Covid-19: American Acceptionalism

It doesn't say when she received the first dose of the vaccine. If she got the first dose just shortly before her exposure, it might not have had enough time to achieve its full effectiveness. And the first dose isn't optimally effective even at its full effectiveness. Hence the need for the second dose.

 

I doubt she's had the second dose. The vaccines haven't been around that long have they?

 

But this is a great excuse for idiots like me, who don't bother to get the full facts, to say "hey, told ya the vaccine doesn't work".

 

As I understand it, during the testing they gave vaccine and placebo to two different groups. They then looked at both groups to see how many cases of Covid were in the control group and how many in the vaccinated group. That’s how they come up with the “95% effective” figure.

The fact that there’s not a 100% effective vaccine means that some of the vaccinated group during tests must have got Covid.

 

Re: your second point, no.

These are mRNA vaccines, not those like we're used to getting that use a weakened version of a virus in order to activate an immune response and protective antibodies, but that sometimes result in someone getting a mild form of the disease. It's a totally different vaccine technology.

 

I read somewhere that the vaccine is a blueprint for the spike protein that covid uses to attach to cells, so that your body knows how to attack that spike protein so if it gets into your body it knows what to do.

 

Also Pfizer trail enrollees self reported symptoms. That almost certainly means some who got the virus but were asymptomatic never got tested to confirm infection and thus are in that 95% figure. Pfizer claimed 50% efficacy after one dose.

Not sure whether Moderna relied on self-reporting or tested everyone at regular intervals.

 

And after getting the facts, they'll need a lesson on what "95 per cent" means. That means back to grade 2 math class for much of America, I'm afraid.

 

What kind of crap is that?! I’m no medic but surely it’s supposed to be a scientific test not an opinion poll.

 

Where did that come from?

 

Because the goal of the vaccine was to eliminate severe disease. Not to prevent infection.

They are different approaches to the vaccine development.

 

Sure, but whether it’s severe disease or mild infection or asymptomatic, surely they should check what the actual cause is? Self reporting symptoms just means that you know how many people in each group got (or to be more precise, self reported) symptoms of Covid, not how many people actually got infected by the virus.

And how do you control for asymptomatic carriers if you aren’t actually testing? If for example the vaccinated group had lots of people who were asymptomatic carriers and the placebo group had none (or vice versa), wouldn’t this badly skew the results?

I am actually really surprised that they would invest so much into a vaccine and not actually test for the virus. Of course you’d check symptoms too, but not carrying out actual tests as well?

 

If you report symptoms, they test. If you don't, they don't.

 

Tuscaloosa, about an hour ago.
These people really have no clue...

 

Called my daughter in the ER about an hour ago. She only had time to quickly tell me ICU's filled and ER at/near capacity with 30 people waiting to be admitted...then hung up.

Ps...she's really loving those 12hr shifts!

 

The NY State +ve rate is falling. Maybe the impact of the holiday period is fading.

 

Yikes! I can't imagine the emotional and physical exhaustion. Hope she stays well, roby.

 

It's been that way in California and most of the nation as well. But hospitalizations are a trailing indicator - they will still be going up a while. And deaths a while more than that.

 

I forgot what thread I was in and was alarmed that this was a photo of insurrection bullshit but sighed a breath of relief when realizing it was just a super spreader event.

 

I think the accelerated pace of these trials has more to do with the virus running rampant through the world's population as much as anything else.

For these trials to generate useful data, they must show that the vaccinated group is being infected at a demonstrably lower rate than the placebo group. We hear about these numbers, 90-some cases, 164 cases, and so on; predefined statistical breakpoints where the independent agencies overseeing these trials compare data from each group.

With so many people becoming infected, these trials have hit those marks far, far earlier than would have been the case for a less severe and pervasive outbreak. In a less severe outbreak, or for a virus that was less transmissible, it could take months for those positive case numbers to be reached. For COVID, it seems to only take several weeks, simply because so many people in the placebo group contract the virus.