COVID-19 vaccine development pipeline gears up

[gracielle]

Different types of COVID-19 vaccines: How they work

Curious about how mRNA vaccines and other types of COVID-19 vaccines can help you develop immunity to the COVID-19 virus? Understand how different technologies work with the immune system to provide protection.

medicalxpress.com

Will the COVID-19 vaccine work as well in patients with obesity?

Americans with excess weight and obesity have been hit hard by COVID-19. Now there is reason to believe they may not get the same protection from the vaccines.

theconversation.com

 

[Somewhereinba]

El Reino Unido autorizó infectar con coronavirus a personas sanas para probar la eficacia de los fármacos y las vacunas

Unos 90 voluntarios de entre 18 y 30 años serán inoculados con la variante británica, en un estudio aprobado por un comité de ética. El primer paso será determinar qué cantidad de virus es la mínima requerida para generar el contagio

www.infobae.com

17 February 2021
The United Kingdom authorized the infection of healthy people with coronavirus to test the efficacy of drugs and vaccines. The first step will be to determine what amount of virus is the minimum required to generate contagion. In a statement, the ministry says that the UK will be the first country in the world to carry out such studies in this pandemic....

....Starting in March, around 90 volunteers between 18 and 30 years old, who will be compensated for their participation, will be inoculated in a safe and controlled way to determine, in a first phase, the minimum amount of virus required for infection to be generated , which will then make it easier to test vaccines and drugs. When this data has been determined, the intention is to administer vaccines considered safe to a small group of volunteers who will be infected with the virus, in order to verify the immune reaction and that this serves to refine and accelerate the tests of the preparations to larger scale. The virus variant with which the volunteers, who are now being recruited, will initially be infected will be the one circulating in the UK since March 2020 and which has been shown to be low risk for healthy young adults. states in the note....

This should have been done way way earlier - could have saved months and months of trials and saved thousands of lives.

 

[antipodean]

“Las personas vacunadas pueden contraer el COVID-19 y contagiar”, advierten los especialistas

En busca de la tan ansiada nueva normalidad no son pocos los que se sorprenden al saber que aún habiendo recibido la vacuna contra el coronavirus es posible que una persona adquiera la infección. "Definitivamente se debe seguir con las medidas de cuidado y protección", coincidieron expertos...

www.infobae.com

Should people who have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 continue to wear a mask and respect social distance? Can they re-infect and infect someone even after they have been vaccinated?

"The answer is yes. (...) You can get it and be asymptomatic; Even though the vaccine protected you from getting sick, it didn't protect you from getting it. So it is possible that you do not know that you were infected and transmit it to others ”. The explanation that the White House epidemiologist Anthony Fauci gave in a recent interview surprised more than one.

Along the same lines, the Indian pediatrician Soumya Swaminathan, Deputy Director General for Programs of the World Health Organization (WHO) recently warned that “vaccinated people can contract the virus and spread”, although he acknowledged that after receiving immunization, if you contract COVID-19, "the viral load is much lower, so the chances of infecting others may also be lower."

This is one of the unknowns that today science is trying to elucidate by studying vaccinated people in several clinical trials in which they are analyzing whether they have a viral load and for how long.

“In principle, vaccinated people will have a 100% probability of not having a severe COVID-19 picture; they can have a mild form (0.1% of vaccinated patients had COVID-19) therefore it can potentially infect, although we are talking about very low proportions ”. For the infectious disease doctor Lautaro De Vedia (MN 70640), an expert at the Muñiz Hospital and former president of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (Sadi) "it is key that people who are still vaccinated continue to take care of themselves and protect themselves."

 

[gracielle]

Researchers urge delaying Pfizer vaccine's second dose as first highly effective

The second dose of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine could be delayed in order to cover all priority groups as the first one is highly protective, two Canada-based researchers said in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

www.reuters.com

South African scientists to discuss Pfizer vaccine study

South African scientists will hold discussions on Thursday on a laboratory study that suggests the dominant local variant of the coronavirus may reduce antibody protection from Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine by two-thirds.

www.reuters.com

No jab, no job: Vatican gets tough with COVID anti-vaxxers

The Vatican has told employees that they may risk losing their jobs if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccination without legitimate health reasons.

www.reuters.com

 

[gracielle]

Sputnik V: Rusia admite que la demanda internacional de la vacuna excede su capacidad de producción

El vocero del Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, aseguró hoy, en su conferencia de prensa habitual, que la capacidad de producción de Rusia de la vacuna Sputnik se vio saturada ante la demanda internacional y advirtió que desde el gobierno de Vladimir Putin analizan un plan para comenzar a fabricar dosis...

www.lanacion.com.ar

18 February 2021
Sputnik V: Russia admits international demand for vaccine exceeds production capacity.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said today, in his regular press conference, that Russia's production capacity for the Sputnik vaccine was saturated due to international demand and warned that the Vladimir Putin government is analyzing a plan to start to manufacture doses outside the national territory. According to what was published by the Russian agency Tass, Peskov indicated that orders from other countries - including Argentina, which began its vaccination campaign with this formula - "substantially exceeded the existing production capacity" and also stressed that the priority for the Kremlin it is the Russians.....

....After Peskov's statements, the government also reported that Russia will register its third vaccine, Covivac, next Saturday, the drug developed by the Mikhail Chumakov Center for Research and Development of Immunizers. "The registration of the vaccine is scheduled for February 20," the Russian center for the fight against Covid-19 said in a statement. The text adds that it is planned to finalize the second phase of clinical trials "in early 2021", according to what was published by the Télam agency. "Then a large-scale trial of the drug is planned on 3,000 volunteers," the note states. Earlier, the vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, announced that the production of the vaccine may begin this month or in March.

And that at the same time it plans to advance in the study of the use of Sputnik V in minors. The center's director, Alexandr Guintsburg, expressed his hope that the investigation would begin in June....

 

[gracielle]

EXPLAINER: How will we know we've reached herd immunity?

Health officials around the world are racing to vaccinate enough people to stop the spread of COVID-19, but what qualifies as “enough” is still an open question. The goal is to get to “herd...

apnews.com

Zimbabwe starts administering China's Sinopharm vaccines

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe started giving COVID-19 vaccinations Thursday, with Vice President Constantino Chiwenga volunteering for the first jab at a hospital in the capital,...

apnews.com

 

[FrankPintor]

Not bad, at least you don't have to tramp across minefields in northern Chile. However, how they manage the cold chain in places like that is beyond me, especially for the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine... a few days back there was a report about how Peru was importing that vaccine, and I posted an article about how they were ready to keep vaccines at 2 - 8 degrees Celsius while BioNTech / Pfizer needs -70C. Good luck with that.

Vaccine tourism to Venezuela coming up shortly: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-17/venezuela-open-to-private-vaccine-makers-as-inoculations-start. It's not actually "vaccine makers" as the title would have it: "...open to allowing private companies to import and sell Covid-19 vaccines in Venezuela as the nation prepares to kick off vaccinations with the Sputnik V vaccine Thursday".

 

[gracielle]

Von der Leyen asks Russia why it’s selling Sputnik abroad before vaccinating citizens

Her comments come as more countries in Central and Eastern Europe are warming up to the Russian-made jab.

www.politico.eu

Russia hits back at von der Leyen over Sputnik vaccine

Moscow’s embassy in Brussels accuses Commission president of ‘deplorable’ politicizing of coronavirus vaccine.

www.politico.eu

 

[gracielle]

South Africa Wary of Sputnik, CanSino Shots Because of HIV Risk - BNN Bloomberg

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, CanSino Biologics Inc.’s shot and other Covid-19 immunizations relying on a cold virus that’s backfired in the past should show they don’t make people more vulnerable to HIV infection before gaining approval in South Africa, the head of a local vaccine company said.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

 

[gracielle]

Vacunación: "Yo no soy tan optimista como Ginés González García", dijo Eduardo López

El infectólogo que asesora al presidente afirmó que si para mitad de año se logra vacunar a los 7 millones de adultos mayores de 60 años, "hay que aplaudir al Ministerio de Salud".

www.perfil.com

18 February 2021....by Florencia Ballarino
Vaccination: "I am not as optimistic as Ginés González García," said Dr. Eduardo López. The infectologist who advises the President affirmed that if the 7 million adults over 60 years of age are vaccinated by the middle of the year, "we must applaud the Ministry of Health."

In the last month, coronavirus infections fell nationwide from the peak reached in early summer. The specialists assure that this is due both to the advance of the national vaccination plan and also to the lower circulation of the virus due to prevention campaigns and to the fact that more activities are carried out in open spaces. In this context, the RePerfilAr team contacted Eduardo López, an infectious disease physician, who spoke about the drop in coronavirus cases in the country, the vaccination plan and the arrival of new doses in the country.

"The downward trend is slow but there is still a lot to improve," said López, adding that the possibility of the arrival of the second wave "is always present." Likewise, the specialist added that there is still community transmission due to the number of infected people in the country. Then, the infectologist assured that it is necessary to vaccinate 7 million adults over 60 years of age to reduce hospitalizations and the mortality rate.

"I am not as optimistic as the Minister (Ginés) González García, but if older adults are already vaccinated by June we have to applaud the Ministry of Health," said the specialist in relation to the words of the Minister of Health promising to vaccinate " all Argentines for August ”. "It is costing us much effort to receive an influx of new doses, but it is encouraging that consignments of Covishield have arrived from India," said the expert regarding the advancement of the vaccination plan. Likewise, López said that the vaccine developed by Oxford AstraZeneca and manufactured in India can be given "more easily" because the second dose is given in a longer period of time than in the case of Sputnik V.