Slogans are for people who need to be told what to think.
I have a feeling that I have been mostly a critic of various pseudo-scientific conclusions out there, so I decided to report - for a change - on something positive, about how science should work.
Recently, European Medicines Agency (EMA) updated storage conditions for BioNTech/Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The previous, approved storage period of the unopened thawed vial at 2-8°C (i.e. in a normal fridge after taking out of deep-freeze conditions) was five days, and now, the new storage date is up-to 31 days (see below). Considering this is so-called microemulsion-system vaccine - which normally has a stability issues on higher temperatures or at least, the long-term stability is hard to achieve - this is a good news. Why? Well, it provides more options for delivery, re-distribution, and storage once it reaches it's destination. For example, if there was a clinic that had issues providing an adequate storage (-80C), now that same clinic can store the vaccines up-to-31 days at 2-8C, which provides them sufficient time to perform vaccinations from the day of delivery - a whole month.
Now, how is possible that now we have 31 day while before we had only 5 days? Well, simply, before, manufacturer had only sufficient evidence of stability for those 5 days, so EMA acted accordingly - despite what everyone "ideally" wanted, and that "ideally" is a vaccine with the longer stability. (If anyone is curious why did take manufacturer so long, hit me in the comments.) Now, the old evidence is updated with new data, and so are the stability conclusions and recommendations: from 5 to 31 days.
And that is how science should work. Despite "the best wishes", we should stick with available evidence and update conclusions when new evidence is available. (Do not confuse this with now-already notorious Fauci-U-turns mostly based on no or dubious evidence).
Simply, evidence gets updated, conclusions get updated.
Of late, I find it remarkably important to explain people that there is nothing wrong with a scientist who changes his/her stance on particular issue in the light of new evidence. This is how science should work. However, I have no excuses for "science followers" who reject to apply this scientific principle - even when advised by CDC to update their "conclusions" 😉
https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/more-flexible-storage-conditions-biontechpfizers-covid-19-vaccine
This was a very late recording contrasting two news articles about Omicron - so called "Covid super-strain".
I know I haven't been around lately...work...life...However, the 12-years-old clip popped into my feed and I wanted to share it. The reason? This clip provides the great basic understanding into what are the issues with so-called "evidence" related to anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change and the lack of logic when it comes to the interpretation of such evidence. The sad reality is that even after 12 years from this clip, we are still forced to endure nonsensical conclusions that hurricanes hitting Florida are caused by big bad climate change.
The mainstream media is doubling down on the alarmism, and it is not hard to guess why. However, to be fair, consider my little observation an educated guess, an opinion, rather than the fact. Time will show whether I am right.
(1) 'Climate change affects everyone': Europe battles wildfires in intense heat by Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/spain-portugal-battle-wildfires-heatwaves-scorch-southern-europe-2022-07-17/)
If you spent time in Southern Europe, Mediterranean, during summer season - July and August in particular - you probably know that heat-induced wildfires are nothing new. In fact, they are quite common and remarkably devastating for the affected communities, and I have witnessed several in person. Most of the time, the wildfires occur due to heat igniting grasses, especially in the areas where there are broken glass or broken bottles. The glass serves as an amplifier for the sun rays, especially, in the vicinity of dry grasses, or even dry pine needles, and as ...
