Mastodawn

Pfizer just announced that its Lyme disease vaccine reduced the number of tick-borne infections by over 70% in a phase 3 trial.

Warning: GSK pulled a Lyme vaccine in 2002 despite studies showing it posed no serious safety risks.

Any new Lyme vaccine is going to be a huge target for antivaxxers.

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Chris Laprun ⏚5h ago

@luckytran isn’t 70%+ rather low in term of efficacy?
Obviously better than nothing and I would most likely get vaccinated when/if it becomes available but less than 90% efficacy doesn’t really provide full peace of mind…
That said, I have no idea what’s the efficacy of the other vaccines I’m currently vaccinated with. 🤷

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Koen Hufkens, PhD

@metacosm @luckytran Swiss cheese model of security. Decrease the chance of contraction on various levels and your overall infection risk will be lower. Mostly you use sprays and physical barriers to do this, this gives you an option should you still get bitten - i.e. anything helps and there is no downside.

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Chris Laprun ⏚4h ago

@koen_hufkens @luckytran yes but I already use all I can and I've been bitten several times already, even once where suspected infection occurred (spending the end of year holidays on heavy doses of antibiotics was *not* fun!)… so sure, this reduces the chances but it still isn't peace of mind to not have to worry for a couple of weeks after being bitten… because chances are already pretty low if you do things right but it doesn't prevent worrying, which is what I'm after. 😅

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Koen Hufkens, PhD 3h ago

@metacosm @luckytran There are no vaccines against worrying I'm afraid.

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Chris Laprun ⏚2h ago

@koen_hufkens @luckytran for sure! 😅
But vaccines that have greater efficacy help on that front… I guess what I’m after is a vaccine that would all but guarantee that you wouldn’t get infected when bitten, so something like 95+% efficacy.