Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Who invented the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine Technology?

Parts of this Covid Vaccine Story came via the Daily Beast; But there is more to this story than what is being revealed in this rendition about the Moderna vaccine. Moderna reported it paid or will pay $400 million to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the rights to use publicly funded technology. The publicly funded […]

Explaining Away One Million Expired COVID Tests

It was this year; a question arose on the distribution of Covid tests to the states and why shouldn’t some states receive more tests than others. The question referenced Florida as one of those states. The question was put to Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary. I admire Jen for the job she does as […]

And the Anti-Anything Whiners . . .

“30,000 people were trapped inside Shanghai Disneyland on Halloween after one person tested positive for COVID-19,” Business Insider, Sinéad Baker And United States Anti-Vaxers, maskers, and social distancers whine. Excerpt from the article: Disneyland Shanghai shut down after one positive COVID-19 case was found there. The nearly 34,000 visitors and staff had to get tested […]

COVID vaccines and antibodies

Joel Eissenberg, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology I got the Moderna vaccine as part of the phase III clinical trial back in August and September 2020. Although it was technically a blinded trial, I knew from my symptoms after the second shot I was in the vaccine arm and not the placebo arm […]

Getting to a “Yes” Affirmation on the Covid Vaccine

“Getting to Yes: COVID Vaccine Edition,” Ken Haller, June 25, 2021 Pediatrician Dr. Ken Haller comes by way of AB Commenter and blogger Professor Joel Eissenberg. You can find Ken’s commentary on his site “Ken Haller.” Just follow the article title link or click on his name. If you have not been vaccinated yet, you […]

COVID-19 Vaccinations

If vaccinations are available, then one should get the vaccine. Briefly . . . Mildly Ill Young COVID-19 Patients Report Lasting Symptoms, MedScape More than half of young adults with mild COVID-19 who self-isolated at home were still reporting troublesome after-effects six months later, a study from Norway published in Nature Medicine found. The study […]

The Need to Be Vaccinated Against Covid

Frequent commenter Professor of  Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Joel Eissenberg discusses history of vaccinations and the need to be vaccinated. Why everyone needs to get vaccinated. Infectious diseases beset all living things, even bacteria. In the past ten thousand years of human history, there have been epidemics and pandemics of plague, smallpox, yellow fever, cholera […]

The politics of vaccine-stretching

When the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were first approved, it was clear that they were highly effective at preventing covid and that they would be in short supply for months.  The clinical trial data also suggested that, at least in the short-run, one dose of the vaccines would provide almost as much protection against covid […]

Yes, let’s vaccinate twice as many people against covid-19

I am very sympathetic to Robert Waldmann’s argument that we should give twice as many people one dose of the new Pfizer/Moderna vaccines, at least until supply constraints are eased, instead of following the FDA approved vaccination protocol and giving everyone two doses right from the beginning. What follows is a rough way of thinking […]

Liveblogging the FDA hearing on the Moderna Covid 19 vaccine

So Far the efficacy data has been presented. As reported in the press earlier, the vaccine is roughly 95% effective, that is roughly 95% of people who got Covid 19 during the trial were participants who received the placebo. Importantly, the null hypothesis that just one dose is just as good as two was not […]