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

971–980 of 1001 posts

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

#971

Post by acdha »

collyw wrote: post #966
acdha wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, I get that you find lockdowns an inconvenience but the real world isn’t a TV show where a cheap and easily distributed cure will be invented 10 minutes before the end of the episode. People will reliably die until a vaccine or highly effective treatment is widely available, and the only way to slow that is to rely on proven public health techniques. While you’re being inconvenienced remember that you’re better…

The lockdowns are causing immense economic damage. Even the WHO has pointed out that one of the main things they do is make the poor poorer. I have a feeling that this cure will cause more damage than the virus.

This is a common misunderstanding encouraged by certain politicians but it’s misattributing the cause: the pandemic is causing the economic damage. Most of the businesses worst affected are ones like restaurants and bars, which were going to collapse as soon as their customers realized that patronizing them is inherently risky. For example, Sweden famously didn’t have lockdowns but still saw a major economic decline - perhaps a little better than some other countries in Europe but still ruinous without government bailouts. Even if it’s legal most people will change their buying habits.

The other mistake is assuming that this is endless. Countries which have strict safety measures are able to reopen after having controlled spread - Australia had a hard lockdown and has now gone without any cases for a while. In contrast, the United States’ leaders chose to squander the sacrifice of the spring lockdown by not making it effective and then relaxing restrictions before the viral spread was controlled, ensuring the maximal cost for minimal benefit.

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

#972

Post by bluGill »

bloak wrote: post #868
bluGill wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

I haven't heard about those other results so I cannot comment on them. I agree a journalist should know about them (unless they are so flawed in some way as to not be worth my time, which a good journalist should know but most don't).

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

#973

Post by slumdev »

xigency wrote: post #939
slumdev wrote: post #929

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> New Testament biblical teaching For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.

Which is contradicted by Kosher dietary restrictions being struck down in the New Testament. Part of the power of the Bible is its contradictions. Like in math, you can use one contradiction to prove any statement true.

Distinguishing between moral law and Jewish ceremonial law eliminates all of those supposed contradictions.

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

#974

Post by 542354234235 »

Animats wrote: post #788
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?

-80C is dry ice (frozen CO2) temperature. So you can carry vaccine vials around in a cooler with a block of dry ice. Pfizer has a dry ice shipping container good for 10 days. FedEx can ship that. Then the vaccine can be stored at refrigerator temperature for maybe 5 days. Dry Ice costs maybe $3/Kg. The SF bay area has dry ice delivery.[1] Lagos, Nigeria has dry ice delivery.[2] Bismark, North Dakota has a dry ice pla…

Having something is different than having something at scale and being able to effectively implement it. Logistics in less developed countries is already more difficult. Adding in specialty refrigeration requirements further complicates that. Large scale logistics should never be assumed or hand waved away. Mass toilet paper shortages in first world countries this year is a perfect example of how easy it is to massively disrupt logistic chains. What do you think shipping 100 million plus vaccines a month that require specialty refrigeration and dry ice will do to the supply of dry ice in Nigeria or Albania? Or the US for that matter? How many of those dry ice shipping containers does Pfizer have? How quickly can they be manufactured?

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

#975

Post by justforyou »

hm10 wrote: post #695
justforyou wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pfizer stated it's intention to delay release of findings until after the election. This is not a surprise.

And rightfully so. Don't forget that Biden winning wasn't a sure thing - so it's not like they were waiting until Biden won to announce it. The CEO specifically mentioned in September that they refused R&D money from the US Government in order to protect themselves from being politicized. In that vein, it was the right thing that the announcement was made (intentionally or not) after the election was concluded to min…

Indeed. Not sure why everyone read an implied value judgement in my statement when there was none.

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

#976

Post by justforyou »

anoncake wrote: post #682
justforyou wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is plenty of evidence and ongoing study of long-term sequelae. Denying such is wildly irresponsible and hostile to the community. Stop trolling.

Then please post some of that evidence. Evidence, not anecdotes -- of course there are individual cases among millions of infected, that doesn't mean it's a phenomenon worth caring about.

You've set an impossible burden of proof. Not going to engage in a discussion of this with someone acting in bad faith.

Good day.

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

#977

Post by justforyou »

standardUser wrote: post #826
justforyou wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pfizer stated it's intention to delay release of findings until after the election. This is not a surprise.

This sounds untrue and inflammatory and needs a citation.

There is nothing inflammitory about it. It's perfectly reasonable that they did not want their findings distorted and politicized.

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

#978

Post by procombo »

smt88 wrote: post #483
sanp wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. But we do need the government to step in and do this (contact tracing etc.). Hopefully, with the new administration...

I assume you're talking about the US. My belief is that contact tracing is a cultural non-starter here. There are people who protest with large, semi-automatic rifles because they don't want to wear masks inside private businesses. There's absolutely no way they're going to trust a contact-tracing process championed by the government, even if there's no way for the government to access the data. I suspect much of the…

I live in an area where large guns are the norm. People wear masks. Nobody is protesting them.

There are big trucks with polital 'T' signs, houses with 'B' signs. BLM rallies. And people put pink heart signs at the police station out of support. There are a lot of voices, and I love that we all here support that.

Our county is spiking at the moment and it's directly related to a series of outdoor college parties (one was attended by thousands of people) where they went mask-free. It wasn't out of protest, they were just being ignorant, rebellious kids.

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

#979

Post by azerf »

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?

ttest

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

#980

Post by anoncake »

justforyou wrote: post #976
anoncake wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then please post some of that evidence. Evidence, not anecdotes -- of course there are individual cases among millions of infected, that doesn't mean it's a phenomenon worth caring about.

You've set an impossible burden of proof. Not going to engage in a discussion of this with someone acting in bad faith. Good day.

It is not impossible to monitor an adequate number of people who had Covid and see if they are getting better. If their state plateaus, that is evidence their condition may be permanent.
Post reply on HN