The big news yesterday on the Coronavirus front was Moderna’s announcement of a successful phase one vaccine test.
The company has said that it is proceeding on an accelerated timetable, with a second phase of tests involving 600 people to begin soon, and a third phase to begin in July involving thousands of healthy people. The Food and Drug Administration gave Moderna the go-ahead this month for the second phase.
NYTimes.com
It strikes me that baseball might provide a very good sample of people for phase three. Serum testing already showed that few players and employees of MLB show exposure to the virus. By vaccinating the players in July, the chance of losing the post-season to second wave of SARS-CoV-2, as with the players likely immune, they could play to the TV cameras, which is where the money lies.
I propose that MLB and the MLBPA try to buy into phase three. For example, MLB could provide $100 million dollars (the payroll of a low end team), which could be used to scale up manufacturing if the vaccine works, and/or buy any eventual vaccine for the population at large.
One of the sticking points on restarting the season right now is the potential for losing the post-season. Another is protecting the health of the players. This proposal would greatly lower the possibility of losing the post-season, could make the players immune to the virus, and has the added benefit of generating goodwill with the public. I hope both side consider this.
Using players as guinea pigs? The worlds gone insane.
Moderna is using a new mRNA vaccine that changes your DNA. Its never been used in any human. Nanoparticles are used in the vaccine as an adjuvant. Also never tested. Moderna has never produced a single vaccine that was approved
The Moderna Phase I trial is not yet complete and released no data. They have 0 liability. The head of Trumps Operation Warp Speed worked for Modernas Vaccine Program and owns 10 million in stock. Ya think there might be a conflict of interest?
CDC own data show very few fatalities in under age 35 due to Covid. Players will likely just be asymptomatic or have mild flu symptoms. Many might have bern infected by those who are asymptomatic are less likely to sero-convert and produce antibodies and are naturally immune since they have very effective innate immune systems which is the first line of defense. So no way to tell how many have been exposed.
I would say a Phase 3 trial (haven’t done phase 2 yet) should focus more on how it works for the most vulnerable. Those who are elderly and have other diseases and not so much on healthy male athletes. Using young athletes representing less than 1% of the population to test a vaccine is not representative of the population that will be vaccinated and is bad science.
I agree with your point about young players not getting that sick, but these young players seem (in the press) to be quite fearful of the disease. Also, it would not be just the players, but everyone involved in the games, so all ages would be vaccinated (the same group that had the anti-body test).
Somebody needs to volunteer for some vaccine test, why not people who stand to make a lot of money from the protection? That’s why I say let the markets work, and let baseball pay it’s way in.
Also, I think this is a really clever way of trying to fight a virus. Let the body make the antigen! mRNA is unlikely to change a person’s DNA, since it tends to transport out of the nucleus not inwards. We’ll see if it works.