Month: June 2020

—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 he’s optimistic, “we’ve been burned before,” Fauci cautioned.Multiple successes, in multiple parts of the world, are vital.“This isn’t 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 it’s time to set public expectations. Many scientists don’t expect a coronavirus vaccine to be nearly as protective as the measles shot.If the best COVID-19 vaccine is only 50% effective, “that’s 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 won’t be surprised, he added.And for all the government promises of stockpiling doses in hopes of starting vaccinations by year’s end, here’s the catch: Even if a shot pans out — and it’s 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 stretchVaccines 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 there’s no guarantee any will pan out, moving three different kinds into final testing offers better odds — especially since scientists don’t 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 haven’t yet been proven in people.Oxford’s method: Genetically engineer a chimpanzee cold virus so it won’t spread but can carry the gene for that spike protein into just enough cells to trick the immune system that an infection’s 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 virusResearchers must test thousands of people not where COVID-19 is surging Vbecause then it’s too late — but where it’s 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.“We’re 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 there’s “little chance, frankly” of proving the vaccine’s 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 study’s size isn’t clear. Expect imperfect protectionAnimal 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 isn’t known.Still, that would be a big win.“My expectations have always been that we’ll get rid of symptomatic disease. From what we’ve seen of the vaccines so far, that’s what they do,” said Penn’s Weissman.The initial vaccines might be replaced with later, better arrivals, as historically happens in medicine, noted Duke’s 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 shortcutsSome 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 who’s first in line as doses become available. Presumably they’ll 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 don’t know yet,” said Dr. Mariangela Simao of the World Health Organization, which is advising countries on how to choose.  
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As the world waits for a COVID-19 vaccine, scientists are testing whether shots already in use for other diseases might provide some protection from the worst impacts of the disease caused by the coronavirus. Vaccines containing living but weakened organisms, including those against tuberculosis, polio and measles, may provide a boost to the immune system that would help fight the coronavirus.  While they probably wouldn’t provide protection as good as a purpose-built vaccine, research has already shown that these immunizations help ward off diseases other than the ones for which they were designed.  Plus, these shots have a proven safety record stretching back decades.  “And not only that, it’s something we can put out almost immediately,” said Jeffrey Cirillo, director of the Texas A&M University Center for Airborne Pathogen Research and Imaging. The manufacturing facilities are already up and running, delivering hundreds of millions of doses every year, he noted. Vaccine bonus Cirillo and his colleagues are FILE – Children, their faces covered with masks, wait to get vaccinated against measles at a health clinic in Apia, Samoa, November 18, 2019.More than 100 million children around the world receive the vaccine each year to prevent tuberculosis. But as it happens, the vaccine does much more. When it was introduced early in the 20th century, researchers noticed steep drops in infant deaths. Some places saw up to a 50% decline, and not just from tuberculosis. Deaths from other diseases fell, too, especially respiratory diseases.  Researchers saw the FILE – A medical staff member prepares a syringe at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg, June 24, 2020.Experts disagree on how these cells are different. Noverr and Cirillo say these “educated” cells tamp down inflammation. If that’s the case, that could help COVID-19 patients who are dying from overactive inflammation.  Others say live vaccines produce stronger innate immune responses generally, which help to protect against a broad range of infections.  Noverr is hoping to get funding to test whether the live measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) could provide some protection against COVID-19. Others suggest testing the polio vaccine. In addition to Cirillo’s, studies of BCG are under way in Australia and the Netherlands.  Given the safety record of these vaccines, “It’s almost one of those things, ‘Well, why wouldn’t you just give it to everybody?'” Noverr said. “But you won’t know (if it works) unless we do (a) double-blinded, controlled study.”  That is why the World Health Organization is not recommending any of these vaccines for COVID-19 yet. Supplies are limited, WHO officials note. While tests are under way, diverting vaccines from their intended use without evidence that they help prevent COVID-19 could end up doing more harm than good.   
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Facebook says it will flag all “newsworthy” posts from politicians that break its rules, including those from President Donald Trump.  CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously refused to take action against Trump posts that suggested mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud. Twitter, by contrast, slapped a “get the facts” label on them.Facebook is also banning false claims intended to discourage voting, such as stories about federal agents checking legal status at polling places. The company also said it is increasing its enforcement capacity to remove false claims about local polling conditions in the 72 hours before the U.S. election.Earlier Friday, shares of Facebook and Twitter dropped sharply after the giant company behind brands such as Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Dove soap said it will halt U.S. advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through at least the end of the year.That European consumer-product maker, Unilever, said it took the move to protest the amount of hate speech online. Unilever said the polarized atmosphere in the United States ahead of November’s presidential election placed responsibility on brands to act.Shares of both Facebook and Twitter fell roughly 7% following Unilever’s announcement.FILE – The Unilever headquarters is seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Aug. 21, 2018.The company, which is based in the Netherlands and Britain, joins a raft of other advertisers pulling back from online platforms. Facebook in particular has been the target of an escalating movement to withhold advertising dollars to pressure it to do more to prevent racist and violent content from being shared on its platform.”We have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S.,” Unilever said. “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society.”On Thursday, Verizon joined others in the Facebook boycott.Sarah Personette, vice president of global client solutions at Twitter, said the company’s “mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure Twitter is a place where people can make human connections, seek and receive authentic and credible information, and express themselves freely and safely.”She added that Twitter is “respectful of our partners’ decisions and will continue to work and communicate closely with them during this time.”
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A spacewalking astronaut on Friday added a small mirror to the millions of pieces of junk orbiting the Earth, as he lost the small object from his space suit, while stepping out of the International Space Station. U.S. Commander Chris Cassidy said the mirror floated away at about 0.3 meters per second. Mission Control said the mirror somehow became detached from Cassidy’s spacesuit. Spacewalking astronauts wear a wrist mirror on each sleeve to get better views while working.  The mirror is just 12 centimeters by roughly 8 centimeters and came loose as the ISS was in darkness. Once he was in sunlight, Cassidy inspected his sleeve for clues that might explain how the mirror came off but told Mission Control he found no evidence of thread damage. Cassidy and fellow astronaut Bob Behnken have conducted the first of at least four spacewalks to replace the last in series of old nickel-hydrogen batteries with new, more efficient lithium-ion batteries. The batteries store energy collected by the station’s solar panel arrays. Their spacewalks are expected to continue through July before Behnken returns to Earth in August aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Behnken and Doug Hurley made history at the end of May with SpaceX’s first astronaut launch. This was the seventh spacewalk for both men. Each has spent more than 30 hours out in the vacuum of space. 
 
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