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Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

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Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#91

Prepare to read the headline "mRNA vaccine trial for " a lot in the future. My guess is that they are going to produce mRNA versions of basically any vaccine (and then some) in the future. The nice thing about the technology seems to be that you only need to exchange the mRNA payload while the surrounding delivery method can be reused. That makes it not only a fast method to create a vaccine but a very convenient way…

At the beginning of the pandemic, people theorized that public health will influence future media for a generation, much like WW2 did. For decades, we got war TV shows, war movies, war comics, etc. Hogan's Heroes ran into the '70s, Sgt. Rock was published until the late '80s, and so on. And I think we're about to see the same with media based on public health efforts.

One of the things that'll come out of this is that mRNA vaccines as miracle wonder drugs that cure everything are going to get huge amounts of attention, and media will reflect that. Especially if the Lyme, Malaria, and HIV vaccines prove successful. We are going to see mRNA vaccines as plot devices and MacGuffins in media for decades to come. It's going to get the same treatment radiation got in the '60s and '70s and genetic engineering got in the '90s and '00s. For example, it wouldn't surprise me if, the next time Marvel decides to make a new adaptation of Spider-Man, the spider will have been treated with mRNA instead of radiation (the original story) or gene therapy ('90s cartoon, '00s movies, maybe others).

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#92
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's super easy to treat if caught early. But that's where the good ends. Vast majority of cases present the infamous circle. But some don't. And if you got the circle in a hard-to-notice spot, it's easy to miss it (it will a month or two into infection) too. First precaution is to check your legs (and possibly torso/hands) for ticks after passing through high grass. And whole body after coming from the woods. The na…

Should we assume we are safe if we go hiking in a place where we never brushed against any plants or grass or twigs? In other words we went through woods but only stayed on wide open trails. I assume ticks don’t “fly” in the air ?

They like to crawl up and can do so from your ankles/feet, so it’s not a safe assumption. I spray my hiking boots and socks with deet. If I am going to get into brush, I wear permethrin-laced hiking pants and I tuck the cuffs into my socks. Then I take a shower after coming in from outside.

Deer ticks can be tiny, much smaller than wood/dog ticks so just checking yourself isn’t a great form of protection.

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#93

Prepare to read the headline "mRNA vaccine trial for " a lot in the future. My guess is that they are going to produce mRNA versions of basically any vaccine (and then some) in the future. The nice thing about the technology seems to be that you only need to exchange the mRNA payload while the surrounding delivery method can be reused. That makes it not only a fast method to create a vaccine but a very convenient way…

Does anyone know why they haven't released a Delta varient vaccine? Is seems that it would just involved we changing the mRNA sequence in a computer at the factor, but I'm really just guessing. Also maybe it is considered a whole new vaccineand needs to go through approval again.

I’ve read somewhere that they don’t just take a sequence. There’re some tweaks they make to produce effective immune response. CureVac failed to produce a good vaccine for this reason. My take is that mRNA technology is being overhyped, although it’s a massive step up over other approaches.

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#95
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's super easy to treat if caught early. But that's where the good ends. Vast majority of cases present the infamous circle. But some don't. And if you got the circle in a hard-to-notice spot, it's easy to miss it (it will a month or two into infection) too. First precaution is to check your legs (and possibly torso/hands) for ticks after passing through high grass. And whole body after coming from the woods. The na…

Should we assume we are safe if we go hiking in a place where we never brushed against any plants or grass or twigs? In other words we went through woods but only stayed on wide open trails. I assume ticks don’t “fly” in the air ?

Ticks jump quite a distance. I wouldn't use that as the sole basis for assuming I was safe.

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#96

Prepare to read the headline "mRNA vaccine trial for " a lot in the future. My guess is that they are going to produce mRNA versions of basically any vaccine (and then some) in the future. The nice thing about the technology seems to be that you only need to exchange the mRNA payload while the surrounding delivery method can be reused. That makes it not only a fast method to create a vaccine but a very convenient way…

Does anyone know why they haven't released a Delta varient vaccine? Is seems that it would just involved we changing the mRNA sequence in a computer at the factor, but I'm really just guessing. Also maybe it is considered a whole new vaccineand needs to go through approval again.

There's nothing to update. The mRNA allegedly encodes for the 'spike' protein, which is the infection vector. The theory at the time was that by targeting that protein specifically, if the virus were to mutate, it would loses it's ability to infect because it could no longer successfully bind to the ACE2 receptors.

In practice, the efficacy is a fraction of what the trials stated it was. It didn't lose efficacy due to the delta variant, the manufacturers just lied about the efficacy by cherry picking the data.

The only option they have now is to blame people's immune systems for lack of response, thus the 'boosters' are needed.

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emphasis should be on tick-bite prevention. I have never had live tick on me and have been literally wallowing on all tick-infested areas on northern hemisphere. They just die. Most probably just drop off, but sometimes there is dead tick only slightly attached. Looks like they die on first drop of blood.

Interestingly, what you described might just be a side effect of tick bite exposure ... https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/health/lyme-d...

Sounds true. I actually had one and only tick in 1955. It was on my testicles, so very embarrassing.

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#98

Prepare to read the headline "mRNA vaccine trial for " a lot in the future. My guess is that they are going to produce mRNA versions of basically any vaccine (and then some) in the future. The nice thing about the technology seems to be that you only need to exchange the mRNA payload while the surrounding delivery method can be reused. That makes it not only a fast method to create a vaccine but a very convenient way…

The biggest investment that Pfizer made was the creation of a way to reliably manufacture mRNA vaccines. Now they must recoup those investments.

To my knowledge Pfizer didn't really invest anything, it was the German population who financed Biontech through funds paid with taxes: the lab infrastructure pre-covid (through funded cancer research), the vaccine trials, and mass production (both directly and through pre-purchases before the vaccine existed).

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#99
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was one but it was taken off the market. It's a bit of a sad story because it worked but because of unfounded claims that it had side effects, it lost trust of the public: "In clinical trials involving more than 10,000 people, the vaccine, called LYMErix, was found to confer protective immunity to Borrelia in 76% of adults and 100% of children with only mild or moderate and transient adverse effects. [...] Subs…

Unfounded claims from 100s of people developing imaginary autoimmune disorders? Mind you people are still getting compensated in court for autoimmune disorders arising from the Hep-B vaccine, even though no causal link was found. Just yesterday I had to accompany my sister to the phlebologist, because of severe side-effects from Pfizer, he told us he was seeing troves of patients for similar reasons even though offic…

What gives you so much confidence it was the vaccine? Correlation does not equal causation, as we all know around here.

Re: Valneva and Pfizer announce Phase 2 study for Lyme disease vaccine candidate

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One bad autoimmune reaction from a poorly engineered vaccine and the whole society will boycott the mRNA vaccines forever after. Safety is higher priority to ongoing viability than speed.

Safety and speed must usually be balanced in a trade-off, and we are actually used to it, that is why people drive a car, even though it comes with a risk of dying or being maimed. I have no doubt that some kind of safety-related trials must be run on boosters and that they will be run, but they will likely only take weeks in the future, not months.

> but they will likely only take weeks in the future, not months.

We need just one Jesse Gelsinger to shut the whole thing down.

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