| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Covid-19 vaccine developed by US biotech firm Moderna enters final stage trial |
| 2020-07-15 |
| [France24] US biotech firm Moderna said Tuesday it would enter the final stage of human trials for its Covid-19 vaccine on July 27, to test how well it protects people in the real world. The announcement came as the results from an earlier trial intended to prove the vaccine was safe and triggered antibody production were published. The upcoming Phase 3 trial will recruit 30,000 participants in the US, with half to receive the vaccine at 100 microgram dose levels, and the other half to receive a placebo. Researchers will then track them over two years to determine whether they are protected against infection by the virus. Or, if they do get infected, whether the vaccine prevents symptoms from developing. If they do get symptoms, the vaccine can still be considered a success if it stops severe cases of Covid-19. The study should run until October 27, 2022, but preliminary results should be available long before. The announcement came shortly after the New England Journal of Medicine published results from the first stage of Moderna's vaccine trial, which showed the first 45 participants all developed antibodies to the virus. Moderna is considered to be in a leading position in the global race to find a vaccine against the coronavirus, which has infected more than 13.2 million people and killed 570,000. But scientists caution that the first vaccines to come to market may not be the most effective or safest. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #14 "I keep reading that infection does not necessarily confer immunity. If that's true, can vaccine confer immunity?" That's the trick. If the vaccine provokes too small a response, then it could actually makes things worse if you get the disease (see e.g. Dengue vaccine). If it provokes too much response you could get a cytokine storm. And even if you do make antibodies, no one knows how long they will last. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2020-07-15 18:43 |
| #13 I keep reading that infection does not necessarily confer immunity. If that's true, can vaccine confer immunity? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2020-07-15 18:28 |
| #12 where are the thousands of new COVID-19 cases caused by the Trump rally in Tulsa a few weeks ago. I thought hardly anybody actually showed up? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2020-07-15 18:27 |
| #11 The COVID-19 Panic Shows Us Why Science Needs Skeptics |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-15 17:42 |
| #10 ^Not Ag specific CD8? Just asking - not starting any arguments. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB 2020-07-15 13:11 |
| #9 Its a unique vaccine because it produces a unique "spike protein" signature, so the immune system can learn to attack the virus without the virus itself being put into the body. The vaccine is RNA based, just like the virus, so it might actually be effective in producing lots of specific antibodies. The phase 3 will be important to make sure it doesnt over-rev the immune system, in addition to making sure it does cause the body to produce antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, and that there are no heretofore unseen adverse effects. If this works, it will be great for high risk for death populations, like people with multiple comorbidities. Those are the populations that should have been concentrated on from the beginning instead of the whole population. |
| Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 2020-07-15 12:54 |
| #8 #2 You, usually, don't start with scary stories about a specific vaccine unless there some actual examples - that's why they've all this extensive testing. But the author already sure it'll do more harm then good. p.s. No vaccine can be more dangerous (at least since they've learned not to use wrong adjuvants) as the actual infection. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-07-15 12:33 |
| #7 According to the MSM/Press: "Subhumans aren't affected"? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-07-15 12:25 |
| #6 BTW, unless I missed something, where are the thousands of new COVID-19 cases caused by the Trump rally in Tulsa a few weeks ago. I guess I didn't get that memo. |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-15 12:06 |
| #5 A summary of a posted story at Instapundit. I guess you could call it 'anti-vaccine". Vaccines are hard to develop, and can be dangerous. This is a vaccine for a disease where 40% (at current estimate, up from 35% before) have no symptoms, and where only about .4% die. It’s also a widespread disease — this isn’t Ebola where you could vaccinate 50,000 people and bring an outbreak to an end. You’d have to vaccinate a billion or more. When you vaccinate huge numbers of people for a disease that isn’t very dangerous, your vaccine has to be very safe to be better than the disease. That doesn’t go well with a rushed development effort. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2020-07-15 12:02 |
| #4 You can say what you want about the establishment's response to COVID-19, but anti-vaccine posts? Without having seen the post, I'll still say that's a bit strange to say the least. |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-15 11:53 |
| #3 Phase 3 trials - where most candidate drugs fail. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2020-07-15 11:50 |
| #2 The local Dallas paper gave Fauci's NIH top billing in this development, Moderna was second fiddle. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2020-07-15 10:52 |
| #1 Incidentally, Instapundit - whose site became a forum for Covid-deniers - has an anti-vaccine post already. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-07-15 10:18 |