Best Posts in Thread: Pfizer vaccine

Immigrants.
In Germany, where immigration continues to be a fractious issue, the success of two scientists of Turkish descent was cause for celebration.

“With this couple, Germany has a shining example of successful integration,” wrote the conservative-business site Focus.

A member of Parliament, Johannes Vogel, wrote on Twitter that if it was up to the far-right Alternative for Germany party, “there would be no #BioNTech of Germany with Özlem Türeci & Ugur Sahin at the top.”

“If it were up to critics of capitalism and globalization,” he added, “there would be no cooperation with Pfizer. But that makes us strong: immigration country, market economy & open society!”

Dr. Sahin has had little time for politics this year. BioNTech has been so busy developing a vaccine that the company has not finalized the financial details of its partnership agreement with Pfizer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/business/biontech-covid-vaccine.html

 

Today's news trumpets the Pfizer vaccine almost ready for FDA approval in the U.S.A. Apparently, it took a novel approach, replicating a harmless part of the virus's RNA. I leave it to my betters to explain the biology. In any case, it seems to be not appropriate for the Philippines.

For one thing, it requires two shots, several weeks apart. For another, storage and transportation requires super-cooling, some 90-odd degrees below the freezing point of water. I leave it to others to explain the chemistry, something to do with liquid nitrogen. And finally, it was funded by Pfizer privately, not by the Warp Speed (or whatever it's called) initiative of the U.S. Congress stimulus bill. This means, I presume, that Pfizer is free to charge what the market will bear.

 

According to the Straits Times, Indonesia has purchased 3 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, with 1.2 million already on hand and waiting while they decide who gets it first.