LizzyBee23

I understand the sentiment, but as someone who has money wrapped up in FCC for a family cruise where children were definitely planned to be onboard, Royal better have a plan to refund that to us and everyone in our party who will no longer be travelling due to a restriction of this type. The FDA won't be in any rush to approve a vaccine for children since they are the one demographic where the broadly inaccurate and now gauche sentiment of "the flu is worse" is actually true. The fact that children don't seem to be as susceptible to severe forms of the disease is the reason a few pediatri

That would do a number on existing reservations (including ours), for sure. There's no way a covid vaccine will be available for kids until mid-to-late 2022 (our kids are up to date on everything else, and we are ardent flu-vaccinators). Could be that's part of the plan, though. Would certainly be one way to reduce capacity.

And potentially more coming... J&J isn't far behind. Honestly, not unexpected for one of the front-runners to stumble.

I don't think they have enough data to power the 50%/100% dosing and get an EUA. As for the rest, for all of its faults, this is what pharma successfully sells as the beauty of American pharmaceuticals: the ability to pour vast sums of money into new products (even though most of what they turn out isn't new, persay). I don't buy that this is the only way for things to be done, and the travesty with insulin prices should have every American banging on doors (not to mention other drugs). Just pointing out this isn't going to help make the case for more altruistic drug pricing, and we're going t

IMO, there's almost no chance the AZ/Oxford vaccine will be approved in the US... It's also not as conventional as you might think (I believe it's the first of its kind with respect to using an adenovirus vector). The efficacy is too low relative to its competitors, they didn't bother meeting the FDA's guidelines wrt secondary endpoints or inclusion criteria, and they had two serious adverse events (both related to the nervous system, which though uncommon, is not unheard of with adenoviruses you catch in the wild).

I think it would be an interesting experience to see the inner workings of a ship laid a bit more bare than when you're on a normal cruise, and I'm in the Pfizer vaccine trial so if I get infected at least it would be useful.

Even under the best circumstances, (IE PCR after one of the brain scratching swabs) testing in the early part of the disease is not conclusive. That's why frequent testing combined with rigorous contact tracing is a must.

If the expectation is no coronavirus on board, then we are doomed for failure. If the expectation is rapid detection and mitigation, then I'm not sure I see a problem in the context of adequate social distancing and contact tracing on board.

BioNTech and Pfizer are working on getting the temp down (or rather up). My understanding is that they chose a temp they knew would work, and are working higher storage temps in tandem with other things.

It might not be a slam dunk (it could still be), but it's definitely points on the board. In all likelihood, it is higher than 90% effacious and we were given a lower limit due to the power of the analysis at n=94 cases. It is possible that out of all of those cases, none were in the group that received the vaccine and the correct read-out would still be "greater than 90%" and not the "apparent 100%" that you might think. What is standing out to me is that 94 is much higher than the original 32 that we were told would be the benchmark for the first interim analysis. When I researched why

It's been that way for at least a few months for me (also in NA).

Hey, if we're auditioning: It's not too far of a drive, and there's a 50/50 chance I've already been vaccinated... Alternatively, if I got the placebo and end up sick, well, that means Pfizer is one "event" closer to analyzing their data for efficacy. I see it as win-win, so pick me!!

Hey, thanks Matt! You're the best. If I was better about searching, I could have saved the forum space.

Hi all, we still have our April cruise on the books in 2021. We sat down and made criteria to so we could dispassionately judge whether or not to get on the ship when the time came. I'm about 80% sure our criteria will be met, but was wondering if L/S is even still an option. We're not so sure that we'd be able to go in April 2022, and May itineraries aren't out yet. I've seen some conflicting info about when L/S is ending (it looks like it may have already done so... I can't get to the RC website any more, but it was always kind of derpy so that may be me).

I think you're right... One of the articles I read with this analysis was pointing out that the calculus is very personal. Quoted someone as saying "no pleasure in life is worth giving up for two more years in geriatric care".