Super neat timing
Pfizer stated it's intention to delay release of findings until after the election. This is not a surprise.
Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
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Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#212Not stated in the article: this was part of the Trump Administration DHHS's Project Warp Speed, which funded 6 different vaccines concurrently. https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-sp...
Warp Speed didn't contribute to the development of this one; they have allocated funds to buy the vaccine though
Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to rush a vaccine to market, has promised Pfizer $1.95 billion to deliver 100 million doses to the federal government, which will be given to Americans free of charge. But Dr. Jansen sought to distance the company from Operation Warp Speed and presidential politics, noting that the company — unlike the other vaccine front-runners — did not take any federal money to help pay for research and development.
“We were never part of the Warp Speed,” she said. “We have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/health/covid-vaccine-pfiz...
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except Zoom's, which fell from 514 to 410 in less than an hour. Really puts the nails in coffin of the whole "we're gonna work more remotely after the pandemic" narrative.
I don't understand, aren't future events supposed to be already considered in the stock price? It's not like a vaccine was unpredictable
Well, stock prices move right? If everything was always perfectly priced in, they'd be constant. This movement or reaction is exactly that pricing in of future events given a change in information.
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#214Good:
+ ~90% of individuals achieve immunity.
+ no significant side-effects.
Not so good:
- two doses needed, 3 weeks apart, immunity after one month from first dose. Slow rollout.
- -80C storage and transport needed. Challenging, but doable in developed countries, but still may slow down mass rollout. Not feasible in many developing countries.
I still wonder about long-term immunity. Anyone can share any insight?
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#215Why are people in the comments so interested in the reactions of stock markets? I don't understand. These are the same markets that cheer when job cuts and redundancies are announced. These are the same markets that cheer when horrible working conditions are enforced (see Tesla, Uber, Deliveroo, etc.) Why should I take the markets seriously? It's just a bunch of rich people in the end.
Just because you don't find layoffs as ideologically palpable as shedding (some or all) the inefficiency incurred by covid doesn't make the markets wrong.
There's potential for a huge gain in efficiency here. The stock market is fundamentally a long bet (if you want to short the entire market you invest in things outside it). Of course the market is exited at the long term prospects of that.
Also, you're being a little disingenuous when yo say "These are the same markets that cheer when job cuts and redundancies are announced." When one under-performing company cuts jobs it tends to go up because costs are decreased. When a well performing company announces a mass layoff it tends to be a toss up because signals are mixed. When a ton of companies announce layoffs the market tanks because the signal being sent is things are getting worse all around. You're comparing a positive reaction to a single entity event (company announces layoffs) to a positive reaction for a market wide event (potential for covid to become less of a burden on the economy as a whole). You can't cross compare as if they're 1:1 like that.
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#216Pfizer's press release with more information: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201109005539/en/ - Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis - Analysis evaluated 94 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in trial participants - Study enrolled 43,538 participants, with 42% having div…
"diverse backgrounds"
What does that mean exactly? Surely a random sample of people will have diverse backgrounds.
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. Congratulations and thanks to everybody who worked so hard on this.
Screw the media for pushing this and lockdown as the only possible solution. This will still take ages to be rolled out.
No, it won't. they are projecting 50 million doses to be ready in 2020 and 1.1 billion next year. That means that mom and dad and grandma are likely to get it within the next few months and that by mid next year, you'll probably have access to it if you are a healthy thirty year old.
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#218I wonder if the people scared of permanent damage caused by Covid (for which there is no evidence) will be equally scared of the permanent damage caused by this experimental vaccine (for which there is no evidence either).
Experimental vaccine? I disagree.
Nearly 45,000 people have taken this vaccine, and they have been monitored for months to make sure no adverse reactions have happened.
Combine that with the fact that we live in 2020, and that our knowledge of vaccine science is much better than it was just a couple of decades ago, and it's hard to believe that this is an "experimental" vaccine.
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#219Why are people in the comments so interested in the reactions of stock markets? I don't understand. These are the same markets that cheer when job cuts and redundancies are announced. These are the same markets that cheer when horrible working conditions are enforced (see Tesla, Uber, Deliveroo, etc.) Why should I take the markets seriously? It's just a bunch of rich people in the end.
If the markets react that means it is probably significant news, since the people who have millions at stake think this is enough to increase the future outlook of the top companies. You should take them seriously because the markets reflect the thoughts of hundreds of thousands of people who's salary depends on trying to find out what the future looks like. Not sure what would be a better indicator of whether news is significant or not.
Now of course what is good for top companies may not be good for individuals, so you can't just say that a stock price increase means people's lives are going to be better. But I think you can say that a stock market increase means the news you are seeing is more likely to be important.
Re: Covid vaccine: First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection
#220Besides the 90% protection, does the research or testing imply a reduced severity should one actually catch the disease by rolling a 92 on the dice? I'm presuming the white blood cells and t-cells can act as de-escalators but I don't really know.