Live data from Hacker News

Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

reuters.com

381–390 of 712 posts

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#381
post #348

I'm in the trial. It's really exciting, not least because form a purely selfish point of view, I might be immune already! ...or not. But it's exciting either way! AMA?

What if something goes horribly wrong and the vaccine trial causes unwanted side effects? Why risk it, what are they paying you?

> Why risk it?

It's worth pointing out that during a pandemic, while participating in a trial does carry a risk, so does not participating. A participant has some substantially greater probability* than the general population of avoiding an infection which apparently carries a risk of death or long term debilitating effects.

* You'll have to incorporate the probability of being in the control group, of course, but the overall probability is still significant.

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#382
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering all the excluded groups on the trial (page 3, kids, 55+, obese, weak immune system, a lot more), it's a lot of exclusions, how does one get from results on a study like this to declaring the vaccine safe for general use?

Maybe a stupid question, but do we need to vaccinate everyone? I remember reading that heard immunity is 70% or something - so could we get away with leaving the people out that it wasn’t tested on?

Yes. The goalposts with the lockdowns moved so much that now the only way of getting out of them is 100% vaccination + 100% effectiveness of the vaccine. As this is not possible - mask wearing in the shops and public transport will remain for the foreseeable future.

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares. I'd gladly give this company a couple of billion if it means they can get us back to normal. Oxford develops the vaccine with public money. We also, god willing, need to manufacture billions of them and transport them around the globe. For that manufacturing, give me a solid existing multinational with a proven manufacturing record and base please, not some non-profit startup.

"I'd gladly give this company a couple of billion if it means they can get us back to normal." Sounds like the media panic is working.

Indeed, people willing to give up anything. I don't see any return to'normal' anytime soon

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#384
post #381
post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if something goes horribly wrong and the vaccine trial causes unwanted side effects? Why risk it, what are they paying you?

> Why risk it? It's worth pointing out that during a pandemic, while participating in a trial does carry a risk, so does not participating. A participant has some substantially greater probability* than the general population of avoiding an infection which apparently carries a risk of death or long term debilitating effects. * You'll have to incorporate the probability of being in the control group, of course, but th…

Oh yeah, that's for sure. The idea that there's a pretty decent chance that I've been vaccinated already which means I don't have to wait for a vaccine is great.

My life can begin to go back to normal potentially months before it otherwise would.

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#385

Good news but still a long way to go. How's it going to be rolled out? Here in the UK we have tried and failed to get a regular flu jab (our GPs have run out of a very small supply and the pharmacies don't have any to sell) and I'm not optimistic about our chances of getting this next year or whenever it arrives.

Here in Canada we were able to get our flu shot at our family doctor's last week, but it was kind of a "first come first served" and "you have to ask about it" scenario. My employer usually does a flu shot clinic at work every year, but as we're all home we were not able to do that. In some ways there's been more barriers to getting it than in previous years, despite it being more urgent to do so.

If this was rolled out properly people would be actively contacted by phone, etc. with assistance on how to get it. That's the kind of aggressive roll-out I'm hoping we see if/when a COVID19 vaccine becomes available.

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#387
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering all the excluded groups on the trial (page 3, kids, 55+, obese, weak immune system, a lot more), it's a lot of exclusions, how does one get from results on a study like this to declaring the vaccine safe for general use?

Generally speaking, experimental drug trials are run first on healthy groups and then in at-risk groups (old, young, those with co-morbidities). From the article, my guess is that they are expediting the sensitive groups trials, but unfortunately there's a lack of technical detail. Source: My partner is an infectious disease specialist and we talk about this pretty much daily because I'm so curious.

But for this disease that's particularly bad because Covid has shown to be worst in 55+, obese, comorbidities, etc... which means that the trials on healthy groups are proving very little, since the virus itself is so much weaker on healthy groups.

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in particular, but not limited to, the brain Judging from our response to Covid-19, if this had actually been the collectively-feared zombie virus, the pandemic would have been far worse than any fictional account has manage to capture so far.

How so? World War Z Walking Dead Shawn of the Dead * 28 Days Later The Last of Us What's worse than the above? * (ok maybe not this one)

Also if there was a real zombie virus none of the movies so far have captured the sheer absolute terror of hard to defend transmission vectors like mosquitos, which would be likely to get the virus. Brings a whole new level of issues to not getting bit.

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the longer term effects are scary though - I suspect that younger people might not be so blasé about chronic illness. At minimum younger people who have had covid are looking at a lot more regular check-ups for the rest of there life.

> Some of the longer term effects are scary though - I suspect that younger people might not be so blasé about chronic illness. There's not a single peer-reviewed study showing a significantly higher frequency of long-term adverse effects in healthy individuals compared to other respiratory illnesses.

Don't ruin the doomer parade, thank you.

Re: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old and young

#390
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering all the excluded groups on the trial (page 3, kids, 55+, obese, weak immune system, a lot more), it's a lot of exclusions, how does one get from results on a study like this to declaring the vaccine safe for general use?

This phase I/II study's primary objective was to learn about the safety of the vaccine, and about whether it causes an immune response. I'm no expert, but I expect the phase III trials in the US and India will include a broader population.

Ah, thanks for clarifying that you participated in phase 1/2, I had not gotten this from skimming through the document, that makes a lot more sense to me. Thanks for sharing!
Post reply on HN