December 2, 2020

"Britain gave emergency authorization on Wednesday to Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, leaping ahead of the United States..."

"... to become the first Western country to allow mass inoculations.... Britain beating the United States to authorization — on a vaccine codeveloped by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, no less — may intensify pressure on U.S. regulators, who are already under fire from the White House for not moving faster to get doses to people. And it has stirred up a global debate about how to weigh the desperate need for a vaccine with the imperative of assuring people that it is safe. 'Help is on its way with this vaccine — and we can now say that with certainty, rather than with all the caveats,' the British health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Wednesday, as the government exulted in the authorization."

48 comments:

rhhardin said...

Britain waives the rules. (Falklands Islands headline)

RichAndSceptical said...

Leaping ahead by what, maybe a week or two? I say let the Brits be the first to test the vaccine.

BadFrog said...

@rhhardin, other headlines from that conflict were 'Gotcha', 'Stick it up your Junta' and 'Surrender by the Argies'.

wendybar said...

Because they don't have a media who is scaring the people half to death...and not wanting to take it because TRUMP!!!

Kevin said...

Yes but we’re the British reviewers sufficiently diverse?

stevew said...

If bureaucrats didn't operate bureaucratically, and slowly, then they would expose the fact that they serve no practical purpose. The regulations and rules that were muted or set aside were mainly procedural timelines. The US approval will take another few weeks why? Because that is the first date that everyone had free on the calendar?

Howard said...

Boris has bigger dick than Trump

Karen of Texas said...

Good on the Brits. Let them be the mass tested guinea pigs, the poor wankers.

Leland said...

I can wait. Not that I approve of the FDA nor think their regulations are very helpful. I simply have more faith in treatments that are improving to cure Covid patients than I do on a vaccine. Especially when all the smart people are trying to convince everyone the herd immunity doesn't work. If herd immunity isn't good enough, then effective treatment is the best bet. That said, after I can weigh the effect of the vaccine on large number of Londoners; I can decide whether to take it or not. Londoners make great guinea pigs.

John henry said...

Wait until people find out how "extremely painful" (bill gates) it is.

And they have to do it twice.

I don't remember any pain fro the 75 vaccinations I've had as a child and adult.

I plan to be the ten millionth person to get it, not the first.

I'm sure we will see "cases" drop and all sorts of news about how the trump shot is a miracle drug.

And I'd bet money that in January or February they drop the pcr cycles to 35 or even 30. Nobody will talk about that,though. And if they do, certainly not as the reason for cases dropping.

John Henry

gilbar said...

John Henry said....
January or February they drop the pcr cycles to 35 or even 30. Nobody will talk about that,though

well; it defeats the purpose of skewing results, if you talk about skewing the results

gilbar said...

of course, if you watched i zombie, you'd remember; that The Entire POINT of the pandemic, was to get the population to willingly take an unknown "vaccine"...
THAT TURNED THE POPULATION OF SEATTLE INTO MOTHERFUCKING ZOMBIES!!!

Wake UP sheepeople!

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Howard said...

The hole point of vaccine is to accelerate herd immunity without infecting half the nation. Also, the smorgasbord of mask distancing testing tracing hand washing is to mimic herd immunity until the vaccine comes on line. Asia was successful, the US and Europe failed.

What the elites said that herd immunity via rapid infection spread would be a disaster. However, if you still believe in natural herd immunity, move to North Dakota and hit the roughneck tittie bars.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Even the most hysterically scared Karens I know who refuse to live life unTiL tHerE'S a vAcCiNE!!!!! are counting on everyone ELSE taking the vaccine so they (the Karens) can leave their houses again. They can do this little Jedi mind trick on themselves where they can look at others and imagine the others have taken the vaccine and are not trying to kill them by you know, breathing.

Perhaps this will be a benefit of having Joe Biden in office, because if we still had Trump, the media would be constantly screaming about low vax rates and how we're all still gonna die every time someone has a baby shower or emits an unnice cough.

Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bunkypotatohead said...

Nothing works right the first time.
So let the brits try it out for awhile. The mayor of London can be the guinea pig.

Besides, the governor of the NYT, Cuomo, doesn't want his citizens to have it until a pres Biden can get credit for it.

lgv said...

"...desperate need for a vaccine"

Let's analyze this statement. If this need more political than medical? Are mortality rates so high we must assume the risk of unknown side effects?

This is a bad flu, but it is not spiking overall death rates. Texas has gone into full melt down mode because we are at 15% bed capacity. Yet, people aren't dying at a faster rate.

stevew said...

I'm telling everyone I know that I will get the vaccine as soon as it is available to me. Then when I'm out for a walk without a mask I can hold up a little sign for the approaching, mask wearing, sternly staring Karen that says I'm vaccinated against Covid. It will be delightful.

Leland said...

natural herd immunity

The qualifier is stupid. Either herd immunity works or does not. Putting a qualifier on the type of herd immunity only suggests a weakness in your argument. Except no argument is made. There is just same vague reference to North Dakota, which is doing much better than New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in terms of Covid deaths. A similar yet better argument would be "If you still believe in strict government enforcement in combatting covid, move to Pakistan where the covid death rate per million population is 37 (5 times better than the World average) or maybe Rwanda where it is 4."

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

No one will get the vaccine in this country until after January 20. There's no way the Deep State is going to pass up the opportunity to claim that Joe and Kamala saved America.

Michael K said...

Blogger NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
No one will get the vaccine in this country until after January 20. There's no way the Deep State is going to pass up the opportunity to claim that Joe and Kamala saved America.


Yup. And the FDA is in charge of slow rolling this.

Roger Sweeny said...

I want to see my grandkids who are 1,300 miles away. I'll get the vaccine as soon as I can and risk feeling like crap for two days (twice).

tcrosse said...

There's some controversy in the UK about who gets it first, as there certainly will be in the USA.

Joe Smith said...

Perfect.

Charge them double and let them be the guinea pigs.

Win-win.

BothSidesNow said...

Well, back in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the UK beat the US to the punch in approving thalidomide to treat morning sickness. (In fact, the stubborn bureaucrats in the US never did approve thalidomide for treating morning sickness.)

Greg The Class Traitor said...

@BothSidesNow back in the 80s the UK beat the US to approving some heart medications that saved 10k+ lives a year

Which means that in the first year where it was UK not US, more people died in the US than were affected by Thalidomide in the entire world.

The FDA is the Federal Death Agency. It is garbage. It has always been garbage

Greg The Class Traitor said...

John henry said...
I don't remember any pain fro the 75 vaccinations I've had as a child and adult.

Really? You never had a tetanus shot?

Howard said...

Yeah tcrosse, they'll probably fuck that up. The 15-55yo super spreader demographic should follow first responders, medical and food industry. Instead, they will be last.

Achilles said...

Greg The Class Traitor said...

John henry said...
I don't remember any pain fro the 75 vaccinations I've had as a child and adult.

Really? You never had a tetanus shot?

That has nothing on the anthrax series.

The smallpox shot is pretty ridiculous too.

And the 4ml booster they gave me in basic made my right leg barely functional for 3 days and I lost 10 pounds from the resulting illness.

Howard said...

EU cancelled UK vaccine release. Yippee we can talk BREXIT

gilbar said...

stevew said...
I'm telling everyone I know that I will get the vaccine as soon as it is available to me. Then when I'm out for a walk without a mask I can hold up a little sign for the approaching, mask wearing, sternly staring Karen that says I'm vaccinated against Covid. It will be delightful.


the doctor fucci guy has ALREADY said, 'even with the vaccine, have to wear masks til the day we die'

also, the head of a hospital chain in the Dakotas announce that he'd had (and recovered from) covid; and thus WOULD NOT be wearing a mask... They FIRED HIM

Joe Smith said...

"Really? You never had a tetanus shot?"

Me and my wife both had tetanus shots at the same time a couple of years ago.

We both felt like absolute garbage for a full week.

Worse than having the flu except for no vomiting.

I think lockjaw would be preferable...

Tomcc said...

I didn't realize there was a contest!
Something I've learned, on more than one occasion, is that proceeding in panic usually yields a bad result. Our media has focused on turning a bad situation into an existential, biblical-scale, crisis. What is it about human nature that we are so attracted to the excitement of impending disaster?
My own suspicion is that by the time the vaccines are widely available, we'll have reached herd immunity. And President Harris will be credited with VC (Victory over Coronovirus).

It does seem fitting in a year in which we overcount COVID cases we also overcount votes for the Democratic presidential nominee. Symmetry!

Headofberries said...

The plan is to give it to elderly nursing home residents (the most at risk) first, along with essential workers (less risk, but lots of exposure). If granny wasn't killed off by the virus, the vaccine may just do it, given the reports of side effects. That should play well.

mandrewa said...

"Because they don't have a media who is scaring the people half to death...and not wanting to take it because TRUMP!!!"

But actually the UK very much does have a media and governments that have been scaring people half to death.

The UK economy resembles that of New York and California, not in an absolute sense, but in the relative sense of how much it has fallen.

The UK is in an economic numbers much worse off than the United States.

This is something people don't give Trump enough credit for. We are doing, and this can mostly be credited to the Republican states, much, much better economically than Europe is doing.

tcrosse said...

If the vaccine is stored at cryogenic temperatures, I hope they warm it up a bit before injecting it.

John henry said...

Blogger Greg The Class Traitor said...

John henry said...
I don't remember any pain fro the 75 vaccinations I've had as a child and adult.

Really? You never had a tetanus shot?



I don't specifically know but I assume that if it was required for school I did as a kid. I assume it was in the shots I got in the Navy but there were a dozen or so a week for 4-5 weeks and I don't know specifically what ones I got.

Getting poked with needles is no fun as a kid or an adult but I don't remember any specific pain from any of the shots.

Is a tetanus shot a vaccination? I thought it was just when you stepped on a rusty nail or might otherwise have tetanus.

John Henry

John henry said...


Blogger gilbar said...

John Henry said....
January or February they drop the pcr cycles to 35 or even 30. Nobody will talk about that,though

well; it defeats the purpose of skewing results, if you talk about skewing the results


If my crazy theory is right, they skew the results high now, before the Trump Shot is available. Lots of reasons to do this as I've discussed in vvarious comments over the past months.

Then, skew the results low (or maybe just make them accurate) and it looks like the Trump Shot really works. "Look! We can see the number of "cases" declining. It must be due to the vaccine"

Why would they stop fucking with the data now?

John Henry

John henry said...


Blogger BothSidesNow said...

Well, back in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the UK beat the US to the punch in approving thalidomide to treat morning sickness. (In fact, the stubborn bureaucrats in the US never did approve thalidomide for treating morning sickness.)



Actually they did approve it. It passed all testing and documentation for certification and was 1-2 signatures away from being allowed on market. The FDA's bureaucratic slowness is all that saved us. Noting in the review and approval process.

John Henry

Greg The Class Traitor said...

John henry said...
Is a tetanus shot a vaccination? I thought it was just when you stepped on a rusty nail or might otherwise have tetanus.

It's a vaccination, good for, IIRC, 10 years.

It's a fast acting one, which is why they ask you any time you might have been exposed, if your last shot was within the time limit

Bob Loblaw said...

People waiting with bated breath for a vaccination should relax a bit. Even if there are not unanticipated problems, they don't have the capacity to produce billions of doses in a day. The government is saying everybody who wants to be vaccinated will be vaccinated... by June.

Whiskeybum said...

Wonder if anyone is thinking ahead about what the 'rules' will be once vaccinations are in full swing. Is a vaccinated person going to be required to wear a mask in public? Quarantine for 14 days if they come in contact with a COVID case? Can they go into their office for work if needed?

It's gonna be another complete dumpster fire when it's realized that these decisions have again been left up to politicians at the last minute.

Jim at said...

Boris has bigger dick than Trump

You would know.

Anonymous said...

Pathetic and sad. Which is standard for the NYT.

"Here's a brand new thing we could inject into millions of people. Is it safe?"


BRITAIN: "Yes for God's sake let's get on with it."

USA: "I think we should probably do some testing first."

NYT: "Britain has WON the race to approve the procedure!! The USA is humiliated!!!!"

MadisonMan said...

The other day I noticed a guy, maskless, walking on my street carrying a big bag (50 pounds?) of dog food. In front of him, about a house in front lengthwise, was a woman with a mask walking a dog. She was yelling at the guy for not wearing a mask. These were the only two people (besides me, on the other side of the street) on the entire long block.
People are weird.

DEEBEE said...

Brits obviously did not have any electoral impediments in their way.

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