Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 84 posts

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#31

Post by ChocolateGod »

noworriesnate wrote: post #20
helsinki8 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all misinformation. The vaccine significantly reduced severity of infection, likelihood to become infected at all, and likelihood of transmitting there infection. The side effects impacting periods were incredibly rare, mild and fully disclosed. Children's test scores are still substantially lower now than pre-covid, likely some of that is due to brain damage from the covid virus (remember that the "brain fog…

A female close to me experienced side effects from shedding of the vaccine. She was not initially an “anti-vaxxer.” These symptoms were absolutely not disclosed ahead of time. I’ve seen with my own eyes people who tried to shame me for not getting the vaccine come down with COVID over and over again. When you tell someone that their personal experience and that of their trusted friends is misinformation, you lose all…

> A female close to me experienced side effects from shedding of the vaccine

There are always risks with vaccines, given you are trying to introduce an immune response to a contagion and it's no secret that the immune system can get it wrong (e.g. overreacting, attacking own tissue). It's about balancing the benefits of the vaccine with the risks. You can get the same consequences from having the disease itself, as well as the risks the disease will kill you.

The COVID shot was deployed in a little amount of time, so it's understandable that there are more notable cases of side effects, because it was deployed over months, not decades as is the case with other vaccines.

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#32

Post by Alive-in-2025 »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #28
conartist6 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody throws you a parade for preventing a disaster from happening. Let the disaster happen though and you have a chance to look like a hero!

You just described working in cyber security. The difference is you're to blame if the disaster happens.

Trump is lauded for stopping the libs no matter what destructive & unnecessary actions he foments that hurt his supporters. It's a now daily exercise to see an article about huge Medicaid cuts planned in the stupid big bill that will hurt his supporters. Then there are the requisite quotes from people who voted for him, and are really concerned with lots of fraud in Medicaid AND are set to lose their just admitted crucial medicaid insurance. Their self destructive choices based on years of TV propaganda is frustrating to see over and over again.

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#33

Post by kelipso »

bediger4000 wrote: post #9

The ideological revulsion about mRNA vaccines in particular is an interesting phenomenon. The vaccines were developed during the first Trump administration. Trump himself wanted credit for developing them. He mentioned Operation Warp Speed in some of his 2020 rallies, and got booed for it. Trump's Base decided mRNA was bad, with influencers making bizarre predictions about the vaccinated bleeding out in the streets,…

The medical community, the government, and the media in general hid, downplayed, and censored discussions about the negative side effects of mRNA vaccines. Thus creating an aura of suspicion around the mRNA vaccine and loss of trust in the medical community.

Once they publish tons of trustworthy research on the side effects of mRNA vaccines, then people will have confidence in them.

> trustworthy

Yes. It will probably take years to decades for the medical community to regain the trust and confidence of the public. But keep doing good work and it will happen probably.

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#35

Post by csense »

boroboro4 wrote: post #10
bediger4000 wrote: post #9

The ideological revulsion about mRNA vaccines in particular is an interesting phenomenon. The vaccines were developed during the first Trump administration. Trump himself wanted credit for developing them. He mentioned Operation Warp Speed in some of his 2020 rallies, and got booed for it. Trump's Base decided mRNA was bad, with influencers making bizarre predictions about the vaccinated bleeding out in the streets,…

Which is so unfortunate given the potential mRNA vaccines and therapies have. They would have made fighting flu so much easier (for the context current flu vaccines take a lot of time to be made each season and hence not very agile towards dominant strain and sometimes miss it a lot, mRNA potentially improves this).

The problem I've had with MRNA vaccines is that we decided a lengthy multi-year trial protocol was necessary to ensure vaccines are safe and effective.

Then COVID hit, and suddenly we decided to rush MRNA [1] vaccines into mass production without those protocols. Moreover, at one point they wanted to force [2] them on the population.

The thing that bothered me most is the government passed a law to prevent people from suing for damages if they're hurt by COVID vaccines [3]. If the vaccine really is safe and effective, why was the waiver necessary?

[1] If the made the COVID vaccine the same way they've been making them since polio, I'd be less uneasy -- if you made 25 vaccines with the process and they all worked okay, saying "it should be fine" for the 26th one is backed by some evidence.

But given MRNA vaccines were brand-new with the COVID ones, until then they'd made 0 vaccines with the process; saying "it should be fine" for the 1st one seems to be rather irresponsible.

[2] In my opinion, "you're being forced to do X" is a fair description of the situation if you have to show proof you did X if you want to get a job, get an education, or get on an airplane. Around the time of the first vaccines getting rolled out, these policies were being discussed very seriously.

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/covid-vaccine-side-effects-c...

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#36

Post by nailer »

jghn wrote: post #18
noworriesnate wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off the top of my head: First they were supposed to prevent COVID. That turned out to not be true, so then they were supposed to lessen the symptoms. Everyone I know who still frequently gets COVID had the shot. Anyone paying attention was lied to. There were tons of surprise side effects especially relating to women’s periods getting screwed up. They were administered to children, when children were not in any serio…

> First they were supposed to prevent COVID This was never the case. That's not how vaccines work. > There were tons of surprise side effects especially relating to women’s periods getting screwed up. citation from an actual health study that this actually caused health risks? > when children were not in any serious danger. Again, citation needed? > Anyone who investigated the origin story became spontaneously racist…

> > First they were supposed to prevent COVID

> This was never the case. That's not how vaccines work.

Vaccines aren't supposed to prevent disease? That's a very bold claim - what are your supporting arguments?

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#37

Post by pengaru »

bediger4000 wrote: post #9

The ideological revulsion about mRNA vaccines in particular is an interesting phenomenon. The vaccines were developed during the first Trump administration. Trump himself wanted credit for developing them. He mentioned Operation Warp Speed in some of his 2020 rallies, and got booed for it. Trump's Base decided mRNA was bad, with influencers making bizarre predictions about the vaccinated bleeding out in the streets,…

  > The vaccines were developed during the first Trump administration. Trump himself wanted credit for developing them.
No. They were produced at scale during his administration to combat the pandemic, but were developed well before that, with support from a government actually funding vaccine R&D:

  > Moderna was also awarded a $25,000,000 grant by DARPA through a program
  > Autonomous Diagnostics to Enable Prevention and Therapeutics: Prophylactic
  > Options to Environmental and Contagious Threats (ADEPT-PROTECT). Its stated goal
  > was to develop an mRNA vaccine with the capability to suppress a global pandemic
  > within 60 days. (2013)

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#38

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

csense wrote: post #35
boroboro4 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is so unfortunate given the potential mRNA vaccines and therapies have. They would have made fighting flu so much easier (for the context current flu vaccines take a lot of time to be made each season and hence not very agile towards dominant strain and sometimes miss it a lot, mRNA potentially improves this).

The problem I've had with MRNA vaccines is that we decided a lengthy multi-year trial protocol was necessary to ensure vaccines are safe and effective. Then COVID hit, and suddenly we decided to rush MRNA [1] vaccines into mass production without those protocols. Moreover, at one point they wanted to force [2] them on the population. The thing that bothered me most is the government passed a law to prevent people fro…

The right's "rushed into production" talking point is especially amusing given their other messaging about cutting through government red tape. It's all just vibes.

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#39

Post by boroboro4 »

csense wrote: post #35
boroboro4 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is so unfortunate given the potential mRNA vaccines and therapies have. They would have made fighting flu so much easier (for the context current flu vaccines take a lot of time to be made each season and hence not very agile towards dominant strain and sometimes miss it a lot, mRNA potentially improves this).

The problem I've had with MRNA vaccines is that we decided a lengthy multi-year trial protocol was necessary to ensure vaccines are safe and effective. Then COVID hit, and suddenly we decided to rush MRNA [1] vaccines into mass production without those protocols. Moreover, at one point they wanted to force [2] them on the population. The thing that bothered me most is the government passed a law to prevent people fro…

> The problem I've had with MRNA vaccines is that we decided a lengthy multi-year trial protocol was necessary to ensure vaccines are safe and effective.

I, actually, agree on this. It was hard balancing act of protecting the population (quite successfully I will note) vs lack of perfect certainty about safety. I've read there've been clinical trials of other mRNA vaccines in mid 2010s so there've been some research data available.

Now, on other hand, we have a lot of data to dig into and seemingly to prove safety of the vaccines.

> Moreover, at one point they wanted to force [2] them on the population.

Yeah, I think this wasn't a good idea. Especially after it was clear we're not getting full protection and covid turning to be endemic.

> If the vaccine really is safe and effective, why was the waiver necessary?

Balancing act mentioned above protecting suppliers, won't be surprised if it was part of negotiations between government and vaccine manufacturers.

I think we can see mRNA vaccine are mostly safe (and we'll get even better certainty about it as time passes) which is given how cool the technology is opens up a lot of opportunities.

Re: US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

#40

Post by leoh »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #2

This seems kind of bad.

Fortunately, Moderna is well capitalized and will likely find ways to continue development of said vaccine if the risks (financial, health-wise, etc.) are outweighed by anticipated benefits; this is one of the advantages of capitalistic systems. That said, certainly, yes, cancelling a contract like this is not ideal.
Post reply on HN