I find it somewhat ironic that Biden could be entering the white house just as a new vaccine may be available. That can only add to the frustrations Trump is feeling right now.
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Biden has just announced a 12 man team to lead the US Coronavirus response.
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So the Welsh firebreak lockdown has ended…and now;
After the firebreak lockdown, up to 15 people can take part in activities indoors and up to 30 outdoors.
Groups of four people from different households are allowed to meet indoors at pubs, cafes and restaurants.
Hmmm sounds like party time. You couldn’t make it up. How long before the Welsh will be back in lockdown I wonder.
I’m glad I am banned from going to Wales…think we should ban the Welsh from crossing the border.
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@Jimmyscase, is theiscompany you mentioned in the TIA who were working on a vaccine in Germany?
https://twitter.com/GermanAmbUK/status/1325784182669369347?s=19
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That was CureVac, owned by Hopp (the dude who also owns Hoffenheim’s football club), this is Biontech from Mainz (co-operation with Pfizer).
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That’s just wrong. Most likely there will be gatherings again, along with all the English invaders that are seeking to hide here in Wales so they can visit the local Wilko’s and stock up on tat. The problems that the UK is facing are simply down to the Westminster failing to grasp the virus which then creates problems in Wales and Scotland etc.
It’s never been muted as a be all and end all lockdown, far from it. It is a delay tactic that is to stunt the growth of the virus and buy time until Christmas.
We are expecting further measures after Christmas. If I were English, I’d expect more restrictions in the future as well. Because the Boris and CO. do lockdowns bigger and better than everyone else.
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Will only add to the conspiracy theories
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I havent seen the data yet, but this surprises me they could make these claims based on what Eric Topol was saying a few months back. If you want a vaccine that limits community transmission, this is the sort of metric that matters, but he claimed the studies off all the programs that were furthest along were more focused on its ability to improve clinical outcomes in the most severely sick. That doesn’t preclude them making these claims now, but it would be an indication that the study has been orders of magnitude more successful than they thought it might.
I’ll try and find some data later this afternoon.
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Oh okay, thanks for that CL. 
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Terrible bind for all those AfD people, firm that actually did the development of the Pfizer vaccine founded by Turkish immigrants.
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Yep, that’s already been used against the AfD, fucking delicious that.
Speaking of funny - I was just about to post that the street adress of Biontech is “An der Goldgrube 12” - which translates roughly to “At the Goldmine 12”
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Most of these AFD people are probably anti vaccination anyway, they aren’t wearing masks etc, they are our “kind of Trumpies” and this behavior is probably similar in every other country.
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This is pretty interesting
The analysis was to occur after 32 volunteers — both those who received the vaccine and those on placebo — had contracted Covid-19. If fewer than six volunteers in the group who received the vaccine had developed Covid-19, the companies would make an announcement that the vaccine appeared to be effective. The study would continue until at least 164 cases of Covid-19 — individuals with at least one symptom and a positive test result — had been reported.
That study design, as well as those of other drug makers, came under fire from experts who worried that, even if it was statistically valid, these interim analyses would not provide enough data when a vaccine could be given to billions of people. In their announcement of the results, Pfizer and BioNTech revealed a surprise. The companies said they had decided not to conduct the 32-case analysis “after a discussion with the FDA.” Instead, they planned to conduct the analysis after 62 cases. But by the time the plan had been formalized, there had been 94 cases of Covid-19 in the study. It’s not known how many were in the vaccine arm, but it would have to be nine or fewer
In short, they announced a plan for a preliminary analysis that was criticized as being too preliminary on too little data. While they were in discussions with the FDA to make that a bit more conservative they had way more cases than they expected and shot well past the point they needed to hit even the more conservative mark.
This also indicates that Topol likely wasnt including Pfizer in his discussion of the disappointing study designs, as if the interim review from the Data Safety Monitoring Board was based on this metric, then this IS what the study was designed to test for. All in all a pretty damn positive set of results.
2 caveats
- Still no idea of the persistence of the effect, so no indication of whether this would have to be an annual thing, biannual or even triannual
- Observed symptoms are non life-threatening but considered more severe than is seen with the flu vaccine. That becomes more an issue if this is something that has to be taken 6 times year (2 shots 3 weeks apart 3 times a year).
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@Maria, Thanks for the mention. @anon27364116 is right. CureVac are a bit behind BionTech but they’re both using the same mRNA method. If CureVac can get to better than BionTech’s 90% efficacy , they may yet be an important factor.
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The Government has released to the press who will be getting the first batch of the vaccine.
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Dominic Cummings
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Dominic Cummings Family
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Friends of Dominic Cummings
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People who have met Dominic Cummings
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People that Dominic Cummings would like to do a “favour”.
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Members of the Conservative Party
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Everyone Else.
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Yes, it would be a bonus. The Pfizer one has an disadvantage, in that their vaccine has to be stored in -80 degrees freezer. It will be difficult in countries who don’t have good infrastructure for transport and cold storage facilities to store the vaccine. Curvaceous could have an advantage of Pfizer if they could solve that problem.
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Good point, @Maria . They are working on it here.
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It is good that India are working on it, so it can be transported to countries nearer to India.
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I can’t remember if it was @Limiescouse who mentioned it or something i read elsewhere, but a lot of the vaccines are working along similar lines, so i would suspect that the temperature issue will be resolved quite quickly. A lot of money and effort is being spent on developing these, none of the companies will want to pass up an opportunity to sell to markets.
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