Latest Vaccine News

[Buy1Sell2]

Quite so.

As I said last week, Pfizer's vaccine may not be for everyone or every country due to the refrigeration requirements, and some countries will hopefully just be able to choose another vaccine. So let it help where it can and let other vaccines do the same. Not necessarily going to be a one-size-fits-all solution.

Also, even though I have not seen any headline reporting on it, I did see a couple reports that said that Pfizer is in the process of developing a power (to be mixed) injectable version to get around the refrigeration issue- by avoiding refrigeration altogether. So there is that. Ya nevah know.

America First!!

 

[Cuddles]

We can stop COVID-19: Moderna vaccine success gives world more hope
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-moderna-idUSKBN27W1E6

Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial, the company said on Monday, becoming the second U.S. drugmaker to report results that far exceed expectations.

Together with Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, which is also more than 90% effective, and pending more safety data and regulatory review, the United States could have two vaccines authorized for emergency use in December with as many as 60 million doses of vaccine available this year.

Next year, the U.S. government could have access to more than 1 billion doses just from the two vaccine makers, more than needed for the country’s 330 million residents.

The vaccines, both developed with new technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA), represent powerful tools to fight a pandemic that has infected 54 million people worldwide and killed 1.3 million. The news also comes at a time when COVID-19 cases are soaring, hitting new records in the United States and pushing some European countries back into lockdowns.

“We are going to have a vaccine that can stop COVID-19,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in a telephone interview.

Moderna’s interim analysis was based on 95 infections among trial participants who received either a placebo or the vaccine. Of those, only five infections occurred in those who received the vaccine, which is administered in two shots 28 days apart.

“Having more than one source of an effective vaccine will increase the global supply and, with luck, help us all to get back to something like normal sometime in 2021,” said Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh.

Moderna expects to have enough safety data required for U.S. authorization in the next week or so and the company expects to file for emergency use authorization (EUA) in the coming weeks.

The company’s shares, which have more than quadrupled this year, rose 15% in premarket trading while European stocks and Wall Street stock futures jumped on the vaccine update. The benchmark S&P 500 futures rose 1.3%, stopping just short of a new record high, while the pan-European STOXX 600 hit late-February highs. [MKTS/GLOB]

Shares in Pfizer were down 1.7% in premarket trading while Britain’s AstraZeneca, which has yet to release any results from its late-stage vaccine trials, were 0.7% weaker.

SEVERE CASES
A key advantage of Moderna’s vaccine is that it does not need ultra-cold storage like Pfizer’s, making it easier to distribute. Moderna expects it to be stable at normal fridge temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 48°F) for 30 days and it can be stored for up to 6 months at -20C.

Pfizer’s vaccine must be shipped and stored at -70C, the sort of temperature typical of an Antarctic winter. It can be stored for up to five days at standard refrigerator temperatures or for up to 15 days in a thermal shipping box.

The data from Moderna’s trial involving 30,000 volunteers also showed the vaccine prevented cases of severe COVID-19, a question that still remains with the Pfizer vaccine. Of the 95 cases in Moderna’s trial, 11 were severe and all 11 occurred among volunteers who got the placebo.

Moderna, part of the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program, expects to produce about 20 million doses for the United States this year, millions of which the company has already made and is ready to ship if it gets FDA authorization.

“Assuming we get an emergency use authorization, we’ll be ready to ship through Warp Speed almost in hours,” Hoge said. “So it could start being distributed instantly.”

The 95 cases of COVID-19 included several key groups who are at increased risk for severe disease, including 15 cases in adults aged 65 and older and 20 in participants from racially diverse groups.

“We will need much more data and a full report or publication to see if the benefit is consistent across all groups, notably the elderly, but this is definitely encouraging progress, said Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

One unknown with this vaccine, and all the others currently being tested, is whether they will stop COVID-19 spreading.

“It is likely that vaccines that prevent symptomatic disease will reduce the duration and level of infectiousness, and thus reduce transmission, but we don’t yet know if this effect will be large enough to make any meaningful difference to the spread of the virus within communities,” said Riley at Edinburgh University.

ROLLING REVIEW
Most side effects were mild to moderate. A significant proportion of volunteers, however, experienced more severe aches and pains after taking the second dose, including about 10% who had fatigue severe enough to interfere with daily activities while another 9% had severe body aches. Most of these complaints were generally short-lived, Moderna said.

“These effects are what we would expect with a vaccine that is working and inducing a good immune response,” said Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London

Moderna’s data provide further validation of the promising but previously unproven mRNA platform, which turns the human body into a vaccine factory by coaxing cells to make certain virus proteins that the immune system sees as a threat and mounts a response against.

The United States has the world’s highest known number of COVID-19 cases and deaths with more than 11 million infections and nearly 250,000 deaths.

The Trump Administration has primarily relied on the development of vaccines and treatments as its response to the pandemic. Moderna has received nearly $1 billion in research and development funding from the U.S. government and has a $1.5 billion deal for 100 million doses. The U.S. government also has an option for another 400 million doses.

The company hopes to produce between 500 million and 1 billion doses in 2021, split between its U.S. and international manufacturing sites, dependent in part on demand.

Moderna also said it would use its data to seek authorization in Europe and other regions.

Europe’s health regulator said on Monday it had launched a real-time “rolling review” of Moderna’s vaccine, following similar reviews of vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Other countries such as China and Russia have already begun vaccinations. Russia licensed its Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccine for domestic use in August before it released data from large-scale trials. It said on Nov. 11 that its vaccine was 92% effective based on 20 infections in its large trial.

eat it Moderna:

 

[gwb-trading]

Distribution in the U.S. -- No Federal government help or plan
Bottom Line:

• The Trump administration has done no planning for the distribution of the vaccine. They simply threw up their hands and said "private companies will figure it out".
• "States say they need more than $8 billion from the federal government to promote and distribute vaccines." Amount allocated = $0.
• "The federal government has not told states how many doses they will receive, hampering their ability to plan for which of many priority populations should get vaccinated first. " -- No information whatsoever from the federal government on how many doses. The federal government required states submit a plan on who in their populations have priority but have heard nothing back yet from the feds.
• There are also data privacy issues to overcome with some states -- "Nearly a dozen states still have not agreed to share patient data with the federal Centers for Disease Control, citing privacy concerns, meaning it will be hard for the federal government to track who has been vaccinated and who still needs a second dose."

Inoculations by December? States aren’t so sure.
While Trump promises tens of millions of vaccine doses next month, many states say they aren’t ready to administer them.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/18/covid-vaccines-december-states-437168

 

[Cuddles]

Distribution in the U.S. -- No Federal government help or plan
Bottom Line:

• The Trump administration has done no planning for the distribution of the vaccine. They simply threw up their hands and said "private companies will figure it out".
• "States say they need more than $8 billion from the federal government to promote and distribute vaccines." Amount allocated = $0.
• "The federal government has not told states how many doses they will receive, hampering their ability to plan for which of many priority populations should get vaccinated first. " -- No information whatsoever from the federal government on how many doses. The federal government required states submit a plan on who in their populations have priority but have heard nothing back yet from the feds.
• There are also data privacy issues to overcome with some states -- "Nearly a dozen states still have not agreed to share patient data with the federal Centers for Disease Control, citing privacy concerns, meaning it will be hard for the federal government to track who has been vaccinated and who still needs a second dose."

Inoculations by December? States aren’t so sure.
While Trump promises tens of millions of vaccine doses next month, many states say they aren’t ready to administer them.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/18/covid-vaccines-december-states-437168

I almost prefer it that way. Distribution contracts would otherwise go to Trump Inc. of some mypillow like grifting sycophant

 

[gwb-trading]

I almost prefer it that way. Distribution contracts would otherwise go to Trump Inc. of some mypillow like grifting sycophant

Take a look at Europe -- in Germany they are setting up hundreds of government vaccination centers in December to start vaccinating in January. Putting all those unused entertainment venues to use for mass vaccinations. They expect to have everyone vaccinated by the end of March if everything goes on schedule.

 

[Cuddles]

 

[FortuneTeller]

Trump saved the World.

 

[gwb-trading]

Dr. Fauci says vaccinating people who disregard Covid as ‘fake news’ could be ‘a real problem’
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/cor...id-as-fake-news-could-be-a-real-problem-.html

• White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that convincing people who consider the coronavirus to be “fake news” to get vaccinated against the disease could become an issue.
• Fauci said in a published interview with The New York Times that he was “stunned” people in certain parts of the country with devastating outbreaks still consider the pandemic to be fake.
• “Despite a quarter million deaths, despite more than 11 million infections, despite 150,000 new infections a day, they don’t believe it’s real. That is a real problem,” Fauci said.

White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that convincing people who consider the coronavirus to be “fake news” to get vaccinated against the disease could become an issue as the nation seeks to achieve so-called herd immunity to suppress the pandemic.

“They actually don’t think that this is a problem,” Fauci said during a conversation with The Hastings Center. “Despite a quarter million deaths, despite more than 11 million infections, despite 150,000 new infections a day, they don’t believe it’s real. That is a real problem.”

Fauci’s comments with The Hastings Center are similar to those published in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday where the nation’s leading infectious disease expert said he was “stunned” that people in certain parts of the country with devastating Covid-19 outbreaks still consider the pandemic to be fake.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has estimated that at least 75% of the country will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19, though ideally that figure would be higher. Those estimations come even as companies like Pfizer and Moderna report promising preliminary data showing their vaccines to be more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19.

“What I would like to see is the overwhelming majority of people get vaccinated so we can essentially really crush this outbreak,” Fauci told The New York Times’ DealBook conference Tuesday.

Fauci has reiterated that it will be a challenge to convince some Americans to receive a coronavirus vaccine. A new Gallup poll released Tuesday found that 58% of surveyed adults said they would get vaccinated once it’s available. While that’s an increase from findings in September, it’s still lower than the 66% who said they would get inoculated earlier in the pandemic.

“If we have an effective vaccine and 50% of the people don’t take it, you still have a considerable public health challenge,” Fauci said Tuesday at the DealBook conference.

“Because the way you get an outbreak under control, to bring it down to such a minimal level it’s no longer a threat, you have to have a blanket of protection over the community with the vaccine that is the overwhelming majority of the community,” he said.

The Gallup survey, however, was conducted from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1, before Pfizer and Moderna released their promising vaccine results. Fauci has said he hopes more people will be willing to take the vaccines after they’ve proven to be highly effective.

Some Americans have shown concern about the historic speed with which the federal government, under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, has developed and manufactured the vaccines. A CNBC poll in September also found that most voters were concerned that President Donald Trump was trying to rush the vaccine’s approval process before the Nov. 3 Election Day.

“The speed itself is a reflection of scientific advances. In other words, the technology of making a vaccine is not your grandfather’s technology. It’s the 21st century technology,” Fauci said Thursday.

Additionally, data from the vaccines’ trials are evaluated by an external and independent data safety monitoring board that is “beholden to no one,” Fauci said. Once the data is revealed to the drugmakers and other government agencies, it’s presented to career scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval along with an independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, he said.

“By the time you get the FDA deeming that this is a safe and efficacious vaccine, you’ve had a independent and transparent process decide,” Fauci said. “We’ve got to keep hammering that home because for the group of people who are concerned about the process, the process is sound.”

 

[TreeFrogTrader]

Dr. Fauci says vaccinating people who disregard Covid as ‘fake news’ could be ‘a real problem’
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/cor...id-as-fake-news-could-be-a-real-problem-.html

• White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that convincing people who consider the coronavirus to be “fake news” to get vaccinated against the disease could become an issue.
• Fauci said in a published interview with The New York Times that he was “stunned” people in certain parts of the country with devastating outbreaks still consider the pandemic to be fake.
• “Despite a quarter million deaths, despite more than 11 million infections, despite 150,000 new infections a day, they don’t believe it’s real. That is a real problem,” Fauci said.

White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that convincing people who consider the coronavirus to be “fake news” to get vaccinated against the disease could become an issue as the nation seeks to achieve so-called herd immunity to suppress the pandemic.

“They actually don’t think that this is a problem,” Fauci said during a conversation with The Hastings Center. “Despite a quarter million deaths, despite more than 11 million infections, despite 150,000 new infections a day, they don’t believe it’s real. That is a real problem.”

Fauci’s comments with The Hastings Center are similar to those published in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday where the nation’s leading infectious disease expert said he was “stunned” that people in certain parts of the country with devastating Covid-19 outbreaks still consider the pandemic to be fake.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has estimated that at least 75% of the country will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19, though ideally that figure would be higher. Those estimations come even as companies like Pfizer and Moderna report promising preliminary data showing their vaccines to be more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19.

“What I would like to see is the overwhelming majority of people get vaccinated so we can essentially really crush this outbreak,” Fauci told The New York Times’ DealBook conference Tuesday.

Fauci has reiterated that it will be a challenge to convince some Americans to receive a coronavirus vaccine. A new Gallup poll released Tuesday found that 58% of surveyed adults said they would get vaccinated once it’s available. While that’s an increase from findings in September, it’s still lower than the 66% who said they would get inoculated earlier in the pandemic.

“If we have an effective vaccine and 50% of the people don’t take it, you still have a considerable public health challenge,” Fauci said Tuesday at the DealBook conference.

“Because the way you get an outbreak under control, to bring it down to such a minimal level it’s no longer a threat, you have to have a blanket of protection over the community with the vaccine that is the overwhelming majority of the community,” he said.

The Gallup survey, however, was conducted from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1, before Pfizer and Moderna released their promising vaccine results. Fauci has said he hopes more people will be willing to take the vaccines after they’ve proven to be highly effective.

Some Americans have shown concern about the historic speed with which the federal government, under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, has developed and manufactured the vaccines. A CNBC poll in September also found that most voters were concerned that President Donald Trump was trying to rush the vaccine’s approval process before the Nov. 3 Election Day.

“The speed itself is a reflection of scientific advances. In other words, the technology of making a vaccine is not your grandfather’s technology. It’s the 21st century technology,” Fauci said Thursday.

Additionally, data from the vaccines’ trials are evaluated by an external and independent data safety monitoring board that is “beholden to no one,” Fauci said. Once the data is revealed to the drugmakers and other government agencies, it’s presented to career scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval along with an independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, he said.

“By the time you get the FDA deeming that this is a safe and efficacious vaccine, you’ve had a independent and transparent process decide,” Fauci said. “We’ve got to keep hammering that home because for the group of people who are concerned about the process, the process is sound.”

I don't know. This article and Fauci are kind of weaselly, I think. It seeks to make the case or single out people who think that covid is fake (you are supposed to read that as "Trump voters") as the reason why there is vaccination reluctance.

But if you look at the actual Gallop Poll cited in the article (I quoted an excerpt below) and add up the categories of reluctance, about 75% of people who are resistant say that it is based on fears about the safety of the vaccine- not because they believe covid is a hoax.

In other words, the issues seem to fall squarely within the area of Fauci's responsibilities- ie. if you want to achieve greater vaccination levels, you Dr. Fauci, need to do your job and oversee the introduction of vaccines that have convincing levels of safety- and knock off the bullshit about how the big problem is stupid people who just don't believe that covid exists.

Methinks.




Americans' Reasons to Not Get a COVID-19 Vaccine
In a follow-up question, 37% of Americans who would not get a vaccine say the rushed timeline for the development of the vaccine is the main reason they would not be vaccinated. Another 26% say they want to wait to confirm the vaccine is safe. Rounding out the reasons for some Americans' hesitancy are 12% saying they don't trust vaccines in general and 10% who want to wait to see how effective the vaccine will be. An additional 15% cite other reasons for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Included among these reasons are the politicization of the vaccine potentially comprising its safety and the view that the vaccine is not necessary.

 

[CaptainObvious]

I don't know. This article and Fauci are kind of weaselly, I think. It seeks to make the case or single out people who think that covid is fake (you are supposed to read that as "Trump voters") as the reason why there is vaccination reluctance.

But if you look at the actual Gallop Poll cited in the article (I quoted an excerpt below) and add up the categories of reluctance, about 75% of people who are resistant say that it is based on fears about the safety of the vaccine- not because they believe covid is a hoax.

In other words, the issues seem to fall squarely within the area of Fauci's responsibilities- ie. if you want to achieve greater vaccination levels, you Dr. Fauci, need to do your job and oversee the introduction of vaccines that have convincing levels of safety- and knock off the bullshit about how the big problem is stupid people who just don't believe that covid exists.

Methinks.




Americans' Reasons to Not Get a COVID-19 Vaccine
In a follow-up question, 37% of Americans who would not get a vaccine say the rushed timeline for the development of the vaccine is the main reason they would not be vaccinated. Another 26% say they want to wait to confirm the vaccine is safe. Rounding out the reasons for some Americans' hesitancy are 12% saying they don't trust vaccines in general and 10% who want to wait to see how effective the vaccine will be. An additional 15% cite other reasons for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Included among these reasons are the politicization of the vaccine potentially comprising its safety and the view that the vaccine is not necessary.

Exactly. Vaccines normally take years to develop, in some cases a vaccine is never found. Like magic we have one coming to market in months, not years, and it's a vaccine for a virus that reportedly has more mysteries and anomalies to it than any other virus known to man. Should come as no surprise that the internal bullshit meter people have is pegged out.