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Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

reuters.com

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#11
post #3
post #2

Its simply unethical to start administering booster shots when most people in the world are still waiting for their two doses.

The Pfizer vaccine has cold chain requirements that mean it can't be used for half the world. It's also not clear if we're better off knocking down cases massively in some countries to prevent mutations or doing a slow (2+ year?) rollout across the world targeting the most at-risk, but at the risk of vaccine-resistant strains. That said, the US is looking like a pretty fertile breeding ground for a vaccine resistant…

The Us is already producing a new strain.. B1526 is iota

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#12
Curious to know why alternatives are still being suppressed as a possible treatment. We need to start talking about covid management. We wouldn’t use it for those with lesser symptoms but for those who are hospitalized who may or may not benefit, it’s worth a try. I can’t see a constant booster shot being the only solution to this.

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#13

Curious to know why alternatives are still being suppressed as a possible treatment. We need to start talking about covid management. We wouldn’t use it for those with lesser symptoms but for those who are hospitalized who may or may not benefit, it’s worth a try. I can’t see a constant booster shot being the only solution to this.

I don't think there's much mystery, is there? There's no money to be made on Ivermectin. There seem to be some laws on the books prohibiting the development of new vaccines if there are effective existing drugs, so they had to be squashed.

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#14
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the world has no trouble with the cold chain requirements for their urban populations at least. Liquid nitrogen / oxygen is a common industrial good across the world. And vaccine resistant strains aren’t a big deal, as demonstrated in the new article - the vaccines are still 95% effective at preventing severe illness.

They are still 95% effective after 6 months at preventing death. They are unknown effective against new variants. I've seen a variety of studies with different variants tested against Delta. At best I read 92% for Pfizer (but a previous test had them at 60%), other vaccines as low as 30%. The new variants like lambda have shown it responds to antibiotic poorly, it spreads quickly and is more deadly compared to delta…

Israel's Pfizer study has it at 64% effectiveness against Delta infection, but 94% against serious illness. That's still pretty decent.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/5...

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#15
post #5
post #2

Its simply unethical to start administering booster shots when most people in the world are still waiting for their two doses.

How does ethics play into this at all? Pfizer is delivering vaccines as fast as they can, and at this point the bottleneck is logistics. It’s not exactly easy to set up the infrastructure to administer 14 billion shots. The fact that Pfizer is ready with a booster has little to do with the actual administration of the vaccine.

The ethical issue comes from using doses as boosters instead of administering them to unvaccinated people.

And no, the bottleneck is not logistics - there are many countries around the world still waiting on vaccine deliveries that they have the logistics to administer.

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#16
post #5
post #2

Its simply unethical to start administering booster shots when most people in the world are still waiting for their two doses.

How does ethics play into this at all? Pfizer is delivering vaccines as fast as they can, and at this point the bottleneck is logistics. It’s not exactly easy to set up the infrastructure to administer 14 billion shots. The fact that Pfizer is ready with a booster has little to do with the actual administration of the vaccine.

Coca cola sells that many drinks every day.

Training someone to do injections takes an hour.

There are millions of people available to help if it'll save their lives.

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#18

Curious to know why alternatives are still being suppressed as a possible treatment. We need to start talking about covid management. We wouldn’t use it for those with lesser symptoms but for those who are hospitalized who may or may not benefit, it’s worth a try. I can’t see a constant booster shot being the only solution to this.

What suppressing? The WHO and national agencies are actively looking for treatment options, and just last week another medication was approved for in-hospital COVID-19 treatment.

It's just that nothing that has been tried yet works nearly as well as vaccination.

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#19
post #5
post #2

Its simply unethical to start administering booster shots when most people in the world are still waiting for their two doses.

How does ethics play into this at all? Pfizer is delivering vaccines as fast as they can, and at this point the bottleneck is logistics. It’s not exactly easy to set up the infrastructure to administer 14 billion shots. The fact that Pfizer is ready with a booster has little to do with the actual administration of the vaccine.

Sharing IP to allow other countries to manufacture their own doses would be a huge step forward.

Re: Pfizer to seek U.S. authorization for Covid booster shot

#20

Curious to know why alternatives are still being suppressed as a possible treatment. We need to start talking about covid management. We wouldn’t use it for those with lesser symptoms but for those who are hospitalized who may or may not benefit, it’s worth a try. I can’t see a constant booster shot being the only solution to this.

Constant booster shot means constant money.
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