[News] Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by peter12

I believe the Novavax vaccine hasn’t even entered Phase 3 trials. We screwed up big time.

Explain

We have made agreements for 77 million doses from two leading, currently in phase 3 candidates.

We now are securing back up sources if those leading candidates fail.

My only criticism is I would have liked two see Oxford on there rather than to RNA based vaccines.

[peter12]

This is where I'm getting most of my info from. We've already missed the first batch of 1 billion Oxford vaccine doses. It is genuinely distressing news.

https://twitter.com/profamirattaran/...622089731?s=20

[woob]

Originally Posted by peter12

Are you kidding me? I can't stand this attitude. If government across Canada had gone down this road from the beginning with strong messaging and clear consequences, we would have had exactly the same social buy-in as the Asian countries.

I agree the Government could have handled this better, but you're kidding yourself if you think we would have had the same social buy in as Japan and South Korea in the early stages. One merely needs to take a small snapshot of Facebook, Twitter, and CBC/Calgary Sun comment sections, on any given day, to know this would be hilariously not possible.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by woob

I agree the Government could have handled this better, but you're kidding yourself if you think we would have had the same social buy in as Japan and South Korea in the early stages. One merely needs to take a small snapshot of Facebook, Twitter, and CBC/Calgary Sun comment sections, on any given day, to know this would be hilariously not possible.

Decisive, clear leadership from government would have helped.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by peter12

This is where I'm getting most of my info from. We've already missed the first batch of 1 billion Oxford vaccine doses. It is genuinely distressing news.

https://twitter.com/profamirattaran/...622089731?s=20

You might want to do more than a surface level read before condemning the country's response to failure. The Oxford vaccine had more of a head start initially, but others like Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines (both of which Canada has deals for) are looking like they've caught up. The Oxford vaccine's current phase 3 trials are actually fairly limited with most of the study happening the UK, where determining efficacy will be tough given their declining infection numbers. Their Brazilian and South African sample groups are quite small and their US group (which will be quite large) just started a few days ago, so that one is still months from showing definitive results.

It's also important that we cover access to the various technologies (viral vector vs. genetic vs. recombinant protein) because we don't know which one is going to the most effective. Canada currently has deals for the leading candidates for genetic (Moderna and Pfizer) and recombinant protein (Novavax) vaccines. For viral vector, Oxford is the leading candidate right now, so hopefully the current negotiations with AstraZeneca prove fruitful. But Johnson & Johnson (which Canada does have a deal for) is also an interesting one. It's about to begin its phase 3 trials which will be the largest of any of the COVID vaccines and it's a single shot rather than a 2 shoot booster 4 weeks apart like the Oxford vaccine, which gives it a logistical advantage both in terms of shorter phase 3 trials and eventual production if it proves effective.