About Covid-19 vaccines in Namibia

• SHELLEYGAN PETERSEN and MERCY KARUUOMBENAMIBIA has received various Covid-19 vaccines in the last two months, and currently has over 800 000 available vaccine doses.

The various types of vaccines include:

PFIZER-BIONTECH

The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was developed by American corporation Pfizer in New York, and BioNTech, a biotechnology company based in Germany.

It was the first vaccine to be approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for administration.

According to the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (Sage), a protective effect starts to develop 12 days after the first dose, but full protection requires two doses, which should be administered at an interval of 21 to 28 days.

Studies in Scotland, the United States (US), and Qatar found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides between 80% and 100% protection against any infection with the Alpha variant.

Studies in Canada, Scotland, and the United Kingdom (UK) suggest this vaccine offers the same range of protection for symptomatic infection as well.

This vaccine has been found to be safe and effective in people with various conditions associated with increased risk of severe disease.

This includes hypertension, diabetes, asthma, pulmonary, liver or kidney disease, as well as chronic infections that are stable and controlled.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Covid-19 vaccine was 66,3% effective in clinical trials at preventing laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 infection in people who have received it, with no evidence of being previously infected.

Vaccinated people had the most protection two weeks after getting the jab.

In the clinical trials, this vaccine showed high efficacy at preventing hospitalisation and death in people who did get sick. No one who got Covid-19 at least four weeks after receiving the J&J/Janssen vaccine had to be hospitalised.

Currently, there is little data showing how effective this single-shot vaccine is at protecting against the Delta variant, according to healthline.com.

A clinical trial suggests the vaccine is 85% effective against severe disease. In the study it demonstrated “strong, persistent” protection against hospitalisation and death.

The most recent findings, and the only real-life data, are from South Africa, which suggests that this vaccine offers about 71% protection against hospitalisation when the Delta variant dominates.

ASTRAZENECA/OXFORD

Sage initially said the Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine has an efficacy of 63,09% against symptomatic Sars-CoV-2 infection.

Longer dose intervals within the 8 to 12-week range are associated with greater vaccine efficacy.

Two shots of AstraZeneca were 67% effective against the Delta variant, up from 60% originally reported, and 74,5% effective against the Alpha variant, compared to an original estimate of 66% effectiveness.

Vaccination is recommended for people with comorbidities who have been identified as increasing the risk of severe Covid-19, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and diabetes.

Although further studies are required for people living with HIV or auto-immune conditions or who are immunocompromised, people in this category who are part of a group recommended for vaccination may be vaccinated after receiving information and counselling.

Two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine are nearly as effective against the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant as they are against the previously dominant Alpha variant, a study published last Wednesday showed.

SINOPHARM

This vaccine, also known as BIBP-CorV, is named after the Chinese state-owned manufacturer Sinopharm, and is created from an inactivated coronavirus strain. The Sinopharm Group is a state-owned pharmaceutical company with two vaccine candidates among China’s five experimental treatments in international final stage trials.

The Sinopharm vaccine is produced by the Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the China National Biotec Group (CNBG).

The WHO recommends the vaccine for adults 18 years and older in a two-dose schedule with a spacing of three to four weeks in between.

Vaccine efficacy for symptomatic and hospitalised disease was estimated to be 79%, all age groups combined.

During its trial phases, Sinopharm was administered to two age groups of 18 to 59 years, and older than 60 years, and induced neutralising antibodies in 100% of vaccine recipients.