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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

#151

Post by nmca »

bealesd wrote: post #136
SubiculumCode wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? The 'Oxford' vaccine has been pretty shaky. Edit: source: https://www.wired.com/story/the-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-da...

I don't think it has been shaky, it has > 90% success rate (1.) when administered as a half dose followed by a full dose. 1. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/23/oxford-covid...

My understanding is that that trial condition (half->full) was administered accidentally (thus not pre-registered) and nobody expected it to work better, and the sample size is small and on the wrong age groups.

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

#152

Post by rjtavares »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #138
rjtavares wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? Latest news[1] seem to indicate it's effective. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55040635

Potentially. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/the-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-da...

Thanks!

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

#153

Post by lbeltrame »

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…

> Not really. mRNA starts to degrade within minutes of injection, and lasts maybe at most a few days in your body.

According to the data I've seen on kinetics (these vaccines have been in development since 20 years ago, so there's plenty of basic and animal test data) there's production of the antigen at the site of injection for approximately ten days. There's some systemic production in the liver for 2-4 days, but that's it.

The mRNA can last this long (normally, as you correctly say, it would get broken up in minutes) due to the lipid nanoparticles it is bound to, which are the "secret sauce" of this vaccine.

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

#154

Post by fabian2k »

PureParadigm wrote: post #123
alibarber wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

So its effect on the immune system lasts even after it's gone. So if it were to cause any problems (in the immune system, for example), those could also persist after the mRNA is gone. So how exactly is this line of reasoning reassuring?

The immune response also happens for all other types of vaccines. That part isn't so different with mRNA vaccines.

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

#155

Post by hermitcrab »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #131
apsec112 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the UK is in the top twenty countries in the world for logistics infrastructure. It's easy to read news stories about your country messing things up, and quietly not read foreign-language media about poorer countries messing things up a lot more by comparison, and get a biased perspective.

It's a fairly stereotypical British trait to be self deprecating. If we were singlehandedly saving the world from a rogue asteroid the general sentiment would probably be "let's hope we don't mess this up".

Sadly, they are being realistic. The current UK government is riven with incompetence and cronyism. They couldn't organize a piss up a brewery.

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

#156

Post by bawolff »

School-Cotton wrote: post #93
newguy1234 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes we basically need everyone to get it who is willing to get it because we want to eradicate as much of the virus in the population as possible. Also as a society we need to encourage everyone to get the vaccine and do whatever possible to suppress anti-vaccine hysteria, you know the conspiracy theories are already going to go crazy over this I'm sure.

Is there any evidence that the vaccine reduces your risk of getting and spreading the disease? I’ve only heard that it decreases the severity.

There is significant evidence that it prevents you getting the disease. That's the 95% efficacy everyone is talking about. Whether or not it fully prevents spreading has not been tested yet, but early signs sound positive.

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

#157

Post by lbeltrame »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #138
rjtavares wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? Latest news[1] seem to indicate it's effective. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55040635

Potentially. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/the-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-da...

There's another readout expected in the USA sooner or later, with a far larger cohort (30K people), but for the full/full dose regimen.

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

#158

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

mystcb wrote: post #95
newguy1234 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heard it was something like this: 1. Long-term care residents/staff 2. Hospital workers 3. Anyone 85+ years old.

UK Gov originally published this as the priority interim list [1] - * older adults’ resident in a care home and care home workers * all those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers * all those 75 years of age and over * all those 70 years of age and over * all those 65 years of age and over * high-risk adults under 65 years of age * moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age * all those 60 years…

In Denmark where I live, a large proportion of infected people are age 20-29, and I wonder if it would make sense to vaccinate them first when you get to "rest of the population". Even though they have a smaller risk of getting seriously ill, that could be an effective way to lower transmission.

That is:

1. Immunize the age group that is dominating in the hospitalization statistics, then 2. Immunize the age group is accounting for the majority of transmission, then 3. Immunize the rest.

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

#159

Post by modeless »

refurb wrote: post #69
modeless wrote: post #49

Pfizer submitted an emergency use authorization request to the US FDA on Nov. 20. Why was it not approved within a day or two? Is it merely a matter of reading the submitted paperwork and scheduling a committee meeting? There better be a damn good reason, because people are dying out here. I understand that trials take time, but we already have trial results now, so what's the hold up?

Pfizer only submitted the data package on Nov 20th, with a review on Dec 10th. That's 20 days to review what is likely hundreds of pages of data, if not thousands. It will be reviewed by hundreds of people, all with different expertise, who will need to talk to each other, dig into the data, re-run analyses, etc. You certainly don't want to just take the drug manufacturers word that everything checks out. Plus, how t…

Pfizer had FDA Fast Track approval in July which means they could start reviewing it early as the trial progressed. In a sensible process all those hundreds of people should have reviewed and discussed nearly everything but the final numbers prior to Nov. 20 and been ready to plug in the numbers as soon as they came out.

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

#160

Post by pfranz »

shusson wrote: post #71

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

I'm curious for an actual expert to answer, but when I've heard this question presented they would point out that the risk of long-term side effects from a vaccine must be compared relative to the unknown, long-term side effects of a covid infection and continuing to live in a society that's locked down.
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