A major U.S. study by another COVID-19 vaccine candidate is underway Monday, as states continue to roll out scarce supplies of the first shots to a country anxiously awaiting relief from the catastrophic outbreak.
Public health experts say that more options, in addition to the two vaccines now being handed out, one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, the other by Moderna – are critical to raising enough shots for the country and the world.
The candidate nominated by Novavax Inc. made is the fifth to test the final stage in the United States. About 30,000 volunteers are needed to prove that the shot – a different kind from its Pfizer and Modern competitors – is really working and safe.
“If you want enough vaccine to vaccinate all the people in the U.S. you want to vaccinate – up to 85% or more of the population – you will need more than two companies,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci said. , said the leading U.S. expert in infectious diseases, The Associated Press said Monday.
The coronavirus is blamed for about 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including more than 330,000 in the US. It was the deadliest month of the outbreak in the US so far, with about 65,000 deaths so far in December, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The country has repeatedly recorded more than 3,000 deaths a day in the past few times.
And the US could face a terrible winter: despite warnings to stay home and avoid others during Christmas time, nearly 1.3 million people passed through the country’s airports on Sunday, the highest one-day total since the crisis took office in the US nine months ago. .
The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed expects to ship 20 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to states by early January, less than originally estimated. to the frustration of states and health officials trying to plan the shots.
There is no real-time detection of how quickly people get the first of the two required doses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent more than 2.1 million vaccinations out of 11.4 million doses as of Monday, but the agency knows the count is outdated. It can take days before vaccine provider reports leak in and are added to the site.
“Just because a vaccine arrives does not mean we can set up a clinic,” said Jenny Barta, a public health official in Carlton County, Minnesota.
But on Tuesday, her agency plans to vaccinate 100 people in a transit clinic for emergency medical workers that Barta hopes to become a model for greater mass vaccination efforts. Nurses will send the vaccine to cars located in a snow plow garage. Once the drivers have shot, they will wait in parking lots to make sure they have no allergic reaction before going home.
“Vaccinating an individual at a time is how we are going to work out this pandemic,” she said.
Another concern hanging over the vaccines: are shots hanging a new variant of the coronavirus that originated in Britain and which spreads more easily? Fauci said data from Britain indicated that the vaccines would still protect against the virus, but that researchers from the National Institutes of Health would ‘look at it very closely’.
A look at the forerunners in the global vaccination battle:
GENETIC CODE SETTINGS
The US has the emergency state of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar one made by Moderna and the NIH, based on studies suggesting that they are both about 95% effective. Europe kicked off the first vaccinations with the Pfizer shot over the weekend, and on January 6 they will decide to add Moderna’s.
These shots are made with a brand new technology that injects a piece of genetic code for the ear protein that covers the coronavirus. That messenger RNA, or mRNA, moves the body to produce harmless ear proteins, enough to make the immune system react when it later encounters the actual virus.
Both vaccines must be kept frozen, and the Pfizer is fired at ultra-low temperatures which makes its delivery difficult in poor or rural areas.
Additional companies are working on their own mRNA candidates, including the German CureVac, which has embarked on a major study in Europe.
PROTEIN SETTINGS
The Novavax candidate is made different by calling Fauci a “more tried and true” technology that requires only ordinary cooling. The Maryland company produces harmless copies of the coronavirus ear protein in the lab and mixes in an immune-boosting chemical.
Novavax has already enrolled 15,000 people for a late study in Britain and 4,000 for South Africa. The latest and largest study, funded by the US government, will recruit volunteers at more than 115 sites in the US and Mexico and target high adults along with volunteers from black and Spanish communities, who have been hit hard by the virus.
“We must protect our community and our people,” said Rev. Peter Johnson, 75, a leading Dallas civil rights activist, one of the first volunteers.
Two-thirds of participants receive vaccine and the rest dummy shots, a spin-off from earlier vaccination studies that gave half of their volunteers a placebo. It should help researchers recruit people who are wondering if it’s better to take part in a study or to wait their turn for an existing shot, said Dr Gregory Glenn, head of research at Novavax.
For many people, it will take a long time: the photos of Pfizer and Moderna are first posted for health workers and residents of the nursing home, followed by people aged 75 and older and essential workers.
“If you wanted to protect your commitment for most people who are not in the high-risk groups, the shortest way to get the vaccine is to sign up for a trial,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the NIH, said.
TROJAN PERDINSTEMME
The next big vaccine news may come from Johnson & Johnson, which is aiming to take a dose of COVID-19.
Made differently, it uses a harmless virus – a cold virus called an adenovirus – to carry the spike gene into the body. In mid-December, J&J completed approximately 45,000 volunteers for a final stage study in the United States and half a dozen other countries. Fauci expects early results sometime next month.
In Britain, regulators are also considering removing a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
Tests of the shots in Britain, South Africa and Brazil indicate that it is safe and partially protective – about 70%. But there are still questions about how well the vaccine works in people older than 55 and how to interpret results from a small number of people receiving a different dose.
A U.S. study of the AstraZeneca shots still recruits volunteers; Fauci said researchers hope it will provide a clearer answer.
Companies in China and Russia also manufacture adenovirus-based vaccines, and administered them before the results of final testing came in. Argentina is expected to use the Russian vaccine soon.
“KILLED” UNITED
Spike-focused vaccines are not the only option. Making vaccines by culturing a disease-causing virus and then killing it is an even older approach that gives the body a taste of the germ itself rather than just the single ear protein.
China has three such “inactivated” COVID-19 vaccines in final tests in several countries and allowed emergency use in some people before the result. An Indian company is testing its own inactivated candidate.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science. The AP is solely responsible for all content.