It’s just as important to get vaccine to people in Africa, Latin America, Asia etc as to people in USA. It doesn’t matter where a mutation appears, if it can bypass vaccinations it will spread all over the world.
yeah, they’ll read it as “life-long side effects”
In any case, I heard doctor say that the vaccine (for whatever reason) gives you better resistance to Covid than actually becoming infected and recovering from Covid, extraordinary but apparently true. And a reason to take the vaccine, even if you’ve already been infected.
Because we’re swimming in vaccines here in DC and because I am terrified of the delta variant, I (semi-illicitly) supplemented my J&J vaccine from April with a Pfizer jab yesterday. Will let you know if it kills me.
5 Likes
I’d like to read the full article but NYT paywall…
The extract did seem to suggest what you say
people who survived Covid-19 and were later immunized may never need them (boosters) at all.
But
That was not the next sentence in the blog post. Thus, I assume the quotes in the blog post are not sequential despite being presented as a single quote. (If so, sloppy writing by Pesco.)
But does
mean vaccination even in those who never had Covid?
Not being able to read the article leaves me confused about what is actually being said here.
As was stated elsewhere to day (I forget where I saw it) imagine a world in which everyone is vaccinated. There will still be infections but most will be mild, but there WILL still be a few deaths. The vaccine is not a perfect and universal panacea but it is as close as we are likely to get.
2 Likes
At what point will the vaccines go from being authorized for emergency use to being approved by the FDA? It seems we now have far more data available than any clinical trials could have provided.
3 Likes
Having just read the FAQ page of the Norwegian health authority (because I finally got an appointment in a week!) it is something that is being done and not considered harmful.
3 Likes
Time to lobby your government to end its vaccine nationalism then
1 Like
“My” government doesn’t listen to me–I’m a resident of DC and therefore don’t have any voting representation in the legislature.
9 Likes
Yes. The gist of the article was that the scientists showed that the germinal centers that appear after infection to train the immune response also appear after vaccination, and in both cases remain active for a long time.
2 Likes
The EUA ends when the HHS Secretary declares the emergency over. It’s unlikely that will happen before the manufacturers gain authorization through the standard process.
1 Like
At this point possibly never?
As you said, the data is clear. What incentive do the companies have to push for full approval? What incentive do FDA officials have to stick their necks out and make a change?
And on the chance that the FDA would require new “official” studies of any kind whatsoever, and not just retrospective analyses, I really don’t see anyone, anywhere signing off on studies that have anything like proper controls at this point. We know too well that it works to call not giving it to a group of patients anything other than unethical, I think.
Edit to add: maybe if we’re lucky we could end up in some bizarro world where the pandemic winds down fast enough in the US that we never get an EUA for young kids, and then it eventually gets full approval in that population later on when they make boosters for new variants? IDK, just a random thought.
Moderna and Pfizer have already submitted for full approval, and the process has been underway for weeks. It could come as early as July, or it could be a few more months.
Full approval permits the companies to advertise, so they have good incentives.
7 Likes
Thanks! That’s actually much more sanity than I normally expect from the FDA. Good to hear!
1 Like
My question wasn’t about when the emergency ends, but how much longer until these vaccines are FDA approved (and thus no longer need the EUA).
Approval would enable the various branches of the military require servicemen and women to get vaccinated. Currently, they have the right to decline the vaccine because it’s not yet FDA approved. So the government has an interest in getting these approved.
5 Likes
Which is the question I was answering. Politically, unless the manufacturers REALLY drag their feet, the HHS Sec. won’t end the emergency formally until the vaccines are ready for standard approval.
1 Like
What’s wrong with the FDA? Internationally it has a top reputation. Not like it dragged its feet or anything.
It’s also not like the FAA which internationally was perceived as a stooge for Boeing for decades. Mostly it’s perceived as better than the local alternatives.
2 Likes
You may find this of interest. Mixing works but level of efficacy may depend on which order you have them in.
2 Likes
Just for sanity purposes, I’d like to point out that full approval of a drug very typically takes years. Considering the item involved, and the scope of it, I’d expect full approval in the December timeframe optimistically. It’s never going to happen in July.
