I really wish there was some provision for challenge-based vaccine studies in extreme situations like this. We have a truckload of people that don’t care about getting the virus, storming the field at foosball games and licking every doorknob in sight. If they would be willing to take some future healthcare compensation for taking these vaccines and then being exposed to something that they won’t let dominate their lives anyhow, that seems like a win-win.
And, then they’d be forced to actually face their cognitive dissonance when they rejected the opportunity to participate.
Any prisoner condemned to death awaiting their execution, participate and receive a commutation down to life without possible parole.
But for grade school, it seems ideal. The plan always should have been to go 100% online from Thanksgiving to mid January to account for people gathering for the holidays regardless of the rules.
The sad thing is that through some dark twist of human psychology, this is going to be perceived as “COVID is cured, no need to take precautions anymore.” And another zillion people will die immediately before the vaccine is ready for mass inoculation.
My college (and all NY state schools) are mandating testing for all students prior to Thanksgiving, and not allowing them to leave pozzed. Spring semester pushed until February, no Spring Break. Mandatory 7-day quarantine pre-Spring semester, followed by mandatory intake testing. Only limited in-person instruction for specific sections that require it for academic integrity purposes (i.e. labs).
I’m sure you are right. It’d a big deal for me personally. Having a spouse working in a literal Covid icu the past several months has sucked. Especially for her. I can’t imagine how relieved she will be to have a safe and reliable vaccine assuming this is it.
Also I used to be able to find a simulator where i could plug in a sample size, mean and it would spit out a distribution table but cannot find an easy one this AM. Which one do you use?
“SUNY will require colleges to isolate or quarantine any residential student who tests positive for COVID-19 or is exposed to COVID-19 in the last 14 days before Thanksgiving break. Malatras is also recommending testing for faculty and staff.”
They will be tested beforehand, and required to quarantine if positive prior to Thanksgiving break. I’m certain they can’t force anyone to do anything (although the NYS Department of Health has regulations surrounding what folks are allowed to do when pozzed), but this is a condition of enrollment in the SUNY system - all students are required to follow these guidelines else they are no longer welcome as students.
They say a billion doses by end of next year. You would need roughly 700m doses to treat the entire US. I guess that raises the other question of if this is something everyone has to take every year and it is extremely difficult to store and transport that might be a serious problem.
I’m actually comforted that it’s Pfizer reporting this and not some midsize or startup type company. Those smaller companies have a lot more to gain and a lot less to lose in these types of situations.
Agree 100% with that. Moderna would be way less trustworthy. The fact it isn’t a WARP SPEED vaccine is awesome. Also the fact the non-WARP SPEED vaccine was faster than the Trump ones is some irony.