Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

751–760 of 1001 posts

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

#751

Post by credit_guy »

arn wrote: post #679
credit_guy wrote: post #673

Can some explain why Pfizer insists they were not part of the Operation Warp Speed ([1] “We were never part of the Warp Speed”), despite the fact that both Warp Speed [2] and Pfizer itself [3] had press releases in July that stated the opposite? [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/health/covid-vaccine-pfiz... [2] https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/07/22/us-government-enga... [3] https://investors.pfizer.com/inves…

Looks like the government “pre ordered” vaccine from Pfizer but Pfizer didn’t actually accept funding for development: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-electio...

So the US Government gave them a put option for 100 million doses (or 50 million vaccines) with a strike of about $20 per dose. And they took that put option. This is a very valuable option that removes a lot of R&D risk. They didn't get an upfront cash amount, but saying they "were never part of the operation Warp Speed" sounds quite disingenuous to me.

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

#752

Post by throwaway2245 »

scottlamb wrote: post #626
jakozaur wrote: post #214

Good: + ~90% of individuals achieve immunity. + no significant side-effects. Not so good: - two doses needed, 3 weeks apart, immunity after one month from first dose. Slow rollout. - -80C storage and transport needed. Challenging, but doable in developed countries, but still may slow down mass rollout. Not feasible in many developing countries. I still wonder about long-term immunity. Anyone can share any insight?

> - two doses needed, 3 weeks apart, immunity after one month from first dose. Slow rollout. Yeah, this alone is bad news. Last year my parents got a two-dose shingles vaccine. The two doses are supposed to be separated by two to six months. My parents struggled to find their second doses in the window. Apparently there was limited supply and no one had the foresight to reserve second doses when people received their…

Same experience for Hep A vaccine. Got the first dose, then there was a global shortage when it was time to get the second dose - not available.

If there are 7 billion people and 1 billion doses in the next year, it's going to be awkward.

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

#753

Post by yurlungur »

jakozaur wrote: post #214

Good: + ~90% of individuals achieve immunity. + no significant side-effects. Not so good: - two doses needed, 3 weeks apart, immunity after one month from first dose. Slow rollout. - -80C storage and transport needed. Challenging, but doable in developed countries, but still may slow down mass rollout. Not feasible in many developing countries. I still wonder about long-term immunity. Anyone can share any insight?

One other factor to consider is that this is an mRNA vaccine, which is of a newer generation of technology in vaccine production.

From what I've read it is the first large scale adoption of mRNA vaccines so the really long term risks are less known. That said, theoretically mRNA vaccines should have a lot of advantages. Later in 2021 there may be a few other options for vaccines to take as well, so I'd do some research at least.

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

#754

Post by m3kw9 »

hannob wrote: post #112
shmel wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what does it mean? Less severe symptoms or sterilizing immunity?

Neither of those. It means you don't get sick if you get in contact with the virus. Whether that means you're immune (i.e. not spreading the virus to others) is a different question that apparently hasn't been answered by this preliminary data yet. (And I can see this is more difficult to study.)

Meaning you can get a virus, but your body will produce enough antibodies to neutralize it so it doesn’t spread to detectable levels.

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

#755

Post by treeman79 »

mumblemumble wrote: post #429
gizmo wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contract tracing hasn't worked at scale anywhere. It's a nice idea conceptually, but the problem is psychological. People stop caring about tracing when 98% of all trace connections are false positives. If a person is infectious for a week and the r0 is around 1 then only 1 person of all the people they've been in contact with will actually contract the virus on average. The other 50+ people, assuming they can even b…

There's also participation on the contact side. In Western countries, surveys indicate we can't convince even half of people to install a contact tracing smartphone app. According to my state's department of health, practical experience indicates we can't convince even half of people to pick up the phone and respond to a contact tracing interview. > Covid19 would also be over if people with symptoms would just stay h…

Why on earth would allow some government agency to track me.

Some health departments have taken it upon themselves to arrest people that won’t sign documents.

It’s like HOA battles, except now you can be put in jail on a whim.

Even being an common case, and will likely be overturned in courts, it’s just too risky.

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

#756

Post by thehappypm »

hairytrog wrote: post #380

90% protection... Let's see what this really means - because I'm pretty sure we already have something on order of 80+% protection without a vaccine. I'd like to see % protection vs age.

Take a look at one of the many articles describing what the results mean, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

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

#757

Post by 734129837261 »

I'm 100% for vaccines and I trust in the scientific process more than anything else. That said, how weird is it for someone like myself (late thirties, healthy, no direct contact with any human being) to just... wait it out? I am not too eager to be among the first humans to take a rushed vaccine.

So, how rushed is this vaccine? Is there any precedent with other vaccines that were developed this quickly? Is there a known risk, or is the risk simply unknown?

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

#758

Post by fungiblecog »

gizmo wrote: post #372
bufferoverflow wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we can eradicate it by contact tracing. With 90% efficiency it will be extremely tough for the virus to spread. For any new cases you simply test everyone in the vicinity of the infected person. But I don't think even that will be necessary. 90% efficiency reduces R so much, it will probably die out on its own. The real problem is mutations that are not covered by the vaccine. If it mutates as efficiently as…

Contract tracing hasn't worked at scale anywhere. It's a nice idea conceptually, but the problem is psychological. People stop caring about tracing when 98% of all trace connections are false positives. If a person is infectious for a week and the r0 is around 1 then only 1 person of all the people they've been in contact with will actually contract the virus on average. The other 50+ people, assuming they can even b…

What you're describing is not a false positive as it is usually used. A false positive is a test that returns a positive result when the person does not actually have the virus. What you're describing is that most of the contacts return a negative test (and don't have the virus).

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

#759

Post by just-juan-post »

For those who feel a sense of relief I would like to remind you that Joe Biden and the Democrats are the ones who put the fear into the American people. Over and over and over and over.

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Got a Big Social Media Boost from Indian Troll Farms

https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-kamala-harris-got-big-soc...

PS: Isn't it a strange coincidence that we haven't see an hourly deluge of covidtoes/long covid/it hurts your heart stories? What happened to those? I saw those hourly in months past. What gives?

Is it possible that Joe's trolls were the ones driving that?

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

#760

Post by tinus_hn »

pageandrew wrote: post #744
tinus_hn wrote: post #723

In the Netherlands the dismissals are in already: we need to test longer to make sure it’s safe, we won’t be able to deliver it, etc etc.

Who is dismissing it like this? Politicians, people, scientists?

Scientists and the media, thus the general population. I don’t doubt politicians will follow tomorrow.
Post reply on HN