Jeepers. They’re still burning $50+ million a day.

Good article. Possibly partially written by an actual human. Especially liked the part about even if a vaccine is developed, it won’t be delivered overnight. Could take 12-18 months for wide distribution, then there’s the matter of Proof Of Vax among 50 states and 190 countries.

Going to be a long winter.

i thought I saw a few vaccine companies who were in phase 3 testing were already ramping up production so if it passes phase 3 the vaccine would be available immediately

I didn’t even bother reading that article because they’re often click bait and rarely rooted in fact. Straight from Q2 earnings recap on July 23.

“We have taken significant steps to reduce our costs and bolster our liquidity. We have removed more than $15 billion from our operating and capital budgets this year. As a result, our daily cash burn rate declined from nearly $100 million in April to roughly $30 million in June. We will keep working to bring down this number.“

“Available immediately,” doesn’t translate into production, distribution, and administration, etc. The supply chain for the small glass vials is an issue, as is the serum’s efficacy itself.

While I hope that the world can come together to combat this virus, it’ll be a grind to get the majority of our population inoculated.


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The article said average was $55M/day but you’re right, they exiting Q2 at $30M/day. It also erroneously said UAL was down to $25M/day at the end of Q2 when that was a forecast of where they would be in Q3.

So, typical infinitely shallow internet reporting. I should know better than this.

As to the vaccine: Beats me how quickly they can ramp up production. A line about the Moderna vaccine here:

"The company remains on track to be able to deliver approximately 500 million doses per year, and possibly up to 1 billion doses per year, beginning in 2021," Moderna said.

Approximately. Possibly. Beginning (next year). - Then halve those numbers for that vaccine: it currently requires 2 doses to start with, and no one knows how long the vaccine will last before an additional booster will be needed.

It's a rush job, and there's every reason to believe that the FDA will shield pharma from liability because it's an emergency. Which means plenty of people in the US won't take it for all sorts of reasons (some good, some bad). Then there's the distribution angle, as well.

I want this thing to end ASAP. But I'm a bit flabbergasted we're several months into this and I can't find N95 masks being sold everywhere for 10 cents apiece by now. Actually can't find them anywhere. (!) I'm not expecting much more from a rush vaccine job.

Operation Warp speed is suppose to have multiple versions of a vaccine available to 300 million Americans the day they are approved - supposedly before the end of the year. Why spend a few million on N95 masks that are proven to work when you can spend multiple billions on an unknown vaccine? I think the lesson from this whole debacle is government at all levels is a complete failure. The blame goes to both parties starting at a local level and going all the way to the top. How can anyone even trust a government sponsored and approved vaccine at this point?

You're taking a big leap there. The gubbmint is just funding it anyhow, private industry is making the vaccine. Don't conflate the teamwork.

Multiple versions, I fear, will add a lot more to the noise than they will to the signal.

https://youtu.be/r8UP0Squ3pc

Great discussion with one of the top vaccine doctors about warp speed. Basically the pharma companies are being paid by the government to full scale produce vaccines while running Phase 3 trials. Phase 3 trials should be completed around the spring if done right, possibly by years end.

Phase 2 was skipped but that phase is gererally to mitigate financial risk to the drug companies.