02-12-2021, 01:03 PM
(02-12-2021, 12:26 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Some random COVID tidbits:
- Manitoba has placed an order for 2M vaccine doses from Providence Therapeutics of Calgary. Providence has just started phase 2 trials (the much-bigger phase 3 trial is still in the future) so approval is still well in the future. The company has also purchased land for a production site but apparently no construction has started yet. This will surely arrive after the Novavax production starts in Montreal.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/...-1.5910312
- Reports from Israel (where the entire population is being monitored) show that the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine has reduced infections by 93% including asymptomatic cases (the phase 3 trial only check for symptomatic cases)
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210212_08/
- Some Russian scientists are not so much impressed with the phase 3 study of the Sputnik-V vaccine or the details that were published
http://osdm.org/english/2021/02/07/comme...k-v-trial/
- A Finnish company, DSA, is about to go to production with a COVID breathalyzer device that can accurately detect an infection within two minutes
https://dsa.fi/dsa-breathpass
- And Miami Heat is using dogs to detect COVID positive patrons with 92% accuracy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatt...-new-mvps/
These detection options are great, and data showed that tracking and tracing was a huge benefit. Of course, that's little help here, where we are not even using the tests that we do have...
I am still confused by these orders for vaccines which won't be ready until after we plan to be finished vaccinating everyone, it basically amounts to a donation to the COVAX program, which is great, but I feel like it's a little misleading.
As for a production facility, this has nothing to do with COVID-19 vaccines, it won't be ready till after the whole world is vaccinated, it's a good facility to build, but if we were actually prioritizing this, we'd be repurposing existing buildings under emergency measures.