DOOM: Doubts grow over the future of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine

[AtW]

"Government deal to buy 35m doses of Pfizer booster shots to be delivered next year adds to clouds over the Oxford-AZ jab

Britain may be about to start its Covid booster jab roll-out, but already the wheels are in motion for next year's vaccine blitz. This week, ministers announced they had struck a deal for 35m Pfizer booster shots to be delivered in the second half of 2022.

"While we continue to build this wall of defence from Covid-19, it's also vital we do everything we can to protect the country for the future too – whether that's from the virus as we know it or new variants," Sajid Javid, Health Secretary, said.

Among the scientific community, news of the order raised some eyebrows. By last week, Britain already had more than 500m jab doses on order with eight vaccine makers. Of the vaccines which had been approved here, the UK had ordered more than 210m doses.

"I find it all a little bit disturbing," said Clive Dix, the former interim chair of the vaccine taskforce. "I think it's crazy we're going down that route [to buy doses for 2022] already." In his view, decisions over boosting seem to be rushed.

"I would personally just say let's boost with the AstraZeneca vaccine this year, which we have available and which is a very good vaccine - and only then should we start thinking about next year."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...covid-vaccine/

AFAIK - adenovector used in VZ makes it harder to do 3rd shot because immute system can figth off the vector virus and thus reduce effectiveness of that shot.

Delta specific shot is needed anyway

[WTFH]

Among the scientific community, news of the order raised some eyebrows. By last week, Britain already had more than 500m jab doses on order with eight vaccine makers. Of the vaccines which had been approved here, the UK had ordered more than 210m doses.

It's a simple tactic - placing the orders (which will have several clauses in them) means the government can talk about how wonderfully prepared it is. Doesn't cost anything, and anywhere else in the world can be pointed at and derided for not placing big orders.
Also, in round 1 of vaccine orders, only two countries in the world refused to provide export licenses for their vaccines - US & UK. That mean that if AZN wanted to export, they were unable to. By placing the PFE order now, the UK gov should be able to bypass any export ban, if Belgium (etc) choose to impose tit-for-tat export bans.

Either that, or it's to goad the Wailers by letting them know we have enough vaccines to cover first doses for all the migrants/immigrants/refugees terrorists ...