COVID-19 vaccine development pipeline gears up

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Soberana 02: Cuba prepara cien millones de dosis de la vacuna contra el coronavirus | "No somos una multinacional. Nuestro fin es crear salud", dijo el director del Instituto Finlay de Vacunas

Mientras la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) mantiene una cruzada para denunciar el "fracaso moral" que significar la concentración del reparto de las vacunas contra la covid-19 entre los países más ricos, Cuba avanza hacia la fase 3 de su vacuna...

www.pagina12.com.ar

22 January 2017
Soverana 02: Cuba prepares one hundred million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains a crusade to denounce the "moral failure" of the concentration of the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 among the richest countries, Cuba is moving towards phase 3 of its Soverana Vaccine 02 and is preparing to produce one hundred million doses.

"Cuba's strategy to commercialize the vaccine has a combination of humanity and impact on world health. We are not a multinational, where the financial objective is the number one reason. Our goal is to create more health," said the director general of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, Vicente Vérez Bencomo, when confirming the progress of the Cuban vaccine. For his part, the WHO representative on the island, José Moya, declared being "optimistic" in the advance of Soverana 02 and highlighted that "Cuba has been the first candidate from Latin America and the Caribbean to place its vaccine in clinical phase".

Soberana 02 began its expanded phase II clinical trial this week, which will extend to 900 people between 19 and 80 years old, according to the Granma newspaper, and an agreement has already been signed between the Finlay Institute and the Pasteur Institute of Iran to test phase 3.

Vérez Bencomo pointed out that the production of one hundred million doses will meet the needs of the country and also other interested nations such as Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan and India. In this sense, the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, assured that Soverana 02 "will be the ALBA vaccine", referring to the alliance made up of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

"The laboratories have already reserved almost all their production for the year and it is mainly the richest countries that have bought it, so these Cuban vaccines will be necessary," said Moya....

More than 30 years of sovereignty in health....
....Cuba, cornered by the US embargo imposed since 1962, has had to seek its own remedies. "In the 1980s they opted for biotechnology, discovering the first vaccine against meningococcus B", says Nils Graber, researcher in health anthropology at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). "The objective was both to improve the national health system and to be an exporter," he adds, citing the delivery of treatments that Cuba has made to Latin America, Asia and Africa. The export of medical services, medicines, vaccines and medical personnel is currently Cuba's main source of income, with 6.3 billion dollars in 2018. In 2020, the island sent medical brigades to 40 countries to fight against the coronavirus. "The population would have perceived in a very surprising and regrettable way that Cuba would have had to import a Russian or a Chinese vaccine," observes the researcher.

 

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Additional data:

Cuba readies 100 million doses of anti-COVID vaccine

Finlay Vaccine Institute director, Dr. Vicente Vérez Bencomo, reports that Cuba is creating capacity to produce 100 million doses of the Soberana 02 vaccine

en.granma.cu

22 January 2021
....The Soberana 02 vaccine began extended Phase II clinical trials this week, increasing participation to 900 volunteers between 19 and 80 years of age, while in February a new investigation with the pediatric population will be conducted. Dr. Vérez explained that after the results of this stage are analyzed, a third phase will follow. During this period, health authorities plan to include 150,000 at persons in vulnerable groups and residents of high-risk areas.

 

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COVID-19 and Your Health

Symptoms, testing, what to do if sick, daily activities, and more.

www.cdc.gov

Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines | CDC

Find interim clinical considerations for the use of COVID-19 vaccines for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States.

www.cdc.gov

 

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Denuncian que dos enfermeras volvieron a contraer Covid tras darse la vacuna

Denuncian que dos enfermeras volvieron a contraer Covid tras darse la vacuna

www.lanacion.com.ar

22 January 2021
They denounce that two nurses contracted Covid again after giving the vaccine.
GUALEGUAYCHÚ.- This Friday, the first two cases of Covid reinfection were confirmed by the Epidemiological Node of the Gualeguaychú Hospital, a few days after the application of the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine. The information was confirmed by the director of the Centenario Hospital, Dr. Eduardo Elías, who assured that it is because it takes at least 20 days for the vaccine to generate enough immunity to be effective.

The cases correspond to two city nurses who received the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine during the last days of December 2020 (in the first case) and in the first days of January (in the second case). Both were diagnosed through laboratory studies (PCR) both at the time of the first infection and in the reinfection of the virus, thus ruling out that the symptoms that they presented the second time in clinical consultation corresponded to the application of the vaccine. The first case is a nurse who works in the isolation room (Covid). The woman was infected last October. Ten days after receiving the first dose of the vaccine, she contracted the virus again, that is, just over three months after his first infection. The second case corresponds to a nurse from a private provider in the city, who contracted Covid last August. She received the first dose of the vaccine during the first days of January, and six days later, the laboratory reported it as a positive case.

In dialogue with R2820, the director of the Centenario Hospital, Dr. Eduardo Elías, confirmed: "The information is correct. These types of infections can occur, but this has nothing to do with the vaccine that had not yet generated immune responses in these people ". "The vaccine does not generate disease, due to the mechanics of its work. Clearly, it had not generated the level of immunity that these organisms required to defend themselves," added Elías.

The infectious disease doctor highlighted: "It has been shown that the vaccine begins to generate immunity after the 20-21 day of the application of the first dose, an approximate 60 percent has been observed starting on that date. But true immunity is generated by 40 days after the first dose, where it exceeds 90 percent. Therefore, the cases that occur before the 20th day occur because the immunity provided by the vaccine to defend the person has not yet been generated, so less in something, of the disease ". Finally, Elías -who received the second dose of Sputnik V this Friday- remarked: "This is the working protocol of the vaccine, you even have to wait a while after the second dose is applied, so at all times we emphasize that the distancing and biosecurity measures must be maintained. "....

 

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Coronavirus: EU vaccine woes mount as new delays emerge

AstraZeneca is the latest company, after Pfizer, to warn of delivery issues, frustrating officials.

www.bbc.com

 

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Premiered on the MedCram.com series on Dec 10, 2020....
Vitamin D and COVID 19: The Evidence for Prevention and Treatment of Coronavirus (SARS CoV 2)
Presented by Assistant Clinical Professor. Roger Seheult, MD, Loma Linda School of Medicine.
He explains the important role Vitamin D may have in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. He illustrates how Vitamin D works, summarizes the best available data and clinical trials on vitamin D, and discusses vitamin D dosage recommendations.

Additional data:

Coronavirus: Should I start taking vitamin D?

Some people might want to consider it during the pandemic. Here's why.

www.bbc.com

 

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Covid: How a £20 gadget could save lives

Doctors say people should buy a pulse oximeter to monitor their oxygen levels at home.

www.bbc.com

 

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Brazil to Receive More COVID-19 Vaccine Friday

Brazil’s president promises to secure enough vaccine to immunize citizens as health officials say not enough vaccine is available

www.voanews.com

 

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¿Podría la variante sudafricana del coronavirus implicar un cambio en la vacuna? | Los escenarios posibles ante las nuevas mutaciones

De Público, especial para Página/12Que apareciesen nuevas variantes del virus era casi inevitable. Cuando los virus se multiplican, pueden producirse mutaciones. Y con el coronavirus multiplicándose en las células de millones de personas en todo el mun...

www.pagina12.com.ar

23 January 2021
Could the South African variant of the virus require a change in the vaccine?
That new variants of the virus appeared was almost inevitable. When viruses multiply, mutations can occur. And with the coronavirus multiplying in the cells of millions of people around the world, it was a matter of time before we had to face new variants.

A new variant of the virus could, in theory, present one of these 3 possible problems:
1. That the new variant is transmitted from one person to another more efficiently. This seems to be the case with the British variant.
2. That the new variant causes a more severe disease. Fortunately, the variants detected so far do not seem to present this problem.
3. That the new variant is resistant to the vaccines developed and must be updated.

Let's focus today on this third problem, since a study (not yet published) on the South African variant indicates that it could be quite resistant to vaccines developed for the "parent virus".....

Emergence and rapid spread of a new severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) lineage with multiple spike mutations in South Africa

Continued uncontrolled transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in many parts of the world is creating the conditions for significant virus evolution. Here, we describe a new SARS-CoV-2 lineage (501Y.V2) characterised by eight lineage-defining...

www.medrxiv.org

 

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Pfizer y BioNTech informaron que entregarán 2.000.700 dosis "progresivamente" en 2021

VACUNA CORONAVIRUS Vacuna de Pfizer. Foto: Reuters Pfizer Uruguay y BioNTech SE anunciaron a través de un comunicado que el gobierno de Uruguay "recibirá 2.000.700 dosis" de la vacuna BNT162b2,

www.elpais.com.uy

23 January 2021
Pfizer and BioNTech reported that they will deliver 2,000,700 doses "progressively" in 2021. President Luis Lacalle Pou reported this afternoon that the "arrival in March" of the first 200,000 doses is expected, although, he clarified, "we will not extend the possibility of having them at the end of February."....

EcuadorTimes.net | Breaking News, Ecuador News, World, Sports, Entertainment » COVID-19: these are the brands of the 18 million doses of vaccines that Ecuador will have

www.ecuadortimes.net

Posted On 19 Jan 2021
COVID-19: these are the brands of the 18 million doses of vaccines that Ecuador will have.
Ecuador has so far negotiated vaccines for 9 million people (totaling 18 million doses). The first to arrive are those of Pfizer and its partner Biontech, which will send 86,000 doses before the massive process begins, scheduled for the end of March this year.
The other negotiated vaccines will come from AstraZeneca (produced by the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford), from the firm Covaxx and more doses will also come (both from Pfizer and AstraZeneca) by the Covax initiative (for equitable distribution of vaccines in the world, where WHO participates)....