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Medicine

New Pfizer Results: Coronavirus Vaccine Is Safe and 95% Effective (nytimes.com) 231

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
The drug maker Pfizer said on Wednesday that its coronavirus vaccine was 95 percent effective and had no serious side effects -- the first set of complete results from a late-stage vaccine trial as Covid-19 cases skyrocket around the globe. From a report: The data showed that the vaccine prevented mild and severe forms of Covid-19, the company said. And it was 94 percent effective in older adults, who are more vulnerable to developing severe Covid-19 and who do not respond strongly to some types of vaccines. Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with its partner BioNTech, said the companies planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization "within days," raising hopes that a working vaccine could soon become a reality.

The trial results -- less than a year after researchers began working on the vaccine -- shattered all speed records for vaccine development, a process that usually takes years. "The study results mark an important step in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic," Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chief executive, said in a statement. If the F.D.A. authorizes the two-dose vaccine, Pfizer has said that it could have up to 50 million doses available by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion by the end of next year.
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New Pfizer Results: Coronavirus Vaccine Is Safe and 95% Effective More

New Pfizer Results: Coronavirus Vaccine Is Safe and 95% Effective

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  • What could go wrong (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dishbrown ( 7342424 ) on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @10:04AM (#60737974)
    A fast track vaccine with limited testing? What could possibly go wrong?

    • Re:What could go wrong (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mouldy ( 1322581 ) on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @10:08AM (#60737994)
      It's the first vaccine of this type too (mRNA).

      • It's the first vaccine of this type too (mRNA).

        In my layperson's opinion, this could actually be a good thing - AFAIK, mRNA vaccines work in a 'simpler' way than regular vaccines. Instead of actually injecting dumbed down versions of the disease you are vaccinating against, you only inject specific hints of what you want the immune system to learn.
        Of course this could have unforeseen consequences (like anything does), but it does sound a bit less risky and more controlled than the traditional way of doing this. The apparent high efficiency rate seems

    • Millions of idiots could refuse to get vaccinated thus prolonging our COVID nightmare.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        Millions of idiots could refuse to get vaccinated thus prolonging our COVID nightmare.

        As long as my friends/family get theirs, I'm fine with the millions of idiots taking the Darwin approach.

      • A quick Google search tells me that the U.S.A. population at the start of 2020 was just over 331 million people.

        Pfizer has said that it could have up to 50 million doses available by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion by the end of next year.

        Keep in mind they keep saying "doses" and that people need two doses. They also say "up to", which means it's their target but they may miss it.

        This means that "up to" 25 million people will get a vaccine this year and they will most probably be given to people

        • Don't forget that Moderna has announced a vaccine with similar effectiveness and has announced similar production numbers. There is also the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a single dose (also without cold storage requirement), which we should be getting trial results for shortly.

          Also, keep in mind that of the U.S. population, some fraction are children (vaccine is not approved for children yet), or immunocompromised, or crazy anti-vaxxer and will never take a vaccine. So the realistic vaccine dema

      • Would that be the same million idiots who keep hanging out at bars and other mass gatherings, refusing to use a goddamned mask in public, and go around coughing on people and spreading the goddamned virus, or is it a different million idiots? Makes a difference mathematically. :p :p :p
        In the end I see it won't be 'global warming' or even 'war' or 'pestilence' that kills our species, it'll be our own gods-be-damned stupidity, because something like this isn't really 'evolution in action', it's not just kill

    • When you allocate more resources to a project it reaches completion at a faster rate.

      • So if I inject myself with money, I can metabolize vaccines more quickly and determine side effects more efficiently? Amazing! (I get my flushot every year, have taken all my vaccines, and even considered HPV on the basis that it's jus good practice, holding back when I learned it was $200/shot and that it required three shots. I'm not an anti-vaxxer.)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by chill ( 34294 )

          Your health insurance company sucks. It was covered 100% for my 11-year old child. It isn't recommended, because it doesn't do much good, past age 26, so I haven't bothered.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          I don't think injecting yourself with money would help much.

          But if you have enough money you can recruit 75000 participants into a clinical trial pretty fast.

      • Re:What could go wrong (Score:5, Insightful)

        by angel'o'sphere ( 80593 ) <{ed.rotnemoo} {ta} {redienhcs.olegna}> on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @11:00AM (#60738270) Journal

        That is why I have 9 wives and got my first child after just a month.

    • This will go a long way to showing if the existing long development time of drugs is actually necessary or if it is needlessly inefficient. If this works then people are going to start pressuring other drugs to be developed quickly. If it doesn't then we're about to poison a good chunk of the planet.

      • Except that vaccines are easier to develop than most other pharmaceuticals, since the mechanism for how they work is well understood. Testing is also considerably easier, since all you have to look for is whether or not each person got infected. This virus in particular takes much less time for testing, since you can quickly get enough infections to have a statistically significant result.

        So no, this vaccine is a terrible example of how long pharmaceutical development should take.

    • The results your seeing are from the phase 3 clinical trial. This trial is the gold standard for approval and there are no steps after the phase III that would prevent approval. Phase III's are large, they are double blind and they have a full control group. Generally the only side effect or negative result not found in phase 3 trials are long term (longer than 2 years), but the drug company is required by the FDA to do long term monitoring.

      In addition even with emergency approval the Phase III will continu

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bongo ( 13261 )

      Dengvaxia is an interesting story. Billions to develop and 20 years of research and testing, and apparently it could cause children to end up getting the disease much worse than if they hadn't been vaccinated. The controversy is around 600 dead children and whether the companies actually did have hints in the research that this could happen. I'm all for vaccines, I've had vaccines -- and there is always a risk, like with any medical procedure. There's an ethical argument around whether a vaccine should ever

    • Here's one thing that could go wrong: It might save the lives of habitual detractors like you.

    • This is how Among Us starts... a mutated vaccine creates the parasites...

    • What could possibly go wrong?

      over 3% experienced fatigue, that means it would basically kill slashdot to take it.

    • think I will not be an early adopter on this one.
      will continue to hibernate in the house keeping covid at bay. I want to see what the side effects will be once a good 8 months to 1 year goes by.

  • I will get the jab (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @10:14AM (#60738024) Homepage

    I realize there's still a tiny amount of risk, but there are already tens of thousands of successful vaccinations with practically no adverse reactions, and this vaccine is mRNA, so it's much more of a "designed" rather than an accidental vaccine.

    Previous generations were asked to do much more for their country. My grandfather landed in Europe with his fellow troops two days after D day. He voluntarily signed up because he knew it was the right thing to do. That was risk. If all you need me to do is wear a mask and get a jab, then tell me what line I need to stand in, and I'll have my sleeve rolled up. It's called citizenship. I won't do it just for me, but for the rest of my fellow citizens.

    • You go ahead on Patch Tuesday. I'll sit over here and wait on LTSB until I know it's all good.

      • They still patch the security snafus on LTS versions, that's the S part of the acronym. What you are proposing is something as secure as Windows 95 and as common as Android and exposing it to the internet.

        "No sirree it's all the other people using insecure software that are responsible for the botnet ddosing hospitals to the ground, not me."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RobinH ( 124750 )
        Nobody's forcing you to get a jab, and I'm not saying it doesn't require (a very small amount of) courage to do the right thing.

        • I dunno about the "small amount of courage" part; as you touched on, this is a brand new technology, rush developed. There's simply no way to know what the long term side effects might be, or how severe they'll be if present. That's not politics, that's fact; we don't have enough data to make any determination as to what this will do to someone over the long term.

          It's a miracle they were able to not only develop this technology in as short a time as they did, but that it's as effective as it is. I don't

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by RobinH ( 124750 )
            I understand the hesitancy to get it for your kids, but by the time it's available to you, not only will all the trials have finished successfully, but front-line workers and at-risk people will already have gotten theirs. You're worried about risk? What about the risk of working in a hospital during all this? There is no zero-risk alternative here. The long-term risks of contracting COVID-19 aren't even known yet. But I guess you can sit idly by while everyone else does the work to protect you.

          • I'm not in an at-risk group, and neither is she, so there's little point anyway. If the "at risk" groups get vaccinated, then there's little need for everyone else to do so.

            That assumes you get the virus and fully recover and there are no long-term side effects. I felt like you until I learned about COVID long haulers I know a married couple in their early 30s who got the virus. They had a shitty week...OK...that's probably what you're anticipating...they stayed at home for a week feeling like garbage and self-quarantined for another 2 after recovering. Even their illness was pretty smooth, sounded like a shitty cold. No need for doctors.

            Here's the thing. They're lo

        • Nobody's forcing you to get a jab, and I'm not saying it doesn't require (a very small amount of) courage to do the right thing.

          Nobody's forcing you? Mighty bold statement. We'll see just how much that holds true in America or anywhere else on the planet. Right now America is so politically charged it takes nothing more than a lying talking head on TV or social media to pit the average citizen against a herd-dependent solution. Nobody forcing anyone to take a vaccine to cure the planet, can be just as bad a problem as not having a vaccine.

          Going to be utterly pathetic when we stupid humans sit by and let Greed N. Corruption pit o

  • I'm not too worried about short term safety, healthcare workers & the Military will have it long before I do. Long term is a question, but based on what I know (which admittedly isn't a lot) it shouldn't be an issue.

    But I haven't seen a lot of talk about general availability yet. Last I heard we were looking at late April, maybe even end of summer. And that's for the cities. Rural areas w/o hospitals were looking at longer.

    I'm also worried about side effects. Yes, they're a hell of a lot less th
    • The article says two things about side effects, nothing about being too sick to work for few days. Possible I guess, but must be less than these 2% of volunteers that reported headaches.

      vaccine was 95 percent effective and had no serious side effects

      The most common serious adverse event was fatigue, with 3.7 percent of volunteers reporting tiredness after they took the second dose. Two percent of volunteers reported a headache after the second dose.

      In contrast COVID will certainly make you too sick to work, if you even still have a job.

      • In contrast COVID will certainly make you too sick to work, if you even still have a job.

        If only that were true.
        We wouldn't have to worry so much. Unfortunately plenty of people are asymptomatic and so work and unknowingly continue the spread.

      • but again, it doesn't take very many for it to get around, especially with anti-vaxxers amplifying everything on Facebook (and FB being more than happy to let them...).

        I'm just saying I don't know if the vaccine's really going to work. Yeah, it's all well and good to be immune, but if I'm only immune for a few months or even a year what then? If the virus is stamped out great. But I don't see how we can do that.

        And just brow beating people isn't going to work. If I take the vaccine I know I'm expose

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      "Add to that 2 doses are needed and 40% who already said "not getting it" plus a distinct possibility that immunity only lasts 3-4 months tops and I don't know if this is going to do any good."

      There have been exceedingly few cases documented of anyone getting it twice, and those cases are questionable. Also, there's a new study (just saw it this morning) out indicating immunity likely lasts many years, though it hasn't been peer reviewed yet.

  • Stop giving the Russians a moving target! You are pissing off Putin.

  • FDA, Fauci, Berx, Senate & House. You approved it and developed it.

    For the most part you're the most at risk because of age. Put up or shut up that you trust the vaccine

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
      and even if they did go first, people would claim the FDA, Fauci, et al didn't really get the vaccine because it's all a conspriacy anyway.

  • Previous mRNA trials have had nasty results.

    This one, so far, looks like short-term side-effects are minimal - MAYBE the problems are solved.

    The Pfizer one needs to be stored in liquid nitrogen which will cause problems - even refrigerating influenza vaccines has always been too hard for everybody to get right.

    Moderna is better at stabilizing mRNA so they can just be frozen normally which is better.

    BUT - while R&D technicians are producing the test batches, scaling up will introduce other errors that ne

    • The Pfizer one needs to be stored in liquid nitrogen

      It's not quite that extreme. -70C is enough [pfizer.com]

      Pfizer is confident in its vast experience, expertise and existing cold-chain infrastructure to distribute the vaccine around the world. The companies have developed specially designed, temperature-controlled thermal shippers utilizing dry ice to maintain temperature conditions of -70C±10C. They can be used be as temporary storage units for 15 days by refilling with dry ice. Each shipper contains a GPS-enabled thermal sensor to track the location and temperat

  • ... is a safe and effective palindrome.

  • Great! Let's get on with it, then! (Score:3)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @02:06PM (#60739408) Journal
    Pfizer or Moderna, or both, either way: let's get on with it. The sooner we can knock this sonofabitch virus out, the sooner we can really, truly get back to the Real Normal. The Light At The End Of The Tunnel is not an oncoming train! xD

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