Good vaccine news!

At this morning's Covid task force briefing, Dr. Fauci cited two studies, one from Spain and one from Israel, that show strong indications that vaccinated people are MUCH less capable of passing on the virus, even if they were exposed post-vaccination. Hopefully, additional studies will find the same results and will enable the BVI to modify entry protocols for those who have been vaccinated.

The Vaccines are looking better each day as more data comes in. It appears that someone who is fully vaccinated is a non threat for transmission. 90 percent plus won’t get covid and the small number that do have a greatly reduced risk of infecting others. Overall numbers world wide are looking much better and hopefully trend down even quicker as more people get vaccinated. I doubt the BVI would incur any risk if they kept the current pre arrival and arrival test and dropped the quarantine period for those vaccinated. Add in the additional safety of quickly getting high risk BVI citizens vaccinated and things should open up. Might be able to enjoy a pretty strong tourist rebound May-July.

I've had shot #1..shot #2 March 7th..hoping that is the beginning of our planned return. Also hoping to heard some good news re ferries on March 1. All this is positive and I hope the BVI Gov is reading and watching this from the top experts..

The numbers falling and vaccine is becoming widely available in the US relatively soon and one shipment being administered in the bvi with more promised. It was thought that those being vaccinated would be less likely to get and spread any disease including Covid. The data from this study indicates that to be the case. That would indicate that there is little risk allowing vaccinated travelers in with a negative test and no quarantine.

If they do not allow that I suspect there will be tremendous backlash as there has been in some venues with lockdowns in the us. The island has been without its main source of income for going on a year. Travelers will not accept a quarantine when other venues do not.

Hopefully they will be able to open safely by summer. They sometimes say anyone who wants a vaccine can get one in April. Then yesterday some in the game said July. Hopefully the truth comes to be between the two.

I hope a snag does not develop with the bvi requiring a quarantine for those visitors under 18 for whom no vaccine has been approved. If they are not allowed on island with vaccinated adults, it will hamper severely the summer charter and land based business.

My second shot is March 15. Hope to be down soon!

The news yesterday included more data on how the trials were conducted. I think most people don’t understand what 95% means with a vaccine. I Know that I didn’t. There were 21,000 plus participants in the Pfizer phase 3 trials.Exactly 8 got covid looking out from 7 days after the second shot. All 8 cases were very mild and it looks like they would not be transmissible. Hopefully this kind of news will lead to reopening world wide.

They shut our vaccination centers due to the inclement weather, but redirected the vaccine to school teachers, who refused to re-open the schools until they were vaccinated. It has become political, and it looks like they are finding a way to prioritize teachers over seniors. We can't even sign up for a first dose, so it could be months before we can consider traveling to the BVI.

People have played fast and loose with the numbers - that is the media, drug companies, government officials, everyone. The original results report that Pfizer published in JAMA was good for understanding what they tested for, more importantly what they DIDN'T look for, and how the 95% number was derived. Unfortunately, a quick Google search (how I found it last year) didn't give me the original piece - so much has been written since.

Since they never bothered to test for asymptomatic people with Covid in the population, all they can really say is that of the study volunteers who felt the need to get tested and were positive, only 5% of those people came from the vaccinated group, and of those, none were considered serious. The study "ended" when they had 100 people who tested positive - obviously, the study didn't really end there, but they felt they could publish at that point.

It was a good result - great even - but didn't really answer many of the questions that people, myself included, would like answered. Having said that, I still have gotten both of my shots.

Apologies for not being able to point people to the original piece. And I cannot wait to get back to the islands either!

Fair winds!

The above is not exactly correct. Here is a link that details how things were done. There were 8 positives in the vaccinated group and 162 in the control group.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577

OK, guys, none of this has anything to do with the BVI, but just general Covid stuff. I am moving this to BVI People Talk.

The news out of Israel is getting better and better. 80% of people over 60 have been vaccinated and the covid rate in that group has dropped well below the rate for the entire rest of the population where there are at about 30%.
G

George--the CURRENT rate of infection for those under 60 is 30%??

Results of a study in Scotland... Massive reductions in hospitalisations after having the vaccine. Down 94% for AstraZeneca and 85% for Pfizer. This is for the elderly and care home residents so the most vulnerable and most have had one dose only! Link here... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56153600

AstraZeneca is not approved for use in the US yet.

It's the vaccine in use in the BVI and TTOL extends beyond the US so it may be of interest to others Carol

I understand that, was just pointing out it is not yet available in the US

30% under age 60 have been vaccinated.

Oh, ok.