Live data from Hacker News

First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

bbc.com

321–330 of 404 posts

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#321

Some quick points about this. The British Medical Journal and Royal Society of medicine have published a number of concerns about this vaccine. "Will covid-19 vaccines save lives? Current trials aren’t designed to tell us" https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4037 "All these data for the different vaccines are potentially very promising, but none of the phase III trials have been published in peer reviewed journals o…

Why is this downvoted? These are valid concerns with respectable citations.

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#322
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this comment getting downvoted? seems like a fair question. I've seen this now in several threads where even questioning side effects of the vaccine gets downvoted and looked down upon like they did something illegal. This is not HN I used to know.

I'm just going to write it: There's always going to be a minority that's shafted by the medical community, we don't matter as long as the majority benefits (fair enough imo, except I can't do shit even if I sign up to absolve everyone of responsibility and take it all on myself). There will be side effects, they will be dismissed by doctors, people will be marginalized, called uneducated morons and pushed towards mor…

This is a gross oversimplification and simply a dramatic response to a small problem. Yes - pharma companys do make money from these vaccines. Yes - that creates a conflict of interest.

But Im not so sure what you expect will happen here? Of course there are side effects? Every medical treatment on earth - literally since humanity started - has had side effects. The question is if those side effects are justifiable in comparison to the prevented harm to society.

And if you ask me, the prospect of millions of dead people due to, or related to covid makes a pretty huge load of side-effects tolerable if you see it like that.

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#323
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plans are expect to change as/if other vaccines become available. If the other vaccines in the pipeline get approved on the expected best case schedule we will be vaccinating anyone who wants it starting march. If there are unexpected issues things could take longer (the UK could still discover something and withdraw Pfizers' approval as a worst case)

I thought we were constrained by supply chain issues? Even if a vaccine was approved that didn't require ultra-low temperature storage, we need glass vials, etc.

Most of the supplies are very common. We make enough glass vials to contain all covid vaccines many times over - they are used for many other medical processes. There are supply chain issues with some of the chemicals needed for mRNA vaccines. I'm sure other vaccines have a different set of chemicals in short supply. Over all, the supplies that apply to all vaccines are well supplied.

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#324
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies that have a vaccine are aware of image. They know that the world is watching, and this is a big marketing opportunity. They will make a profit, but long term goodwill is more valuable than any profit they could make selling to billionaires, so I doubt anything will go to auction. The hospitals treating Saudi princes are real hospitals. So they can win auctions if it comes down to that, because they are invi…

Yes, an actual open auction would be astonishingly bad PR! But quietly, on the side? Maybe I'm a cynic but I struggle to believe the billionaires won't find a way. If not from the main production... they had 43538 phase III participants, there must be leftovers, which won't appear in the books as real production... maybe you can route those to important donors of your philanthropic arm, or something? Run some "furthe…

The risk of being caught trying to pull that off as a company are too big. Though there might be some individual who does something against company policy, but it is hard to keep such things secret if they involve more than a couple people.

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#325
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this comment getting downvoted? seems like a fair question. I've seen this now in several threads where even questioning side effects of the vaccine gets downvoted and looked down upon like they did something illegal. This is not HN I used to know.

I'm just going to write it: There's always going to be a minority that's shafted by the medical community, we don't matter as long as the majority benefits (fair enough imo, except I can't do shit even if I sign up to absolve everyone of responsibility and take it all on myself). There will be side effects, they will be dismissed by doctors, people will be marginalized, called uneducated morons and pushed towards mor…

> There will be side effects

Everything in life has side effects. Everything in life has trade offs. It's not about the lack of side effects or even their magnitude or severity, it's about balance: do they help more than they harm?

The most innocent substance out there, water, can kill you. And I don't mean drowning.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

Many of the arguments people make about modern medicine are:

A) uninformed

B) not made in good faith

Modern medicine is serving us quite well, so any counter argument better be rock solid.

I'd be curious what your specific complaint is and how you back it up.

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#326
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems almost impossible that the vaccines pose a greater risk than the risk of not using them. While this is a reasonable conclusion from what we've read in the media, it's worth noting that this is at odds with the official opinions of the EMA and the FDA. They both believe more data is needed, or that the agencies need more time to analyze the data, before they can decree that the benefits most likely outweigh…

There's also a strong political reason for the US to not approve the vaccine as fast. Fauci had to walk back[0] comments about the UK "rushing" the approval, stating "The point that I was really trying to make [...] in the United States there is such a considerable amount of tension of pushing back on the credibility of the safety and of the efficacy that if we in the United States had done it as quickly as the UK di…

> already scrutinising society that has really in some respects in the United States too much scepticism about the process

Such politeness :-))

Most people outside the US don't call what's happening in the US "scepticism" :-(

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#327
post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they don't want it, I'm more than happy to fly to the UK to get it. Hong Kong doesn't seem to want to vaccinate most people before 2022 https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/artic...

the pfizer vaccine doesn't prevent infection, but does save lives by preventing severe symptoms, which is why at-risk groups are prioritized. the vaccines that actually prevent infection are still being developed. 2022 sounds realistic for that, if not a tad early.

What do you mean it "doesn't prevent infection"? Trials showed vastly reduced infection rate amongst people who'd had the vaccine.

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#328
post #180

I work here and was in clinic this morning. We had three eligible patients. One consented to it and is having the vaccine now. The other two declined. Not making a point, just a data point.

Same thing happening on this side of the pond. It's been reported that approximately 50% of Americans say they definitely or probably would refuse a vaccine [1]. And the trend over time is more and more are planning to refuse.

Seems fitting that in a place where we can't beat the virus because of people who refuse to distance and wear a piece of cloth over their face, it's possible we won't even be able to beat it with a vaccine... because of the same assholes.

1: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/09/17/u-s-public-no...

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#329
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing the anecdote. Seems odd to me you are asking people. Isn't there a line or something? My biggest concern with virus rollout is millions of doses sitting on shelves waiting for "high priority" people to get them (who refuse) while "low priority" people are still banned from getting.

isn't there a priority list? If people refuse it should go to the next one

Yes the priorities are the over 80s, any spare slots are being given to the most-at-risk clinical groups (i.e. guessing ITU, A+E, resp and ENT). They reported internally that they administered 'dozens' today, so less than a hundred. There are some real logistical issues and it's not felt that other local centres will be able to provide it yet. It's clearly going to take a while to get this vaccine out.

Re: First person receives Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in UK

#330
post #180

I work here and was in clinic this morning. We had three eligible patients. One consented to it and is having the vaccine now. The other two declined. Not making a point, just a data point.

Same thing happening on this side of the pond. It's been reported that approximately 50% of Americans say they definitely or probably would refuse a vaccine [1]. And the trend over time is more and more are planning to refuse. Seems fitting that in a place where we can't beat the virus because of people who refuse to distance and wear a piece of cloth over their face, it's possible we won't even be able to beat it wi…

Outright refusing the vaccine is absurd, but refusing at this phase of the distribution is not.
Post reply on HN