Do adenovirus-vector Covid-19 vaccines have beneficial non-specific effects? | Hacker News Reader

Do adenovirus-vector Covid-19 vaccines have beneficial non-specific effects?

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24 pointsluu14 comments

It would seem like, if we assume roughly equal health for adenovirus-vaccinated vs. mRNA-vaccinated prior to vaccination, we should be able to find out if this is a real affect or not by now. But, it would take some $$$ to do the research to find out.

Were the patterns of distribution of the adenovirus and mRNA vaccines the same or did they go to different populations? That might complicate your study.

Absolutely it would need to be looked at, but the fact that there were large numbers of both means you should be able to factor that out, as far as easy demographic variables like age and sex.

However, and this is to your point, if (in any given country) one of those became available well before the other, then those people who were more eager to get it would all get one type, and people with pre-existing conditions might be expected to mostly be in that group.

> It is unknown if COVID-19 vaccines have non-specific effects on overall survival

> The relative mortality risk for mRNA vaccine vs. placebo was 1.03 (0.63–1.71)

Yet the CDC is still recommending[0] to this day that everyone 6 years and older get an mRNA vaccine; even though this article is another piece of data saying that for anyone younger than, say, 40 with no significant comorbidities (and therefore very low risk of death from Covid), you are better off not.

[0]: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-t...

Do you ever pause to wonder why if "you are better off not" getting the vaccine if you're under 40, the CDC still recommends that everyone in that age group gets it?

Perhaps your confidence in "better off not" is incorrect? Seriously, spend a few minutes looking at the vaccine effectiveness tracker -- it's still an absolute no-brainer to get vaccinated:

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccine-effectiven...

The latest study publish in February shows this again, even with the more 'mild' strains circulating today: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/pdfs/mm7207a3-H.pdf

Does COVID impact Europeans differently? The European equivalent to the CDC does not recommend additional boosters to those under 60[0].

I get this is a still novel virus but the divergence in guidance gives me pause, and I think that it is reasonable to step back and consider the bigger picture.

[0] https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/ecdc-and-ema-updat...

The problem comes from people misunderstanding domain-specific issues.. the CDC and ECDC largely agree here! And neither of them echo anything resembling "you are better off not" getting the vaccine if you're under 40. It's a silly premise with absolutely no support.

The ECDC guidance in that link is against second boosters which would be the 4th shot in the series.

The CDC's guidance is that everyone has a single shot of the "updated" vaccine which has higher efficacy against omicron/later strains -- no matter how many vaccines they've previously had.

Since Europe generally had higher vaccine uptake, their level of protection is already at a higher level than the US - so the differing recommendations seem to suit the respective populations pretty well.

>The CDC's guidance is that everyone has a single shot of the "updated" vaccine which has higher efficacy against omicron/later strains -- no matter how many vaccines they've previously had.

The CDC is making the claim everyone should get the updated shot vs previous. They made that claim without any human trial data comparing the two. Work has been done subsequently comparing bivalent to monovalent immune response; they are about the same.

> without any human trial data comparing the two

Irrelevant distraction propaganda. It's a COVID vaccine. COVID vaccines are safe and effective. End of story.

The United States had some of the highest vaccine acceptance rates, with the two most effective vaccines being the vast majority of doses given. The EU had 72%, USA had 69%. Not enough of a difference to attribute differing guidance to.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

We're talking about Booster doses now -- not the initial vaccine push. The sentiment in the US changed somewhere in late 2021 and weirdo antivax grifters started gaining prominence so our booster rate dropped off a cliff;

https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explor...

Which neatly lines up with our already high Covid death rate diverging further from the EU's:

https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explor...

So yeah, the US CDC is pushing for more boosters!

Vaccines are one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind and we're so starved of common sense that innumerate people spend their energy convincing others to not take them based on things they don't remotely understand. It's absolutely insane.

I agree that vaccines are probably the single biggest achievement in the history of science. But refusal to be vaccinated is a lot more nuanced than simply anti-vax lies. For example, the lower rate among Black Americans can be directly traced to medical experimentation and a distrust of governmental edicts, which is entirely fair considering the history.

People have valid reasons to choose not to be vaccinated, but nobody has a valid reason to promulgate antivax lies. With access to all of the world's information, some people still choose to cause excess misery and death based on deceit. What a waste of a life.

So for Children Aged 3–5 Years vaccine prevented positive covid test. These were great and very useful vaccines.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7207a3.htm

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