Duda Jarek

good interview:

Tomorrow EU starts mass vaccination https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20201226-european-union-begins-coronavirus-vaccine-rollout-as-new-strain-spreads ... as the new strains like UK's are quickly spreading - what do we know about vaccine efficiency for them? It is great that there are lots of them - covering various mechanisms, hopefully allowing for effective war with mutations (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html 3 approved, 5 limited approved, 18 in phase III). Very nice explanation of Pfizer mRNA vaccine: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/, especially: - it uses Psi (1-methyl-3’-pseudouridylyl) instead of U (uracil) - works the same, but with weaker immune response, - uses synonymous codons with increased numbers of C and Gs (e.g. CUU -> CUG both encode Leucine), which are converted more efficiently into proteins, - two amino acids are changed comparing to virus spike protein (K,V -> P) to handle the problem of difference between pre- and post-fusion spike protein - this exchange into Proline makes them fold into the proper shape without being mounted to a virus (known since 2017 thanks to work on SARS-CoV-1).

UK starts mass vaccination: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55218679

U.K. Approves Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine, a First in the West https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/world/europe/pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-approved-uk.html

18th November Pfizer 95 percent https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/18/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-95-effective-and-safe-further-tests-show Time for another bid for Sputnik and Moderna

9th November: Pfeizer "90 percent efficient" https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/pfizers-covid-19-vaccine-90-percent-effective-initial-data-68138 11th November: "Sputnik V 92 percent" https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/11/russia-says-sputnik-v-covid-19-vaccine-is-92-percent-effective 16th November: "Moderna 94.5 percent" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/health/Covid-moderna-vaccine.html Who's next? ... in the meantime e.g. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pfizers-ceo-sold-5-6-million-worth-of-shares-on-the-day-of-its-big-vaccine-news-so-what-11605280170

Another very similar molecule is NH3 ... found e.g. on Pluto - not suggesting biological source only geological: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/5/eaav5731 Detection of ammonia on Pluto’s surface in a region of geologically recent tectonism

Oxygen-free environments seem characteristic for geological processes (?), and PH3 is similar to CH4 released by our geology - if phosphorus dominates instead of carbon, couldn't phosphine by synthesized in oxygen-free geological environments? "Geologic emissions of methane to the atmosphere": https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12430657/ ps. SH2 can be produced by bacteria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide#Biosynthesis_in_the_body Phosphine also occurs in Earth atmosphere ... and Jupiter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphine#Occurrence Can be generated by bacteria: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12507095_Phosphine_generation_by_mixed-_and_monoseptic-cultures_of_anaerobic_bacteria

Here is their recent Lancet paper: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31866-3/fulltext https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia-vaccine/russias-covid-19-vaccine-showed-antibody-response-in-initial-trials-idUSKBN25V1I2 Looks promising, but there are some suspicions: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/10/scientists-question-russian-vaccine-trial-data-on-unlikely-patterns.html Yesterday WHO vaccine report: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines A worse news, probably the most promising (AstraZeneca) trial is on hold: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02594-w

... and approval for military use in China:

Also China and probably others ... and minimizing e.g. expected number of casualties, this might be a reasonable behavior. Personally, if having opportunity to participate in such test, if only not having some nasty side effects, I don't think if I would have any doubts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53735718 Coronavirus: Putin says vaccine has been approved for use Two more Stage III (8, +1 "approved") in https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Over a million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine possible by September, says researcher https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-oxford-vaccine-res/over-a-million-doses-of-oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-possible-by-september-researcher-idUSKCN24L1TW Also two more Phase III (to 6 + 1 approved) in https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483 General optimism and preparation for vaccine this December:

There was added "approved" on this vaccine tracker ... for military use, also in phase II:

From https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html , third vaccine has entered phase III:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html Phase III: 2 Phase II: 8 e.g. Moderna to start Phase III in July, Phase I: 10 Preclinical: 125+

Is there a problem with this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_clamp - that proteins in virus have higher energy required for fusion? Just putting mRNA into a cell, shouldn't it produce the lowest energy protein? If so, are these two configurations essentially different from anti-body perspective? Would such immune system attack infected cells and/or virus itself?

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-for-30-million-by-september-if-trial-succeeds-says-sharma-11990039

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/the-ars-covid-19-vaccine-primer-100-plus-in-the-works-8-in-clinical-trials/

I see, there are many reasons China will probably be first - from 23th March: https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/china-covid-19-vaccine-trial-begins/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine

Good discussion about covid19 vaccine development: https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_berkley_the_quest_for_the_coronavirus_vaccine A radical approach to speedup: "Should scientists infect healthy people with the coronavirus to test vaccines?": https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00927-3

It is hard to tell how to interpret it, but the life cost (also economical) is just too high to allow for 18 month trials to satisfy regulations - "casualties of waiting" should be included in calculations. If being at least a bit promising and excluding toxicity, I believe massive usage will start - to test it in the field in endangered regions.

https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-scientists-In-three-weeks-we-will-have-coronavirus-vaccine-619101

Imperial Collage predictions for UK - to save lives with vaccine, it would be needed by November: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196234/covid19-imperial-researchers-model-likely-impact/