Is the Oxford vaccine the one to change the world?

[notangelinajolie]

Not only is the cost the same as the price of a cup of coffee, no freezers are required and it also seems to prevent asymptomatic infection.

Under £3 a dose and not for profit.
Pfizer £15
Moderna £28

Apart from the usual suspects who will no doubt find something negative about today's news is anyone else feeling proud to be from the UK?
Well done Oxford. And well done all those people in the UK and Brazil who volunteered to take part in the trials.

@OpheliasCrayon

Do you think that the people working on it were exclusively from the UK , OP?

This is a world wide effort-I'd leave your xenophobic comments at the door until you've checked the ethnicity of all the people working on the oxford vaccine

Oh for fucks sake

Anyway, I think it's great, I am always in absolute awe of the people involved in medical research like this, it must be so rewarding. I feel like I would be strutting into work every day like 'Yeah baby, I'm a total legend!' 😂

I have huge career envy - imaging knowing you have done something so fantastic. Well done to them!

I think it could. It's not only cheaper and easier to store in a fridge but they also explicitly want to make it available throughout the world. The Oxford people were clear that they only agreed to partner with Astrazeneca if they were going to make 3 billion doses . That's a good start.

British science is AMAZING. And while yes, the scientists come from all over the world, they come here for a reason. Our funding structures, support systems, universities have been carefully nurtured over many years to support cutting edge science, encourage innovation and create a culture which allows scientists to prioritise affordability and world-wide usefulness over profit

Just like our NHS, this infrastructure is under threat from the current Government

Yes, this. I know a few academics at Oxford and all are deeply dissatisfied with how things are going (as well as being clever and lovely people who want to do the right thing in their research always).

The researchers are amazing, but the climate for research in the UK is becoming less and less hospitable and less and less likely to attract top international talent (Brexit will likely accelerate this).

I am particularly as my lovely son in law has been involved! He isn't a scientist but he cleans and fixes the intricate machinery needed to make this vaccine .... he is my hero too!

My friends son has been working all hours on the team developing the Pfizer vaccine. Rewarding, but many many hours.

@InTheShadowOfTheMushroomCloud that’s amazing ! How proud you rightly must be.

And it is 60% effective with two full doses.

I’d love to understand the reason for this. It sounds counterintuitive.

mobile.twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1330859732756664321

[quote Pomegranatespompom]@InTheShadowOfTheMushroomCloud that’s amazing ! How proud you rightly must be.[/quote]
We are. He has aspergers and giving him fiddly cleaning jobs is perfect for him....without cleaners the world would grind to a stop!

It is amazing actual super heroes are work.

My little DS was asking me about vaccines and how they are made - I really hope it ignites a love of science and a new curiosity in the kids in school

It is amazing - actual super heroes at work that should say!

I hope this motivates more children to go into STEM

Absolutely @Trut less of this reality and fake fame nonsense.

I was proud when it was said that the Oxford vaccine was to be a not-for-profit vaccine and made available to the world. There are many countries which otherwise couldn't afford the vaccines. Having said that, I still want the best one for the job, irrespective of cost and storage requirements.

I think the BioNTech one is the one I'd choose. It sounds like a really good way forward in creating vaccines.

It really won’t be the one to change the world and yes I will be accused of being a Debbie Downer.

It’s only 62% effective. The 90% comes from so few results and from a site that was so
Incompetent it couldn’t even get the dosing right so those results need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

They will also have no time to run trials on the half dose so you will all be getting the 2 full doses at 62%. Yes there’s some query over oxford picking up the asymptomatic cases but would you really take that over a 90/95% one? I wouldn’t.

And the biggie..Oxford is a one trick pony. Once you’ve had it it’s likely you can never have it again. They had to use a virus (from a chimp) that your body had never seen before. Once your body has been exposed to it it won’t work again as your body will kill off the vaccine before it has time to work (put in simple terms)

Overall I’m a bit disappointed. It may get us out or this mess a bit but we will need to rely on other vaccines for herd immunity and stop us being in this mess again the future.

So definitely not world beating... ok at best, a bit like everything else the Uk does

And if the oxford one gets forced upon me, I shall be paying for one of the better ones as soon as I can.

Of those given the vaccine who caught Covid, none had serious illness or were hospitalised.
Se it seems the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing hospitalisations.

This vaccine will be irrelevant in 12 months, IMO. Yesterday’s results were disappointing. The 90% result is highly suspect — a small statistically unconvincing sample that arose from an error, a sample taken from the U.K. only at a defined point (end of April) that looks like it was pooled against a non-contemporaneous placebo group split over Brazil and the UK. It is highly dubious and if you don’t believe me check out tweets from the likes of Marc Lipsitch and Paul Bleicher on this matter. It’s quite likely this vaccine is only 60-70% effective and the 90% is window dressing. It is very unlikely to get FDA approval, which will hurt it reputationally.

There are a bunch of other vaccines such as the J & J one on the horizon that are also cheap but have better trial design and are likely to show more efficacy.

Totally agree

@Covidfears

And if the oxford one gets forced upon me, I shall be paying for one of the better ones as soon as I can.

Agreed! Hopefully they’ll allow private sales of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines somewhere in Europe. I’m sure the U.K. will offer only the Oxford one to healthy adults in the immediate term.

It is great news that something affordable and practical has got evidence of solid efficacy.

But let’s not count our chickens on that 90% figure on the 1 1/2 doses. There’s a hypothesis which would explain how it works, so it definitely might be real, but it’s a pretty small sample so the error bars are huge.

I’d be very happy with the Oxford vaccine. I don’t mind catching covid if it’s mild and I don’t end up in hospital. No one in the the Oxford trial did

@Crumpety agree! Well done to the Oxford lab, positive even with the misgivings posted above.

@Crumpety

I’d be very happy with the Oxford vaccine. I don’t mind catching covid if it’s mild and I don’t end up in hospital. No one in the the Oxford trial did

Problem with that is that according to Associate Professor Katie Ewer, a senior immunologist involved in Oxford's research, there were no severe cases in the 131 included in the interim results (placebo or vaccine):

“That control group also had zero cases of severe COVID-19. It remains to be seen if the shot can actually outperform the control in preventing the worst outcomes of the disease.

"It may just be chance that we just happen to not have any cases in the 20,000 people we've vaccinated, or it could just be that we're picking people up earlier when they get infected than the general population," Ewer said.

www.businessinsider.com/6-key-questions-on-astrazenecas-coronavirus-vaccine-2020-11