How quickly will there be a vaccine? And what if people refuse to get it?
The insanity of the pronouncements in this article sent to me by reader JR in The Guardian are never ending. NO MENTION OF SAFETY. I repeat, NO mention of protecting global citizens from harm from the new vaccines. Would you buy a car whose ad campaign said, "It might not start every day, it might poop out on the highway at 70 miles per hour, it might even catch fire, but when it works, it's better than walking!" Here are a few gems:
People have suggested that the way to do a human challenge trial safely is by restricting it to the lowest-risk group of people: probably young women with no known pre-existing medical conditions.
That’s a problem. That’s why we have measles outbreaks in communities that don’t vaccinate. We’re going have to do a much better job to help [people] understand that you’re not just protecting yourself, you’re protecting somebody’s grandmother.
It’s not necessarily going to be the perfect vaccine. We might find early evidence that some of these vaccines are at least partially effective, and that’s enough for now because the need is so great.
The Guardian.com by Danielle Renwick
How quickly will there be a vaccine? And what if people refuse to get it?
Scientists around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus – and many believe at least one could be released early next year. According to the World Health Organization, about 23 vaccines are in clinical evaluation, and more than 130 are in development.
Biotech firm Moderna and the National Institutes of Health said their vaccine provoked a desired immune response in 45 individuals; it will move on to larger-scale testing at the end of the month. The University of Oxford, which has paired with drugmaker AstraZeneca to create another vaccine, said it was anticipating “positive news” on early trials of its drug.
How accurate are antibody tests and is it worth getting one?
Read more
The mumps vaccine, widely considered the fastest ever developed, took four years. Experts explain what goes into developing a vaccine – and what comes next.
How optimistic are you that we’ll have a vaccine in early 2021?
Angela Rasmussen: I’m optimistic. It’s not necessarily going to be the perfect vaccine. We might find early evidence that some of these vaccines are at least partially effective, and that’s enough for now because the need is so great.
Anna Durbin: I think we’re going to [understand] the efficacy for one, or maybe two candidates by the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021 at the pace things are going. I’m more concerned with the ability to produce enough for everybody who needs it....Read more: How quickly will there be a vaccine? And what if people refuse to get it?
Anyone under 65 should refuse the vaccine, because they are not at risk. Healthy 65+ should refuse the vaccine because they are not at risk. People of any age and health should refuse the vaccine because there are effective treatments and the risk from the vaccine is unknown, both short- and long-term.
Then the question is, why are we spending billions on something no one should get?
Posted by: Tim Lundeen | July 18, 2020 at 03:01 PM
Thank you Ronald Kostoff. Unfortunately your link to the Spandidos editorial did not work (in my computer in Scotland) but I found your Spandidos article via my search engine, by typing in Spandidos Covid-19 then finding "post lockdown guidelines".
https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/ijmm.2020.4640
Extract:-
"To summarize, first, there is no unanimity within the medical community for continuing the severe restrictions on activities of the vast majority of the total population that are mainly applicable to the most vulnerable, very small minority of the total population. Second, repurposed (mainly) antiviral treatments can only be expected to have very limited results in controlling SARS-CoV-2 viral load of the most severely impacted, based on trials conducted so far. Third, it is difficult to see how safe COVID-19 vaccines can be developed and fully tested on time scales of one or two years, as proposed presently.
Fourth, the only real protection against a future COVID-19 pandemic or any other viral pandemic is the one that was demonstrated to work in the SARS, MERS, COVID-19 and annual influenza pandemics: a healthy immune system capable of neutralizing incoming viruses as nature intended. We need an Operation Warp Speed (currently working to produce a vaccine in a record short time period in the USA) to identify and eliminate those factors that weaken the immune system as thoroughly, comprehensively, and rapidly as possible."
Posted by: Jenny Allan | July 18, 2020 at 09:00 AM
Our recent Editorial on COVID-19 post-lockdown guidelines (https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/ijmm.2020.4640) included the following narrative on potential COVID-19 vaccines and associated safety issues:
"Vaccines. Third are the vaccines. Their purpose is to prevent, or at least attenuate, the infection. They do not strengthen a weakened immune system intrinsically, but, if effective, act as a crutch to the immune system's capability to neutralize the virus.
A recent study examined myriad COVID-19 vaccines under development (17). As stated in this reference: 'Normally, the period of development of a vaccine is 12-15 years'. Against this backdrop, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are being targeted for accelerated development by an order of magnitude. Each of the accelerated steps listed in this reference (17) has drastically reduced the time required. Strongly accelerated development and implementation (relative to standard vaccine development times) is the goal; bypassing some critical steps in the vaccine development process is troubling. While much of the vaccine development and testing effort focuses on efficacy, it is difficult to see how true long-term safety can be validated within these limited time scales.
Numerous mid- and longer-term potential adverse effects from vaccines have been identified. These include: i) Antibody-dependent enhancement (where enhanced virus entry and replication in a number of cell types is enabled by antibodies) (18,19); ii) vaccine-associated virus interference (where vaccinated individuals may be at increased risk for other respiratory viruses because they do not receive the non-specific immunity associated with natural infection) (20-21); iii) vaccine-associated imprinting reduction (where vaccinations could also reduce the benefits of 'imprinting', a protection conferred upon children who experienced infection at an early age) (22,23); iv) Non-specific vaccine effects on immune system (where previous infections can alter an individual's susceptibility to unrelated diseases) (24,25); v) impact of infection route on immune system (where immune protection can be influenced by the route of exposure/delivery) (26,27); and vi) impact of combinations of toxic stimuli (where people are exposed over their lifetime to myriad toxic stimuli that may impact the influence of any vaccine) (28).
Many more specific potential vaccine adverse effects in the mid-term are presented in our upcoming COVID-19 mono-graph (https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/62907).
The myriad of potential adverse impacts of vaccines cannot be identified in short-term tests characteristic of efficacy testing, but require long-term testing under real-life conditions (exposures to multiple toxic stimuli). Therefore, it is difficult to see how vaccines validated for short-, mid-, and long-term safety can be brought to market anytime soon."
Our recommendations focused on strengthening the immune system, as follows:
"Strengthening immune system intrinsically. The fourth, and least emphasized, approach is strengthening the immune system intrinsically. This is accomplished using two parallel approaches: i) identifying those factors that contribute to weakening the immune system, then eliminating/reducing them as comprehensively, thoroughly, and rapidly as possible; ii) replacing the eliminated factors with immune-strengthening factors (28,29).
Eliminating factors that weaken immune system. Our group has recently examined thousands of article Abstracts identifying factors that weaken the immune system. We have identified hundreds of factors (depending on how they are aggregated) that contribute to weakening the immune system (29). The complete study showing all the factors identified will be posted online by 20 June 2020 (https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/62907).
Some of the factors in our study that have been shown repeatedly to weaken the immune system include:
Lifestyle (e.g., smoking, excess alcohol, substance abuse, high-fat diet, protein-deficient diet, high-cholesterol diet, Western-style diets and chronic sleep restriction);
Iatrogenic (e.g., immunosuppressive drugs, gamma radiation treatments, nanomedicinal products, adjuvanted vaccines, acetaminophen, non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), surgical stress, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, selected anasthetics, selected antibiotics and highly active antiretroviral therapy drugs);
Biotoxins/Biomaterials (e.g., aflatoxin, ochratoxin, T-2 toxin, anatoxin-A, mycotoxins, microcystin-LR, dietary toxic cyanobacteria, yessotoxin, scorpion venom; Streptomyces californicus; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Rhinovirus and respiratory syncytial virus);
Occupational/Environmental (e.g., microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides/insecticides/herbicides, nanoparticles, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), fine particulate matter, air pollution, acrylamide, aromatic halogenated disinfection byproducts, benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, crude oil, corexit, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, wireless radiation-cell phones/cell towers/WiFi and sodium fluoride);
PsychoSocial/SocioEconomic (e.g., depression, chronic stress, restraint stress, social isolation, stressful life events, and childhood adversity).
Eliminating/ameliorating these toxic exposures/behaviors will require a combination of individual motivations/efforts and government efforts, especially at the regulatory level.
Adding factors that strengthen the immune system. A number of studies have identified factors (especially related to diet, nutrition, exercise, and sleep) that can strengthen the immune system. A recent article summarized the dietary component as follows: 'Evidence indicates that a diet that positively impacts immune function contains adequate amounts of protein, particularly including glutamine, arginine and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs); high omega-3 versus lower saturated, trans fat, and omega-6 fatty acids, low refined sugars, high fiber content such as whole grains, and micronutrients including vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin E, B vitamins, zinc, selenium and iron, as well as phytochemicals' (29,30). Table II in this reference provides many examples of foods rich in these desirable immune-strengthening factors.
Other favorable factors for enhancing immune system performance can be found in the following references (31-43)."
Posted by: Ronald Kostoff | July 18, 2020 at 06:57 AM