Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters • Hacker News Board

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#41

Post by superkuh » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

standardUser wrote: post #20

superkuh wrote: post #5

It's obvious we need booster vaccinations. But not another intramuscular that only seeps in serum IgG antibodies into the lower lungs. The levels of antibodies in the upper respiratory mucosa are never very high and drop rapidly. Viral infection of the mucosa and shedding still occurs. We need operation warp speed type money for funding the two good intranasal sars-cov-2 vaccine trials going on right now and to start…

It is not obvious we need booster vaccinations. There's simply not enough data yet to call this "obvious". Even "likely" is a stretch. Time will tell how long effective immunity lasts, but we absolutely do not know that number yet. EDIT: To be fair, it is at least likely that high-risk individuals may need boosters. Israel is already distributing them. But the idea that we will need an annual COVID shot, or that most…

You only responded to my first sentence. To be clear, what the two sentences mean together is, "It is obvious we need intranasal booster vaccinations."

I am not in any way saying the intramuscular do not protect the internal body tissues against variants. I am saying that it's important to protect against mucosa infection too to prevent spread and that requires intranasal vaccination.

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#42

Post by newacct583 » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

clairity wrote: post #35

Panther34543 wrote: post #11

In summary: A.) Pfizer is raking in over $33 billion from vaccine sales. B.) Due to the PREP Act, they are completely immune from lawsuits arising from any form of complications arising from those vaccines. C.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may lose your job[0]. D.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may be barred from normal everyday social activities[1][2]. I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfort…

> "I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfortable about society going down this path." it's dystopian. this is power that won't be reliquished by either major party, just like 9/11 surveillance and security theater. unlike some of currently fashionable political impetuses, this one is worth actively resisting, to keep federal powers in check.

> it's dystopian

It's already the law, and has been for like half a century (edit: more like 80 years, actually). If you aren't vaccinated you can't attend school. You can't serve in the military. You can't work in many health care fields. We requires our citizenry to be vaccinated against major preventable diseases. We always have.

And this policy is, objectively, the second[1] biggest success story in the last few centuries of public health policy. Period.

Why did no one care about "keeping federal powers in check" in 2019? Why do you only care now? You don't think maybe that there's something polluting your priors?

[1] The invention of antibiotics gets #1.

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#43

Post by omgwtfbbq » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

Panther34543 wrote: post #11

In summary: A.) Pfizer is raking in over $33 billion from vaccine sales. B.) Due to the PREP Act, they are completely immune from lawsuits arising from any form of complications arising from those vaccines. C.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may lose your job[0]. D.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may be barred from normal everyday social activities[1][2]. I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfort…

C. and D. are both false, you are free to take the Moderna, Astra-Zeneca or J&J Vaccines, particularly J&J if you have insane worries about safety since it is an old fashioned viral vector vaccine. The choice is of course yours and no where in the US constitution do you have a right to work wherever you want or enter private businesses at will.

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#44

Post by k2enemy » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #23

Panther34543 wrote: post #11

In summary: A.) Pfizer is raking in over $33 billion from vaccine sales. B.) Due to the PREP Act, they are completely immune from lawsuits arising from any form of complications arising from those vaccines. C.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may lose your job[0]. D.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may be barred from normal everyday social activities[1][2]. I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfort…

C and D seem fine to me. It's necessary to protect everyone else. A and B are the problem. The US government should have limited Pfizer's profit margin, and they should be using the money saved to cover people's medical costs for complications arising from the vaccine (removing the need to sue).

I could not disagree more. Pfizer should be able to profit from the vaccine. If the govt steps in and takes away their ability to benefit from the vaccine what incentive is there for bio firms to respond like Pfizer did in the future? Why work on risky and expensive vaccine technologies if, in the unlikely event it is ever needed, you won't have a chance of recouping your costs?

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#45

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #23

Panther34543 wrote: post #11

In summary: A.) Pfizer is raking in over $33 billion from vaccine sales. B.) Due to the PREP Act, they are completely immune from lawsuits arising from any form of complications arising from those vaccines. C.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may lose your job[0]. D.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may be barred from normal everyday social activities[1][2]. I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfort…

C and D seem fine to me. It's necessary to protect everyone else. A and B are the problem. The US government should have limited Pfizer's profit margin, and they should be using the money saved to cover people's medical costs for complications arising from the vaccine (removing the need to sue).

> The US government should have limited Pfizer's profit margin, and they should be using the money saved to cover people's medical costs for complications arising from the vaccine (removing the need to sue).

They didn't have to limit Pfizer's or other suppliers profit margin to cover people's costs for recommended to diagnose, treat, or prevent COVID (or used in conjunction to enhance effectiveness of or mitigate risks or complications of such a diagnostic, treatment, or prevention measure); that's covered by the same law which shields the makers of those things from liability. [0]

[0] https://www.hrsa.gov/cicp/faq#covid

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#46

Post by standardUser » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

jagger27 wrote: post #10

Would they be able to tweak this potential booster shot to better target current variants and their descendants? Is there any need to do so? How much about the current vaccine can possibly be changed without major regulatory hurdles or manufacturing blockers?

Yes, there are already clinical studies underway with altered vaccines and the turn-around on developing these is apparently pretty fast (at least with the mRNA vaccines). I have also read that yes, authorization can happen much faster for vaccines that are slightly altered versions of vaccines that are already granted authorization (but I don't know the details).

Here is a random article on the topic that happens to be ovr 2 months old! So this has been going on for a while now... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/tweaked-modern...

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#47

Post by ChuckNorris89 » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

standardUser wrote: post #20

superkuh wrote: post #5

It's obvious we need booster vaccinations. But not another intramuscular that only seeps in serum IgG antibodies into the lower lungs. The levels of antibodies in the upper respiratory mucosa are never very high and drop rapidly. Viral infection of the mucosa and shedding still occurs. We need operation warp speed type money for funding the two good intranasal sars-cov-2 vaccine trials going on right now and to start…

It is not obvious we need booster vaccinations. There's simply not enough data yet to call this "obvious". Even "likely" is a stretch. Time will tell how long effective immunity lasts, but we absolutely do not know that number yet. EDIT: To be fair, it is at least likely that high-risk individuals may need boosters. Israel is already distributing them. But the idea that we will need an annual COVID shot, or that most…

>It is not obvious we need booster vaccinations.

Of course, but to be fair, I don't expect any EU government to publicly acknowledge that we need a third dose when many EU countries are still struggling to get two doses to everyone, let alone a third.

Like how at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020 the governments said that masks are not useful at protecting against the virus in order to prevent the general population from scalping and hoarding masks that were needed for medical personnel instead, and later did a 180 on that decision, making masks mandatory when mask production supplies caught up with the demand.

Such decisions are not 100% driven purely by medicine/science but also economics/politics.

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#48

Post by omgwtfbbq » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

clairity wrote: post #35

Panther34543 wrote: post #11

In summary: A.) Pfizer is raking in over $33 billion from vaccine sales. B.) Due to the PREP Act, they are completely immune from lawsuits arising from any form of complications arising from those vaccines. C.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may lose your job[0]. D.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may be barred from normal everyday social activities[1][2]. I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfort…

> "I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfortable about society going down this path." it's dystopian. this is power that won't be reliquished by either major party, just like 9/11 surveillance and security theater. unlike some of currently fashionable political impetuses, this one is worth actively resisting, to keep federal powers in check.

You are mentally ill, get help: https://www.zocdoc.com/psychiatrists

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#49

Post by b0sk » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

Panther34543 wrote: post #11

In summary: A.) Pfizer is raking in over $33 billion from vaccine sales. B.) Due to the PREP Act, they are completely immune from lawsuits arising from any form of complications arising from those vaccines. C.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may lose your job[0]. D.) If you don't take this vaccine, you may be barred from normal everyday social activities[1][2]. I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfort…

(I am very comfortable with a few million deaths, and maybe the variant turning more deadly in the process)

Re: Pfizer says 2021 Covid-19 vaccine sales to top $33.5 bln, sees need for boosters

#50

Post by slingnow » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

newacct583 wrote: post #42

clairity wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I can't be the only one who is incredibly uncomfortable about society going down this path." it's dystopian. this is power that won't be reliquished by either major party, just like 9/11 surveillance and security theater. unlike some of currently fashionable political impetuses, this one is worth actively resisting, to keep federal powers in check.

> it's dystopian It's already the law , and has been for like half a century ( edit: more like 80 years, actually ). If you aren't vaccinated you can't attend school. You can't serve in the military. You can't work in many health care fields. We requires our citizenry to be vaccinated against major preventable diseases. We always have. And this policy is, objectively, the second[1] biggest success story in the last f…

Biggest success story? Have you heard about the delta variant and the surge in cases among both unvaccinated AND vaccinated?