Vaccines and Therapeutics 2.0 & 3.0 Merge

[Gadianton]

My right-wing friend called me today to relate a pretty tragic Covid matter, which I'll not mention for now, but in passing, he said he'd heard that the vaccine is causing neurological damage and evidenced in facial ticks. I asked him his source and he couldn't provide one, other than he and his wife had recently heard if from a friend. I told him if the friend was a fellow right-wing Christian then it's almost certainly a fabrication, and to let me know when he has a source I can follow up on.

[Jersey Girl]

My right-wing friend called me today to relate a pretty tragic Covid matter, which I'll not mention for now, but in passing, he said he'd heard that the vaccine is causing neurological damage and evidenced in facial ticks. I asked him his source and he couldn't provide one, other than he and his wife had recently heard if from a friend. I told him if the friend was a fellow right-wing Christian then it's almost certainly a fabrication, and to let me know when he has a source I can follow up on.

Um...I thought I read about bells palsy with the Pfizer vax? I think it's in the published study.

[Res Ipsa]

I just took a look at the study. The rate of serious adverse effects was the same in the test and placebo groups. Nothing about neurological damage. If what the guy described was happening, they’d stop distribution immediately.

There may well be serious side effects that show up as more people get the vaccine. So far, the main serious risk is anaphylaxis. That’s why you stay on site for at least 15 minutes.

[Gadianton]

Um...I thought I read about bells palsy with the Pfizer vax? I think it's in the published study

that sounds like what he might have been thinking, if you happen to have a link.

...okay I'm sure that's what he was talking about

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/fac ... 532985002/

[Jersey Girl]

Um...I thought I read about bells palsy with the Pfizer vax? I think it's in the published study

that sounds like what he might have been thinking, if you happen to have a link.

...okay I'm sure that's what he was talking about

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/fac ... 532985002/

Here it is for you, Gad.

Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/N ... tured_home

ETA: Let me save you some time. It's not there in the adverse events. I know I read about bells palsy some where. Perhaps something like the article you linked? Here are the adverse events:

ADVERSE EVENTS
Adverse event analyses are provided for all enrolled 43,252 participants, with variable follow-up time after dose 1 (Table S3). More BNT162b2 recipients than placebo recipients reported any adverse event (27% and 12%, respectively) or a related adverse event (21% and 5%). This distribution largely reflects the inclusion of transient reactogenicity events, which were reported as adverse events more commonly by vaccine recipients than by placebo recipients. Sixty-four vaccine recipients (0.3%) and 6 placebo recipients (<0.1%) reported lymphadenopathy. Few participants in either group had severe adverse events, serious adverse events, or adverse events leading to withdrawal from the trial. Four related serious adverse events were reported among BNT162b2 recipients (shoulder injury related to vaccine administration, right axillary lymphadenopathy, paroxysmal ventricular arrhythmia, and right leg paresthesia). Two BNT162b2 recipients died (one from arteriosclerosis, one from cardiac arrest), as did four placebo recipients (two from unknown causes, one from hemorrhagic stroke, and one from myocardial infarction). No deaths were considered by the investigators to be related to the vaccine or placebo. No Covid-19–associated deaths were observed. No stopping rules were met during the reporting period. Safety monitoring will continue for 2 years after administration of the second dose of vaccine.

Anyway, sorry about the mention without supplying a link. Had I done so I would have seen right away that it wasn't in the study.

[Jersey Girl]

I just took a look at the study. The rate of serious adverse effects was the same in the test and placebo groups. Nothing about neurological damage. If what the guy described was happening, they’d stop distribution immediately.

There may well be serious side effects that show up as more people get the vaccine. So far, the main serious risk is anaphylaxis. That’s why you stay on site for at least 15 minutes.

Yes, I think that would have triggered a stop on the trial. I mentioned bells palsy without going back into the study. I corrected that error.

[Res Ipsa]

New variant of the Coronavirus: https://news.sky.com/story/new-variant- ... s-12161416

Here’s more information on this variant found in the UK. It’s got some potentially bad news, but we don’t know that much yet. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1340 ... 76224.html

ETA: Andy Slavitt posted an excellent thread on the new variant. https://Twitter.com/aslavitt/status/134 ... 99104?s=21

The excellent Helen Braswell with an update on vaccine side effects. Anaphylaxis is a side effect observed with both vaccines. When you are vaccinated, stay on site for at least 15 minutes and report any symptoms.

[Philo Sofee]

New variant of the Coronavirus: https://news.sky.com/story/new-variant- ... s-12161416

Here’s more information on this variant found in the UK. It’s got some potentially bad news, but we don’t know that much yet. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1340 ... 76224.html

The vaccine is already outdated, and it just barely got here yesterday. That's the stupidity of "Warp Speed" vaccine making. On the other hand, our own stupidity of imagining we are "free" and doing whatever we want consequences be damned, appears to me to show Mother Nature is just going to do her thang and thin out humans......it sounds cold, but our intelligence is our own undermining as a species. We are spoiled rotten, and noW we are going to be rotten dead.

[Res Ipsa]

Philo, as far as I can tell, the vaccine isn’t outdated. Our situation is precarious enough that’s it isn’t helpful to claim that the sky is falling. Any number of strains were circulating during the Pfizer and Modern trials and the evidence is that they were highly effective.

Operation Warp speed is probably one of the most effective things the US has done with respect to the virus. It locked in purchases of different vaccines so that we didn’t have all our eggs in one basket. We formed public private partnerships with some manufacturers to give them seed money to conduct the necessary research. It is an example of government and business listening to scientists and following the science.

There have always been risks involved with the vaccine effort. No one had ever developed a vaccine against a coronavirus. No one had ever developed a vaccine using Moderna’s technique. That two Safe and effective vaccines were developed in less than a year is a scientific triumph.

One of the risks is the rate of mutation and whether it would affect the effectiveness of a vaccine. This variant has more mutations than expected. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s mutating faster. That’s what virologists and epidemiologists have to figure out. It may be that, like the flu, we will have to vaccinate annually. Or at some longer period. We don’t know. But these unknowns don’t mean that Operation Warp Speed was a failure or even a bad idea. Let’s be patient and remind ourselves that producing a vaccine at all in less than a year is a breathtaking feat.

[Res Ipsa]

FYI: Recent vaccine scaremongering explained. https://Twitter.com/aetiology/status/13 ... 67299?s=21

TL/DR

Some people react to getting stuck with a needle by getting light headed and sometimes passing out. It has nothing to do with the vaccine.

ETA: Here’s an example of what I have sorely missed for the last four years: https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/19/ope ... confusion/

Everybody makes mistakes. When you do, be transparent, fess up, take responsibility, and fix it. This is a stand up guy that has earned my trust.

by the way, my Governor, who has been very critical of the administration’s handling of the pandemic, tweeted yesterday that he’d talked with the powers that be and that the reduced allocation was the result of an error and that everything is fine. Being honest, transparent, and responsible elicits cooperation.

And for God’s sake, do not listen to the horse’s ass that goes by the name of Tucker Carlson. https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/18/opinions ... index.html