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Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

bbc.com

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Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#111

Post by polytely »

ijidak wrote: post #83

> It is a new type called an mRNA vaccine...An mRNA vaccine has never been approved for use in humans before, although people have received them in clinical trials. Wait... This doesn't scare anybody? Why has this not been approved before? Would an mRNA vaccine be approved under less pressing circumstances...?

>Wait... This doesn't scare anybody?

Not particularly, the UK has just concluded their approval of this vaccine and the EU and US are also reviewing it, so if there is something wrong they will most likely find it. There are enough different vaccines in development that there isn't much incentive to ignore faults if they show up.

>Why has this not been approved before?

I think it is new technology, which arrival has been accelerated by the enormous investments in vaccine technology over the past year.

>Would an mRNA vaccine be approved under less pressing circumstances...?

Can't really comment on this because I don't know much about it, but I would guess that they would have never reached the approval state without the pandemic and the huge need for parallel development of vaccines. I think that at all times there are a bunch of technological developments that are on the cusp of being ready for broad adoption that are just waiting for some boost in funding that propels them to maturity. Progress happens very quick when the whole world has a need for the development of something.

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#112

Post by PureParadigm »

ac29 wrote: post #108
ijidak wrote: post #83

> It is a new type called an mRNA vaccine...An mRNA vaccine has never been approved for use in humans before, although people have received them in clinical trials. Wait... This doesn't scare anybody? Why has this not been approved before? Would an mRNA vaccine be approved under less pressing circumstances...?

> Wait... This doesn't scare anybody? Not really. mRNA starts to degrade within minutes of injection, and lasts maybe at most a few days in your body. It cant turn back into DNA, so once its gone, it can no longer have any effect on you. > Why has this not been approved before? Its a relatively new technology that took a lot of work and money to make a stable, effective vaccine with. Its also relatively expensive to…

> once its gone, it can no longer have any effect on you.

If this is true, then how does it provide protection against COVID19 for more than a few days?

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#113

Post by _ph_ »

ijidak wrote: post #83

> It is a new type called an mRNA vaccine...An mRNA vaccine has never been approved for use in humans before, although people have received them in clinical trials. Wait... This doesn't scare anybody? Why has this not been approved before? Would an mRNA vaccine be approved under less pressing circumstances...?

There is a first time for everything. mRNA is a developing technology, BioNTech was researching it for fighting cancer. When the Covid crisis struck, a lot of companies were focusing their efforts on a vaccine. In contrast to what many claim, vaccines are not making companies rich, so research in this field is rather slow. The pressing circumstances, as you phrased it, caused several companies in applying mRNA technology for the SARS-Cov-2 vaccination. Otherwise they might not have pushed in that direction quickly. The requirements for approval are the same ones as for any other vaccine, they have to run through the same procedures and tests.

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#114

Post by waihtis »

fabian2k wrote: post #57
waihtis wrote: post #20

Not sure why the posts asking for vaccine risks are getting downvoted. Pandemrix, the vaccine for swine flu, caused a notable amount of narcolepsy cases in recipients here in FIN (notable here meaning the amount of yearly cases spiked by 3-4x) and as with anything that's taken quick to market there has to be some risk of overlooking some tail events somewhere. It's not an anti-vaccine attitude, just healthy skepticis…

You have to compare the risks to the risks of the disease and the likelyhood of contracting that disease. And for COVID-19 the risks are very high. It doesn't make much sense to me to trade the very high known risks of COVID-19 against the relatively low risk of rare side effects in a vaccine. These vaccines have been tested in ~40,000 people each, so we do know quite a bit about their safety. The fatality rate of CO…

True, there may be a serious tendency of overweighing small probabilities and underweighing large ones in play here.

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#115

Post by waihtis »

rimliu wrote: post #102
mns wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the entire subject is so politicised and polarised that even daring to ask a question that might go against the current might get you labeled as a right wing science denier racist (based on the country, different labels might apply). Edit: it's funny that the comment above gets downvoted just for asking a question. Great world we live in. We didn't learn anything from the past. Blaming and shaming gay people…

So, have you stopped beating your wife? See, I "just asked a question".

What a ridiculous statement. Do you think the entire spectrum of all questions possible to ask are equal in value?

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#116

Post by alibarber »

ijidak wrote: post #83

> It is a new type called an mRNA vaccine...An mRNA vaccine has never been approved for use in humans before, although people have received them in clinical trials. Wait... This doesn't scare anybody? Why has this not been approved before? Would an mRNA vaccine be approved under less pressing circumstances...?

This may be the first vaccine but as I understood it mRNA based therapies have been in use for over a decade, according to this:

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/12/01/...

I guess something's gotta be first and in the absence of any prevailing pandemic there's not as much incentive to develop vaccines as opposed to say cancer treatments.

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#117

Post by shusson »

headmelted wrote: post #89
shusson wrote: post #71

Out of curiosity, how do people on HN rate the risk of long term side-effects?

That's a question for someone who's heavily schooled on mRNA vaccines and/or a practitioner involved in the trials for this particular vaccine. Not that I have a problem with your asking the question, I just don't think an opinion poll on a tech board is going to yield an accurate prediction of what to expect.

> I just don't think an opinion poll on a tech board is going to yield an accurate prediction of what to expect.

Part of your answer, which I'm paraphrasing to "I don't know, talk to the experts", is already a good answer. But I was hoping that there was an expert lurking around that might be able to explain the risks or link to some evidence.

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#118

Post by alibarber »

PureParadigm wrote: post #112
ac29 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wait... This doesn't scare anybody? Not really. mRNA starts to degrade within minutes of injection, and lasts maybe at most a few days in your body. It cant turn back into DNA, so once its gone, it can no longer have any effect on you. > Why has this not been approved before? Its a relatively new technology that took a lot of work and money to make a stable, effective vaccine with. Its also relatively expensive to…

> once its gone, it can no longer have any effect on you. If this is true, then how does it provide protection against COVID19 for more than a few days?

The mRNA itself isn't doing the protection - it's training your immune system to do that for you (in a safe way).

Re: Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

#119

Post by mattmanser »

ascorbic wrote: post #11
_Microft wrote: post #5

How did they approve it that fast? Is the approval process so different and so much more efficient than the one in the EU or USA? Was it extremely rushed to make sure to get doses before they have to compete with other countries for limited supply? I'm pretty curious now. Let's hope for the best, i.e. a good vaccine, a good process and no trust problems, the latter because at least it feels rushed.

Unlikely to be the latter, because they've already prepurchased millions of doses. Unlikely to be the former either. The UK regulatory system is highly-regarded, and until January the EU medicines regulator was based in London. It may just be that they're particularly efficient.

Lets hope it's not not like our pandemic preparedness, that was highly regarded and turned out to be rotten.
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