Doctors say in some cases, Chinese shot isn’t generating adequate antibody response

DUBAI—Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates have begun administering a third dose of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to at least some residents, as doctors say the Chinese-made shots in some cases haven’t generated enough protective antibodies.

The U.A.E. has served as one of the primary testing grounds for the vaccine, which is manufactured by a Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company and is a mainstay of the Gulf monarchy’s rapid immunization campaign. The vaccine is also used in Hungary, Serbia, Pakistan and elsewhere.

G42 Healthcare, the company that coordinated Sinopharm’s Phase 3 clinical trials in the U.A.E. and elsewhere in the Middle East said a “select group of people are being administered a third shot to observe the immune system response” as part of a scientific study.

It declined to say how many people are affected and why, referring reporters to the U.A.E. health authorities, who didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

A councillor who issued a stark warning from his sick bed a year ago for people to start taking Covid-19 seriously says he has "still not fully recovered".

Bury Council deputy leader Tamoor Tariq collapsed and was taken to hospital just before the UK's first lockdown.

Gasping for breath in his 2020 YouTube video, he warned it was not just the old or clinically vulnerable at risk.

Mr Tariq, 31, said he contracted coronavirus again in December and felt "fortunate" to have survived...

India recorded 260,000 fresh coronavirus cases last week - one of the worst weekly increases since the pandemic began early last year.

The western state of Maharashtra accounts for nearly 70% of the national caseload.

Experts say that poor adherence to safety protocols is driving the surge. Some say new variants could also be a reason, but it isn't established yet.

India has so far recorded more than 11 million cases and 160,000 deaths...

... "a false notion of optimism" swept the country when the caseload was decreasing at the start of the year.

"People had falsely assumed that India had reached the threshold of herd immunity but that is not the case," he says. Dr Fathahudeen also believes the start of the vaccination drive contributed to this because people "equated the arrival of the vaccine with normal times".

"The situation is far from normal, in fact it's alarming at the moment...

Italian elite unit found millions of AstraZeneca doses thought to be meant for the UK - but their destination was the EU itself

It was an extraordinary story – the European Commission had turned detective to find AstraZeneca's secret stockpile of vaccines reserved for Britain.

During a surprise raid over the weekend, an elite unit of Italian military police acting on EU orders discovered 29 million jab doses hoarded at a factory near Rome.

The discovery appeared to confirm the EU's long-held suspicion that AstraZeneca was giving the UK special treatment, secretly exporting doses to its home country while failing to deliver on contracts agreed with Brussels.

Yet, as EU officials admitted on Wednesday, the allegation, briefed to the Continental press, simply wasn't true.

In fact, most of the doses discovered in the Italian factory were destined for the EU itself, with the remainder headed for poorer countries across the world.

One former Europe minister called it possibly the "most embarrassing day in the EU's history".

"It would be a travesty if we went back to a situation where it takes years sometimes to get a trial off the ground."

Well, they have to find some way to punish/embarrass the UK for Brexit.
Their Gestapo tactics failed, so they sent in the EU SS.

The latest yellow card data shows that 11.7 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered by March 7, similar to the total number of Pfizer doses, although the figures are not very precise.
It’s possible that AstraZeneca has actually delivered more vaccine than these figures suggest, and that batch testing or other limitations of the rollout which are beyond the control of the company have delayed getting it into people’s arms.

But the Health Secretary played down the significance of these kind of delays on Thursday, saying: “Because we get supplies out into the field so fast, and run a highly lean delivery system, changes in future supply schedules impact on the weekly availability of vaccine.”

Almost certainly - or at least judging by the actions of some around here :-(