You are actually an expert on pharma communications ... why would you say, "Our vaccine is not that great, but maybe it's because of variants" and *nothing else*?
What's the denominator? Completely useless to evaluate the vaccine's efficacy without a sense of how many people in the country were vaccinated with this vaccine. Even better would be to compare to an unvaccinated control. As it stands, the article is missing vital information and whenever I see an article missing vital information that should have been easy to get, I suspect there's a reason it was omitted.
Thanks, your comments on the possible mechanisms of vaccine-emergent myocarditis (if in fact that's what we're seeing) were informative. It will be interesting to see what comes out of Friday's meeting.
You're right that myocarditis is a manageable condition in the population that's currently the focus of concern. My understanding, though, is that it is often more serious in young children, resulting in death or the development of chronic conditions in a substantial number of cases. My hope is that elucidating the mechanism of the cases currently being examined will give us some idea of how concerned we should be about it occurring in younger age groups.
Did you happen to see or read about last week's VRBPAC meeting on pediatric vaccinations? The members were kind of all over the place on the topic of vaccinating kids under 12. A notable skeptic was Cody Meissner of Tufts, who previously had abstained from voting on the original Pfizer EUA because it included 16- and 17-year-olds. Weirdly, Meissner also was (is?) a supporter of the Great Barrington Declaration. He and at least one other member suggested that COVID should no longer be considered and emergency, or shouldn't be considered an emergency for children, both suggestions that frankly struck me as a surreal.
I've heard about some of the statements from that meeting. I think it's pretty bizarre to not consider COVID-19 an emergency for children when it can cause neurological impacts, serious inflammatory conditions, and in fact death, in all ages. It also is totally counterproductive to have a large group of people who can act as a reservoir for disease.
I don't think that at this time there is any meaningful reason to be concerned about these vaccines in children, and if we do find that they have some kind of concerning effect, it's clear that the CDC and FDA are more than willing to rescind authorizations and recommendations.
Myocarditis can be serious in any age group, but it depends on the nature of the myocarditis. Infectious myocarditis can be fatal. From what I have heard, the only-possibly-vaccine-related myocarditis being examined here is nowhere near as severe as typical infectious myocarditis. If that is the case I believe it is because there is not a major infection causing it. I believe therefore that it will be less severe in all age groups, provided it is a real phenomenon being caused by the vaccine. I am still not 100% certain that it is and am awaiting more information. Still, I'm not nearly so concerned about this as I am about things like long term neurological damage or MIS-C in children who actually get COVID-19.
CureVac makes a vague announcement about disappointing efficacy, but with key information missing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/06/16/curevac-vaccine-how-effective/
You are actually an expert on pharma communications ... why would you say, "Our vaccine is not that great, but maybe it's because of variants" and *nothing else*?
Yes, I'm planning to dissect their press release in tomorrow's issue.
"Hundreds of Indonesian doctors contract Covid-19 despite Sinovac vaccination"
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/southeast-asia/indonesia-doctors-sinovac-vaccine-covid-b1867632.html
Not another great vaccine, apparently.
What's the denominator? Completely useless to evaluate the vaccine's efficacy without a sense of how many people in the country were vaccinated with this vaccine. Even better would be to compare to an unvaccinated control. As it stands, the article is missing vital information and whenever I see an article missing vital information that should have been easy to get, I suspect there's a reason it was omitted.
Thanks, your comments on the possible mechanisms of vaccine-emergent myocarditis (if in fact that's what we're seeing) were informative. It will be interesting to see what comes out of Friday's meeting.
You're right that myocarditis is a manageable condition in the population that's currently the focus of concern. My understanding, though, is that it is often more serious in young children, resulting in death or the development of chronic conditions in a substantial number of cases. My hope is that elucidating the mechanism of the cases currently being examined will give us some idea of how concerned we should be about it occurring in younger age groups.
Did you happen to see or read about last week's VRBPAC meeting on pediatric vaccinations? The members were kind of all over the place on the topic of vaccinating kids under 12. A notable skeptic was Cody Meissner of Tufts, who previously had abstained from voting on the original Pfizer EUA because it included 16- and 17-year-olds. Weirdly, Meissner also was (is?) a supporter of the Great Barrington Declaration. He and at least one other member suggested that COVID should no longer be considered and emergency, or shouldn't be considered an emergency for children, both suggestions that frankly struck me as a surreal.
I've heard about some of the statements from that meeting. I think it's pretty bizarre to not consider COVID-19 an emergency for children when it can cause neurological impacts, serious inflammatory conditions, and in fact death, in all ages. It also is totally counterproductive to have a large group of people who can act as a reservoir for disease.
I don't think that at this time there is any meaningful reason to be concerned about these vaccines in children, and if we do find that they have some kind of concerning effect, it's clear that the CDC and FDA are more than willing to rescind authorizations and recommendations.
Myocarditis can be serious in any age group, but it depends on the nature of the myocarditis. Infectious myocarditis can be fatal. From what I have heard, the only-possibly-vaccine-related myocarditis being examined here is nowhere near as severe as typical infectious myocarditis. If that is the case I believe it is because there is not a major infection causing it. I believe therefore that it will be less severe in all age groups, provided it is a real phenomenon being caused by the vaccine. I am still not 100% certain that it is and am awaiting more information. Still, I'm not nearly so concerned about this as I am about things like long term neurological damage or MIS-C in children who actually get COVID-19.