Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

Some of the biggest coronavirus vaccine manufacturers say they are not selling shots to provincial governments because they only want to deal with one contract per country at a time.

This comes as premiers in Alberta and Manitoba join arms in calling for a Plan B interprovincial task force to secure their own vaccine supplies following delays in deliveries to the federal government, and a lack of clarity from the federal government around the terms of those crucial contracts.

During the pandemic, we are committed to bringing this vaccine to help meet the public health need and only plan to sell the vaccine to the Government of Canada, said Christina Antoniou, director of corporate affairs for Pfizer.

The federal governments National Operations Centre is responsible for distributing the vaccine to each of the provinces, and we are working closely with them to support their efforts.

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In order the (sic) optimally address the pandemic situation worldwide, Pfizer decided to have one agreement per country, Antoniou added.

The idea was to limit the number of contractual agreements during the pandemic phase. As such, we have one contract for Canada. That will be the case until we have delivered on the full contract.

Global News reached out to Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson following comments by Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister during an interview with Global News last week.

Pallister said the federal governments contracts with those major vaccine suppliers forbid those companies from selling vaccines to the provinces in separate deals.

Theyve all told us that they are not going to sell to us because thats part of the deal they made with the federal government, he said. To me, thats blocking.

Manitoba government officials provided Global News with records of their outreach to the four vaccine suppliers, which show the companies rebuffing requests from provincial officials to negotiate contracts.

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None of the responses from the vaccine companies in those emails stated that they were prohibited from entering into separate contracts with the provinces because of their federal contract.

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One official from the Manitoba governments procurement team appeared to paraphrase a response received from Janssen, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that is developing the coronavirus vaccine.

Talked with Janssen, direction from them is they are only working with one entity per country PHAC, said the official, whose name was redacted in the records provided to Global News. They will not (sic) entertain working with us for additional vaccines once we receive volumes from Feds. They only want to engage with PHAC.

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An email that appeared to come from Moderna said the company wasnt interested in separate deals.

Modernas position on this remains the same as shared on our call last Friday, said an official in the email, whose name was redacted in the records provided to Global News. We are currently fully committed to the government of Canada to bring as many doses possible to Canada in 2021.

Another email that appeared to come from an official at AstraZeneca Canadas Mississauga location offered a similar response, noting their vaccine candidate remains under review by Health Canada.

Our commitment is to fulfill the supply requested by the Federal Government post Health Canada regulatory approval, said the official, whose name was redacted in the records.

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Unfortunately at this time we are still unable to respond to your specific provincial request.

The response that appeared to come from Pfizer was brief: The situation has not changed and contracts with individual provinces are not currently possible.

Pfizer was the only company to respond to Global News questions by deadline.

Any responses received by Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson will be included once received.

Global News asked Pallisters office whether the provincial government had received any responses from the vaccine companies that specifically said the federal contracts prohibited them from selling to the provinces, as Pallister had indicated in his interview.

Olivia Billson, spokesperson for the premier, said the province is being blocked from buying vaccines from those companies if the companies are not taking orders until they fulfill the federal contracts.

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Manitoba has reached out repeatedly to COVID-19 vaccine suppliers since late last year on our own initiative to secure a direct supply of vaccines for Manitobans, she said in an email.

Vaccine suppliers have clearly indicated to our government that they are unable to take any orders from us at this time until they fulfill federal orders. That is fact, effectively blocking us from securing vaccines on our own accord.

The federal government has not released the details of any of its contracts with the major vaccine suppliers, despite repeated urging from premiers and opposition parties to be more transparent.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the government is bound by confidentiality clauses in those contracts, and has been trying to get vaccine companies to loosen those terms.

So far, she said, those efforts have been unsuccessful.

2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Heres why some coronavirus vaccine suppliers say they arent selling to provinces - Global News

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has constantly evolved since it was first detected in humans over a year ago. Viruses replicate exceedingly fast, and each time they do, there's a small chance they mutate. This is par for the course, if you're a virus.

But in the last few weeks, scientists have been investigating SARS-CoV-2 variants with a handful of mutations arising much faster than expected. Normally, we'd expect to see one to two largely inconsequential genetic changes in the coronavirus every few months. New variants are emerging with a constellation of mutations, all at the same time.

In December 2020, the UK announced a variant of coronavirus, and two other variants were later detected in South Africa and Brazil. There is, for the time being, no reason to fear these variants or how the coronavirus is mutating -- scientists and the World Health Organization suggest that our current protective measures of social distancing and masking up work just as well against them. However, scientists are closely monitoring and evaluating them because they could worsen the pandemic if they are more transmissible or can evade our immune system and vaccines.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

Epidemiologists, virologists and immunologists are now tasked with understanding how these mutations in the new variants may change the virus and how our bodies respond to them. Mutations could change SARS-CoV-2 in such a way that it may even be able to evade the immune response generated by vaccines. Preliminary research shows current vaccines should be able to deal with the three most concerning variants, but data continues to roll in. On Sunday, South Africa temporarily halted the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine after a small clinical trial found it didn't protect shot recipients from a fast-moving variant of the virus first discovered in the country.

Scientists can see the virus evolving in real time and are in a race to describe how this evolution might affect our immunity and, down the line, treatments and vaccines. Here, we're sharing everything we know about COVID-19 variants and the various esoteric ways scientists discuss mutations and evolution.

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The coronavirus is an RNA virus, which means its complete genetic sequence, or genome, is a single-stranded template (humans and other mammals, by contrast, use double-stranded DNA). The template of SARS-CoV-2 is made up of four bases -- denoted by the letters a, c, u and g -- in a specific sequence, about 30,000 letters long.

The template provides instructions on how to build all the proteins that make a new coronavirus particle. To replicate, SARS-CoV-2 needs to take over a host cell and use it as a factory, hijacking the machinery within. Once it sneaks into a cell, it needs to read the RNA template.

Critical to this process is an enzyme known as an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, or RdRp. It has one job, and it's terrible at it. "This is an enzyme that makes a huge amount of mistakes when replicating," says Roger Frutos, a molecular microbiologist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, or CIRAD. The RdRp introduces errors during replication, producing new viruses with slightly different templates. Changes in the template are known as mutations.

Mutations often have little effect on a virus, but sometimes they change the template so much they cause changes in the virus' physical structure. "A mutant doesn't mean it's like 10 times scarier or 10 times deadlier," says Tyler Starr, a computational biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "Mutations have incremental effects."

This could be a bad thing for SARS-CoV-2, creating a useless zombie virus. Sometimes, it might confer an advantage, like allowing the virus to bind more tightly to a host cell or helping it evade the immune response.

Scientists and researchers spot mutations by sequencing SARS-CoV-2 isolated from patients, looking at the entire 30,000 letters of its genome. They compare this with the earliest viruses on record, those detected in Wuhan, China, patients back in December 2019, and see how they've changed. "We never see viruses now that look exactly like what was in Wuhan," says Stuart Turville, an immunovirologist at the Kirby Institute in Australia.

If researchers see that a mutation is becoming more prevalent in a population, there's a chance it may have changed the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2.

Any mutations to the coronavirus genome results in variants of the virus, but some are more concerning than others. In late 2020, three variants were identified with mutations that may make SARS-CoV-2 more transmissible or, in the case of one variant, more deadly.

The variants are described by a number of names, which makes things a little confusing, but scientists refer to them by their lineage, giving them a letter-based descriptor based on their ancestry. They are:

These will not be the last variants of SARS-CoV-2 that arise, and scientists continue to track changes in the genome. Any changes can be useful for genomic epidemiologists to assess transmission dynamics and patterns, in turn helping inform public health units to alter their response to any emerging threats. "We are watching all the time," says Catherine Bennett, chair in epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia.

But why are these three variants of particular concern? They share common characteristics that early analysis suggests may enable them to spread more easily or evade the immune response. This seems to result from, at least partially, how these mutants change the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which enables the virus to hijack cells and turn them into factories.

Could coronavirus variants change the efficacy of our vaccines? Scientists are trying to figure that out.

Each SARS-CoV-2 particle is covered with spikes. Infiltration of a cell requires the club-like projections to lock onto a protein on the surface of a human cell known as ACE2, which facilitates viral entry.

But the viral protrusions are also recognized by the human immune system. When immune cells detect the SARS-CoV-2 spike, they begin pumping out antibodies to prevent it from locking on to ACE2, or send other cells in to destroy the virus. Antibodies also attach to the spike and can effectively prevent it from attaching to a cell. This puts the spike under extreme evolutionary pressure. Mutations that change the spike and help it evade immune cells or antibodies or lock onto ACE2 more strongly can provide a survival advantage.

The variants listed above all share mutations in a region of the spike known as the receptor binding domain, which directly contacts ACE2. If mutations cause structural changes in the RBD, it might bind to ACE2 differently and could, for example, prevent the immune system from recognizing it as dangerous.

Here's where things get a little confusing, but it's important to understand how scientists denote specific mutations and why you're seeing all these numbers and letters flying around.

Remember that each RNA genome (the template) contains four molecular bases denoted by the letters a, c, u and g. When this template is read, every three-letter combination or "codon" (GAU, for instance) corresponds to an amino acid. A chain of amino acids becomes a protein.

But here's the confusing bit: Amino acids are also denoted by a single-letter code, unrelated to the RNA template letters. The amino acid alanine, for instance, is A. Aspartic acid is D. Glycine is G.

Why is this important? Because scientists discuss and study coronavirus mutations at the amino acid level.

For example, we've already seen one SARS-CoV-2 variant arise and come to dominate across the world.

Sometime in early 2020, the coronavirus picked up a mutation that resulted in an increase in infectivity. A mutation in the RNA template flipped an "a" to a "g," which caused a different amino acid to form in the RBD of the spike. This change was beneficial for the virus, and now it's the dominant form we see across the world.

The mutation is known as D614G. This notation, letter-number-letter, corresponds to a change in the amino acid at position 614, from aspartic acid (D) to glycine (G).

Confusing? Definitely. Important? Absolutely. This naming convention is important to understand important mutations in the three new COVID-19 variants.

Strengthening lockdowns in the UK has helped curb the spread of the variant, B.1.1.7

There are a number of mutations in all three variants across the RNA genome, but let's focus on the spike here. B.1.1.7 has eight mutations in its spike, B.1.351 has seven and P.1 has 10. Not all of these mutations are the same, but some overlap -- that is, the virus has evolved similar mutations in different locations across the world, a process known as "convergent evolution."

There are three mutations, all found in the RBD of the spike, which may affect the virus or how our antibodies respond to an infection:

Scientists are only just beginning to understand how these individual changes may benefit SARS-CoV-2 and if they're increasing its infectivity and transmissibility or making them more prone to evading the immune response. There's emerging evidence that, alone, they may not be significant changes -- but when found in combination with other mutations, they may facilitate more worrying differences from "original" SARS-CoV-2.

N501Y is found in all variants and is one of the mutations scientists are most interested in.

The change from an asparagine (N) to a tyrosine (Y) has been shown to increase SARS-CoV-2's ability to bind to ACE2 and, in mice, increase its infectivity. It's currently unknown whether this one change would elicit any changes in the mortality or morbidity of COVID-19. However, the change does not seem to impact the ability for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to stimulate antibodies, according to preliminary research published on preprint server bioRxiv. That's good news.

In addition to N501Y, the B.1.351 and the P.1 variants have two more mutations: E484K and K417N/T, both of which change how sensitive the virus is to antibodies. These changes are slightly more concerning.

The two mutations are in regions of the RBD that antibodies can bind to. Researchers are concerned about E484K in particular and mutations at this site can reduce the neutralizing ability of antibodies more than 10 times. This could have the greatest impact on generating immunity, according to a preprint paper published on Jan. 4. Another preprint, published on Jan. 26, points to E484K as a key mutation in diminishing antibody activity against COVID-19. Worryingly, the mutation appears in 100% of cases infected with the P.1 variant -- and scientists are concerned it's allowing for a significant number of reinfections in Brazil.

The amino acid change at 417 is also interesting. In the South African B.1.351 variant, it's K417N. In the P.1 variant it's K417T. The amino acid change is different, but it appears to result in a similar effect -- improving evasion from antibodies. Preliminary studies reveal that position K417 is an important target of neutralizing antibodies, too, suggesting that both mutations could help the virus evade vaccine-mediated and naturally acquired immunity.

The UK government has also seen the E484K mutation in at least 43 cases, according to a recent technical briefing and the BBC.

These are merely three of the many mutations scientists are finding in the new variants -- how they all fit together in reality is much more complicated, and many more mutations that change SARS-CoV-2 are waiting to be discovered. For instance, a paper published on Jan. 28 in Cell discusses the N439K variant and its ability to evade antibodies.

Fortunately, scientists can get ahead of these variants by studying mutations that may occur in SARS-CoV-2. This is central to work performed by Starr and some of his colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "We've been generating these maps where we just survey all the possible mutations that could occur in the RBD," Starr says.

When a new variant arises, other researchers can look to these maps and see how the mutation affects the biochemical properties of the virus. Does it bind better? Worse? Is it more likely to evade the immune system? Starr explains this work has allowed for mapping how mutations might avoid treatments, like those used by Regeneron or Eli Lilly and can inform surveillance and response to emerging variants.

Maps like these, produced by the Bloom lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, guide research on mutations. At significant sites in the RBD, the team analyzes how mutants change the binding affinity. Blue is increased affinity, red is decreased. The N501Y mutant is a deep blue, showing how this mutant has increased binding affinity to ACE2.

Presently, there's not enough evidence to suggest the variants are causing more significant mortality or more severe disease -- which means public health advice is largely unchanged. Wearing masks, social distancing and good hand and respiratory hygiene are the best way to prevent the spread of the disease. The coronavirus has not mutated to overcome these measures.

A more pressing question is how the variants and their mutations could affect vaccines and treatments and whether they'll increase the rate of reinfection. Vaccines stimulate immunity by showing the body a harmless version of the virus, which can produce antibodies that roam our inner halls looking for invaders. These antibodies may not be adept at catching and neutralizing variants, as explained above -- but researchers don't have a great handle on the data at present.

Even so, vaccine manufacturers have begun to plan for variants that negatively affect the immune response. A report in Science on Jan. 26 highlights Moderna's efforts to look ahead and potentially change the formulation of their mRNA vaccine and provide "booster" shots that could protect against new variants that may arise.

On Jan. 28, biotech firm Novavax released news of results from late-stage clinical trials of its own vaccine candidate. The trial was conducted on patients in both the UK and South Africa, with mixed results. In the UK, Novavax claims its vaccine had around 89.3% efficacy, but in South Africa, where the more evasive variant is circulating, this efficacy dropped to 60%. This result is concerning and makes an urgent case to evaluate our current vaccines against the newly emerged variants.

Additionally, if the variants infect someone who has previously been infected by COVID-19, there's a chance the immune system will not mount an adequate response and block infection. There's limited data on this, though the P.1 variant has been detected in a case of reinfection in Brazil. The patient was exposed to an earlier variant of SARS-CoV-2, but then acquired P.1 and scientists believe they may have gone through a second period where they were able to transmit the disease again. More work is required to fully understand this phenomenon.

Ultimately, COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe and more new infections means more opportunities for SARS-CoV-2 to evolve. The virus can't evolve without us -- indeed, it can't survive without us. The simplest way to prevent new variants from emerging is preventing the virus from spreading at all. Our efforts will need to be focused on speeding up the vaccine rollout across the globe and continuing to practice the distancing and hygiene measures we're already adept at.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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New coronavirus variants are emerging across the globe: Everything we know - CNET

Nurses, firefighters, doctors, pharmacists and others have worked together to administer more than four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine statewide through Sunday.

According to a tweet from Gov. Greg Abbott, not only has the state surpassed four million doses, the last million doses were given out in just the last eight days.

Full coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it impacts you

Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services show more than 111,000 doses of vaccine are headed to North Texas this week, about one-third of the state's weekly allotment. Winter weather, however, may delay or cancel some vaccine clinics so be sure to check with your provider if you have an appointment to receive the vaccination.

Even more doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be available the following week when FEMA is expected to open vaccine supersites in Arlington and Dallas where federal officials plan to vaccinate more than 10,000 people per day starting Feb. 24.

The vaccines sent to the supersites are on top of the ones already being distributed around the area.

Want to Get on a Vaccine Waitlist?

As the state begins to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines for those in Phase 1A and 1B, county health departments have begun waitlists for those wish to be inoculated.

You can now register to recieve the vaccination in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties. Links are below:

Waitlist Links: Collin - Search Waitlist | Dallas | Denton | Tarrant

You do not need to be a resident of the county to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in that county -- registration is open to anyone in Texas. For those without internet access, Tarrant County is also taking registrations by phone at 817-248-6299. In Dallas County, call the DCHHS vaccine hotline at 1-855-IMMUNE9 (1-855-466-8639). In Denton County, call 940-349-2585.

The vaccine is currently only being administered to those who are part of Phase 1A and 1B, as outlined by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Those in Phase 1A are front-line healthcare workers or residents of long-term care facilities. Phase 1B includes those who are over the age of 65, or those over the age of 16 with a chronic medical condition that puts them at risk for severe illness.

The DSHS said Feb. 4 they are continuing to discuss when to expand vaccine availability to group 1C and whether or not that group will include teachers.

Once vaccinated, people are expected to get some level of protection within a couple of weeks after the first shot, but full protection may not happen until a couple of weeks after the second shot. Even when fully vaccinated, it's still possible to become infected by the virus since the vaccine does not offer 100% protection.

The Texas DSHS advises that the vaccine will not be readily available for the general public until late spring or early summer 2021.

Continue reading here:

More Than 4 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Have Been Given in Texas; Supersites Arrive Next Week - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

The superspreaders behind top COVID-19 conspiracy theories

By DAVID KLEPPER, FARNOUSH AMIRI and BEATRICE DUPUY

https://apnews.com/article/conspiracy-theories-iran-only-on-ap-media-misinformation-bfca6d5b236a29d61c4dd38702495ffe

As the coronavirus spread across the globe, so too did speculation about its origins. Perhaps the virus escaped from a lab. Maybe it was engineered as a bioweapon.

Legitimate questions about the virus created perfect conditions for conspiracy theories. In the absence of knowledge, guesswork and propaganda flourished.

College professors with no evidence or training in virology were touted as experts. Anonymous social media users posed as high-level intelligence officials. And from China to Iran to Russia to the United States, governments amplified claims for their own motives.

The Associated Press collaborated with the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab on a nine-month investigation to identify the people and organizations behind some of the most viral misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus.

Their claims were explosive. Their evidence was weak. These are the superspreaders.

FRANCIS BOYLE

WHO HE IS: A Harvard trained law professor at the University of Illinois, Boyle drafted a 1989 law banning biological weapons and has advised the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Palestinian Authority.

Boyle has no academic degree in virology or biology but is a longstanding critic of research on pathogens. He has claimed Israeli intelligence was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; that SARS, the swine flu and Ebola have been genetically modified; and that West Nile virus and Lyme disease escaped from a U.S. biowarfare lab. He has also claimed that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was involved in the spread of Zika.

COVID CLAIM: Boyle says the coronavirus is a genetically engineered bioweapon that escaped from a high-level lab in Wuhan, China. He maintains it shows signs of nanotechnological tinkering and the insertion of proteins from HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. He alleges that U.S. researchers helped create it, and that thousands of doctors, scientists, and elected leaders are conspiring to hide the truth.

Boyle promoted his claim in an email to a list of news organizations and personal contacts on Jan. 24, 2020. That same day, he was interviewed on a podcast called Geopolitics and Empire. That podcast was cited by a little-known Indian website, GreatGameIndia, and went viral, with Boyles comments picked up and featured in Iranian-state TV, Russian state media, and fringe websites in the U.S. and around the world. Hes since repeated his claims on Alex Jones show Infowars.

EVIDENCE? Boyle bases his argument on circumstantial evidence: the presence of a Biosafety Level 4 lab in Wuhan, the fact that other viruses have escaped from other labs in the past, and his belief that governments around the world are engaged in a secret arms race over biological weapons.

Biosafety Level 4 labs - or BSL4 labs - have the highest level of biosafety precautions.

It seemed to me that obviously, this came out of the Wuhan BSL 4, Boyle told The Associated Press, dismissing the accepted explanation that the virus emerged from the Wuhan market as completely preposterous.

A World Heath Organization team concluded it was extremely unlikely the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, and other experts have said the virus shows no signs of genetic manipulation.

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GREATGAMEINDIA

WHAT IT IS: A website that was an early promoter of the theory that the coronavirus was engineered.

Its Jan. 26, 2020, story on Coronavirus bioweapon-How China Stole the Coronavirus From Canada and Weaponized It was picked up by far-right financial blog Zero Hedge and shared to thousands of social media users before it was promoted by conservative website RedStateWatcher and received more than 6 million engagements.

COVID CLAIM: GreatGameIndia claims that the virus, which has now killed more than 2 million people worldwide, was first found in the lungs of a Saudi man and then sent to labs in the Netherlands and then Canada, where it was stolen by Chinese scientists. The article relies in part on speculation from Dany Shoham, a virologist and former lieutenant colonel in Israeli military intelligence.

Shoham was quoted discussing the possibility that COVID is linked to bioweapon research in a Jan. 26, 2020, article in the conservative U.S. newspaper The Washington Times. In that article, Shoham was quoted saying there was no evidence to support the idea that the virus has escaped from a lab, but GreatGameIndia did not include that context in its piece.

We do stand by our report, said website co-founder Shelley Kasli wrote in an email. In fact, recently Canadians released documents which corroborated our findings with Chinese scientists... A lot of information is still classified.

EVIDENCE? The coronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal, a World Health Organization panel announced this month, saying an alternate theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab was unlikely.

Americas top scientists have likewise concluded the virus is of natural origin, citing clues in its genome and its similarity to SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, who has been studying the virus since its genome was first recorded, has said it is clear that the virus was not engineered or accidentally released.

It is something that is clearly selected in nature, Racaniello said. There are two examples where the sequence tells us that humans had no hand in making this virus because they would not have known to do these things.

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THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON GLOBALIZATION

WHAT IT IS: The Montreal-based center publishes articles on global politics and policy, including a healthy dose of conspiracy theories on vaccines and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Its led by Michel Chossudovsky, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa and a conspiracy theorist who has argued the U.S. military can control the weather.

The center publishes authors from around the world many of whom have advanced baseless claims about the origins of the outbreak. In February, for instance, the center published an interview with Igor Nikulin suggesting the coronavirus was a U.S. bioweapon created to target Chinese people.

The centers website, globalresearch.ca., has become deeply enmeshed in Russias broader disinformation and propaganda ecosystem by peddling anti-U.S. conspiracy theories, according to a 2020 U.S. State Department report which found that seven of its supposed writers do not even exist but were created by Russian military intelligence.

COVID CLAIM: While the center has published several articles about the virus, one suggesting it originated in the U.S. caught the attention of top Chinese officials.

On March 12, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian retweeted an article published by the center titled: Chinas Coronavirus: A Shocking Update. Did The Virus Originate in the US?

This article is very much important to each and every one of us, he posted in English on Twitter. Please read and retweet it. COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US.

He also tweeted: It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation.

The story by Larry Romanoff, a regular author at the center, cites several debunked theories, including one that members of the U.S. military brought the virus to China during the Military World Games in fall 2019. Romanoff concludes that it has now been proven that the virus originated from outside of China, despite scientific consensus that it did.

EVIDENCE? The World Health Organization has concluded that the coronavirus emerged in China, where the first cases and deaths were reported. No evidence has surfaced to suggest the virus was imported into China by the U.S.

Chossudovsky and Romanoff did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment. Romanoffs biography lists him as a visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, but he is not listed among the universitys faculty. The university did not respond to an email asking about Romanoffs employment.

Romanoffs original article was taken down in the spring, but Zhaos tweet remains up.

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IGOR NIKULIN

WHO IS HE? A four-time failed political candidate, Nikulin is prominently quoted in Russian state media and fringe publications in the west as a biologist and former weapons inspector in Iraq who served on a U.N. commission on biological and chemical weapons in the 1990s.

COVID CLAIM: Nikulin argues the U.S. created the virus and used it to attack China. He first voiced the belief in a Jan. 20, 2020, story by Zvezda, a state media outlet tied to the Russian military. He appeared on Russian state TV at least 18 times between Jan. 27, 2020, and late April of that year.

Once the virus reached the U.S., Nikulin changed his theory, saying globalists were using the virus to depopulate the earth.

Nikulin has expressed support for weaponizing misinformation to hurt the U.S. in the past. On his website, he suggests claiming the U.S. created HIV as a way to weaken America from within. Russian intelligence mounted a similar 1980s disinformation campaign dubbed Operation INFEKTION.

If you prove and declare... that the virus was bred in American laboratories, the American economy will collapse under the onslaught of billions of lawsuits by millions of AIDS carriers around the world, Nikulin wrote on his website.

EVIDENCE? Nikulin offered no evidence to support his assertions, and there are reasons to doubt his veracity.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler, for whom Nikulin claims to have worked, said he had no memory of Nikulin, and that his story sounded sloppily fabricated, and not credible.

No U.N. records could be found to confirm his employment.

In an exchange with the AP over Facebook, Nikulin insisted his claims and background are accurate, though he said some records from U.N. work were destroyed in an American bombing during the Iraq invasion.

When told that Butler didnt know him, Nikulin responded This is his opinion.

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GREG RUBINI

WHO HE IS: Greg Rubini is the name of an internet conspiracy theorist who claims to have high-level contacts in intelligence and listed his location on Twitter as classified, until he was kicked off the platform. His posts have been retweeted thousands of times by supporters of QAnon, a conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the deep state and a secret sect of satanic pedophiles and cannibals.

COVID CLAIM: Rubini has tweeted that Dr. Anthony Fauci created the coronavirus and that it was used as a bioweapon to reduce the worlds population and undermine Trump.

EVIDENCE? Rubinis doesnt appear to be the intelligence insider that he pretends to be.

Buzzfeed attempted to track down Rubini last year and determined it is the alias of a 61-year-old Italian man who has worked in marketing and music promotions. A previous version of his Twitter bio indicates he is a fan of classic rock and the films of Stanley Kubrick.

Attempts to reach Rubini online and through business contacts were unsuccessful.

Rubini has bristled at efforts to verify his claims. When a social media user asked: My question to you @GregRubini is, Where and what is your proof? Rubini responded curtly: And my question is: why should I give it to you?

Twitter suspended Rubinis account in November 2020 for repeated violations of its policies.

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KEVIN BARRETT

WHO HE IS: A former lecturer on Islam at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Barrett left the university amid criticism for his claims that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were orchestrated by people linked to the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Barrett calls himself a professional conspiracy theorist, for want of a better term and has argued government conspiracies were behind the 2004 Madrid bombing, the 2005 London bombing, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.

COVID CLAIM: Barrett said he is 80% sure coronavirus was created by elements within the U.S. government as a bioweapon and used to attack China.

Iran was a secondary target, he has argued. Writing for Irans PressTV, he said the early outbreak in that country suggests that the Americans and/or their partners the Israelis... may have deliberately attacked Iran.

Barrett further detailed his views during an interview with the AP.

It seemed fairly obvious to me that the first hypothesis one would look at when something as extraordinary as this COVID pandemic hits, is that it would be a US bio-war strike, he said.

EVIDENCE? Barrett cited reports that the US warned its allies in November 2019 about a dangerous virus emerging from China. Barrett said thats long before authorities in China knew about the severity of the outbreak.

Official sources have denied issuing any warning. If the U.S. did know about the virus that soon, it was likely thanks to intelligence sources within China, which may have known about the virus as early as November 2019, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

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LUC MONTAGNIER

WHO HE IS: Montagnier is a world-renowned virologist who won the Nobel prize in 2008 for discovering HIV.

COVID CLAIM: During an April interview with the French news channel CNews, Montagnier claimed that the coronavirus did not originate in nature and was manipulated. Montagnier said that in the process of making the vaccine for AIDS, someone took the genetic material and added it to the coronavirus. Montagnier cites a retracted paper published in January from Indian scientists who had said they had found sequences of HIV in the coronavirus. AP made multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact Montagnier.

EVIDENCE: Experts who have looked at the genome sequence of the virus have said it has no HIV-1 sequences. In January, Indian scientists published a paper on bioRXIV, a repository for scientific papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a traditional scientific journal. The paper said that the scientists had found uncanny similarity of unique inserts in COVID-19 and HIV. Social media users picked up the paper as proof that the virus was engineered. As soon as it was published, the scientific community widely debunked the paper on social media. It was later withdrawn.

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SUPREME LEADER ALI KHAMENEI and HOSSEIN SALAMI

WHO THEY ARE: Khamenei is the second and current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has the final say on all matters of state, including the economy, military and health divisions.

Since being elected to office in 1981, Khamenei has maintained his skeptical view of the U.S. as Irans foremost enemy. The tensions between the two countries boiled over in 2018 when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions. At the time, Khamenei remarked, I said from the first day: Dont trust America.

Hossein Salami was appointed by Khamenei as commander of Irans Revolutionary Guard in April 2019. He leads the countrys paramilitary force that oversees Irans ballistic missile program and responds to threats from both inside and outside the country.

COVID CLAIM: Salami declared on March 5, 2020, that Iran was engaged in a fight against a virus that might be the product of an American biological attack. On those grounds, Salami ordered a Ground Force Biological Defense Maneuver to test the countrys ability to combat a biological attack. Beginning March 16, the Ground Force, in close collaboration with the Health Ministry, began holding nationwide biodefense drills.

Khamenei was among the first and most powerful world leaders to suggest the coronavirus could be a biological weapon created by the U.S. During his annual address on March 22 to millions of Iranians for the Persian New Year, Khamenei questioned why the U.S. would offer aid to countries like Iran if they themselves were suffering and accused of making the virus.

Khamenei went on to refuse U.S. assistance, saying possibly (U.S.) medicine is a way to spread the virus more. Last month, he refused to accept coronavirus vaccines manufactured in Britain and the U.S., calling them forbidden. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

EVIDENCE: There is no evidence that the U.S. created the virus or used it as a weapon to attack Iran.

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The superspreaders behind top COVID-19 conspiracy theories - The Associated Press

A medic holds Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin vials during the countrywide inoculation drive, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021.

Vishal Bhatnagar | NurPhoto | Getty Images

India could become the world's second largest Covid vaccine maker, and analysts say the country has the capacity to produce for both its own population and other developing countries.

Most of the world's vaccines have historically come from India. Even before Covid-19, the South Asian country produced up to about 60% of the world's vaccines and can do so at a relatively low cost.

"India has been a manufacturing hub for vaccines even before the pandemic, and should therefore be a strategic partner in the global inoculation against COVID-19," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a report last month.

Consulting firm Deloitte predicts that India will be second only to the U.S. in terms of coronavirus vaccine production this year. PS Easwaran, a partner at Deloitte India, said more than 3.5 billion Covid vaccines could be made in the country in 2021, compared to around 4 billion in the U.S.

Furthermore, companies in India are currently scaling up production to meet demand.

"We are expanding our annualized capacities to deliver 700 million doses of our intramuscular COVAXIN," said Indian firm Bharat Biotech, which developed a Covid vaccine together with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research.

Covaxin has been approved for emergency use in India, but has been mired in controversy due to criticism that there was a lack of transparency in its approval, and also because it hasn't published enough efficacy data.

Another vaccine known as Covishield in India and co-developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has also been granted emergency approval in India. It is being produced locally by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

According to Reuters, SII makes around 50 million doses of Covishield every month, and plans to increase production to 100 million doses a month by March.

Other Indian companies have agreed to produce vaccines for developers such as the Russian Direct Investment Fund and U.S. firm Johnson & Johnson. To be clear, these vaccine candidates have not been approved for use yet.

"Even without successful vaccine development from their own pipelines, available capacity provides opportunity to partner as contract manufacturers with approved vaccine developers to meet supply needs particularly for India and other [emerging markets]," the JPMorgan report said.

With a proven track record on the scale at which vaccines are produced, India should be able ramp up production to meet international demand as well.

Nissy Solomon

Centre for Public Policy Research

India's vaccines will likely be more suitable for developing countries, said K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

Some of the leading vaccines right now, such as the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, make use of messenger RNA technology (mRNA) which uses genetic material to trigger the body's own infection-fighting process.

Those vaccines require "stringent cold chain requirements" that will be difficult, or even "out of the realm of possibility," for most health systems, Reddy said.

Vaccines made in India are easier to transport and cheaper, putting the country in a better position than the U.S. and Europe when it comes to meeting demand in the developing world, he added.

India's huge production capacity also gives analysts confidence that the country can provide vaccines to other nations.

New Delhi has pledged to send vaccines to its neighboring countries, and has already supplied 15.6 million doses to 17 countries, according to Reuters.

"India's manufacturing capabilities are sufficient to meet domestic demand," said Nissy Solomon, a senior research associate at Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR).

"With a proven track record on the scale at which vaccines are produced, India should be able ramp up production to meet international demand as well," she told CNBC.

Solomon added that the country monitors domestic needs before making decisions on exports.

Bharat Biotech, for its part, said it is "fully prepared to meet the needs of India and global public health."

However, there will be challenges as the country seeks to meet the vaccine demand in India and beyond.

Jefferies equity analyst, Abhishek Sharma, wrote in a note that the rollout of vaccines in India has been slow. Even under the assumption that the speed of vaccinations will increase, Sharma estimates that only 22% of India's 1.38 billion population can be vaccinated in a year.

That's roughly the number of people India wants to inoculate by July or August.

"The supply of vaccines is not as much a problem as that of storage, distribution and vaccine uptake," said CPPR's Solomon.

"India lacks the capacity to store and distribute to the masses at a scale as big as this," she said, adding that the country should "strategically" choose vaccines that do not have to be stored at extreme temperatures.

I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed breakers which will slow down the program, rather than actual roadblocks which require the program to stop.

K Srinath Reddy

Public Health Foundation of India

The vaccines that India currently manufactures require normal refrigeration, but those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech need to be kept in extremely cold temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius(minus 94degreesFahrenheit), while those by Moderna have to be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus4degrees Fahrenheit).

The "real challenge" is in the sheer number of people who need to be vaccinated, said Reddy from the Public Health Foundation of India.

"This is the first time that an adult immunization program is being undertaken at such an unprecedented scale," he told CNBC.

He said immunization programs typically focus on vaccinating children and mothers, and logistics network may not be prepared to handle vaccines for entire populations.

Reddy suggested that existing cold chain for food products could be used for vaccines, and was hopeful that this problem could be resolved.

"I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed breakers which will slow down the program, rather than actual roadblocks which require the program to stop," he said.

See original here:

India is set to become a vital Covid vaccine maker perhaps second only to the U.S. - CNBC

Where is it being manufactured?

While there are some doses coming from Europe in the very first instance, the majority will be provided from the UK supply chain.

In an exclusive report on Jan 16, The Telegraph shared plans for a new 158m super-factory, which would produce 70m doses of an emergency vaccine on British soil- enough to vaccinate the entire nation against new coronavirus strains within four months. The factory will open later this year.

The MHRA has recommended the over-18s should receive two doses to be administered with an interval of between four and 12 weeks.

The Government announced on Dec 30 that it was delaying the second dose of every vaccine in order to reach as many people as possible in the first round of vaccinations.

Both the Oxford vaccine and the Pfizer/BioNTech jabwill be given to people as one shot, followed by another up to 12 weeks later, in order to extend some protection to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

This is not without controversy, however.

The government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) says unpublished data suggests the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is still effective with doses 12 weeks apart - but Pfizer has said it has tested its vaccine's efficacy only when the two doses were given up to 21 days apart.

The World Health Organization has recommended a gap of four weeks between doses - to be extended only in exceptional circumstances to six weeks.

In a further bid to accelerate vaccination, Boris Johnson has announced that 24-hour vaccine centres will be opened "as soon as we can, with the the head of NHS England confirming on Jan 17 that several hospitals will trial 24/7 vaccine centres within the next ten days.

Matt Hancock, however, told BBC Breakfast a 24/7 approach was unlikely to be "the major factor" in hitting the mid-February target, but he was"absolutely" behind it "if it helps speed things up".

Sources in Whitehall have said that plans are in place to pilot a 24-hour vaccination centre to test demand. This comes as manufacturing companies have told ministers that they will not yet be able to produce enough vaccines should 24-hour roll out be introduced across the country.

Supplying vaccinations overnight will speed up the rollout, and allow the Government to reach their goal of vaccinating 32 million people- 60 per cent of the UK adult population by Spring-which was announced on Jan 11.

There have been concerns that a Covid-19 vaccine will not work as well on elderly people, much like the annual flu jab.

However, data from the Oxford/AstraZeneca trial suggests there have been "similar" immune responses among younger and older adults.

The results show that the vaccine is better tolerated in older people compared with younger adults, and produces a similar immune response in old and young adults.

Pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers have now been given the green light to take either the Oxford and Pfizercoronavirus vaccines following an appropriate case-by-case risk evaluation with their healthcare practitioner.

This is a reversal of previous advice which was put in place as precautionary measure.

Traditionally pregnant women are not included in clinical trials, but following a review the MHRA are recommending pregnant women be given the opportunity to receive the vaccine as as there is no evidence they would be at risk.

Dr June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, said: "Our advice to date has been that given that in initial lack of evidence on a precautionary basis, use of a vaccine wasn't recommended in pregnancy and women with breastfeeding should not be given the vaccine.

"But now that we have reviewed further data that has become available, the Commission on Human medicines has advised that the vaccine can be considered for use in pregnancy when the potential benefits outweigh the risks following an individual discussion with every woman."

The rollout of the Pfizer vaccine was temporarily halted forthose who are known to suffer from severe allergic reactionsfollowing a handful of adverse events in the initial distribution of the vaccine.

There were some concerns that this would also apply to the Oxford jab.

However, following a review,the UK regulatory body has recommended both the Pfizer and Oxford vaccine are safe to administer to those with food or medicine allergies.

Only those who have a known history of reacting to vaccines in the past should proceed with caution.

Sir Munir Pirmohamed, clinical pharmacologist and geneticist, and chairmanof Commission on Human Medicine Expert Working Group, said. "We've come to the recommendation people with a known history of reacting to any specific ingredients of vaccine should not have it. But people with allergies to other medicines or food can have the vaccine."

Dr June Raine added that "at least 800,000 in the UK, probably a million and a half in the US" have already received the Pfizer vaccine.

There has been"no additional concerns and this gives us further assurance that the risk of anaphylaxis can be managed through standard clinical guidance and an observation period following vaccination of at least 15 minutes.

Read more:The priority list for the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines - and how they will be rolled out

Continued here:

Oxford Covid-19 vaccine Q&A: How effective is it, and how is it different to the Pfizer vaccine? - Telegraph.co.uk

BorisJohnson has promised there will be no return to lockdown after England emerges from the current round of restrictions, declaring that next weeks roadmap to recovery will set out cautious but irreversible steps back to normal life.

But the prime minister resisted Conservative backbench calls for firm deadlines to reopen shops, pubs and restaurants, saying that the 22 February document will offer only dates for the earliest possible relaxation of controls.

Urging Britons to be optimistic but also patient, Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: I hope there isnt that much longer to go now... I want this lockdown to be the last.

On a visit to a vaccination centre in southeast London earlier in the day, the PM sent clear signals that easing of restrictions will be slower than demanded by backbench critics, in the hope of avoiding a damaging return to lockdown.

He is coming under growing pressure from backbench Tories to restart the economy, with the Covid Recovery Group saying there will be no justification for unnecessary restrictions after over-50s get the jab in April.

But he insisted: Weve got to be very prudent. What we want to see is progress that is cautious but irreversible and I think thats what the public and people up and down the country will want to see.

The prime minister confirmed his 8 March target for reopening schools and said he was increasingly confident and optimistic about the possibility for lifting other restrictions even suggesting that rapid-turnaround tests could be used to allow the return of nightclubs and theatres.

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He hailed the completion of the first phase of vaccinations, covering over-70s, health and care workers and people with serious health conditions, as an unprecedented national achievement and said that 1 million over-65s were now receiving their invitations for a jab.

But he admitted he could offer no cast-iron guarantees that there would not be further setbacks, and said he wont hesitate to delay easements if infection rates rise.

NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the end of April had been set as the target to vaccinate the top nine priority groups, including all over-50s, but added that if vaccine supplies increase we think we can go faster.

Estimating that the next 10-11 weeks could see double the number of jabs as in the last 10-11 weeks including many second doses for those in the first wave of vaccinations he told the prime minister: Give us the tools the vaccines and we will finish the job.

Top medics and scientists will now be involved with senior ministers including Mr Johnson, health secretary Matt Hancock, chancellor Rishi Sunak and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove in a series of meetings over the coming days to thrash out Mondays blueprint for recovery.

Sources within government insisted that vital data on the effect of the vaccines on hospitalisations, deaths and transmission of the virus were still coming in, and stressed that no final decisions have been made. A final decision on the way forward could come as late as the weekend.

Mr Johnson himself said that reports suggesting that social contact curbs could be relaxed next month, shops reopened within weeks and self-catering holidays permitted by Easter should be taken with a pinch of salt.

When I explain what we are going to do, you will hear it directly from me, he promised.

The PMs promise of an irreversible move away from restrictions sparked alarm among public health experts, who warned that Covid-19 could still flare up even if over-50s are vaccinated as planned.

Latest data showed that the 9,765 postive tests reported on Monday remain higher than in September, while more people are in hospital than at the peak of the first wave last April. Some 230 deaths were reported on Monday, with the seven-day total down more than 26 per cent on the previous week.

Public health professor Gabriel Scally, of Bristol University, told The Independent that the UK remains far from the nirvana of being able to relax its guard.

Opening up retail and hospitality risked a spike in transmission among non-vaccinated groups, increasing the likelihood of dangerous new variants emerging, he warned, pointing to reports of seven worrisome mutations detected in the US in recent days.

A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street

Photos Angela Christofilou

Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread

Angela Christofilou

An empty street in the heart of Chinatown

Angela Christofilou

People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown

Angela Christofilou

A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown

Angela Christofilou

Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance

Angela Christofilou

A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus

Angela Christofilou

Making sure I stay two-meters apart DArblay Street, Soho

Angela Christofilou

A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice

Angela Christofilou

A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden

Angela Christofilou

As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street

Angela Christofilou

A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area

Angela Christofilou

Communities have been coming together in a time of need

Angela Christofilou

A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day

Angela Christofilou

A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced

Angela Christofilou

During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown

Angela Christofilou

Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time

Angela Christofilou

Stay Safe Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures

Angela Christofilou

Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown

Angela Christofilou

There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops

Angela Christofilou

Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day

Angela Christofilou

Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up

Angela Christofilou

Empty streets around Soho

Angela Christofilou

A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home

Angela Christofilou

Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet

Angela Christofilou

Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak

Angela Christofilou

Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced

Angela Christofilou

A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road

Angela Christofilou

A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub

Angela Christofilou

And while older age-groups may be protected from serious illness and death, younger people still risk being struck down by long Covid.

OK, numbers of cases are coming down, but we were up at the top of Everest and it is a long way down, said Prof Scally. We are still in a really dangerous situation and yet again they are talking about opening up.

When the prime minister says irreversible, why would anyone believe him, given his appalling track record on foreseeing the development of the pandemic so far?

Rather than talking about dates for reopening, ministers should be ramping up the test and trace system and providing better support for those told to isolate, as well as funding extra space to allow better distancing and ventilation in schools, he said.

Former minister Harriett Baldwin told The Independent that data on vaccine effectiveness appeared to show it outstripping expectations.

The PM is right to take into account the best information from the scientists, but this is all going to schedule, so we could be able to lift everything by 1 May if things continue at this cracking pace, she said. We are keen to give the economy the best shot in the arm it can have, which is to have certainty about dates.

Mr Johnson again ruled out the issuing of vaccine passports for domestic use, but said that documentation to allow international travel was very much in the mix down the road, adding: I think that is going to happen.

The travel industry called for work on the scheme to be stepped up to allow it to be operational by the summer holiday season.

Mark Tanzer, chief executive of travel agents trade body Abta, said: The current restrictions have not only stopped travel but have dented peoples confidence in booking.

We believe that there should be a plan for the starting up of travel again and the government needs to be working on that now, not waiting till the summer. Were confident that if thats put in place then people will be able to travel and they can book now for summer holidays.

Continued here:

Boris Johnson says move to ease lockdown will be irreversible - The Independent

In a study posted on Sunday that is yet to be peer-reviewed, researchers have reported seven new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the US. Researchers are tracking virus variants since some of them might be more deadly than the original virus, they may be more easily transmissible and can have repercussions on the effectiveness of vaccines.

B.1.1.7: This variant emerged in the UK and may be associated with an increased risk of death compared with other variants, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said.

B.1.351: This variant emerged independently from the UK variant and was first identified in South Africa. It was also reported in the US by the end of January 2021.

P.1: This variant emerged in Brazil and is known to have 17 unique mutations. Three of them are in the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein (the spike protein, which protrudes from the surface of the virus is one of the key reasons that SARS-CoV-2 has been able to spread so rapidly and therefore, any mutations that affect the spike protein are important to understand).

The authors of the recent study say that in areas where the prevalence of the virus is high, selection pressures might have favoured the emergence of variants that evade neutralising antibodies (the proteins that prevent the virus from infecting once it is inside the body). The seven new lineages noted by the researchers have all evolved a mutation in the same genetic letter, which affects the way the virus enters the human cells. But it is not yet clear if this mutation makes these new variants more contagious and more dangerous.

Further, there are likely more variants of the virus across the world, but only genome sequencing can help determine that, which is not happening sufficiently at the moment. In a document published in late December 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare outlined some steps it will take to increase and expand genome sequencing of the virus. One of the steps outlined includes sending five per cent of the positive samples to ten regional genome sequencing labs spread across the country.

Evolution helps organisms to change in response to certain changes in the environment. The goal here is to help the organism adapt so it can survive. In the Naked Ape trilogy, zoologist Desmond Morris writes about how humans have adapted to their changing environment over the course of millions of years of evolution. For instance, he considers the effects of urban city life on humans. Morris argues that despite city life being lonely and more stressful, people flock to them because a city, acts as a giant stimulus-centre where our great inventiveness can flourish and develop.

Since viruses can only replicate within a host cell, their evolution is influenced by their hosts. This means that the virus will mutate in order to evade the defenses that its hosts put up for it.

The book, Medical Microbiology says that as compared to DNA viruses, RNA viruses (SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus) have much higher mutation rates, probably one mutation per genome copy. Mutations might be deleterious, neutral and occasionally, they may be favourable. The book notes that only those mutations that do not interfere with the essential virus functions can persist in a given population.

An article in Nature says that compared to the HIV virus that causes AIDS, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is changing much more slowly as it spreads.

But like humans influence the evolution in viruses, viruses too, have shaped the way humans have evolved. In a 2016 study published in the journal eLife, the authors note that the constant battle between pathogens and their human hosts has long been recognised as a key driver of evolution. In this study, the authors note that about 30 per cent of all protein (proteins help cells to perform their functions) adaptations in humans since their divergence from chimpanzees have been driven by viruses. Significantly, during epidemics or pandemics, the population targeted by a virus will either go extinct, or it will adapt.

Once a virus has entered the body of its host, in order to infect the host it starts replicating, which means making copies of its entire genetic sequence. But every once in a while, the virus makes mistakes during replication. A blog entry on the website of Harvard University, explains that these mistakes, typically a change in a single letter (each coronavirus has about 30,000 RNA letters) among the thousands in the viruss sequence, might change the properties of the viruss proteins and therefore, change its capabilities. This change is called a mutation and if it is a favourable mutation, it can give the virus a new ability that promotes its reproduction, which helps the virus to become more widespread over generations.

It is likely that such kinds of favourable mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus are giving rise to emerging variants. For instance, the UK variant is known to be about 25-40 per cent more infectious than the original virus.

In a comment in the journal Nature, two immunologists, Dennis Burton and Eric Topol have called for an alternative approach to pandemic preparedness. In this approach, resources should be spent on developing pan-virus vaccines that can provide immunisation against multiple strains of a virus.

This is necessary in the context of SARS-CoV-2, since it is already evolving and initial evidence shows that some of its strains are more easily transmissible, implying that as more variants of the virus emerge, vaccines that already exist could be less effective against them.

While there are hundreds of coronaviruses that are known to infect animals such as pigs, camels, bats and cats, till date, seven types of coronaviruses have been identified to infect humans. In humans, the viruses usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses such as the common cold. In the last two decades, however, more aggressive coronaviruses have emerged that are capable of causing serious illness and even death in humans. These include SARS-CoV, MERS and now SARS-CoV-2.

The first coronavirus was found to infect humans in 1965, when scientists DJ Tyrrell and ML Bynoe isolated a strain of the virus called B814 from the nasal washing of a male child who had symptoms of common cold.

Vaccine development for the first four human coronaviruses, which include HCoV-229E (one of the first strains to be described in the mid-1960s), HCoV-OC43 (discovered between mid-late 1960s), HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-HKU1 (NL63 and HKU1 both discovered in Hong Kong in early 2005) was not a priority since these cause only mild illness. It was only two decades ago when SARS-CoV was emerging in China around 2003 that the need to develop a vaccine was felt since it was the first example of a human coronavirus that could cause serious illness.

Writing in the Journal of Biomedical Science, authors note that while various forms of vaccines have been developed and tested in preclinical models for SARS and MERS, none of them have been approved by the FDA.

The answer potentially lies in the spike protein of the virus, a number of which protrude from the surface of the virus forming a crown, which gives the virus its name. The spike protein makes it easier for the virus to bind with the ACE2 receptor (both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 bind to this receptor) in human cells, after which the virus starts infecting its host. But this spike protein, which makes transmission easier, is also one reason that vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 have been developed at a faster pace compared to the previous two human coronaviruses SARS and MERS, for which an approved vaccine still does not exist.

In particular, vaccine design for SARS-CoV-2 has been made faster because the spike protein offers a larger area for the vaccine to target, making it easier for it to trigger the bodys immune system into making neutralising antibodies, the proteins that prevent the spike protein from binding with the receptor and initiating infection.

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Explained: Are new Covid-19 variants detected in the US more contagious? - The Indian Express

A 78-year-old woman died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine at Cal Poly Pomona, but her death is not believed to be related to the vaccine, health officials said Saturday. The woman died Friday, according to Kaiser Permanente, which operates the vaccination site at the Pomona campus.

(The patient) received an injection of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer around noon. While seated in the observation area after the injection, the patient complained of feeling discomfort and while being evaluated by medical personnel, she lost consciousness, said Dr. Michael Morris, physician director of Kaiser Permanente Southern California's COVID-19 Vaccination Program.

Vaccine hesitancy in the Black and brown community is giving many of those in the most vulnerable populations pause before signing up for a COVID-19 vaccine. Physicians Jubril Oyeyemi and David Hayes-Bautista discuss how to combat vaccine fear in those communities.

Paramedics on scene began CPR almost immediately and continued, but she ultimately could not be revived. Her cause of death has not been determined; however, there were no signs or symptoms of a severe allergic or anaphylactic reaction. Her family has shared that she had a history of heart- related illness, Morris continued.

The woman was accompanied by her husband of 57 years, who also received a vaccination. Kaiser officials said that despite the tragedy, he still intends to receive his second dose of the vaccine in a few weeks. Kaiser said the site will remain open and vaccinations will continue as long as supplies are available.

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78-Year-Old Woman Dies After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine; No Link Suspected - NBC Southern California

Illinois plans to expand the list of people eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations in Phase 1B of its rollout beginning next Thursday.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the state expects to add people with "a high-risk medical condition" or comorbidity. The list includes those with cancer, diabetes, obesity, women who are pregnant, and those with several other conditions.

"In light of a steadily increasing federal vaccine supply, Illinois is making plans to expand Phase 1B eligibility on February 25 to people who have comorbidities and underlying conditions as defined by the CDC," the governor's office said in a release. "In addition, Illinois will also prioritize individuals with disabilities."

The list of qualifying high-risk medical conditions (which is subject to change) includes:

Those who are under 65 and live with comorbidities, such as cancer survivors or those living with heart disease, have an elevated risk of serious complications or death if they contract COVID-19," Pritzker said in a statement. "Illinois is moving forward in accordance with guidance from the CDC to expand our eligible population as supply allows, getting us closer to the point when the vaccine is widely available to all who want it. In the meantime, I encourage all Illinoisans to wear our masks and follow the mitigations so that more of our neighbors are healthy and alive when its their turn in the vaccination line.

The expansion applies to those 16 and older who weren't otherwise covered in previous eligibility categories, the state said, adding that it plans to work with local health departments and other providers as eligibility increases.

For a complete look at where and how you can make an appointment in Illinois or where you can receive vaccine information for your area, clickhere.

According to Illinois and U.S. medical experts, pregnant women were excluded from trials for the vaccine, so there had been little information on the vaccines' safety for that group.

Earlier this month, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said there have been "no red flags" seen in the more than 10,000 pregnant women who have received vaccine shots so far.

Guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that if a woman is part of a group recommended to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and is pregnant, she may choose to be vaccinated. A discussion with her healthcare provider can help her make an informed decision, the agency stated.

Already, more than 3.2 million Illinois residents are eligible for vaccinations under Phase 1B, which includes people age 65 years and older as well as "frontline essential workers."

Here's a look at who is already included, in addition to health care workers and those in long-term care facilities who were eligible in Phase 1A:

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Here's Who Will Be Eligible for the COVID Vaccine in Illinois Starting Next Week - NBC Chicago