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Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

ox.ac.uk

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Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#361

Post by CaptainZapp »

WalterBright wrote: post #207
bleepblorp wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Pay them their costs and not one cent more. I prefer a system where it's very worthwhile for people to risk a lot and work hard to save my life. If it was all about altruism, I doubt a vaccine would be developed for many more years.

Regarding vaccines and altruism I suggest you read up on Jonas Salk, who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines[1]

Money quote from linked article:

"News of the vaccine's success was first made public on April 12, 1955.[7] Salk was immediately hailed as a "miracle worker", and chose to not patent the vaccine or seek any profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#362

Post by tantalor »

moultano wrote: post #346
arichard123 wrote: post #315

Here [1] it says the vaccine was designed mostly over the weekend of 11th Jan 2020. Here we are 10 months later and we know it works. If our knowledge of vaccine design is so good experts can design a vaccine that works over a weekend, what new breakthroughs are required to reduce the time between then and now substantially? A lot of benefit could have been had if we'd been able to get along this path more quickly. […

Challenge trials. https://www.1daysooner.org/ If it were considered ethical to do them, we could have known in a few weeks. "Medical ethics" claims another million lives.

Good summary of problems with challenge trials for Covid:

https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/23/challenge-trials-live-co...

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#363

Post by dash2 »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #330
xiphias2 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also so far the mRNA vaccines look to have less side effects. AstraZeneca is not doing charity, it's cheaper because they have the inferior vaccine.

Fool, they literally are doing charity as they've pledged not to profit from the pandemic. It's was stated multiple times in the article that they will sell it at cost in perpetuity to poor and mid income countries and until the pandemic is considered over in rich countries.

This would be fine, but delete "fool".

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#364

Post by cuchoi »

summerlight wrote: post #131

It's interesting to layman's eyes that the dosing regime using 1.5 doses is more effective than the one using 2 doses as I would expect the inverse; are there any plausible explanations for this?

This comment seems like a reasonable hypothesis: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25184877

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#365

Post by Demiurge »

mcdowall wrote: post #5

The key differentiator here is the storage requirements (2-8c ‘normal refrigerator’). That’s much more accessible to developing / low GDP countries as opposed the cumbersome and expensive storage requirements of the other two.

Also worth mentioning, is that Russia is working on a freeze dried version: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/exclusive-russia-focuses-on-...

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#366

Post by nabla9 »

arichard123 wrote: post #315

Here [1] it says the vaccine was designed mostly over the weekend of 11th Jan 2020. Here we are 10 months later and we know it works. If our knowledge of vaccine design is so good experts can design a vaccine that works over a weekend, what new breakthroughs are required to reduce the time between then and now substantially? A lot of benefit could have been had if we'd been able to get along this path more quickly. […

Nothing. Timelines for Covid-19 vaccine are already compressed. Even this data is just preliminary from Phase III.

Limiting factor is safety and testing for safety.

They started trials with two people, one gets vaccine one gets placebo. They look for side effects then add more and more people while constantly observing those vaccinated for side effects.

Vaccines are not inherently safe, they are safe because they have gone trough huge amount of volunteer testing. If there are unwanted side-effects, vaccine is withdrawn. Since vaccines work with the immune system, you must look for autoimmune reactions, neurological symptoms etc. Some of them can emerge weeks or months later. With new mRNA vaccines there are even more unknowns.

Emergency authorization they seek means taking calculated risk. With covid-19 epidemic taking that risk is acceptable.

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#367

Post by School-Cotton »

lorenzfx wrote: post #312
School-Cotton wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Spanish Flu hasn't "come back" yet Yes it has, most recently in 2009. From Wikipedia: “ Well known outbreaks of H1N1 strains in humans include the 2009 swine flu pandemic, as well as the Spanish flu.”

I believe you misread the abstract. After reading the whole article, I believe it should be "include the `2009 swine flu pandemic`, as well as the `Spanish flu`".

How is that different from how you think I read it?

The “Spanish flu” is the name of the 1918 outbreak of H1N1. There was also a major H1N1 outbreak in 2009.

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#368

Post by allendoerfer »

egeozcan wrote: post #349
taejo wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BioNTech is not a German/Turkish company. It's a German company, two of whose founders are of Turkish descent.

As someone who migrated to Germany from Turkey, people like me (and everything we are involved in) are "German" when we do something they're[0] not proud of, we are "Turkish" if we ever come close to success, and "of Turkish descent" in the normal times. Of course it depends who you are asking :) It's a bit annoying to be honest but not a huge deal. I suppose all immigrants have similar problems. [0]: I mean people l…

I have read it‘s a bigger problem and a source for islamism, especially for the 2nd or 3rd generation of descendents of immigrants: When Germans still see you as Turkish, but Turks see you as German, it makes sense to a) be angry and b) search for some other identity.

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#369

Post by dboreham »

egeozcan wrote: post #349
taejo wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BioNTech is not a German/Turkish company. It's a German company, two of whose founders are of Turkish descent.

As someone who migrated to Germany from Turkey, people like me (and everything we are involved in) are "German" when we do something they're[0] not proud of, we are "Turkish" if we ever come close to success, and "of Turkish descent" in the normal times. Of course it depends who you are asking :) It's a bit annoying to be honest but not a huge deal. I suppose all immigrants have similar problems. [0]: I mean people l…

Same thing all over humanity: Scottish when losing the race, British when winning..

Re: Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

#370

Post by moultano »

tantalor wrote: post #362
moultano wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Challenge trials. https://www.1daysooner.org/ If it were considered ethical to do them, we could have known in a few weeks. "Medical ethics" claims another million lives.

Good summary of problems with challenge trials for Covid: https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/23/challenge-trials-live-co...

The point that challenge trials don't determine safety is accurate, but most of the article is again arguing about the ethics rather than the efficacy. Imagine if volunteers were not permitted by ethicists to storm the beaches of Normandy because their safety could not be guaranteed.

Our current testing protocol requires letting the virus rampage through the population before the trials will achieve statistical significance, which is surely more unethical than deliberately exposing a small number of people.

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