Tag: vaccine

The mRNA revolution is just beginning

2 Comments


Katalin Karikó, biochemist, started working with mRNA as early as 1989

The arrival of a vaccine before the close of the year was an unexpected turn of events. Early in the pandemic, the conventional wisdom was that, even with all the stops pulled, a vaccine would take at least a year and a half to develop. Talking heads often referenced that the previous fastest-ever vaccine developed, for mumps back in 1967, took four years. Modern vaccines often stretch out past a decade of development. BioNTech – and US-based Moderna, which announced similar results later the same week – shattered that conventional timeline.

Neither company was a household name before the pandemic. In fact, neither had ever had a single drug approved before. But both had long believed that their mRNA technology, which uses simple genetic instructions as a payload, could outpace traditional vaccines, which rely on the often-painstaking assembly of living viruses or their isolated parts. mRNA turned out to be a vanishingly rare thing in the world of science and medicine: a promising and potentially transformative technology that not only survived its first big test, but delivered beyond most people’s wildest expectations.

But its next step could be even bigger. The scope of mRNA vaccines always went beyond any one disease. Like moving from a vacuum tube to a microchip, the technology promises to perform the same task as traditional vaccines, but exponentially faster, and for a fraction of the cost. “You can have an idea in the morning, and a vaccine prototype by evening. The speed is amazing,” says Daniel Anderson, an mRNA therapy researcher at MIT…

I grabbed this article because it promised more detail about mRNA. I was already convinced; but, global geek journalism is my personal search engine and this looks useful.

Right here is where I have to stick in a disclaimer. I’m an old geezer, old geek, old-timey radical. So, several years ago – with no background whatsoever – I decided I had to manage my own retirement investment account. I couldn’t do worse than some of the folks with professional credentials who’d been screwing it up. I have to say this because one of my holdings is MRNA…Moderna. No details. No questions, please. I’m not here to tout my few successes. I just love the science.

RTFA. It’s a piece of history. I think we’ll live a measurable bit longer because of the work all these folks are doing.

Side effects are worth it…

Leave a comment


Getty

…Side effects are a natural part of the vaccination process, as my colleague Sarah Zhang has written. Not everyone will experience them. But the two COVID-19 vaccines cleared for emergency use in the United States, made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, already have reputations for raising the hackles of the immune system: In both companies’ clinical trials, at least a third of the volunteers ended up with symptoms such as headaches and fatigue; fevers like my husband’s were less common.

Dose No. 2 is more likely to pack a punch—in large part because the effects of the second shot build iteratively on the first. My husband, who’s a neurologist at Yale New Haven Hospital, is one of many who had a worse experience with his second shot than his first.

But much like any other learning process, in this one repetition is key. When hit with the second injection, the immune system recognizes the onslaught, and starts to take it even more seriously. The body’s encore act, uncomfortable though it might be, is evidence that the immune system is solidifying its defenses against the virus.

Side effects generally resolve quickly, whereas COVID-19 can bring on debilitating, months-long symptoms and has killed millions.

Please read the article. Lose the excuse!

Pandemic update – unfortunately, after months of Trump

6 Comments

States are ramping up their Covid-19 vaccination programs so more people can be protected against the virus, but some governors are confused and angry because they don’t know how much vaccine the federal government will send them…

…On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told NBC News there is no “reserve stockpile” of Covid-19 vaccine doses left to release…

Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, called the federal government’s release of vaccine more of a “paper exercise.”

“The stockpile appears to be all on paper; they were tracking anticipated need but not actually holding back product,” Plescia said…

President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday announced a plan — as part of a wider $1.9 trillion economic rescue proposal — to send $350 billion to state, local and territorial governments.

The money will be used in part to help distribute the vaccine, as well as to increase testing, keep frontline workers employed, reopen schools and maintain vital services…

Biden aims to vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days, and that’s a feasible goal, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday on NBC’s “Today” show.

“Even now, we’ve gone from half a million a day to 750,000 (doses) a day. I believe strongly that it (1 million per day) is doable — and if we do it, stay on target to get the overwhelming majority of the country vaccinated,” said Fauci…

If you expected better than this from Trump and his Republican Party…I think I can get you a great deal on a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.

Trump flunkies tell states their allotment of vaccine is being cut 25-40% next week

6 Comments


imageflip.com

Hospitals around the country have been thrown into confusion after the Trump administration informed state after state that they’ll be getting 25%-40% fewer COVID vaccine doses next week than they’d been expecting…

…A senior administration official told me [Mike Allen at AXIOS] that the states had been relying on planning numbers that were reduced because Pfizer committed to supplying fewer doses than originally forecast…

Pfizer said in their statement: “No shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed. This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them.”

“We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses.

As usual, there isn’t anyone in the administration who can tell his ass from his elbow when it comes to protecting American lives in this pandemic. You know which one ain’t the elbow.

Celebrate mediocrity: 66% of Americans will vaccinate against COVID-19

1 Comment

When a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, 66% of adults say they will likely get it, and have their children vaccinated too, according to a new nationwide survey…

The likelihood of receiving the vaccination is below 60% in 10 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming. It is greater than 70% in 11 other states: Arizona, California, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York, Rhode Island, Utah, and Washington, as well as in the District of Columbia…

The survey also shows that only 58% of those without a high school diploma say they plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 78% of those with at least a bachelor’s degree. Of people who earn less than $25,000, 59% anticipate vaccinating, compared to 78% of those who earn more than $100,000.

Someday – not in what’s left of my lifetime – we may reach a level of education, an understanding of science over superstition in the general population, when and where we need’t be concerned about sufficient vaccination for reasonable effectiveness.

Literacy means nothing if you only read crap. Or worse – you rely on the other great sources of American information: network TV, car radio disc jockeys and incumbent politicians.

We need to get ready, now!

2 Comments


Getty Images

…There are a couple scenarios to consider, if and when COVID-19 vaccines become available. One scenario is that there is plenty of vaccine, and we have to figure out how to distribute 300 million doses efficiently. What questions or challenges does that raise?

I would love for that to be the case. If we have that much vaccine available simultaneously, then the challenge is to get administered to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.

To make it geographically accessible, we would want to distribute broadly, including to rural locations and multiple points of distribution within urban areas. We also want to send it to places where people are likely to want vaccine. These places can include many types of healthcare providers, such as primary care physicians, specialty providers, Federally Qualified Healthcare Clinics, hospitals, and nursing homes. But you also want to think about other locations, like pharmacies, retail clinics, workplaces, prisons, military bases or schools, that can meet people where they are and at different times of the day. You also need to take into account that the vaccine needs to be affordable, and that’s for the total cost of the vaccine itself and the administration fee to obtain it. Throughout all of this, there will need to be an educational campaign that informs people on why to get a vaccine and how they can do so.

As long as the meathead in the White House and his lackeys are in charge, the fight to get this done safely and timely, is even more critical. They’re barely capable of taking care of their own selves…much less a working nation.

Four ways the pandemic might end

2 Comments


Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty

As major cultural events are forgotten, workplaces, bars, and restaurants close, and prominent politicians around the world have been sickened, two simple questions about the novel coronavirus pandemic seem to rise above the rest: How long will this last? And how will it end?

William Haseltine, president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International, who recently chaired the U.S.-China Health Summit in Wuhan, where the virus likely originated, has a theory.

“There are four ways,” the doctor told The Daily Beast. “One, it peters out with the weather. Two, everybody gets infected, so it’s got no new places to go… so it ends—but that’s a pretty horrible ending. Three is a vaccine, which is about a year away. Fourth way is the most likely: We’re going to have a few drugs, within a few weeks to a few months, that prevent people from getting infected—like PrEP for HIV—and for treatment.”

Decent article. Not as stellar as listening to a thorough discussion with Dr. Haseltine. Happened to catch 10 minutes or so of an interview, yesterday, on BloombergTV. He’s almost as long-winded as me. His medical facts, his science is spot on.

There are at least 3 very readable articles on this coronavirus at his website [link in the paragraph above].