I'm genuinely not sure how to respond to this troll job. I feel obligated to say that I've never said anything homophobic here, nor do I have any issue with the LGBTQ+ community and have been an ally.

I just want that on the record so that if my identity here out, I'm on the record standing up against your libel job.

Can someone explain/describe what is a +?

this is a homophobic post imo. Have you never changed in a mens locker room?

So by saying I don't wanna see a guy naked I all of a sudden hate gay people? Please just stop. This is very low, and I'm shocked this is even going on.

I have no issues ****ing around and messing with each other. BIgSkip and I go back and forth all the time, but neither of us have said something so damning to each other.

I would never accuse you of hating a group of people for no reason.

And yes, I've changed in a locker room.

Plus is for missing letters. Like I for intersex or A for ace* people

No clue what ace people are.

Jesus...what happened here?

This week in misleading statistics. I have a lot of data that shows I have better results when drinking at the table. And a near perfect correlation of getting sick in years I got a flu shot.

Some libel, some defense, and a lot of silliness

That's good to hear, but I am not so sure.

From the little I ve read, the problem with developing a vaccine is the clinical trials. Basically, you can have a vaccine that's effective, but you don't know what the side-effects are. To make sure, you need a large sample of people to try the vaccine and then monitor to see whether they experience any adverse effects. Not sure how you speed this process up.

Beyond this, as was mentioned, the fact that this can mutate and we haven't developed a vaccine for a corona virus before (granted no incentive before now) and my darkest moments, I am afraid this is going to last for a couple of year.

I ll be happy to be proven wrong.

In related news, I am pretty introverted and pretty used to being by myself, but I find myself suffering from cabin fever.

Almost a 5 some.

Not knowing what ace people are is not hateful. It's just ignorant.

I thought it was a foregone conclusion that a vaccine will be developed... i.e. it was less about if then when?

Yikes, wouldn’t near 100% effectively guarantee over 1,000,000 deaths?

OK, stop the derails. Seriously, this is getting extremely annoying.

As far as vaccines that are effective in the lab and in animal trials, there have already been multiple successful candidates that are already in human trials. The chances of all of the candidates failing are pretty low. Still, it'll be several months for the human testing and then the successful vaccines need to be produced and shipped out. One or two of the companies are already in production, gambling that the trials will succeed and they won't have to trow out a couple million doses.

There is one way to speed up human trials, which is something called "challenge testing," but since it's more dangerous for the volunteers, I don't think anyone's going down that road yet.

In traditional trials, you give the vaccine to one group, a placebo to a control group, and then gather stats on how many in each group get the disease and/or any side effects. This requires large and long trials to be able to figure out statistically how many of your subjects were exposed but saved from infection by the vaccine. Challenge testing is faster, but more dangerous for the subjects, because they actually intentionally expose the subjects to the virus and see if the vaccine saves them. This saves all sorts of time, but you still have to wait to see if there are bad side effects, etc.

Bottom line: we are very likely indeed to have multiple successful vaccines, but it won't be before fall at the earliest, and many of the studies wrap in early 2021. Even then, it won't be instant. The vaccines will roll out over several months, with the first batches likely going to health-care workers, then high-risk folks, and finally to the rest of us.

Do you really think (politard warning incoming) that in the current political climate, FDA and other regulatory/research bodies won't embrace human challenge trials if the opportunity arises?


I'd say 70% likelihood we'll see an HCT if a candidate vaccine is available before October 1.

I think it’s basically a lock if a candidate is available. Timing is everything in life, right?

It's quite possible. I know there's an organization out there collecting volunteers already. The thing is, we've got multiple vaccines in phase 3 trials already, and those are the ones that a challenge trial would usually replace, so clearly at least some of the developers are not comfortable with that route.

OK, some of you think it's funny to work people up ITT, and others of you seem to think that this thread is for discussing anything about society. Stop it!

Particularly: squidface, DreamCrusher and DMW, stop bringing up non COVID issues ITT, stop trying to get a reaction out of people, and absolutely don't use offensive or sly "almost offensive" terms to refer to groups of people.

67o and Ranma, stop responding to things unrelated to COVID ITT. If you think something is inappropriate, hit the report button.

If I didn't call you out by name, that doesn't mean you're fine, it just means that you're not getting close to a time out. Take the Politics and Society discussions to that forum.

Are you talking worldwide or just USA#1? We're already halfway there worldwide so that certainly doesn't seem unreasonable.

Again, I'm not a pandemic historian by any means, but the Hong Kong Flu pandemic of 1968 seems very similar to this pandemic in many ways (especially regarding the elderly making up the bulk of the casualties) and it's estimated to have taken between 1 million - 4 million.

GcluelesscasualtiesnoobG

I did and nothing was done

Amazingly, the mods here are volunteers and not on 2+2 24 hours a day. You're not going to get instant results, and you won't always agree with the results that you do get. These factors do not clear you to post inappropriately yourself.

The report button sends an email to the mods. I personally don't check that email as often as I read 2+2, so if you want to get to me personally (as opposed to the whole mod team) faster, you can supplement your post report with a cc'd PM. I'm still not going to see it instantly and I still might not agree, but it will often get my eyes on the offending post more quickly. That doesn't clear you to respond in thread, of course.

Mods are volunteers and don't have "shifts." If you read above, you'll see Garick has been very involved. Just because the actions were not what you wanted doesn't mean nothing was done.

Thank you for the info

Challenge tests sound great as long as you aren't involved. The Lancet has a good article on the ethical and physical challenges. The authors are in in favor, despite the risks.

Aaannnnnd here's Phase 3.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/u...l-houston.html