For all the talk of President Donald Trump not doing enough about the Corona Virus although, he relied a large part on the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci in response to the virus, not counting the incompetence of the extreme liberal Democrat Governors like Andrew Cuomo who are directly, responsible for tens of thousand of deaths from the Corona Virus because they put Corona Virus infected patients into nursing homes? That despite, adequate facilities put up by the US military like the Javits Center where they put up 1,900 beds? Totally, not used and they ended shutting it when there are no patients left? Let us see the much admired European Union socialists on how they are handling their Corona Virus infections? https://www.breitbart.com/europe/20...s-cases-nearly-70-per-cent-population-curfew/
You are a selfish asshole who lies to support your fears. Why are you so selfish that you lie and misrepresent science and data on thread after thread. What makes you so fearful? you have no idea what my views are a potential vaccine at this stage. you just lied you ass off. 2. My views about Covid are not about me as an individual. My life is great right now because I am trading full time again and I love it. I work out everyday. I live in great weather. Its not all rosy.. as we have lost a few family members to old age lately because of the lockdown... but I don't blame the lockdown for that because for the high risk... isolation is necessary. But, not being a selfish asshole like you lefties with your personal fears... I am concerned as most of the doctors I know are about the mental and physical damage being done to the world by these draconian non data based responses to the covid. Plus the financial damage you are doing to the world. We have the data now... and we should be balancing the harmed caused by lockdowns vs the harmed saved. This balancing should be required... for every lockdown... unless hospital capacity is objective threatened. Not by looking at infections in the country but by looking locally at whether the infections are triggering in the high risk groups who need ICU beds... and if the ICU beds and hospital beds are filling up.
USA TODAY's experts say securing a COVID-19 vaccine in record time could be easy, but distributing it won't be https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...-easy-but-distributing-it-wont-be/ar-BB1afr3i Science is making incredible progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine, but as approval nears – potentially as early as December – worry has shifted to the complexity of distribution. Overall, hopefulness was the theme of USA TODAY's vaccine panel this month. After five months, the panel's countdown clock to a widely available vaccine skipped forward another hour, to 8 a.m. Companies and observers generally expect at least one COVID-19 candidate vaccine soon will receive a regulatory thumbs up. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, joined the chorus Tuesday when he told NPR he was "guardedly optimistic" one or more of the candidates will be judged safe and effective by the end of the year. But reality is setting in about how hard it will be to get an approved vaccine into the arms of everyone who wants it – twice. "The initial vaccine supply and the distribution and vaccination programs will not live up to the public’s desire for immediate, widespread access to a safe and effective vaccine," said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of immunization education at the Immunization Action Coalition. Health care workers and first responders are likely to be prioritized for an approved vaccine, followed by high-risk elderly. Even those limited groups account for as many as 150 million Americans, said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Unless three vaccines win approval simultaneously, it's unlikely enough doses will be available right away. The two leading vaccine candidates have to be delivered in different ways, adding to the difficulty of getting the right vaccine into the right person. Both require two doses, but the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shots are given 21 days apart, while Moderna’s second shot is delivered at 28 days. Moderna’s vaccine must be kept frozen. Pfizer’s has to be kept even colder – at minus-78 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of dry ice – meaning it needs different shipping and storing protocols. Another variable is whether the vaccines will be equally effective in groups such as the elderly. Studies underway may show one vaccine is more effective than another among high-risk populations, adding even more complexity. “It’s going to be hard,” Offit said, to get the right vaccine into the right person’s arm at the right time. And then to do it again with a second dose. Making progress For the past five months, USA TODAY has asked a dozen or more experts in all aspects of vaccine development to gauge the progress on a COVID-19 vaccine. We asked panel members to place vaccine development on a 12-hour clock, on which midnight, the starting point, is the moment in early January when the world became aware of the virus known as SARS-CoV-2, and noon is the time a vaccine will become widely available. In late June, panelists put the time at 4 a.m., one-third of the way – a stunning amount of progress considering the short time frame. By July, the panel’s estimate crept forward to 5 a.m. as the launch of large clinical trials fueled optimism, tempered by concern that "a lot had to go right." August and September each saw the clock advance an hour. There were no major setbacks, and plans began to fall into place for distributing an eventual vaccine. This month, panelists moved the clock yet another hour closer to a broadly available vaccine, though there was a wider spread than usual among the 15. Some said we're still in the very early morning hours. Others said we're closing in on the goal. For October, the midway point among our experts' times was 8 a.m., nearing three-quarters of the way there. First generation versus next-gen All six candidate vaccines backed by U.S. taxpayers were developed quickly this spring. They received government financing for development, manufacturing or both, so they could be made faster than conventional vaccines, which have taken a minimum of four years and often far longer to develop. All the companies are contractually obligated to produce at least 100 million doses of vaccine in return for funding. All those doses won't be available the first day a vaccine gets a thumbs up from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "For the two or three lead candidates, we may have a few million stockpiled doses and a clear production plan for the first couple of hundred million doses," said Prashant Yadav, a medical supply chain expert and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. If none of the front-runners pans out, things get less clear, he said. Two of the leaders, Pfizer and Moderna, use messenger RNA platforms never before used for an approved vaccine, noted Duke University Law School professor and health law expert Arti Rai. Even if one or more works, there might be better vaccines to come – for instance, requiring just one dose or proving more effective in older or more vulnerable people. Once a vaccine is secured, it may be difficult to convince tens of thousands of people to volunteer to test a 2.0 or 3.0 version. As infections hopefully drop once a vaccine becomes available, it will be harder to find volunteers in the USA likely to contract COVID-19. The trials include 30,000 people, and at least 150 of them need to get sick to statistically prove whether a vaccine is effective. Fewer infections means it will take longer to reach that number. Virtually all the USA TODAY panelists said they expect it will be difficult to improve on first-generation vaccines. Waning public interest after a first COVID-19 vaccine is approved could mean that "some of these vaccine trials trailing behind will have to close," said Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine and infectious disease expert at the University of California-San Francisco. Bringing multiple COVID-19 vaccines across the finish line will be crucial for ensuring everyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, health status and other variables, has a safe and effective vaccine available, said Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, president and CEO of Biotechnology Innovation Organization. "It's why having diversity among the volunteers in clinical trials is so important, so researchers can follow the data to know precisely how vaccines work in different populations," she said. "The more solutions we have, the better prepared we will be to end this global pandemic." Distribution and other concerns Like Offit, Sandra Crouse Quinn, senior associate director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity, said she's worried about how state and local health departments will deal with the complexity of vaccinating so many people. "From my interactions with some county and state public health agencies, they are trying to get their plans organized," she said. "But without knowing which or how many vaccines will make it successfully though, it is a challenge to plan." There are tremendous logistical challenges ahead, said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group and editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine. "It will be confusing and likely chaotic," he said. Pamela Bjorkman, a structural biologist at the California Institute of Technology, said her "optimism was diminished” by holds put on two of the leading vaccine candidates. AstraZeneca’s trial was paused in September after a British volunteer had a rare neurological complication. Although the trial in the U.K. was allowed to resume, the FDA continued the hold on the U.S. trial. This month, Johnson & Johnson’s trial was paused after a participant came down with an "unexplained illness." Trial pauses are relatively routine, “so nothing necessarily to worry about in terms of vaccine safety,” Bjorkman said. “It shows, however, that testing vaccines should be done carefully and without skipping any safety standards.” How we did it USA TODAY received responses from 15 scientists and researchers, asking how far they think the vaccine development effort has progressed since Jan. 1, when the virus was first internationally recognized. Those responses were aggregated, and we calculated the median, the midway point among them. This month's panelists Pamela Bjorkman, structural biologist at the California Institute of Technology Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California-San Francisco Sam Halabi, professor of law, University of Missouri; scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Florian Krammer, virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, president and CEO of Biotechnology Innovation Organization Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of immunization education, Immunization Action Coalition; former member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; chair, World Health Organization Immunization Practices Advisory Committee Prakash Nagarkatti, immunologist and vice president for research, University of South Carolina Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Peter Pitts, president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, and a former FDA Associate Commissioner for External Relations. Dr. Gregory Poland, director, Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, editor-in-chief, Vaccine Sandra Crouse Quinn, senior associate director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity, and chair of the department of family science at the University of Maryland School of Public Health Arti Rai, law professor and health law expert at Duke University Law School Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine, Department of Health Policy, and professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University Prashant Yadav, senior fellow, Center for Global Development, medical supply chain expert Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine and associate chief of infectious disease at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USA TODAY's experts say securing a COVID-19 vaccine in record time could be easy, but distributing it won't be
Like the flu vaccines, anyone consider the possibility that covid vaccines may not be as effective as hoped? And what that would mean going forward?
Pfizer has expanded its COVID-19 vaccine trial to include minors. Some say it's risky. Others argue it's necessary. https://news.yahoo.com/pfizer-expanded-covid-19-vaccine-000610899.html After school Thursday, 12-year-old Abhinav pushed up his T-shirt sleeve and looked down as a needle pierced his left shoulder. The Ohio boy is one of the first children allowed to receive a vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19. His father, Sharat, also joined the trial. After months of testing its COVID-19 candidate vaccine in adults, Pfizer recently lowered the age of participation to 16, aiming to include at least 3,000 older teens. On Thursday, Cincinnati Children's Hospital inaugurated an even younger group, vaccinating its first two middle schoolers. Pfizer is the only one of the leading drug companies to allow minors into a vaccine trial. Some pediatric vaccine experts say drugmakers and federal regulators should wait until the vaccines have been proven safe and effective in adults before moving to children. "If I were part of the FDA I would certainly want to be very convinced about the safety of a vaccine before I approved its use in children," Dr. Cody Meissner a pediatric infectious disease expert at Tufts Children's Hospital said Thursday at a public meeting of an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "The pattern of disease is very different in children, and lumping them in with adults would cause me some discomfort." But Dr. Barbara Pahud, director of research in the infectious diseases department at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, said it's immoral not to get kids into trials as soon as possible. "We should not allow children to die," she said. "That's our job as pediatricians to make noise and make sure people are noticing." COVID-19 contagion Although most children recover well from COVID-19, they can pass the virus to their parents, teachers and grandparents, so it's important to get them vaccinated, said Dr. Robert Frenck Jr., director of the Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Last week, Frenck dosed his first minor with the Pfizer vaccine, and Thursday marked the first younger volunteer. At least 500,000 American children have contracted COVID-19 this year, Frenck said, and probably a lot more. "We're not necessarily identifying all the times when the younger ones are transmitting to parents and grandparents," he said. Fewer than 1% of those children ended up hospitalized, Meissner said, so any vaccine given to children has to meet a high bar for safety to outweigh any risks. "I worry that the vaccines ... in genetically predisposed children may elicit a very troublesome reaction," said Meissner, a member of the FDA advisory panel that met for eight hours Thursday to discuss COVID-19 vaccine development. But Pahud noted more than 100 children – many who were previously healthy – have died from COVID-19. That's nearly as many as died in the last year from the flu, which saw a particularly deadly year. Others have developed a dangerous immune overreaction. Pahud said COVID-19 is as dangerous for children as other illnesses they are vaccinated against, not counting the risk infectious children present to adults. After the pneumococcal vaccine was introduced in children, for example, doctors were pleasantly surprised to see rates of pneumonia fall. With COVID-19, she said, "we might have more impact in herd immunity and transmission than we know." Another reason to test children, Pahud said: Once a vaccine is approved for adults, some parents will have their children get it, even without federal approval. Absent a trial in children, there's no way to know if that will be safe, she said, adding that she wishes such studies had started long ago. "We're severely behind," she said. Vaccine testing will take longer in kids Vaccination has focused on adults so far, in part because they are more likely to suffer ill effects from the virus, but also because that's how vaccines are usually rolled out. Even vaccines aimed at babies are tested first in adults to make sure they're safe, Frenck said. While adolescents are generally given an adult dose of a vaccine, Frenck said younger children may need a lower dose, which needs to be worked out during clinical trials. Pfizer hasn't released any details of its roll out other than to say it plans to assess success with one age group before moving down to the next. Frenck said he's seen very few side effects so far from the vaccine developed by Pfizer and German company BioNTech. Most recipients are convinced they got the placebo, as half the trial participants will, because they have so few side effects, he said. Some people experienced fatigue, muscle or joint aches or a fever for a day or two, but nothing serious enough to stop participants from going to work. "Based on all that safety data, I'm not concerned about moving into adolescents," Frenck said. "I think their immune system and their size is basically going to see the same results." It's urgent to start clinical trials in children, he added. "With something that has turned our world upside down, it gives you even a stronger reason of why you want to test now," he said. Pfizer has not released a timeframe for the study of adolescents, but Pahud said testing in teens and kids will take longer than in adults, because of parents' hesitancy to expose their children to unproven vaccines. Children who are Black or Latino, like their parents, are more likely to suffer the worst effects of COVID-19, Pahud said, so they should be prioritized in any vaccination effort. "It's a population we need to pay attention to," she said. Personal perspective Katelyn Evans, 16, decided to volunteer for the vaccine trial because she wanted to be part of the solution. "The more people they have and the more data they have, the sooner they can help people," she said. Last week when she got her shot, Katelyn closed her eyes as the needle went in, but said it didn't really hurt, and she hasn't had any side effects since. During the pandemic, Katelyn, a high school junior, has been able to continue with her coursework, though her school switches every week or so from everyone in person to half the students coming two days a week and half the other two. But COVID-19 has robbed the active teen from drama club, mock trial, math club, choir – where she proudly sings alto – and running cross country. The sooner there's a vaccine, the sooner life can get back to normal, Katelyn said, adding that she's hoping to convince her cousin and some friends her age to join in the trial. "They need hundreds more people to get the data they need." Pahud said her own 12-year-old daughter asked several months ago why she couldn't get vaccinated. "That's not fair," she said when Pahud told her children weren't yet included in trials. Pahud said she's also hearing a lot of fear from parents worried their child will have one of the rare, bad cases of COVID-19. If nothing else, Pahud said, a vaccine should be able to stem some of that fear. And if teachers are no longer afraid of being infected by their students, they should be more willing to reopen schools, which will help all kids and families, regardless of their COVID-19 status. "We're never going to get back to normal without having a vaccine available for children," she said.
Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Produce Robust Immune Response In Elderly: Report https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/oxf...ust-immune-response-in-elderly-report-2315798 The COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford produces a similar immune response in both older and younger adults, and adverse responses were lower among the elderly, British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc said on Monday. A vaccine that works is seen as a game-changer in the battle against the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 1.15 million people, hammered the global economy and shuttered normal life across the world. "It is encouraging to see immunogenicity responses were similar between older and younger adults and that reactogenicity was lower in older adults, where the COVID-19 disease severity is higher," an AstraZeneca spokesman told Reuters. "The results further build the body of evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of AZD1222," the spokesman said, referring to the technical name of the vaccine. The news that older people get an immune response from the vaccine is positive because the immune system weakens with age and older people are those most at risk of dying from the virus. The Financial Times reported earlier that the vaccine, being developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca, triggers protective antibodies and T-cells in older age groups - among those most at risk from the virus. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be one of the first from big pharma to secure regulatory approval, along with Pfizer and BioNTech's candidate. If it works, a vaccine would allow the world to return to some measure of normality after the tumult of the pandemic. Immunogenicity blood tests carried out on a subset of older participants echo data released in July which showed the vaccine generated "robust immune responses" in a group of healthy adults aged between 18 and 55, the Financial Times reported. Details of the finding are expected to be published shortly in a clinical journal, the FT said. It did not name the publication. OXFORD VACCINE British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a vaccine was not yet ready though he was preparing logistics for a possible roll out. "I would expect the bulk of the roll out to be in the first half of next year," Hancock told the BBC. Asked if some people could receive a vaccine this year he told the BBC: "I don't rule that out but that is not my central expectation." "We want to be ready in case everything goes perfectly but it's not my central expectation that we'll be doing that this year, but the programme is progressing well, we're not there yet," Hancock said. Called AZD1222 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the vaccine was developed by Oxford University scientists and licensed to AstraZeneca in April, which took on the task of scaling trials and production. The vaccine is likely to provide protection for about a year, CEO Pascal Soriot said in June. The British drugmaker has signed several supply and manufacturing deals with companies and governments around the world as it gets closer to reporting early results of a late-stage clinical trial. AstraZeneca resumed the U.S. trial of the experimental vaccine after approval by U.S. regulators, the company said on Friday. Staff at a London hospital trust have been told to be ready to receive the first batches of the vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc, The Sun newspaper reported on Monday. The Sun said the hospital, which was not identified, was told to prepare for the vaccine from the "week commencing the 2 November".
Meet the youngest participants in Covid-19 vaccine trials: Teens and tweens “I think that it could really benefit the world, and I think it could also help scientists know more about the coronavirus,” said a 12-year-old who recently received his first injection. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...covid-19-vaccine-trials-teens-tweens-n1244957 When Abhinav, an Ohio seventh grader, learned that a Covid-19 vaccine trial near his hometown was enrolling children, he wanted to participate. But there was one aspect of the study that had him worried. “I was mostly a bit nervous about the blood draws, because I had one about five years ago, and it wasn’t so comfortable,” Abhinav, 12, said. Nonetheless, he decided to enlist in the trial, which is run by Pfizer Inc. (Much more at above url)
COVID-19: A global survey shows worrying signs of vaccine hesitancy https://theconversation.com/covid-1...ws-worrying-signs-of-vaccine-hesitancy-148845 It has been nine months since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a “public health emergency of international concern”. Since then, more than 44 million cases have been recorded and over one million lives lost. Economic costs measure in trillions of dollars. Global recovery will take years. A safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be developed in record time and may be approved for production, distribution and acceptance some time in 2021. Public health experts say that at least 70% of any community must get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine to achieve an acceptable level of immunity to protect its members. We recently surveyed 13,426 people in 19 countries. We included two of Africa’s most populous and visible nations, Nigeria and South Africa, which are among the most affected by COVID-19 on the continent. Overall, we found that 71.5% of participants said they would take a “proven safe and effective vaccine” while 14% would refuse it outright. An additional 14% said they would hesitate to take the vaccine. But that average figure is deceptive. It was raised by favourable responses from two Asian countries that also recorded very high trust in government health recommendations. More than 80% of Chinese respondents and 75% of South Koreans said they would accept a vaccine. South Africans came closer than any other country to the 70% standard, at almost 65%. But only 46.3% of Nigerians said they would do so. This is slightly higher than the results we found in Spain, Sweden, Poland, Brazil and Ecuador. Hesitancy These vaccine hesitant people are not necessarily vaccine opponents. A large number of them consistently vaccinate their children against numerous childhood diseases. However, it must be noted that the increasingly well-coordinated global anti-vaccine movement has repurposed itself to challenge the very reality of COVID-19 as well as the usefulness of a new vaccine to prevent it. They have leveraged social media platforms to promote these doubts. We also tried to determine how much trust people would have in a COVID-19 vaccine if their employer recommended it. Just more than three in five (61.4%) of all our respondents said they would do so. The numbers dropped to less than half of South Africans (46%) and Nigerians (44%). Our data confirms a troubling trend towards vaccine hesitancy that has been found in other global and national studies. Professor Heidi Larson, a co-author of our paper, and her team at the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine recently reported on trends in vaccine confidence observed across 149 countries between 2015 and 2019. They found that political instability and religious extremism were critical factors in declining vaccine confidence in many of these countries. Recent political unrest in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with over 200 million people, does not bode well for a successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign there. Only South Africa and Ethiopia have recorded more COVID-19 cases on the continent. Many public health workers also recall a massive boycott against polio vaccination in northern Nigeria. It was caused by a single rumour, and not an adverse event. This boycott led to the years of more polio infections and deaths in Nigeria, and delayed polio eradication from the continent as a whole. So what must be done to get on track for a successful African vaccination programme against COVID-19? Moving forward As scientists, we should help health leaders to prepare now with education and dialogue to set appropriate expectations for when a coronavirus vaccine may be available. We need to build vaccine literacy with effective communication and community engagement for acceptance country by country, village by village, taking into account community-specific issues, concerns or misconceptions and working with local religious and civil leaders and influencers. We also need to help people become more fluent about vaccinations: Are they safe? Will they protect me and my family? Do I need to be vaccinated to be able to work? Will everyone be able to get it? Will vaccination sterilise me or my kids? And we must be realistic that none of this information and advocacy will truly convince people to accept COVID-19 vaccination, or any other, in the absence of genuine societal trust. Without mutual trust, we may not be able to rebuild economies and return to anything approaching “normal” life. It would be tragic if we developed, made and distributed safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and people refused to take them, when health infrastructure and equipment levels cannot stem the pandemic.