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

Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 1001 posts

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#21

Post by st1x7 »

refurb wrote: post #10
3dbrows wrote: post #5

At the time of writing (2020-11-09 12:04 UTC) the article uses "90% of people" and "90% protection" interchangeably. I assume it means "90% of individuals achieve immunity", rather than "individuals achieve 90% immunity". EDIT: See child comment re: Pfizer press release. EDIT 2: See [1] for said press release, which has more detailed information than the BBC article. [1] https://investors.pfizer.com/investor-news/pre…

From Pfizer's press release, they use "vaccine efficacy" which has a very specific definition. "Vaccine efficacy is the percentage reduction of disease in a vaccinated group of people compared to an unvaccinated group" So basically a 90% reduction in Covid infection.

Can't that be interpreted as either of the options in the parent comment?

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#22

Post by FirstLvR »

3dbrows wrote: post #5

At the time of writing (2020-11-09 12:04 UTC) the article uses "90% of people" and "90% protection" interchangeably. I assume it means "90% of individuals achieve immunity", rather than "individuals achieve 90% immunity". EDIT: See child comment re: Pfizer press release. EDIT 2: See [1] for said press release, which has more detailed information than the BBC article. [1] https://investors.pfizer.com/investor-news/pre…

thank you, this makes more sense

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#25

Post by jyoshi »

TremendousJudge wrote: post #15
3dbrows wrote: post #5

At the time of writing (2020-11-09 12:04 UTC) the article uses "90% of people" and "90% protection" interchangeably. I assume it means "90% of individuals achieve immunity", rather than "individuals achieve 90% immunity". EDIT: See child comment re: Pfizer press release. EDIT 2: See [1] for said press release, which has more detailed information than the BBC article. [1] https://investors.pfizer.com/investor-news/pre…

First phrasing makes more sense than the second one to me -- what would it even mean for somebody to be "90% immune" to a disease?

Perhaps its something like "90% percent of the individuals' immune system are successful in quick eliminating covid without any symptoms or adverse reactions".

I admit I know very little on how immunity to diseases work, but I imagine that with viruses there is a chance it'll progress to a full blown infection even if you are vaccinated in some cases.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#26

Post by himlion »

zpeti wrote: post #17

Seems like a good time to buy shares in whoever manufactures industrial sized extra cold freezers.

So which company benefits the most here? From a cursory googling the following seem decent:

- The Whirlpool Corporation - Electrolux AB - LG Electronics Inc.

problem is these companies have a lot of exposure to other sectors as well of course.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#27

Post by bjarneh »

TremendousJudge wrote: post #15
3dbrows wrote: post #5

At the time of writing (2020-11-09 12:04 UTC) the article uses "90% of people" and "90% protection" interchangeably. I assume it means "90% of individuals achieve immunity", rather than "individuals achieve 90% immunity". EDIT: See child comment re: Pfizer press release. EDIT 2: See [1] for said press release, which has more detailed information than the BBC article. [1] https://investors.pfizer.com/investor-news/pre…

First phrasing makes more sense than the second one to me -- what would it even mean for somebody to be "90% immune" to a disease?

> what would it even mean for somebody to be "90% immune" to a disease?

Hasn't this virus already mutated to a bunch of different strands? Could it mean you're immune to 90% of the known variations of the virus?

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#28

Post by andy_ppp »

bpizzi wrote: post #23

Also interesting to note that this is a mRNA vaccine, where the production of antigen within the cell is induced by injecting a RNA sequence instead of a disabled virus.

What extra does a virus have over and above some RNA? Is it just a spike protein for injection into a cell or does it depend?

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#29

Post by salex89 »

Great news, but I think the importance of the -80 degrees centigrade storage requirement is underestimated.

Serbia, where I live, has ordered this vaccine. And our medical system is far from world-class, but leaps and bounds from less developed countries, and I honestly think logistics here will not be able to match those requirements. I've seen tetanus vaccines just being kept in regular, commercial, refrigerators. There have been cases where they have been switched off because they were not on UPSs or not up to standards. Vehicles equipped for transport are an issue by itself.

Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

#30

Post by londons_explore »

codeulike wrote: post #3

Great. This is the one that has to be kept ultra cold. Hoping for good news about some of the other vaccines in Phase 3 trials soon. The vaccine reportedly needs to be held in storage at -94° Fahrenheit (-70°c), and will last for only 24 hours at refrigerated temps between 35.6° and 46.4°. (about 2° to 8° c) from https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/pfizer-moderna-s-...

While it's a minor logistical challenge, it's simple enough to ship this in a liquid nitrogen dewar.

Even very small cities will have liquid nitrogen facilities. Shipping from the nearest city to most of the population sounds very doable in 24 hours.

Remember you only need to get most of the population to halt the spread. If there's some tiny village 3 days hike away in the rainforest, you can skip them.

Post reply on HN