Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pfizer Covid vaccine approved for use next week in UK

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

701–710 of 766 posts

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

#701

Post by fuzxi »

vkou wrote: post #555
johnisgood wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not want the vaccine, but it might be mandatory here in Eastern Europe. My family member was tested positive, and I lived with him, we were under quarantine. No symptoms, ever! I do not want to the vaccine, damn it.

I don't want to have to be sober to drive my car on public roadways, and yet, here I am, acknowledging that I have some basic responsibility for the safety of people around me. This approach is incredibly selfish. Would you pursue it if you were held responsible for consequences of that behaviour, as drunk drivers are?

That's a poor analogy. Remaining sober doesn't have potential negative side effects unless you're already addicted to alcohol/benzos.

The fact is that the COVID vaccines, as with any medicine, will have side effects, and some of those side effects may be life-altering. There are valid concerns about the vaccines and these effects that cannot simply be brushed off as anti-vax nonsense.

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

#702

Post by TedPetrou »

I'm surprised so many people are excited about this. I have many concerns with the Pfizer vaccine

* 99.96% of the placebo group did not have a serious case of covid

* 99.25% of the placebo group did not get covid

* No one in the trial was deliberately inoculated - participants just lived their lives as normal.

* Only symptomatic participants were tested - this seems unbelievable to me - we have no idea what the actual incidence rate is because not everyone was tested

* Vaccines might just mask symptoms - since not everyone is getting tested, vaccine makers just have to make sure there are no symptoms. No symptoms equals no test.

* No trials done with two placebos - we need trials where both groups are in a placebo group. One gets a shot that gives a mild side effect and the other gives no side effect

* No trials done with unrelated immune boosters - we need to see how well this vaccine performs against other immune boosters. This could be a drugs or even supplements (vitamin D & C and exercise).

* Two shots were given in a trial lasting just 4 months - 4 months is an incredibly short amount of time to know whether it will be effective long term. It also gives Pfizer two chances to boost immune

* Long term health consequences of vaccine - we only have 4 months of data, which is way too short of time to see any longer term consequences

* There is a huge incentive to provide something that masks symptoms - billions of dollars are at stake. Big pharma is one of the very last companies I would trust with a novel vaccine

* No coronavirus vaccine in history - many coronaviruses currently circulate, but no vaccine has even been produced for them. It seems quite coincidental that humans finally put the pieces together for our current novel strand

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

#703

Post by TedPetrou »

ciarannolan wrote: post #386
irthomasthomas wrote: post #382

Some elderly friends have asked why Britain is opting to use a brand new RNA/nanotechnololgy style vaccine (which has never been approved before) and is only ~94% effective, when there is a traditional inactivated vaccine that is 100% effective? I presume Pfizer simply have better lobying, but given the choice, I would rather go with old-fashioned sinovac https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3..…

> only ~94% effective Lol.

No one was deliberately inoculated with the virus and only symptomatic people were tested. 99.96% of the placebo group did not have a severe case of covid. There is no way to determine effectiveness from this trial.

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

#704

Post by DanBC »

djsumdog wrote: post #441
abootstrapper wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Risk of long term covid side effects seems greater to me than long term vaccine side effects.

Why do you believe this out of curiosity? Every single "long term covid" symptom study I've read are case studies. The UK one from the publication in Charlottesville covered 60 distinct people and they were all either high risk workers or over 55. We don't know what "permanent damage" is actually happening. I remember having pneumonia in the 90s and it took my lungs over 3 months to recover, and that's from a normal…

UK has about 60million people living here. About 60,000 have died from covid (actual number is far higher). That's 1 in 1000 people dead from covid.

How bad are people expecting the vaccine to be?

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

#705

Post by Diederich »

joshuahughes wrote: post #700
treesprite82 wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are playing Russian roulette that I do not wish to play. In majority of the cases COVID-19 is not lethal at all You accuse them of playing Russian roulette while you justify not taking the vaccine with "the majority of COVID cases aren't lethal" ? > I think this is way too overblown. 1.5 million people have died. > I want to know how likely it is for asymptomatic people to spread the virus. I swear, I will keep…

> 1.5 million people have died But did they die FROM or WITH covid? That's the million dollar question. Here's CDC data that says 94% of Covid-19 deaths involved one or more comorbid conditions... i.e. these are not healthy people struck down in their prime... https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Co... Point is, just a raw number doesn't actually make a great argument. Even worse, it's a number w…

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e2.htm#F1_down is of interest.

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

#706

Post by nmlnn »

capekwasright wrote: post #664
dane-pgp wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you're right that it is called that (by many), some people object to it: > In Ireland, the term "British Isles" is controversial, and there are objections to its usage. The Government of Ireland does not officially recognise the term, and its embassy in London discourages its use. Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has also seen limited use in academia. https://e…

A similar controversy exists in the Arab world about what to call the Persian Gulf, where the names "Arabian Gulf" or simply "The Gulf" are preferred. [1] Amusingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), British imperialism briefly waded into this dispute as well: > Following British attempts to control the seaway in the late 1830s, the Times Journal, published in London in 1840, referred to the Persian Gulf as the "Britain…

Also, some people call "aubergines" "eggplants", they can't both be right!

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

#707

Post by imaginenore »

TedPetrou wrote: post #702

I'm surprised so many people are excited about this. I have many concerns with the Pfizer vaccine * 99.96% of the placebo group did not have a serious case of covid * 99.25% of the placebo group did not get covid * No one in the trial was deliberately inoculated - participants just lived their lives as normal. * Only symptomatic participants were tested - this seems unbelievable to me - we have no idea what the actua…

[dead]

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

#708

Post by Asraelite »

dane-pgp wrote: post #660
alexchamberlain wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To continue the pedantry, the archipelago is called The British Isles.

While you're right that it is called that (by many), some people object to it: > In Ireland, the term "British Isles" is controversial, and there are objections to its usage. The Government of Ireland does not officially recognise the term, and its embassy in London discourages its use. Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has also seen limited use in academia. https://e…

I'm Irish and I've always found the controversy a bit ridiculous; it's a classic example of Irish people's distaste for all things English being taken to a nonsensical extreme. You never hear Brits complaining about the Irish Sea being called such.

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

#709

Post by dane-pgp »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #694
dane-pgp wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the UK is named after the Isles Great Britain may have been named after one of the isles, but the controversy arises because the UK spans (part of, but not all of) the two main isles. > Has anyone proposed a viable alternative? I don't know what would count as "viable" if you reject "Britain and Ireland" and "Atlantic Archipelago".

Sorry, I didn't mean to reject anything. > Great Britain may have been named after one of the isles Great Britain is the largest island of the isles. The UK's full name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; ie there's no political entity of Great Britain (and never has been).

> The UK's full name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Indeed. I suppose if Ireland's full name were "The Republic of Little Britain" there wouldn't be a controversy about the term "British Isles".

> there's no political entity of Great Britain (and never has been).

Unless you include the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Great_Britain

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

#710

Post by johnisgood »

treesprite82 wrote: post #686
johnisgood wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking a rushed vaccine with God knows what long-term effects is not going to be a choice. Have fun with it. You are playing Russian roulette that I do not wish to play. In majority of the cases COVID-19 is not lethal at all, there should be no mandatory vaccines, especially not when we have no knowledge of its long-term effects and so on and so on. If you want you can take the Chinese or Russian vaccine. I do not wa…

> You are playing Russian roulette that I do not wish to play. In majority of the cases COVID-19 is not lethal at all You accuse them of playing Russian roulette while you justify not taking the vaccine with "the majority of COVID cases aren't lethal" ? > I think this is way too overblown. 1.5 million people have died. > I want to know how likely it is for asymptomatic people to spread the virus. I swear, I will keep…

I am certain many reported cases here are false, or "with COVID-19" cases as the other guy has said. I know, because a family member works at the hospital and we know what is going on there. They make up lies about the cause of death for funds they get after COVID-19 patients. This is our reality, sad but it is what it is.
Post reply on HN