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

bbc.co.uk

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

#841

Post by ksk »

tempestn wrote: post #813
robot wrote: post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no significant side-effects _for now_.

The mechanism of action is known, so potential side effects are largely predictable. I'm not an expert, but I don't see any reason to think there would be unexpected long term side effects from this sort of vaccination. Is there reason to think otherwise?

There is always some effect whenever any foreign molecule is injected in your blood. Simply knowing ONE 'mechanism of action' doesn't tell you the 'mechanism of reaction' or all the other cross reactions that happen. It also doesn't tell you what will happen when some one is already on medication for other health issues. The body is simply too complex to many any definitive statement like that.

So there are many reasons to think otherwise, but the simplest one is - Every single medication and vaccine that we've ever made has known side-effects. Not all side-effects are known right off the bat, and many take years to detect.

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

#842

Post by kp98 »

ghthor wrote: post #783
kumarvvr wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Science has nothing to do with politics. Also, cherry picking one statement, from literally hundreds of false ones, does not make any one right . It just shows that if you throw a lot of stuff, something will eventually stick.

You're high if you think science has nothing to do with politics.

to add onto this, one of my entire classes at NYU "Covid and economic policy" we've literally just looked at science and how its effected the political and economic landscape. Yet, you say stuff like what you did here on hacker news and you get reported / flagged / greyed out. That is why I dont contribute here anymore, it's basically like reddit-lite

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

#843

Post by ksk »

selectodude wrote: post #238
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?

The Ebola vaccine required -80 C storage as well and they got it into literal war zones. It’s a difficult problem, but a solved one.

While you may call it a 'solved' problem, in reality, its a problem that every single pharma company in the world wants to avoid, due to the high costs and other challenges.

Source: I work in vaccines, and our company works on thermostable formulations, among other things.

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

#844

Post by ImaCake »

barumi wrote: post #349
arethuza wrote: post #306

Usually comments on BBC articles are pretty horrible. However, I'm very pleased to see that the top comment on that article is: "This is the power of science. Step aside celebrities- these people are who should be famous. " Edit: I should also point out that I am, of course, in complete agreement

I agree that these people should be lauded for their achievements, but nowadays fame comes at the expense of 24h/day scrutiny of everything they ever done or did or said, which just fuels the fire of all those Cardinal Richelieus who are hell-bent on persecuting what they perceive as threats and reactionaries. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

Yep, scientists at this level are far too busy and obsessed with their work to have any interest in celebrity. I‘m sure there are a few exceptions, but I suspect they would rather be left in “peace“. They already have enough undergrads and unemployed post docs bothering them without the public‘s attention!

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

#847

Post by deeeeplearning »

standardUser wrote: post #600
deeeeplearning wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a panacea, it will still take time to fully vet the data and it will likely be months before doses start going out and even more months after that until sufficiently large numbers of people have been inoculated before we can even approach normality.

"it will likely be months before doses start going" Where do you get that it will take "months" between emergency approval and actual vaccinations? The communications out of the leading vaccine teams clearly state otherwise.

>Where do you get that it will take "months" between emergency approval and actual vaccinations

Because this is a press release from a corporation with a vested interest in being "first" and not an approval by the FDA.

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

#848

Post by zamalek »

anoncake wrote: post #840
zamalek wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good: ~90% of individuals achieve immunity. As far as I recall, the high R0 of COVID-19 meant that >90% was needed for herd immunity. You then also have to factor anti-vaxxers into the equation. It's a good stop-gap for the 90% who develop immunity, but we need a better vaccine even in developed countries.

Estimates for herd immunity are between 20-80%.

Thanks for the correction.

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

#849

Post by vmurthy »

nradov wrote: post #532
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…

It's not possible to totally eradicate a virus that has animal reservoirs. The virus apparently jumped from bats to humans once before so it will probably happen again. We can't vaccinate all the bats.

> We can't vaccinate all the bats. It is possible. It isn't "vaccination" as we traditionally know it but there are gels that take advantage of bats' grooming behaviour. Put gels that kill virii on some bats. Other bats groom these bats and the gel(s) get(s) into these bats [0]

[0]https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_streicker_what_vaccinating_...

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

#850

Post by legulere »

eric_b wrote: post #531
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…

This disease will never be "eradicated" and it is not helpful to use that word to discuss policy decisions. Sars CoV-2 has numerous animal reservoirs and an incredible transmission rate. It will never be gone from this Earth. We will get vaccines and we will come up with better treatments negating its effects, but this coronavirus is here to stay. It will be a fifth endemic human coronavirus.

Only time will tell. At the beginning of the pandemic the strategy was to simple hold out until a vaccine is found (Which is the strategy developed for influenza). Doing lockdowns reducing the infection rates to almost nothing or even eradicating it in some countries was seen as impossible. Yet that’s exactly what we did. I think eradication is possible.
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