Some actual initial good news:
BREAKING: Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is strongly effective, early data from large trial indicate https://t.co/mPdGZj8OpE
— STAT (@statnews) November 9, 2020
We are waiting on safety data. But this is unalloyedly good news. A vaccine candidate is showing significant and meaningful efficacy in an interim analysis.
There are a lot of steps still to take from promising Phase 3 results to jabs in the arm that result in herd immunity. The biggest challenge will be logistics and ethical distribution of the vaccine which will be limited in availability for the next couple of months. Which countries get how many doses, how are they prioritized within a country and then the actual challenge of maintaining a dedicated logistics system for distribution still need to be solved.
Vaccination as a route to herd immunity requires time. We are facing an absolutely hideous winter.
This morning, COVIDExitStrategy.Org had no Green states on the map for the first time since May 15th.
The Dakotas are experiencing over 1,300 new cases per million residents per day. Wisconsin is just under 1,000 new cases per million residents per day. Months of this type of unconstrained spread will eventually lead to herd immunity. Months of unconstrained outbreaks will lead to hospitals overflowing and significant increases in mortality.
This morning’s announcement should increase our confidence that a vaccine or a set of vaccines will be arriving soon enough. And once those vaccines arrive in large enough numbers, the combination of vaccinated individuals and recovered individuals will also create some degree of common, shared protection.
The major question then is what happens in between the now and the likely future?
Do we still let everything rip? Or do we still engage in mass public health measures to suppress viral spread in order to see our hospitals still mostly functioning and a lot more people alive in six months to get vaccinated?
That is going to be the big choice this winter.
Baud
Excellent.
I think one of the problems we’ll have is that people are going to be less likely to accept economic or social sacrifices if a vaccine is right around the corner. And it’s been hard enough already.
MJS
Thank you Pfizer for not announcing this early last week.
raven
@Baud: So they should not have made the announcement ?
Baud
@raven:
I didn’t imply that. Just observing the practical difficulties we’ll face.
p.a.
@MJS:
Yes! ??????????Golf claps
FridayNext
Just two days after Biden won. Coincidence?
Baud
@FridayNext:
Probably.
YY_Sima Qian
IIRC, this is vaccine that requires – 76 degrees C storage. Distribution will be a major challenge.
BeautifulPlumage
Thank you, David, for continuing your posts through the madness.
I agree that any vaccine against this virus is good news, but to clarify, is this the vaccine given in two doses, and needs to be stored at -80 degrees? Or is this a single dose?
debbie
I hope they release other information, like side effects.
debbie
@BeautifulPlumage:
It is, according to the linked article.
BeautifulPlumage
@debbie: thanks! BJ has been loading very slow lately, so I missed that.
debbie
@BeautifulPlumage:
The article also said side effects were comparable to the pneumonia vaccine, fwiw.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud:
You may be right, but it’s always seemed to me that they should be MORE willing. The imminent vaccine means this won’t just go on forever, and you don’t want to get sick just before you could have gotten vaccinated!
The bigger danger is people not realizing that they still have to do the COVID-control stuff for a while when they’ve been vaccinated. Because the vaccine isn’t 100% effective for you personally, and not enough people have been vaccinated to stop the spread.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Good point about the possible effect on willingness to take proper precautions. If we had a competent admin in place, public health experts could explain the distribution timeline, etc. But we won’t have that until next year.
Sab
1300 new cases per 1,000,000 residents is a weird sounding statistic, since neither state actually has a million residents.
raven
@Betty Cracker: Well played Saturday
Betty Cracker
O/T: Our power is out already, and the tropical storm is still hundreds of miles away. Jeesh. For some reason, the power outage made the Roomba start sweeping, and its guidance system must be buggered somehow because it threw itself over the relatively high threshold to the porch, which it has never done before. Oh well, you want to sweep the porch little buddy? Go right ahead. :)
NotMax
People will be rebellious upon discovering they’re not in the highest priority group for rollout of any vaccine.
WereBear
YES we have to stop the spread. It’s DEATH, okay?
Okay, people want to go to bars. I understand there’s tons of commercial space going begging. Why not expand the premises? Instead of throwing people out, let bouncers enforce social distancing and masks. have bar only chat lines so they can giggle at each other six feet apart — who can hear sweet nothings in a bar anyway?
As always, people of limited imagination declare a binary non-solution when there really is one out there. They are just too mean and stunted to climb out of their usual rut.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Thank you! I wasn’t going to say a word. ;-)
Felt like Christmas in November, what with the race being called for Biden and then that game on the same day.
Sab
@Betty Cracker: Modern storm issues now include roombas run amok. Good to know.
Matt McIrvin
Cheryl is sounding a properly skeptical note on Twitter: they haven’t released data.
I’m already seeing people complain that “maniacs on the left” won’t give Trump any credit for rapid vaccine development. I’ll credit him with one thing: he’s helped so many people catch the virus that it’s really sped up the field trials.
Nobody in particular
We do both, meaning lockdowns and vaxxing as soon as possible. Unless we can increase the number of ICU beds available overnight, so… both.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: One more reason to hate technology.
raven
They started f2f school today. I realize there is risk but seeing the kids in the morning is something we really missed.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
People aren’t logical.
Sab
@NotMax: Be interesting to see if the olds get it because they are high risk and vote, or don’t get it because they are no longer useful.
I am all for medical people being first, second and third in line.
raven
@Sab: I wonder if veterans will be high priority?
Cheryl Rofer
Facebones
Trump will do nothing to stop the spread, except whine about how he should get credit for his beautiful vaccine.
Hopefully, now that the Republican governors no longer have to bend the knee to Trump, they can actually do things to help their constituents. Utah declared a state of emergency last night, hopefully more will do the same. (Of course, there are plenty of true believer Covid deniers, too. So probably nothing much happens till January.)
Cheryl Rofer
LOL, don’t forget us!
Baud
@Facebones:
I don’t care if he gets credit. I don’t think he did anything different on that front than any normal president would do. But whatever. The notion that Trump only has to so one good thing to make up for all the bad is not one I subscribe to.
scottinnj
It is also a two dose vaccine taken about 3 weeks apart. which means we need to distribute 660m doses not 330m. Their PR says 50m doses could be available by year end and ‘up to’ 1.3bn in 2021.So by YE we might have 25m vaccinated and (assuming they make 100m doses a month) another 50m/month vaccinated. I’m not sure how many of the 100m doses are in the US and how many in the rest of the world. Also note there are a few other Phase 3 trials and we should get readouts by end of year there.
tl;dr this seems very good news but we still have about 2-6 hard months to get through.
Mai Naem mobile
@MJS: lol my thought is there will be a MAGAT conspiracy theory that Pfizer waited till after Biden won to announce ir.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mai Naem mobile: I am already seeing that question on Twitter.
Kay
Oh, good news. Especially since now we have a shot at having a comprehensive national distribution program that actually functions.
PAM Dirac
@Matt McIrvin:
Except the Pfizer/BioNTech effort choose to stay out of the drumpf “Warp Speed” mess. I suspect that wasn’t directly responsible for their apparent success, but probably indirectly in that smart people stay away from anything run by the drumpf idiots.
trnc
They didn’t stop being republicans. They may wind up responding better because they don’t have the prez pressuring them not to, but they will absolutely by god shovel all the credit they can to DT because perpetual victimhood is their entire brand.
JPL
@Kay: That was my thought earlier, when I read the news. Jared would assure that the vaccine went to rural red states first, and somehow money would land in his and his friends pockets.
PenAndKey
@scottinnj: I’m absolutely not a lawyer, but why are we just relying on Pfizer’s manufacturing capability here? This seems like a prime candidate for invoking the Defense Production Act and any international equivalent. If there’s a working vaccine we should be mandating that literally every facility on the planet that has the capability to produce it do so.
bbleh
Do we still let everything rip? Or do we still engage in mass public health measures
I expect it will vary by community. I think cities will have no choice but to (continue to) try to curb the spread, and even go back to (partial or full) lockdowns if necessary. I think some rural communities will (continue to) pitch a fit about following even the simplest containment measures, will suffer widespread sickness and death, and will deny/ignore it and/or blame it on Obama
A lot will depend on governors. Northeastern and West Coast governors will be sensible and forward-thinking. The Kristi Noems of the world will (continue to) engage in delusion and denial. DeSantis, Abbott … I’m really not sure, but I wouldn’t bet heavily on them being sensible.
JPL
I hope that the new administration receives the vaccine early on. They will be essential employees starting in January.
ryk
@PenAndKey:
I’ve been assuming that Biden would invoke the act for the vaccine and for the needed tests
trnc
I hope you aren’t waiting for Chuck Todd to point that out. The media have been somewhat better at pushing back on DT, but they’re already trending back to seeking out republican commentary vs democrats by a large margin. After the 2016 election, NPR checked in with DT supporters twice a week for weeks and mostly ignored Clinton voters. You can bet your ass they’ll be doing regular check-ins with DT’s voters again for a while, and if the subject of the vaccine doesn’t figure prominently, I’ll eat my mousepad.
PenAndKey
You may as well get your ketchup ready. They’re already going nuts on social media about it. By this time tomorrow (hell, by later today) I fully expect one of the usual GOP legislative suspects to demand an inquiry into collusion between the Biden campaign and Pfizer.
SFAW
@Facebones:
You’re less cynical than I: I half-expect him not only to take credit, but to demand a re-vote because the Demon-rats prevented Pfizer from announcing their “big, beautiful” vaccine, just so they could cheat the President-for-Life out of votes.
Nina
I think that vaccines are something that need to be grown, so scaling up depends on how fast your core stock can multiply?
randy khan
@Matt McIrvin:
Pfizer didn’t participate in Project Warp Speed, so it’s literally true that the Trump Administration shouldn’t get any credit for this.
SFAW
@trnc:
Were it not for a certain logistical problem, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went back to having John McCain on “Meet the Press” every Sunday. Maybe they’ll pivot to Rudy?
scottinnj
@PenAndKey: I am not a pharmaceutical operations executive but making vaccines is likely an extremely complicated and precise biologic process. It isn’t like there is a lot of spare capacity sitting around. Nor can you switch a car factory over to this easily. Plus you have to get the ‘stuff’ that goes into making the vaccines and again only so much.
I would think Pfizer will be able to go to, say, Merck, and get them to manufacture some. Normally that would anti-competitive practices but I’m sure the FDA would waive that to get more doses out there.
SFAW
@PenAndKey:
I think you’re saying the same thing as trnc, so he/she need not worry about the mousepad. And I absolutely agree with your “inquiry” speculation. Graham-a Wormtongue has already announced plans for investigations into vote fraud in Blue states, but I’m sure he’ll have time to address this.
randy khan
Obviously some people will say the looming availability of a vaccine means you should just open up the economy (the same people who think tax cuts are the solution to every economic problem), but from my perspective the potential availability of a vaccine makes it more important to push hard to prevent cases now. Every death we have between now and when the vaccine is widely distributed is a death we could have prevented in the long run.
Amir Khalid
@WereBear:
The problem with reopening bars is that people go there to drink. When they get a few in them, they tend to be not so careful any more about taking precautions like masking up and not forming into groups for loud conversations. And I suspect that having bouncers patrol the floor would kill the vibe without alleviating the problem by much.
I suppose bars could be allowed to sell alcohol for offsite consumption i.e. become liquor stores, but I don’t think they can survive on that.
Bars here in Malaysia have been closed since March, and remain closed under all three levels of movement control orders. Some have resorted to operating as speakeasies. The Senior Minister for Defence, whose portfolio includes the Royal Malaysian Police, typically reports in his media briefings how many speakeasies got busted yesterday, and It’s usually in the dozens.
Cermet
@Matt McIrvin: Pfzier did not join the warp effort. This was done on thier dime with no help from the Gov. So, suck it thugs. Also, no accident they waited until after the election – unlike the FBI – they understand protocol.
scottinnj
@randy khan:
We can also think about priorities to get the vaccine. For example I do think getting kids back in school is important so I would hope teachers are near the front of the lines.
Cheryl Rofer
Well done.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
The Pfizer media relations shop should not have been allowed to get ahead of the scientists. As it is, this premature press release risks raising false hope among the public.
Zzyzx
@Baud:
Really? I’m MORE willing.
Tell me to sacrifice for 3-4 months and I’ll say OK. Tell me to sacrifice forever and ever as this will be part of our future and I’ll ask why.
david
Interesting timing, Pfizer. Less than one week AFTER the elections… mmm-hmmm. ;)
Matt McIrvin
@Mai Naem mobile:
Frankly, I’m sure they did and more power to them. How is this bad? Their development had nothing to do with Operation Warp Speed, and Trump was so Bond-villain-obvious about his plans to gin up a vaccine announcement before Election Day to help his chances that they must have known any statement just before the election would have been taken as a declaration of allegiance to Trump, which would be very bad for them.
PenAndKey
It’s not just extremely complicated and precise. It’s probably the most complicated thing humans have the capability to manufacture. Still, Pfizer isn’t the cold-chain vaccine capable manufacturer in the industry. If it takes nationalizing the research and starter stocks to distribute to the maximum number of facilities so they can all spin up production? If it takes deprioritizing other production. So be it. It’s not like they wouldn’t get paid for it, since even with a DPA manufacturing order payment occurs.
bbleh
@PenAndKey: @scottinnj: Vaccine production — and indeed pharmaceutical production generally — is kind of “commodified,” meaning that otherwise idle production lines belonging to one company often are rented out to another that needs surge production capacity. I would expect the same will occur in this case, even without invoking the DPA.
Also, the timing will be good, since flu vaccine production will have tapered off.
I don’t know how specialized a production process is required for an mRNA vaccine. Obviously this isn’t going to be old style egg-farms.
jimmiraybob
But isn’t that based on whether or not there are long-term antibodies remaining after recovery? And, it appears that studies call this into question. Asking for the herd.
Cheryl Rofer
@Amir Khalid: Unfortunately, this kind of timing is standard among the pharmaceutical companies. Stock prices first! Also note, as David Anderson did on my Twitter feed, that the announcement came before the US markets opened.
Pfizer has been responsible about getting the science out.
Your last point is what worries me. “Oh, now we’ve got a vaccine, I don’t need my mask any more, and we can all go out and celebrate at the bar tonight.”
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
artem1s
@Matt McIrvin:
we are also going to have major distribution issues. front line workers need to be vaccinated first. Not the rich, not entertainers, not sports stars, or waitstaff, or the Ohio militia. distribution has to be managed and the first in line aren’t going to those who show up demanding to be vaccinated at the point of a gun.
artem1s
@Sab:
Judgement Day by Roomba.
Cheryl Rofer
@Sab:
It’s done this way so that numbers can be compared in different places.
Simpler example: If you have a town with 100 residents and 50 cases of covid, that’s worse than a town with 1000 residents and 50 cases of covid. In the first case, you’ve got 50 cases per 100 residents (or 500 per 1000) and in the second, 5 cases per 100 (or 50 per 1000).
jimmiraybob
@Betty Cracker: ” If we had a competent admin in place, public health experts could explain the distribution timeline, etc. But we won’t have that until next year.”
I caught most of an interview on 60-mins last night with the 4-Star General leading the effort to plan distribution. They are preparing to get underway from a logistics perspective as soon as there’s an approved vaccine to move. There’s some kind of saying about plans though.
I’m assuming that as soon as a vaccine is available there will be a massive attempt to try to hone a distribution plan utilizing companies like FedEx. The competition could be Christmas delivery.
Another potential flaw in vaccine-related herd immunity are the regular old-fashioned anti-vaxxers and the Trumpinista conspiracy theorists that will assume a Deep State plot to aid our alien overlords that really run things via a super computer named Hammer*.
bluefoot
@Baud:
It’s almost certainly coincidence. Things like interim analysis work on a very set schedule. It’s not really in Pfizer’s interest to deviate from that (early or late). If i recall correctly, there was also an FDA meeting on Friday to review vaccine progress (not just Pfizer) so today was probably the earliest the could have released the news. I say this as someone who is not fond of Pfizer as a company.
(I would have listened in on the COVID meeting Friday, but I was listening to the AD FDA Advisory Committee Meeting.)
Matt McIrvin
The announcement also makes no mention of whether this is just a 90% reduction in symptomatic COVID or a 90% reduction in actual SARS-NCoV-2 infection. If it’s just the first, and vaccinated people just become asymptomatic spreaders, that’s much less useful in controlling the virus and could even help it spread (mass vaccination would still be a good idea on balance, but we’d need to keep people doing their COVID-control things to save lives).
bluefoot
Assuming the data is good and the FDA approves it, supply chain logistics is going to be difficult. This is one of the RNA-based vaccines, which means it needs to be stored at -70 C until use. Just shipping at -70 is difficult (and there’s limited capacity for that) and most doctor’s offices, and even many hospitals don’t have -70C storage.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Baud: I can see it going the other way. With an end in sight, restrictions may be easier to swallow.
Full Metal Wingnut
@SFAW: I imagine that a company like Pfizer, and it’s executives and board of directors donate A LOT of money to the GOP. You can bet that congressional GOP leaders will be getting some angry phone calls and threats if they decide to go down that route.
Constance Reader
@FridayNext: I’m in pharma research, yes, coincidence. Believe me, everyone in my industry would be deliriously happy if such events could be so meticulously planned. They can’t, they aren’t.
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
Or the opposite, if enough people realize that they can avoid getting infected forever by not getting infected for several months then getting vaccinated. (Probably with annual (?) booster shots, but the point is that post vaccinated population, people can much more easily avoid e.g. lung, heart and brain damage from a SARS-CoV-2 infection.)
This makes messaging about an imminent distribution of a vaccine (well, several months+ out) critical. This messaging is not something to allow the Scott Atlases of the world to control.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Matt McIrvin: I mean, any administration would have sped up vaccine trials. It took him until May or June, months into the U.S. epidemic, to even launch project warp speed. I’m guessing a Biden administration would have launched project warp speed in like, January of 2020 rather than 5-6 months later.
I read an article a week or so ago that Moderna is starting to expand their contracts for production and distribution, which I take as a sign that they think their clinical trials are going pretty well too. I think both the Pfizer and Moderna ones are the same mRNA-based type of vaccine. It’s hard to envision long term adverse side effects from that type of vaccine…it’s viral proteins, not a live virus. There’s zero risk of any type of infection. So far it has been the adenovirus-based vaccine candidates that have produced the more serious adverse side effects. At least as far as we know…we’ll see when Moderna and Pfizer release their data, but neither trial had to be halted like the Astrazenica one.
burnspbesq
@Cheryl Rofer:
PFE’s securities lawyers have almost certainly told the company that it needs to file an 8-K with the SEC. That’s likely to have more detail than the press release.
Bill Arnold
@Matt McIrvin:
I am cynical (especially about the DJT administration) and have been believing for months that this was intentional, to get a pre-election vaccine-trial readout that could be bragged about. If it is ever leaked that infection rates were deliberately encouraged to increase (by various means including downplaying, and testing policy and encouragement of anti-maskers) for possible political gain, the humanity cards of the people involved will need to be revoked.
burnspbesq
@bbleh:
Abbott will want to do the right thing, but his freedom of action is severely constrained by his need to appease the crackpots in order to avoid a primary challenge in 2022. He will ultimately fuck it up.
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
This is the very definition of “material” information that U.S. securities laws require be disclosed to the public. See above re Form 8-K. Those are publicly available on the SEC website.
Bill Arnold
@SFAW:
There needs to be a visible counter-move to call for investigations of voter fraud and vote rigging in Red States. And maybe the massive disenfranchisement of felons in Florida by the legislature against the express vote of the people in a referendum.
Florida leads nation in voter disenfranchisement, criminal justice group says – Nearly 900,000 Floridians with felony convictions are unable to vote despite the passage of Amendment 4. (Lawrence Mower, Oct. 14, 2020)
The margin in FL was 378K (as of yesterday) so probably didn’t swing the statewide election but might have made some local differences. (If anyone knows of a proper analyses please link.)
burnspbesq
Holy shit: the Dow is up over 1,100 points.
Pfizer is up about 7 percent.
chopper
and the test positivity rate is just nuts, implying many more cases than that that aren’t being detected. which implies over a month or so, at that rate, something like 5-6% of the population there catches covid. which is insane.
chopper
@Baud:
he didn’t do anything as to this vaccine. pfizer declined to be a part of ‘operation warp speed’.
Bill Arnold
@chopper:
This is true, but the existence of other vaccines(candidates) undergoing very rapid R&D is pressure on all vaccine development projects. Once a vaccine is being distributed, testing of other vaccines becomes more difficult. This one has a very very cold storage requirement so vaccine candidates that do not will still be very attractive. There are a few people here who know about such things; an elaboration on the the real-world dynamics would be appreciated.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
No, the bars depend upon selling liquor at an extreme markup in individual drinks. You pay the extra for the barkeep to know how to mix a drink, alcohol with various mixers and juices. Or just have mixer and juice at home with the bottle of gin, rum, or etc.
We used to go out every couple of weeks for drinks and dinner, but now that all happens right here in the kitchen at home. Which isn’t free,, but it is a lot cheaper than the fancy restaurant.
BC in Illinois
Somebody on Twitter said that they just recently bought stock in Pfizer.
Unfortunately, by mistake they bought stock i Pfizer Total Landscaping.
Bill Arnold
Parenthetical, Biden/Harris should be among the first to get a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, if they want it, and if they haven’t already been sneaked vaccinations (and/or the Regeneron cocktail, if it lasts a while.) There are very ruthless people on the right/backing the right, some of whom stand to/fear they will lose Precious Money when Biden takes office. Deniable attacks like encouraging lone wolves and RW terrorist cells, and arranging for COVID-19 exposure, are difficult territory for the Secret Service.
chopper
@Bill Arnold:
but nothing. trump gets no credit for this. trump gets no credit for *anything* as to covid.
luc
The vaccine was originally developed by BioNTech, a German company, with support from the German government.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/09/covid-19-vaccine-candidate-effective-pfizer-biontech
Another Scott
@Cheryl Rofer: Yup.
From the STATNews article:
Promising press releases aren’t enough (of course). We have to wait for the rest of the process to play out.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a DPT booster and flu vaccine in one arm and the pneumonia vaccine in another. No issues at all in either arm.
Fingers crossed, but there’s still a very long road ahead.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@luc:
Wait. You mean it’s not America, America, America?
Good info. Thanks.
In an ideal world, the Trump administration would be working with Biden and international leaders to complete review of this vaccine, and get it into production and use if appropriate.
Instead, we will have more Trump Political Groundhog Day. Having seen his loser shadow, we are in for weeks and weeks of his nonsense.
J R in WV
While it is true that few hospitals and no doctors offices currently have -78 degree storage, I don’t think that’s a big inhibitor for getting people vaccinated.
Manufacture those storage units as the vaccine is being manufactured, distribute the vaccine in the new storage units to population centers, tell people what day and time to show up at which specific vaccination center, start administering the vaccine wholesale.
People stand in line 8 feet apart, wearing masks [ NO MASK, NO SHOT, MF’ERS!! ] and walk briskly past the staff giving the shots, stopping just long enough for the nurse to give the shot and put on the bandage, then handing out an ID card showing that you have gotten the shot on date/time at vaccination center so-and-so…
Ruckus
@raven:
Lab rats?
Mel
@WereBear: This, absolutely. The vaccine news is good news. The idea that we could attain herd immunity without a vaccine is dangerous and likely false.
There have already been a few documented cases of people becoming reinfected within 4 to 8 months of a previous Covid-19 infection. So, clearly, either some people’s immune systems don’t create a strong enough or lasting enough T cell (the long lasting response) immune response, or the viruses mutations allow it to evade the T cell mediated immunity in some people.
Obviously, we can get a common cold and then catch the same cold or one if its genetically very similar relatives within months or year or two, The same might be true of Covid-19 – there just isn’t enough data to be sure how immunity to it functions, and which individuals might be able to muster a full and lasting immune response from an infection.
We have to take control/ containment measures until and for some time after an effective vaccine becomes fully available though, because large numbers of people will die or be left with lasting, sometimes disabling, complications of this infection if we don’t do so.
Waiting for a vaccine and doing nothing to reduce the carnage in the interim is utterly unacceptable. Even after vaccination, some people will not be able to build an effective immune response. Also, it’s possible that we will require yearly vaccines to boost immunity and to accommodate for any mutations that lessen the previous vaccine’s effectiveness.
I’ve lost a friend and also a family member to Covid-19.
My sibling is a teacher who is waiting on the results of a Covid-19 test, since being exposed to a student sick with Covid. I’m immune suppressed and haven’t been able to see anyone (not my sib, not my little great nieces and nephews, not my elderly parent, not friends) except my hubby and doctors since March. It’s lonely and frustrating and scary and depressing, but it’s necessary if I hope to come out on the other side of this alive, and hopefully be able to have a life again with the people that I love.
We’re getting closer to a safe, effective vaccine. Why in the hell would we sit down and give up when we’re 40 feet from the finish line, thus sacrificing way too many more lives and gambling with the future health of those who do survive Covid-19?
grammypat
My first thought on this announcement was the timing. Big Pharma is not immune to politics. Gee-golly-whiz, was this info available 7-10 days ago?
I’m thinking (misremembering? aaah…covid-time) that there was a recent event where the Toxic Toddler pissed of a bunch of pharma CEO’s, and Pfizer was probably one of them. In addition to them not wanting His stink on their vaccine.
Matt McIrvin
@Bill Arnold: We already had the leak that Kushner decided not to go ahead with any national COVID plan in the spring because it was mostly affecting blue states and their governors would take the hit.
PAM Dirac
@grammypat:
Not if the reporting excerpted above is correct. According to the full article, Pfizer was in discussions with the FDA over how many positives to see before you do the interim analysis. Pfizer wanted 32 and the FDA wanted 62. Pfizer agreed to 62 on Nov 4, the day after the election, and started analyzing the samples. They found 94 positives and the data was sent to the data monitoring committee, who should be the only ones to unblind the samples. The data monitoring committee met Sunday (yesterday). I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Pfizer big shots knew of the results less than 24 hours before they were released.
ETA – Apparently part of it was that FDA was not going to accept less than 2 full months of followup for the safety data, which Pfizer was not going to be able to produce until mid-late November, so Pfizer decided it wouldn’t hurt to go a bit longer until the interim analysis.