WASHINGTON – A huge study of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate is getting underway Monday as states in the U.S. continue to roll out scarce supplies of the nation’s first shot options.
This pandemic proved that the U.S. health care system is a disaster. Yes, we need to get vaccines out and bring the virus under control so that the economy can regenerate. There cannot be a prosperous economy without a healthy population. It’s time to follow through with the health care improvements most voters wanted. Without a health care infrastructure we will never be productive enough to keep up with the rest of the developed world.
COVID19 is just the first in a series of new pathogens that are going to hit humans. If the US continues to react as with COVID19, we are in trouble at every level.
As the saying goes, “You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” and Trump is the weakest link just like Wilson was in the 1918 flu epidemic. Anderson Cooper had a good docu yesterday on CNN about the 1918 pandemic that showed the similarities between then and now. Leadership is important, and I think the medical community has stepped up, but the nation’s leadership is what is missing. Team work is important and Trump is not a team player.
This is nice, but I want to know how the roll out is proceeding. Are the states finally getting the vaccine allotted or is it still being warehoused?
I bought some Inovio stock when they were mentioned as a dark horse contender in the early days of the vaccine startups. I sold it when it made a decent run, and it fell back to approx. $10 a share. I heard there was some decently good news on their horizon…not all about Covid…and got back in again. Theirs, from what I can tell, does not require refrigeration but does need it’s own little delivery device to prick/inject.
Does anyone here have any extra insight into their long-term chances of success, and if there will be enough room on the playing field for their unique approach?
Given that we already have 2 vaccines available and up to 2 more in line for approval, I wonder if they will have trouble getting volunteers?
I don’t think the US Healthcare system is where blame belongs. It has been given an enormous challenge that I doubt any other HC system in the world could have beat. The HC system deals with COVID when it crosses the threshold of a hospital Up until that point government, the media and the people deal with it. If they do a poor job is prevention and minimization of exposure hospitals will have to clean up that mess. They’ve done a damn good job of that in the USA. Our problem centers on one man, Trump and the fact that he’s the leader of the largest cult in US history. Initially Trump saw COVID as a threat to “the most beautiful economy in history” and therefor to him. That economy was all he had going for him even though he had little to do with building it. So COVID in the USA was dealt with as a threat to economies by government. That couldn’t delight the covid virus more as it likes to kill people and doesn’t give a shit about their money. Covid was allowed to run free and that brings it across hospital thresholds. That overwhelms hospitals and HC systems. Voila.
If the vaccines are in vials ( they are ) and you can’t get one that’s a logistical problem hanging over from early COVID denial and lack of preparation for seriously dealing with it and again…not HC system involved.
@castor_troy wants to know if you are working with the feds to entrap all of us aligned with SOROS GROUP International in an insider trading scheme? 
B-I-N-G-O His name was Bobby Bingo
Two-thirds of volunteers will receive the vaccine and the rest will get dummy shots.
I think this is what Geraldo Rivera meant by getting “The Trump”. Have you had your ‘Trump’ yet?
A friend with a career at the cdc dropped some perspective on me the other day. While massively corrupt and incompetent, trump isn’t entirely wrong that the states own a much larger part in the handling of the pandemic and have dropped the ball.
This is entirely due to decades of defunding (I think stemming heavily from actions in Reagan’s administration). The resources to handle this emergency have been frittered away. It is their responsibility and duty… the issues these actions caused haven’t been as obvious until the pandemic shined a super nova level spotlight on them.
Unfortunately I don’t recall the background regulations or governmental policy that dictates this. I’m partially remembering an old conversation.
None of the companies are going to make bank on the vaccine, and picking their stocks, like someone here did with Moderna at $140ish (down to $117 already) is throwing money down the drain.
There is simply too much interest and too many candidates, eventually the one who will win long term is the one who can deliver it at the cheapest price and easiest storage. So Astrazenica and J&J.
Being first to market isn’t going to translate into some long-term win, although pfizer is well-placed to use mRNA tech to look into other drugs, but that will be years down the line.
Today, by the way, is Woodrow Wilson’s birthday.
The States can’t print money. What they needed from the feds was an overarching goal (lockdowns), and funding to get them through that stretch.
As neither happened, they were left to try to balance things on their own, competing the needs of people to survive both the pandemic itself and the need to have resources and money to do so.
Not only that, but contrary to what the GOP would tell you, many of these States have balanced budget requirements. They CAN’T spend more than they have. McConnell would tell you they are victims of their poor spending habits, but nothing is farther from the truth.
ETA:
Balanced Budget Requirements | Urban Institute
Turns out only Vermont does NOT have this requirement.
Well, their balanced budget amendments are their own fault, courtesy of their local gop.
As I noted in my ETA above, only Vermont is without this restriction - there’re quite a few blue States that have not recently been led by the GOP, so I don’t know about your statement.
Not saying you’re wrong; just not necessarily agreeing with you.
The GOP has been very good about seeding “grass-roots” shit in the states on all sorts of initiatives, basically copying and pasting the same language with variants by state. Balanced budgets is one of those that sounded good on the surface and took off.
And we Vermonters tend to be smarter and more independent, so go figure!
I can’t speak to the investment or the profitability, but I can speak to the science. This is a different approach, but I would give it high likelihood of working, since it uses the same spike protein that the other approaches have shown to be good at generating functional immune responses. It has the chance of being easier to transport and perhaps less prone to allergic reactions.
On the down side, it would seem to me to be harder to scale up than the mRNA or viral approaches and also more difficult to change sequence on the fly, if it turns out some mutations can evade the existing vaccines.