Pfizer Covid vaccine "90% effective"

[Akimbo_NOT]

Perhaps something like this:

Shipping-container vaccination centres by Waugh Thistleton could be used to...

[Tribune]

On the other hand with the various drive through COVID testing centres there is some infrastructure that may be able to be used for distribution. At least in urban areas. Rural may be different. I foresee RVs with-80 freezers.

[ejeffrey]

@docosc

Also worth noting that this vaccine (along with the Moderna candidate vaccine) requires ultracold freezers from manufacture to administration. That will be a problem in many places.

Small clarification: ordinary refrigeration is fine for a couple weeks. So local pharmacies and clinics where the vaccine will be administered will not need -80 freezers. They still need a cold distribution and warehousing.

Edit: apparently this is only for moderna not pfeizer.

[FGD135]

One word: Liebherr.

[mcv]

Is this going to be one of those things that Europeans will get for free while most Americans won’t be able to afford it?

[Doctor_Faustus]

Now that you will have a sane president again I very much doubt it. This thing can only be contained if as many people as possible get the vaccine and Biden very much knows this.

[mcv]

Sure, but will Biden actually have the power to make it easily accessible? Especially if Mitch McConnell remains in control of the Senate.

[docosc]

I had not seen that. Would help greatly.

[LurksNoMore]

This seems very promising to me. Even if this Pfizer vaccine turns out to be a false hope, we’ve got a lot of other projects working towards a vaccine. And if it works, but has distribution difficulties due to cold storage needs, that’s still way better than no vaccine at all.

So let’s all hope this one’s good, and that someone else will come up with even better alternatives, sooner rather than later!

[rocketpj]

From a political survival point of view it would be foolish in the extreme for McConnell to block distribution of a proven vaccine. That would piss off his oligarch owners and all the others.

That being said he will probably do it until he can leverage some other evil to balance things off.

[fiatrn]

I don’t want to be a Pfizer or trump-led-government cheerleader here, but there are a few facts that the BB group is missing:

• Pfizer published their research protocols in an effort to be transparent - something that rarely happens, so is a really good sign. It allows quicker expert vetting of study results.

• The US Govt has arranged that at least 100 million doses will be given to Americans for free. Per the NYTimes: " deliver 100 million doses to the federal government, which will be given to Americans free of charge." I’m not sure I’m ok with pre-ordering medications before they are invented. But at least the government appears to be trying to get this to most people, not just those with gold star health insurance.

• It seems unlikely (my opinion) that any one vaccine will end up being used worldwide. There are about a dozen in clinical trials. So temper our happiness, but also be glad - the pace that these vaccines are being developed has never been remotely equalled, and is a sign of amazing science and effort.

[Sludge]

@cepheus42

EDIT: I stand corrected, he’s in the middle of taking full credit for the vaccine AND the stock market upswing, despite having nothing to do with either.

Oh come on, you think they’d push for this product if Trump hadn’t created the market (ten million and climbing) by doing absolutely nothing?

@beschizza (quoting BBC)

The analysis evaluated 94 confirmed Covid-19 infections among the trial’s 43,538 participants. Pfizer and BioNTech said the case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received a placebo indicated a vaccine efficacy rate of above 90% at seven days after the second dose.

It means that protection from Covid-19 is achieved 28 days after the initial vaccination, which consists of a two-dose schedule.

Wondering what happens to efficacy around 180 days, different strains etc but, that sure is a massive data pool and the article also says “from six countries.”

[Ratel]

@rocketpj

From a political survival point of view it would be foolish in the extreme for McConnell to block distribution of a proven vaccine. That would piss off his oligarch owners and all the others.

Why? They’ll get it, they don’t give a shit about peons dying, in fact they consider that a plus.

Also they, unlike Democrats, understand long term political thinking.

[ejeffrey]

It appears more complicated. Moderna is basing their trial on storage at -20C and 7 days of ordinary refrigeration. Pfeizer is being much more conservative and insisting on -60C with only 24 hours thawed.

Since they are very similar it is possible that pfeizer could later show that the extreme cold handling is not needed for stability but for now that is a pretty big requirement.

[Doctor_Faustus]

@fiatrn

Pfizer published their research protocols in an effort to be transparent - something that rarely happens, so is a really good sign. It allows quicker expert vetting of study results.

They (or rather BioNTech) are required to do so under their government grant.

[timd]

As I understood a report this morning the virus affecting the mink in Denmark, which has returned to humans, has a mutated spike protein, which would not be affected by vaccines currently in production that operate on the original spike protein.

[Shuck]

I’m fine with the Trump administration falsely claiming credit for this one - hopefully it will mean more Trump supporters will get vaccinated when a vaccine arrives (even if it doesn’t turn out to be this one).

[TheirFeldspars]

The antiviral nasal spray that’s being tested doesn’t need refrigeration. It looks promising, especially if you’re a ferret.

Nasal Spray Prevents Covid Infection in Ferrets, Study Finds

[heckblazer]

The Ebola vaccine has the same storage limitation but they were still able to distribute it in a tropical warzone earlier this year.

[Anselm]

@cepheus42

Pfizer still using all the protocols they require, but my understanding is the FDA has extra steps for live vaccines that slow things down. By not taking government money, they can avoid those steps and avoid politicizing the vaccine.

The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine is not a live-virus vaccine. It is based on mRNA.