Yes. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas or knowledge of this being an issue with other vaccines; not the exact issue because of this fragility, but if there are often quality control issues with vaccine rollouts in the beginning. Since the mRNA will be used in future vaccines, I suppose they will be developing safeguards so that this less likely to happen.
Vaccine manufacturing issues are likely based on the specific vaccine technology, not the newness of the vaccine. For example, some flu vaccines using the old egg-based manufacturing have had issues with a vaccine virus mutating away from the target wild virus, so that the vaccines did not produce good immunity for one or more of the wild strains. Also, the slowness of flu vaccine manufacturing means that the guessed target wild viruses may not be the actual wild viruses for the flu season many months later.
Degradation of mRNA during manufacturing, transport, storage, and handling may mean that a vaccine dose is weaker than expected for some people, perhaps inducing lower levels of immunity, especially after the first dose. Could it be that the ādoses about to expire at the end of the dayā are at higher risk of this issue?
Obviously, the J&J vaccine would not have mRNA-specific issues.
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@3SailAway or anyone else who might knowā¦When would we expect to see the vaccine go from āemergency useā to āapprovedā status by the FDA? This lingo is all new to me. Is that something that is likely to happen in months or more like years?
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Everyone in government and medicine seems vague on this. It depends on when the vaccine companies submit for BLA (regular) approval, and how long it takes the FDA to make a thorough, independent assessment of the data. I canāt even find estimates in most media. DH is not willing to guessāhe was willing to guess on when the vaccines would be available to the general public. He said late March, which I think that will turn out to be fairly accurate, but he wonāt guess on this. Itās hard to predict the FDAās timing. They do not like to rush, which is a good thing, safety-wise, but frustrating your company or university wants to mandate the vaccine.
This is the best answer I found:
That was published on 3/17: FAQs Regarding Employer COVID-19 Vaccination Policies and Practices - Lexology
Hope thatās helpful!
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Unfortunately my college student says that he doesnt want to get the vaccine until it is FDA approved and he feels that he cant be forced to until it is. The rest of the family is vaccinated. I cant force him, and he is very stubborn. So i am hoping its months, not years for approval.
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Okay, I got DH to guess and he said āBy Septemberā so letās hope heās right!
Iām sorry you have to worry about your son, @sdl0625 ! But maybe weāll have full approval in time for him to be vaccinated before fall semester.
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This is intriguing. Rhinovirus vs Covid - Rhino wins! (The common cold seemingly will kick out Covid.)
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However, not all common cold viruses are rhinoviruses, although they are the most common.
But then does that mean if you get exposed to COVID-19, would you want to find some rhinovirus to infect yourself with to have it outcompete COVID-19 that has infected you?
I have wondered if that would be an effective treatment given this study proving true outside the lab.
If you could bottle rhinovirus for use when you get exposed to COVID-19ā¦
However, the protection lasts only as long as the common cold lasts, and you would likely need a different rhinovirus the next time you needed a dose to use against COVID-19, because you may have some immunity from the previous rhinovirus infection.
The article also mentions flu as being a selfish virus, but flu is much more unpleasant and sometimes deadly (plus lots of people have gotten flu vaccines).
My preference is still hoping my Pfizer vaccine works - nonetheless, I find the study intriguing and ponder the possibilities.
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Forbes is reporting, āTOPLINE Pfizer, which brought the first U.S.-approved Covid-19 vaccine to market, is conducting a stage one clinical trial on an oral antiviral therapy that a Covid-19 patient could take when they first develop symptoms, which would make it the first oral antiviral treatment of its kind for coronavirus.ā
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apparently the Pfizer vaccine is not 100% from serious illness, and i sometimes wonder if the claims from JnJ is true, based the smaller amount of people from clinical trials Dont get me wrong the numbers are really good. here is info from Israel where over 5 million people are vaccinated. it looks like from the numbers that 2 people who are fully vaccinated are on vents. and about 80/760 are full vaccinated in the hospital. the other good news is that the cases are really dropping and the country is pretty much open now.
sraelās reproduction rate continues to drop, according to Health Ministry data released Wednesday, and now stands at 0.59.
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Of the 41,443 tests the ministry conducted the day before, 679 came back positive, placing the infection rate at 1.7%.
There are currently 14,403 active cases in Israel. Some 762 Israelis are hospitalized, 500 are in serious condition, and 207 are on ventilators.
Of those hospitalized, 74% are not vaccinated, 15% have received their first jab, and 11% have been fully vaccinated. Of those on ventilators, 76% are not vaccinated, 16% have been partially vaccinated, and 8% have been fully inoculated.
Nineteen children under the age of 18 are hospitalized, among them are three newborns. Of those, one is in critical condition, five are in serious condition, and the rest exhibit minor symptoms.
Twelve pregnant women are hospitalized, and nine women who gave birth tested positive for the virus. Three of the women are on ventilators, and one is connected to an ECMO machine. None of them are fully vaccinated.
Israel has reported 829,832 cases and 6,131 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. To date, 809,298 Israelis recovered from the virus.
As for the vaccination drive, 5,191,761 Israelis have received their first jab, and 4,608,229 Israelis have been fully vaccinated, which constitutes 49.55% of the population. Together with those who recovered from COVID, almost six million Israelis have antibodies against the virus.
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Interesting. If you find more data about those vaccinated who are severely affected, can you post it? Iām looking for things like time post 2nd vax, age, comorbidities, etc.
i think Pfizer/Israel will have to publish something at some point. The deal was that Israel would get priority of the vaccines, and in exchange, they would be a larger case study. This is what I get from news articles. I figure watching Israel will help with what might be the future here in the US. the only difference is that they are being extra careful right now about those entering the country. We have no foreign Quarantine policy across the country here that can limit that. They had the british variant arrive, and maybe the SA one, but not the one from Brazil. That is the scariest of them all.
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One thing Iāve been wondering regarding Pfizer is if every place has been successful at keeping it intact considering the low temperature it requires. I have Pfizer myself (first shot - 2nd is still upcoming), and it was my first choice if Iād been able to choose (I took what was offered), but nagging thoughts have me wondering - did travel go ok, was it out too long, etc? Iām not convinced every vaccination site/system/person is as careful with it as the studies were. I hope so, but I know how reality can be.
I plan to give blood afterward to see if antibodies show up, but I know even that is unreliable.
Iām very interested in seeing if patterns show up with where it hasnāt worked or if weāre just getting ārealā odds from the much larger and longer study period.
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I think they have decided that the Pfizer vaccine can be kept as regular freezing temperatures, not ultra cold.
The vaccine in manufactured in Michigan. Where itās shipped overnight in dry ice. Itās then stored in dry ice, thawed and administered.
Hereās an older article
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/pfizer-s-covid-vaccine-is-now-shipping-here-s-how-the-u-s-plans-to-deliver-it/ar-BB1bSuZu
Iām not at all worried. We have a medicine shipped to our house that has to be refrigerated. It comes in a special container with ice packs and an indicator if itās been too warm. Never had a problem.
Have had live fish shipped overnight and they arrive alive.
Not worried about the vaccine myself
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Bad handling is obviously not happening en masse, or hopefully not happening anyway, but in real life, one never knows. Early on there was that one pharmacist who purposely set it out to make it ineffective. Iām glad he was caught. Are there others who havenāt been caught?
We have to trust somewhere and Pfizer was still my top choice, but Iām also very interested in seeing more data regarding where it has failed (as reported in Israel) to see if there are patterns. Is it less than 100% effective against serious illness (possible) or were there handling errors along the specific line (also possible)?
ETA: We relatively often have had live chickens sent to us overnight. All but once they arrived alive. Once they were all dead. Sometimes stuff happens even if unintended.
Note that a significant percentage of Israelās population is age-ineligible for the vaccines (i.e. children), so the percentage of age-eligible people in Israel receiving vaccines is higher than the percentage of the total population receiving vaccines.
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