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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

#351

Post by CodeGlitch »

sussexby wrote: post #170
jakozaur wrote: post #19

In terms of rollout. UK is the ideal country to be the first: 1. Heavily impacted by Covid-19. 2. Centralised health care system makes it easier to compare results and efficiency. E.g. it's UK which figured out that dexamethasone is efficient against Covid https://www.who.int/news/item/16-06-2020-who-welcomes-prelim... 3. Developed country with great logistics.

And we have a really good spreadsheet for tracking who's been infected /s

I know you are /s but just in case you didn't realise - the spreadsheet part was only on the export of the data from the tracking system (when it was sent to Gov).

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

#352

Post by mchusma »

This isn't "fast" we just have low expectations of our government. The FDA in the US is taking 3 weeks to reviews, about 5-10% of the entire time to develop this is just to schedule this (3rd to last) meeting. All while over a thousand people die per day (so during this waiting period something like 10x the lives of 9/11).

We just spent 9 months trying to lift the ban on this vaccine. We have the technology to beat pandemics, we only lack the regulatory structure.

Vaccines are typically so safe and effective that for high risk populations taking a completely untested vaccine would be expected to (a) be effective and (b) safer than covid. So approving this was maybe the easiest call in medical history, and from first principles could have taken 1 day to approve for high risk groups.

We need a regulatory framework for fast approval anyway, if we ever want to have personalized medicine. With mRNA vaccines now in play, we can beat so many things if the regulatory environment lets us.

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

#353

Post by sschueller »

jakozaur wrote: post #19

In terms of rollout. UK is the ideal country to be the first: 1. Heavily impacted by Covid-19. 2. Centralised health care system makes it easier to compare results and efficiency. E.g. it's UK which figured out that dexamethasone is efficient against Covid https://www.who.int/news/item/16-06-2020-who-welcomes-prelim... 3. Developed country with great logistics.

4. Is an island that can be cut off incase of a zombie apocalypse...

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

#354

Post by CodeGlitch »

Wintamute wrote: post #241
ksec wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a high level overview and global perspective, what the OP is saying, or meant , is that comparatively speaking UK is much better than possibly 80% of developed countries. Not to say NHS is without flaws, far from it. But if you step outside and look around the world many are surprised how awful public health services and logistics can be. So to put it another way, It is not that NHS is good, it is just the other…

What you're missing is that amongst a certain class of Brit, and across much of the West, relentless and savage cultural self-criticism has become the norm, and a currency used for in-group signalling. Even when people in the UK should be celebrating, as literally the first country in the world to develop an approved C19 vaccine in record breaking time, and enjoy the privilege of a free health system that can roll it…

You're being downvoted for saying the truth? Come on HN you can do better than this.

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

#355

Post by throwaway3699 »

J-dawg wrote: post #314
spuz wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I agree. The maths says that we need about 70% of the population to take the vaccine in order for it to no longer be a threat. We also have polling that says about 53% will refuse to take the vaccine. So we're already at the point where something else must be done such as adding incentives, a passport system or better advertising etc. OR continued lockdown measures and enforcement of mask wearing. It's n…

> The maths says that we need about 70% of the population to take the vaccine in order for it to no longer be a threat ...to no longer be a threat to an unvaccinated person. This isn't like the childhood vaccines, where we need herd immunity to protect the children who are too young to be vaccinated. Provided that everyone who wants the vaccine can get it, I don't see the problem with letting everyone else make their…

Yeah, the only reason I'm holding to the guidelines is for elderly and immunocompromised. I don't care about catching covid and nor anybody I know not in one of those categories.

This whole thing becomes moot once the vulnerable are vaccinated, no need for creepy immunity passports.

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

#356

Post by simonh »

mchusma wrote: post #352

This isn't "fast" we just have low expectations of our government. The FDA in the US is taking 3 weeks to reviews, about 5-10% of the entire time to develop this is just to schedule this (3rd to last) meeting. All while over a thousand people die per day (so during this waiting period something like 10x the lives of 9/11). We just spent 9 months trying to lift the ban on this vaccine. We have the technology to beat p…

There have been many hundreds, possibly thousands of candidate vaccines in development through the year. It's not as if this one vaccine has been sitting by itself on a shelf with regulators umming and aahing about whether to try it or not. Hundreds of labs have been working on a myriad of different approaches, the vast majority of which have been cast aside. As of September there were still over 300 in development and right now there are almost 30 in clinical trials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine#Vaccine_candi...

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

#357

Post by d_tr »

sweezyjeezy wrote: post #175
SubiculumCode wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

We don't need the super-high efficacy numbers (>90%) that the other vaccines are reporting for this to stop the virus. Typical flu vaccines are ~ 50%, I think the Oxford vaccine's results show that they've achieved this.

The efficacy does not need to be super-high, provided enough people decide to actually go get vaccinated, and the percentage of skeptical people seems to be quite high.

Plus, any given vaccinated individual would have to rely less on others being vaccinated as well.

But I am grateful that vaccines got developed and tested so quickly anyway.

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

#358

Post by xiphias2 »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #334
tzs wrote: post #329

There are two challenges I haven't seen talked about a lot. 1. I expect that there will be a lot of people who think that once they get the shot, they can immediately stop wearing masks and practicing social distancing. The rollout to the general public will need to be combined with extensive efforts to make sure people know that it takes time for a vaccine to actually provide protection. In the case of this one, it…

3. Vaccinated people can still be carriers of the virus and infect others who aren't vaccinated yet. As you point out in #1, vaccinated people still need to practice social distancing and wear masks.

Is there a high chance for it? I’d really like to know.

Moderna was testing for SARS-COV-2 protection efficiency, while Pfitzer was testing for COVID protection efficiency, but they have similar targets as far as I know.

I’d love to know an experts’ answer because the difference between the two is huge, I would hate myself to kill my parents by catching SARS-COV-2 after getting vaccinated.

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

#359

Post by academia_hack »

adventured wrote: post #323
eplanit wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Boris Johnson just recently mentioned that that would not be the case, the vaccine will not be mandatory.

One of the best predictors so far for UK COVID policy has been to assume anything Boris Johnson rules out will be the exact thing that happens.

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

#360

Post by simonh »

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #158
mystcb wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There are far, far too many of them compared to the number of vaccination treatments currently available. It wouldn't make a dent. Better to treat the much smaller number of people in high risk groups.
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