Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

Jun 19, 2020 Jim Franco Covid-19 Updates, News

ALBANY Its been 100 days since County Executive Dan McCoy held his first COVID-19 press conference, and despite businesses opening back up and mass protests throughout the Capital District, the numbers are looking good.

But, it can be a double edged sword if you consider many states are seeing record breaking numbers of new cases.

The virus is still here. It has not gone away. Things are going in the right direction but it is still here, McCoy said while imploring people to keep following the protocols of wearing masks and social distancing. Why hasnt it spiked here now that we are opening back up and there are protests going on? Its because of you doing the right things.

As of Friday, there were 1,847 positive cases in Albany County, an increase of six. There are 138 under mandatory quarantine with 1,811 who tested positive and recovered.

Six people are in the hospital for a rate of .32 percent, which is the lowest since mid-March, the beginning of the pandemic.

The eight-county Capital District Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Greene, Columbia, Warren and Washington began Phase III on Wednesday with restaurants having the ability to serve in-house and personal care businesses like nail and tanning salons and tattoo parlors opening their doors.

All businesses now open still have to follow the state mandated protocols like wearing masks, social distancing and sanitization.

Enforcement will fall to the localities, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who also gave the State Liquor Authority the power to suspend liquor licenses for businesses not following the regulations.

I know the struggle a lot of the restaurants and bars have had to come back online. To get the correct guidance. To train yourself and train workers and to train your patrons when they come in, McCoy said. Its tough, but please continue to follow the guidelines put out by the state of New York. We dont want to come in and shut you down.

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100 days of COVID-19 and the numbers look good - Spotlight News

In response to the current crises, and underlying societal challenges, facing our country and the world, Princeton University has announced an initial series of new funding initiatives.These opportunities represent thefirst, immediate steps in an ongoing effort to bring to bear the research, teaching, and service-focused mission of the University on the critical issues raised by the global pandemic and racial injustice. Additional steps will be announced in the coming weeks and months.

The funding will support:

The Office of the Dean of the College has announced a special call for proposals for the 250th Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, the Universitys principal resource for supporting curricular innovation.

For this rapid cycle of funding, and with the support of the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity and the Office of Information Technology, the 250th Fund is accepting proposals from faculty to accomplish one (or more) of the following:

The Office of the Dean of the Faculty has announced a funding opportunity for faculty-led projects that engage undergraduate students in research or scholarly work that addresses some aspect of racism, including systemic racism, racial injustice or anti-racism.Proposals may be submitted from all faculty, including lecturers and instructors.Due to the significant disruption of employment opportunities for University students from COVID-19, student involvement in the projects is to be encouraged as a critical component.

Examples of projects could include how public policy can address systemic racism, the effects of race on poverty levels, or an art project representing racial injustice. The proposals should give a brief description (no more than two pages) of the project, including rationale and potential impact, a budget, and the faculty and (where known) the students involved.

This funding will be available immediately, and proposals will be accepted now through Aug. 31. For more information on preparing and submitting proposals, visit the Office of the Dean of the Faculty website.

In response to persistent, recent and continuing acts of systemic racism, the John H. Pace, Jr. '39 Center for Civic Engagement is launching Princeton RISE (Recognizing Inequities and Standing for Equality), a grant initiative to address inequalities and injustices. Now through June 22, all matriculated Princeton University undergraduate and graduate students can apply to receive a $1,500 grant to:

With so many students having summer internships canceled due to COVID-19, this is an opportunity for students to learn and engage in meaningful and timely work this summer. The Princeton RISE grant commitment is structured as follows:

The Pace Center is also soliciting project placements for students to address racial justice through a part-time internship or project this summer in the Princeton-Trenton area, across the United States, and internationally from community partners, faculty, staff and alumni.

For more information and application information, visit the Pace Center website.

The Princeton Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities, in conjunction with several campus partners, has awarded summer digital research grants that deal directly with the urban experience under COVID-19, including research that examines mobility, migration and cities during the pandemic, as well as the experience of lockdown and social distancing. Another concentration is in race, ethnicity and equity in the city: inequality and development in the Global South, black entrepreneurship, systemic discrimination in Americas urban centers, structural violence in Philadelphia, poverty and racial segregation. Many of the grants focus on ethnographic research and the study of place and space, in all parts of the globe.

The call for proposals was developed in recognition of the fact that student internships, employment and research travel were curtailed due to COVID-19. The research grants will support 71 faculty-student collaborations, and independent graduate and undergraduate student projects. Twenty-three departments and programs are represented by award recipients.

Given the number of independent research proposals and the convergence of methods exploration, the Princeton-Mellon Initiative will convene several thematic working groups and methods workshops during the summer.

To fund this research the Princeton-Mellon Initiative repurposed its spring budget and raised support from campus partners. The summer grants are made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Metropolis Project of Princeton University, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Anthropology, and the Princeton Environmental Institute.

For a list of grant projects, visit the Mellon Initiative website.

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Princeton announces funding for teaching, research, service initiatives to address COVID-19 challenges, racial injustice - Princeton University

MEXICO CITYGuillermo Rojas was a healthy 58-year-old who liked to lift weights or go for a run most days. In early May, the father of two fell ill with Covid-like symptoms. A week later, he was dead.

He was healthy and young, said his daughter Jannete, 31. He shouldnt have died.

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads from the hardest hit...

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As Covid-19 Hits Developing Countries, Its Victims Are Younger - The Wall Street Journal

A recent article said the desperation to prop up economies struggling under the weight of COVID-19 could result in a weaker vaccine.

Although a knock-out blow vaccine would be ideal, early vaccines may carry limitations, said Robin Shattock, an Imperial College London professor leading development of an experimental shot, according toBloomberg.

FDA REVOKES EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION FOR CHLOROQUINE, HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE

Is that protection against infection? Shattock told the news company. Is it protection against illness? Is it protection against severe disease? Its quite possible a vaccine that only protects against severe disease would be very useful.

A vaccine showing an impact on disease, but not infection,could be used, the outlet wrote.

Vaccines need to protect against disease, not necessarily infection, said Dennis Burton, an immunologist and vaccine researcher at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

Such a vaccine may lead to complacency in areas fatigued from lockdowns, one drug development expert warned.

CORONAVIRUS FEARS PROMPT CONCERNED MOTHERS-TO-BE TO SEEK OTHER BIRTH OPTIONS: 'IT WAS DEFINITELY FEAR-BASED RESEARCH'

My guess would be that the day after someone gets immunized, theyre going to think, I can go back to normal. Everything will be fine, said Michael Kinch, associate vice chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. Theyre not going to necessarily realize that they might still be susceptible to infection.

The World Health Organization on June 9 listed 136 vaccine candidates, 10 of which were under clinical evaluation. (iStock)

The outlet noted that few, if any, vaccines are 100 percent effective in all recipients. The World Health Organization (WHO) on June 9listed 136 vaccine candidates, 10 of which were categorized under clinical evaluation.

According to Michael Felberbaum, a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration,the agency would potentially consider an indication related to prevention of severe disease, if data supported benefits of vaccination. For licensure, a vaccine would not be required to protect against infection, he said.

FLORIDA SEES OVER 2,000 NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES FOR SECOND STRAIGHT DAY

In a June 11 update from Moderna, Inc. for example, the company said its late-stage trials primary endpoint is the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 disease; key secondary endpoints include prevention of infection and severe COVID-19 disease.

According to Kinch, there will never be a truly perfect vaccine, however follow-ups on imperfect yet practical vaccines are a possibility.

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Researchers around the world are developing more than 135 vaccines against the coronavirus. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year.

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Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March, but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus.

Here is the status of all the vaccines that have reached trials in humans, along with a selection of promising vaccines still being tested in cells or animals.

The development cycle of a vaccine, from lab to clinic.

PRECLINICAL TESTING: Scientists give the vaccine to animals such as mice or monkeys to see if it produces an immune response.

PHASE I SAFETY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to a small number of people to test safety and dosage as well as to confirm that it stimulates the immune system.

PHASE II EXPANDED TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to hundreds of people split into groups, such as children and the elderly, to see if the vaccine acts differently in them. These trials further test the vaccines safety and ability to stimulate the immune system.

PHASE III EFFICACY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to thousands of people and wait to see how many become infected, compared with volunteers who received a placebo. These trials can determine if the vaccine protects against the coronavirus.

APPROVAL: Regulators in each country review the trial results and decide whether to approve the vaccine or not. During a pandemic, a vaccine may receive emergency use authorization before getting formal approval.

WARP SPEED: The U.S. governments Operation Warp Speed program has selected five vaccine projects to receive billions of dollars in federal funding and support before theres proof that the vaccines work.

COMBINED PHASES: Another way to accelerate vaccine development is to combine phases. Some coronavirus vaccines are now in Phase I/II trials, for example, in which they are tested for the first time on hundreds of people.

Vaccines that use one or more of the coronaviruss own genes to provoke an immune response.

PHASE IIWARP SPEEDModernas mRNA vaccine dazzled the stock market in May with Phase I data on just eight people, only to see its stock price drop when experts had a lukewarm reaction to the results. Part of Operation Warp Speed, the American company is eyeing Phase III trials in July and hopes to have vaccines ready by early 2021.

PHASE I PHASE IIWARP SPEEDThe German company BioNTech has entered into collaborations with Pfizer, based in New York, and the Chinese drug maker Fosun Pharma to develop their mRNA vaccine. In May, Pfizer announced human trials for the vaccine. Another beneficiary of Operation Warp Speed, Pfizer hopes to have a few million doses for emergency use in the fall if all goes well in the trials.

PHASE I PHASE IIImperial College London researchers have developed a self-amplifying RNA vaccine, which boosts production of a viral protein to stimulate the immune system. They began Phase I/II trials on June 15 and have partnered with Morningside Ventures to manufacture and distribute the vaccine through a new company called VacEquity Global Health.

PHASE IIn May, the American company Inovio published a study showing that their DNA-based vaccine produced antibodies in mice. Phase I trials are underway in the United States and will start in South Korea at the end of June.

PRECLINICALIn March, the Trump administration tried to entice CureVac to move its research from Germany to the United States. The company has not yet started human trials for Covid-19, but a rabies vaccine based on the same RNA design passed Phase I safety trials in January. The company said its German facility can make hundreds of millions of vaccines a year.

Vaccines that use a virus to deliver coronavirus genes into cells and provoke an immune response.

PHASE II PHASE IIIWARP SPEEDA vaccine in development by the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is based on a chimpanzee adenovirus called ChAdOx1. The vaccine is beginning Phase II/III testing in England and Brazil. Supported by Operation Warp Speed, the project may deliver emergency vaccines by October. In June, AstraZeneca said their total manufacturing capacity stands at two billion doses.

PHASE IIThe Chinese company CanSino Biologics is testing a vaccine based on an adenovirus called Ad5, in partnership with the Institute of Biology at the countrys Academy of Military Medical Sciences. In May they published a paper in the Lancet, the first time Phase I trial data from any Covid-19 vaccine appeared in a scientific journal.

PRECLINICALWARP SPEEDResearchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston are testing an adenovirus called Ad26 in monkeys. Johnson & Johnson, picked by Operation Warp Speed, announced in June that they would start Phase I/II trials in late July.

PRECLINICALThe Swiss company Novartis will manufacture a vaccine based on a gene therapy treatment developed by the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital. A virus called an adeno-associated virus delivers coronavirus gene fragments into cells. Phase I trials are set to begin in late 2020.

PRECLINICALWARP SPEEDThe American company Merck announced in May it would develop a vaccine from vesicular stomatitis viruses, the same approach it successfully used to produce the only approved vaccine for Ebola. The company is partnering with IAVI.

Vaccines that use a coronavirus protein or a protein fragment to provoke an immune response.

PHASE I PHASE IIIn May, the Maryland-based Novavax started a Phase I/II trial on a vaccine made up of microscopic particles carrying fragments of coronavirus proteins. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is investing $384 million in the project.

PHASE IClover Biopharmaceuticals has developed a vaccine containing a protein from coronaviruses. The vaccine would be taken in conjunction with a so-called adjuvant, made by British drugmaker GSK, to further stimulate the immune system.

PRECLINICALAfter the SARS epidemic in 2002, Baylor College of Medicine researchers began developing a vaccine that could prevent a new outbreak. Despite promising early results, support for the research disappeared. Because the coronaviruses that cause SARS and Covid-19 are very similar, the researchers are reviving the project in partnership with the Texas Childrens Hospital.

PRECLINICALA vaccine in development by the University of Pittsburgh, called PittCoVacc, is a skin patch tipped with 400 tiny needles made of sugar. When placed on the skin, the needles dissolve and deliver virus proteins into the body.

PRECLINICALA vaccine from Australias University of Queensland delivers viral proteins altered to draw a stronger immune response. In June, the university and the company CSL announced a partnership to start Phase I trials, which could lead to millions of doses a year starting in 2021. GSK is providing an adjuvant to further stimulate the immune system.

PRECLINICALThe French company Sanofi will produce viral proteins using engineered viruses that grow inside insect cells. GSK will supplement these proteins with adjuvants that stimulate the immune system. Sanofi has said it could produce at least 600 million doses a year if the vaccine succeeds in trials.

PRECLINICALVaxarts vaccine is an oral tablet containing different virus proteins. In June, the American company announced it was preparing for Phase I trials in summer 2020.

Vaccines that use a weakened or inactivated version of the coronavirus to provoke an immune response.

PHASE I PHASE IIThe private Chinese company Sinovac Biotech is testing an inactivated vaccine called CoronaVac. On June 13 the company announced that Phase I/II trials on 743 volunteers found no severe adverse effects and produced an immune response. Sinovac is preparing Phase III trials in China and Brazil and is building a facility to manufacture up to 100 million doses annually.

PHASE I PHASE IIThe state-owned Chinese company Sinopharm has started Phase I/II trials on two inactivated vaccine viruses. The company has announced it has built a facility in Beijing to make up to 200 million vaccines per year.

PHASE IResearchers at the Institute of Medical Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, which has invented vaccines for polio and hepatitis A, are running a Phase I trial of an inactivated virus vaccine for Covid-19.

Vaccines already in use for other diseases that may also protect against Covid-19.

PHASE IIIThe Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine was developed in the early 1900s as a protection against tuberculosis. The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Australia is conducting a Phase III trial, and several other trials are underway to see if the vaccine partly protects against the coronavirus.

Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee.

Sources: World Health Organization, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Center for Biotechnology Information, New England Journal of Medicine

Link:

Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker - The New York Times

As Austin enters Stage 4 of its risk-based level, city and county leaders announce revised orders in order to slow the spread.

AUSTIN, Texas Orders in Austinand Travis County were revised June 15 as Austin's coronavirus hospitalization average rises.

At a June 15 press conference, Austin and Travis County leaders adopted revised orders in order to slow the spread of cases and the hospitalization rate. In addition to the orders, leaders are asking citizens to continue to practice good hygiene, to practice social distancing and to wear face coverings.

Mayor Adler tweeted that the City extended the "Stay Home, Work Safe" order to Aug. 15. The current order was set to expire on June 15.

The order extension continues the provisions from the previous order, which include wearing fabric face coverings when in public, socially-distancing six feet away from others and practicing excellent hygiene by "washing your hands with soap for 20 seconds, cleaning high touch surfaces, covering sneezes, etc.

Austin Health Authority Mark Escott, Mayor Steve Adler and the special assistant to Judge Sam Biscoe and Sarah Eckhardt discussed the changes at the 2:30 p.m. press briefing.

Escott said there was a 90% increase in the number of new cases from Saturday to Sunday from the previous week. He also said the doubling time transitioned from 44 days to 22.5 days on June 14. There has been a substantial increase in overall hospitalizations, ICU admissions and ventilator use in the Austin area, according to Escott.

Escott emphasized that the current hospital capacity is OK, but changes must be made to flatten the curve once again. He said that those in "at-risk categories" should only go out when absolutely essential. Escott said the same advice applies to those who live in the same household as those in "at-risk categories."

Escott said the City is recommending that people do not attend social gatherings with more than 10 people.

Eckhardt said the governor has taken away local leader's abilities to enforce COVID-19 restrictions. However, she said she knows that the Austin-Travis County community is ready and willing to take the necessary steps to keep everyone safe and healthy.

Eckhardt said that models from the University of Texas show that if people continue social distancing and wearing masks, the number of deaths could be cut in half.

Mayor Adler said Stage 4 of the virus has come much faster than he expected. Adler said this spike is a reminder that the coronavirus is still around.

"By the individual choices that we make, and what we do over the coming few weeks, we get to decide for ourselves how important it is for us to protect those people, our neighbors, in our community," said Adler.

Adler said the choice between reopening the economy and staying safe is a false choice. He said it's possible to reopen the economy while maintaining 6-foot distancing and wearing masks.

Adler said the City is adding a provision in the orders asking those over 65 to not gather in groups more than a couple of people. The order encourages businesses able to reopen under the governor's executive orders to operate at minimal indoor capacity and to maximize social distancing as much as possible.

Attorney and Pflugerville Councilman, Rudy Matayer, said without enforcement power, the order is a challenge.

"There is no punitive aspect to not following these orders and because of that, the only thing we have to rely on, is our basic social contract with each other, meaning that we care for each other as people in general and they deserve respect," said Matayer.

City and County leaders said that's why it's important for the community to be involved in flattening the curve.

"This virus is going to be with us for a while," Adler said. "Our ability to be able to live lives as normally as we can and protect against the virus comes down to two really simple things: Just how inconvenient is it really to put on a face covering, just how hard is it really to try to maintain 6-foot distancing."

Thirty new hospital admissions were reported on June 14, bringing Austin's seven-day moving average to 20. That means that Austin is now in Stage 4 of its risk-based levels. There are five total levels.

Stage 4 recommends that Austinites do the following in order to stop the spread of the virus:

In a letter to the public over the weekend, Mayor Adler warned of the impending hospitalization surge and said the city's hospitals appear to be headed toward an "overwhelming surge in admissions."

See more here:

City of Austin 'Stay Home, Work Safe' order extended to Aug. 15 after surge in hospitalizations - KVUE.com

Information on COVID-19 case rates would be most reliable and useful with mandated, widespread, and regular testing of both residents and staff. Case rates should be reported separately for those in a nursing home for a short, post-hospital, rehabilitation stay (who might enter the nursing home COVID-19 positive) and those in a nursing home for a longer-term residential stay (who are more likely to acquire the infection in the nursing home). Death rates should be risk adjusted to account for differences in age and other health conditions. And all reports should be based on audited and verified data to prevent inaccuracies, and truly reflect a nursing homes ability to prevent, manage, and treat COVID-19 infections.

The rest is here:

Data on COVID-19 in nursing homes should be handled with caution l Expert Opinion - The Philadelphia Inquirer

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 2 million Americans since it arrived on U.S. shores in January, and more than 100,000 of them have died of COVID-19. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers the most comprehensive look to date at how Americans have been affected by the virus.

The analysis is based on more than 1.3 million patients who became sick in the U.S. between Jan. 22 and May 30. These patients came from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. All of their infections were confirmed with laboratory tests that look for the viruss RNA.

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As of May 30, there were 403.6 cases of COVID-19 for every 100,000 people in the U.S. Women and girls had a slightly higher incidence (406 cases per 100,000) than men and boys (401.1 cases per 100,000).

The number of new cases per day reached its peak on April 12, when 31,994 people had their coronavirus infections confirmed. COVID-19 deaths peaked nine days later on April 21, when 2,856 people died. (Both figures are seven-day moving averages, which incorporate data from the current day and the previous six days to smooth out expected spikes and dips.)

By May 30, the number of new cases per day had dropped to 19,913, and daily deaths were down to 950.

As seen previously, the risk of infection increased with age. There were 51.1 cases per 100,000 children under 10, compared with 902 cases per 100,000 adults who were 80 or older. However, the incidence was higher for U.S. residents in their 40s and 50s than for those in their 60s and 70s.

Only 45% of the cases in the sample included data on the race and ethnicity of patients. With data missing for more than half of the patients, the report authors were not able to perform detailed analysis of racial and ethnic disparities.

But what they did have showed that Latinos and Black people are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Latinos make up 18% of U.S. residents, but they account for 33% of cases reported so far. Similarly, Black people represent 13% of the population but account for 22% of reported cases.

In addition, 0.7% of the population is Native American or Native Alaskan, yet 1.3% of reported cases have affected them.

Among the 47% of patients whose symptoms were reported, 7 out of 10 had at least one of the core symptoms of COVID-19: fever, cough or shortness of breath.

Overall, the most common single symptom was a cough (50.3%), followed by fever (43.1). More than one-third of patients reported muscle aches and pain (36.1%) and headache (34.4%).

Another 4% of cases were asymptomatic. The true proportion of asymptomatic cases is probably much higher, but since people without symptoms arent likely to get tested, their actual incidence is difficult to gauge, the report authors wrote. The people in this report were likely tested because they were identified through contact tracing, the authors added.

Information about whether patients died or recovered was available for 36% of the cases, and among those who died, information about underlying health conditions was available for 57% of cases.

The overall death rate for Americans of all ages and both sexes was 5.4%, with men (6%) more likely to die than women (4.8%).

Coronavirus infections were 12 times more deadly in patients with underlying health conditions than in patients without them. Among patients who were healthy before they encountered the virus, 1.6% died of COVID-19. But among those who had cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic lung infections or other ailments, 19.5% of infections resulted in death.

The older COVID-19 patients were, the more likely they were to be hospitalized. Overall, 14% of the patients for whom hospitalization status was known were admitted for treatment. Men and boys (15.6%) were more likely to be admitted than women and girls (12.4%).

The risk of being hospitalized was six times higher for patients with underlying health conditions (45.4%) than for patients without them (7.6%).

But the older patients were, the smaller the gap. Among patients in their 70s, for instance, 64.7% of those with preexisting conditions were hospitalized, compared with 27.9% of those who were healthy before their infections. Among patients who were at least 80, 62.3% of those with underlying health conditions were hospitalized, compared with 30.1% of those without them.

The trends were similar for the 2.3% of patients who were admitted to intensive care units. Men and boys (2.8%) were more likely to wind up in the ICU than women and girls (1.7%).

Among patients with underlying health conditions, 8.5% were admitted to an ICU; among patients without such conditions, 1.5% were treated in an ICU. As with total hospitalizations, that gap narrowed with age.

The findings were published Monday in the CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Six charts show how Americans have been affected by COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

As a pediatrician, however, my concern is that children have a hard time being socially distant. They tend to gather with friends and family when in a swimming pool, not necessarily maintaining 6 feet of separation. They may cough or sneeze when swimming, potentially transmitting viral particles to those within 6 feet.

Read more:

A Philly pediatricians advice on swimming in the summer of COVID-19 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Governments around the world are signing deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds for potential coronavirus vaccines.

Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and France agreed over the weekend to pay 662.5m for 300 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccines.

The contract with the British drugmaker, whose vaccine is among the first to reach mid-stage trials, will supply all EU countries - but not the UK - which is in a Brexit transition period until the end of 2020.

An extra 100 million doses will be made available for the European countries to buy, said a spokesman for the Italian health ministry.

France is said to want the doses split between countries based on their population.

European governments have been scrambling to secure orders of promising vaccines after concerns that the EU had not moved fast enough compared with others such as the US.

Experts have warned that a safe and effective vaccine could take at least 12 to 18 months.

The UK has invested more than 100m in vaccines development at the University of Oxford with AstraZeneca, and at Imperial College London.

The government has said Britain will be the first to access a vaccine from either lab should they prove successful - and 30 million doses could be provided as early as September

But some scientists have warned it is best to hedge your bets, with Dr Charlie Weller, head of vaccines at the Wellcome Trust, telling Sky News: "The frontrunners don't necessarily mean they are the best options.

"They are the first to get into clinical trial and give us data to understand the different approaches. We will learn a huge amount from them. But it doesn't mean they are the best. It means they are the first."

The US signed a 940m deal with AstraZeneca on 21 May - nearly a month before this weekend's Europe deal - to provide 300 million doses.

And as early as mid-March, Donald Trump had reportedly offered German pharmaceutical company CureVac $1bn (790m) to secure exclusive rights to a potential vaccine.

German ministers and the company's main investor confirmed - and condemned - the offer, but CureVac's CEO denied there ever being an offer from the US president.

On Monday, the German government said it was taking a 23% stake in CureVac.

State-owned KfW development bank will buy 265m in shares to give it "financial security" so it can remain in Germany.

Economy minister Peter Almaier said ministers would not exert influence on business decisions, with the main shareholder remaining as Dietmar Hopp, co-founder of business software company SAP.

In May, there were calls from French drugmaker Sanofi for a more collaborative European effort after its boss said doses it produced in the US, which had rapidly rolled out research funding, would go to American patients first.

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Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson later toned down his comments, saying any vaccine would reach all parts of the world.

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to visit one of Sanofi's vaccine plants in France on Tuesday and is expected to announce commitments on treatments and manufacturing capacities.

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Coronavirus: Race to buy COVID-19 vaccines as governments sign huge deals - Sky News