Pyrian on 11/11/2020 at 08:58
Whoa. Neat link. Here's the money quote:
Quote:
And perhaps even more monumental is the
kind of vaccine that Pfizer and BioNTech are bringing across the finish line. The active ingredient inside their shot is mRNA—mobile strings of genetic code that contain the blueprints for proteins. Cells use mRNA to get those specs out of hard DNA storage and into their protein-making factories. The mRNA inside Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine directs any cells it reaches to run a coronavirus spike-building program. The viral proteins these cells produce can't infect any other cells, but they are foreign enough to trip the body's defense systems. They also look enough like the real virus to train the immune system to recognize SARS-CoV-2, should its owner encounter the infectious virus in the future. Up until now, this technology has never been approved for use in people. A successful mRNA vaccine won't just be a triumph over the new coronavirus, it'll be a huge leap forward for the science of vaccine making.
Briareos H on 11/11/2020 at 09:23
Quote Posted by nemyax
targets the SARS-CoV-2 RNA
No, it uses a mRNA vector to target the spike protein of the virus (target as in, create in-situ and generate an immune response). AFAIK the spike protein is the target of most experimental vaccines undergoing trial. Unfortunately, each coronavirus has a different spike so that explains why this vaccine cannot target any virus of that type.
nickie on 11/11/2020 at 09:26
I've just seen a small segment on tv that said Pfizer are using small containers which can keep the vaccines at the super cool temperature needed but the drawback at the moment seems to be the containers can only be opened for 1 minute twice a day or the vaccine will spoil. I'm not expecting a vaccination for a few months yet.
Edit. The segment also discussed the problem of glass vials breaking in such low temperatures. Do vaccines have to be in glass vials?
faetal on 11/11/2020 at 13:28
Quote Posted by nickie
Do vaccines have to be in glass vials?
There are pros and cons with glass and plastics. The primary concern with pharma is choosing a surface which doesn't interfere with the active ingredient, and glass is pretty inert.
heywood on 11/11/2020 at 14:05
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Remind me where you live again? People I know with equivalent situations have taken
weeks to get their results, which is just useless. Other people (specifically people going into surgery, lol) get results right away.
Recently? I know there were some long delays during the second wave that hit the South and Southwest in the summer. But Quest and LabCorp are currently saying 1-2 days. Around here, we've been getting most routine test results back in 24 hours ever since August. But I don't know if that will last with the number of cases exploding around here.
Pyrian on 11/11/2020 at 18:24
Our school system is planning on testing all staff and students every two weeks for the rest of the school year (January to end of June).
Kolya on 12/11/2020 at 17:48
Remember, it's not a vaccine unless it comes from the Váccine region of France, otherwise it's just a sparkling antidote.
nickie on 13/11/2020 at 10:35
Thanks freddy and faetal.
I read this article the other day. It's something I've been wondering about for the last 6 months or so. (
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/01/health/viral-dose-coronavirus-severity/index.html) The 'dose' of coronavirus a person gets may determine how sick they get.
We ended our 2 week fire/circuit breaker last Monday. I haven't seen any figures for effectiveness yet but I hope it will work. The first week of that period we had 53 cases. We only had 69 in the previous 6 months.