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

bbc.co.uk

861–870 of 1001 posts

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

#861

Looks like Pfizer waited to release these news after election is called for a candidate

Well, here is an article and video that addresses this specific issue:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/business/pfizer-covid-vaccine...

tl;dw

- The unblinded data came in yesterday (Sunday) from an independent group. They were expecting it to come in the third week of November, so this was earlier than expected.

- They did not take money from the current administrations Operation Warp Speed for development (only for distribution), although my understanding is that the government will be buying doses to deliver for free to Americans.

- They needed to have enough people who get infected in order to have meaningful data.

- Check out the video around 6 minutes to see what they say about this point.

- Overall, it seems more like "this was the soonest the science had something meaningful to say".

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

#862

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad we are going to have a vaccine, but I'm not so happy about 90% I have built up in my head the idea of all the things I'm going to do 'once I get vaccinated', but at 90% that gets pushed off to "once most people get vaccinated". If it were by myself, I might push my luck. But I want to do those things with friends, or family. .9^n is pretty shitty odds once n gets to around 5. There's a sort of rhetoric that'…

0.9^n are the odds where you all go and get exposed simultaneously. When a large enough portion of the population is vaccinated, that prior probability goes way down.

Which is why I said,

> but at 90% that gets pushed off to "once most people get vaccinated"

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

#863

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? Spare me. What are the markets, a handful of rich in banks and large corporations? They are neither wise nor competent, why should every news story be suffixed by how "the markets" (swt) react?

What did you mean by swt? Surely you are not making fun of Islam in a completely unrelated thread.

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

#865

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is great and all, and I'm not against vaccinations, but is this safe long term? Am I the only one here who doesn't want to get inoculated in basically the first batch?

the people in the trial are the first batch. these vaccines are following all the standards we have set for vaccines just at an accelerated pace and with accelerated funding. i know a lot of people who are hesitant about this shot, but it does sound antivax to say you aren’t sure it’s safe id get this today if i could

That 'just' is where the valid concern lies. Nine women cannot make a baby in one month, and one important reason vaccine trials take the time that they do is to observe for side effects within the test population. You can't give ten people a shot, watch them for a month, and draw conclusions on the effects that will show up in an individual in ten months time.

There is no shortcut for that, and there is an obviously huge pressure to cut corners.

It's fair to be concerned, not anti-Vax.

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

#866

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?

-80C storage is an issue, you are definitely right, but it is a common requirement for many biological samples and protein-based drug therapies. -80C lab freezers are not that expensive and all over the place. I used to work in biotech and, at one company, all of our intermediate drug substance storage was -80C. we had freezers big enough to drive a forklift into; one such a freezer could store millions of doses... a…

Is that literally 1.5C colder than dry ice?

If that temperature could be obtained with dry ice, that would simplify things a bit. But AFAICT dry ice sublimates at -78.5C.

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

#867
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Congratulations and thanks to everybody who worked so hard on this.

Screw the media for pushing this and lockdown as the only possible solution. This will still take ages to be rolled out.

What are the other solutions?

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

#868
post #394

According to Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine#Clinical_tria... ) there are 8 COVID-19 vaccines in phase 3 trials. A week or so ago I read about an experiment in Brazil that compared 5 of them. So this Pfizer press release doesn't seem terribly exciting to me. I already knew it was very likely that at least one vaccine will be available to some people in a month or so. I know a couple of peop…

Everyone expected/hoped that there would be a vaccination within a month. However until now it was just hope: there was always the risk when all 8 of those ran their data they discover they don't work at all.

There were already some positive preliminary results from the five vaccines being tested in Brazil, so "don't work at all" was already ruled out, I think. Obviously the press release from Pfizer isn't going to mention the other vaccines, but a diligent journalist might look up the details and do some kind of comparison. Perhaps the diligent journalists need a bit more time to write their articles. Perhaps we should wait a day or two and consult a better source than the BBC.

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

#869
post #637
post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't I be afraid? If my parents get infected there's a close to 100% chance that they'll die, due to their existing conditions. And I have to visit them, so do others. There's a real risk of infection there.

I see my parents regardless. They are happy to see me. There are always a risk of some kind regardless of covid. My parents are old too, they have high chance of death and likely also have some kind of existing condition. Covid or not they have high chance of death at anytime.

Covid isn't a particularly pleasant way to die though...

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

#870

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you say that in mockery, but I'd rather be in isolation for longer and have a better idea what the long term of this looks like. Most other vaccines have the same process.

This isn't like being a test pilot in an experimental rocket. This is like buying a 2021 Honda Civic. Is it different from the 2020 Civic? Yes. Could there be some unforeseen malfunction? It's not impossible. But this is not a bold new world of experimentation. It's a vaccine, with a tried and true development process and that has already been administered to tens of thousands of people (likely tens of millions over…

Wouldn't this be the first mRNA vaccine approved for the public?

I know very little about the pharmaceutical underpinnings of mRNA vaccines and how theoretically likely adverse long-term results are, but I do think caution by laymen is not unwarranted for a new type of vaccine that has been fast-tracked through trials (albeit for good reason!)

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