An issue that I basically never see come up is - why not administer the vaccine earlier on (pre-approval) to the most vulnerable? if P(death|vaccine) < P(death|covid) then it seems really barbaric not to give it. Many dead people now could be alive had that been done (and mRNA candidates were apparently available extremely early on).
The Oxford vaccine is a more classical one so wasn't available quite as early, but apparently the mRNA ones were developed in a very short space of time (weeks - months) and future development could cut that even further (and preemptive vaccines for potential pandemic-causing viruses could be kept in stock) - perhaps introducing a Bayesian triage pre-approval could be an important strategy in fighting viruses in the future?
In any case this and the mRNA vaccines are really tremendous achievements and somewhat restores my faith in humanity after a terrible year...
The Oxford vaccine is a more classical one so wasn't available quite as early, but apparently the mRNA ones were developed in a very short space of time (weeks - months) and future development could cut that even further (and preemptive vaccines for potential pandemic-causing viruses could be kept in stock) - perhaps introducing a Bayesian triage pre-approval could be an important strategy in fighting viruses in the future?
In any case this and the mRNA vaccines are really tremendous achievements and somewhat restores my faith in humanity after a terrible year...