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13th October 2023, 07:47 PM | #1 |
Penultimate Amazing
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The Case For Rapid Malaria Vaccination
The WHO has approved a malaria vaccine for use in children. This is amazing news. Medical interventions that can cheaply treat the worst diseases, particularly those still affecting millions of people in the developing world, are probably the highest leverage acts for doing good in the world.
One criticism, from economist Alex Tabarrok, though, that I strongly agree with:
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13th October 2023, 08:34 PM | #2 |
Penguilicious Spodmaster.
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Is that attitude one of privilege?
Remember how long it took for the COVID-19 vaccines to reach many African countries compared to the US and UK, for example. Is it actually physically (and/or economically) possible to get vaccines distributed there soon? I would really hope they can distribute them ASAP, but I have doubts and think it's probably easier said than done. |
13th October 2023, 09:15 PM | #3 |
Penultimate Amazing
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I have two issues here. The first is simply that yes, the logistics of distributing vaccines in Africa are difficult and we should certainly expect the process to experience more delays than in the US for example. That's not an argument for not starting that process, though.
The second is simply that while the logistics may be more difficult than in developed countries, that doesn't mean that these problems can't be solved with urgency. I found this from the comments in the post referenced in the OP to be reasonable:
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"... when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together." Isaac Asimov |
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13th October 2023, 09:22 PM | #4 |
Penguilicious Spodmaster.
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I like point 5, about established delivery networks.
I'm not arguing delaying starting the process. I agree, start now. I'm just not sure what the WHO think they have to do between now and next year in order to start then. Produce the vaccines? Why not start with what they've got, and keep going? |
15th October 2023, 07:49 AM | #5 |
Penultimate Amazing
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Very interesting. I would hope that this gets implemented as soon as possible.
Some more info here, including effectiveness: https://www.who.int/news/item/02-10-...n-immunization
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15th October 2023, 08:17 AM | #6 |
Penultimate Amazing
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I hope they'll be able to design a vaccine against schistosomiasis, too.
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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15th October 2023, 09:49 AM | #7 |
Penultimate Amazing
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So... What's the hypothesis? The leadership at the WHO is too lazy to get started sooner? Too stupid? The leadership wants to start right away, but they've only just now discovered that their operations staff are too lazy or too stupid to get started right away, and they need a year of lead time to make the necessary attitude corrections further down the org chart?
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15th October 2023, 06:48 PM | #8 |
Penultimate Amazing
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I expect that they have systems for doing things that make sense in situations of less urgency. First you form a committee that makes a plan for how to begin the rollout of the vaccines, then that goes through some review process, etc. This probably makes sense in the general case. But in a situation of urgency where hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake and every day counts, those processes should be sped up and the process should be begun while at the same time beginning distribution.
This shouldn't be taken as a criticism of the WHO in general. It's amazing that we even have an organization that can facilitate the international distribution of this vaccine at all, and they should be applauded for their work. I'm only suggesting that Tabarrok is correct that this should be treated as an emergency situation, and as such distribution should be given extreme urgency. |
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"... when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together." Isaac Asimov |
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15th October 2023, 10:23 PM | #9 |
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Sorry, but only skimmed this thread and want to know what the reason is for not distributing faster. Maybe there is a reason but the person talking about it is merely stating that there is no reason they are aware of. That is not the same thing.
If we knew then it may be easier to either accept or to remedy the problem. |
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Слава Україні! **** Putin! |
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15th October 2023, 10:33 PM | #10 |
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The WHO contradicts the OP writer.
It's already being done.
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15th October 2023, 10:45 PM | #11 |
Penultimate Amazing
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Vaccinators aren't welcomed in many places:
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This no doubt contributed to making people think of "vaccinators as government spies":
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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16th October 2023, 03:02 AM | #12 |
Penultimate Amazing
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Thanks! That does seem to contradict what was claimed by Tabarrok, and seems like good news.
ETA: Though your link still says that they won't actually be administered until early 2024, which is in line with Tabarrok's criticism. Is that really the best that we can do? Would it not be possible for an organization that treats this as an emergency to get the vaccines delivered sooner? |
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"... when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together." Isaac Asimov |
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16th October 2023, 09:55 PM | #13 |
Penultimate Amazing
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They are talking about different vaccines.
The last paragraph:
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The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine has been distributed since 2019, but only 1.7 million doses have been administered so far, in 3 countries. The second vaccine, R21/Matrix-M (which is what Tabarrok was talking about) will be distributed starting next year. Also "next year" is less than 3 months away. The goal is to increase production to 40-60 million doses by 2026, increasing to 80-100 million doses by 2030. But, the FT story claims that Serum Institute of India (SII) says that they can already produce 100 million doses annually. If you take that at face value, then the bottleneck is no longer on the production side but on the distribution side. Presumably someone also needs to pay for them, although I read a figure of $2-$4 per dose. If so, it shouldn't be too hard to pay for that. At less than $1 billion for 100 million doses, compared to $12 billion and 1.3% slower GDP growth, which is one estimate of the economic burden of malaria in Africa alone. |
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