
Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates - flipchart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine#Vaccine_candidates
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akuchling
Nature had a nice graphic showing the different approaches being taken:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01221-y](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01221-y)

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basch
Also

[https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/23/a-...](https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/23/a-close-
look-at-the-frontrunning-coronavirus-vaccines-as-of-april-23) (updated May 1)

[https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/05/18/an...](https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/05/18/another-
set-of-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates)

unfortunately on the treatment side, theres also this
[https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/14/gilead-should-ditch-
remd...](https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/14/gilead-should-ditch-remdesivir-
and-focus-on-its-simpler-safer-ancestor/)

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dgritsko
Twelve candidates in clinical trials according to the table. That sounds like
a lot, but I have no idea how that number compares to other vaccines. Is this
a typical number, or is it high/low?

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lbeltrame
From my perspective it is quite a number all at once. Usually it is a lot less
(one or two candidates, AFAICS).

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jansan
Has there ever been an attempt to develop a vaccine against SARS or MERS? If
so, what happened? Did it fail or was is just not needed anymore?

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SpicyLemonZest
Late stage vaccine trials are conducted by vaccinating a bunch of people and
then seeing how many get infected versus a control group. So it's not just a
matter of "not needed"; the trials simply couldn't be performed without an
active outbreak of the disease. There was a lot of promising early-stage
development.

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erfgh
Given the ages and health conditions of the dead, what is the chance that a
vaccine will do any good to them? Remember that the flu vaccine is of very
dubious effectiveness on those aged 65+.

Of course, vaccinating the whole population might render those groups less
likely to be infected (because of herd immunity) but still, it will involve
vaccinating populations which have little risk from the disease with a vaccine
that has been fast-tracked through the approval process.

This situation is a disaster.

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ryanwaggoner
_Remember that the flu vaccine is of very dubious effectiveness on those aged
65+_

The CDC still recommends vaccines for the elderly:

 _Because of age-related changes in their immune systems, people 65 years and
older may not respond as well to vaccination as younger people. Although
immune responses may be lower in the elderly, studies have consistently found
that flu vaccine has been effective in reducing the chance of medical visits
and hospitalizations associated with flu._

Source:
[https://www.cdc.gov/flu/highrisk/65over.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/highrisk/65over.htm)

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collyw
They are still only ~50% effective.

[https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-
work/vaccineeffect.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-
work/vaccineeffect.htm)

~~~
ryanwaggoner
There's a vast gulf between "~50% effective" and "very dubious effectiveness"

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bsaul
Question: if the virus completely dissapears in a few months, like other SARS
variant, should we vaccinate the world population ?

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missosoup
If it did disappear, sure.

But it won't. Way too many infected all over the globe now, eradication is
impossible without a vaccine. Either it will eventually infect the entire
world, or we'll vaccinate against it. Those are the only two options at this
point.

Even if an entire nation managed to eradicate it via distancing, it would only
take a single carrier arriving by any means from another country to initiate a
second wave and restart the clock.

Edit: I'm not one to engage in meta, but seriously, what the fuck is with the
downvotes? Every word of what I said is casually verifiable with a quick
google search and is not at all controversial. There is absolutely no way to
eradicate SARS-CoV-2 without global immunity due to its exceptionally high R0
combined with the fact that it's already present all over the globe. The only
two ways to achieve global immunity is if everyone gets infected and develops
immunity, or everyone is vaccinated. Someone who's hitting downvote, please
comment and explain.

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lbeltrame
Third option: we fight it with drugs and we prevent / reduce hospitalizations,
and it becomes a disease like every other.

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SpicyLemonZest
The obvious comparison is tuberculosis, where vaccination (albeit not
universal vaccination) is a critical component of our control measures. Even
if we find a strongly effective treatment, which I agree there's reason for
optimism on, we'll still want a vaccine.

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teknopaul
Yeah, lockdown == prevent. ICU == treat. At the moment thats all we have

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lbeltrame
Many doctors are actually experimenting different treatments, even handling in
the ICU has shifted compared to two months ago.

The problem is that most of the pharmacological evidence is sparse and
anecdotal at worst (except for remedisivir, and now
lopinavir/ritonavir/ribavirin/interferon beta). Trials are ongoing and should
at least give better answers, or hints.

Protocols change among countries or even across hospitals, so it's kind of
hard to figure out which treatment is best. There's a lot of road to cover to
come to proper treatments, but if we are to believe case reports, it is
undoubtedly much better than when the pandemic started hitting the West.

