Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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biodoc
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Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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It's early phase 3 efficacy data and safety data will come in a week or so but it looks good so far. Time will tell.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54873105
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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The National Health Service (NHS) in England is preparing to start distributing possible COVID-19 vaccines before Christmas in case one is ready by the end of the year.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be one of the first from big pharma to be submitted for regulatory approval, along with Pfizer and BioNTech's candidate. Keeping fingers crossed..
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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I will be so glad when we can go back to living life normal again. This COVID restrictions bullshit is really annoying.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Points to keep in mind, straight from biodoc's link to BBC:
Are there any potential problems?

There are still many unanswered questions as this is only interim data.

We do not know if the vaccine stops you spreading the virus or just from developing symptoms. Or if it works equally well in high-risk elderly people.

The biggest question - how long does immunity last - will take months or potentially years to answer.

There are also massive manufacturing and logistical challenges in immunising huge numbers of people, as the vaccine has to be kept in ultra-cold storage at below minus 80C.

The vaccine appears safe from the large trials so far but nothing, including paracetamol, is 100% safe.
Re, logistical challenges: In Germany for example, it is stated that (a) vaccinations will start at earliest in spring 2021, (b) it will take many months to vaccinate a larger set of the population, quite possibly into the year 2022. (Therefore the government was quick to announce that vaccinations will be limited to risk patients and healthcare workers during the first part (months?) of a vaccination effort.) Now let's hope that the vaccine is effective for at least a year, and that the virus doesn't mutate faster than we can look at it.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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@StefanR5R all the points made in the BBC article are valid along with the points you made. However, a high rate of efficacy in the early stages of a phase III clinical is most encouraging. :) The Oxford vaccine uses a different delivery system so I'm hopeful their vaccine will also show efficacy in the clinic. I suspect the latter vaccine will have much less stringent storage requirements. A storage requirement of -80C will make distribution in remote areas much more difficult.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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I just heard a radio broadcast interview with the leader of an immunological and vaccine research team of Berlin Charité. The discussion turned to the sometimes very low efficiency of vaccines against seasonal flu. In this context, he stated that corona viruses have a significantly lower mutation rate compared with influenza viruses, because the former are equipped with certain enzymes which reduce errors during reproduction of the virus. Therefore he said that his prognosis is that a vaccination against SARS-COV2 is likely to bring immunity which lasts for a few years, such that yearly refreshes (or worse) would not be necessary.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Interesting read on Covid-19 variants. link
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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StefanR5R wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 5:52 am I just heard a radio broadcast interview with the leader of an immunological and vaccine research team of Berlin Charité. The discussion turned to the sometimes very low efficiency of vaccines against seasonal flu. In this context, he stated that corona viruses have a significantly lower mutation rate compared with influenza viruses, because the former are equipped with certain enzymes which reduce errors during reproduction of the virus. Therefore he said that his prognosis is that a vaccination against SARS-COV2 is likely to bring immunity which lasts for a few years, such that yearly refreshes (or worse) would not be necessary.
I remember reading something about that a while back also. That's good for eradicating covid. So far, humanity has only eradicated one disease which is smallpox. So it's technically feasible for us to eradicate COVID-19, but only if we can figure out a faster way to identify the infection; animals can't catch it and of course if the vaccine is effective at preventing the spread between humans.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Did we not eradicate polio?
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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crashtech wrote: Sat Jan 16, 2021 1:55 pm Did we not eradicate polio?
According to this link, polio has been eradicated in all continents except Asia. It's still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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biodoc wrote: Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:31 am Interesting read on Covid-19 variants. link
Coincidentally, just now I heard a radio interview, recorded January 14, with an epidemiologist on the topic of the current mutations. It was said that there is a suspicion that immune escape is beginning now with the Brazilian variant, but it is not clear-cut yet, it is still merely a suspicon.

sciencemag wrote:For now, increased transmissibility is the biggest worry, says virologist Angela Rasmussen of Georgetown University. “I’m puzzled why [that] isn’t a bigger part of the conversation,” she says.
Of which discussion? Probably not the epidemiologic discussion. On the variants with a higher R_0 value ( = the transmission rate if no anti-epidemic measures were taken at all), it was said in this radio interview that these mutations don't really change what anti-epidemic steps to take. As an example, the problem that 6 feet/ 2 m distance are not safe in closed rooms (therefore: vent the rooms, or wear masks) has not changed at all with the emergence of these variants. What these variants with higher R_0 change is that governments use the presence of this type of mutations as an invalid excuse when some anti-epidemic measures turned out insufficient or even as failure, or as a cheap but flawed argument when introducing new measures.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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The AstraZeneca vaccine costs the EU € 1.78 per unit.
Countries such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa pay € 5.25.
Uganda has to pay $ 7, apparently. (€ 5.79?)

It's good to be rich!
Well, almost. One of the consequences is that the EU is receiving only half as much vaccine from AstraZeneca in the 1st quarter than was initially agreed upon.

"We are committed to operating in a way that recognises the interconnection between business growth, the needs of society and the limitations of our planet." – AstraZeneca
Interconnection very well recognized indeed.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Biontech/Pfizer on the other hand say that they take higher prices in countries with high incomes, vs. lower prices in countries with middle and lower incomes.

Originally, Biontech/Pfizer asked the EU for € 54 per dose, presumably going by the economic damage which the pandemic causes to the EU. This was negotiated down to € 15.50 which is similar to what the USA are paying. (source in German)
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Somewhere I had read that the EU spent more time negotiating price than some other countries, and this affected its place in the queue for vaccines. I don't know if there's any truth to that.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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It's true. They also weren't among the earliest to bet on the viability of mRNA vaccines, but they had hopes for more classic vaccines, e.g. a French development which then went nowhere. Also, approval processes took more time than in some other countries (IMO, it's good to be thorough) although the EU approvals are emergency approvals too. But of course purchases were made long before approval.

Throughout January and February, German media made a huge deal out of the slow beginning of the vaccination campaign, but this media buzz seems to subside now. Personally, I found all these hubbub rather absurd: (a) It was very well known since about last summer how (not so) fast this can go even in the best case. And the way how the development of vaccines then turned out was perhaps rather close to the best case, I think. (b) The EU is nevertheless one of the few privileged places in the world WRT access to vaccines. But hardly anybody seems to care what goes on elsewhere, even though it does affect us. (It's a pandemic after all.)
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Keep an eye on the data coming in from Israel, which has an a very aggressive vaccination effort.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Charts and maps of vaccination progress across the world, which vaccines are used where, and more:
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

(111 countries haven't started vaccinations yet, for various reasons.)
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Got my 2nd shot of Moderna last week and saw on the vaccination record card you get
when you get the shots, both shots were 0.5ml. My wife got her first shot today of Pfizer
and it was 0.3ml. Just a little different
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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There's good news for Germany and the rest of the EU.

BioNTech SE today announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the manufacturing of the COVID-19 vaccine drug product at the facility in Marburg. This facility will be delivering vaccine sometime in the second half of April and is capable of generating 1 billion does per year.

EDIT: More good news on the storage conditions for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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I was able to get my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday of this week. I wasn't in an age bracket or have health issues that would have gotten early access to the vaccine, but my state opened it up for everybody and I was able to get right in by scheduling in a far away rural area. As far as I have read it's about 2 weeks after the first shot that you're fairly well protected, so I still have a week and a half or so until I'm hopefully protected from getting COVID, but I was still pretty happy about being able to get the vaccine.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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From merely a few months ago:
StefanR5R wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 5:52 am I just heard a radio broadcast interview with the leader of an immunological and vaccine research team of Berlin Charité. The discussion turned to the sometimes very low efficiency of vaccines against seasonal flu. In this context, he stated that corona viruses have a significantly lower mutation rate compared with influenza viruses, because the former are equipped with certain enzymes which reduce errors during reproduction of the virus. Therefore he said that his prognosis is that a vaccination against SARS-COV2 is likely to bring immunity which lasts for a few years, such that yearly refreshes (or worse) would not be necessary.
I now heard a new interview with (I think) the same researcher. He said that it is now evident that the huge number of infections causes the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus happening similarly fast as the evolution of the influenza viruses, regarding antigen drift. I.e. the large number of cases counteracts the inherently low mutation rate. Only once we get out of the pandemic situation – maybe in 5 years, he said – will immunity against this¹ coronavirus, and efficacy of vaccines, begin to last for longer.

__________
¹) There are many more lined up for the next epidemics.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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I've been following US vaccination stats and found this disappointing. Some states are doing quite well and others are lagging behind. I guess this isn't surprising.

Image

Canada finally has access to vaccines and has blown by the US and may soon overtake the UK in the share of the total population that received at least one vaccine dose. Go Canada! :) Source

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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Your last plot includes the whole population, these figures show just those aged 18 or over across the 4 nations of the UK...

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Source and more facts here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55274833
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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There's a lot of anti-vax misinformation going around my state as well as a lot of people apathetic about getting the vaccine even if they're not actually anti vax. They had to offer a million dollar lottery just to try to get people to get vaccinated.
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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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Icecold wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 3:01 pm hey had to offer a million dollar lottery just to try to get people to get vaccinated.
Is it working?

In Canada ~55% of the population have received one dose, but only 5% are fully vaccinated. Hopefully they will have enough of the various vaccines to administer the second dose in the appropriate time-frame.

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Re: Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine looks encouraging

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biodoc wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 3:32 pm
Icecold wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 3:01 pm They had to offer a million dollar lottery just to try to get people to get vaccinated.
Is it working?
Seems like it. I looked up some numbers and this was the headline on one of the news articles - Ohio sees COVID vaccination rate soar 45% since announcing Vax-A-Million lottery . There's definitely a lot of people I know talking about it, but most were people that were already vaccinated. There's still 4 more 1 million dollar drawings, I'll let you guys know if I win one of them :lol:
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