Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK • Hacker News Board

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

#471

Post by djsumdog » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

Hamuko wrote: post #18

_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.

As far as I've understood it, the whole COVID-19 vaccine research has been going at a breakneck speed. First vaccine batches were made back in February. https://patrickcollison.com/fast

Yea, and honestly, huge money grab for big pharma. Over 100 companies started working on vaccines. They got huge amounts of money, knowing they didn't even have to be successful.

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

#472

Post by tubularhells » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

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.

>3. Developed country with great logistics.

Wait post Brexit to see if you change your mind about that one.

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

#473

Post by tonyhb » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

jl6 wrote: post #300

jack_pp wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not from the UK but assuming the grandparent is right, you're saying they should be thankful that their country isn't as corrupt as other countries even though there's blatant corruption in something as important as the COVID response? That's like beating your children but comforting them that they atleast have food on the table and clothes on their back.

A better analogy would be living in a nice comfortable house, which is much better than nearly all other houses - but then someone spots a problem with the chimney and starts comparing it to other houses’ chimneys, some of which have better chimneys, some of which have better chimneys but a worse overall house, and some of which are fantasy chimneys that could theoretically exist if only we all spent a bit more time…

Not quite. A substantial number of people in the UK live in poverty - between 20 and 25% [0].

This has been made worse by terrible political decisions, such as Brexit [0]. Specifically, austerity and political decisions (not limited to corruption) is linked to 130,000 preventable deaths [1]. Those same "budget cuts" for austerity exist while money is sent to "consultants" to "help fix things".

Not everyone in the UK has it well. The government, quite frankly, is fairly shit. And corrupt.

[0] - https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14901

[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/01/perfect-sto...

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

#474

Post by djsumdog » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

simonbarker87 wrote: post #14

_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.

I believe a big part of speeding up was parrallelization(spelling?) of the phases rather then the usual running them in series. Also I would imagine that the teams working on these had all the resources they needed, minimal internal delays and no expense spared on budget. I can see how those things combined, coupled with 10 months of “crunch time” work from the teams involved could see a 10x improvement in vaccine pr…

Some things can be done in parallel, yes, but a large chunk of the speed comes from literally skipping some animal testing and ALL long-term longitudinal studies.

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

#475

Post by figaroniguzo » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

eat_veggies wrote: post #461

djsumdog wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's likely. Regulators are not as independent from the industry as you think. They've been getting closer and closer over the decades. It's call corruption and it's growing.

This FUD is dangerous

How is it FUD?

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

#476

Post by tubularhells » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

jonplackett wrote: post #416

napier wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I didn't realise I was on reddit...?

This place is a drop in replacement for r/asd.

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

#477

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:52 PM UTC

makomk wrote: post #453

BurningFrog wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I read it, it was actually (and amazingly) a 65,000 column limit!

I'm pretty sure the "column limit" claim was a false online theory that just stuck around because we're in such a post-truth era that even the definition of post-truth is itself post-truth... The reputable news coverage all said it was the number of rows that was the problem.

Now that you mention it, the story does have that "too inherently viral to be true" smell.

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

#478

Post by sbilstein » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:52 PM UTC

throwaway3699 wrote: post #355

J-dawg wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I used to agree but a few of my 20-29 year old friends have had much worse experiences than expected. One had some neurological side effects, which is rare but happens, that affected his eye movement and made it impossible for him to read or work comfortably.

It wasn't healing and it turned out he had an undetected issue processing folic acid I believe, which has an effect on how your body heals from neurological damage. He's recovering now after 3 months but has to take folic acid and other supplements 5 times a day.

Other friends have had persistent diminished lung capacity for months on end; these are folks who had no co-morbidities and in their 20s.

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

#479

Post by Diederich » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:53 PM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #438

patrickthebold wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read the science , it's much more likely that the vaccine is simply ineffective than would cause any kind of zombie apocalypse.

With this type of accelerated testing, it's much more likely we'll see a small percentage of permanent neurological issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bOHYZhL0WQ

> small percentage

If I carried the decimal correctly, 5 thousand out of 58 million is less than 1% of 1%.

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

#480

Post by credit_guy » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 4:54 PM UTC

shusson wrote: post #71

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

CDC has a page [1] with the notable historical vaccine adverse events. I think it's an informative page to read, but just in case you don't have time, here's my summary:

- most adverse events were due to manufacturing issues (e.g. contamination with some live virus). In this respect, I don't think the Covid vaccines are likely to be any more or less risky than other vaccines, such as the annual flu vaccine

- two vaccines had an association with the Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). Even nowadays, if you take the annual flu vaccine they advise caution if you've had GBS before.

- one Rotavirus vaccine was quickly discontinued after they saw it can cause a serious condition called intussusception

- finally, a case that you'll hear lots of people talking about, a possible link between a flu vaccine adjuvant (AS03) and narcolepsy. The CDC page directs you to the actual study [2]. My summary is that this link was observed only in Sweden and Taiwan, but in no other countries. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not have adjuvants (but Novavax and others will have).

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/concerns-history....

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30122647/