Vaccination Certification?

[evandbob]

Perhaps a cruise line can have a sailing dedicated just for those who have been vaccinated or have enough antibodies and can provide certification?  Might be similar to having a no smoking ship. Of course, crew should be vaxxed as well.

 

While I read that a pharma guy (Pfizer, maybe?) said they don't know if a vaxxed person can carry and/or transmit the virus yet simply because that circumstance won't get studied until after vaccinations become widespread, I might pay a premium to book, and it would certainly make it easier for a cruise line to resume and continue sailings.

[SelectSys]

16 hours ago, slidergirl said:

J&J was part of Warp Speed, Pfizer was not - it didn't take money as it got it's funding from Germany.  My boo boo.  But J&J is a little behind the others in any case.  

 

Pfizer didn't get money from Germany, it's partner BioNTech did to build out manufacturing capability.  I am sure the German government views this as a great investment in both current and future capability as part of supporting their industrial base.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/pfizer-vaccine-s-funding-came-from-berlin-not-washington

"Rather, its partner, BioNTech SE, has received money -- from the German government... Berlin gave the German company $445 million in an agreement in September to help accelerate the vaccine by building out manufacturing and development capacity in its home market."

 

While Pfizer didn't get development funds, they are coordinating heavily with the Warp Speed project including logistics and purchase agreements.  No company is working in a vacuum nor is not benefitting from government coordination.

 

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-update-our-us-covid-19-vaccine-candidate

"Pfizer has been working with U.S. officials in Operation Warp Speed (OWS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help ensure that after potential authorization or approval, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine can reach those in most need as quickly and equitably as possible. The company believes this ongoing coordination is critical to help ensure an efficient vaccine distribution as soon as possible after the vaccine receives regulatory authorization or approval, if received...

 

In July, Pfizer and BioNTech announced the execution of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to meet the U.S. government’s OWS program goal to begin delivering 300 million doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 in 2021. Under the agreement, the U.S. government will first receive 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine after Pfizer successfully manufactures and obtains approval or emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The U.S. government will pay $1.95 billion for those first 100 million doses, with the option to acquire up to an additional 500 million doses."

 

Edited December 4, 2020 by SelectSys

[Roz]

On 12/2/2020 at 4:29 PM, KnowTheScore said:

The same as everyone else.  Repeated swab tests and whatever other tests are deemed appropriate.  I would envisage that testing procedures will get slicker and quicker in the future.

Either way, vaccinated or not you will still get tested because vaccination has not been proven to prevent spread by the vacinee.

 

This sounds delightful - crew members sticking swabs up our nostrils every day, along with what else?  Urine samples?  Throat cultures?  No thanks.  I'll stay home.  Will there be labs and lab techs onboard to process and interpret all these tests?

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, KnowTheScore said:

There are over 30 unique strains of SARS-COV-2 circulating (there were 12 even as far back as March)

 

Flu vaccines only cover 3-4 strains out of the 200+ strains of Flu that exist.

 

Could someone explain to me how this vaccine certification will deal with this problem please

 

If a person has been vaccinated against 3 strains of Covid but is thus not protected against 27 others then how is that going to protect other people?  What does certification contribute ?

 

This question gets to the heart of the differences between virus types. Even though influenza and COVID-19 are both caused by viruses, the types of virus involved have very different characteristics. The influenza virus mutates very rapidly and significantly, while coronaviruses tend to mutate slowly and have fewer significant mutations. What the lay press keeps referring to as different "strains" of COVID-19 is somewhat incorrect/misleading, and there is sort of a loose usage even among scientists regarding what is a stain versus what is a variant or subtype or mutation. Most lay press articles are actually reporting MUTATIONS. Often a mutation may involve a tiny change that has no impact on the virus overall. 

 

Even with influenza, there are only 4 correctly-named STRAINS that are known, and there are multiple subtypes of those strains. Only 2 of the 4 strains (A & B) are usually responsible for the seasonal flu that is circulating. The subtypes of these are what account for the changes year-on-year and why vaccine makers have a difficult time correctly predicting which ones will dominate in the upcoming season, since vaccines have to be made in advance.

 

However, according to a recent article published in Nature, "coronaviruses change more slowly than most other RNA viruses, probably because of a ‘proofreading’ enzyme that corrects potentially fatal copying mistakes. A typical SARS-CoV-2 virus accumulates only two single-letter mutations per month in its genome — a rate of change about half that of influenza and one-quarter that of HIV."

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6

 

This has also been borne out in other studies. And further supporting this, more than 90,000 isolates have been sequenced and made public. Analysis of these has shown that "two SARS-CoV-2 viruses collected from anywhere in the world differ by an average of just 10 RNA letters out of 29,903."

 

The different so-called "strains" (see my note below) of coronavirus appear to be more useful as a geographic marker of spread than to have any real significance in terms of vaccine effectiveness. Researchers who have looked at the different variations of the COVID-29 causing coronavirus have thus far concluded that "Despite its mutations, the virus shows little variability, and this is good news for the researchers working on a viable vaccine."

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200803105246.htm

 

(I say so-called "strains" above because as of yet it is unclear whether they actually do represent different strains -- according to the stricter classifications employed by actual microbiologists....)