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Comment by amichail | Hacker News Reader

13 pointsamichail8 comments

The Headline here buries the key findings:

> A _two-shot_ course of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine has just 22.5% efficacy against symptomatic infection with the omicron variant, _but can thwart severe disease_

and

> boosters from AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer/BioNTech SE improve protection against the omicron variant to as much as 75% in the early days after the shot

There is also no reason to suppose that two doses, given a few weeks apart, are going to be a gold standard. Is a third shot a "booster" if it's a normal requirement?

"Two shots, and done in 3 months" is not what happens with routine UK childhood vaccinations against Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio. (1)

No, the "two jabs at short intervals" course was taken because the metaphorical house was on fire and needed damping _as soon as possible_, rather than a consideration for what gave long-term optimal protection. That will come in time.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

These findings are pretty irrelevant, obviously for all we know the first two jabs could also have 75% protection within the first few days and then can quickly wear off. 2-3 months is not a long time and suddenly you're down to 22.5%. We can safely assume that this stuff is getting published so soon to increase the vaccination rate of the population and not because it's actually meaningful.

I'm no virologist or scientist but I'm going to need a sample size greater than TWELVE PPL. ffs.

"The research considered blood plasma samples from 12 participants"

Early data is always a bit iffy, but in the broad sense this is expected. The virus will mutate and over time the original vaccine will be less effective. This is going to end up like the flu where new vaccines will be continually developed and we’ll all get a shot every year. Like the “flu shot” that could be with a cocktail of different vaccines mixed together.

COVID is, unfortunately, not going away any time soon so it’s something we’re going to need to learn to live with long term.

For the time being COVID patients that also have or subsequent got the vaccine will be the best protected moving forward as more and more variants develop. Studies keep showing very strong immune response for these individuals given their bodies have developed a much broader protection. That’s the main portion of the population at this point that can reasonably and safely feel “immune” from the present mess.

Actually Omicron is exactly how COVID is going away. From what we know so far it is highly contagious, but also mild - which means it basically eliminates the need for vaccines. Give it two, three more months and the whole pandemic will be over. Also, sell Pfizer and Moderna stock now if you have any.

> From what we know so far it is highly contagious, but also mild - which means it basically eliminates the need for vaccines

Note that one strong theory for the "mild" cases is that it's infecting vaccinated (and previously infected) persons who have strong adaptive immune responses to severe disease.

This doesn't mean it eliminates the need for vaccines, since there are still billions of unvaccinated.

- Phase 3 trials for the original Pfizer vaccine not complete until May 2023: (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04368728)

- Control group(s) were given vaccines after 14 days: (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/19/9691430...)

- Pfizer generates 1.9bn in revenue off of 100m doses, just in the USA alone, creating a massive revenue loop for them that governments cannot get out of due to predatory contracts (https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-eyes-higher-covid...)

- Pfizer's incredibly predatory, leaked, contract (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20616251-albanian-pf...)

> Control group(s) were given vaccines after 14 days

"14" appears nowhere in your link. In reality, the trial recipients were unblinded and the placebo group received vaccines on March 1, when the trial began on July 27. Far more than 14 days.

- unblinding https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776787

- phase 3 trial dates https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-deta...

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