Covid-19: Treatments, Cures, and Vaccines

U.S. health body questions AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine trial data

AstraZeneca releasing outdated info on the efficacy of their vaccine is an issue. This may be why their vaccine hasn't been approved in the US yet. I'm all for getting every good vaccine approved, but you can't cut corners.

 

Eric Feigl Ding has been trying to raise the alarm on p1 for a while. Strangely enough, to the extent that we avoid p1, it may be because the b117 variant is overwhelming it because it's so much more transmissible and because Europe has been disastrous and rolling out it's vaccination schedule. The B117 variant is stopped by the Pfizer vaccine, at least, while the P1 is not.

 

Do you have definitive information that Pfizer doesn't stop P1?

 

Not definitive - but the epidemiologist I linked to above has stated that it doesn't look like it will preliminary results and I have seen elsewhere as well. Not definitive yet but not looking good

 

A yet-to-be-published paper from the same Oxford University Lab that helped develop the AstraZeneca vaccine, suggests that current vaccines, including the AZ and Pfizer mRNA shot are not as effective against the variants as the "wild strain", but that the P1 variant is much less resistant to vaccine based anti-bodies than people first feared.

COVID-19: Existing coronavirus jabs may protect against Brazilian variant as strain 'may be less resistant to antibodies'

 

More on the variants from Oxford:

Existing vaccines may protect against the Brazilian coronavirus variant | University of Oxford

 

Interesting story on how Curevac was ahead of pfizer until the guy had a major stroke. Amazing that he made it back from that and finished the work. Curevac uses a natural mRNA instead of a manufactured mRNA so cheaper, easier to make and store. CureVac’s vaccine uses 60% less mRNA than BioNTech’s, and one-eighth as much as Moderna’s

How a Promising Covid-19 Vaccine Lost Its Way---And Found It Again (msn.com)

While he recovered in the hospital under a fake identity, a rival German biotech company, Pfizer Inc. partner BioNTech SE went on to develop the West’s first vaccine using the same mRNA technology. Now back on his feet, Mr. Hörr has re-entered the race. This is the story of the blow that almost ended his life, and of how he recovered as CureVac’s vaccine effort got back on track.

Compared with many rivals, CureVac was late in submitting its vaccine for review in Europe—and it now expects approval there by June. But the shot could be a godsend for Europe in particular, which has been trailing the U.S. and the U.K. in vaccinations.

Initial data suggests it can be stored at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius, or 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and could prove easier to manufacture, distribute and administer than many competing shots. CureVac has agreed to deliver 405 million doses to the European Union and is working with Novartis AG, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Bayer AG to produce the shot. It is also cooperating with Tesla Inc., which is developing portable RNA printers that could be deployed to Covid-19 hot spots to quickly produce vaccines on the ground.

All this, however, came very close to being derailed early last year. On March 2, 2020, then-CureVac Chief Executive Daniel Menichella, an American, was dining at the White House alongside other industry leaders. He held a short presentation, claiming that CureVac could have a vaccine ready in months.

 

P1 in Brazil is really hitting younger populations than traditional Covid 19. Let us hope it does not get a foothold here

 

Florida is going to anyone 40+ eligible starting next Monday, and anyone 18+ eligible starting April 5th.

Announced by the Governor this morning.

 

This may be why covid is not just going away. Between the unvaccinated, and the possibility even vaccinated could catch and transmit, but with milder symptoms, could keep this going

 

I may have missed it but which vaccines are more effective against the P1 variant?

 

Apparently they're all relatively effective.
Existing vaccines may protect against the Brazilian coronavirus variant | University of Oxford

 

Actually, there is mounting evidence that the mRNA vaccines are effective against all variants, depending upon how you define effective. I listened to an outstanding podcast today that included an interview with a US based expert on T-Cells. While his expertise is not specific to SARS-CoV-2, obviously the past year everyone and their mother in the field has been looking at the virus through the lens of their own expertise.

Anyway, Alessadro Sette was discussing the pre-print that he and a ton of co-authors put together looking at the T-Cell response provoked by mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 variants. The long, long, long short of it was, the mRNA vaccines do promote a response to all of the variants tested with robust Helper T-cell response and Killer T-Cell (sorry, forgot technical names) response. This study included testing against the dreaded S African B.1.351 variant. Meaning, if I understood any of this correctly, the vaccine does not promote as robust an anti-body response against some variants.....which is what all of the fear mongering headlines have been shouting about hysterically. However, they do promote a robust T-Cell response....and the killer T-Cells (in my ignorant understanding) are the ones that recognize and destroy infected cells. They recognize the infection by other fragments of the virus protein beyond just "the spike", so mutations on the spike does not permit the virus to go un-detected by the T-cells. So.....the vaccines may not stop you from becoming infected by the scary variants, but they greatly reduce the the extent of infection, as well as duration of infection, and render it much more like a severe cold or mild flu.

According to the podcast, this paper will be the first to present data demonstrating what he called "T-Cell mediated immunity".

The link to the pre-print is below and a single paragraph from the discussion at the end is pasted below in case I screwed up something above.

Negligible impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on CD4+ and CD8+ T cell reactivity in COVID-19 exposed donors and vaccinees

 

I don't know if you all ever watched "Scorpian", it was a TV series about a guy named Walter O Brian who worked for the the US government and saved the world in every episode. He was on a zoom call a year ago with a doctor to talk about the coronavirus and he said at the time that an effective vaccine is one that doesn't kill more people than the virus it is meant to stop. If the virus kills 5% of the population, then a vaccine that prevents the virus but kills 2.5% of the population is an effective vaccine. What scientists like Fauci see as an effective vaccine isn't one that kills fewer people than the virus but that it is effective in half the people. That was the goal - to be 50% effective.

 

I have no idea where some people come up with this stuff, but considering that they did not know what to expect for vaccines against a novel coronavirus that was put together in under 1 year, the FDA set a MINIMUM THRESHOLD for any one vaccie was set at 50% efficacy to be considered for emergency use.

That is hardly the same thing as what you typed.

 

Meanwhile, the first "real-world" data study on the efficacy of the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech confirm 90% efficacy against infection.

Covid-19 Live Updates: Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccines Are Very Effective Against Infections, C.D.C. Says

 

That is pretty damned amazing.

 

A second paper within a week, this time fully peer reviewed (the previous one is still waiting) confirmed that T-Cell activity remains strong against all variants, including the dreaded S African variant, even if the variants evade the anti-bodies. If I have understand what I read, this suggests that can/will be infected by the variants, but you T-Cells will mount a response (especially the CD 8+ Killer T-Cells according to the other paper) and will greatly curtail the extent to which you are infected and the during that you are infectious and infected.

T cells induced by COVID-19 infection respond to new virus variants -U.S. study

 

Also of interest if the vaccine induces memory T-cells(lasting immunity) I heard back a few months ago it appeared the Pfizer and Moderna did so more than expected, but haven't really heard much since then.