Crazy times. We live in a society that - if you believe the various polls- says that we cannot re-open the economy until we have a vaccine- except most people say they will not take it even if we did. Something gonna have to give somewhere along the line. OR NOT. I guess that is an option too. Just continue to wither away as a society and an economy is one way to go, and I guess that looks like the preferred way.
My personal position is that I will take any COVID-19 vaccine that has properly & fully completed FDA Phase 3 safety trials.
I hear ya, and that covers what you would do. But then there is the issue of how to reopen the economy if people are willing to take neither the risk of the vaccine or learning how to contain while re-opening. I learned long ago in life that there are risks to not taking risks. Not sure the rest of the population shares that view anymore although it used to be at the core of our society. More like, I will just sit here and pressure government to keep the checks coming.
Vaccine Makers Plan Public Stance to Counter Pressure on FDA https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...plan-public-stance-to-counter-pressure-on-fda Companies involved include Pfizer, Moderna, Sanofi and others Trump has said he expects vaccine ready ahead of election day Drugmakers are planning a public pledge to not send any Covid-19 vaccine to the FDA for review without extensive safety and efficacy data, according to people familiar with the effort. The joint stance is seen as a bulwark against political pressure being applied on the Food and Drug Administration to get a vaccine out as soon as possible. It is likely to be announced in a multi-company statement as soon as next week. The plans, which could still change, were described by people involved in the effort on condition of anonymity. The companies involved in the discussions include Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc., Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi and possibly others. All are developing vaccines for Covid-19. The drug industry has long relied on the FDA as a gold-standard seal of approval for its drugs and vaccines, assuring patients that the products are safe and effective. But in the middle of the pandemic, the agency has made several controversial decisions to allow emergency use of therapies without rock-solid evidence they work. A vaccine, which will need to be taken by millions of healthy people, requires significant uptake to be effective in batting down the virus in the U.S. One recent poll found that a majority of the public thought a vaccine approval would be driven by politics. Health officials inside the Trump administration have said the process will be based entirely on science, and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn has said he would not participate if he thought a vaccine were being rubber-stamped. At the same time, the president has accused the agency of slowing work to hurt him politically, and said he believes a vaccine will be ready before election day on Nov. 3. Trump Push At a news conference at the White House Friday, President Donald Trump said a vaccine could be ready “maybe even before November first” or “some time in the month of October.” “I think you’re going to see results that are shockingly good,” Trump said. It’s not clear what Trump was talking about, since results of trials are typically kept confidential while they’re ongoing, with occasional looks by a panel of experts to see if there are safety issues, or overwhelming signs a product is working or failing. Much of the vaccine work is being done under the umbrella of the government’s Operation Warp Speed, which has struck deals with drugmakers to fund development and manufacturing. Others in the administration including Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser for the Warp Speed program, have tamped down those expectations. Slaoui told National Public Radio this week that it’s “extremely unlikely” a vaccine would be ready by election day. In an interview with the news organization Axios this week, Eli Lilly & Co. Chief Executive Officer David Ricks said that most companies in the industry wouldn’t submit a Covid-19 product to the FDA until they were confident in the science behind it. The company is developing a Covid-19 treatment, but isn’t among the companies that are part of the vaccine effort. “Most of the principals in our industry and their scientific teams would say we’re not going to make something or we’re not going to sell it until we’ve proven to our own standards it’s safe and effective, subjected it to scientific scrutiny from the outside world,” Ricks said. Ricks is the head of the drug industry’s lobbying group, PhRMA. Final-stage vaccine trials are rushing toward completion, and earlier this week Pfizer said it could have results by October. The FDA has also set an Oct. 22 date for an outside group of experts to discuss a potential vaccine. Others associated with the industry have urged a similar strict standard. “I can say with complete authority that no company wants to have anything approved but under the strictest standards, the gold standard at the FDA,” said Jim Greenwood, the former head of BIO, the trade group representing biotechnology companies. “It’s in no biopharmaceutical company’s interest to have a product provided to patients that isn’t proven to be completely safe and effective,” Greenwood said in an interview.
Chinese spies attempt to hack UNC research on COVID-19 https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/race-for-coronavirus-vaccine-pits-spy-against-spy/19272020/ Chinese intelligence hackers, intent on stealing coronavirus vaccine data, conducted digital reconnaissance on UNC and other universities doing cutting-edge research in COVID-19, according to the New York Times. Presumably seeking an "easy target," these hackers aimed for for university researchers instead of pharmaceutical companies. The FBI warned officials at UNC in recent weeks about the hacking attempts, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Chinese hacking teams were trying to break into the computer networks of the school’s epidemiology department but did not infiltrate them, according to the New York Times. Chinese spies were not the only spies at work. Russia’s premier intelligence service, the SVR, targeted vaccine research networks in the United States, Canada and Britain, espionage efforts that were first detected by a British spy agency monitoring international fiber optic cables. Iran, too, has drastically stepped up attempts to steal information about vaccine research, and the United States has increased its own efforts to track the espionage of its adversaries and shore up its defenses. In short, every major spy service around the globe is trying to find out what everyone else is up to. UNC responds to hacking attempt When asked about their response to the hackers from China, UNC officials acknowledged that "like many research institutions" they "regularly receives threat alerts from U.S. security agencies." In a statement, they wrote, "We take information security seriously and are continually enhancing our safeguards according to industry standards and best practices." As part of UNC's commitment to protecting intellectual assets, Carolina officials said they have invested in around-the-clock monitoring and threat-hunting services to help guard against advanced persistent threat attacks from state-sponsored organizations. "We also have adjusted our posture not just to keep up with best practices of higher education, but to look ahead of them," said officials. Besides hacking, China has pushed into universities in other ways. Some government officials believe it is trying to take advantage of research partnerships that American universities have forged with Chinese institutions. Global hacking and attempts to spy on COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research has prompted one of the fastest peacetime mission shifts The coronavirus pandemic has prompted one of the fastest peacetime mission shifts in recent times for the world’s intelligence agencies, pitting them against one another in a new grand game of spy versus spy, according to interviews with current and former intelligence officials and others tracking the espionage efforts. Nearly all of the United States’ adversaries intensified their attempts to steal American research while Washington, in turn, has moved to protect the universities and corporations doing the most advanced work. NATO intelligence, normally concerned with the movement of Russian tanks and terrorist cells, has expanded to scrutinize Kremlin efforts to steal vaccine research as well, according to a Western official briefed on the intelligence. The contest is reminiscent of the space race, where the Soviet Union and America relied on their spy services to catch up when the other looked likely to achieve a milestone. But where the Cold War contest to reach the Earth’s orbit and the moon played out over decades, the timeline to help secure data on coronavirus treatments is sharply compressed as the need for a vaccine grows more urgent each day. “It would be surprising if they were not trying to steal the most valuable biomedical research going on right now,” John C. Demers, a top Justice Department official, said of China last month during an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Valuable from a financial point of view and invaluable from a geopolitical point of view.” China’s push is complex. Its operatives have also surreptitiously used information from the World Health Organization to guide its vaccine hacking attempts, both in the United States and Europe, according to a current and a former official familiar with the intelligence. It was not clear how exactly China was using its influential position in the WHO to gather information about vaccine work around the globe. The organization does collect data about vaccines under development, and while much of it is eventually made public, Chinese hackers could have benefited by getting early information on what coronavirus vaccine research efforts the WHO viewed as most promising, according to a former intelligence official. American intelligence officials learned about China’s efforts in early February as the virus was gaining a foothold in the United States, according to current and former American officials. The CIA and other agencies closely watch China’s moves inside international agencies, including the WHO. The intelligence conclusion helped push the White House toward the tough line it adopted in May on the WHO, according to the former intelligence official. Besides the University of North Carolina, Chinese hackers have also targeted other universities around the country and some may have had their networks breached, American officials said. Demers said in his speech that China had conducted “multiple intrusions” beyond what the Justice Department revealed in an indictment in July, which accused two hackers of working on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security spy service to pursue vaccine information and research from American biotechnology companies. Others have warned that Chinese intelligence agents in the United States and elsewhere have tried to collect information on researchers themselves. The Trump administration ordered China on July 22 to close its consulate in Houston in part because Chinese operatives had used it as an outpost to try to make inroads with medical experts in the city, according to the FBI. Chinese intelligence officials are focused on universities in part because they view the institutions’ data protections as less robust than those of pharmaceutical companies. But spy work is also intensifying as researchers share more vaccine candidates and antiviral treatments for peer review, giving adversaries a better chance of gaining access to formulations and vaccine development strategies, said an American government official briefed on the intelligence. So far, officials believe that foreign spies have taken little information from the American biotech companies they targeted: Gilead Sciences, Novavax and Moderna. At the same time the British electronic surveillance agency GCHQ was learning about the Russian effort and American intelligence learned of the Chinese hacking, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI dispatched teams to work with American biotech teams to bolster their computer networks’ defenses. The Russian effort, announced by British, American and Canadian intelligence agencies in July, was primarily focused on gathering intelligence about research by Oxford University and its pharmaceutical corporate partner, AstraZeneca. The Russians caught trying to get vaccine information were part of the group known as Cozy Bear, a collection of hackers affiliated with the SVR. Cozy Bear was one of the hacking groups that in 2016 broke into Democratic computer servers. Homeland security officials have warned pharmaceutical companies and universities about the attacks and helped institutions review their security. For the most part, officials have observed the would-be vaccine hackers using known vulnerabilities that have yet to be patched, not the more exquisite cyberweapons that target unknown gaps in computer security. No corporation or university has announced any data thefts resulting from the publicly identified hacking efforts. But some of the hacking attempts succeeded in at least penetrating defenses to get inside computer networks, according to one American government official. And hackers for China and Russia test weaknesses every day, according to intelligence officials. “It is really a race against time for good guys to find the vulnerabilities and get them patched, get those patches deployed before the adversary finds them and exploits them,” said Bryan S. Ware, the assistant director of cybersecurity for the Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “The race is tighter than ever.” While only two teams of hackers, one each from Russia and China, have been publicly identified, multiple hacking teams from nearly all the intelligence services of those two countries have been trying to steal vaccine information, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials. Russia announced on Aug. 11 that it had approved a vaccine, a declaration that immediately aroused suspicion that its scientists were at least aided by its spy agencies’ work to steal research information from other countries. American officials insist their own spy services’ efforts are defensive and that intelligence agencies have not been ordered to steal coronavirus research. But other current and former intelligence officials said the reality was not nearly so black and white. As American intelligence agencies try to find out what Russia, China and Iran may have stolen, they could encounter information on those countries’ research and collect it. Officials expressed concerns that further hacking attempts could hurt vaccine development efforts. Hackers extracting data could inadvertently — or purposefully — damage research systems. “When an adversary is doing a smash-and-grab, there is even more likely a chance of not just stealing information but somehow disrupting the victim’s operations networks,” Ware said. While some of Russia’s and China’s spying may have been aimed at checking their own research or looking for shortcuts, some current and former officials raised the possibility that the countries sought instead to sow distrust in an eventual vaccine from Western countries. Both Russia and China have already spread disinformation about the virus, its origins and the American response. Russian intelligence services in particular are laying the groundwork for a more aggressive effort to escalate the anti-vaccine movement in the West and could use the allegations of spying to give its narrative greater traction. Russia has a long record of trying to amplify divisions in American society. Current and former national security officials said they expect Russia to eventually spread disinformation about any vaccine approved in the West. “This case seems to be a throwback to the old Soviet Union,” said Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council official and Russia expert who testified in the impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump. “Russia and the Chinese have been out there on disinformation campaigns. How better to create confusion and weaken the U.S. further than to whip up the antivax movement? But you make sure all your guys are vaccinated.”
Most of these universities - Canada included, refer to recent episodes- do not need to be hacked by the Chinese because they have Chinese communist party members already there as professors or grad students just transferring the data and research outcomes daily. It's what they do. Joe will double up on it, to get in good with China. American universities and their research labs are major listening posts for the CCP. If your university does not have chinese infiltrators on staff or as grad students you are not doing anything important.
China has given experimental coronavirus vaccines to 'hundreds of thousands without a single infection', Chinese drug firm claims China launched an emergency COVID-19 vaccine scheme on key workers in July Hundreds of thousands of Chinese received the vaccines developed by CNBG The drug firm claimed that no one showed 'obvious side effects or got infected' The vaccines can protect people for up to three years, the Chinese company said https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...dreds-thousands-without-single-infection.html Hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens have received experimental COVID-19 vaccines under a government emergency scheme while reporting no cases of infection, a state-owned drug firm has claimed. The two vaccine candidates developed by China National Biotec Group (CNBG) can also protect people from the coronavirus for as long as three years, Zhong Song, the company’s chief legal officer, told reporters on Monday. It comes as China has been vaccinating ‘high-risk’ groups, including medics and border personnel, with the country’s potential coronavirus vaccines after launching the emergency plan in late July. Chinese officials said last month they are also considering to ‘scale up’ the programme on people working in food markets, public transport and hospitality to prevent a possible virus outbreak in the autumn and winter. CNBG’s two vaccines are among the four experimental vaccines the Chinese government allowed to use on the key workers, reported Chinese media. Speaking to China National Radio yesterday, Mr Zhou said: ‘Hundreds of thousands of people have been vaccinated. There was no case of showing obvious side effects and no one got infected.’ The official said that those who were vaccinated included medical workers and diplomats who had travelled to high-risk countries after receiving the shots. 'There were tens of thousands who went to other countries with escalating virus outbreak after the vaccinations. No one got infected and that proved the effectiveness of the vaccines,' Mr Zhou added. The vaccines are expected to hit the market as early as the end of this year, the drug firm claimed. They are also planning to produce 300 million doses a year with its newly-built factory. ‘[We] are studying the expansion of production capacity following the requirements from relevant departments,’ the chief legal officer said. ‘After expanding the production capacity in the future, our annual production capacity may reach 800 million to one billion doses. If every person receives two injections, 800 to one billion doses can allow 400 to 500 million people to be inoculated per year.' China has four of the world's eight vaccines that are in the third phase of trials, typically the last step ahead of regulatory approval, as countries race to stub out the virus and reboot battered economies. As of last month, at least 5.7 billion doses of the vaccines under development around the world had been pre-ordered. But the World Health Organization has warned that widespread immunisation against COVID-19 may not be on the cards until the middle of next year. The head of the World Health Organization said the U.N. health agency will not recommend any COVID-19 vaccine before it is proved safe and effective, even as Russia and China have started using their experimental vaccines before large studies have finished and other countries have proposed streamlining authorisation procedures. At a press briefing on Friday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said vaccines have been used successfully for decades and credited them with eradicating smallpox and bringing polio to the brink of being eliminated. 'I would like to assure the public that WHO will not endorse a vaccine that´s not effective and safe,' Tedros said. He said newly developed Ebola vaccines helped end the recent Ebola outbreak in Congo, noting that stopping the deadly virus was complicated by the dozens of armed groups operating in the region. Tedros appealed to people opposed to vaccination to do their own research.
Many drug makers or research labs that are working on a vaccine have now banded together and say they will not endorse nor allow politics to force them to release a vaccine that has not proven to be safe. I think all those people they plan to release early from prison due to Covid-19 concerns...one of the condition for their release is that they have to be the Canaries in the Coal Mine for us prior to the vaccine being released to our front line workers, elderly and rest of the general population. wrbtrader
Note, I might has said Moderna in this post in a couple places where I probably should have said AstroZenica or something. I need a scorecard to tell the players sometimes. China has several vaccines in progress so it is hard to comment specifically without knowing which one, but their forerunner which they have unloaded on to their military and others is just a very traditional "replicate the virus, kill it and inject it" vaccine. I have a hard time believing that it will not be effective to some extent (whether at a total knock out, neutralizing level is another matter). And I have a hard time believing that it is all that dangerous since even if a live virus should get into a batch, odds are that it is not deadly to a person and it does not add a new virus that is already out there. Nevethess, I am happy to let the chinese be the first in line. It is unfortunate that they are corrupt and you cannot trust their reported outcomes, but they are testing it in Brazil and Singapore so word will get around over time. The vaccines that - to me- require more caution and scrutiny are the ones where they are trying to alter a virus genetic/dna structure and then inject it. That's quite a bit more risky to both the patient and if it escapes. I think that the Moderna vaccine is a mixed bag. They are trying to, I belieive, isolate genes out of the virus, replicate them, and them inject the patient. So they are using part of the virus, rather than the whole virus as the leading - or earliest anyway- of the china vaccine is. I think that Moderna buys into the idea that using whole virus would be efficacious as the Chinese also believe but that it is harder to ramp up major production if you are having to mass produce whole virus. I guess the idea is that if you can isolate specific genes that are the actual triggers for the antibodies and T-cells that the genes are then easier to reproduce en masse. Something like that.