https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/...shortfall/
More details here. It does seem to be the case that they are holding shots in reserve for 2nd doses and not giving everything at hand as a first dose.
I am curious how the raw material shortage problems are being fixed; the two leading candidates are very similar to each other, as well as being novel. To my eye this would seem to be a potential problem as there may not be a robust supply chain for these raw materials in existence, and if both companies are drawing from the same well, makes that even worse.
Can they scale the production as rapidly as they have promised? They are talking about supply chain problems now and they are producing at a miniscule level compared to their predictions for a month from now.
In any case, let's hope the modified nucleotide and lipid vaccine encasement supply chain is more robust than that for nitrile gloves. Several sizes nearly out now, staff advised to try and fit into mediums last week. Maybe OWS bought them all but I doubt it.
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On a more hopeful note, this article on the science behind the mRNA vaccines is very good.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/20...enger-rna/
Basic science research over decades has accumulated the building blocks to make this all possible. When I was in medical school I did some lab research with RNAi, a different sort of RNA therapeutic than the mRNA vaccine tech, in treatment of head and neck cancer. Didn't really work out too well (an experience that made me lament the shitty facilities and support at USC compared to Stanford). A lot of the difficulty was transporting the RNAi safely into the cells because of how fragile RNA is. Basically every lab surface is potentially crawling with RNAse begging to degrade your therapeutics, and the cells themselves are trying to as well. The lipofection process of getting the therapeutic into the cells (similar to how the mRNA vaccines work, transported in lipid vectors) is not simple either, even in a controlled lab setting. This is why the mRNA vaccines require the freezers other vaccines don't, to slow any enzymatic degradation, but even so making them as stable as they are is a great feat, especially Moderna's.
I imagine a lot of the advances made for these vaccines could in turn spur new advances in a lot of other clinical applications. Let's hope it works as safely and effectively in the real world as the clinical trials have indicated thus far.
More details here. It does seem to be the case that they are holding shots in reserve for 2nd doses and not giving everything at hand as a first dose.
Quote:Operation Warp Speed officials said that, within 24 hours of the Pfizer vaccine winning clearance, the government would begin releasing 6.4 million doses, in two stages: enough for the first shot, followed three weeks later by enough for the second shot. Once the Moderna vaccine is authorized, perhaps a week after Pfizer’s, 12.5 million doses would begin to be released, under a similar schedule.
I am curious how the raw material shortage problems are being fixed; the two leading candidates are very similar to each other, as well as being novel. To my eye this would seem to be a potential problem as there may not be a robust supply chain for these raw materials in existence, and if both companies are drawing from the same well, makes that even worse.
Can they scale the production as rapidly as they have promised? They are talking about supply chain problems now and they are producing at a miniscule level compared to their predictions for a month from now.
In any case, let's hope the modified nucleotide and lipid vaccine encasement supply chain is more robust than that for nitrile gloves. Several sizes nearly out now, staff advised to try and fit into mediums last week. Maybe OWS bought them all but I doubt it.
‐------
On a more hopeful note, this article on the science behind the mRNA vaccines is very good.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/20...enger-rna/
Basic science research over decades has accumulated the building blocks to make this all possible. When I was in medical school I did some lab research with RNAi, a different sort of RNA therapeutic than the mRNA vaccine tech, in treatment of head and neck cancer. Didn't really work out too well (an experience that made me lament the shitty facilities and support at USC compared to Stanford). A lot of the difficulty was transporting the RNAi safely into the cells because of how fragile RNA is. Basically every lab surface is potentially crawling with RNAse begging to degrade your therapeutics, and the cells themselves are trying to as well. The lipofection process of getting the therapeutic into the cells (similar to how the mRNA vaccines work, transported in lipid vectors) is not simple either, even in a controlled lab setting. This is why the mRNA vaccines require the freezers other vaccines don't, to slow any enzymatic degradation, but even so making them as stable as they are is a great feat, especially Moderna's.
I imagine a lot of the advances made for these vaccines could in turn spur new advances in a lot of other clinical applications. Let's hope it works as safely and effectively in the real world as the clinical trials have indicated thus far.