Update on Covid providing information on prevalence and hospital admissions for England and its regions. This post is best viewed using the browser or Substack app.
Please could you confirm you intended to write that XEC is a more virulent strain? I understand there is an expected transmission advantage but is it known or theorised that XEC will be or is more virulent which I thought meant caused more harm to the host (is more severe)?
Thanks -- you are quite correct and my mistake in using the term 'virulent'. I have updated the post to reflect that the information available at the moment shows that XEC has a transmission advantage over the existing dominant strains.
Do you have (or know where to find) information on which vaccine(s) will be offered by NHS, and which vaccines are currently being offered privately? What I'm interested in is whether private jabs are more "current" than the reported outdated stock being used by NHS?
Answering your question is challenging because information about privately offered vaccines isn't publicly available, and it's uncertain which variant will be prevalent during the winter months. The following paragraphs and associated links summarise my findings; however, I firmly believe that receiving any vaccine is preferable to none.
The vaccines being offered by the NHS for the Autumn 2024 booster campaign are Moderna mRNA (Spikevax) and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA (Comirnaty) from last year and are not modified for the JN.1 and FLiRT variants. Details of the JCVI advice is given at the following link.
However, these vaccines will provide protection and there have been reports that they may better protect against the XEC variant as it is more closely related to the Omicron variant targeted by these vaccines.
Regarding vaccines for the latest variants, it appears that only two have received authorization for use in the UK by the MHRA. The Pfizer/BioNTech Comirnaty JN.1 vaccine was approved on July 24, 2024, and the Moderna Spikevax JN.1 vaccine on September 2, 2024.
I suspect these updated vaccines are not currently widely available in the UK given their approval dates. If you are looking for a COVID-19 vaccine covering the JN.1 variant, your best option would be to check major pharmacy chains like Boots, which will offer vaccines to those not eligible under the NHS programme.
Hope this helps but to recap -- receiving any vaccine is preferable to not being boosted at all.
Thanks Bob. A bit thrown by the assertion by some sources that older vaccines may work better against the latest XEC ogre! I wish I had a Time Machine to 2124 to show us how fecking clueless we all have been about Covid, whether through underfunding, or just apathy or the terrifying pure force of nature against humanity in the face of this monster virus. Hey-ho.
Thanks again Bob. As a country we behave as if we are coping, but its a shame we have not caught up with the science, or perhaps more simply with confirmed knowledge, to help mitigate ill-health. Am glad to hear deaths totals are lower than 2023. 'We' must be doing something better. Its hard to know how this country compares with others who have similar resources?
Please could you confirm you intended to write that XEC is a more virulent strain? I understand there is an expected transmission advantage but is it known or theorised that XEC will be or is more virulent which I thought meant caused more harm to the host (is more severe)?
Thanks -- you are quite correct and my mistake in using the term 'virulent'. I have updated the post to reflect that the information available at the moment shows that XEC has a transmission advantage over the existing dominant strains.
Thank you for your quick response and your weekly situation reports
Thanks, as always Bob.
Do you have (or know where to find) information on which vaccine(s) will be offered by NHS, and which vaccines are currently being offered privately? What I'm interested in is whether private jabs are more "current" than the reported outdated stock being used by NHS?
Answering your question is challenging because information about privately offered vaccines isn't publicly available, and it's uncertain which variant will be prevalent during the winter months. The following paragraphs and associated links summarise my findings; however, I firmly believe that receiving any vaccine is preferable to none.
The vaccines being offered by the NHS for the Autumn 2024 booster campaign are Moderna mRNA (Spikevax) and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA (Comirnaty) from last year and are not modified for the JN.1 and FLiRT variants. Details of the JCVI advice is given at the following link.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-autumn-2024-vaccination-programme-jcvi-advice-8-april-2024/jcvi-statement-on-the-covid-19-vaccination-programme-for-autumn-2024-8-april-2024
However, these vaccines will provide protection and there have been reports that they may better protect against the XEC variant as it is more closely related to the Omicron variant targeted by these vaccines.
Regarding vaccines for the latest variants, it appears that only two have received authorization for use in the UK by the MHRA. The Pfizer/BioNTech Comirnaty JN.1 vaccine was approved on July 24, 2024, and the Moderna Spikevax JN.1 vaccine on September 2, 2024.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra-approves-comirnaty-jn1-covid-19-vaccine-for-adults-and-children-from-infancy
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra-approves-spikevax-jn1-covid-19-vaccines-for-adults-and-children-from-infancy
I suspect these updated vaccines are not currently widely available in the UK given their approval dates. If you are looking for a COVID-19 vaccine covering the JN.1 variant, your best option would be to check major pharmacy chains like Boots, which will offer vaccines to those not eligible under the NHS programme.
Hope this helps but to recap -- receiving any vaccine is preferable to not being boosted at all.
Thanks Bob. A bit thrown by the assertion by some sources that older vaccines may work better against the latest XEC ogre! I wish I had a Time Machine to 2124 to show us how fecking clueless we all have been about Covid, whether through underfunding, or just apathy or the terrifying pure force of nature against humanity in the face of this monster virus. Hey-ho.
🙏
Thanks again Bob. As a country we behave as if we are coping, but its a shame we have not caught up with the science, or perhaps more simply with confirmed knowledge, to help mitigate ill-health. Am glad to hear deaths totals are lower than 2023. 'We' must be doing something better. Its hard to know how this country compares with others who have similar resources?