COVID Vaccine News

01/01/2021

"Graham told McLellan, a structural virologist at the University of Texas at Austin, that the ailment appeared to be a beta-coronavirus, meaning it fell into the genus of viruses that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). He asked McLellan: “Are you ready to get back in the saddle?”

This duo was part of a small band of government and university scientists who had spent more than a decade cracking a complex viral puzzle—and their skills were needed once more. Their years of sleuthing and innovating ultimately contributed a microscopic but critical piece to the most promising candidates for COVID-19 vaccines. Two already authorized in the U.S. use their discovery, as do at least two other top contenders.

Their solution? Tweaking a shape-shifting protein to make it sit still."

Credits to National Geographic

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Long before anyone knew of SARS-CoV-2, a small band of government and university scientists uncovered a prototypical key that unlocked life-saving immunizations.

01/01/2021

"The World Health Organization has listed Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, a critical step that the United Nations health agency said aims to make the vaccine more readily available in developing nations.

In a statement on Thursday, WHO said its validation of the vaccine – the first since the start of the pandemic – “opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine”.

Credits to Al Jazeera English

www.getcovidvaccines.com

UN health agency says emergency use listing ‘opens the door’ for countries to expedite their vaccine approval processes.

12/31/2020

"A vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) has been found to be 79.34 per cent effective against Covid-19, according to an interim analysis, the company said.

The vaccine was shown to be safe, and participants receiving the two-dose course produced a high level of antibodies against the virus at a rate of 99.52 per cent, according to a statement posted on Wednesday by the company’s subsidiary Beijing Institute of Biological Products – which has also formally submitted an application to China’s regulators for conditional listing, it said.

Few further details were given – including critical information about the number of people evaluated to reach the results, or which data had been analysed."

Credits to South China Morning Post

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Few details were released in the announcement but the company is seeking conditional listing from Chinese regulator.

12/30/2020

"The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, with the first doses due to be given on Monday.

There will be 530,000 doses available from next week, and vaccination centres will now start inviting patients to come and get the jab.

Priority groups for immunisation have already been identified, starting with care home residents, the over-80s, and health and care workers."

Credits to BBC

www.getcovidvaccines.com

The first doses are due to be given on Monday, amid concern over rising coronavirus cases.

12/29/2020

"Twelve months of study have shown that our bodies, in many cases, develop a robust and persistent immune response to SARS-CoV-2, but for some people with severe cases, it can go haywire and hurts more than helps.

Our fundamental comprehension of immune responses to the coronavirus has grown significantly, but more questions—like the longevity of immunity—are still to be answered, especially amid concerns that mutations may help SARS-CoV-2 evade our immunological defenses. With vaccination on the horizon for many at-risk individuals, the immune response’s intricacies are even more critical to understand."

Credits to National Geographic

www.getcovidvaccines.com

A year into the pandemic, our understanding of immune responses to the coronavirus has skyrocketed. But more questions—such as how long immunity lasts—still need answers.

12/16/2020

"Higher income countries like the U.S. and the U.K. are putting themselves at the front of the line — that's obviously what's happening," Philip Clarke, a professor of health economics at the University of Oxford, said. "The clear failure here is not having stronger international institutions and stronger funding to pay for a vaccine globally."

Credits to NBC News

www.getcovidvaccines.com

"Higher income countries like the U.S. and the U.K. are putting themselves at the front of the line — that's obviously what's happening," one expert said.

12/15/2020

"Singapore has approved Pfizer-BioNTech's novel coronavirus vaccine and expects delivery of the first shots by the end of December, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday.

The city-state of 5.7 million people expects to have enough vaccines for everyone by the third quarter of 2021 and will make it free for citizens and long-term residents, Lee said."

Credits to NDTV

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Singapore has approved Pfizer-BioNTech's novel coronavirus vaccine and expects delivery of the first shots by the end of December, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday.

12/14/2020

"Canadian health officials in Quebec and Ontario plan to administer the first COVID-19 vaccines on Monday.

Residents of two long-term care homes in Quebec will be the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in that province. Francine Dupuis of the Montreal regional health agency says health care workers have been ready to administer the doses at Maimonides Geriatric Centre since Friday. Dupuis says the agency expects to receive 1,950 initial doses, which will first go to residents, to Maimonides staff and then to health care workers in other nursing homes."

Credits to The Washington Post Magazine

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Family doctors in England are set to start COVID-19 inoculations this week, in the latest stage of the U.K.’s mass vaccination program

12/14/2020

"Bahrain said Sunday it approved the use of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, following its earlier approval of a vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Separately, Kuwait has granted emergency use for the Pfizer vaccine.

Bahrain’s state-run news agency said the Sinopharm vaccine would be available in the island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf."

Credits to AP

www.getcovidvaccines.com

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain said Sunday it approved the use of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, following its earlier approval of a vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner...

12/13/2020

"With the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of a coronavirus vaccine on Friday, the United States became the third highly developed Western country — after Britain and Canada — to approve such a shot, and is expected to start inoculating people within days.

But the three countries have very different health care systems. And they face different challenges in the race to get the vaccine to millions of people.

Here are some similarities and contrasts."

Credits to The New York Times

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Within days, all three countries could be giving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but they have varying strategies and challenges. The U.S. plan, working through the states, is the least centralized.

12/13/2020

"As the rapid rollout begins, this infographic looks at the process and how long it takes to achieve full immunity in the case of a successful vaccination. As reported by the BBC, this particular vaccine requires two doses. 12 days after the first jab, immunity starts to build. After 21 days a second dose is required, allowing the body to develop full immunity by day 28."

Credits to Statista

www.getcovidvaccines.com

12/13/2020

"The Hong Kong government weighed scientific, logistical, business and even political factors before choosing the manufacturers to supply millions of Covid-19 vaccine shots to the city’s residents, according to health experts and an insider close to the selection process.

But one leading doctor questioned why mainland Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech was among the final approved companies, given it had not yet published third-phase data on its vaccine candidate."

Credits to South China Morning Post

www.getcovidvaccines.com

The scientific, logistical and even political reasons behind how authorities decided which manufacturers would provide doses.

12/13/2020

"Hospital systems nationwide should expect the first shipments of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine to arrive Monday, Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, said during a media briefing Saturday.

"Boxes are being packed and loaded with vaccine with emphasis on quality control," Perna said. Within the next 24 hours, he said, those boxes will move from Pfizer's manufacturing facility to UPS and FedEx hubs, where they will be delivered to 636 predetermined locations nationwide."

Credits to NBC News

www.getcovidvaccines.com

CDC advisory panel recommends vaccine for ages 16 and older. About 2.9 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be shipped within the first week.

12/13/2020

"The finish line in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is in sight. Yesterday, an independent advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) green lighted the use of Pfizer’s vaccine, setting up an FDA decision that could result in Americans being vaccinated in the next several days. This decision follows announcements from Pfizer and Moderna that their vaccines for COVID-19 were more than 90 percent efficacious, fueling speculation that COVID-19 vaccines could be distributed in the United States by the end of the year. But as the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine concludes, a new one begins: the race to ensure that enough people are vaccinated to end the pandemic. "

Credits to The Hill

www.getcovidvaccines.com

How can we ensure that COVID-19 vaccine uptake is adequate? Here, we highlight six strategies that might be used over the coming months.

12/13/2020

"Pfizer Inc. is packing boxes with thousands of its Covid-19 vaccines for shipment around the U.S., as hospitals gear up to give shots while also confronting the surging pandemic.

Trucks carrying the fragile cargo at minus-94 degrees Fahrenheit will start rolling out of Pfizer plants in Michigan and Wisconsin on Sunday. Doses are scheduled to start arriving at hospitals on Monday.

Health-care workers treating Covid-19 patients, nursing-home residents and perhaps others could start getting inoculated soon thereafter, though it might take a day or two for facilities to train staff and begin injections.

The rest of the population will have to wait, as the drugmakers produce and ship more of the doses."

Credits to The Wall Street Journal

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Pfizer is packing boxes with thousands of its Covid-19 vaccines for shipment around the U.S., as hospitals gear up to give shots while also confronting the surging pandemic.

12/12/2020

"The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, a landmark moment in the fight to suppress a virus that has killed nearly 300,000 people in the United States and sickened tens of millions around the world.

“Today’s emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine holds the promise to alter the course of this pandemic in the United States,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a press release."

Credits to The Verge

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Health care workers will start receiving shots within days.

12/12/2020

"Pharmaceutical and vaccine production involves complex coordination, involving product development, manufacturing, packaging, storage, distribution, and regulatory review, and each stage can cause unexpected delays.

The manufacturing process can — and usually does — go awry at some point. “Manufacturing never goes 100%, there’s always issues and stock you have to throw out,” said Lee. “You bake a thousand cakes, you’re not going to get a thousand successful cakes.”

Credits to STAT

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Vaccine production involves complex coordination involving many steps, and each stage can cause unexpected delays.

12/12/2020

"Hong Kong has secured 15 million shots of Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in China and Europe, with the first million expected to be available next month for high-risk groups under a free, voluntary vaccination scheme for the city’s population of 7.5 million residents."

Credits to South China Morning Post

www.getcovidvaccines.com

Advance agreement will see Sinovac and partners BioNTech and Pfizer provide 7.5 million jabs each for city residents, while deal with AstraZeneca is in works.