UK Becomes the First Country To Approve Pfizer/BioNTech Coronavirus Vaccine, Roll Out To Start Next Week (bbc.com) 109
Hope Thelps shares a report: The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination. Britain's medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out. The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs. Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff. But because hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at -70C, as required, the very first vaccinations are likely to take place there -- for care home staff, NHS staff and patients -- so none of the vaccine is wasted. The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is the fastest vaccine to go from concept to reality, taking only 10 months to follow the same steps that normally span 10 years. The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the jab - enough to vaccinate 20 million people. The doses will be rolled out as quickly as they can be made by Pfizer in Belgium, Mr Hancock said, with the first load next week and then "several millions" throughout December. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the first people in Scotland will be immunised on Tuesday.
Join the queue (Score:5, Informative)
Great news. The queue looks like this:
- 85+ and front line NHS staff
- 75+
- 65+
- 16-65 with existing medical conditions affected by COVID
- 55+
- Everyone else
Word is that there will be no option to pay to jump the queue, and no certificates. I imagine that might change as international travel opens up again, people will want evidence of having been vaccinated to present at the border.
Re:Join the queue (Score:5, Insightful)
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I hope that the UK is also equally speedy registering all secondary effects that may show up, openly and transparently, of course.
Absofuckinglutely this.
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Except health is devolved and the devolved administrations are not in the same league of incompetence as the Tory clowns at Westminster. Though that is unfortunately an astonishingly low bar.
Personally the persuasion I would use, is unless you have a genuine medical reason to not have the vaccine then should you refuse the vaccine the cost of any NHS treatment will no longer be free. That is there will be after the fact cost recovery. If that means you loose your house for example that's your lookout, shoul
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Test and Trace should have been done locally but was centralized, which is one of the reasons why it failed. Last figure I read was £22 billion pissed away on that.
Re: Join the queue (Score:5, Informative)
When they say nationally, they mean across the country. Meaning, states such as South Dakota, which is seeing soaring cases in deaths, which have not been doing contact tracing, should be doing it.
We had over 2,600 recorded deaths yesterday, and that number may hit 3,000 before the end of the week. If that isn't a reason to do contact tracing, not sure what is.
Then again, it appears Republicans don't really care how many people die, which is why they keep refusing to do contact tracing or have people wear masks, social distance, and all the other things which have been shown to reduce the spread.
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Don't be an idiot. A global pandemic 10 times deadlier than the flu put them out of work. Lack of basic human decency will put them on the street. That you talk about empathy while touting the right wing perspective— which is a gussied up version of every man for themselves, which is literally the opposite of empathic— is fucking sad and hilarious but utterly unsurprising.
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Absolutely. For example, it's my constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms, so my freedom to carelessly swing a machete around should not be impinged. Republicans understand that it's my responsibility to protect myself, and the responsibility of everyone else in the pharmacy line at Walmart to protect themselves.
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Unless you can find a way to make masks better at stopping virus from entering someone's body than leaving someone's airspace, this entire line of reasoning is exactly as absurd as my absurd example. Pure horseshit.
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The reason that people are even considering that talking about that is because in pretty much every state, the mask mandates only required them when social distancing wasn't possible. Well, right wing ass clowns went everywhere they could possibly think to, causing a ruckus 'bout muh freedums and refusing to wear masks, claiming they were social distancing when they weren't. They knew full well that nobody was going to break out a tape measure. And maybe *you* are just fine being required to wear a mask in
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Reality is, even if you remove the devastating damage cronyism in UK centralised contracts has caused, any ambiguity in t&t reports is more likely to be resolved by local knowledge than someone working centrally.
When the central workers are random hires and the local alternative is (where I live) council customer support staff, finding contacts massively improves. Something like 60% Vs 85% success reaching contacts where I live.
You need both. The problem here is central gov and centralised t&t spent
Re: Join the queue (Score:2)
What has the MRHA got to do with devolved governments? Did you just fancy having a misplaced rant about Westminster?
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Great news. The queue looks like this:
- 85+ and front line NHS staff
- 75+
- 65+
- 16-65 with existing medical conditions affected by COVID
- 55+
- Everyone else
Word is that there will be no option to pay to jump the queue, and no certificates. I imagine that might change as international travel opens up again, people will want evidence of having been vaccinated to present at the border.
I'm surprised we haven't started seeing right-wing conspiracies that you will have to have some kind of proof that you've been vaccinated for the government to allow you to go to work, stores, restaurants, etc, and tie it in with the mark of the beast. Or maybe they've already started it and I've been lucky enough to not see it yet.
Re:Join the queue (Score:5, Funny)
Well there was a new lie about the EU. Matt Hancock said that we were able to approve the vaccine faster because we had left the EU, but the head of the approvals agency said that it was approved within the EU framework.
Apparently they are planning to get celebrities to endorse it in the hope that the kind of people who fall for conspiracy theories will also trust some guy famous for kicking a ball, since they don't like science.
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Stands to reason, a large part of anti-vaxx bullshit peddled by morons is also due to celebrity influence.
It's also quite hilarious to claim that leaving the EU was the great success here considering that the UK is still covered by EU regulations during the transition period which doesn't end for another month. Quite an own-goal there Matt Hancock.
Re:Join the queue (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm surprised we haven't started seeing right-wing conspiracies that you will have to have some kind of proof that you've been vaccinated for the government to allow you to go to work, stores, restaurants, etc, and tie it in with the mark of the beast.
Is there anything you tools won't turn into a left vs. right issue? This is excellent news that has nothing to do with politics! Shut up and leave your ridiculous echo-chambered beliefs out of it.
Then again, now that I noticed your signature block I suppose I should've expected that every. single. thing is a left vs. right issue for you.
Re: Join the queue (Score:3)
No, I just live in a place where people will shout USA! USA! then climb into a truck flying a confederate flag, completely oblivious to the irony. I am in fact firmly center of the road, maybe slightly center left for the US (pro abortion, pro gay marriage, multiple gun owner, used to drive a pickup) but aren't a member of either party.
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The right wing UK gov has tested the waters on vaccine passports, through its usual leak & wait for reactions method. Not going to happen in the early days when it will be dangerously divisive due to prioritising on age.
However, if there are too many vaccine refusing, herd immunity freeloaders, later they might become acceptable to protect the herd and herd immunity for the majority.
Vaccine denial needs to have a price.
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In europe most countries have a "vaccination passport" that is used to record all vaccinations you ever got.
It is basically issued shorlty after birth when you get your first vaccinations.
hat you will have to have some kind of proof that you've been vaccinated for the government to allow you to go to work, stores, restaurants,
Of course you have to proof in many cases that you are vaccinated. Or do you think I would let non vaccinated assholes into my restaurant?
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I have mine, with all my vaccinations dating back to birth... and I'm Canadian. I was actually surprised that most people don't have these; it's how I know to renew my TDAP every decade or so, and Yellow Fever (among others), which is needed for some of the places I travel to on business.
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What province did you grow up in? I grew up in Alberta and was vaccinated in the 80s, and I didn't even get a MMR booster; the policy at the time was a single shot. I actually have no record of my vaccines that I can find, so now I have to manage it myself and try to get the booster when everything is opened back up, etc.
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You should be able to request a record. I'm not sure precisely how to do it, but contacting the health unit for the area you grew up in would be a good place to start. I don't have the one for my childhood, but my parents might.
I do have a record of every vaccination I've had since I turned 18. The yellow fever one is a separate little booklet signed and stamped by the health authority because officially certified documentation is required for entry to several countries. And they do check.
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Yes, hopefully. There's still a problem of some people being allergic to vaccines for various reasons; it's why herd immunity is so important with diseases like measles. There are people that literally cannot be vaccinated for some valid reason, and it's only because the rest of us have had our vaccines that they're safe.
But I would presume that a vaccine passport would also indicate something like that?
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But I would presume that a vaccine passport would also indicate something like that?
I don't think so.
As far as I remember it only contains the date and the vaccine. Important if some vaccinations need refreshing. I lost mine, so I can not check.
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I'm surprised we haven't started seeing right-wing conspiracies that you will have to have some kind of proof that you've been vaccinated for the government to allow you to go to work, stores, restaurants, etc, and tie it in with the mark of the beast.
"Conspiracy theory"? I already have to show immunisation record, along with birth certificate etc to enrol my children in the local school in Australia.
They are especially concerned with more highly contagious diseases like measles, the flu vaccine is not required. There will be no hurry to add covid vaccine.
But nursing homes are another matter. I can see them requiring proof of covid vaccine for all staff and new residents.
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What's far right about reading about the Tony Blair institute?
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/... [walesonline.co.uk]
What's far right about the Iraqi Nadhim Zahawi?
https://www.sciencemediacentre... [sciencemediacentre.org]
What's far right about the Welsh Health Minister, a member of the Labour party?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/... [mirror.co.uk]
Conspiracies? Really?
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If you listen to the scientists about this much of that 10 years is long periods of diddly squat going on waiting for this committee to meet and approve the next step, gathering pools of volunteers for the trials etc.
For this vaccine there was for obvious reasons none of that going on. For example if you where on the committee for any stage for approving the next step, this was absolutely top of your pile. No waiting around till everyone is free, the meeting is tomorrow and you better have an extremely good
problems with vaccine (Score:2)
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gathering pools of volunteers for the trials etc.
That seems to be the key part that's missing here -- they had a trial pool of only 30,000 people -- and only half of them actually got the vaccine. And, these were self-selected volunteers, so aren't a good cross section of the population.
So the early vaccine users are effectively Phase 4 trial participants of a new vaccine.
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If you're worried about the vaccine, which is designed to be safe, I imagine you must be absolutely shitting yourself about the virus, which is very definitely not.
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Or maybe we've lived through Gulf War Syndrome, remember Swine Flu.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art... [thetimes.co.uk] isn't so long ago and shares many similarities with the current situation.
I'm going to be public spirited and bravely take the risk of coronavirus so that those more vulnerable than me can benefit from the earlier supplies of vaccines.
And test them properly for me.
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Bullshit. These vaccines are the end product of a couple decades of work. They're modifications of the SARS-1 vaccine.
I understand that governments wanted to manage expectations, and pharma companies wanted to look like heroes, but this zero-to-vaccine-in-months narrative is harmful.
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I don't think this is a good choice.
I'd start with staff first. When they are all done, we can move on to the old.
85+ risk dying the most, but unfortunately, don't have a very long life expectancy. It would be quite dumb to rush to vaccinate someone who will be dead in 3 months.
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Maybe they view it as Stage 4 trials on people who were going to die soon anyway. That sounds like something Cummings would have suggested.
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In-hospital transmission of COVID has been fairly low. Many of the health care providers who have gotten COVID caught it outside of the hospital.
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There are probably more 85 year olds in a western country than medical stuff.
And you are mixing up "age expectation" with when you actually die. Because "expected average age" is 85, does not mean you die shortly after wards.
It only means that till ppl die to accident or sickness with 1, 11, 21, 31, 44, 55, 66 ... long before they are 85.
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I understand the difference but still, people over 85 don't have a very long time left on average. I call it the lift expectancy, which is obviously higher than life expectancy at birth.
There are probably more 85 year olds in a western country than medical stuff`
That's why, with limited vaccine supply, I'd start with the medical staff. The UK could probably vaccinate all its staff in 2020.
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prison populations are particularly vulnerable
True. And they have an argument for being moved up on the priority list. They don't have the choice as to whether or not to socially distant or lock themselves down. And in many cases (particularly in the USA) the only alternative is early release of all but the violent offenders. The prison-industrial complex can't tolerate the hit to its bottom line.
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Word is that there will be no option to pay to jump the queue
Good. Fuck rich people thinking they have some right to health because of money.
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I just don't see the demand being there. Not in the teeth of a national vaccination program that's free at the point of delivery.
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Well, actual heroin has become hard to find as there are so many cheaper alternatives with similar affects, things like fentanyl.
With this vaccine needing storage below -70C, it'll probably be fakes that are sold privately, though I'm sure bribes or such could work.
I'd also assume that fake vaccines are going to be a major scam for a while.
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It's more like thinking they have a right to something in limited supply that others have a greater need of, but yeah...
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No one has a "right to health" (only to pursue it), but vaccines don't grow on trees. Even if they did, someone would need to discover it, harvest it, distribute it and then find a way to cultivate enough and magnify those efforts to be able to provide and distribute massive supply for low cost. If "rich people" handing over large amounts of their wealth compensates those heroes for the enormous value they produced for the world faster and expedites the process of mass production and distribution then I hav
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You forgot politicians, and their overlords, who will be the very first vaccinated.
Re:Join the queue (Score:5, Informative)
That's incorrect. Where did you get that information from?
From the Guardian:
Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
People 75 years of age and over
People 70 years of age and over and people deemed to be clinically extremely vulnerable.
People 65 years of age and over
Individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
People 60 years of age and over
People 55 years of age and over
People 50 years of age and over
https://www.theguardian.com/so... [theguardian.com]
The BBC are reporting the same thing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/hea... [bbc.co.uk]
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Doubt it. Vaccination helps, but isn't a cure-all since even the Pfizer one is about 95% effective. Which means you could be vaccinated but find out it didn't take.
Likely what will happen are rapid COVID tests will continue to be used as they are now, and rather than bother with cer
why? (Score:2)
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This is a regulatory approval.
So the answer is "Because pfizer/bioNtech deposited first".
Re:why? (Score:4, Informative)
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Indeed, it is expected that the UK will use all available vaccines as they become available. Word is that you won't have a choice which one you get, it will be down to availability and clinical reasons if they turn out to have different interactions or side effects.
It will be voluntary but in practice might become hard to avoid. Japan has just passed a law giving everyone free vaccine but with a clause that places a responsibility on everyone to get vaccinated, only to be triggered if uptake is low. Could g
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Because one is approved and the other still pending. Because Pfizer's results and testing was ahead of Moderna's.
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phase 3 results (Score:5, Insightful)
Did they publish their phase 3 results in a peer-reviewed journal yet?
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Did they publish their phase 3 results in a peer-reviewed journal yet?
Yeah, but for some reason it wasn't much more than a document rambling on and on about refrigeration needs.
Apparently there's nothing else to see here. Step up, get your shot and move along.
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Doesn't matter. The UK people are sick of experts which is why they voted for Brexit in the first place.
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They finally did. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/... [nejm.org]
Re:Wow! (Score:5, Informative)
This is almost like how Trump vetted that supreme court justice in two weeks!
Well the UK has done a shit job at managing this pandemic.
UK: 66.65 million people, 1,643,086 million cases, 59,051 dead.
Japan: 126.5 million people, 150,386 thousand cases, 2,172 dead.
The desperate are in the biggest rush to fix the dumpster fire they have made of Covid pandemic management. After all, political careers are at stake. Countries that did a competent job have less work to do on that score and can afford to proceed on immunising their populations slowly and with in the absence of panic. The alternative is, of course, to go the way of large portions of the US population and deny the pandemic exists or that vaccines work.
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Being incompetent is the second most important prerequisite for a political carreer in the British conservative and unionist party, so nothing is at stake.
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Being incompetent is the second most important prerequisite for a political carreer in the British conservative and unionist party, so nothing is at stake.
I beg to differ, their incompetence notwithstanding, the Tories must have done something right because they got themselves elected into government with a parliamentary majority which most certainly qualifies as something that is at stake.
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This is almost like how Trump vetted that supreme court justice in two weeks!
Let's see if we can start diffusing the obvious political shit-slinging now. People have endured it for years.
A total of six Supreme Court Justices nominated by five presidents have received same day confirmations. President Lincoln (yeah, the same guy who had to run against a Presidential candidate brought by his own damn party) appointed five Supreme Court Justices, all of which were confirmed within days. Even some of our most hated (at the time) Presidents are not attacked for nominations like they a
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It is the rank hypocrisy of the Republicans who in 2016 refused to confirm a Supreme Court Justice in an election year, but saw no problem doing so in 2020.
Rank hypocrisy can be found across the entire political spectrum. Neither side can get into a pissing match with the other on this. All are guilty. No way in hell would I consider what McConnell pulled in 2016 right or fair, but it's rather ironic you're favoring guilt on Republicans when they took their cues from "The Biden Rule" pushed down in 1992 by none other than our new Democratic President.
All those in favor of blatant hypocrisy say "We The People"...
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That's your evidence for hypocrisy by the Democrats? McConnell quoting the "Biden Rule" is merely more evidence of hypocrisy by Republicans, since Biden didn't say what McConnell effectively claimed.
In 2016, Democrats were pissed about their political "frenemies" following a nomination rule created by Democrats fourteen years prior. They were pissed about their own rule only because that time it was being used against them. And of course Biden then tried to backpedal in 2016 to save face, making it "absolutely clear" that he would go forward with a nomination, even in an election year....which of course he backpedaled again, and railed against in 2020. Why? Because the nomination would not have fav
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The so-called 'Biden Rule,' which wasn't a 'rule,' but a suggested course or action should a hypothetical scenario occur, was:
After the date of the election, not after the winner is
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The so-called 'Biden Rule,' which wasn't a 'rule,' but a suggested course or action should a hypothetical scenario occur, was:
After the date of the election, not after the winner is seated.
But it's rank hierocracy on your part to not notice that the very same Mitch McConnell had nothing to say about the so-called Biden Rule a mere four years later.
One party wrote the framework for this, but had no scenario to act on it. The other party, abused the framework and acted on it when an opportunity presented itself. If you don't like how a "course of action" (like names matter here) is abused, you're not going to get anywhere blaming the criminals abusing it. And if either party wasn't so damn hell-bent on abusing the shit out of this current "rule" in the future, they would agree to cement this "course of action" into a damn unbreakable law.
And to be c
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A total of six Supreme Court Justices nominated by five presidents have received same day confirmations.
If you think that's the problem people have with this nomination then your head is so far up your arse that it's come back out of its own mouth.
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No we didn't have a bunch of right wing antibodies just lying in a sewer waiting to be plucked and put in positions of power to overturn an evil Democrat plot to steal your right to die from a treatable disease.
28 Days Later? (Score:1)
What will be the adverse event rate after millions of people receive the vaccine?
Hopefully it will be no greater than with the test population or getting everyone to take the vaccine will be difficult.
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Probably nothing will happen, other than stamping out the pandemic.
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It'll be lower than the adverse event rate for everybody getting the virus, that's for damn sure
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Because it works very well, is very quick to develop and produce, and is likely safer than other types of vaccine. For example, there are no accidents with improperly killed or weakened viruses when your vaccine (and your production facility) doesn't contain any.
Why aren't you using a 386? They're tried and tested, and approved by NASA.
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We haven't been able to create an effective vaccine of any sort for HIV, mRNA or otherwise. We are pushing for an mRNA vaccine because it addresses an urgent need and also addresses a strategic need of humanity for a new vaccine class that can be developed more quickly than existing vaccine classes.
USA: Not for Three to Six months (Score:1)
FDA won't approve vaccines for the USA until Biden is in office. They'd like to keep their jobs and it just won't do to have the public remembering this as the Trump vaccine. At least three more months of stalling deliveries until the memory of Operation Warp Speed is gone from the public's mind*. Then Biden steps up, waves his hand and Democrats are the heros. We may lose 50, 000 more lives. But that's a small price to pay for the party's prestige.
*Fortunately, Democrats don't have a longer attention span