Really good news!
Hopefully these get approved relatively quickly. I'm most excited about the seasonal flu vaccine. That could be a major game changer.
Hopefully these get approved relatively quickly. I'm most excited about the seasonal flu vaccine. That could be a major game changer.
The hope is that with a much faster time from approval -> production, in theory we could reassess in October / December / February and vaccinate against the most virulent strains that are actually showing up in populations. There are reports that Moderna had a vaccine developed in two days once they received the sequence from researchers. If they or similar companies received "platform" approval to ship new vaccines with abbreviated testing, it could dramatically change how we vaccinate for the flu.
If we had generic facilities that could produce any mRNA vaccines, and an mRNA vaccine approval process that takes 30 days then we could have had covid vaccines ready to go before March 2020, and those whole story looks very different.
This means the relatively mild flu load in Australia and especially New Zealand actually hurt this year's Northern Hemisphere guess - they were isolating because of COVID-19 and so they had far fewer than usual cases on which to base guesses.
“Fortunately” we get to see how much further their mental gymnastics will go as the death count will begin greatly exceeding all other causes over the next 3 months!
Any guesses?
“It was a tough winter for people that already were stressed!”
As a Moderna shareholder I think that is stupid. As a healthy eater I think that is really stupid. Now I can only think I must be really stupid.
And on top of those excellent reasons, getting a flu shot is a momentary discomfort, so why not, even if just to avoid the potential discomfort of a flu?
The vaccine is harmless both for you and your elderly relatives, so it is (a) smart to get it to avoid suffering yourself and (b) socially responsible to get it to lessen its spread to people it will kill.
The reason to vaccinate for the flu is to stop the spread of the flu to vulnerable populations. The cost of vaccination is a little arm soreness for a day or two (hardly anything).
The added benefit is that you've decreased your odds of being put out of commission for 7->9 days (if you are being responsible). Current flu vaccines are around 40->70% effective. Not great, but better than nothing.
The reason I'm so excited about the moderna vaccines is that it can drive those efficacy rates much higher. That's because they can delay manufacturing to be far nearer to the outbreak. The key to a highly effective flu vaccine is matching the strains. mRNA vaccination presents a way to do that a lot better because you don't need 7->10 months of lead time to make sure there is enough supply.
Some anecdata: I had the flu NUMEROUS times as a child/young adult. I know what the flu feels like. A couple of years ago, I got the flu (no, I didn't go to the doctor because I knew it was 'just' the flu). I was feeling crummy one day, and the next I was curled up in bed, unable to move, fever with body aches, and slept most of that day. My wife told me about elderberry and gave me 4 or 5 spoonfuls of an elderberry tincture throughout the day. The next day, I was shoveling compost in the yard.
You can have flu you barely notice as well as common cold that keeps you semi-conscious for a couple of days. Unless you get swabbed, you just can't know.
2020 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32929634/
“We found no evidence that elderberry benefits the duration or severity of influenza. Post hoc analysis suggested primary outcomes with elderberry taken alone (without oseltamivir) were 2 days worse than with placebo taken alone. Our results contradict previous studies and demonstrate the need for further studies.”
We can all do our part to stop pubmed abuse.