Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ... [+] JAMA's editor Thursday, July 2, that the safety and effectiveness of a Covid-19 vaccine should be known by early winter with 200 hundred million doses available for U.S. use by early 2021. In this photo, Fauci speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on June 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Al Drago - Pool/Getty Images)

Dr. Anthony Fauci said the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine for the coronavirus strain Covid-19 should be known by early winter with 200 hundred million doses available for U.S. use by early 2021.

In an interview Thursday with the editor of JAMA, Fauci said several Phase 3 trials testing experimental Covid-19 vaccines in tens of thousands of patients are beginning later this month and into August across the U.S. Among them are candidate vaccines being developed by Moderna and AstraZeneca.

We may be able to at least know whether we are dealing with a safe and effective vaccine by the early winter, late winter, beginning of 2021, Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor of JAMA, during the interview, which was live Thursday afternoon.

Multiple (vaccine) candidates are at different stages of development, Fauci said. We are hopeful that one or more of them may actually show a good degree of safety. . . and efficacy.

Several of the manufacturers are already producing the vaccines at risk thanks to the help of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Fauci wouldnt name the companies making the vaccines, but said these manufacturers are promising that they will have a couple a hundred of million doses as we go into the early part of 2021.

After a year, (vaccine manufacturers are) saying they likely could get a billion doses, Fauci said.

The update on vaccine development from Fauci came a day after the U.S. reported nearly 50,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday as the pandemic worsens, particularly in the South and West.

Last month, Fauci told JAMAs Bauchner that a trial of Modernas candidate vaccine will include primarily U.S. sites, but also include international sites enrolling 30,000 individuals in a randomized placebo controlled trial of Modernas vaccine against the Coronavirus strain Covid-19. Modernas vaccine candidate is considered in the lead among several efforts by drug and vaccine makers in the battle against the deadly virus.

On Thursday, Fauci said several of the vaccines heading into the final stage of clinical trials are going to be similar in their effectiveness and these phase 3 trials will be ramping up from July through September.

Because there are several late-stage trials, Fauci is optimistic a successful vaccine will emerge by the end of the year. And the U.S. should benefit.

When you have two or three companies which you hope will be successful, they are going to be making vaccine not only for their own country, but availability in other countries, Fauci said.

There is this misperception that everybody is racing to be the winner, Fauci said. Theres not going to be a winner. Hopefully, more than one of them will be successful.

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Fauci: Covid-19 Vaccine Safety And Effectiveness Should Be Known By Early Winter - Forbes

A 30,000-patient trial of Modernas coronavirus vaccine candidate, expected to start next week, has been delayed, a potential hurdle in the companys ambitious effort to deliver key data by Thanksgiving.

Moderna is making changes to the trial plan, called a protocol, which has pushed back the expected start date of the Phase 3 study, according to investigators. The investigators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, emphasized that protocol changes are common but said its not clear how long the start will be delayed.

My understanding was that they wanted to get the first vaccines given in July, and they say theyre still committed to do that, one investigator said. As best I can tell, theyre close to being on target for that.

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Investigators at the University of Illinois at Chicago had previously said Modernas trial would begin July 9. On Thursday, NIH Director Francis Collins also told lawmakers in Washington that the study would begin this month.

Moderna did not respond to multiple emails asking about how long the delay will last, the nature of the protocol changes, or whether they have anything to do with the vaccines safety or manufacturing. After publication, CEO Stphane Bancel told CNBC that Moderna still intends to start the trial in July. In a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, the company said it has worked closely with the National Institutes of Health, which is funding the Phase 3 study, to align the final protocol in order to begin the trial on time.

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The intense focus on the exact timing of the trial stems from the tight nature of the race to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus and the fact that any delay could imperil Modernas pole position. Pfizer, working with the German firm BioNTech, plans to start a 30,000-patient study of its own later this month. AstraZeneca and Oxford University are slated to begin a similarly sized trial in August, followed by Johnson & Johnson in September.

All of the companies are working at unprecedented speed to advance their vaccines, and Moderna may not be the last to see its timeline delayed.

Developing and manufacturing vaccines at scale is always a challenging endeavor, with unexpected hitches the norm rather than the exception. Candidate vaccines that looked promising in animals can fail to deliver the same results in people. Production problems arise.

During the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, U.S. officials confidently predicted there would be a vaccine in the early autumn, in time to fend off an expected second wave of infections. But the new virus grew poorly in eggs, the substrate used in influenza vaccine production. By the time mass amounts of vaccines were ready for distribution, the peak of infection in the country had already passed.

Matthew Herper and Helen Branswell contributed reporting.

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Moderna Covid-19 vaccine trial delayed, but July start still possible - STAT

Global markets are on the rise Thursday on news of a potential effective vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

European markets are continuing to make gains in mid-morning trading the FTSE in London is up 0.8%, Pariss CAC-40 index is up 1.4%, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is 1.6% higher.

Asian markets posted a clean sweep of gains to begin the trading day. Japans benchmark Nikkei index finished 0.1% higher, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong earned 2.7% and the Shanghai Composite closed 2.1% higher.

Australias S&P/ASX index was 1.6% higher, the KOSPI index in South Korea closed up 1.3%, and Taiwans TSEC index rose 0.8%. The Sensex in Mumbai is up 1.2% in late afternoon trading.

Investors were optimistic after U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germanys BioNtech said preliminary data from early-stage human trials of a new vaccine showed promise.

Oil markets are also trading well Thursday. U.S. crude is selling at $40.05 per barrel, up 0.5%, while Brent crude, the global benchmark, is selling at $42.29 per barrel, up 0.6%.

All three U.S. indexes are trending positively in futures trading ahead of Thursdays announcement of the latest U.S. unemployment figures.

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Global Markets Enjoy Boost on Promising News of COVID-19 Vaccine - Voice of America

When the World Health Organization (WHO) says that a given anti-coronavirus product is a leader, that's about as official as it gets in the fast-moving world of COVID-19 therapies and vaccines.

Earlier this year, a top WHO executive stated that Gilead Sciences' remdesivir was the leading therapy targeting COVID-19. Remdesivir, of course, has now become the de facto standard of care for the novel coronavirus disease.

Last week, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan stated in a news conference that one experimental COVID-19 vaccine appears to be "probably the leading candidate." Which vaccine is it?

Image source: Getty Images.

Swaminathan thinks that the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) and the University of Oxford should be viewed as the top contender right now. There are two main reasons why.

First, the AstraZeneca-Oxford AZD1222 vaccine is already in a phase 3 clinical study. No other COVID-19 vaccine candidates have yet advanced to late-stage testing. Swaminathan specifically noted "how advanced they are" and "the stage at which they are" in naming the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford as the likely leader.

Second, Swaminathan said that she thinks "AstraZeneca certainly has a more global scope at the moment in terms of where they are doing and planning their vaccine trials." The late-stage testing of AZD1222 will be conducted in several countries, with trials already in progress in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa.

The vaccine candidate was originally developed by the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute. AstraZeneca teamed up with Oxford in April and owns the rights to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine globally. AZD1222 was one of only a handful of novel coronavirus vaccines selected by the Trump administration to receive federal funds as part of Operation Warp Speed, an initiative to rapidly develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.

Another COVID-19 vaccine is a close No. 2, according to the WHO chief scientist. Swaminathan views Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) as "not far behind" AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna's messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 is currently in phase 2 clinical testing. The biotech plans to begin a phase 3 study of the vaccine in July. Like AZD1222, Moderna's mRNA-1273 was included in the select group of COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are receiving federal funding in the Operation Warp Speed program.

Stephane Bancel, Moderna's CEO, is optimistic about the chances of success. He said in a CNBC interview recently that he believes that the probability of mRNA-1273 going on to win approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is between 80% and 90%.

Investors should be wary of banking on AstraZeneca to emerge as the winner in the COVID-19 vaccine race just because it's the apparent leader right now. Nearly 150 COVID-19 vaccine candidates are currently being researched. Seventeen of those are in clinical trials, with more on the way.

It's impossible to know which, if any, of these experimental vaccines will be successful. It's not out of the question -- and perhaps even likely -- that multiple drugmakers will eventually win regulatory approvals for their COVID-19 vaccines.

The biggest winners from an investing perspective could very well be the small biotech stocks in the race. Novavax, for example, has a phase 1/2 clinical study underway for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. BioNTech, like Moderna, is testing an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with its partner, Pfizer.

AstraZeneca claims a market cap of nearly $70 billion. Success for its COVID-19 vaccine would definitely be a major catalyst for the stock. But success for a small drugmaker like Novavax or BioNTech would almost certainly be transformational for either company.

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Here's the "Official" Leader in the COVID-19 Vaccine Race - Motley Fool

The news: An experimental covid-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech provoked immune responses in 45 healthy volunteers, according to a preprint paper on medRXiv. The levels of antibodies were up to 2.8 times the level of those found in patients who have recovered. The study randomly assigned 45 people to get either one of three doses of the vaccine or a placebo. But there were side effects like fatigue, headache, and feverespecially at higher doses. The researchers decided to discontinue with the highest dose, 100 micrograms, after the first round of treatments.

Some caveats required: Its promising news,but this is the first clinical data on this specific vaccine, and it hasnt been through the process of peer review yet. Higher antibody levels in patients whod received the vaccine are a useful proxy for immunity to covid-19, but we dont yet know for sure that they guarantee immunity. In order to find out, Pfizer will start conducting studies in larger groups of patients, starting this summer. It says its goal is to have 100 million doses of a vaccine available by the end of 2020.

A common approach: Pfizer is using the same experimental technique as Moderna, one of the other pharmaceutical companies developing a vaccine. Both vaccines are designed to provoke an immune response against the coronavirus through its messenger RNA, the genetic instructions that tell the virus how to replicate inside the host. The method could provide a rapid way to develop a vaccine, but its yet to lead to a licensed one for sale. Currently, 178 vaccines are in various stages of development; 17 are now going through clinical trials.

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Another experimental covid-19 vaccine has shown promising early results - MIT Technology Review

The biohacker who injected himself with CRISPR is back. This time, hes setting out to solve a problem at the forefront of everyones mindthe need for a COVID-19 vaccineand he thinks he can beat biopharma to it.

Nevermind that companies like Moderna and AstraZeneca are racing vaccine candidates into and through the clinic at a speed never seen before, and the U.S. government has set up a Manhattan Project-style initiative aptly dubbed Operation Warp Speed, which aims to deliver 100 million doses of a viable COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year. Thats still too slow for Josiah Zayner.

This is the perfect opportunity for biohackers, Zayner told Bloomberg. We can move science faster.

De-risking the Development of Biotherapeutics Using Early Stage In Vitro Expression and Genetic Characterisation Tools

There is a high attrition rate during the development of biotherapeutics impacting the high cost of development. Early identification of the preferred expression host for manufacturing, along with lead candidate screening and material supply can help to reduce both attrition rates and cost.

RELATED: COVID-19 vaccine leaders talk up the need for partners, potential for a working vax by October

His plan is based off a Science paper published in May showing that a DNA vaccine seemed to provoke an immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The researchers developed multiple vaccines expressing different forms of the virus spike protein and tested them in monkeys.

RELATED: After Operation Warp Speed picks 5 finalists, experts question why some vaccines were left out

Along with collaborators in Mississippi and Ukraine, Zayner wants to reproduce that experiment in humansthemselvesand livestream the process over several weeks, Bloomberg reported.

They said specifically what they used, which is really easy to recreate, Zayner told Bloomberg, speaking from the West Oakland, California, headquarters and lab of his company, The Odin. You know, it works in monkeys. Let's test it on humans.

RELATED: Pfizer, Merck, AZ, J&J and Moderna selected as 'Warp Speed' finalists: NYT

The scheme, dubbed Project McAfee, after the antivirus software, is possible thanks to the availability of new tools and technologiesincluding viral DNAto the general public. Zayner ordered the same spike protein the researchers used in their DNA vaccine from a DNA synthesis company, having it put in a solution that could be injected into his muscles, Bloomberg reported.

RELATED: Biopharma's no-holds-barred fight to find a COVID-19 vaccine: The full list

Zayner and his partners plan to inject themselves with the vaccine and then take antibody tests regularly to see if their bodies mount an immune response, Bloomberg reported.

Zayner and David Ishee, one of his partners and a self-taught scientist in Mississippi, think the project could pierce the veil on biotech research and scientific experiments.

I want people to learn something from this, he said, So it's no longer this big black box of what science, clinical trials and all this stuff is, Zayner told Bloomberg.

I would like to see a future where biotech is less arcane, Ishee said. But the most realistic thing that will come of this is that maybe people will understand the news theyre reading better.

But Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University, said the approach has its limits.

If he has and uses the appropriate biosafety precautions, I see nothing wrong with his efforts to replicate the macaque work in living human cells, Greely told Bloomberg. If he can do that, it might be a somewhat useful scientific finding.

The keywords are living human cells. Compare that to the massive clinical trials underway, or soon to be, for vaccines from Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and BioNTech. Earlier this month, Moderna finalized the design for a 30,000-patient phase 3 study, while AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford have already started a phase 2/3 study involving more than 10,000 people.

At best hell have three people who have received this DNA vaccine, he said.Its hard for me to see his administration of a vaccine to three people as producing any useful scientific knowledge, except perhaps in the unhappy result that they have terrible reactions to it. But even then, its just anecdotal, a caution but not a proof.

And thats not allZayner may pull off his experiment, but copycats may not.

Even if he does it well, people copying him poorly could be hurt. And for what? Greely said. Uncontrolled experiments with doubtful, non-standardized ingredients and conditions are not likely to lead to scientific knowledge that will produce vaccines faster.

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DIY vaccine maker aims to beat pharma to a COVID-19 shotand he'll start by injecting himself - FierceBiotech

Factually is a newsletter about fact-checking and accountability journalism, from Poynters International Fact-Checking Network & the American Press Institutes Accountability Project. Sign up here

Last month, FactCheck.org debunked a meme, still floating around on Facebook, that had a couple of made-up quotes attributed to the U.S. governments top infectious disease official. It was called The two faces of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The first quote falsely had him saying that even though hundreds of doctors have cured people with the drug hydroxychloroquine, it still needs to be studied some more. The other face of Fauci had him saying this: As soon as a COVID-19 vaccine is manufactured, it must be delivered to healthcare professionals for immediate human injection. Proper studies can be done later. Fauci never said that either.

The meme was a triple play on anti-vaccine emotions anger that government officials are hypocrites, fear that they are trampling on individual liberties with the diktat that the vaccine must be deliveredfor human injection, and distrust in the government to implement proper safety studies.

Its this kind of emotional manipulation that scientists like Fauci are up against. The New York Times Kevin Roose recently called it the vaccine information war.

The anti-vaxxers, Roose wrote, are savvy media manipulators, effective communicators and experienced at exploiting the weaknesses of social media platforms.

But if government health officials are outgunned in this conflict, at least they are now acknowledging it. They have indicated in recent days that they are forming their messaging for when a COVID-19 vaccine is ready, perhaps late this year or early in 2021.

At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Fauci and other public health officials said the government would be putting boots on the ground in community engagement efforts to ensure that people understand the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine once its developed and shown to be safe.

There are similar issues in Canada, where a vaccine expert at the University of Toronto told the CBC that the public health community was facing a major, major challenge given how early the anti-vaxxers have geared up their campaigns. And in Africa, an early trial was marked by a worrying level of resistance, the Associated Press reported.

The stakes are high. If not enough people get the vaccine, populations will not reach the herd immunity needed to halt the spread of the virus.

Getting there will involve careful messaging. While Faucis been wildly popular among people who like his focus on facts and science (there are positive Fauci memes, too, and even Fauci cupcakes and candles) he thinks he might not be the best messenger for everybody.

They may not like a government person in a suit like me telling them, even though I will tell them, Fauci told CNN this week. They really need to see people that they can relate to in the community sports figures, community heroes, people that they look up to.

That is especially true if the government person in a suit is also portrayed in a manipulative meme that falsely quotes him. People will get confused about which quotes are real and which arent. Which, of course, is the point.

Susan Benkelman, API

A hoax circulating in Spain falsely alleged that COVID-19 is mainly spread by contaminated flu vaccines. The claim further asserts the flu vaccine contains portions of other viruses such as HIV and herpes, and advocates the public should pass on the flu naturally saying the vaccine will only weaken ones immune system.

Spanish fact-checking organization Agencia EFE pointed out the genetic differences between the flu and the novel coronavirus, and pointed to European Union quality controls to reaffirm the safety of vaccines. EFE also noted that most flu vaccines were administered in September and October, but Spains spike of COVID-19 patients occurred several months later.

What we liked:

This fact-check helps readers distinguish between COVID-19 and seasonal flu. It also serves as a warning for fact-checkers and members of the public that this kind of misinformation could become more prevalent as we get closer to a COVID-19 vaccine.

Harrison Mantas, IFCN

Thats it for this week! Feel free to send feedback and suggestions to factually@poynter.org. And if this newsletter was forwarded to you, or if youre reading it on the web, you can subscribe here. Thanks for reading.

Susan and Harrison

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Government officials are readying for battle against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation - Poynter

AP Photo/Siphiwe SibekoIn this Wednesday, June 24 file photo, a volunteer receives a COVID-19 test vaccine injection developed at the University of Oxford in Britain, at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa.

People on six continents already are getting jabs in the arm as the race for a COVID-19 vaccine enters a defining summer, with even bigger studies poised to prove if any shot really works and maybe offer a reality check.

Already British and Chinese researchers are chasing the coronavirus beyond their borders, testing potential vaccines in Brazil and the United Arab Emirates because there are too few new infections at home to get clear answers.

The U.S. is set to open the largest trials 30,000 people to test a government-created shot starting in July, followed about a month later with another 30,000 expected to test a British one.

Those likely will be divided among Americans and volunteers in other countries such as Brazil or South Africa, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press.

While hes optimistic, weve been burned before, Fauci cautioned.

Multiple successes, in multiple parts of the world, are vital.

This isnt a race of who gets there first. This is, get as many approved, safe and effective vaccines as you possibly can, Fauci said.

Vaccine experts say its time to set public expectations. Many scientists dont expect a coronavirus vaccine to be nearly as protective as the measles shot.

If the best COVID-19 vaccine is only 50% effective, thats still to me a great vaccine, said Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania.

We need to start having this conversation now, so people wont be surprised, he added.

And for all the government promises of stockpiling doses in hopes of starting vaccinations by years end, heres the catch: Even if a shot pans out and its one that your country stockpiled only some high-risk people, such as essential workers, go to the front of a very long line.

Will you and I get vaccinated this year? No way, said Duke University health economist David Ridley.

The home stretch

Vaccines train the body to rapidly recognize and fend off an invading germ. About 15 experimental COVID-19 vaccines are in various stages of human studies worldwide.

And while theres no guarantee any will pan out, moving three different kinds into final testing offers better odds especially since scientists dont yet know just how strong an immune reaction the shots must spark to protect.

Measuring that with the first proven vaccine will really help us understand for all the other vaccines in development, do they also have a chance? said Oxford University lead researcher Sarah Gilbert.

Only China is pushing out inactivated vaccines, made by growing the new coronavirus and killing it. Vaccines by Sinovac Biotech and SinoPharm use that old-fashioned technology, which requires high-security labs to produce but is dependable, the way polio shots and some flu vaccines are made.

Most other vaccines in the pipeline target not the whole germ but a key piece the spike protein that studs the surface of the coronavirus and helps it invade human cells. Leading candidates use new technologies that make shots faster to produce but havent yet been proven in people.

Oxfords method: Genetically engineer a chimpanzee cold virus so it wont spread but can carry the gene for that spike protein into just enough cells to trick the immune system that an infections brewing.

Another vaccine made by the NIH and Moderna Inc. simply injects a piece of the coronavirus genetic code that instructs the body to produce harmless spike copies that the immune system learns to recognize.

CHASING THE VIRUS

Researchers must test thousands of people not where COVID-19 is surging because then its too late but where its smoldering, Fauci said.

Only if the virus starts spreading through a community several weeks after volunteers receive either a vaccine or a dummy shot time enough for the immune system to rev up do scientists have the best chance at comparing which group had more illness.

Lacking a crystal ball, the NIH has vaccine testing networks in the U.S., South America and South Africa on standby while finalizing decisions on the summer tests.

Were going to be doing it in multiple sites with a degree of flexibility so researchers can rapidly shift as the virus moves, Fauci said. Nothing is going to be easy.

The Oxford shot, with a 10,000-person study underway in England, already encountered that hurdle. Gilbert told a Parliament committee last week that theres little chance, frankly of proving the vaccines effectiveness in Britain after infections plummeted with the lockdown.

So her team looked abroad. In addition to the planned U.S.-run study, Brazil last week began a last-stage test of the Oxford shot in 5,000 health workers, the first experimental COVID-19 vaccinations in South America. In another first, South Africa opened a smaller safety study of the Oxford shot.

With few new infections in China, Sinovac next month will begin final tests in 9,000 Brazilian volunteers. And SinoPharm just signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates; that studys size isnt clear.

EXPECT

IMPERFECT PROTECTION

Animal research suggests COVID-19 vaccines could prevent serious disease but may not completely block infection. One study that dripped the coronavirus into monkeys showed vaccinated animals avoided pneumonia but had some virus lurking in their noses and throats. Whether it was enough to spread to the unvaccinated isnt known.

Still, that would be a big win.

My expectations have always been that well get rid of symptomatic disease. From what weve seen of the vaccines so far, thats what they do, said Penns Weissman.

The initial vaccines might be replaced with later, better arrivals, as historically happens in medicine, noted Dukes Ridley.

And while shots in the arm are the fastest to make, those for respiratory diseases require virus-fighting antibodies to make their way into the lungs. Gilbert said Oxford eventually will explore nasal delivery.

WARNING AGAINST

SHORTCUTS

Some U.S. lawmakers worry about pressure from the Trump administration to push out an unproven shot during the fall election season.

We want a vaccine, not a headline, Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said at a recent Senate committee hearing.

Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, pledged to a House committee last week that any decision would be based on science.

Different countries have different rules about when to release a vaccine. For the U.S., Fauci insisted there will be no safety shortcuts, a key reason NIH is investing in such huge studies.

Regardless of how and when a vaccine arrives, each country also will prioritize whos first in line as doses become available. Presumably theyll start with health workers and those most vulnerable to severe disease as long as each shot is proven to work in at-risk groups such as older adults.

Because each vaccine works differently, which population group it will protect, we dont know yet, said Dr. Mariangela Simao of the World Health Organization, which is advising countries on how to choose.

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Summer may decide fate of leading shots in COVID-19 vaccine race | News, Sports, Jobs - Lock Haven Express

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) Two doses of is more effective than one, results from a preliminary study show.

The vaccine, AZD1222, was developed by Oxford University and tested in pigs at Britains Pirbright Institute. The results of the trial showed that pigs given an initial shot of AZD1222 followed by a booster shot 28 days later showed a higher immune response compared to pigs who only received one injection.

These results look encouraging that administering two injections with the same vaccine boosts antibody response that can neutralize the virus, Dr. Bryan Charleston, director of the Pirbright Institute, said in a news release.

Specifically, researchers saw an increase in neutralizing antibodies. Neutralizing antibodies are a powerful immune response because they not only bind to foreign agents that invade the body, but they attach in a way that blocks the infection from spreading. Neutralizing antibodies are highly effective in protecting against future infections.

Over 100 COVID-19 vaccines are currently being tested worldwide, but this study raises the question: Will a vaccine against the coronavirus grant lifelong immunity? Or, will the protective effects weaken over time? In an interview with Belgian radio station, Bel RTL, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot was quoted as saying the companys vaccine will last about one year.

Pigs have been used in the past to develop vaccines against the flu. The animals are more physiologically similar to humans in terms of body weight and metabolic rate, Pirbright researchers said in a statement. Positive research outcomes in pig trials are highly predictive of positive outcomes in human trials, they add.

Human clinical trials to test AZD1222 are underway, and scientists hope to have results available to the public in the coming months.

With updated information from the Indiana Department of Health on June 24, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.

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2 doses of potential COVID-19 vaccine more effective than 1, study finds - WISHTV.com

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The international race for a Covid-19 vaccine is on. Who will win? - HealthLeaders Media