Chinese vaccine candidate 'safe', US expects two vaccines in Nov Chinese vaccine candidate 'safe', US expects two vaccines in Nov News Report
A breakneck race for finalizing the
preparation of vaccines by countries and
multinationals was highlighted with latest
news that a Chinese one proved safe and
effective while the US was expecting two
finished ones by end of November.
A Chinese COVID-19 vaccine candidate
based on the inactivated whole SARS-CoV-2
virus is safe and elicits an antibody
response, according to the findings from a
small early-phase randomised clinical
trial published Thursday in The Lancet
Infectious Diseases journal, a Xinhua
report from London said Saturday.
The latest study included participants
aged between 18 and 80 years, and
found that antibody responses were induced
in all recipients. Participants
aged 60 and older were slower to respond,
taking 42 days before antibodies
were detected in all recipients compared
with 28 days for participants aged
18-59.
The trial was not designed to assess
efficacy of the vaccine, so it is not
possible to say whether the antibody
responses induced by the vaccine, called
BBIBP-CorV, are sufficient to protect
people from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The authors also noted that interpretation
of the results of this study is
limited by the short duration of follow-
up.
According to The Lancet, there are
currently 42 vaccines for COVID-19 in
clinical trials. Vaccine candidates in
clinical trials vary in type and
include DNA plasmid vaccines, inactivated
virus vaccines, adenovirus-vectored
vaccines, RNA vaccines, protein subunit
vaccines and virus-like particle
vaccines. Some of these have already
proved safe and able to elicit immune
responses in early-phase clinical trials.
“Our findings indicate that a booster shot
is necessary to achieve the
greatest antibody responses against SARS-
CoV-2 and could be important for
protection. This provides useful
information for a phase-3 trial,” said
Yang
Xiaoming, one of the authors of the study
and a professor from the Beijing
Institute of Biological Products.
An AFP report from Washington said on the
day that two American companies expect to
apply for emergency approval for their
Covid-19 vaccines by late November,
welcome news as the US crossed eight
million confirmed cases amid a third surge
of its coronavirus epidemic.
Pfizer said Friday it hopes to move ahead
with its vaccine after safety data are
available in the third week of November,
weeks after the November 3 presidential
election.
The announcement means the United States
could have two vaccines ready by the end
of the year, with Massachusetts biotech
firm Moderna aiming for November 25 to
seek authorization.
“So let me be clear, assuming positive
data, Pfizer will apply for Emergency
Authorization Use in the US soon after the
safety milestone is achieved in the third
week of November,” the company’s chairman
and CEO, Albert Bourla, said in an open
letter. The news lifted the company’s
shares two percent in the US.
But experts warn that even when vaccines
are approved, it will take many months
until they are widely available.
And unlike vaccines against other
diseases such as measles, experts believe
Covid-19 vaccines, when they come, will
fall far short of being 100 percent
effective.
Indoor gatherings in colder weather –
After falling numbers throughout the
summer, the country hit an inflection
point in its coronavirus outbreak around
the second week of September — with a new
daily case average of more than 50,000
according to the latest figures, and the
trajectory is upward.
The US is the worst-hit country in the
world with more than eight million cases
and 218,000 deaths, according to a Johns
Hopkins University tracker.
The US never came close to returning to
its baseline after its first wave in
spring, meaning the current spike can be
more accurately termed a third surge.
Geographically, the major hotspots are in
the Upper Midwest and parts of the Rocky
Mountains in the west, while parts of the
Northeast that were the first to be hit
hard are seeing their outbreaks
rekindling.
Harvard surgeon and health-policy
researcher Thomas Tsai told AFP there were
multiple factors behind the rising cases —
from under- testing in the Midwest to
authorities failing to monitor the
reopening of bars and restaurants and
dialing back when necessary.
What’s more, “from the contact-tracing
reports from various municipalities and
states, the worry is that the spread is
driven now, by indoor social gatherings in
people’s homes,” he added, as the focus of
social life shifts from public to private
spaces in the colder weather.
One bright sign is that Covid-19
treatments have improved markedly, and
since the cases are more spread out than
before, hospitals aren’t being
overwhelmed.
Widespread mask use might also mean that
when people do get infected, they have
less virus in their body which makes them
less sick.‘
No magic bullet’ –
While vaccines are a crucial tool against
the virus, experts have warned they can’t
be a substitute for behavioral measures
like masks and social distancing to curb
transmission.
“It’s welcome news that there will be one
more thing that can help prevent Covid
transmission,” said Priya Sampathkumar, an
infectious disease doctor and professor at
Mayo Clinic.
“But I think we need to be cautious and
understand that a vaccine isn’t a magic
bullet,” she added.
Pfizer and Moderna, both funded by the US
government, launched Phase 3 of their
clinical trials at the end of July, and
both were producing their doses at the
same time.
They aim to deliver tens of millions of
doses in the US by the end of the year.
Both are “mRNA vaccines,” an experimental
new platform that has never before been
fully approved.
They both inject people with the genetic
material necessary to grow the “spike
protein” of SARS-CoV-2 inside their own
cells, thus eliciting an immune response
the body will remember when it encounters
the real virus.
This effectively turns a person’s own body
into a vaccine factory, avoiding the
costly and difficult processes that more
traditional vaccine production requires.
But while the approach may have helped put
Pfizer and Moderna in pole position in the
vaccine race, a major drawback is they
require deep-freezers for storage, which
could limit distribution.
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