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

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

#711

Post by johnisgood » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 12:59 AM UTC

vkou wrote: post #681

teh_infallible wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t argue with propaganda. Questioning vaccine safety on a “big tech” forum is wrongthink.

I'd love it if people questioning vaccine safety had actual numbers, instead of empty platitudes like '>50% of people who get COVID don't die'. (And if they made an apples to apples comparison with the numbers of not vaccinating. They never do, though, because the numbers don't help their argument .) Most people who play one round of Russian Roulette don't die, either.

Look, I know for a fact that I was positive before. I was asymptomatic. I have an autoimmune disease. I do not want the vaccine for myself. Does the vaccine actually stop the spreading of COVID-19? Because according to other posts, we do not know that it does, all we know is that people would take it for their own safety, but do not know if it actually stops transmission, in which case we are just talking about whether or not I decide to risk my own health. I would risk it, considering I have been asymptomatic positive before, and I do not know what this vaccine would do to me given that I have an autoimmune disease. The vaccine seems much riskier to me, than COVID-19. That, plus I barely leave the house.

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

#712

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:19 AM UTC

shusson wrote: post #71

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

From covid? Pretty high, pretty sure I read 5-10% of people in infected. For these vaccines 0.0000001%. So I'm saying not zero but you're more likely to die on the way to get the vaccine (car/bus/stroll) than any long term side effects.

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

#713

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:21 AM UTC

grillvogel wrote: post #543

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.

any virus is gonna have a small subset of people who have weird long term reactions to it

Especially one that can scar your lungs.

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

#714

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:23 AM UTC

Scaevolus wrote: post #295

eastendguy wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, fwiw, the inventor of the mRNA vaccine idea, Ingmar Hoerr, thinks side effects are very unlikely, since the mRNA molecules dissolve after a few days. He has been working on this for 20 years, with no serious side effects ever observed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingmar_Hoerr

There _are_ acute side effects, basically equivalent to a strong viral effection. I agree that long term side effects are unlikely. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483

*possible, and in low % of people, and none have been shown to be more than a few days.

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

#715

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:27 AM UTC

_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.

they did a lot of steps in parallel assuming it was okay and also had nearly infinite resources and money to get it done.

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

#716

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:29 AM UTC

tinus_hn wrote: post #171

polytely wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I remember from the news yesterday the EMA will be done with the evaluation (if they don't find anything that causes concern) by the end of the month, so they aren't that far off

Yeah, there’s only about 5000 deaths extra for each day of delay. So no rush there!

I'd rather they take a reasonable amount of time to evaluate. It's just the reality of things. A lot of those people would have lived if they had stuck with the plan to distance and wear masks but here we are.

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

#717

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:31 AM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #119

ascorbic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I suspect it's because a large portion of society didn't take it seriously rather than preparedness. There are a lot of protections against government forcing the populace to do things that they don't want to do unlike in some much more authoritarian countries.

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

#718

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:33 AM UTC

apsec112 wrote: post #35

_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.

It looks like the FDA approval will probably follow in eight days (December 10th). I'd guess the UK just has the edge on administrative efficiency.

They generally are ahead of the USA in most areas of medicine on average, whereas the USA probably has peak research and medical capabilities IF you have the money to pay for it like when Trump had the disease.

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

#719

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:35 AM UTC

polytely wrote: post #88

modeless wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pfizer concluded their trial and filed for approval with the FDA almost two weeks ago. People are dying. Why is it not approved yet?

It is of vital importance that the majority of people feel safe taking the vaccine, because you need herd immunity. If people have doubts that it has been correctly vetted they will be reluctant to get vaccinated which makes the whole investment in the vaccines pointless.

Especially when you have so many antiscience/luddites/antivaxxers in the USA. We will probably need at least 70% of the population to get the vaccine if it's really 95% successful before we can start going back to normal. That's going to be a hard thing to do before the end of 2021.

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

#720

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 1:38 AM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #471

Hamuko wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Who cares in the broader scheme of things? The toll it's taken on the economy is in the trillions, 10 billion to speed it up is literally almost nothing compared to that.