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Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

reuters.com

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Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#81

Post by emteycz »

bb123 wrote: post #79
corty wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they are currently just requiring export licenses "to get an overview". Up to now, all export requests have been granted and there are large parts of the world where no license is required: https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/weltwirtschaft/eu-impfs... Overall I would call it useless EU blustering, there won't be an export ban, no matter what happens. It is just the minimum required measure to save face.

Also lets not forget that this was specifically targeting the UK, not the rest of the world.

Are you saying EU specifically tried to ban export to UK while export to the rest of the world is ok?

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#82

Post by snakeboy »

ancymon wrote: post #17

As I understand, for example in Europe Pfizer is producing vaccines in single factory and not in sufficient number. Why production doesn't happen in more places? Couldn't they sell license to other European pharmaceutical companies to produce it? Is production process so unique it can't be replicated in other places?

Derek Lowe has a nice short article explaining how the mRNA vaccines require very specialized manufacturing processes that are a bit of a bottleneck.

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/my...

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#83

Post by pa7x1 »

scrollaway wrote: post #60
pa7x1 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most developed countries seem to be able to deploy close to 100% of the vaccines provided so far, modulo whatever strategy they have chosen regarding keeping some amount of second doses in storage. So that doesn't seem to be bottleneck. Israel simply paid more and bought a larger amount of vaccines delivered earlier. Which is smart but it's not a strategy that all countries can replicate, not because we cannot afford…

I have yet to be convinced that paying the vaccine suppliers more is zero sum. More money potentially means more production / faster scaling up.

Vaccine production started way before the Phase 3 results were out. You cannot know ahead of time for which vaccines you should make a strong bet. Now we can prop-up production of the successful vaccines and they are doing so.

Anyway, getting the first vaccines is always going to be zero-sum for the same reason getting first-row in a concert is zero sum.

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#84

Post by underdeserver »

scrollaway wrote: post #5

Israel feels like the only nation taking the importance and urgency of vaccination seriously. Here in Europe, articles are coming out complaining that the slow vaccination could be harming the economy which, well, fucking duh. ( https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/154626/c... ) Fast rollout. Involve pharmacies. Involve the army. Distribute widely and efficiently. Prepare for months before the vaccine…

Israel had a very good starting point - the 4 mandatory healthcare providers (Clalit, Maccabi, Leumit, Meukhedet), who due to a voucher system could only compete on service. They had every interest to digitize and improve efficiency over the past decade or so.

That's why they did digitize - every resident has a digital medical file, and healthcare providers can easily track and report back to Pfizer and the ministry of health on side effects and efficacy (i.e. it's easy to look up who got the vaccine and when, when they get admitted to a hospital with COVID).

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#85

Post by ummonk »

chimprich wrote: post #32
ancymon wrote: post #17

As I understand, for example in Europe Pfizer is producing vaccines in single factory and not in sufficient number. Why production doesn't happen in more places? Couldn't they sell license to other European pharmaceutical companies to produce it? Is production process so unique it can't be replicated in other places?

Short answer: apparently, yes. The process is too unique and new to just be replicated in other factories. Derek Lowe has an in-depth and readable explanation: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/my...

He identified the microfluidic liquid nanoparticle assembly machines as the bottleneck but didn't specify why their manufacture can't be spread up. We should be purchasing the IP for hundreds of billions of dollars and open sourcing the technology, not leaving it up to the companies to slowly set up their facilities and build manufacturing partnerships.

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#86

Post by est31 »

lnsru wrote: post #7
lukeitup wrote: post #4

That is some well needed news! Just hope that Europe will speed up its vaccine distribution now.

It will not happen in Europe soon. The vaccine will be sold by manufacturers to highest bidder, that’s no surprise. And with the European ordering disaster as an adult I’ll get vaccinated best case in 2022.

Even if the EU had made different deals, doubling the price won't make production capacity appear out of nowhere. The UK and Israel can get vaccines in such large quantities because they are comparatively small countries. The EU might outbid those countries, but the gain of displacing them, while costing a lot, will distribute among the huge european population and thus will only shorten the wait period for individuals a little.

Yes, maybe the EU could have tried working harder in ensuring they produce vaccines in enough quantities. This has cost real lives. That being said, a rushed and faulty vaccine is extremely harmful for public health as well, as it breeds anti-vaxxers and the time the next pandemic comes around, people will distrust the vaccine.

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#87

Post by baq »

scrollaway wrote: post #24
kjakm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK has (first-dose) vaccinated close to a quarter of the population now. Given the vast population difference between it and Israel it seems to be doing pretty well too.

Yes I agree, the UK is also doing very well considering. It just baffles me that no other country is even in the same category as israel in terms of readiness, despite nine months to prepare.

most countries of the EU vaccinate at perhaps 20% capacity due just because there isn't enough supply.

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#88

Post by bb123 »

top_sigrid wrote: post #28
lnsru wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will not happen in Europe soon. The vaccine will be sold by manufacturers to highest bidder, that’s no surprise. And with the European ordering disaster as an adult I’ll get vaccinated best case in 2022.

I am not to sure you have that right. Europe's mistake was to spread vaccine orders with manufacturers without ordering enough from each. For Germany the numbers publicly reported have gotten more conrete the last few weeks. While there are only few doses for the first quater (about 18mio for 9 mio people ~ 11% of the population), in the second quarter there will be lots of doses delivered. Confirmed numbers are, tha…

It is also worth mentioning that the AstraZeneca vaccine is being sold at cost. They're not making any profit from it.

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#89

Post by lordnacho »

scrollaway wrote: post #5

Israel feels like the only nation taking the importance and urgency of vaccination seriously. Here in Europe, articles are coming out complaining that the slow vaccination could be harming the economy which, well, fucking duh. ( https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/154626/c... ) Fast rollout. Involve pharmacies. Involve the army. Distribute widely and efficiently. Prepare for months before the vaccine…

The thing I don't get is why not try to mass manufacture the candidates before we know they are effective? It seems the work of what drug to make was done really quickly, and most of the time is spent in the trials, and then mass production.

Maybe I missed it, but you'd think with something so devastating we'd just make a bunch of candidates, get them out to the clinics for storage, and as soon as we thought a given candidate was effective start injecting everyone?

And if a given drug doesn't work, what's a few billion?

Re: Israeli study finds 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 cases with Pfizer vaccine

#90

Post by EdwinLarkin »

With the number of lockdowns in Europe it feels like a spit to the face for all of the businesses and tax payers in Europe.

Even throwing more money at the problem sounds better than not doing anything but I wish the EU would have forced Pfizer/Biontech and other pharma companies to just produce the vaccine en masse.

This is a war time and only those that cant fight back are forced to suck it up.

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