The New Normal

[MarzNC]

The total numbers at Cornell for the past week are: 16 faculty and staff and 15 students. All the students need to be vaccinated, or have a medical or religious exemption. The grad students I have been meeting this week have all been tested upon arrival, I think. I could be wrong.

But, what's up with the numbers of faculty and staff? 99% of faculty, and 91 percent of staff are vaccinated. So, either that means that those 9% of unvaccinated staff are getting hit hard, or there are breakthroughs happening. Enquiring minds want to know.

Regardless, I have a camera at home and could work from home in a heartbeat if I had to. My only fail in this plan is I went back to my usual stock of TP for when I was working AT work. If I have to quarantine, it's not looking so good.

Could well be some breakthrough cases for the faculty/staff. I would guess that folks around Cornell are more likely to get tested if they have any symptoms or find out they may have had close contact to someone who tested positive. While there are masking rules on campus, people are clearly not masking consistently away from workplaces.

Community spread is often happening because of situations where people think a social setting that's not a public space is a safe place. A super spreader event that was the start of Delta spreading in Australia was a birthday party attended by 40+ people, with only 6 fully vaccinated because they worked in healthcare. Contact tracing was thorough so the linkages were well documented. Total number of people who had to self-quarantine was in the hundreds after just a few days.

 

[tirolski]

What will be interesting to see is if Pfizer starts spending money on commercials now that the BLA is approved.

Can ya say Comirnaty?
Folks make big $ thinkin of those weird names.
If they got to make a new mRNA vax for a new mutant strain, they’ll have to come up with another new name for it.
Jab job security.
This has yet to be peer reviewed but...

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines

mRNA-based vaccines provide effective protection against most common SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, identifying likely breakthrough variants is critical for future vaccine development. Here, we found that the Delta variant completely escaped from anti-N-terminal domain (NTD) neutralizing...

www.biorxiv.org

 

[MarzNC]

Can ya say Comirnaty?
Folks make big $ thinkin of those weird names.
If they got to make a new mRNA vax for a new mutant strain, they’ll have to come up with another new name for it.
Jab job security.

Beats BNT162b2. That's what is used in Europe more than "Pfizer" or "Pfizer-BioNTech" on official websites.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Can ya say Comirnaty?

My grandfather's name was Padraigh Comirnaty. Maybe I'll hit them up for royalties.

This has yet to be peer reviewed but...

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines

mRNA-based vaccines provide effective protection against most common SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, identifying likely breakthrough variants is critical for future vaccine development. Here, we found that the Delta variant completely escaped from anti-N-terminal domain (NTD) neutralizing...

www.biorxiv.org

Can anyone explain the abstract in English?

mm

 

[tirolski]

My grandfather's name was Padraigh Comirnaty. Maybe I'll hit them up for royalties.

Did he copyright it?
If not, could be thought of bein in the public domain.
Ya could still try for Name Image and Likeness cash as the other athletes are gettin some now.
Pfizer should have lots.
Sounds to be Irish.
If ya get even a small percent yer buyin first round at the pub.

 

[MarzNC]

My grandfather's name was Padraigh Comirnaty. Maybe I'll hit them up for royalties.

Hmm, the folks who wrote these articles didn't look to see if "Comirnaty" existed before 2020. But then I thought "Marz" didn't exist as a name when I made it up either. I did that for something else long before I started using it for ski forums.

Comirnaty has been in use in Europe for a while because Pfizer got full approval in late 2020. The generic name is "tozinameran." The Dec article explains how that came to be.

August 23, 2021
The Most Famous Drug in the United States Is Named … Comirnaty?

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/comirnaty-pfizer-vaccine.html

August 24, 2021

It's Pronounced Koe-mir'-na-tee. How The Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine's Name Came To Be

Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine has been given full approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Along with that approval process is the companies' new brand name for the vaccine: Comirnaty.

www.npr.org

Dec. 23, 2020

The inside story behind Pfizer and BioNTech's new vaccine brand name, Comirnaty

Comirnaty. It’s a name we’ll all know soon. | Comirnaty. It’s a name we’ll all know soon. The new brand for Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty mashes up community, immunity, mRNA and COVID—pretty much everything that could fit into the moniker for the world's most high-profile...

www.fiercepharma.com

 

[tirolski]

Can anyone explain the abstract in English?

mm

Japanese scientists did some lab work, made some observations and guesses.
Some of em have filed patent application on something.
It’s a preprint but it’s got some folks concerned and others not.
Time will tell.
Ya can tweeterize it to view it’s discussion if ya want.
Tweeterize isn't English, yet.

 

[wonderpony]

Could well be some breakthrough cases for the faculty/staff. I would guess that folks around Cornell are more likely to get tested if they have any symptoms or find out they may have had close contact to someone who tested positive. While there are masking rules on campus, people are clearly not masking consistently away from workplaces.

Community spread is often happening because of situations where people think a social setting that's not a public space is a safe place. A super spreader event that was the start of Delta spreading in Australia was a birthday party attended by 40+ people, with only 6 fully vaccinated because they worked in healthcare. Contact tracing was thorough so the linkages were well documented. Total number of people who had to self-quarantine was in the hundreds after just a few days.

These numbers are coming from the surveillance testing sites, not testing for cause.

 

[wonderpony]

Meanwhile, I just learned that my son has had his first Moderna. I am thrilled. He has been on job sites throughout the pandemic, had covid and has resisted getting the vaccine. Apparently, it takes a prospective gf to convince him. Whatever.

 

[tirolski]

Comirnaty has been in use in Europe for a while because Pfizer got full approval in late 2020.

It was BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH who is the European Marketing Authorisation (EMA) Holder for Comirnaty in Europe, obtained in late 2020.
Not Pfizer.
Pfizer helped em but isn’t the “Holder”.
See page 31.

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/comirnaty-epar-product-information_en.pdf

See also FDA's press release yesterday.
The sentence just above "related information”.
"The approval was granted to BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH."

FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine

FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine, now marketed as Comirnaty, for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older.

www.fda.gov