Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

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Life will never be the same for people over 60 even with a COVID-19 vaccine – MarketWatch

August 18, 2020

Imagine this scenario, perhaps a year or two in the future: An effective COVID-19 vaccine is routinely available and the world is moving forward. Life, however, will likely never be the same particularly for people over 60.

That is the conclusion of geriatric medical doctors, aging experts, futurists and industry specialists. Experts say that in the aftermath of thepandemic, everything will change, from the way older people receive health care to how they travel and shop. Also overturned: their work life and relationships with one another.

In the past few months, the entire world has had a near-death experience, said Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave, a think tank on aging around the world. Weve been forced to stop and think: I could die or someone I love could die. When those events happen, people think about what matters and what they will do differently.

Older adults are uniquely vulnerable because their immune systems tend to deteriorate with age, making it so much harder for them to battle not just COVID-19 but all infectious diseases. They are also more likely to suffer other health conditions, like heart and respiratory diseases, that make it tougher to fight or recover from illness.

Read: Yes, you may still be able to retire one day

So its no surprise that even in the future, when a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available and widely used most older adults will be taking additional precautions.

Before COVID-19, baby boomers those born after 1945 but before 1965 felt reassured that with all the benefits of modern medicine, they could live for years and years, said Dr. Mehrdad Ayati, who teaches geriatric medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and advises the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. What we never calculated was that a pandemic could totally change the dialogue.

It has. Heres a preview of post-vaccine life for older Americans:

Also see: Social Security could be vulnerable under President Trumps plan for payroll taxes

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Life will never be the same for people over 60 even with a COVID-19 vaccine - MarketWatch

Mexico needs 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses; shots could start in April – Reuters

August 16, 2020

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will need up to 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses, according to a senior government official, and inoculation of its 120 million inhabitants could start as early as April if clinical trials and regulatory approvals for pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca Plc go as planned.

FILE PHOTO: The company logo for pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

In partnership with the governments of Mexico and Argentina, AstraZeneca initially plans to produce 150 million doses in early 2021 and eventually make at least 400 million doses for distribution throughout Latin America. AstraZeneca is among those working on COVID-19 vaccine candidates now in development around the world.

Mexicos government also has said it is considering other options for bringing a vaccine quickly to its population, the second-largest in Latin America.

AstraZeneca will be able to produce between 30 and 35 million vaccines per month, Martha Delgado, a Mexican deputy foreign minister, told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

The vaccine could require two doses to be effective, Delgado said.

If we need 200 million, were going to be vaccinating for a long time, Delgado added.

Last-stage so-called Phase III trials are expected to conclude by November or December, after which AstraZeneca will seek government approvals if the vaccine is found to be safe and effective. If that goes smoothly, Delgado estimated the first vaccines in Mexico could be administered in April.

Mexicos death toll of 55,908 stands as the worlds third highest, behind the United States and Brazil. Latin Americas 6 million cases and more than 237,000 deaths make it the worlds hardest-hit region.

To ensure all Mexicans have access to a vaccine, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors government is in talks with other pharmaceutical laboratories in different stages of developing a vaccine.

Astras production isnt going to be enough for Mexico. We need to supplement that with a couple of more vaccines, Delgado said.

Mexicos government has completed memorandums of understanding with French drugmaker Sanofi, Johnson & Johnsons Janssen unit and Chinese companies CanSino Biologics Inc and Walvax Biotechnology Co Ltd.

CanSino and Walvax are interested in producing a vaccine in Mexico for delivery to the Latin American market.

Mexicos health authorities are evaluating the Phase I and II clinical trials of those four companies and will determine the viability of Phase III studies in Mexico in the coming weeks, Delgado said. The earlier phase trials represent an initial test of a vaccines safety and effectiveness among small numbers of subjects.

To save time, Mexicos federal health regulator COFEPRIS will start analyzing AstraZenecas completed studies and accelerate approvals if Phase III is successful.

This is the countrys strategy to diversify our possibilities of having access to the vaccine as soon as possible ... and obviously at an affordable cost for the country, Delgado said.

Reporting by Anthony Esposito and Adriana Barrera; Editing by Will Dunham

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Mexico needs 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses; shots could start in April - Reuters

North Texas couple among the first volunteers to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trial – FOX 4 Dallas

August 16, 2020

North Texas couple among the first volunteers to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trial

Phase three trials for a COVID-19 vaccine are well underway with several North Texans choosing to participate to help create a viable vaccine. One couple is among the first volunteers for the trial.

DALLAS - Phase three trials for a COVID-19 vaccine are well underway with several North Texans choosing to participate to help create a viable vaccine. One couple is among the first volunteers for the trial.

When John and veronica Seidenstein saw volunteers were needed for the final trials for a possible COVID-19 vaccine, both jumped at the opportunity to be among the first to get a vaccine.

Im high risk, and she's frontline. She works in a public school district, John said. And I'm type-two diabetic and high blood pressure, and neither of us have seen our older family members since this started.

Because of Johns health conditions, their family has been taking other precautions, like wearing masks and not going out for months.

You feel helpless with this thing going on. I don't care who you are, even if you don't believe in COVID, you still feel helpless, John said. Because the economy's got problems. Things are closed and this is like the only thing you can do that makes you not helpless.

The couple says after consulting with their doctors and family members, they felt safe participating in Phizers phase three trials.

After a medical screening and a blood draw, they got their first shots Aug. 1 and will go back on the 20th for a booster shot. Theyre also tracking any symptoms through an app on their phones. So far, they havent had any issues.

Track for a week how you're feeling. You have a little app on your phone that you track for a week, take your temperature. Very simple, very easy, Veronica said.

And we still don't know if we had it. We either get the placebo or you get the vaccines, John said. So still a 50/50 chance, whether we got one or the other but still a 50/50 chance.

They hope to help speed the process of finding a vaccine along.

COVID-19 vaccine trials are happening in Fort Worth, Keller and Houston. Participants are still needed.

Anyone who is interested in participatingin a vaccine trial can call (817) 348-0228 or visit ventaviaresearch.com.

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North Texas couple among the first volunteers to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trial - FOX 4 Dallas

Trust, Fear, and Solidarity Will Determine the Success of a COVID Vaccine – Daily Beast

August 16, 2020

By Arthur Allen, Kaiser Health News

Thousands of letters stuffed with money flooded Jonas Salks mailbox the week after his polio vaccine was declared safe and effective in 1955. Everybody wanted his vaccine. Desperate parents clogged doctors phone lines in search of the precious elixir; drug companies and doctors diverted doses to the rich and famous.

Some of the first batches of the vaccine were disastrously botched, causing 200 cases of permanent paralysis. That barely dented public desire for the preventive. Marlon Brando even asked to play Salk in a movie.

Eight years later, with polio a fading threat, the first measles vaccines went on sale. Measles had killed more than 400 children the year before and caused permanent brain damage in thousands more. Interest in the vaccine was modest. Its creator, Maurice Hilleman, was never lionized as Salk had been.

People felt, Whats the big deal? I had measles; why does my kid need a vaccine? It was a very difficult sell, said Walter Orenstein, an Emory University professor who headed the national immunization program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1988 to 2004.

When a coronavirus vaccine becomes available, will it be met with a roaring ovation, like the polio vaccine, or communal yawning, like the measles shot? Or some strange hybrid of the two? Americans trust in authority, affordable access to the vaccine, and a sense of solidarity will determine the result, said Orenstein and other public health veterans and historians.

Perceptions of particular diseasesand vaccinesreflect the seriousness of the diseases themselves, but popular values, culture, human risk assessment, and politics all play important roles. Acceptance of public health measuresbe they face masks or vaccinesis never entirely determined through a rational balancing of risk and benefit.

We can see that in the history of national campaigns for new vaccines meant to vanquish a scourge. No disease was more feared in the mid-20th century than polio. With the possible exception of AIDS, no disease since has been as feared until the arrival of COVID-19.

The polio vaccine was one of the few the public greeted eagerly. Diseases like measles and whooping cough were familiar childhood afflictions. In most years they killed more children than polio, but polio, which put people in iron lungs and leg braces, was visible in ways that an infants death certificate, tucked away in a drawer, could never be.

Vaccines are often a hard sell, since they prevent rather than cure disease and seem scary even though they are generally quite safe. Since vaccines must be widely used to prevent outbreaks, successful vaccination campaigns rely heavily on trust in those who sell, recommend, and administer the medicines. And trust in science, government, and business has not always been in steady supply.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, when public health laws were in flux, authorities battling smallpox epidemics would often send vaccinators out with police to enforce the jab. Theyd enter factories where cases had been reported, lock the doors, and frog-march the workers through a vaccination line. The workers resistance was not unmerited; the vaccine sometimes caused swollen arms, fever, and bacterial infections. Vaccination could cost a weeks missed wages.

Authorities had learned their lesson by the 1920s, when the diphtheria vaccine came on the scene, as James Colgrove notes in his book State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America. Diphtheria was a much-feared killer of children, and publicity campaigns run by public health officials, insurance companies, and charities sought to educate and persuade rather than coerce.

Polio terrified Americans, peaking in 1952 with more than 57,000 cases. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a polio patient, had begun a national scientific program to battle the disease, backed by millions of Americans contributions through the March of Dimes.

The result of this national quest, uniting government and the people, was Jonas Salks inactivated polio vaccine. It cemented a powerful post-World War II trust in the U.S. scientific and medical establishment that would endure for many years.

Social solidarity was also important.

Vaccines prevent the circulation of a disease among the unvaccinated via what scientists call herd immunityif enough people are vaccinated. When a reliable rubella vaccine became available in 1969, states quickly required childhood vaccination, even though rubella was practically harmless in children. They wanted to protect a vulnerable populationpregnant womento prevent a repeat of the 1963-64 congenital rubella epidemic, which resulted in 30,000 fetal deaths and the birth of more than 20,000 babies with severe disabilities.

The embrace of the rubella vaccine, as historian Elena Conis of the University of California-Berkeley notes in her book, Vaccine Nation: Americas Changing Relationship With Immunization, marked the first time a vaccine had been deployed that offered no direct benefit to those who were vaccinated.

Still, it took a combination of fear, solidarity, and coercion for Orenstein and his colleagues at the CDC and state public health agencies to drive childhood vaccination rates for measles, whooping cough, rubella, and diphtheria to 90 percent and above in the 1990s to assure herd immunity.

Shame was also a tool. Orenstein remembered testifying to the Florida legislature when it was considering a tougher vaccine mandate. He showed them that disease rates were lower in neighboring states that had tighter mandates. It worked.

Whats different now? In a politically divided nation, trust in science is low and experts are distrustedpoliticians more so. Childhood vaccination efforts are already beset by large numbers of hesitant parents. And efforts to fight the COVID epidemic in the United States have been clumsy and chaotic at best, leaving Americans to doubt the competence of their governments and institutions.

There is still fear. Maybe Im an old-fashioned fool, but I think that most people will welcome a vaccine, if the rollout is done right, said David Oshinsky, a professor of history at New York University and author of Polio: An American Story, a Pulitzer Prize-winning history. Most people are desperately afraid of COVID. A minority thumb their noses, many of them for political reasons. How will this change when theres a vaccine that [hopefully] changes the health risk equation to some degree?

Recent surveys show as few as half of Americans are determined to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Those numbers could change depending on a number of hard-to-predict factors, said Conis, of Berkeley.

A lot of people will be really eager to get it, she said. A lot will be hesitant, not only because of misinformation but because of a lack of trust in the current administration.

When a coronavirus vaccine is introduced, it may be sold as personal protection, even for young, healthy people. But those who suffer most from the virus are usually older or sicker. An effective vaccination campaign may try to instill a sense of solidarity, or altruism, as well as a more general sense that without vaccination, the economy cant get back on its feet.

Im not clear if people accept that solidarity, Orenstein said. People look more for whats good for themselves than whats good for society. That said, the risk of COVID-19 to young people is not zero. Thats one of the major ways to sell this, in a sense.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Trust, Fear, and Solidarity Will Determine the Success of a COVID Vaccine - Daily Beast

Your Weekend Reading: How We Get to a Covid-19 Vaccine – Bloomberg

August 16, 2020

Its time for a more nuanced discussion about the timing of a coronavirus vaccine and what happens when it arrives. Bloomberg Businessweek assesses the biggest challenges in the global hunt, from the patent race to anti-vaxxers. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte expects to be inoculated with Russias controversial, unproven vaccine, while the best hope for mass production may come from a manufacturer in India. For now, infection flare-ups from Australia to Japan show that isolation is probably the only sure way to stop a resurgence.

The S&P 500 briefly topped a record this week, and Goldman Sachs sees more room to rise. Both Apple and Tesla announced stock splits to make their lofty shares attainable again. Meanwhile, U.S. consumer sentiment remains weak, and smaller firms are being shut out of the credit boom.

Former Vice President Joe Biden made a smart choice by choosing Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, Michael R. Bloomberg writes in an op-ed. The Trump campaign tried to attack her for being too liberal and too moderate all at the same time, while Harriss Indian connections sparked a social media frenzy. Bloomberg Green writes that shes more driven by climate justice than climate change.

Senator Kamala Harris.

Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America

Ubers warning that it may shut down in California follows its textbook legal strategy. Lyft reported its worst performance as a public company, while Airbnbs second-quarter revenue fell 67% as it plans an IPO before years end.

A recent crime surge in New York City is the last straw for some well-off residents who now plan to flee, leading to a rush on upstate property deals and a plunge in Manhattan rents. About three-quarters of students in the city will attend school from one to three days a week in September.

Google has added a set of pandemic-related questions for anyone planning a trip, but no one should expect global travel to bounce back soon. And if you choose to stay close, heres a guide to the best bikes and re-imagined nightlife where robots might replace bartenders.

Memes from adherents of the scattershot, far-right conspiracy theories known cumulatively as QAnon have made their way into the social media accounts of people like Michael Flynn and White House social media adviser Dan Scavino. Family members, rather than social media companies, may be the last line of defense as some true believers try to go mainstream.

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Your Weekend Reading: How We Get to a Covid-19 Vaccine - Bloomberg

If the COVID-19 vaccination were available today, would you get it? – cleveland.com

August 16, 2020

Most of us are doing what we can to avoid catching and spreading the COVID-19 virus washing our hands, staying home, wearing face masks in public, spraying Lysol all over everything we come in contact with, washing our hands, washing our hands and washing our hands some more.

Heres hoping that a vaccine much like that yearly flu shot many of us acquiesce to is just around the corner. Progress is being made toward that end, and it would be nice to be able to stop hunkering down in our houses and get fully back out into the world.

But not everyone is willing to get that shot. According to a recent Gallup poll, 35 percent of Americans say they would not get a vaccine right now, even if it were free and FDA-approved. Of course, that leaves 65 percent who would jump at the chance.

Which camp are you in? Would you get a COVID-19 vaccination right now if you could?

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If the COVID-19 vaccination were available today, would you get it? - cleveland.com

The Risks And Benefits Of Rapid COVID-19 Vaccine Development – Texas Standard

August 16, 2020

The typical process for developing a vaccine of rigorous rounds of trials and long evaluation periods is not going to work for COVID-19. Saving lives and livelihoods depends on significantly speeding up the process and evaluating the risk of that.

Dr. Penny Heaton, the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, has written about this compression of six years of work into six months. Dr. Heaton joined the Texas Standard to discuss COVID-19 vaccine development.

What factors have enabled the unprecedented speed of vaccine development?

We already understood how it causes disease and what we need to target with respect to a vaccine to try to prevent coronavirus disease. The second was just the new vaccine technologies that have emerged over the last several years allow production of thousands of doses for clinical trials very quickly. And then the third was really figuring out activities in parallel that are not done sequentially.

Are there additional risks to moving forward with this vaccine?

In the normal course of vaccine development, we are looking at things like what is the unmet medical need, how fast can we move forward and what are the benefits of moving forward versus the potential risk of this particular vaccine. The vaccine developers are thinking about that same ratio of benefit risk here.

Will it continue to evolve, even once the trial period is complete?

The vaccine developers will continue on with what we call life-cycle management. So even when vaccines are approved, the safety will continue to be monitored post-approval. So these questions that you can only answer with time, and only answer as thousands and millions of people get the vaccine, they will still be answered.

How long before a vaccine will be readily available to the public?

I am not directly involved with development of any of these vaccines, so any estimates that I give you would only be speculation. But I am optimistic from what Im hearing from colleagues and scientists, etc. that, in the next six-to-twelve months, that the first vaccine doses could be available.

Web story by Sarah Gabrielli

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The Risks And Benefits Of Rapid COVID-19 Vaccine Development - Texas Standard

A Field Guide to Covid-19 Vaccines and Antivirals – Barron’s

August 14, 2020

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Wednesday evening, small-cap biotech company CytoDyn announced it had asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to grant the companys drug, Leronlimab, an emergency-use authorization to treat mild to moderate Covid-19 cases.

The request was made after the Vancouver, Wash.-based company announced promising data from a Phase 2 Leronlimab drug trial.

Thats good news. But following the ins and outs of therapy development can be difficult in any environment. Investors typically arent doctors. Covid-19 doesnt make it any easier. Investors these days are tracking many antiviral drugssome of which were designed for other virusesas well as several vaccine candidates.

Vaccines, of course, prevent people from contracting the virus. Antivirals treat the disease. Both are important to defeating Covid.

Leronlimab is an antiviral medication that was originally developed for HIV treatment. Its a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody that inhibits the ability for a virus to enter a cell. CytoDyn (ticker: CYDY) started testing Leronlimb on Covid-19 patients earlier in 2020.

What the company said Wednesday is that patients given shots of Leronlimb improved more than patients given placebos. The results were statistically significant.

CytoDyn is a $2.1 billion development-stage biotech without sales. Gilead Sciences (GILD) is an $85 billion biotech generating more than $22 billion in annual sales. Gileads Remdesivir is another antiviral medication that showed promise in clinical trials. The FDA granted Remdesivir emergency-use authorization to treat severe cases in May. Antiviral therapies are also in the works at Eli Lilly (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Vir Biotechnology (VIR).

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) is developing a cocktail of antibodies for Covid-19 treatment. Earlier this week, Canaccord Genuity analyst John Newman wrote that Phase 3 data for the cocktail could be ready later this year.

Later this year is also the time frame for data from important Phase 3 vaccine trials. Phase 3 is typically the last phase of clinical testing and is designed to demonstrate efficacy.

Russia made headlines earlier in the week announcing their vaccine was ready. But, in U.S. terms, their vaccine has just exited Phase 1 and 2 trials.

GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer (PFE), Oxford University, Moderna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX) all have vaccine candidates in Phase 3 testing. It has been a while since those entities updated investors, but enrollment should be wrapped up soon. Each of those companiesand the universityis recruiting about 30,000 patients in the final trial.

Covid-19 health-care stocks have had a wild 2020. CytoDyn stock actually dropped 8.5% following the conference call. The stock is down 15% for the week, despite positive data. Still, shares have gained more than 300% year to date, far better than the comparable gains of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average over the same span.

The stocks mentioned above are up 465% year to date on average. Novavax is up the most at more than 3,200%. Glaxo is the weakest of the bunch, falling 12.3% year to date.

Corrections & Amplifications

CytoDyn is based in Vancouver, Wash. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it was a Canadian company.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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A Field Guide to Covid-19 Vaccines and Antivirals - Barron's

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