Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

A scientist works in a lab at Moderna in Cambridge, Mass., in February. Moderna has developed an experimental coronavirus medicine, but an approved treatment could be more than a year away. David L. Ryan/Boston Globe via Getty Images hide caption

A scientist works in a lab at Moderna in Cambridge, Mass., in February. Moderna has developed an experimental coronavirus medicine, but an approved treatment could be more than a year away.

The Department of Health and Human Services outlined how it will support Moderna and Johnson & Johnson as they develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus that's sickened more than 800,000 people worldwide as of Tuesday afternoon.

HHS's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, BARDA, said Monday that it will help speed up clinical trials for both companies' experimental vaccines, and support Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, in making up to 300 million doses annually in the U.S.

"Vaccines are essential to saving lives," BARDA director Rick Bright said in a statement. "Delivering a safe and effective vaccine for a rapidly spreading disease like COVID-19 requires accelerated action with parallel development streams. The rapid progress we are making with industry partners clearly demonstrates a commitment to protecting people at home and abroad."

The Janssen vaccine clinical trials are expected to begin "no later than" this fall, according to the HHS announcement, which also said the goal is to get a COVID-19 vaccine ready for emergency use in the U.S. in early 2021.

Meanwhile, the company will begin preparation for large-scale vaccine production Wednesday, Janssen spokeswoman Katie Buckley wrote in an email. The company would be able to make 600 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020, with 300 million manufactured in the U.S., she wrote. "We are however investing in new production facilities to increase that number."

If Janssen's vaccine is proven safe and effective, the company will also make it available "in China and other parts of the world," said a statement by Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson.

Moderna's early vaccine trials are already underway with help from the National Institutes of Health. BARDA will support phase 2 and 3 clinical trials, which typically involve hundreds or thousands of patients.

"Given the pandemic, Moderna has already started to prepare for the rapid acceleration of its manufacturing capabilities that could allow for the future manufacture of millions of doses should mRNA-1273 prove to be safe and of expected benefit," the company said in a statement. "Moderna is engaged in discussions for outside funding, including with BARDA, of such activities and will continue to work with government, industry and other third parties to responsibly and rapidly move forward."

HHS declined to share specific dollar figures with NPR, but Johnson & Johnson said that the company and BARDA would together contribute $1 billion toward its COVID-19 vaccine efforts.

A Moderna spokesperson didn't respond in time for publication to a question about how much money BARDA was committing toward the company's vaccine development.

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COVID-19 Vaccine Development Gets Boost From HHS : Coronavirus Live Updates - NPR

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the country, those who are not infected can protect themselves by avoiding close contact with others and aggressively washing their hands. But beyond this, many are desperately hoping for another form of protection: a vaccine.

Vaccines work by exposing our bodies to something that resembles a certain pathogen, training our immune systems to recognize, attack and kill the invader. When presented with the real pathogen itself, our immune armies are ready to fight.

While not a treatment or cure, vaccines can help eradicate a disease by starving the virus of people to infect and transmit the disease.

Vaccines are especially needed by health care workers on the front lines and other vulnerable members of the population who have a higher risk of contracting the infection.

While the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is well underway with over 40 hopeful candidates, only three have entered Phase I of clinical trials, the first of three stages of human testing before drug approval.

Phase I testing is only a test to see if the vaccine is safe. Researchers won't know if it's effective until Phase II is studied. Below is a brief overview of these three candidates, plus three promising ones that are still in earlier stages of development.

mRNA-1273: The front-runner in the U.S., which is backed by the NIAID and developed by Moderna Therapeutics, is based upon a specific type of genetic material, mRNA. This vaccine, mRNA-1273, codes for a specific protein on the novel coronavirus -- the spike protein the key into a human cell. An mRNA-based virus has never been approved for use in humans, but animal studies have been promising. This particular vaccine, however, was rushed to human trials before it was even tested in animals -- skipping a step in traditional vaccine development.

A Phase I trial testing the vaccines safety in 45 healthy adult volunteers began earlier this month at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. The participants will receive two injections of low, medium or high doses of the vaccine and be monitored for any adverse events or immune response. The company is hopeful that it may have a vaccine as early as fall 2020 for some particularly vulnerable groups, such as health care workers. The Phase I safety study should be completed by June 2021.

Donna Schaferkotter, medical laboratory scientist at UMMC, analyzes samples during COVID-19 testing in Jackson, Miss., March 25, 2020, The Medical Center started in-house testing for the novel coronavirus using a commercially available kit and is developing additional ways to test for COVID-19.

Ad5-nCoV: The front-runner across the globe, Ad5-nCoV, was developed by the Beijing Institute of Biotech and CanSino Biologics, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company. This vaccine uses a viral vector, a virus that has been engineered to not contain its infectious properties and instead delivers genetic material to the recipient. Phase I testing of this vaccine is underway at Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, where 108 healthy adult volunteers will receive one of three doses of the vaccine to assess for safety. Ad5-nCoV is perhaps the most promising because CanSino has already produced a nearly identical vaccine, Ad5-EBOV, to protect against Ebola. The Ebola vaccine has already entered Phase II testing, meaning its even further along. Still, the official anticipated completion date for Ad5-nCOV safety testing is December 2020, with all testing completed by 2022.

ChAdOx1: The University of Oxford is one of the most recent groups to bring its vaccine candidate into human studies -- a major milestone. The vaccine is simultaneously being tested for both safety (Phase I) and efficacy (Phase II) by injecting 510 healthy participants with either vaccine or placebo. This vaccine uses an inactivated (non-infectious) virus that contains genetic material for the key protein on the novel coronavirus, similar to Ad5-nCoV in China. This viral vector, however, was derived from chimpanzees which, the researchers argue, creates an even more robust response than other viruses to which humans may have already been exposed. This vaccine is being funded by the United Kingdom government and is moving quickly. Still, its anticipated completion date of this phase isnt until May 2021.

BNT162: Biopharmaceutical giant Pfizer, along with partner company BioNTech, is working on an mRNA-based vaccine that is similar to Modernas model. The duo was already working on an influenza vaccine using this scientific strategy so their vaccine candidate, BNT162, is moving particularly fast. Clinical trials are anticipated to begin in April in both the U.S. and Germany.

INO-4800: An entirely different technology is being developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals, a company that uses a proprietary platform for activation immunotherapy. This vaccine delivers DNA, another genetic material, into a hosts cells by utilizing a hand-held smart device CELLECTRA. The DNA is translated into proteins that activate an individuals immune system to generate a targeted immune response. While that may sound like science fiction, the company has used the same technology to rapidly advance vaccines against MERS, a closely related coronavirus, and HPV-related cervical precancer, among others. None of these, however, have completed their trial phase and entered the market. Trials for the COVID-19 specific vaccine, INO-4800, are anticipated to begin in April.

Sanofi recombinant DNA vaccine (unnamed): Last month, Sanofi Pasteur announced that it was partnering with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create a DNA-based vaccine. Their vaccine, which is yet to be named, relies on recombinant (engineered) DNA that encodes for proteins found on COVID-19 surface -- the same basic principle of many of the other candidates. The company had been previously working on a vaccine for SARS, a close relative of the novel coronavirus, which showed promise in animal models. More importantly, however, Sanofi has proved immensely successful in the vaccine market: they have influenza vaccines, including Flublok and Fluzone, that are widely in use today. They claim that their technique -- and their experience with mass production of their products -- would allow a COVID-19 vaccine to be introduced much more quickly than traditional production methods. Still, human trials are yet to begin but will likely start in April.

Chlo E. Nunneley, MD, is a pediatric resident physician at Boston Childrens Hospital & Boston Medical Center and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

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COVID-19 vaccine candidates: 6 front-runners - ABC News

Two coronavirus vaccine candidates are in the clinics and 42 more are in preclinical studies, according to updated data provided by the World Health Organization onMarch 20.

Three biopharma companies issued updates Monday on their developmental efforts for vaccines to combat the deadly virus, which has so far killed more than 35,000 people and infected about 735,000 more, according to Johns Hopkins University.

IMV On Track For Summer Start

Canadian pharma Imv Inc (NASDAQ: IMV), which announced March 18 its intention to develop a DPX-based vaccine candidate for the new coronavirus, said it has initiated discussions with Health Canada to prepare for a clinical trial application.

Using the genomic and proteomic sequences of the novel coronavirus, the company said it identified several hundred epitopes and shortlisted 23based on their biological relevance to the virus and potential to generate neutralizing antibodies.

IMV said it has begun manufacturing peptide candidates targeting these epitopes, and said it is in talks with suppliers and contract manufacturers to prepare for the cGMP batch required to support a clinical study.

The company has finalized the design of aplanned Phase 1 study in 48 healthy subjects and identified clinical sites in Nova Scotia and Quebec, according to a press release.

IMV said it is scheduled to meet with regulators in the week of April 20, with a goal of beginning clinical testing in summer 2020. It also said it has submitted several grant applications in Canada to help support the program.

"We remain committed to serving the unmet needs of patients, both through our efforts to potentially develop a prophylactic vaccine to curb this novel coronavirus and across our ongoing clinical studies with DPX-Survivac in advanced-stage cancer patients," CEO Frederic Ors said in a statement.

See also: Novavax Shares Rally On Flu Vaccine Study Results: What You Need To Know

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Altimmune To Work With University of Alabama On Intranasal Vaccine

Altimmune Inc (NASDAQ: ALT) said it has launched a collaboration with the University of Alabama at Birmingham for developing a single-dose, intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, AdCOVID.

The company said it is preparing for immunogenicity studies and manufacturing of Phase 1 trial material. Altimmune said it will work with universityinvestigators on preclinical animal studies and characterization of vaccine immunogenicity. The company is planning a Phase 1 study in the third quarter.

J&J Plans Clinical Testing By September, Commits Over $1B In Funding

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) said it has selected a lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate from constructs it has been working on since January.

The company said that, through a new partnership with the BARDA, it has committed more than $1 billion to co-fund vaccine research, development and clinical testing.

Separately, the company and BARDA have provided additional funding to enable expansion of their ongoing work to identify potential treatments for the virus.

Additionally, J&J said it is expanding its global manufacturing capacity to assist in the rapid production of a vaccine and supply of more than 1 billion doses of a safe and effective vaccine globally.

J&Jsaid it is "committed to bringing an affordable vaccine to the public on a not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use."

J&J expects to initiate human clinical studies at the latest by September 2020 and make available the first batch of a vaccine for emergency use authorization in early 2021.

At the time of publication Monday:

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COVID-19 Vaccine Updates: J&J Identifies Lead Candidate, IMV Eyes Clinical Testing In Summer, Altimmune Partners With University Of Alabama - Yahoo...

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Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are working on a potential COVID-19 vaccine. What they're working on is a nasal spray vaccine, and right now, they tell our news partners at AL.com they're testing its effectiveness on mice.

It's a collaboration between UAB and Altimmune, a biopharmaceutical company based in Maryland. According to UAB, first, they will test the vaccine in mice to investigate the immune responses. This will happen at UAB. Later this year, Altimmune plans to start human trials.

According to UAB, the vaccine is called Adcovid and is a single-dose vaccine that is delivered by an intranasal spray. This vaccine is based off other nasal spray vaccines that Altimmune has developed, like the vaccine candidate for the flu.

Experts say that six labs at UAB will be used to work on this collaboration. Testing and collecting the data is their highest priority so that Altimune can move on to the next step in the trial.

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UAB researchers working on COVID-19 vaccine - WHNT News 19

What do scientists understand about the COVID-19 virus?

The current pandemic is caused by a virus that is called SARS-CoV-2; SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is called COVID-19. The structure of the virus and sequence are well understood, and we believe that we have a good understanding of the protective immunity required to prevent COVID-19 and how a vaccine should be designed. Multiple vaccine approaches are currently being advanced into the clinic.

What has thus far been discovered since the outbreak?

We now know much more about the disease caused by this illness. Many of the basic scientific tools used to study the virus, like strains that grow well in cell culture, specific antibodies against the virus, and animal models of the infection are being developed. However, there is still much to learn.

Is this a deadlier strain that the flu?

The answer to this question is complex, and the final answer remains uncertain. The following statistics provide some perspective. During this flu season, as of March 21, 2020, the CDC estimates that influenza has killed 24,000-62,000 Americans, including 155 children (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm). As of March 28, 2020, the CDC estimates that COVID-19 has killed 1,668 Americans (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html). Childhood deaths due to COVID-19 have been very rare.

However, this comparison does not tell the whole story. First, the northern hemisphere flu season is currently winding down, while COVID-19 is in a period of exponential spread, and we dont know how many Americans will be infected and killed by COVID-19 before the virus that causes the disease is contained. Second, among the elderly who have become sick enough to have been tested, the mortality rate can be high 10-27% in those 85 years of age or older and 3-11% in those 65-84 years of age (MMWR 69:343-346). The big limitation of such case fatality rate estimates for COVID-19 is that, based on the data we have seen thus far, there are probably many people who have been infected by the virus but have not become sick enough to be tested. This means that the true case fatality rate may be much lower than the current estimates.

Indeed, this comparison does not take into account the fatality rates for more deadly strains of flu, which sometimes arise. As high as the reported COVID-19 case fatality rates are among the elderly, they pale compared to the case fatality rates reported for people of all ages who become infected with the most deadly strains of flu, such as highly pathogenic H5N1, which kills ~60% of those who become sick enough to be tested. Fortunately, such very deadly flu strains rarely infect humans and we have never seen sustained transmission between humans. Nevertheless, preparedness for a highly pathogenic influenza pandemic should be a high priority to avoid an event that could make the current situation seem tame by comparison.

What is Pfizer doing to research/find a vaccine for the virus? Is it part of the international team of scientists working on the issue? What kind of collaborations do they have going?

We are working with our partner BioNTech on developing its vaccine candidates which are based on BioNTechs mRNA platforms. mRNA vaccines are a new approach to immunization that have the advantage that a vaccine candidate can be developed quickly for clinical testing. Based on our knowledge of other coronaviruses that have caused outbreaks like those that caused SARS and MERS, and the efforts to develop vaccines against those coronavirus diseases by the scientific community, we have a good idea how to develop a vaccine to prevent COVID-19. We are working to advance multiple mRNA candidates into the clinic in the next month, first in Germany, followed soon thereafter in the US. In addition to BioNTech, we are connected to a large number of institutions with years long experience in the coronavirus field. Some of these centers have specialized assays and models to measure vaccine candidate responses in animals and humans that we would hope to access if helpful to advance this important effort. Given this pandemic and the health care crisis caused by it, we see unprecedented private and public partnerships and collaborations, which include private companies helping each other to advance potential solutions to address COVID-19.

How difficult is it to find a vaccine for a new virus. Compare to former cases. Is it possible that a virus is unresponsive to a vaccine?

Whether or not a new virus is vaccine preventable depends on the virus. In general, though many viruses are amenable to vaccine development, others have eluded scientific efforts. For example, a vaccine has not been developed to prevent HIV despite decades long vaccine development efforts. Some viruses, like rhinoviruses (a cause of the common cold), have too many variants that cause disease to make vaccine development practical. That said, new scientific discoveries can make it possible to develop vaccines against viruses that previously eluded control by immunization. A great example is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV the leading cause of severe respiratory infections in infants). This virus has eluded vaccine development efforts since the 1960s. However, new scientific discoveries, have supported development of a vaccine candidate by Pfizer that is now in clinical trials.

In lieu of a vaccine, are there any drugs now, or being researched to deal with COVID-19?

Yes, we are aware of numerous potential approaches to address the disease COVID-19, including antibody therapy (both monoclonal and plasma derived), antiviral drugs, and treatments that temper the destructive immune responses in patients that are, at least in part, responsible for the severity of COVID-19.

What does it look like in the research lab right now: have they ramped up shifts, are they working around the clock, how has life inside their labs changed since the outbreak?

Researchers across the globe are working 24/7 to try to find solutions to stem the spread of SARs-CoV-2. Because there was just a few months between the first report of the disease to a full blown global pandemic, multiple parallel approaches are being pursued. Needless to say, this is stressful for researchers and, even more so for the medical professionals treating these patients. In addition, because of the pandemic, movement of people is restricted, which makes remote communications more critical than ever. Researcher who have to go into laboratories or health care providers who must work in hospital settings are under constant fear of contracting the disease themselves. For example, in Pfizerjs Pearl River laboratories, we are maintaining rigorous precautions, including social distancing required in the workplace, to keep our colleagues as safe as possible. Despite these challenges, there is optimism and an incredible sense of urgency both in private and public settings to do all that is possible to solve this public health crisis. Pfizer colleagues, together with our partners are working tirelessly on solutions.

How is the COVID-19 pandemic the same/different from other pandemics in the last two decades.

The most recent pandemic before the COVID-19 pandemic was the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. The CDC estimates that, in the United States between April 2009 and February 13, 2010, H1N1 pandemic flu infected about 59 million Americans and killed about 12,000 (https://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/estimates/April_February_13.htm). Although these numbers are far higher than the current number of infections and deaths from COVID-19, the current pandemic is still in its early stages, and the comparison could look very different a few months from now. One other difference is that the current pandemic seems to affect the elderly more than other populations, although younger people do become sick and sometimes die. The 2009 pandemic was less severe than expected among the elderly, who may have had immunity from infections by related influenza strains that circulated early in the 20th century, but was especially deadly for pregnant women.

The two previous recent outbreaks of severe coronavirus disease, SARS (starting in 2003) and MERS (starting in 2012), never became pandemics. SARS was contained completely. MERS has been reduced to a low level in the Middle East, with no more sustained human to human transmission but occasional isolated human infections or clusters of infection following re-introductions of the virus from a reservoir in camels.

Dr. Phil Dormitzer, Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Viral Vaccines based at Pearl River

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Q&A With Pfizer About COVID-19, Vaccine Research, Recovery & Death Rates - Rockland County Business Journal

The chances of an individual Covid-19 vaccine project producing a successful outcome are low, one of Britains leading immunisation experts has warned. Science does not have a track record where most of our vaccine projects work, Professor Adam Finn, of Bristol University said last week. We have a track record where most of them dont work.

Finns warning came as doctors and epidemiologists stressed how difficult it would be to contain the disease until people can be immunised against it.

The crucial point is that if individual projects have low prospects of success, many different approaches will have to be taken to find one that does provide protection against Covid-19.

It is like the Grand National, said Finn. A lot of horses start off but only a few make it to the finishing line. And that is why we are going to need a lot of different vaccine projects to start off with because only one or two are likely to make it to become fully fledged vaccines. This is not a one-horse race.

At present, I would estimate there are at least 60 Covid-19 vaccine projects that have started up or are in planning. But the more there are, the better things will be.

Most Covid-19 vaccine projects that have been announced so far have been for a type known as RNA/DNA vaccines. These involve taking genetic material from a virus and injecting into animals or human volunteers. This approach is quicker than other methods which typically involve creating pieces of a virus and using them to stimulate a persons immune system against it.

However, RNA/DNA vaccines which are a recent development have yet to be developed for use in human beings. They are quicker to start up but we have much less experience with them compared with standard approaches.

All these projects have promise, Finn stressed, but most of those being launched to tackled Covid-19 were unlikely to work in the end. The trouble is that we do not have a technology that allows us to be confident from the outset that a vaccine will be effective.

In addition, vaccines that do stimulate strong immune responses can also have adverse side-effects or may even make a disease worse. An example is provided by Dengue fever, which is spread by mosquitoes in Asia and South America. A vaccine was developed to protect children against one type of Dengue, said Finn. Then it was found that it actually made them more susceptible to a second type of the disease.

For these reasons, vaccines have to be put through lengthy trials to ensure any dangerous side-effects are revealed. We will have been cautious and not rush forward, Finn added.

On the other hand, it was possible that one of the projects would produce a vaccine that just sailed along, he said. It might turn out to be easy to manufacture, have no side-effects, produce a good immune response, while in trials it prevented volunteers from getting sick compared with those in a control group. For good measure,a factory would be ready to manufacture it.

In those circumstances, you would have a vaccine in less than a year, said Finn. But it is almost certainly not going to happen like that. There will be stumbles along the way.

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'The more vaccine projects we have, the better our chances' - The Guardian

How can you help scientists and the world tackle covid-19 and coronavirus? By staying at home. That is one way. The other is by Folding@Home. Now, we are not talking of you folding yourself in comfortable bed and do social distancing. That helps too. But by the Folding @ Home we mean you helping scientists fold proteins fancy word for simulating basic proteins and find out how they behave within the coronavirus so that an effective vaccine can be created against the virus. This you can do through the covid-19 project at Folding@Home, a distributed computing project.

Now, this all sounds quite technical and in some ways it is. But not for regular users who can contribute to the project. To help scientists trying to create a vaccine for covid-19, all that people need to is install the Folding@Home software on their computer or laptop and then let it run as it simulate the virus proteins.

Viruses also have proteins that they use to suppress our immune systems and reproduce themselves, notes Folding@Home project on covid-19. To help tackle coronavirus, we want to understand how these viral proteins work and how we can design therapeutics to stop them.

Understanding proteins and simulating is best done with super computers, but there aren't enough super computers in the world for all the protein folding that needs to be. One solution is distributed computing, which lets anyone with a computer or laptop join a grid and then use the collecting computing power to do simulations.

Engineering and Scientific problems are often so difficult that we need to solve them on supercomputers (such as Archer, Summit, Sierra, etc). Problems like finding a cure for Covid-19 through realistic simulations are so challenging and compute-intensive that the combined computing power of topmost supercomputers in the world is less to find the solution quickly, writes Dr Lokesh Ragta, a CFD scientist in Scientific Computing Department at Daresbury Laboratory, UK. To share your resource, you just have to download the software Folding@home, install it, run the same and keep your computer running for as long as you can. That is it. This is all that is required from your side.

The software run Folding@Home on a computer can be downloaded from the project site (https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/). The covid-19 project at Folding@Home was announced a while ago and it already has millions of users from across the world contributed to the distributed computing. The project is supported by many big tech companies, including Intel, Google, Nvidia, Oracle and others.

Originally posted here:

Coronavirus: Scientists are racing to find Covid-19 vaccine and you can help by Folding@Home - Business Today

Alex Azar had sounded confident at the end of January. At a news conference in the hulking H.H.S. headquarters in Washington, he said he had the governments response to the new coronavirus under control, pointing out high-ranking jobs he had held in the department during the 2003 SARS outbreak and other infectious threats.

I know this playbook well, he told reporters.

A Yale-trained lawyer who once served as the top attorney at the health department, Mr. Azar had spent a decade as a top executive at Eli Lilly, one of the worlds largest drug companies. But he caught Mr. Trumps attention in part because of other credentials: After law school, Mr. Azar was a clerk for some of the nations most conservative judges, including Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court. And for two years, he worked as Ken Starrs deputy on the Clinton Whitewater investigation.

As Mr. Trumps second health secretary, confirmed at the beginning of 2018, Mr. Azar has been quick to compliment the president and focus on the issues he cares about: lowering drug prices and fighting opioid addiction. On Feb. 6 even as the W.H.O. announced that there were more than 28,000 coronavirus cases around the globe Mr. Azar was in the second row in the White Houses East Room, demonstrating his loyalty to the president as Mr. Trump claimed vindication from his impeachment acquittal the day before and lashed out at evil lawmakers and the F.B.I.s top scum.

As public attention on the virus threat intensified in January and February, Mr. Azar grew increasingly frustrated about the harsh spotlight on his department and the leaders of agencies who reported to him, according to people familiar with the response to the virus inside the agencies.

Described as a prickly boss by some administration officials, Mr. Azar has had a longstanding feud with Seema Verma, the Medicare and Medicaid chief, who recently became a regular presence at Mr. Trumps televised briefings on the pandemic. Mr. Azar did not include Dr. Hahn on the virus task force he led, though some of the F.D.A. commissioners aides participated in H.H.S. meetings on the subject.

And tensions grew between the secretary and Dr. Redfield as the testing issue persisted. Mr. Azar and Dr. Redfield have been on the phone as often as a half-dozen times a day. But throughout February, as the C.D.C. test faltered, Mr. Azar became convinced that Dr. Redfields agency was providing him with inaccurate information about testing that the secretary repeated publicly, according to several administration officials.

In one instance, Mr. Azar appeared on Sunday morning news programs and said that more than 3,600 people had been tested for the virus. In fact, the real number was much smaller because many patients were tested multiple times, an error the C.D.C. had to correct in congressional testimony that week. One health department official said Mr. Azar was repeatedly assured that the C.D.C.s test would be widely available within a week or 10 days, only to be given the same promise a week later.

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The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to Covid-19 - The New York Times

Want more? Read the latest news, opinions, and analyses on the Coronavirus pandemic. Dont miss our feed of the most important news. Updated for you regularly by the New Europe team.

Please note that this list is ordered by how our team finds the content, and not necessarily by how publication date.

28/03 / Medicines/Shortage / Lupus patients having trouble getting drug named as possible treatment for COVID-19 / FPS Health

27/03 / India/Medicine/ Hydroxychloroquine, Trumps prescription for Covid-19, gets tougher to buy in India / ThePrint

29/03 15:19 / France/Medicine / French expert says second study shows malaria drug helps fight coronavirus / RTL Today/AFP

29/03 /Vaccine/Trial / Fighting COVID-19: Kaiser Permanente Launches First Vaccine Trial / GVWire

28/03 / Vaccine/Analysis / Why a Covid-19 vaccination wont end the pandemic / Ladders

28/03 20:35 / USA/Vaccine / USC Working on Coronavirus Vaccine / NBC LA

28/03 20:06 / Vaccine/Research / The more vaccine projects we have, the better our chances / Guardian

28/03 14:12 / Turkey/Vaccine / Turkish scientists working on COVID-19 vaccine / HURRIYET

28/03 13:09 / Medicine/Dangers / Doctors and experts warn of the risks of using malaria drugs to treat COVID-19 / LA TIMES

28/03 12:30 / Russia/Medicine / Russia Creates Anti-Covid-19 Drug / SPUTNIK

28/03 10:10 / Vaccine/Timeline /Coronavirus vaccine: when will it be ready? / GUARDIAN

28/03 09:00 / Vaccine/Technology / AI Can Help Scientists Find a Covid-19 Vaccine /WIRED

27/03 / Vaccine/Industry / Developing a vaccine takes 10 years. Sanofi seeks to do so within 18 months / CNBC

27/03 / Vaccine/Mutation / Is the coronavirus mutating? / LiveScience

26/03 / UN/Vaccine / Life-saving vaccinations must not fall victim to COVID-19 pandemic UNICEF chief / UN News

26/03 / Australia/Vaccine / Australia enters 4,000 healthcare workers in trial for coronavirus vaccine /Reuters

24/03 / UK/Vaccine / U.K. gov backs push to start COVID-19 vaccine trial in April / Fierce Biotech

23/03 / USA/Vaccine / The first study of a potential coronavirus vaccine will soon start recruiting healthy volunteers in Georgia at Emory University / Business Insider

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COVID-19: Latest news on the vaccine and drug treatment (regular updates) - New Europe

First the race for a COVID-19 vaccine and then questions about who gets it first  Ottawa Citizen

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First the race for a COVID-19 vaccine and then questions about who gets it first - Ottawa Citizen