Re: COVID-19 News and Discussions
Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:07 pm
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We make mistakes all the time. We don't have the intellectual awareness to prepare for future pandemics, so the next best thing is to have AI help us with that by predicting future events using the past for reference.erowind wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:08 am We don't need AI to prevent healthcare collapse. I mean, it may help I'm not denying that. But this is a governance problem first and foremost. Why were hospitals and critical healthcare infrastructure permitted to model their supply chains and care after the just in time manufacturing model meant for Toyota production lines? Yes, antivax sentiment is a problem but it's not the only cause. Hospitals should have excess capacity and they should be well staffed at all times. This stupid game of reducing capacity to try to precisely meet demand during good times (pre-pandemic times) only guarantees that the healthcare system cannot provide for the population in times of crises. Even if anti-vaxx sentiment didn't exist this still would have happened on a smaller scale in select metro areas like it did before the vaccine was even deployed.
(The American Prospect) The U.S. plans to purchase from Pfizer and donate to Third World countries hundreds of millions of doses of the COVID vaccine, according to a story leaked to The Washington Post. This is in addition to the more than 136 million doses already donated, according to the State Department.
This is a great thing, right? No, it’s a travesty. The total global need is at least 13 billion doses. Back in May, President Biden did something worth celebrating. He authorized U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to reverse the long-standing U.S. opposition to waiving the patent, copyright, and trademark protections of the WTO treaty known as TRIPS, to which the U.S. is a party.
With that waiver, countries with vaccine manufacturing capacity, such as India, could produce the Pfizer vaccine at cost, at adequate quantities, and deliver it worldwide. But since that brave gesture, career U.S. trade officials based at WTO headquarters in Geneva have slow-rolled the TRIPS waiver, and there has been no progress at getting vaccines actually produced in quantity.
It is even more of a travesty if Pfizer, which has already made many billions in windfall COVID profits, is charging Uncle Sam, aka the U.S. taxpayer, any kind of a markup. In the leaked Post story, terms were not disclosed.
The more the administration plays Pfizer’s game to purchase and donate what should be a public good, the more it plays into the drug industry’s hands and diverts public attention from the stalled TRIPS waiver.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/health/f ... index.html
(CNN)Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously Friday to recommend emergency use authorization of a booster dose of Pfizer's vaccine six months after full vaccination in people 65 and older and those at high risk of severe Covid-19. Members of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee also informally advised the FDA to include health care workers or others at high risk of Covid-19 exposure in the EUA.Earlier, the advisers had rejected a broader application to approve the use of booster doses of Pfizer's vaccines in everyone 16 and older six months after they are fully vaccinated.
Members of the committee expressed doubts about the safety of a booster dose in younger adults and teens, and complained about the lack of data about the safety and long term efficacy of a booster dose. Biden administration officials have previously announced a plan to begin administering booster doses to the general population during the week of September 20, pending signoff from the FDA and US Centers for Disease Control. Some of the advisers -- a group of vaccine experts, immunologists, pediatricians, infectious disease specialists and public health experts -- have said the process was rushed because of that target date. On Friday, several said they wanted to see more data, or they believed boosters were likely necessary, but for a more limited segment of the population.
"I don't think a booster dose is going to significantly contribute to controlling the pandemic," said Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, said during the meeting. It is very important that the main message that we still transmit is that we have got to get everyone two doses. Everyone has got the get the primary series. This booster dose is not likely to make a big difference in the behavior of this pandemic." During the meeting, Dr. William Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer, said several studies indicate that people's immunity can and does wane and that giving booster doses restores that immunity -- sometimes to levels higher than seen at initial vaccination.
He said people who got the boosters did not have any more side effects than seen after the first two doses. And Gruber said while the two-dose Pfizer vaccine continues to protect well against severe infection, hospitalizations and deaths, there are hints that could change. The company relied heavily on data from Israel, where vaccinated people started to get breakthrough infections. Israeli researchers earlier told the meeting that adding booster shots in Israel helped keep many people out of the hospital. The Israeli experience could portend the US Covid-19 future," Gruber said. "The Israeli experience could portend the US Covid-19 future," Gruber said. "Israel and the United States real world evidence suggests that vaccine efficacy against Covid-19 infection wanes approximately six to eight months following the second dose," he added.