As an opinion piece published in the British newspaper The Guardian today states, 43% of recent UK Covid deaths were people who had had both vaccinations, and 60% of those who died after contracting the Delta strain of Covid-19 in the UK, had been administered at least one dose.
Worrying for Thailand a country that, some experts believe, will be dealing with predominantly Delta variant cases by August.
The article begins:
A MailOnline headline on 13June read: “Study shows 29% of the 42 people who have died after catching the new strain had BOTH vaccinations.” In Public Health England’s technical briefing on 25 June, that figure had risen to 43% (50 of 117), with the majority (60%) having received at least one dose.
Written by two people who are not virologists, the article then goes on to give the authors’ opinions as to why getting vaccinated against Covid-19 is still a good thing.
Even though all vaccines currently available may not be very effective against new strains of the virus.
In particular, most vaccines may not be effective against the Delta strain. The strain currently causing the UK’s virus case numbers to rise.
Meanwhile, more than 80% of the British population have now had at least one dose of a vaccine, yet the UK’s rising cases still categorize the country as having some of the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world, as well as some of the highest number of deaths.
According to The Telegraph, in relation to the AstraZeneca vaccine, a Public Health England (PHE) report states “There is uncertainty around the magnitude of the change in vaccine effectiveness after two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.”
“Of note is the high percentage of severe outcomes among people [with vaccine] breakthrough infections”, said PHE epidemiologist Meaghan Kall.
Thailand vaccinating with Sinovac and AstraZeneca
Recent deaths of Covid-19 positive individuals after receiving both vaccinations in the UK could also be particularly worrying for Thailand. A country in which the majority of vaccinations carried out so far have been with the Sinovac or AstraZeneca vaccines.
The first a Chinese vaccine that seems to even less effective against the Delta variant than those being given in the United States and Europe.
The second a British-Swedish vaccine that has not only been linked to blood clots in some individuals given the vaccine, but has caused a number of deaths in Europe.
AstraZeneca is also the most-used vaccine in the UK, with 21.2 million shots of AstraZeneca being given by late April, 2021, and with some of those that recently died of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in the UK having had both shots.
It remains to be seen if Thailand’s currently rising Covid-19 cases will eventually be those of people infected with the Delta variant and, if so, whether Sinovac or AstraZeneca will be effecting against it.
