Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

A vaccine is very likely to happen

285 replies

FreierFall · 29/04/2020 13:57

I've worked in big Pharma for years. I am 99% sure an effective vaccine will be produced this year. It's gonna happen, have faith in scientists. They will be working their butt off....

"Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told The Wall Street Journal the company's COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for emergency distribution by the fall. The company could further be ready for a broader rollout by the end of the year, he added"

OP posts:
runrunrunrunt · 04/05/2020 19:22

Very true to be fair!

Chillipeanuts · 04/05/2020 20:27

Drivingdownthe101

You may have had flu. If so, you would have caught it before the vaccine.“

Or it was a strain not covered by that year’s vaccine.

Drivingdownthe101 · 04/05/2020 20:28

Yes or that.

KeepWashingThoseHands · 04/05/2020 20:50

@Hearhoovesthinkzebras

Wink

You've highlighted the problem with vaccine threads.

CountFosco · 05/05/2020 19:11

It is very very easy to find neutralizing antibodies, mammalian immune systems are very complex and diverse. But any new antibody still has to go through the entire development process and clinical testing. That is the expensive and time consuming bit. Every academic who finds a neutralizing antibody will be shouting about it to get some money. Don't watch them, there will be a lot of improvements to the situation before a potential treatments comes out of any of that work.

Watch the work being done on anti-virals and immunomodulators that are already on the market for treating other illnesses. We already have a cocktail of anti-virals used against HIV, some of them may work against Covid-19 and it is a lot easier to ramp up production of a drug we already have a robust manufacturing process for than to drag a bunch of antibodies through all the necessary stages to get them licenced.

Zippy1510 · 05/05/2020 19:13

Just because the vaccine has been "rushed" does not mean it is any way unsafe. It has to go through exactly the same safety assessment as any other vaccine it just means everything else has been sidetracked to make room for focusing on this vaccine.

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 05/05/2020 20:03

CountFosco

I completely agree. Any "miracle" will be from drug treatments for this rather than a vaccine. Leronlimab seems to be showing promise in early trials.

Sunshinegirl82 · 05/05/2020 20:59

Don’t see why we can’t have both!

Xtinalee · 05/05/2020 21:19

Is leronlimab being trialled in U.K.

Blackbear19 · 05/05/2020 22:21

CountFosco
You sound very knowledgeable, can I ask how?

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 06/05/2020 11:55

Is leronlimab being trialled in U.K.

I don't know. I've only heard results from the US but from there, it appears safe as it's been tested for.patients with HIV and seems to be having good results on patients with COVID but, as with everything, it is early days yet and this might not come to anything.

CountFosco · 06/05/2020 13:55

@Blackbear19 You sound very knowledgeable, can I ask how?

I'm a senior scientist in the pharmaceutical industry with decades of experience.

Blackbear19 · 06/05/2020 14:15

Thanks, I did think you were talking from professional knowledge.

Xtinalee · 06/05/2020 14:37

Why is everyone against having the vaccine because bill gates is funding it? If it’s deemed safe by people who have made it then why does it matter if bill gates is involved

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 06/05/2020 15:33

I'm not against having the vaccine because of Bill Gates or anyone elses involvement. I don't care who develops the successful vaccine, as long as it's tested as rigourously as all other vaccines.

I would be against having a vaccine that is rushed through and allowed to skip phases of testing or isn't tested on big enough samples of people though.

GoddessOfGettingThereInTheEnd · 07/05/2020 20:09

@CountFosco apologies if this is an annoyingly stupid question, but how come plasma therapy is not more of a Solution. ? Is it because they don't want people who've recovered through the process of donating blood?

PowerslidePanda · 07/05/2020 21:12

Why is everyone against having the vaccine because bill gates is funding it? If it’s deemed safe by people who have made it then why does it matter if bill gates is involved

There's a ridiculous anti-vaxxer conspiracy that Bill Gates is trying to kill people. He's been involved in vaccine production for a while (prior to COVID) and has said that his work is helping to reduce over-population because many families in poorer countries have lots of children on the assumption that some of them will die; but by vaccinating, more will survive, therefore families don't need to have so many. This has been twisted into "Bill Gates is trying to kill people with vaccines!"

CountFosco · 07/05/2020 22:54

Plasma therapy has several issues. Firstly we have far fewer people recovered from Covid-19 that are willing to donate blood than we have patients with Covid-19. Secondly we have to worry about blood borne viruses. Thirdly that we don't know how effective it is and every donor's blood is different. Fourthly it's expensive to administer. It is only used in situations where we are desperate and don't have reliable, safer treatments.

Keepdistance · 07/05/2020 23:00

If we have 5-10% with immunity they could start collecting the blood though.
But does it affect the donors immunity?
Surely family members could be asked.?
As i could donate my a neg to 3 other familt members.
Lets get antibody testing the o a neg etc

Xtinalee · 07/05/2020 23:30

Thanks for explaining about the bill gates. There are two ways out of this, I think finding a treatment for the over reactive immune response is priority as that seems to be what is killing people rather than the virus itself. As was the same for Spanish flu and other pandemics. I will be having the vaccine for sure.

ClimbDad · 07/05/2020 23:38

A vaccine is unlikely to give us a binary result. All vaccines vary in the protection they give based on the immune response of the individual. If a vaccine works, some people will be well protected, others less so and others might not have any protection at all.

Coronaviruses are tricky. They can infect cells in a variety of ways. In addition to ACE2 receptors, they can bond with CD147 for mediated cell entry. They can also infect by using the cell’s wave. With infection in semen, testes, central nervous system, liver, heart, lungs, kidney, this is an invasive virus that might be hard to eradicate with vaccination. We will beat this thing but it might take longer than some people expect.

PigletJohn · 07/05/2020 23:44

There's a lot of effort and hope pinned on getting a vaccine. I'm expecting there will be one.

But it doesn't always work out.

Where's the vaccine for the common cold?

Blackbear19 · 07/05/2020 23:50

Piglet is the issue with Common Cold not that its caused by circa 200 viruses and it doesn't kill people so nobody is invested in trying to develop vaccines for it.

Covid is different, its killing young as well as old, and costing lots of money in lockdowns and social distancing.

Xtinalee · 07/05/2020 23:50

How do you know what your immune response is? And how does that react with the vaccine?

Thesispieces · 07/05/2020 23:51

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.