Kenya Insights

Tag: Oxford

  • COVID vaccine protection fades within six months – UK researchers

    COVID vaccine protection fades within six months – UK researchers

    (Reuters) – Protection against COVID-19 offered by two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines begins to fade within six months, underscoring the need for booster shots, according to researchers in Britain.

    After five to six months, the effectiveness of the Pfizer jab at preventing COVID-19 infection in the month after the second dose fell from 88% to 74%, an analysis of data collected in Britain’s ZOE COVID study showed.

    For the AstraZeneca vaccine, effectiveness fell from 77% to 67% after four to five months.

    The study was based on data from more than a million app users, comparing self-reported infections in vaccinated participants with cases in an unvaccinated control group.

    More data is needed in younger people because participants who had their shots up to six months ago tended to be elderly as that age group was prioritised when the shots were first approved, the study authors said.

    ZOE Ltd was founded three years ago to offer customised nutritional advice based on test kits. The company’s ZOE COVID Symptom Study app is a not-for-profit initiative in collaboration with King’s College London and funded by the Department of Health and Social Care.

    Under a worst-case future scenario, protection could fall below 50% for older people and healthcare workers by the winter, Tim Spector, ZOE Ltd co-founder and principal investigator for the study, said.

    “It’s bringing into focus this need for some action. We can’t just sit by and see the protectiveness slowly waning whilst cases are still high and the chance of infection still high as well,” Spector told BBC television.

    Britain and other European nations are planning for a COVID-19 vaccine booster campaign later this year after top vaccine advisers said it might be necessary to give third shots to the elderly and most vulnerable from September.

    The U.S. government is preparing to provide third booster doses starting in mid-September to Americans who had their initial course more than eight months ago. read more

    “This is a reminder that we cannot rely on vaccines alone to prevent the spread of COVID,” said Simon Clarke, Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading, who was not involved in the study.

    He cautioned that the results may have been distorted by the surge in overall cases in Britain in July.

    A separate British public health study found last week that protection from either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca vaccine against the now prevalent Delta variant of the coronavirus weakens within three months. read more

    The Oxford University study found at the time that 90 days after a second shot of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine, their efficacy in preventing infections had slipped to 75% and 61% respectively. That was down from 85% and 68%, respectively, seen two weeks after a second dose.

  • Thieves Walk Away With Ksh180M Gold Toilet From England’s Blenheim Palace

    Thieves Walk Away With Ksh180M Gold Toilet From England’s Blenheim Palace

    Related imageOn Saturday, thieves made away with a Ksh 180 million toilet that was set and installed in a wood-paneled room at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, in the United Kingdom.

    Police Officers were called to reports of a burglary at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, where the loo – valued at £1.8m – was on display as part of a contemporary art exhibition, just before 5 am on Saturday.

    “The piece of art that has been stolen is a high-value toilet made out of gold that was on display at the palace. The artwork has not been recovered at this time, but we are conducting a thorough investigation to find it and bring those responsible to justice.” DI Jess Milne of Thames Valley Police said.

    The artist who made a solid gold toilet reportedly worth £1.8m has denied orchestrating its theft in a Banksy-style prank.

    Here is the 18-carat working toilet  Image result for toilet stolen

    The Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, who created the sculpture entitled America and who has a track record of playing mischievous stunts, told international media that he wishes the theft was a prank.

    “Who’s so stupid to steal a toilet? America was 1% for the 99%, and I hope it still is. I want to be positive and think the robbery is a kind of Robin Hood-inspired action.” He said.

    Cattelan, 58, is understood to have attended a reception party at the 18th-century Oxfordshire estate on Friday, marking his first UK solo exhibition in two decades. The sculpture was the centerpiece of his new show, which opened on Thursday.

    Thames Valley Police believe a gang of thieves using at least two vehicles were responsible for the theft and a 66-year-old man arrested on Saturday remains in police custody.

    Last year, onlookers at a Sotheby’s auction were stunned when, just after it had sold for more than £1m, the canvas began to pass through a shredder installed in the frame. That stunt was said to have made the piece more valuable.

    In Amsterdam in 1996, Cattelan previously stole the whole show of another artist at a nearby gallery and tried to pass off the exhibition as his own work.

    He said at the time the theft was a survival tactic after being given only two weeks to produce work for his exhibit, saying I took the path of least resistance. It was the quickest and easiest thing to do,” according to media sources.

    Initial reports had said the golden toilet was worth an estimated £1m, but Blenheim Palace’s chief executive, Dominic Hare, said it has been valued at about $6m (£4.8m).

    The sculpture hit the headlines last year after it was offered to the US president, Donald Trump, by the chief curator of the Guggenheim in New York, its former home. The golden toilet had proved popular at the Fifth Avenue museum and had been described by critics as a pointed satire against the excesses of wealth.

    “Whatever you eat, a two-hundred-dollar lunch or a two-dollar hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise,” Cattelan said jokingly.