Community Chat

[pitdakota]

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@bikerbabe wrote:

At this point there is almost no distribution plan beyond the first target group of healthcare workers and nursing home residents. There's no real plan on how to get it to the general population and this is something that should've been worked on for months and it hasn't. The biggest gaping hole is that there is no substantial IT system in place on tracking who gets what and when and a second dose. 

normally I would be in the first group to probably get it this December, but I just started a leave of absence.

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@bikerbabe once again, ITA.  It is a monumental task left up to the states and states that don't have the monetary resources at this time to actually follow through with vaccine administration for all their citizens.   

I hope you are ok since you are on a leave of absence.  You don't need to expound, just want you to know I am sending good wishes your way.  And a big thanks for putting yourself in the line of fire taking care of covid patients and also the grueling work it requires.  Thanks aren't really enough.  

[tansy]

@pitdakota, if these vaccines weren't being fast tracked, wouldn't we have a better idea of their longevity?  

[pitdakota]

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@tansy wrote:

@pitdakota, if these vaccines weren't being fast tracked, wouldn't we have a better idea of their longevity?  

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@tansy, not necessarily.  The vaccine is not how many set years it takes, but how many subjects they can get and the appropriate data obtained for all 3 phases of the vaccine trial.   They have to recruit participants for all 3 phases of the trial and sometimes they can run into problems recruiting participants for vaccine trials.  

For example, the Shingrix vaccine had just under 30,000 participants in their phase 3 trial when they submitted for approval.  The number of participants between Moderna and Pfizer is around that number each, with other companies starting their phase 3 trial.  In the end, this vaccine will be released to the public with data on more participants than the standard new vaccine such as Shingrix. 

I am not sure how long it took them to get the participants for the Shingrix phase 3 trials , but the timeframe really depends on recruiting participants and getting the necessary number of participants in that group in order to determine the data & time taken to analyze the data.  Not necessarily that they are testing longer for longevity.   Ongoing evaluation of those receiving the Shingrix vaccine has determined it is effective for the majority of people for at least 4 years.  As we continue on with time and evaluation, they will update that information and advise prescribers. 

They have also been working in the areas of coronavirus previously so they were able to build on information they had from this research to develop the vaccine.  The mRNA vaccine is a new technology for a vaccine, but I think they are expecting a fairly significant longevity due to the way this vaccine works.  But they won't have the data to support that until time has passed since the first vaccinations started.

[agb80]

On the topic of concierge medicine and those who can afford such services, does one want the likes of Zuckerberg to get a vaccine before everyone else?  Well you can be sure he has in his employ a concierge physician as I'm sure Jeff Bezos does as well.  It's already been stated that concierge doctors absolutely have access to vaccines and if that's what one of their wealthy clients wants that's what they'll get. Plenty of other wealthy entitled people will jump to the front of the line and think absolutely nothing of it. 

[Johnnyeager]

Eventually, it's highly likely that private employers will require proof of vaccination to enter a workplace.  And the states could require it for access to public facilities like schools and colleges.  The Supreme Court issued a decision determining that states have this authority (Jacobson v Massachusetts, decided 1905.)