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Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

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Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#161

Quoted post unavailable.

Unfortunately, the Pfizer pill needs to be taken early in the infection, so when patients may not be yet in the survival mode, but still in "it's just like a flu" mode.

Ideally there would be a treatment for the "I can't breathe" stage. Unfortunately anti-viral drugs' effect depends on inhibiting future exponential replication. Kind of like how fire extinguishers are good if one sees and smothers the first flame but are moot if flames are already shooting out the windows.

Paxlovid might not even be easy to use. Five days might have already passed from infection to first symptoms to urgent care visit to PCR test result. And that's assuming the drug is in stock.

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#162
post #153

Does this mean COVID is over? I thought once the vaccines were available we could move on with life, but somehow the goal posts kept moving. Will people accept the much smaller risk of hospitalization once this pill is available?

> Does this mean COVID is over? When I took my first jab, the local clinic handed out a flier explaining in no uncertain terms that: a) the current batch of vaccines work by giving our immune system a workout to be able to experience a COVID infection as either totally unnoticed or at most a mild case, b) the current batch of vaccines does not nor did ever guaranteed you won't contract and spread COVID, c) even with…

That’s not what was messaged to the general public from our leaders. The narrative went from “the vaccinated cant get infected” to “the vaccinated won’t really transmit it”, so “its clearly the unvaccinated who are the problem” to “well it turns out vaccinated people can get and transmit Covid just as well as unvaccinated”.

And if vaccines wouldnt “end” Covid why so much discussion on R values and “herd immunity”. The messaging around that went silent pretty quickly when it was clear that wasn’t happening with Covid.

And the only reason the narrative changed is because it was plainly obvious to the general public things weren’t going as planned.

But I get it, you cant predict how a new infectious disease will pan out, but holy shit has the PR messaging ever been terrible.

But then I wonder if that was intentional? Would the public ever have gone along with all this if the government was honest and said “we’ll continue to have restrictions for the next 5 years”?

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I will never question Pfizer again. I didn't say you, nor myself or anyone else, shouldn't question them, just that they haven't been incorrect in this instance as you've suggested. I'm not sure why your snark is needed in your multiple responses here.

The Pfizer vaccine is not 90% effective. That’s a fact.

[deleted]

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The race to vaccinate enough people is frankly impossible considering how politically charged it became. Fucking Republicans. Please take your politically charged discourse elsewhere. This isn't the right place for mudslinging like this.

It brings me no pleasure in addressing this reality. Many conservatives are fine people, but the damage done by Republican media outlets is undeniable and it stifles advancement to the detriment of all. This is why my comment was really about praising the potential of a good therapeutic. Political ideologies fade when all you can think about is survival, in contrast to preventative care which requires forethought.

Unfortunately this is exactly the opposite of what happened. Political ideologies did not fade but got stronger in spite of this one thing that is probably the most apolitical thing to happen to us. A “natural disaster” that wasn’t caused by a natural phenomenon that’s itself become politically charged: climate change.

While I see most of the nuttiness on the right (with regards to the pandemic and attacking public health measures), I have friends who said they’d refuse to take the vaccine because operation warp speed suggested it was rushed (and was a Trump thing). But they were first in line to get it when Biden had been president for a few months. Nothing else had changed with the vaccines.

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#165
post #151
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal posts do keep moving, because vaccination uptake is slow, people keep arguing against public health measures, and while we waste time delaying measures or implementing half baked measures, the virus evolves.

Look at BC Canada, 90% vaccine uptake (2 doses). Very strong public masking. Vax passport checking at most businesses. More restrictions recently introduced. Hospitals on the verge of being overwhelmed.

That’s where I live (Vancouver). Travel restrictions are extremely loose, and public masking and social distancing are not stellar.

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#166
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does this mean COVID is over? When I took my first jab, the local clinic handed out a flier explaining in no uncertain terms that: a) the current batch of vaccines work by giving our immune system a workout to be able to experience a COVID infection as either totally unnoticed or at most a mild case, b) the current batch of vaccines does not nor did ever guaranteed you won't contract and spread COVID, c) even with…

> the current batch of vaccines does not nor did ever guaranteed you won't contract and spread COVID Guarantee, no. But the thought was that it would greatly reduce the risk of spreading the disease, such that once a sufficient number of people were vaccinated herd immunity would kill off the virus and end the pandemic. We're now two years in with a 73% vaccination rate in the US (not counting those with natural immu…

I thought the vaccines reduced the lethality quite a bit. Do we know how vaccinated/no pill compare to unvaccinated/pill?

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#167
post #162
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does this mean COVID is over? When I took my first jab, the local clinic handed out a flier explaining in no uncertain terms that: a) the current batch of vaccines work by giving our immune system a workout to be able to experience a COVID infection as either totally unnoticed or at most a mild case, b) the current batch of vaccines does not nor did ever guaranteed you won't contract and spread COVID, c) even with…

That’s not what was messaged to the general public from our leaders. The narrative went from “the vaccinated cant get infected” to “the vaccinated won’t really transmit it”, so “its clearly the unvaccinated who are the problem” to “well it turns out vaccinated people can get and transmit Covid just as well as unvaccinated”. And if vaccines wouldnt “end” Covid why so much discussion on R values and “herd immunity”. Th…

I think the CDC was being pragmatic. They recognized that Americans were fatigued after a year. Asking people to still mask and social distance even after vaccinating is a lot to ask for even if it would technically get the virus under control sooner by catching those breakthrough cases too. The prospect of normalcy would increase vaccine acceptance, and then we would hopefully reach herd immunity by vaccine as demonstrated by cases falling off a cliff. Unfortunately unvaccinated people took off their masks and then Delta happened.

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#168
post #8

The vaccines were also lauded as 100% effective in the early days by Fauci and others, so just a reminder that time and reproducibility matter before being too confident about it.

I don't recall a single instance of 100% efficacy claim. It was around 92-97%.

Here you go. I don't know anything about this website (found it from a google search) but the video montage has plenty of claims of 100%, and a "virtually 100% efficacious" quote from Fauci. The montage is in a meme format making fun of the situation, which is not my preference, and I don't intend to inflame by sharing such a take, it's just the most succinct thing I found.

It highlights quite clearly what I'd mentioned in my first comment, that time and reproducibility matter. I genuinely don't know why it was flagged.

https://news.grabien.com/story-twitter-user-video-showing-sh...

Re: Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill is 89% Effective in Phase 2/3 Study

#170
post #154
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal posts do keep moving, because vaccination uptake is slow, people keep arguing against public health measures, and while we waste time delaying measures or implementing half baked measures, the virus evolves.

Nope. In countries that have vaccination rates and strict compliance to measure the cases keep going up. The goalposts move because the experts were wrong.

Did you know you happened to be speaking to one such expert?

Today is your lucky day, it’s your chance to enlighten me: what were the experts wrong about?

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