The AstraZeneca vaccine apparently is not working against the South African strain of the COVID-19 virus so officials in that country are saying. Since yesterday, they have halted all vaccinations until further notice.
What a big scary let down. This is of course only a result of the South African strain and does not represent that it would not be effective against the regular strain, but if it does not totally work against COVID-19 in general then why take it?
God knows which vaccine the COVAX facility ran by Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for the region invested in on our behalf. WE hope it is not the AstraZeneca version in all seriousness.
But there are several other vaccines out there outside of the UK based AstraZeneca: There is the US based Pfizer and Moderna vaccines; the multinational Comirnaty; the Chinese based CoronaVac and BBIBP-CorV vaccines; the Russian based Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona; and the Indian based Covaxin.
Don’t fret, kids, the world is much more diverse than just the US and UK. I wonder how the Chinese vaccine works? People would have gallows humour now and say that odds are the Chinese stole their vaccine from the US models and patent like they do all of their technology.
But that nonsense aside, we hope Astrazeneca gets it together, gets back to the drawing board because there are literally billions of people to vaccinate and it will take every one of these drug companies to do it within a year before more lives are lost.
I have hope!