Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85% • Hacker News Board

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#461

Post by FooBarWidget » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

thehappypm wrote: post #390

It’s crazy that money is such a huge incentive. Knowing that a cure for Covid is a potentially $100B market means you throw the kitchen sink at it. Imagine being this lab. Do you think they ever had trouble hiring an assistant? Buying new equipment? Getting bonuses? This environment must be fantastically different from the typical meat grinder of bio R&D.

I don't think it's fair to say that it's just money. There's also a global crisis and a huge need for such a drug.

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#462

Post by nradov » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #231

colordrops wrote: post #110

Does anyone have a sense as to when US society will completely eliminate COVID measures? Is it just me or is there no clear exit criteria anymore? This will go on forever without exit criteria.

I don't know but I haven't had a cold or any other infection in 18 months so I hope that wearing masks on trains, planes and buses stays forever. Also, shaking hands was always barbaric and I don't miss that, either.

What a horrible idea. I'm not willing to wear a mask just to avoid a cold. We cannot allow irrational germaphobes to seize control of our society in the name of "safety".

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#463

Post by covfa3hah » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:48 PM UTC

There's that fag talk.

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#464

Post by swader999 » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:48 PM UTC

simoneau wrote: post #441

salemh wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your children do not need it - perhaps you should evaluate whether they are in an 'at risk' category like the Nordics https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01897-w In the US, 340 children under 17 have died from Covid. Total. During the same period, 187 have died from the flu, and over 51,000 children have died from all causes: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Se... Sweden halts Moderna:…

I though most of the point of vaxing children and other low-risk groups is to stop the spread, not for their own individual safety. Reducing the chance they'll infect grandma. And reducing the circulating pool of infections to prevent more virulent strains from developing. Have I got this wrong?

I think Delta is still above r0 1 in vaccinated. Delta plus is worse. So there will be spread amongst vaccinated. Not as much as unvaccinated but with vaccinated conditioned to think they are safe I don't see it solving much in the medium to longer term.

A high population of vaccinated is mathematically more likely to produce more virulent strains with a non sterile vaccine in a fast mutating virus.

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#465

Post by covfa3hah » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

10x-dev wrote: post #254

wincy wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Kansas and have basically forgotten COVID is a thing. The people who wanted to get vaccinated like me have and those who haven’t, haven’t. Nobody asks about it and no businesses have any sort of mask requirements. Half of the people at the grocery store wear masks and the other half don’t. Everyone seems to be getting along. Next door in Kansas City Missouri I stopped at a gas station and an employee was sh…

I've always found it strange that some Americans focus on politeness above all. Of all the problems in your story, the employee shouting is the least 'wrong'. You've got a woman who won't wear a mask, yourself who sneaked in without a mask, and that's just in that moment of time, but somehow the employee who has to deal with that behavior all day every day is the bad person because they lost their cool. It's one of t…

COCK-SUCKING FAGGOT!

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#466

Post by shusaku » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #86

> This is a completely novel molecule... Then do we understand the risk profile of this thing? That sounds like the sort of innovation that people would want to be at the back of the queue for. Side effects don't have to happen in the next 6 months.

I don’t think this is nearly as easy a question to answer as the other replies suggest. Pfizer will be required to make the case for safety whenever they apply for approval. It is premature to discuss this without reviewing the actual evidence they put forth.

That being said, one of the reasons that protease inhibitors are considered the way to go is that “no human proteases with a similar cleavage specificity are known, such inhibitors are unlikely to be toxic.” [1]

[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb3405

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#467

Post by foogazi » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

Steltek wrote: post #209

jartelt wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could see things starting to really ease up once all children have had a chance to be vaccinated and everyone else has had a chance to get their 6 month booster shot.

Not everyone is eligible for a booster shot.

Right now - sure, same case with the covid vaccine in the first few months it was available

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#468

Post by consp » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #379

spazrunaway wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data shows that being vaccinated divides your odds of dying and being hospitalized from covid by about 10. There's no evidence I'm aware of showing that the vaccines create additional risk anywhere close to outweighing that benefit.

There is. Because kids (basically) don’t die from COVID. The side effect risk, while small, is material in a risk calculation for them, since their entire risk from the disease is small. At a minimum, mandating it for kids (as is openly stated to be the plan in CA) is unethical.

Considering they then become the primary host and spreader to all others there definitely is ethics involved in giving it to them.

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#469

Post by encryptluks2 » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #458

encryptluks2 wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trial vendor.. LOL. Reminds me of a politician getting caught doing something. It wasn't my fault, it was the fault of the person I paid to do it.

If a politician hired a hundred vendors to send direct mailings, and one of them used forged stamps, would it be fair to say the politician used forged stamps?

This is more like.. what if you're a food manufacturer and find out the food was contaminated. Do you keep shipping it to recoup costs and stay quiet, or do you come clean and risk the negative PR?

Re: Pfizer's oral Covid-19 antiviral cuts hospitalization, death by 85%

#470

Post by swader999 » Fri, Nov 05, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #321

jayknight wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good article. I'm firmly on team do-what-it-takes-to-stop-the-spread, but no one has an exit strategy. I got a booster and we have appointments for two of our three kids to get there first shot. By mid-December I'm hoping to not have to think much about it anymore. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/what-amer...

There are two possible exit strategies. - Vaccinate everyone who can be vaccinated, at gunpoint. - Allow everyone who is vulnerable to die, at which point the death rates will drop. Choose. Which one do you want?

You can't produce, distribute and vaccinate everyone at gun point fast enough before it mutates away from what your vax targeted. And this strategy ignores animal reservoirs where the virus can reside and come back.