COVID-19: Vaccine and testing procedures Megathread Part 2 [Mod Warning - Post #1]

lbj666

Hmmzis wrote: »

The data seen so far would indicate that vaccines should still work for the SA/Brazil variants. Serum antibody response have been noted to be varying wildly between individuals on those variants, but there was no full abolishment for any one sample. Is there a reason for concern? Of course there is, the amino acid changes at 484 in the S protein have been shown to be important and they need to be closely monitored. If further changes to the RBD start abolishing a significant portion of neutralizing antibodies then it would be time to adjust the vaccines.

The thing to note here is that not all neutralizing antibodies are directed at the RBD, it's the most dominant region on the virus for them, that's for sure, but there are other places on the surface of the S protein that are neutralizing. The ones directed at the S2 part (the stalk bit, or the 'foot') do not prevent binding to cells, but prevent the virus from ever entering a cell by locking the fusion machinery in place.

Again, that is completely ignoring any other parts of our immune response, which are rather important for a disease with a lengthy incubation period:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.02.20222778v1

If you don't want to read even the abstract there, it effectively says that if there are no detectable antibodies but if there are sufficient amounts of SARS-cov-2 reactive T cells then people are still protected form the disease.


The vaccines that do not induce a T cell response (i.e. the inactivated whole virus version from China) might be in a bit more trouble here than others.

Hmmz I asked the question last night, since the part of the Phase 3 Pfizer trial was in Brazil/South Africa, i presume they have continued monitoring it in the context of this strain and should have some data soon enough?

funnydoggy

The pubs should do takeaway oxford vaccines :pac:

Hmmzis

lbj666 wrote: »

Hmmz I asked the question last night, since the part of the Phase 3 Pfizer trial was in Brazil/South Africa, i presume they have continued monitoring it in the context of this strain and should have some data soon enough?

I'm sure they'd be having a hawk eye on the trial participants there. Would be good if they sequence any and all of the infections they detect in them.

Harry Palmr

The forth vaccine (the one that is hardly mentioned), from Johnson & Johnson is both fridge friendly and a one shot inoculation. Still some time away as phase 3 is not yet complete.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/johnson-johnson-covid-19-vaccine.html

nommm

Harry Palmr wrote: »

The forth vaccine (the one that is hardly mentioned), from Johnson & Johnson is both fridge friendly and a one shot inoculation. Still some time away as phase 3 is not yet complete.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/johnson-johnson-covid-19-vaccine.html

Its on track for EUA at end of January, provided they get good results.

JMR46

nommm wrote: »

Its on track for EUA at end of January, provided they get good results.

Good news if it gets EMA approval soon. I know there was a list posted a good while back but does anyone know roughly how much the EU/Ireland have pre-purchased of the J&J vaccine?

Hopefully it will ramp up our weekly delivery numbers another bit along with the 2 already approved

Hmmzis

JMR46 wrote: »

Good news if it gets EMA approval soon. I know there was a list posted a good while back but does anyone know roughly how much the EU/Ireland have pre-purchased of the J&J vaccine?

Hopefully it will ramp up our weekly delivery numbers another bit along with the 2 already approved

It's mentioned in the linked article, the EU have ordered 200 million doses of it.

is_that_so

Gael23 wrote: »

How is the AZ trial progressing?

https://www.pharmalive.com/astrazeneca-u-s-covid-19-vaccine-trial-results-likely-in-late-january-2021/

JMR46

Hmmzis wrote: »

It's mentioned in the linked article, the EU have ordered 200 million doses of it.

Thanks, I missed that in the article. Hopefully approved ASAP. Good news, the more the better. We are getting there!

Gael23

is_that_so wrote: »

https://www.pharmalive.com/astrazeneca-u-s-covid-19-vaccine-trial-results-likely-in-late-january-2021/

Is there anything more specific to the EU?

smurfjed

In other parts of the world, and this is only Pfizer

#BREAKING: #SaudiArabia has vaccinated 137,862 individuals in the Kingdom as of January 7.

That’s in about 2 weeks.

seamie78

based on population we are probably doing better

speckle

Anybody have a general idea( understand early days yet) when and how it will be rolled out to those on their 80s and 90s who live at home..especially if they dont drive or are too fragile/high risk to be driven to especially an indoor center.. interested re both city and rural areas. Have a lot of logistics too help plan and relatives to advise
thanks

is_that_so

Gael23 wrote: »

Is there anything more specific to the EU?

They asked for more quality data but it would make sense to look at the outcome of this trial.

stephenjmcd

is_that_so wrote: »

https://www.pharmalive.com/astrazeneca-u-s-covid-19-vaccine-trial-results-likely-in-late-january-2021/

Thats to satisfy the FDA requirements not EMA. FDA required a fully enrolled trial for half dose full dose in USA.

It'll establish if half dose full dose is efficient in bigger numbers than existing data and then feeds into if that dosing gets approved for use but not the main thing for EMA. EMA could approve full dose x2 and revisit later on the other dose.

Latest EMA statement was that they were awaiting more data on quality & manufacturing

seamie78

speckle wrote: »

Anybody have a general idea( understand early days yet) when and how it will be rolled out to those on their 80s and 90s who live at home..especially if they dont drive or are too fragile/high risk to be driven to especially an indoor center.. interested re both city and rural areas. Have a lot of logistics too help plan and relatives to advise
thanks

I would imagine they hope to use local gps for that cohort

smurfjed

seamie78 wrote: »

based on population we are probably doing better

True, but strangely enough thats 13% of the people who actually registered to take the vaccine. With case numbers so low, the fear factor isnt there and people dont see a need to take a vaccine.

speckle

seamie78 wrote: »

I would imagine they hope to use local gps for that cohort

Thanks. That is what I hope.. but wonder because of that..they might be waiting longer due to the storage logistics and hence it will not be pfizer?

corcaigh07

Will vaccines be available via private providers or just public?

nommm

corcaigh07 wrote: »

Will vaccines be available via private providers or just public?

As far as I know Pfizer have said that they will not sell to private companies only countries. I think the other manufacturers have made similar commitments.

XsApollo

smurfjed wrote: »

In other parts of the world, and this is only Pfizer

#BREAKING: #SaudiArabia has vaccinated 137,862 individuals in the Kingdom as of January 7.

That’s in about 2 weeks.

Saudi Arabia the ones we should all look up to.
I foresee public execution/ head chopped off on the street for refusing to take one.

josip

When a vaccine maker decides to design/research a vaccine, do they have some desired characteristics in mind at the start, eg number of doses, storage temperature and try to get the best possible efficacy within that range, or do they cast the net wide at the start and go with the best efficacy from all the trials?

CIARAN_BOYLE

josip wrote: »

When a vaccine maker decides to design/research a vaccine, do they have some desired characteristics in mind at the start, eg number of doses, storage temperature and try to get the best possible efficacy within that range, or do they cast the net wide at the start and go with the best efficacy from all the trials?

I think they start with what are we good with.

So BioNtech are the world leaders in mrna technology. As a consequence of that anything they produce needs to be frozen. They probably don't need ultracold but they would need to prove that and that would take a month so they don't do it (Moderna did so BioNtech finished first).

They they get a basic idea and get lab trials. Then they make guesses based on the lab trials on what the best way to go with the remaining trials (in terms of dosage and regimen and similar and their own technological base) and they move on.

smurfjed

XsApollo wrote: »

Saudi Arabia the ones we should all look up to.
I foresee public execution/ head chopped off on the street for refusing to take one.

This is a vaccine discussion, political garbage and rantings are that way >>>>

Van.Bosch

15,314 vaccinated with first dose so far.

statesaver

Van.Bosch wrote: »

15,314 vaccinated with first dose so far.

Good news at least. Was hoping a lot more than that vaccinated.

gally74

statesaver wrote: »

Good news at least. Was hoping a lot more than that vaccinated.

35K was the target this week, so again v poor, to be honest shocking poor,

This is a pandemic... and we are so far behind,

ACitizenErased

statesaver wrote: »

Good news at least. Was hoping a lot more than that vaccinated.

We don't have the supply to do more than that.

AdamD

81,900 doses received.

15,314 doses administered to date - aim is 35,000 by end of the week.

Not overly impressed by that

ACitizenErased

gally74 wrote: »

35K was the target this week, so again v poor, to be honest shocking poor,

This is a pandemic... and we are so far behind,

He literally said they're on track for 35k by Sunday