COVID-19 vaccine development pipeline gears up

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UPDATE: 26 February 2021
 
UPDATE: 26 February 2021
 
03 February 2021
COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces: why do we keep disinfecting? Coronavirus can remain on doorknobs and other surfaces, but these are not a major source of infection, warns research published in the journal Scientific Nature.

....Armed with year-long data on coronavirus cases, researchers say one fact is clear. It is the people, not the surfaces, that should be the main concern. Evidence of over-propagation events, where many people are infected at once, usually in a crowded indoor space, clearly points to airborne transmission, Marr says. "You have to come up with some really complicated scenarios to explain superpropagation events with contaminated surfaces," he explains.

Hand washing is essential, Marr says, because superficial transmission cannot be ruled out. But it's more important to upgrade ventilation systems or install air purifiers than to sterilize surfaces, he says. "If we've already paid attention to the air and have some extra time and resources, then yes, cleaning those high-touch surfaces could be helpful," he says.

Homes can relax, too, Pickering says. Quarantining food or sanitizing all surfaces is going too far. "That's a lot of work and it's probably not reducing your exposure that much," he says. Instead, reasonable hand hygiene as well as wearing a mask and social distancing to reduce exposure from close contacts is a better place to focus efforts....
UPDATE: 19 February 2021
 
Met someone who works for the lab that produces the Oxford vaccine here in Argentina (or at least the first step of the production), these are then shipped to Mexico to be finished off and packaged. He said that they are on schedule in Argentina and keep sending the "primer" to MX but that Mexican partner is backed up -- they don't have the insumos so there will be delays.
 
UPDATE: 28 February 2021
UPDATE: 2 March 2021
 
3 March 2021
Argentina will receive almost 2 million doses of vaccine through the Covax initiative. The country is one of the destinations for the "first round of allocations", for which until May of this year 1,944,000 units of the one produced by AstraZeneca-Oxford will arrive, said a statement from the mechanism led by the WHO and the Alliance of Vaccines.

Until May, Argentina will receive almost two million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca-Oxford as part of the Covax initiative, the mechanism that guarantees equitable global access to these drugs. The project led by the WHO and Gavi -the Vaccine Alliance-, detailed it in a statement in which they reported the list of the 142 countries that will receive the 237 million doses of vaccines developed by the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca laboratory and 1.2 million from the Pfizer-Biontech laboratory.

"Based on current knowledge of supply availability, this first round of assignments provides information on the supply of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine doses to Covax Initiative participants, through May 2021," reads the text. , which specified that 1,944,000 doses will arrive in Argentina....

....The deadlines for the arrival in the country of Covax vaccines will be announced at the end of this week, although it was already anticipated that deliveries will be divided into two batches: "February-March and April-May." "These deadlines depend on a variety factors, including national regulatory requirements, availability of supply and compliance with other criteria, such as national implementation and vaccination plans, indemnification and liability agreements, and export and import authorizations, ”Covax said....
 
It is the first in Latin America
The Cuban Soberana 02 vaccine enters phase 3 of clinical trials
The Cuban authorities authorized the beginning of the third phase of clinical trials for Sovereign 02 , one of the vaccines that the country develops against the coronavirus. Thus, the Cuban drug becomes the first vaccine candidate in Latin America and the Caribbean to pass Phase II of studies.
The director of Cecmed, Olga Jacobo Casanueva, stressed that "the vaccine is very safe and clinical evidence supports it to move to Phase III", after a "exhaustive assessment of the clinical trial file" on the drug.
Cuba has five vaccine projects....
Details at Pagina12: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/327510-la-vacuna-cubana-soberana-02-entra-en-la-fase-3-de-ensayos-c
 
A new pill against COVID-19 obtains promising results in preliminary tests
The antiviral
Molnupiravir reduced the infectious virus during phase two of the study. Scientists believe that it will fulfill the same type of function that Tamiflu, the drug used for the flu, plays.

An experimental drug to treat Covid-19, which promises to be a species of Tamiflu - selective antiviral against the influenza virus - has obtained positive results in a preliminary study, according to
The Wall Street Journal.
The pill, called molnupiravir, is being developed by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP and Merck MRK & Co., and significantly reduced the infectious virus in patients during a phase two study after five days of treatment.

Source and full article: Infobae
 
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