1728

That seems very strange to me.

1729

And me, which is why I asked. The only thing I can think of is that there’s a large disparity in donation rates and they want to get more men donating just to bring the overall numbers up, but it seems a weird way to go about it (the phrasing of the ad really suggests women shouldn’t bother).

1730

Plasma from female donors is not currently used (except for in coronavirus trials) because it is more likely to contain antibodies that could cause a serious reaction when given to a patient.

Some people do not develop antibodies while others do. It is not clearly understood why this happens, but antibodies are more likely to develop after pregnancy.

For this reason, it is safest for patients if we only produce plasma products from male donors.

1731

Weird given that convalescent plasma has done poorly in clinical trials and monoclonal antibodies now exist. The monoclonals are a direct replacement and don’t have as many risks due to things like clotting factors.

At this point though, I basically have no idea WTF the UK is doing.

I should add that the new variant is being tested against the monoclonals and those results are expected any day. It’s expected that they will work as well on the new variant, but always good to verify.

1732

Join the club.

1733

One of the saddest things I heard yesterday on the BBC was an interview with an NHS healthcare worker who wasn’t going to get their second dose of vaccine, but had to go into work every day and get massive exposure to coronavirus. They were extremely upset by this particular decision. If there was any one group you’d think you’d want to keep alive and healthy, it would be people at the NHS.

1734

Maybe issues with the price or availability of monoclonals? But yeah, a lot of scientists seem pretty worried about us basically engineering the perfect environment for an antibody escape, both re the ad hoc vaccination schedules and use of convalescent plasma.

1735

Yep, we are an absolute joke, indecisive all over the place. I live in Tier 4 now with tier 3 exactly down the road lots of back and forth, seeing people out in groups in the tier 4 areas, people from 3 in 4 and vice versa.

My eldest at home for 2 more weeks but my youngest going in, my wife going in to work as a teacher in a tier 3 from a tier 4.

It’s a bloody mess at the moment

1736

I’m not sure why the UK says it can’t test for HLA antibodies. I mean… plasma is tested for many other things, and that test does exist.

1737

So they can up their vaccine delivered statistic by using it to give more 1st doses out. Our governments record of praising NHS staff to the high heavens while simultaneously shafting them at every turn continues…

1738

Yeah, curse those evil checks notes doctors and former Labour leaders who suggested the idea.

1739

Governments get all sorts of suggestions from all sorts of people all the time… so what?

1740

So why are you taking the side of the New York Times over the British Medical Journal? Have you had enough of experts?

1741

What are you referring to here? I suspect you’re getting news stories mixed up.

1742

Yes. There’s so much partisan bullshit around the JCVI recommendations that I got mixed up. That’s not actually a good defence of the people promoting the bullshit.

1743

Why would I take the side of a newspaper I don’t read? So the BMJ is recommending health care workers don’t get their second jab within the recommended timeframe, but it is delayed so they can spread the first jab further? That seems unlikely but I’m happy for you to show me a source…

On the subject of experts, I’d have thought the manufacturer would probably qualify as an “expert”?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-31/pfizer-backs-two-dose-vaccine-schedule-after-u-k-shift

1744

I stumbled across this pretty scary Twitter thread earlier. gulp

1745

Would UK citizens tolerate a tougher lockdown to get things under control? Or are they as insane there as they are here in the U.S.?

1746

My finger in the air guesstimate:

Tolerate, yes. I’ve not seen many reports of anti-lockdown protests and those that have occurred seem to be minor/small scale. The scary thing is we’re pretty much already in lockdown. Tier 4 which most of the country is already in is named “Stay at home”. I’m not sure how many will strongly adhere to further lockdown restrictions. I think the country is in a state of lockdown fatigue.

Also, I don’t know how valid the data is that I posted above. I’m hoping someone will pipe in and say it isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. The source seems on the level though (a professor at University College London).

1747

It’s that bad, and it should not be surprising. We had data two weeks ago suggesting that B.1.1.7 managed to flourish during the second UK lockdown. Tier 4 is not substantially different, so why expect it to be enough?

The question is, what more can the UK do?

  • Close schools and universities.
  • Enforce, rather than just recommend, work from home for office jobs.
  • Stop allowing even the small religious gatherings, hospital visits, two person social meetings, etc.
  • Shut down construction and non-essential manufacturing.

Note that just closing down the schools and universities is unlikely to be enough.