Poll of the Day > Russian Covid vaccine apparently 95% effective despite Western skepticism

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-vaccine-covid-19-coronavirus-chris-brown-1.5819331

"This is great news for Russia and great news for the world," gushed Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is pouring countless millions of Russian tax dollars into developing the vaccine it labelled early on as Sputnik V.
Whether the V stands for "five" or simply the letter "V" has never been fully explained, but either way the association is obvious: the original Sputnik satellite won Russia the space race more than 60 years ago, and this new Sputnik will make Russia first in this new race to defeat the pandemic.

Already, among the reputed "firsts" Russia is claiming: the first COVID vaccine in the world to be registered; the first vaccine anywhere to be announced as part of a national vaccination campaign; and trial results that rank it first in terms of effectiveness.
Not to be outdone, when Pfizer and BioNTech became the first Western vaccine maker to announce promising results, with 90 per cent efficacy, days later Sputnik V's makers said their vaccine was even better by two percentage points.
Some Western experts have felt the lack of transparency about the approval process, combined with a rush to get it registered even before trials started, damaged the vaccine's credibility from the outset.

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I totally trust Russian scientists.

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SunWuKung420 posted...

I totally trust Russian scientists.

I know this is sarcastic, but they did go to space first

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I have official statistics regarding this, but if I post them I'll just get suspended.

DDirtyDastard posted...

I have official statistics regarding this, but if I post them I'll just get suspended.

Calm down Zeus, ok?

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Hm..that's crazy high for not being an mRNA vaccine like Pfizer/Moderna

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Good. We want a good vaccine everywhere because fuck covid

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Weird flex question:

Suppose it was a shitty vaccine but otherwise mostly harmless - it does work, but only 50% of the time with no other side effects

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Would you still get it?

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Lokarin posted...

Weird flex question:

Suppose it was a shitty vaccine but otherwise mostly harmless - it does work, but only 50% of the time with no other side effects

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Would you still get it?

Flu shots are around that, it's still worth it yes. The more people who get it the better

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Lokarin posted...

Weird flex question:

Suppose it was a shitty vaccine but otherwise mostly harmless - it does work, but only 50% of the time with no other side effects

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Would you still get it?

there doesnt seem to be a downside so as long as it was safe to get that vaccine and then a more effective vaccine in the future Id get it

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These companies are so obviously full of shit and motivated by profit. They keep upping their percentage by one or two percent just to beat out the competition. They are making these numbers up

While I'm not sure how well it does or doesn't work, I'm absolutely positive that there's no amount of transparency that would get the West to concede that Russia did anything right because Westerners have been trying to push a second Cold War since the Obama administration.

Lokarin posted...

Weird flex question:

Suppose it was a shitty vaccine but otherwise mostly harmless - it does work, but only 50% of the time with no other side effects

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Would you still get it?

There'd be value in people having it, but I wouldn't personally bother. Even a 50% efficacy would go a long way in slowing the spread.

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OhhhJa posted...

These companies are so obviously full of shit and motivated by profit. They keep upping their percentage by one or two percent just to beat out the competition. They are making these numbers up

well as more and more testing is done, more and more numbers come in, which changes percentages

however the russian one is almost assuredly made up

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Zeus posted...

While I'm not sure how well it does or doesn't work, I'm absolutely positive that there's no amount of transparency that would get the West to concede that Russia did anything right because Westerners have been trying to push a second Cold War since the Obama administration.

Zeus has moved up from defending Russian puppets to defending Russia.
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As long as there is no awful side effects, great!

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GanonsSpirit posted...

Zeus has moved up from defending Russian puppets to defending Russia.

GanonsSpirit has moved up from buying into propaganda to promoting it. Trying to add ice cubes to the ol' cold war.

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I find that claim about as believable as Russia's supposed COVID-19 death count, ok?

Still behind UK and Germany.
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Jingoism itt

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I don't really care that the vaccine came from Russia. An effective vaccine is an effective vaccine. My skepticism comes not from a distrust of any particular country, but from a distrust of an industry that is desperate to get something out as quickly as possible (both for the obvious financial gain and for the less cynical benefit of mankind) and the potential dangers in cutting corners to get there. Both the Russian vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine have come out sooner than I would have expected, so I'm skeptical of both.

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adjl posted...

I don't really care that the vaccine came from Russia. An effective vaccine is an effective vaccine. My skepticism comes not from a distrust of any particular country, but from a distrust of an industry that is desperate to get something out as quickly as possible (both for the obvious financial gain and for the less cynical benefit of mankind) and the potential dangers in cutting corners to get there. Both the Russian vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine have come out sooner than I would have expected, so I'm skeptical of both.

Wow. Me and adjl actually agree on something. Amazing

deoxxys posted...

As long as there is no awful side effects, great!

There will always be awful side-effects when youre putting all kinds of unnatural poisons into your body.

adjl posted...

I don't really care that the vaccine came from Russia. An effective vaccine is an effective vaccine. My skepticism comes not from a distrust of any particular country, but from a distrust of an industry that is desperate to get something out as quickly as possible (both for the obvious financial gain and for the less cynical benefit of mankind) and the potential dangers in cutting corners to get there. Both the Russian vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine have come out sooner than I would have expected, so I'm skeptical of both.

Its super weird to me that you dont apply this thinking to all vaccines, and then continually attack people who do. The industry is the industry. If youre skeptical about them being after profits here, why do you think they would be any different with any other vaccine, drug etc.?

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Zeus posted...

While I'm not sure how well it does or doesn't work, I'm absolutely positive that there's no amount of transparency that would get the West to concede that Russia did anything right because Westerners have been trying to push a second Cold War since the Obama administration.

Dude they invaded Ukraine

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Blightzkrieg posted...

Dude they invaded Ukraine

Sounds like more of an EU problem than a US problem. Or should be at least

When Russia invades Ukraine, we should be trying to befriend Russia

When Hunter gets a job in Ukraine, we should be committing multiple crimes to frame him for some bullshit

Funny how that works

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Blightzkrieg posted...

When Russia invades Ukraine, we should be trying to befriend Russia

When Hunter gets a job in Ukraine, we should be committing multiple crimes to frame him for some bullshit

Funny how that works

the cop hater also hates the right, shocking
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well yeah, the right is full of dumbasses

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likehelly posted...

well yeah, the right is full of dumbasses

doesn't change the things bidens kid did
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well of course not, given that he didn't do anything lmao

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Krazy_Kirby posted...

the cop hater also hates the right, shocking

I hate nazis, cops are putting themselves in the line of fire

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Krazy_Kirby posted...

doesn't change the things bidens kid did

What does this even mean

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No reason not to trust Russia on this, I don't know why people get so tribalistic about the Russians.

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zebatov posted...

Its super weird to me that you dont apply this thinking to all vaccines, and then continually attack people who do. The industry is the industry. If youre skeptical about them being after profits here, why do you think they would be any different with any other vaccine, drug etc.?

Because I understand the vaccine development process well enough to know that this has come out months earlier than it would have had the process not been rushed. When the process hasn't been rushed and/or the vaccine has been out for long enough that data on side effects and the like are readily available, I'm less inclined to be skeptical because it's more possible for me to make an informed risk analysis and it's easier to trust that they did their due diligence in testing it before releasing it.

Yes, there's some amount of money on the line for every vaccine (though vaccines generally aren't big moneymakers for pharmaceutical companies, as much as people like to believe that they are), but this is very much not a typical situation. The entire global economy is depending on this vaccine (to say nothing of the lives that will be saved), which means everyone is scrambling to achieve the glory and profit that is on the line (even if there won't be that much immediate profit, whichever company cures Covid is basically set for PR for the next half-century). The stakes are much higher than they usually are, and certainly much higher than they have been at any point in the recent history of pharmaceutical research, and that's cause to be skeptical of anyone that looks at all like they might have cut corners.

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Judgmenl posted...

No reason not to trust Russia on this, I don't know why people get so tribalistic about the Russians.

Because russia never does anything sketchy

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Judgmenl posted...

No reason not to trust Russia on this, I don't know why people get so tribalistic about the Russians.

Russians, individually, are fine.

the Russian government, is not.

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A lot of the anti-Russia sentiment is rooted in latent Cold War paranoia, which is silly, but another lot of it is rooted in very concrete, questionable actions Russia has taken in recent years, which is pretty reasonable.

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Remember all those 3rd floor suicides this year by doctors who were speaking out on the Russian governments handling of the virus?

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I trust American multinational fortune 500 corporations about as much as the Russian government tbh. Maybe less