IOM Covid removing restrictions

[AlanShimmin]

16 minutes ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

If that person can make someone else ill, how do you mitigate their risk to other people whilst they are infectious?

You've got morality, economics and health are rolled into one big mess.

 

That's also true for every other condition out there.

I understand the need for it when we're at pandemic level, but we're supposedly moving to living with it which will be endemic. We don't take that level of control for other endemic issues.

[AcousticallyChallenged]

Just now, offshoremanxman said:

But you aren’t. It’s never occurred to me to request either a covid test or an STI test from the NHS because I have never had any symptoms of either. I’m not in the habit of seeking out tests for things I don’t have. Neither has my doctor ever offered me a test for something I don’t have. 

You may not be in the target demographic for it, but it doesn't mean the messaging doesn't exist.

Note the wording here: https://www.gov.im/categories/health-and-wellbeing/clinics-and-hospital-outpatients/genito-urinary-medicine-gum-clinic/get-an-appointment/

Quote

If you have no symptoms and you have not been advised to attend by any sexual partner/s then usually a ‘routine’ appointment for the next available slot will be fine. This can be a week or even two weeks later depending on how busy the clinic is.

 

[AcousticallyChallenged]

12 minutes ago, AlanShimmin said:

That's also true for every other condition out there.

I understand the need for it when we're at pandemic level, but we're supposedly moving to living with it which will be endemic. We don't take that level of control for other endemic issues.

However, how many pandemics have we had?

We've seen what COVID can do when it runs rampant. And that can change very rapidly, as places like South Korea, the de-restricted posterchild are now finding again.

When the choices are, shut the doors and keep the bad virus out, let the virus out and monitor it, or bury head in the sand, which sounds most pragmatic?

In England, they're trialling alternatives to isolation for close-contacts, including daily lateral flow tests. Where, with a negative test, you can go on essential journeys still.

[Numbnuts]

Apparently announcement coming this week from Ashford regarding the NHS app and our inability to be able to use it for travel etc. Certificated letter coming with all the necessary information on to enable anyone to travel and be allowed entry. Apparently NHS are massively behind with input of info and Wales are in the queue before us so hence this stopgap measure . 

[AcousticallyChallenged]

2 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

But the target group there is people who are fearful. The only people who are going to take up an STI test offer in that situation are people who are fearful that they have caught something rather than people who have actually have something. So the test is more to resolve a psychological issue than a physical issue. Rather like a lot of self requested covid tests I’d say. 

You're focusing too heavily on the impact on yourself. Look at it from a more socially responsible perspective.

In either scenario, it is not uncommon for people to take a test before putting someone else in a vulnerable position, and want to do so in a risk-reduced fashion.

[Happier diner]

31 minutes ago, Numbnuts said:

Apparently announcement coming this week from Ashford regarding the NHS app and our inability to be able to use it for travel etc. Certificated letter coming with all the necessary information on to enable anyone to travel and be allowed entry. Apparently NHS are massively behind with input of info and Wales are in the queue before us so hence this stopgap measure . 

I feel like I am experiencing deja vu. At the mast briefing he told us Wales was complete and they were starting on IOM and that would take a week. 

Something has changed!

[Numbnuts]

13 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

I feel like I am experiencing deja vu. At the mast briefing he told us Wales was complete and they were starting on IOM and that would take a week. 

Something has changed!

Who knows but we will find out this week . Announcement or not .. Friend just told me as he is having trouble getting what he needs for travel end of this week. And thats what he's been told .

[snowman]

17 minutes ago, Numbnuts said:

Who knows but we will find out this week . Announcement or not .. Friend just told me as he is having trouble getting what he needs for travel end of this week. And thats what he's been told .

Wales is done. Took 5 weeks.

Here's their guide

 

https://gov.wales/get-nhs-covid-pass-show-your-vaccination-status-travel

[swoopy2110]

We've probably got the information in the wrong format, didn't submit it on-time, didn't provide them what they actually asked for or *insert any other excuse here* meaning they haven't done it yet.

[Ham_N_Eggs]

53 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

I feel like I am experiencing deja vu. At the mast briefing he told us Wales was complete and they were starting on IOM and that would take a week. 

Something has changed!

Nothing has changed just more half-truths from Ashford. 

[AcousticallyChallenged]

From the Gov’t Facebook page…

Bit of a trek if you’re at the other end of the Island mind. 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by AcousticallyChallenged

[AcousticallyChallenged]

17 minutes ago, swoopy2110 said:

We've probably got the information in the wrong format, didn't submit it on-time, didn't provide them what they actually asked for or *insert any other excuse here* meaning they haven't done it yet.

My guess is they’ve not got a way to automate the feed to the company in the UK running it. 

[TheTeapot]

15 minutes ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

From the Gov’t Facebook page…

Bit of a trek if you’re at the other end of the Island mind. 

 

Lots of people were VERY pissed last night...

[AlanShimmin]

13 minutes ago, TheTeapot said:

Lots of people were VERY pissed last night...

Fact Check: Very true. 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, kevster said:

Got a reply from Ashie

The press release is not stating those batches were not administered on island. They were, what has been stated is the status of these batches has now changed. The issue with those batches was an error on the EU’s part in relation to those batches and the EU has reversed its advice last week. Basically it’s now been confirmed by the EMA that after further examination those three batches do comply with the EMA licence. The EU thought they did not so listed them as none compliant but in fact it’s emerged they do comply as they contain no Covishield vaccines. The U.K. has proved this to the EMA so  those batches are fine and are in fact covered by the existing EMA licence. The EU had assumed all batches coming from India to anywhere in the world were Covishield which is not the case. All EU countries I believe have been informed of this so there is no reason Malta should be barring entry to anyone with those batches numbers.

This is pretty much complete bollocks from start to finish.  Covishield is the AstraZeneca vaccine (now branded in Europe as Vaxzevria).  To say the batches "contain no Covishield vaccines" [sic] is untrue insofar as it means anything at all.  Those batches are the same product made in the same manufacturing plants to the same specification as Covishield.  You can't change the contents by sticking it in a different box.

So the EMA is treating those batches as if they were Covishield and Covishield isn't authorised by the EMA.  The original EMA press release made this clear and explained why:

"This is because vaccines are biological products. Even tiny differences in the manufacturing conditions can result in differences in the final product, and EU law therefore requires the manufacturing sites and production process to be assessed and approved as part of the authorisation process."

The Amsterdam-based agency added: "Should we receive a marketing authorisation application for Covishield or should any change to the approved manufacturing sites for Vaxzevria be approved, we would communicate about it."

I can find no evidence that the EMA has changed their mind on this, most recently an article from four days ago when an EMA spokesman said:

[...]that Vaxzevria is “the only” AstraZeneca vaccine EMA currently authorises and for EU-authorisation purposes vaccines made by SII are not recognised as Vaxzevria.

He said: “EU law requires manufacturing sites and the production process to be assessed and approved as part of the authorisation process for vaccines used in the EU. Our product information for Vaxzevria shows on Annex II from page 13 a list of current approved manufacturing sites for this vaccine.”

And at the moment the Serum Institute of India does not appear in this list, though other sites outside the EU do.  There are no press releases or anything to indicate a change to the situation.

Now the SII have applied for approval for Covishield and hope to get approval by the end of July.  Obviously this a bigger problem than just 5 million Brits, Indians and Africans who have received that vaccine want to be able to travel freely as well and other countries such as Canada have received Indian-made batches.  But the whole thing remains a mess and seems unlikely to be resolved as quickly as it could be because the UK seems to think that just saying what you would like to happen will make it so.