplanting RBM from a strain of one species (pangolin) to another (bats), so that later, confirming the increased virulence of the new chimeric virus, they can wax poetic about the dangers of the same recombination happening in Yunnan caves or wet markets. And if such a researcher could even pre-emptively develop a vaccine against this and other potential chimeras, all sorts of accolades could await.
Am I then saying this is what happened? Of course not, I do not claim to know what happened. Today, there is no evidence of this. For now, there is just a series of strange coincidences — for example, that the outbreak of the Yunnan coronavirus occurred thousands of kilometers from Yunnan in a wet market closest to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Or maybe not at the wet market, as 3 of the first 4 patients had no ties to the market. Plus, there are coincidences in the structural features of the CoV2 genome, which resemble manipulations that virologists have repeatedly carried out in the lab. But coincidence is not proof.
Moreover, coincidences happen, and CoV2 could obviously have arisen naturally. It is not yet clear exactly how — for this, the bat and pangolin strains must have met in the same cell of some animal in Wuhan, since the outbreak occurred there (otherwise we would have seen other outbreaks along the path that animal would have taken to get to Wuhan). Given that bats were not sold in the Wuhan market, and generally hibernate at this time of the year, and that no other carriers of ancestral strains have yet been identified, the exact scenario of natural emergence remains a mystery.
On the opposite side of the balance, giving credence to the lab hypothesis, there are reports that in 2018, American experts were quite alarmed after their visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and conversation with Shi Zhengli. Their “lab tour” resulted in two diplomatic dispatches to Washington in which they noted a number of safety weaknesses:
Sources familiar with the cables said they were meant to sound an alarm about the grave safety concerns at the WIV lab, especially regarding its work with bat coronaviruses. The embassy officials were calling for more U.S. attention to this lab and more support for it, to help it fix its problems.
…
“During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” states the Jan. 19, 2018, cable, which was drafted by two officials from the embassy’s environment, science and health sections who met with the WIV scientists. (The State Department declined to comment on this and other details of the story.)
The Chinese researchers at WIV were receiving assistance from the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and other U.S. organizations, but the Chinese requested additional help. The cables argued that the United States should give the Wuhan lab further support, mainly because its research on bat coronaviruses was important but also dangerous.
It is somewhat ironic the Wuhan lab received guidance from the Texas laboratory in Galveston, which at one time had itself lost a vial with a Guanarito virus: Wuhan specialists were trained at Galveston, which was even reported in the Wuhan Institute’s own newsletter (though, that publication has been deleted from the WIV website, but it is still available at the Wayback Machine).
Many more have, though.
Definitely less attractive as an option now
... and most other countries. (My apologies, but the website didn't have UK stats, which would show more A-Z, I presume)
Interesting.
How many people actually believe the virus did not originate in China . . . not released there by some mystical foreign power.
Originated for whatever reason without some nefarious obfuscation that it was the Americans/Israelis/Indians/Brits/Monopolkapitalistikpigdogs.
Cock-up over conspiracy every time. As my old boss used to say.
We know where, I think, it would now be helpful to know how, so that the root cause can be addressed, it isn't really about establishing blame although that is what everyone is so scared of. All the big names who signed that Nature article did nobody any favours, all running around covering their own arses so that their funding doesn't disappear.
Over 190,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine touch down in the Philippines
The Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the Philippines just got a significant boost, thanks to the arrival of at least 193,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. The much-needed supply was donated by Covax, a global initiative set up to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines. Thailand declined to join Covax when given the opportunity, preferring to strike deals with manufacturers directly.
The shipment is the fourth consignment of Covid-19 vaccines to be delivered via Covax and the first shipment of Pfizer doses to arrive in the Philippines. Coconuts reports that in total, Covax has donated 2.74 million vaccine doses to the Philippines, which includes the latest delivery of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. It’s understood that over the weekend, 2 million doses of AstraZeneca also arrived via Covax.
The Philippines’ Health Secretary, Francisco Duque, says the Pfizer doses will be administered in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao, to healthcare workers, the elderly and people with underlying conditions that put them at greater risk from Covid-19.
“We have been working hard to bring these vaccines to the country especially with the scarce global supply of Covid-19 vaccines. We thank the Covax facility and all of our partners for making this possible.”
Coconuts reports that the Pfizer shipment was supposed to arrive in February but was delayed due to a lack of an indemnity law, which caught the government off-guard. Prior to the arrival of the Pfizer doses, thousands of doses of Sinovac, Sputnik V, and AstraZeneca have been administered to the population, but the rollout has been slow up to now. The government says it aims to have the rest of the population vaccinated by August.
Over 190,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine touch down in the Philippines | Thaiger
Senate hearing asked about this, CDC director said it was the studies fault.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines last month for mask wearing, it announced that “less than 10 percent” of Covid-19 transmission was occurring outdoors. Media organizations repeated the statistic, and it quickly became a standard description of the frequency of outdoor transmission.
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But the number is almost certainly misleading.
Link to the article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/b...e=articleShare
I'm certainly not an anti-vaxer, or whatever the term/spelling is, but I'll take my chances with any Covid vaccine a while longer, especially in a developing world country that's corrupt to the core. If old or obese, maybe not.
I remember once sitting in a waiting room and picked up an old National Geographic. It was a one year anniversary edition for Chernobyl, praising how little effect it had on people. The birth defects and cancers etc hadn't begun yet. I'd be wary of rushing into any new injection that's been around for such a short period of time.
Of course. Far more opportunity for kickbacks with the later.
It's also understood that it is becoming increasingly difficult to give the stuff away. (unfortunately)
And darned it MK, I still can't figure out what the hell that pic is.????????
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