For those that took the Curative test : Risk of False Results with the Curative SARS-Cov-2 Test for COVID-19: FDA Safety Communication
Just casually logging 4k death days now. Un****ing real. This country needs a lockdown, these vaccines aren't going to be distributed quick enough, at this rate we could have a million deaths come summer, about triple our current death total. A strict 1-month federally mandated lockdown could save hundreds of thousands of American lives, and with the vaccine rolling out it could be sold as a one-time thing.
Well, maybe they will take a 2nd look at this. Not sure if this mean they will risk delaying the 2nd dose. Biden to Speed Release of Coronavirus Vaccines - Bloomberg Washington (AP) -- President-elect Joe Biden will release most available COVID-19 vaccine doses to speed delivery to more people, a reversal of the Trump administration policy, his office said Friday. “The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible," spokesman T.J. Ducklo said in a statement. Biden “supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now.” Under the Trump administration's approach, the government has been holding back a supply of vaccines to guarantee that people can get a second shot, which provides maximum protection against COVID-19. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require a second shot about three weeks after the first vaccination. One-shot vaccines are still undergoing testing.
I mean I'm not against this from the info I have gathered, but I think if Biden wanted to make a bigger splash he would just push the FDA to approve the Oxford vaccine like the UK and India. That's a ton of doses immediately available while we wait and hope for great data out of the J&J vaccine.
He's in the party of "trust the science" and our scientists say they need new/more data on AZ vaccine. I mean, we just had months of arguments about Trump trying to influence the FDA. How would it look if he "ordered' the approval of the AZ vaccine against the wishes of the FDA?
I watched a bunch of people get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I watched my neighbors have a huge New Year's party. I watched them go to their kids' high school football games "I'm not going to let COVID ruin my kid's senior year!". You can watch college campuses operating like normal. If you go driving around Houston anywhere right now, shopping centers and restaurants are packed like nothing is going on.
Well there has already been very large studies on it globally and for some reason our projected approval isn't until April. I know we have studies on going as well. And it is kind of funny how the trust the science party is pushing a plan with no hold back for the 2nd dose which goes against what the government scientists want. Lol whatever....as long as it gets the vaccine out I don't care.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/06/1015822/covid-19-immunity-likely-lasts-for-years/ Covid-19 immunity likely lasts for years A new study shows immune cells primed to fight the coronavirus should persist for a long time after someone is vaccinated or recovers from infection. Covid-19 patients who recovered from the disease still have robust immunity from the coronavirus eight months after infection, according to a new study. The result is an encouraging sign that the authors interpret to mean immunity to the virus probably lasts for many years, and it should alleviate fears that the covid-19 vaccine would require repeated booster shots to protect against the disease and finally get the pandemic under control. “There was a lot of concern originally that this virus might not induce much memory,” says Shane Crotty, a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California and a coauthor of the new paper. “Instead, the immune memory looks quite good.” The study, published January 6 in Science, contrasts with earlier findings that suggested covid-19 immunity could be short-lived, putting millions who’ve already recovered at risk of reinfection. That predicament wouldn’t have been a total surprise, since infection by other coronaviruses generates antibodies that fade fairly quickly. But the new study suggests reinfection should only be a problem for a very small percentage of people who’ve developed immunity—whether through an initial infection or by vaccination. In fact, the new study does show that a small number of recovered people do not have long-lasting immunity. But vaccination ought to offset that problem by ensuring herd immunity in the larger population. The new paper studied blood samples from 185 men and women who had recovered from covid-19—most from a mild infection, although 7% were hospitalized. Each person provided at least one blood sample between six days and eight months after their initial symptoms, and 43 of the samples were taken after six months. The team that ran the investigation measured the levels of several immunological agents that work together to prevent reinfection: antibodies (which tag a pathogen for destruction by the immune system or neutralize its activity), B cells (which make antibodies), and T cells (which kill infected cells). The researchers found that antibodies in the body declined moderately after eight months, although levels varied wildly between individuals. But T-cell numbers declined only modestly, and B-cell numbers held steady and sometimes inexplicably grew. That means that despite decreases in free-flowing antibodies, the components that can restart antibody production and coordinate an attack against the coronavirus stick around at pretty high levels. Crotty adds that the same mechanisms that lead to immune memory after infection also form the basis for immunity after vaccination, so the same trends ought to hold for vaccinated people as well. And while immunity to other coronaviruses has been less than stellar, it’s worth looking at what happens in people who recovered from SARS, a close cousin of the virus that causes covid-19. A study published in August showed that T cells specific to SARS can remain in the blood for at least 17 years, bolstering hopes that covid-19 immunity could last for decades. The new study isn’t perfect. It would have been better to collect multiple blood samples from every participant. “Immunity varies from person to person, and uncommon individuals with weak immune memory still may be susceptible to reinfection,” Crotty cautions. And we can’t make any firm conclusions about covid-19 immunity until years have passed—it’s simply too early. Nonetheless, this latest result is a good indication that if the vaccination rollout goes well (a big if), we might soon be able to put the pandemic behind us.
There's no such thing as a "trust the science party" they are all quick to ignore anything that goes against their agenda.... they just fool naive people into thinking otherwise.
It's all COVID patients again. It's April 2020, but in January 2021. Guy is shot? Has COVID. Friend who was minding his own business but was also shot? Also has COVID. Third Friend who came with his two shot friends? Also has COVID and needs to be hospitalized because he is short of breath.
I'm a risk/reward type of person. I agree that sometimes its worth taking the risk. I just don't think Joe Biden is going to come into office and try to "influence the FDA and CDC" after months of haranguing Trump about the same thing. His own VP said she would not take a "rushed" vaccine. As for world studies, for better or worse (mostly better) reasons, our FDA is the gold standard of the world when it comes to data. If AZ had been more up front in their results, they may have already been under review, but they were slightly shady so the FDA is making them complete more comprehensive studies for US distribution. There is a fantastic article about how the Moderna vaccine has existed since February last year. The cure/vaccine for this entire debacle existed before the thing even really started. The entire pandemic, the death, the sickness, the thin stretching of our medical resources has happened when the actual cure for it existed in this world. That's how important the FDA/CDC thought it was to test the vaccine fully. The author did not say we should have rushed the testing process, but scientists have now said we can change the way we treat this disease platform. Now that the platform has been tested, tweaking the virus it prevents against shouldn't require stage 1, 2, and 3. It'll be more like flu vaccines in the future. You'll have full platform approval, and you'll be able to turn around approval of the specific vaccine on the platform in as little as 8 weeks...like the flu formulas. EDIT: found the article. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html
Astrazenca certainly had issues but they also had zero severe cases post-vaccination and no significant side effects. Low risk and high reward for me but I can completely understand why caution surrounds them. I tend to feel the J&J vaccine will be the ultimate winner for the US assuming it works well. Overall, the vaccine development has truly been spectacular.
Agreed. J&J will (Hopefully) be the game changer. A single shot vaccine that is easily distributed through existing channels by a company that can produce 100,000,000 a month. Even if it's "only" 50-60% effective, as long as it keeps people out of the hospital, it'll be a game changer. You could then, if you wanted, probably go get the Moderna or Pfizer one later down the road if you wanted to improve your "personal" protection to 95%. Although I suspect, since they are also testing a two dose regimen, that their scientists think that'll a booster of J&J later will get you to those really high efficacy numbers.
Oh my bad - totally misread your post as one of those folks that are stating the COVID numbers are being inflated by the hospital. Damn, that's scary to hear. Been testing every week for couple of months now, and can say that CVS testing has been definitely way less busy after the new year which worries me. During the holidays, you'd have to sign up two days in advance, but now you can usually find (not rapid, but still pretty fast) tests available the next day.
