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The Novavax Vaccine, Finally

28 points| starkd | 3 years ago |science.org

36 comments

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[+] propter_hoc|3 years ago|reply
This is minor and off-topic, but since it's not the first time I've seen this error:

> Wherefore art thou, Novavax? Well, finally before an FDA advisory committee meeting for their coronavirus vaccine, that’s where they art.

"Wherefore" means "why," not "where." In Romeo and Juliet, the question "Wherefore art thou Romeo" is actually Juliet asking why her beau has to have the Montague name, when her family is sworn against his. Not like, "Where are you, I can't see you."

Anyway, great article aside from that.

[+] jimmygrapes|3 years ago|reply
I like to consider myself a pretty well learned person when it comes to English and etymology, but you got me here. I had no idea! Thank you!
[+] karencarits|3 years ago|reply
"Wherefore" is quite close to "hvorfor" which is "why" in Norwegian/Danish (and hvor = where)
[+] yellowapple|3 years ago|reply
Makes me wonder if the authors were really unaware that wherefore = why or if they deliberately used it in the wrong sense to get us to talk about the article.
[+] sonicggg|3 years ago|reply
The FDA moved mountains to get these first vaccines rushed out of the door. And while they are better than nothing, it has not met the high expectations that were set. People fully boosted are still developing symptoms, some even developing long covid.

But the worst is that any newer vaccines or even therapies are not getting the same type of priority anymore. There are a lot of really interesting products on the pipeline, moving at a really slow pace, like Novavax.

[+] Meandering|3 years ago|reply
Novavax might have underfunded their lobbying department. /s

Any vaccine was great for the most at risk population but, as you stated, it's not a solution to covid; only a tool to mitigate its threat to the individual. I know a lot of people who didn't want any of the vaccines but they wanted the Novavax. I think quick approval would have pumped vaccination rates. And now, I don't think people will bother.

[+] credit_guy|3 years ago|reply
> The FDA moved mountains to get these first vaccines rushed out of the door.

Did we follow the same pandemic? It looked to me like they were slow as snails. The whole idea of Operation Warpspeed was that the manufacturers will work hard to make the vaccines and run the tests, and they'll share all the data with the FDA and the FDA will evaluate as the data came, and when the manufacturers were sending the final results, the FDA will be able to review everything quickly and make the decision ASAP.

Instead, they decided in the middle of the testing that there are not enough minorities in the tested population, and they need to add a few thousand more participants (and about 2 months to the timeline). Then, after the submissions happened, it took them more than a month each time to give their EUA. Where "E" stands for "emergency". That's at a time when between 1000 and 3000 people were dying daily of Covid in the US.

It's quite likely that tens of thousands of people died because of how inefficient the FDA was.

[+] starkd|3 years ago|reply
And it's still based on the original strain. So,it's questionable how good it is on the new variants.
[+] AdamJacobMuller|3 years ago|reply
> It’s believed that there are a good number of people who would prefer to take something like the Novavax vaccine over the less-established techniques like mRNA and adenoviruses.

I worry that all of the pro-vaccine propaganda and the attacks and dehumanization of people who chose not to get the vaccine (or people who merely questioned it) has resulted in people who won't listen to this at all and won't change their mind.

The shaming of people who didn't want the vaccine just pushed people further from wanting the vaccine (and in many cases any vaccine) instead of trying to embrace them and make them feel comfortable taking it.

[+] phs318u|3 years ago|reply
I'm sorry but you lost me at "pro-vaccine propaganda". Where's the characterisation of all the obvious disinformation spreading on social media (and rage-maximising MSM) as "anti-vaccine propaganda"? You're implying bad faith on the part of those spreading a pro-vaccine message and are making it their fault for "not embracing" or making "them" "comfortable". The problem with that is how can I embrace someone who believes that vaccines cause autism? How can I make someone "comfortable" when they can't see their own cognitive dissonance for seeing their doctors as shills for big pharma on one hand (vaccines), but will happily listen to and take their advice when it comes to, say, broken bones.

Do we need to do a better job of educating people about the fact that medicine, and "science" itself is not process of distinguishing black from white. Reality is imperfect and complexity is progressively discovered. Do we forego the imperfect now waiting for a perfect understanding of something? What happened to the Pareto principle, risk management approaches, and opportunity cost? I find it hard to feel like "embracing" people who take a mistake as evidence of conspiracy.

Don't the voices pushing the anti-vax disinfo bullshit carry some responsibility for polarising people's views and turning opinions against medical authorities? Or are they absolved of responsibility?

[+] uberwindung|3 years ago|reply
“pro-vaccine propaganda”

Wtf does that even mean ?

[+] jjeaff|3 years ago|reply
>I worry that all of the pro-vaccine propaganda

You know, Occam's Razor leads me to believe that the anti-vax propaganda is actually more to blame for making people not want to take vaccines.

But maybe you've hit on something here. Maybe the reason there are so many people out there that are pro-choice is simply because all the pro-lifers are trying to shame them. If the pro-life movement would just quiet down, there wouldn't be such division and so many abortions. But no, the pro-lifers have ruined it and are to blame for all those abortions.