One of the things that has suffered in this vaccine race is the search for actual treatments. That whole area remains underdeveloped. Yes, there has been regeneron, which is marginally effective but is an infusion therapy so very expensive and hard to deploy. I think Merck made a good decision to drop its vaccine effort and focus on therapeutics because they missed the market for a vaccine anyway. And they are subcontracting on the production of J and J so they are still in the game bigtime. If the world could get some decent vaccines out there and then have actual treatments for those who end out getting it anyway- either after the vaccine or not, then you have some tools to work with. There are LOTS of treatments in the pipeline and they need to receive more focus and expediting. That is where the need is. Yeh, everyone gets the fact that it is a vaccine that is needed and that has been done. We just need more of what we have. I dont have problems with the focus on the vaccines. That has been highly appropriate, I just dont want to get stuck there. Therapeutics for the cytokine storm are critical too, as well as developing therapeutics for all the problems that the covid long-haulers are having. note: this is just an example. Merck’s Little Brown Pill Could Transform the Fight Against Covid https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...vir-pill-could-change-the-fight-against-covid
Those in the age group of 20 - 29 years old...highly recommend you not take the Astra-Zeneca Covid Vaccine...instead take another vaccine. The risks greatly outweigh the benefits. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...neca-vaccine-and-how-does-it-compare-12268572 wrbtrader
Pfizer is playing hardball with third-world LATAM countries -- they are not going to take civil liability for providing their COVID vaccine to these countries who regularly attempt to extract liability money. ‘Held to ransom’: Pfizer plays hardball in Covid-19 vaccine negotiations with Latin American countries https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/23...ovid19-vaccine-negotiations-in-latin-america/ Pfizer has been accused of “bullying” Latin American governments during negotiations to acquire its Covid-19 vaccine, and the company has asked some countries to put up sovereign assets, such as embassy buildings and military bases, as a guarantee against the cost of any future legal cases, according to an investigation by the U.K.-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. In the case of one Latin American country, demands made by the pharmaceutical giant led to a three-month delay in a vaccine deal being reached. For Argentina and Brazil, no national deals were agreed to at all with Pfizer. Any hold-up in countries receiving vaccines can lead to more people contracting Covid-19 and potentially dying. Officials from Argentina and the other Latin American country, which cannot be named as it has signed a confidentiality agreement with Pfizer, said the company’s negotiators demanded more than the usual indemnity against civil claims filed by citizens who suffer serious adverse events after being inoculated. They said Pfizer also insisted the governments cover the potential costs of civil cases brought as a result of Pfizer’s own acts of negligence, fraud, or malice. In Argentina and Brazil, Pfizer asked for sovereign assets to be put up as collateral for any future legal costs. One government health official who was present in the unnamed country’s negotiations described Pfizer’s demands as “high-level bullying” and said the government felt like it was being “held to ransom” in order to access lifesaving vaccines. Campaigners are already warning of a “vaccine apartheid” in which rich Western countries may be inoculated years before lower-income regions. Now, legal experts have raised concerns that Pfizer’s demands amount to an abuse of power. “Pharmaceutical companies shouldn’t be using their power to limit lifesaving vaccines in low- and middle-income countries,” said Lawrence Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “[This] seems to be exactly what they’re doing.” Protection against liability shouldn’t be used as “the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of desperate countries with a desperate population,” he added. Pfizer, which partnered with BioNTech, a German biotech, to make the vaccine, has been in talks with more than 100 countries and international bodies, and has supply agreements with nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay. The terms of those deals are unknown. Pfizer declined to comment on the allegations about its demands in negotiations, citing “ongoing negotiations which are private and confidential.” The company told the Bureau in a statement: “Pfizer and BioNTech are firmly committed to working with governments and other relevant stakeholders to ensure equitable and affordable access to our COVID-19 vaccine for people around the world.” The company said that in addition to the nine Latin American countries with which it has struck supply agreements, it has “allocated doses to low- and lower-middle-income countries at a not-for-profit price, including an advance purchase agreement with COVAX to provide up to 40 million doses in 2021.” COVAX is a global initiative to pool purchasing power and ensure vaccine access for low-income countries. “We are committed to supporting efforts aimed at providing developing countries with the same access to vaccines as the rest of the world,” Pfizer said. Most governments are offering indemnity — exemption from legal liability — to the vaccine manufacturers they are buying from. This means that a citizen who suffers an adverse event after being vaccinated can file a claim against the manufacturer and, if successful, the government would pay the compensation. In some countries people can also apply for compensation through specific structures without going to court.
Pfizer is not necessarily holding all the cards. Both China and Russia are committed to colonizing Argentina through vaccines, and have told Argentina they can supply all their needs. In addition, AstraZ is supplying Argentina to some extent, probably with more to come.. Ideally though they would get a vaccine that works and some of those russian and chinese vaccines are iffy. So yeh, Pfizer is tossing its weight around but I dont totally buy into the premise of the article which is that some of the countries are just poor third world natives being exploited because they have no choices. Their problem is that they would like to have more of the pfizer vaccine because it is a quality product- relatively speaking anyway. I am not sure about what legal requirements the Chinese or the Ruskies insist upon but those guys don't usually allow themselves to get in a vulnerable position. Usually they make massive side loans for economic development to the country and kickbacks to its leaders and if problems come up in other areas they threaten to pull the plugs on the economic development and kickback funds. Yeh, no free lunch in working with them either. They want to sell you vaccine and will end out owning your country when it is over. "Reimbursing for civil liabilities" is not exactly their strong point. If only we had a world health organization of some sort to be responsible for such transactions. As I have said before, we could call it the World Health Organization. Russia pledges to guarantee vaccine supply to Argentina Argentine president receives phone call from his Russian counterpart in which he ensured supply of Sputnik V vaccine https://www.aa.com.tr/en/latest-on-...guarantee-vaccine-supply-to-argentina/2199219
"regularly attempt to extract liability money" he says... This is how China & Russia continue to win goodwill and end up w/satellite states. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_syphilis_experiments
Yeh. well we can agree that China and Russia do not get bogged down in patents and protecting them. They are too busy stealng the fruits of other people's patents and intellectual property. No one doubts that Joe can work something out with the Chinese though. Big guy gets 10.
Not a mere 15 Million J&J vaccine doses need to be tossed in the trash but an additional 62 Million Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine doses. Who is in charge of quality control at this facility? Homer Simpson? Another 62million Covid vaccines ‘contaminated’ at scandal-hit factory https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/07/anot...-scandal-hit-factory-14373004/?ito=smart-news
A hundred million here and a hundred million there and pretty soon it adds up. Ya think? The entire population of Canada is 38 million so even by ebonics math 62 million would have put a sizeable dent in that. The small "blessing" in this mess is that no one has - so far- raised any issues about doses already distributed and injected. They refer to "doses" at the Emergent site but I think those doses are still in larger containers and if they are approved they go to the plant in Ohio for "fill and finish." ie. put into end-user smaller vials and packaged. in other news, to keep the juices flowing: Yes, this is the Czech Republic, but it is the EU court so it is an EU-wide decision, I would think. Gonna be a whole lot of shakin and movin going on around this issue. Czech Republic vaccines: European court backs mandatory pre-school jabs https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56669397
On the jabs for children front... Covid: Child jabs halted in trial as adult clot link probed BBC - https://tinyurl.com/yz2p6p6d A trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine on children has stopped giving out jabs while the UK's medicines regulator investigates a possible link with rare blood clots in adults. Prof Andrew Pollard from the University of Oxford told the BBC there were no safety concerns with the trial itself, but its scientists were waiting for further information. Around 300 volunteers signed up. Earlier, PM Boris Johnson said people should get their jab when invited. More than 31.6 million people in the UK have had a first vaccine dose and a total of 5.4 million people have received a second dose. Two vaccines - developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNtech - are being used in the UK, while a third - from Moderna - has been approved. The trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on children, which started in February, is assessing whether the jab produces a strong immune response in those aged between six and 17. Its suspension comes after a European Medicines Agency (EMA) official, speaking in a personal capacity, said there appeared to be a link with the jab and rare blood clots. Confirming that the trial on children was being paused, Prof Pollard said: "Whilst there are no safety concerns in the paediatric clinical trial, we await additional information from the MHRA on its review of rare cases of thrombosis/thrombocytopaenia that have been reported in adults, before giving any further vaccinations in the trial." Participants are advised to continue to attend all scheduled visits and can contact the trial sites if they have any questions. Updates from the EMA and the UK's regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), are expected in the coming days. The EMA said its safety committee had "not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently ongoing". The MHRA says the benefits of the jab continue to outweigh any risk.
"speaking in a personal capacity" Yet it leads to the shutdown of a major study. The EMA might want to have personnel review with said official and direct their attention to that part of the employee manual that is entitled "STFU Whilst Representing the Agency."