Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection • Hacker News Board

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#251

Post by bipson » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

lbeltrame wrote: post #187

bipson wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I want to agree, none of the companies started from zero. All these new technologies, the techniques, the principles were in development since years if not decades. Not trying to diminish the accomplishments achieved, great effort nontheless. Just saying nobody started from zero here, that would have been insane and frankly impossible.

> All these new technologies, the techniques, the principles were in development since years if not decades. Yes, I first heard about intramuscular nucleic acid injection around the year 2000. At the time it was naked DNA and not RNA in a lipid nanoparticle suspension, but the principle was the same.

In particular BioNTech from the article was founded 2008. This is their first publicly available "product" - it applies their vision for cancer treatment to specific SARS-nCoV-2 proteins (arguably I don't know if they're working on other ideas as well).

They might be working on this particular vaccine since 2020, but AFAIK they have been working on the specific principle the vaccine uses since 2008.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#252

Post by lgleason » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

Of course, introduced right after the US election...

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#253

Post by netsharc » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:40 PM UTC

sz4kerto wrote: post #193

jason0597 wrote: post #186

Why are people in the comments so interested in the reactions of stock markets? I don't understand. These are the same markets that cheer when job cuts and redundancies are announced. These are the same markets that cheer when horrible working conditions are enforced (see Tesla, Uber, Deliveroo, etc.) Why should I take the markets seriously? It's just a bunch of rich people in the end.

It's a good indicator of what the world (well, people with capital) believe in. A very positive general market reaction might indicate that the news is correct. (Might.)

If only it's that accurate... IMO market participants just react to news because they expect others to act a particular way, and I as a participant would try to see how I could profit from how others act.

In this case, no one probably bothers to dig deeper, it's the BBC and it's good enough, everyone will think the world will soon be rid of Covid, so they will buy stocks, so I should also join the up wave...

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#254

Post by Frost1x » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:40 PM UTC

Upvoter33 wrote: post #121

camhart wrote: post #39

Interesting timing here with regards to the US election. Edit/Update: "She said she learned of the results from the outside panel of experts shortly after 1 p.m. on Sunday, and that the timing was not influenced by the election." https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/heal... Edit2: I failed to realize that it was necessary to point out that the timing of this press release is interesting. I wasn't i…

Are you serious?

I mean, to be fair, the timing is interesting but I wouldn't go any further than that.

I don't think (and find it incredibly unlikely) there's any correlation per se, but quite a few people were hoping to hear certain news on the political front and the COVID front. They heard both in a pretty short window and I'd say that and the effects nationally are interesting.

Many many people are now feeling a lot of stress relief in a short period of time. Should be interesting how this effects morale around the country.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#255

Post by gustavf » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:41 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #37

TomGullen wrote: post #2

Great news and the markets are reacting very positively to the news as well which indicates to me this could be the beginning of the end!

The markets seem to wildly yo-yo with every piece of negative and positive news. Case in point: Zoom is currently down 10% but I’ll bet it will have rallied by the end of the day.

I'll take the other side of that bet.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#256

Post by tuna-piano » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:41 PM UTC

benlumen wrote: post #149

I'm feeling a deep-seated wave of relief that I never thought possible. Like waking up from a year-long nightmare. Thank God.

Feel the same. Can't stop smiling. Never felt like a more accurate time to use the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel".

The US government is paying like $20 for each dose. I'd pay 100x that without batting an eye.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone working on this vaccine and related Covid treatments.

Can't wait to get the needle in the arm!

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#257

Post by svara » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:42 PM UTC

sergioisidoro wrote: post #97

> The data released by Pfizer Monday was delivered in a news release, not a peer-reviewed medical journal. It is not conclusive evidence that the vaccine is safe and effective, and the initial finding of more than 90 percent efficacy could change as the trial goes on. The title is quite sensationalistic for such preliminary results. Especially when they have only been reviewed by an "outside panel of experts" [1] who…

It's a highly formalized clinical trial, it would be nonsensical to misrepresent or exaggerate the results. The preliminary analysis is based on 94 cases; not a huge number, but totally reasonable to draw conclusions from.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#258

Post by jjk166 » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:42 PM UTC

GhostVII wrote: post #219

jason0597 wrote: post #186

Why are people in the comments so interested in the reactions of stock markets? I don't understand. These are the same markets that cheer when job cuts and redundancies are announced. These are the same markets that cheer when horrible working conditions are enforced (see Tesla, Uber, Deliveroo, etc.) Why should I take the markets seriously? It's just a bunch of rich people in the end.

If the markets react that means it is probably significant news, since the people who have millions at stake think this is enough to increase the future outlook of the top companies. You should take them seriously because the markets reflect the thoughts of hundreds of thousands of people who's salary depends on trying to find out what the future looks like. Not sure what would be a better indicator of whether news i…

But there are also people with millions at stake who are metagaming that other people will think this is important enough to increase the future outlook of top companies and thus changing their strategies to profit off them.

The market is a weighted function of an insane number of variables, and we know none of the weights. Any attempt at reading the market to understand those variables is going to be about as useful as trying to observe butterflies by looking at hurricanes.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#259

Post by usrusr » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:43 PM UTC

bipson wrote: post #151

coldpie wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, setting aside all the politics and silliness, the science going on around this pandemic is remarkable. Going from nearly zero (yes, there was a bunch of research from SARS-Cov-1, MERS, and similar to build off of but nothing like this) to a functioning, tested, and mass manufactured vaccine in a year is absolutely jaw dropping. Even if it takes two years to distribute widely, three years to stomp out a pandemic…

Although I want to agree, none of the companies started from zero. All these new technologies, the techniques, the principles were in development since years if not decades. Not trying to diminish the accomplishments achieved, great effort nontheless. Just saying nobody started from zero here, that would have been insane and frankly impossible.

True, but it's the first time we see those technologies in action. Some (many?) of the vaccine projects for example use paths that have previously been considered, played through in "toy" projects that never made it to production and so on, and now they are suddenly standing in the limelight, going live. For some sub-fields of biotech this must almost be like the mindboggling aviation had from roadshow curiosities to a major war factor in hardly more than a decade.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#260

Post by tomohawk » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 1:43 PM UTC

codeulike wrote: post #212

tomohawk wrote: post #201

Not stated in the article: this was part of the Trump Administration DHHS's Project Warp Speed, which funded 6 different vaccines concurrently. https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-sp...

Warp Speed didn't contribute to the development of this one; they have allocated funds to buy the vaccine though Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to rush a vaccine to market, has promised Pfizer $1.95 billion to deliver 100 million doses to the federal government, which will be given to Americans free of charge. But Dr. Jansen sought to distance the company from Operation Warp Speed and presidential politics,…

I see your point, but it seems to be overstated as having a promised $2B out there surely had a positive impact.