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Jose Garcia

(2,551 posts)
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 12:12 PM Sep 2021

WHO chief urges halt to booster shots for rest of the year

Source: Boston Globe

The head of the World Health Organization is calling on rich countries with large supplies of coronavirus vaccines to refrain from offering booster shots through the end of the year, expanding a call that has largely fallen on deaf ears.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said Wednesday he was “appalled” at comments by a leading association of pharmaceutical manufacturers who said vaccine supplies are high enough to allow for both booster shots and vaccinations in countries in dire need of jabs but facing shortages.

“I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers,” he told a news conference.

Tedros had previously called for a “moratorium” on booster shots through the end of September, but the United States and other countries have begun or are considering plans to offer them to their vulnerable people.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/08/nation/world-health-organization-chief-calls-moratorium-using-coronavirus-booster-shots-rest-year/%3foutputType=amp

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caraher

(6,276 posts)
2. It's in our best interest to refrain from boosters
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 12:27 PM
Sep 2021

Unvaccinated regions are breeding grounds for new variants - this is a global problem, and we need shots in as many arms as possible worldwide ASAP before we devote resources to boosters. Only those at extreme risk should be considered for boosters, particularly when the evidence of waning protection is slim.

JohnSJ

(91,937 posts)
3. The WHO was wrong about the pandemic when this started, and they are wrong about this.
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 12:28 PM
Sep 2021

More production facilities need to be built, and in the next few months nvax and other vaccine makers will be coming on line

WHO like the CDC have not been stellar in their dealings of the pandemic

The boosters as far as I am aware are only recommended for the most vulnerable, and I see nothing wrong with that

Also, there is a shelf life for these vaccines, they don’t keep indefinitely

It is a complicated issue

muriel_volestrangler

(101,146 posts)
4. Many countries are looking at boosters for large groups, not just "the most vulnerable"
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 12:47 PM
Sep 2021

eg France for all over 65s: https://www.wibw.com/2021/09/02/france-first-big-eu-nation-start-widespread-booster-jabs/
US govt hoping to do it for all adults: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/05/us-covid-booster-rollout-20-september (but it doesn't have scientific agreement for that yet)

"More production facilities need to be built" is not a solution for the current need; sure, build more facilities, and don't start general booster shots until those facilities are running and able to provide them. Use the existing facilities for the existing need.

JohnSJ

(91,937 posts)
7. The problem is the waste that is occurring. Too many people are unwilling to get the vaccine, and
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 06:05 PM
Sep 2021

many Walgreens and CVS are throwing out expired lots

That has to stop, and allocations have to be redirected to those states and countries willing to take the vaccine. Throwing more vaccines to states where only 30% are willing to take the vaccine is ridiculous


lambchopp59

(2,809 posts)
5. Immunocompromised, the elderly and healthcare workers on the front lines must be prioritized
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 01:57 PM
Sep 2021

I fit all three categories. I'm west coast fire refugee and a front line caregiver on a "sabbatical". I was hopeful when an accelerated timeline for boosters was recommended, then shot down.
These new variants personally scare me to death. As an imaging professional, we are exposed to all the COVID patients in the hospital, no matter the careful donning and doffing, all any caregiver can do is minimize exposure and fortify our own immune response to clean up what gets past all that.
I wasn't going to start my SSR income prior to the variants expansion. Now I have no plans of getting back on the front lines getting the inadvertent, unavoidable daily exposures until my booster has fortified my lymphocytes closer to the "Fort Knox" simile. In my shoes, can you blame me for that?
Should the boosters become unavailable due to supply issues, I'll wait till that is no longer an option. It's certainly going to stretch that minimal age 62 SSR to do it though.

JohnSJ

(91,937 posts)
8. It won't be the boosters that cause the issues. It is those that don't want to take the vaccine
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 06:10 PM
Sep 2021

regardless. That is why vaccines are getting thrown out, because there are 100 million people who won’t take the vaccine

BumRushDaShow

(127,268 posts)
6. Looking at the AP article on this
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 04:00 PM
Sep 2021

It seems they are now directing their ire at the companies that are manufacturing the vaccine because I know the U.S. has been donating and even have a running tally here - https://www.state.gov/covid-19-recovery/vaccine-deliveries/

JohnSJ

(91,937 posts)
9. Problem is there is a lot of waste going on too because too many people still won't get the
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 06:13 PM
Sep 2021

vaccine, the vaccine expires, and then is thrown out

Somehow vaccines need to be reallocated to places that want them


BumRushDaShow

(127,268 posts)
11. One of the issues that I saw was brought up going forward with these vaccines
Wed Sep 8, 2021, 06:44 PM
Sep 2021

from the last ACIP meeting, was the size of the cases of vials (number of vials per tray and trays per box). So this is what they are looking at as an issue -

Pfizer designed its own custom cooler box to make it easier to transport its vaccines across the U.S. and around the world. Vials are placed into trays, with 195 vials per tray. Each box can fit five trays. Each box of 5,850 doses has a GPS tracker and contains a monitor that keeps a log of the temperature.

https://theconversation.com/how-a-vial-of-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-travels-from-a-lab-in-missouri-to-an-arm-in-bangladesh-162572


Plus Pfizer has these recommendations for storage -

  • Once a POU receives a thermal shipper with our vaccine, they have three options for storage:
    - Ultra-low-temperature freezers, which are commercially available and can extend shelf life for up to six months.

    - The Pfizer thermal shippers, in which doses will arrive, that can be used as temporary storage units by refilling with dry ice every five days for up to 30 days of storage.

    - Refrigeration units that are commonly available in hospitals. The vaccine can be stored for five days at refrigerated 2-8°C conditions.


  • After storage for up to 30 days in the Pfizer thermal shipper, vaccination centers can transfer the vials to 2-8°C storage conditions for an additional five days, for a total of up to 35 days. Once thawed and stored under 2-8°C conditions, the vials cannot be re-frozen or stored under frozen conditions.

  • The various storage options at the POU allow for equitable access to the Pfizer vaccine to areas with differing infrastructure.


  • https://www.pfizer.com/news/hot-topics/covid_19_vaccine_u_s_distribution_fact_sheet


    And as I understand it, the vials are filled to handle something like 6 doses per vial. So if there is a better way to parcel this out in smaller tray sizes, it might make it easier to deal with as the others can stay in the ultra cold storage for the "up to 6 months" recommendation since we are no longer doing "mass vaccinations" of several thousand a day at some particular location in a geographic area.

    BumRushDaShow

    (127,268 posts)
    13. You are welcome.
    Wed Sep 8, 2021, 08:53 PM
    Sep 2021

    One of the slide decks from the last meeting of CDC's ACIP was looking at the recommendations framework - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-08-30/08-COVID-Dooling-508.pdf (PDF) and part of that had summarized what the Committee had looked at for the feasibility (including what the minimum distribution of doses were) -











    and they had agreed it was feasible to recommend even given some of the above issues.

    But I suppose realistically, since they are moving into a more granular distribution - literally to primary care doctors giving it, it seems that the "minimum doses" packaging is still pretty high except if given to a large hospital to store for a number of physicians to use at their private offices that may be elsewhere vs what these same doctors normally have stored (in terms of quantity) for other vaccines like flu, etc. I suppose the same might apply for the pharmacies and supermarkets although as i understand, those places had set up their own distribution systems.

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