@Infoseepage I think it's a good idea to give it to other countries who need it a lot more than to people for a 3rd shot. If the virus mutates even more in the poorer countries, it'll be so different that even a 3rd shot will be ineffective. This is a worldwide problem.
@trinsec Some countries have signed no-export agreements with the drug makers and some countries like the US are awash in vaccine doses that few of the remaining unvaccinated seem to want to take. At this point, rather than letting those doses spoil, imo we should start getting them into arms as booster doses for J&J and for those who've had 2 doses of Pfizer or Moderna. This may significantly reduce onward transmission, symptomatic presentation, etc. among the already vaccinated.
@Infoseepage Mmm, agreed that you're better off using it as an extra booster shot than to let it spoil...
But damn, that they're close to letting it spoil is already very bad mojo to begin with. There are plenty of countries screaming for vaccines. I think that does paint Israel in a negative light for not donating their extras.
Is Israel facing a new lockdown now, btw? I understand they have the highest percentage of people vaccinated (or one of the highest), but the virus is starting to spread there again?
@trinsec Israel tried to give the doses to the PLA and the PLA turned them down, saying they were two close to expiration. Pfizer has said they should be good through the end of June. They tried to arrange a swap with the UK where they would give the UK the doses now in exchange for doses the UK was to get later. Sounds like that fell through.
@trinsec One other angle to this, is we don't have nearly enough vaccine to protect a significant # of people in those countries before the Delta wave hits. A huge number of people are going to be breeding grounds for new mutations. One thing that could worsen the situation long term is to have some small percentage of those infected having only one vaccine dose upon infection.
@trinsec We already know that 1 shot isn't very effective, and that might apply selection pressure in favoring more vaccine resistant strains. We might be better off in the long term in ensuring the people who are protected are very strongly so, rather than spread a limited resource thin. Obvious, I think we should have been MUCH more ambitious. We should have been building an absolutely massive permanent standing infrastructure for vaccine manufacturing and delivery. Too little, too late.
@trinsec The major powers of the world quite simply did a shit job of treating vaccine manufacturing and delivery with the "we're fighting a world war" level of concern it deserved. Now we've got ourselves a strain with such rapid growth characteristic that it will in all probability wash over the world in the next 3-4 months. We've run out of time to vaccinate any sizeable chunk of the world before that happens.