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Coronavirus vaccine tracker: How close are we to a vaccine?

sglowrider

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More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine

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Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 140 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Vaccines normally require years of testing and additional time to produce at scale, but scientists are hoping to develop a coronavirus vaccine within 12 to 18 months.

Vaccines mimic the virus – or part of the virus – they protect against, stimulating the immune system to develop antibodies. They must follow higher safety standards than other drugs because they are given to millions of healthy people.

How are vaccines tested?
In the pre-clinical stage of testing, researchers give the vaccine to animals to see if it triggers an immune response.

In phase 1 of clinical testing, the vaccine is given to a small group of people to determine whether it is safe and to learn more about the immune response it provokes.

In phase 2, the vaccine is given to hundreds of people so scientists can learn more about its safety and correct dosage.

In phase 3, the vaccine is given to thousands of people to confirm its safety – including rare side effects – and effectiveness. These trials involve a control group which is given a placebo.


Vaccines in clinical trials (see link)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/jul/02/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker-how-close-are-we-to-a-vaccine
 
As I posted elsewhere, 3 vaccines are in full production so we can have millions of doses if phase 3 trials work out.

RNA vaccines are interesting and the Covid RNA research will have substantial spinoff effects. Does RNA treatment mean that humans will become GMO’s?
 
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The best outcome is if one of the RNA vaccines work. It's new technology that would speed up the discovery process for future vaccines, if it works.

In simple terms, instead of using an attentuated virus, a portion of the virus, or a key component protein of the virus (all of which are hard to make), you provide the RNA (which is easy to make) that tells the human body to make the viral protein. No matter whether it is made in the body or injected, the immune system of the patient should recognize the protein as foreign and create neutralizing antibodies.
 
More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine

Eb6yQFGXgAAfavy.jpg


Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 140 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Vaccines normally require years of testing and additional time to produce at scale, but scientists are hoping to develop a coronavirus vaccine within 12 to 18 months.

Vaccines mimic the virus – or part of the virus – they protect against, stimulating the immune system to develop antibodies. They must follow higher safety standards than other drugs because they are given to millions of healthy people.

How are vaccines tested?
In the pre-clinical stage of testing, researchers give the vaccine to animals to see if it triggers an immune response.

In phase 1 of clinical testing, the vaccine is given to a small group of people to determine whether it is safe and to learn more about the immune response it provokes.

In phase 2, the vaccine is given to hundreds of people so scientists can learn more about its safety and correct dosage.

In phase 3, the vaccine is given to thousands of people to confirm its safety – including rare side effects – and effectiveness. These trials involve a control group which is given a placebo.


Vaccines in clinical trials (see link)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/jul/02/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker-how-close-are-we-to-a-vaccine

we need this desperately. too many people believe this thing is exaggerated and/or fear mongering on the part of the media. they aren't all dumb rednecks either. i was with a friend i hadn't seen in a while yesterday. ER doctor at the biggest and best hospital in saint louis. big ten alum. said they see very few covid cases and the entire thing is blown completely out of proportion. he's known one person in the ER where he works that contracted it and was totally fine. if you aren't old and don't have serious pre-existing conditions you're fine. most people who go to the hospital are out in two days. the death figures are inflated such that if a person has cancer and is dying from that but also tested positive for covid they will mark covid as the cause of death.

basically his position is that worrying about the number of cases is meaningless because the severity of this thing is way overblown. just watch deaths and then look at the age and story behind each death. that unless you are very old or have serious pre-existing conditions you have a better chance of getting killed by lightning. i was very surprised. he went on to say that the fatality rate world-wide is like .6 percent, and that assumes places with very substandard medical care factored in as well. extrapolate those figures to here where most of us are lucky enough to have excellent medical care it's completely blown out of proportion as the fatality rate would be lower than even .6 and the hospital stay is rare and for those requiring admission the stay extremely short: two days or less. anyway, again i was very surprised by his take.

my convoluted point is that there are many opinions on this and little certainty. and the more people that are out and about with this perspective the more vulnerable people are going to get infected and have bad outcomes. a vaccine is the best way to eliminate doubt.
 
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I don’t want to be that guy, but is there any doubt that Trump will announce in October that a vaccine has been found to eradicate the virus and is available to all, even if its a bald faced lie?
 
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I don’t want to be that guy, but is there any doubt that Trump will announce in October that a vaccine has been found to eradicate the virus and is available to all, even if its a bald faced lie?

The more likely scenario is that Trump will announce good news and the media and the Democrats will go into immediate attack mode to minimize the impact and perhaps put people's lives in danger by scaring them out of treatment. From the moment Trump mentioned Hydroxy, the media and the Democrats pounced. They blamed Trump for the single death from drinking fish tank cleaner, negative Hydroxy scientific reporting had to be retracted, and they touted flawed studies like the VA where high risk patients were disproportionality administered the drug. The Henry Ford study determined that Hydroxy saves lives when given with proper protocol. That's undeniably good news.
 
The more likely scenario is that Trump will announce good news and the media and the Democrats will go into immediate attack mode to minimize the impact and perhaps put people's lives in danger by scaring them out of treatment. From the moment Trump mentioned Hydroxy, the media and the Democrats pounced. They blamed Trump for the single death from drinking fish tank cleaner, negative Hydroxy scientific reporting had to be retracted, and they touted flawed studies like the VA where high risk patients were disproportionality administered the drug. The Henry Ford study determined that Hydroxy saves lives when given with proper protocol. That's undeniably good news.
Said the jackleg pretending to be a climate scientist pretending to be an epidemiologist.

I have no idea who you are in real life, but on this board, you’ve never been very bright, and you’ve never been a good poster, but now you’re just a bad person. Please go away and stop being awful.
 
Said the jackleg pretending to be a climate scientist pretending to be an epidemiologist.

I have no idea who you are in real life, but on this board, you’ve never been very bright, and you’ve never been a good poster, but now you’re just a bad person. Please go away and stop being awful.

Haha
 
The more likely scenario is that Trump will announce good news and the media and the Democrats will go into immediate attack mode to minimize the impact and perhaps put people's lives in danger by scaring them out of treatment. From the moment Trump mentioned Hydroxy, the media and the Democrats pounced. They blamed Trump for the single death from drinking fish tank cleaner, negative Hydroxy scientific reporting had to be retracted, and they touted flawed studies like the VA where high risk patients were disproportionality administered the drug. The Henry Ford study determined that Hydroxy saves lives when given with proper protocol. That's undeniably good news.
Yes a study showing Hydroxychloroquine did not work was retracted, so was a study showing it did work. So I am not sure you can go there.

As to the Ford study, that is potentially good news. But it was an observational study. They have a double-bling going on and that one will be much more definitive.

Their MIGHT be questions about the current Ford study. Take a look especially at the final paragraph below:

Researchers not involved with the study were critical. They noted that the Henry Ford team did not randomly treat patients but selected them for various treatments based on certain criteria.

"As the Henry Ford Health System became more experienced in treating patients with COVID-19, survival may have improved, regardless of the use of specific therapies," Dr. Todd Lee of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Canada, and colleagues wrote in a commentary in the same journal.

"Finally, concomitant steroid use in patients receiving hydroxychloroquine was more than double the non-treated group. This is relevant considering the recent RECOVERY trial that showed a mortality benefit with dexamethasone." The steroid dexamethasone can reduce inflammation in seriously ill patients.​
 
I don’t want to be that guy, but is there any doubt that Trump will announce in October that a vaccine has been found to eradicate the virus and is available to all, even if its a bald faced lie?

Why not go full banana republic and claim that the vaccine is only available to those who vote for Trump only? Will complete the loop.
 
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An angry Azar floats plans to oust FDA’s Hahn
Fights over vaccine standards have created an unbridgeable divide within HHS, officials said, but White House is unlikely to approve any changes until after the election.

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Infuriated by the FDA’s defiance in a showdown over the Trump administration’s standards for authorizing a coronavirus vaccine, health secretary Alex Azar has spent recent weeks openly plotting the ouster of FDA chief Stephen Hahn.

Azar has vented to allies within the Health and Human Services Department about his unhappiness with the top official in charge of the vaccine process, and discussed the prospect of seeking White House permission to remove him, a half-dozen current and former administration officials said.

The discussions come amid deep frustration with Hahn over his insistence that a Covid-19 vaccine meet strict safety standards — a contentious decision that rendered it impossible for President Donald Trump to fulfill his oft-expressed desire for a vaccine just before Election Day.

Earlier this month, Hahn ended a lengthy standoff over the rules under which the FDA would grant emergency authorization for a vaccine by flouting the White House and ordering their publication. The move won widespread praise from the nation’s public health community.

But it angered Azar and others who viewed it as the latest in a recent pattern of Hahn breaking with the broader administration in an effort to bolster his own reputation, current and former officials said.

White House officials are unlikely to green-light Hahn’s firing in the next two weeks despite their own reservations about him, five current and former administration officials said, over concerns about the optics of removing an FDA commissioner soon after his agency ruled out a pre-election vaccine.

Still, Hahn — who has endured a turbulent 10-month run — is viewed as a long-shot to return if Trump wins a second term. In a sign of awareness of his rocky standing, Hahn has largely avoided traveling to the White House of late, two administration officials said, preferring to call in to its coronavirus task force meetings.

In the meantime, the last few weeks have marked a new low point in an extraordinary feud between Azar’s health department and its subordinates at the FDA that has played out in the press and behind the scenes during the nation’s worst pandemic in 100 years.

That monthslong battle has disrupted efforts to combat the virus by slowing down internal decision-making and sowing confusion, according to 10 current and former administration officials and others with knowledge of the situation. It’s decimated morale and, at various times, forced the White House to intervene.

And at a time when the administration is fighting to develop the therapeutics and vaccines that can curb a disease killing 800 Americans a day, the Azar-Hahn feud has effectively severed the link between the two men at the center of that high-stakes effort.

“It’s broken,” one senior administration official said of the relationship between Azar and Hahn. “There is minimal interaction.”

But six administration officials said the disintegration of the relationship between Azar and Hahn is the result of a series of disagreements, missteps and slights that began within weeks of Hahn’s arrival in Washington last December and steadily built to a boiling point. A radiation oncologist and longtime academic with no political experience, Hahn was thrust into the middle of a pandemic response just a month after becoming the agency’s latest leader — and the fourth in 2019 alone, after former commissioner Scott Gottlieb and acting heads Ned Sharpless and Giroir.
 
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