COVID-19: Vaccine/antidote and testing procedures Megathread [Mod Warning - Post #1]

It's great to have two options.

It means one can fail safety and we can still get over it.

It also means we wont be as reliant on ultimate freezing which could have been a major negative.

It also means we can roll out much quicker rather which means people won't be waiting as long.

Onwards towards safety information releases for both and hopefully emergency use authorisation.

Are Oxford/Astrazeneca expected to have interim results this side of Christmas ?
It would be great if 3 came through going into the new year, even for just giving people optimism that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

stephenjmcd wrote: »

I might add here as well when the efficiency data is fully released there may be questions as to do younger groups of the population require 2 doses ?? The response may be good enough without two doses, older age groups 2 doses would seem more realistic.

Would enable a bit more freedom in allocation if it were possible

AZ/Oxford and J&J might be able to do this with a single shot in the younger population. The mRNA constructs don't seem to do so well on a single shot.
If the mice experiments are anything to go by then the elderly population will absolutely need the two shots even from J&J and Novavax.

Russman wrote: »

Just curious as to whether them being a startup would colour people's view of them and/or their vaccine ?

Yes. That's why it's important the regulators reviewing their data are independent. They've also partnered with Lonza who are a big Swiss pharma for the actual manufacturing. It's not Moderna saying the trial was successful, it's the independent monitoring board.

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Any word on how many doses of the moderna vaccine Europe has on order?

I saw earlier that the uk doesn't have any on order.

Initially 80m and once safety data given the all clear another 80m

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Initially 80m and once safety data given the all clear another 80m

So about 400k for us from the initial batch.

Moderna CEO. Particularly excited about the severe Covid results - 11 in the placebo group, but none in the vaccine group. Hopes it will hold with a bigger number of cases. They hope to get the final study results in not too distant future as Covid cases are increasing.

When is the next Pfizer announcement , wasn’t it meant to be this week?

Oxford are next I would imagine. J&J be end of December/January I'm guessing.

Gael23 wrote: »

So enough for 80m people?

Waiting with anticipation for Holohans reaction

We all know what he's gonna say, absolutely nothing positive about it, we must wait, more data, mightn't get a vaccine, etc.

Here is a nice link ( for anyone interested in statistics and the way how efficacy estimates are calculated:

http://blog.fellstat.com/?p=440

To me this basically reads that both the Pfizer/BNT and Moderna vaccines are roughly in the same ballpark of efficacy (~95%-ish).