Coronavirus thread

[drogulus]

     The Pfizer vaccine is reported to be more than 90% effective. Wall Street is going crazy.

[T. D.]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/09/dr-scott-gottlieb-pfizer-covid-vaccine-wont-help-immediately.html

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC the U.S. will still have to experience "the hardest stretch" of the coronavirus pandemic without the benefits of a vaccine, despite the positive news earlier Monday from Pfizer.

Gottlieb, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner in the Trump administration, is a member of Pfizer's board of directors.

"The vaccine is really a 2021 event in terms of when it's going to provide protective immunity to that initial tranche" of recipients, Gottlieb said on "Squawk Box," shortly after the Pfizer announcement. "Then in terms of when it would be widely available, I think the hope still is ... you could have a vaccine broadly maybe the end of the second quarter, maybe into the third quarter."

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I'm excited to hear the good news!  Are they still doing trials to double-check the safety/any-side-effects of it?  And how long will it take then to ramp up the production of it?

PD

[North Star]

I'm excited to hear the good news!  Are they still doing trials to double-check the safety/any-side-effects of it?  And how long will it take then to ramp up the production of it?

PD

Very good news indeed, in about a year probably.

The vaccine is really a 2021 event in terms of when it's going to provide protective immunity to that initial tranche" of recipients, Gottlieb said on "Squawk Box," shortly after the Pfizer announcement. "Then in terms of when it would be widely available, I think the hope still is ... you could have a vaccine broadly maybe the end of the second quarter, maybe into the third quarter. You're looking at having the vaccine available in time for the fall 2021 Covid season."

[drogulus]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/09/dr-scott-gottlieb-pfizer-covid-vaccine-wont-help-immediately.html

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC the U.S. will still have to experience "the hardest stretch" of the coronavirus pandemic without the benefits of a vaccine, despite the positive news earlier Monday from Pfizer.

Gottlieb, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner in the Trump administration, is a member of Pfizer's board of directors.

"The vaccine is really a 2021 event in terms of when it's going to provide protective immunity to that initial tranche" of recipients, Gottlieb said on "Squawk Box," shortly after the Pfizer announcement. "Then in terms of when it would be widely available, I think the hope still is ... you could have a vaccine broadly maybe the end of the second quarter, maybe into the third quarter."

     It won't arrive any sooner. When it does, the path to herd immunity will be shorter than most experts anticipated. Fauci said he wanted 75%, but also said 50% would work. A 90%+ vaccine would work faster to bring the numbers down. This is why Wall St. popped big time.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Wonder what Pfizer will charge for it? 

[Mandryka]

     It won't arrive any sooner. When it does, the path to herd immunity will be shorter than most experts anticipated. Fauci said he wanted 75%, but also said 50% would work. A 90%+ vaccine would work faster to bring the numbers down. This is why Wall St. popped big time.

There's just been a press conference in the UK where Van Tam, a big wig scientists in the government  said

We  do not know yet if the vaccines will prevent asymptomatic transmission. And that means we do know know yet whether they will stop the spread of the disease.

It might be that they just change the nature of the disease, he says.

I'm not sure if I really understand it. He seems to be saying that the vaccines may stop people developing nasty symptoms, even though they still have the disease brewing inside them and are spreading it about.


You can read it here

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/nov/09/coronavirus-covid-uk-live-news-updates-keir-starmer-boris-johnson

[drogulus]

Wonder what Pfizer will charge for it? 

     It shouldn't matter. The public interest is for everyone to take it. The cost of not vaccinating is higher than vaccinating no matter what the immediate dollar calculation says. That's always the case, it's just clearer when hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake and not "merely" hundreds of thousands of jobs. As it happens, it's both.

[North Star]

There's just been a press conference in the UK where Van Tam, a big wig scientists in the government  said

I'm not sure if I really understand it. He seems to be saying that the vaccines may stop people developing nasty symptoms, even though they still have the disease brewing inside them and are spreading it about.


You can read it here

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/nov/09/coronavirus-covid-uk-live-news-updates-keir-starmer-boris-johnson

Yes, it means that the vaccine would just prevent you from getting symptoms, i.e. ill from the virus, but you'd still be a carrier and probably a spreader too, like many asymptomatic, seemingly healthy people have been spreading it already.

[Mandryka]

Yes, it means that the vaccine would just prevent you from getting symptoms, i.e. ill from the virus, but you'd still be a carrier and probably a spreader too, like many asymptomatic, seemingly healthy people have been spreading it already.

Are there any other vaccines which work like that?

[North Star]

Are there any other vaccines which work like that?

Tetanus vaccine, but it doesn't spread from people to people..

[Pohjolas Daughter]

     It shouldn't matter. The public interest is for everyone to take it. The cost of not vaccinating is higher than vaccinating no matter what the immediate dollar calculation says. That's always the case, it's just clearer when hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake and not "merely" hundreds of thousands of jobs. As it happens, it's both.

I understand, drogulus, that it's in everyone's best interest to take it.  I was just pondering a couple of things like: 1) how affordable it will be for people to get it? 2) would the government(s) subsidize vaccinations, and 3) wondering what kind of profit Pfizer would be making off it?

PD

[drogulus]

Yes, it means that the vaccine would just prevent you from getting symptoms, i.e. ill from the virus, but you'd still be a carrier and probably a spreader too, like many asymptomatic, seemingly healthy people have been spreading it already.

     I think the doctor was indicating that he doesn't know how effective the vaccine will be at preventing asymptomatic transmission.

I understand, drogulus, that it's in everyone's best interest to take it.  I was just pondering a couple of things like: 1) how affordable it will be for people to get it? 2) would the government(s) subsidize vaccinations, and 3) wondering what kind of profit Pfizer would be making off it?

PD

     Making the vaccine affordable is as necessary as developing and manufacturing it. What point would there be for this gigantic effort if we ran out of dollars for the actual vaccination?

[Mirror Image]

The problem isn't the vaccination. The problem is the waiting and what needs to be done while we wait on a vaccine. What needs to be mandated are masks and this is what Trump should've done when he was briefed on the virus earlier in the year, but now we're faced with an ever growing population with a higher risk of the getting the virus because of the current administration's failed policies. So we're dealing with the negative effects of the belief that COVID doesn't exist while people are dying everyday thanks to the inactivity in combatting the virus and the general apathetic viewpoint held by Trump and his administration.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

     I think the doctor was indicating that he doesn't know how effective the vaccine will be at preventing asymptomatic transmission.

     Making the vaccine affordable is as necessary as developing and manufacturing it. What point would there be for this gigantic effort if we ran out of dollars for the actual vaccination?

Of course!  I'll be interested in seeing, though, how much Pfizer (and any other drug companies working on vaccines for it) try to milk the system.  To be fair, though, they didn't take any US government money for developing it and I suspect that they won't share the cost(s) in doing so.

[Mandryka]

     I think the doctor was indicating that he doesn't know how effective the vaccine will be at preventing asymptomatic transmission.

   

Because it isn't stopping you brewing the virus in enough quantities to pass it on, in a dose sufficient for that second person to pass it on to a third in a sufficient dose for that third to pass it on . . . But all of this without symptoms. I just have never come across a vaccine which does that before - it's more like a symptom suppressor than a vaccine.

[T. D.]

It's becoming apparent that the White House hosted another superspreader event, this one on Election Night:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-trump-campaign-official-david-bossie-has-coronavirus.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/09/hud-secretary-ben-carson-tests-positive-for-coronavirus.html

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/pfizer-vaccine-s-funding-came-from-berlin-not-washington

Vice President Mike Pence was among Trump administration officials saying support from the government's Operation Warp Speed program helped accelerate the development of the vaccine, which was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 infections in an interim analysis.


The truth is that Pfizer didn't receive any funding from Operation Warp Speed for the development, clinical trial and manufacturing of the vaccine. Rather, its partner, BioNTech SE, has received money -- from the German government.
...

Berlin gave the German company $445 million in an agreement in September to help accelerate the vaccine by building out manufacturing and development capacity in its home market.

What the U.S. did, meanwhile, was commit to buying hundreds of millions of vaccines in advance to ensure Americans were among the first in line if it clinches an emergency-use authorization or approval from the FDA. The Trump administration agreed in July to pay almost $2 billion for 100 million doses, with an option to acquire as many as 500 million more, once that clearance comes.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/pfizer-vaccine-s-funding-came-from-berlin-not-washington

Vice President Mike Pence was among Trump administration officials saying support from the government's Operation Warp Speed program helped accelerate the development of the vaccine, which was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 infections in an interim analysis.


The truth is that Pfizer didn't receive any funding from Operation Warp Speed for the development, clinical trial and manufacturing of the vaccine. Rather, its partner, BioNTech SE, has received money -- from the German government.
...

Berlin gave the German company $445 million in an agreement in September to help accelerate the vaccine by building out manufacturing and development capacity in its home market.

What the U.S. did, meanwhile, was commit to buying hundreds of millions of vaccines in advance to ensure Americans were among the first in line if it clinches an emergency-use authorization or approval from the FDA. The Trump administration agreed in July to pay almost $2 billion for 100 million doses, with an option to acquire as many as 500 million more, once that clearance comes.

Interesting.  I wonder how instrumental  BioNTech SE was in things?  Or perhaps 'just' will be in terms of the manufacture of more of the vaccine in the future?

If I did the calculations correctly (lots of zeros involved!), that works out to be about $20/dose that the US government will be shelling out at least initially?

PD

p.s.  Yes, and I did read earlier about VP Pence trying to take credit for the Trump administration helping to come up with the vaccine (as you mentioned). 

[MusicTurner]

Seems that the Pfizer news stories generate good expectations as regards many other vaccines in the making as well, including some in my region.
Apparently the Pfizer one is covered by EU agreements too.