Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines may block infection as well as disease Studies suggest fully vaccinated people pose a low risk for transmitting the coronavirus https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-vaccine-moderna-pfizer-transmission-disease Vaccines against COVID-19 are about 90 percent effective at blocking coronavirus infections, real-world studies of health care workers, firefighters, police, teachers and other essential workers suggest. Even after just one dose of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccines reduced the chance of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2, researchers report March 29 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “We clearly showed in our study that if you were at least 14 days out from your first shot, you had 80 percent protection” from infection, says Jeff Burgess, associate dean for research at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The study is part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that the vaccines not only reduce the risk of getting seriously ill with COVID-19, but can prevent catching the virus in the first place. “If you can’t get infected, you can’t infect anyone else, which means the vaccines can reduce transmission as well as the disease,” says Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious diseases researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the study. That is welcome news coming on the heels of data indicating that cases, hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise again in the United States as states lift mask mandates and open businesses at full capacity. “Right now I’m scared,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said during a White House briefing on March 29, noting “the recurring feeling I have of impending doom.” She urged people to “hang on a little longer” and continue to wear masks, social distance and get vaccinated to head off a potential fourth surge of the disease. “We have so much to look forward to. So much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope,” she said. Part of the reason for hope comes from the MMWR study. The study “is tremendously encouraging and complements other recent studies,” Walensky said. Nearly 4,000 health care workers, first responders and other essential workers in six states took part in the study led by CDC researchers. From December 14 through March 13, the workers submitted weekly nasal swabs for coronavirus testing. Both symptomatic and asymptomatic infection rates fell after vaccination. A small number of vaccinated people in the study still got infected. Other real-world data collected from health care workers in California and Texas also seem to back up those findings, researchers say in separate reports published March 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the Texas report, 234 of 8,969 nonvaccinated employees at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas tested positive for the coronavirus from December 15 to January 28. That’s 2.61 percent, compared with 1.82 percent (112 of 6,144) of employees that had gotten one shot and 0.05 percent (four of 8,121) of fully vaccinated employees. In the California report, infections among health care workers also fell with increasing vaccination levels. Only seven infections occurred among 4,167 people who were at least 15 days out from getting their second dose of vaccine. The vaccines prevented health care workers in the study from becoming seriously ill, says study coauthor Francesca Torriani, an infectious diseases physician and hospital epidemiologist at the University of California, San Diego. Reducing the severity of illnesses will help relieve the burden on hospital systems if there should be a fourth wave, she says. But to really stop transmission of the virus, it’s important to vaccinate 18- to 30-year-olds. “Those are the ones who are right now transmitting the disease.” Motivating healthy young people who are less likely to become severely ill in the first place to take the shots could be difficult, Torriani says. “There’s not much in it for them, but there is a lot in it for their families, so I’m hoping that realization” will push young people toward getting vaccinated. Because some vaccinated people can still get infected, the CDC and other public health agencies have recommended that people who have gotten their shots continue to wear masks in public and take other precautions to avoid spreading the virus. Data from Israel does suggest that the Pfizer vaccine might block transmission of the virus (SN: 2/12/21). Unvaccinated people produce 2.58 to 4.5 times more virus than vaccinated people do, researchers report March 29 in Nature Medicine. Those data show vaccinated people have a lower “viral load” and are less likely to pass the coronavirus to others if they do become infected, but the effect is not as strong as might be hoped to truly limit transmission, Kilpatrick says. That reduction in viral load amounts to about an 11 percent decrease in infectiousness, he says. “That’s good … but you’d like to be half as infectious or three-quarters lower infectiousness.” There is not yet enough data to say for sure that vaccines prevent transmission, Torriani says. “There is definitely heavy suggestion,” but further studies on viral load are needed. So are data from everyday citizens. Aside from the MMWR study, almost all of the real-world vaccine data collected so far in the United States has been among health care workers. Those workers may not give a true picture of transmission risks because they have better personal protective equipment and ventilation than the average person does, Torriani says. Far more indicative would be studies to determine whether vaccinated people are less likely to infect household members. “If [household transmission] goes away with vaccination, that would be the proof.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/johnson-johnson-vaccine-15-million-ruined-478776 Johnson & Johnson subcontractor ruins 15 million vaccine doses Workers at Emergent BioSolutions mistakenly mixed ingredients from two Covid-19 vaccines together. Future shipments of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine will be delayed after one of its subcontractors ruined 15 million doses at a Baltimore factory over the last several weeks, according to two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the situation. Johnson & Johnson had hired the company, Emergent BioSolutions, to manufacture the active ingredient, or drug substance, of the vaccine at its plant in West Baltimore. Workers at the facility mistakenly mixed ingredients for the J&J vaccine with those of another manufacturer’s coronavirus shot, according to the two officials. The Biden administration has asked Johnson & Johnson to directly supervise Emergent’s vaccine production going forward, said a senior administration official. Getting the facility back on track — and up to regulatory standards — could take a matter of days or weeks, the official added. “FDA is aware of the situation, but we are unable to comment further. Questions about a firm’s manufacturing facilities should be directed to that firm,” the FDA said in a statement. Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that its quality control processes "identified one batch of drug substance that did not meet quality standards at Emergent Biosolutions, a site not yet authorized to manufacture drug substance for our COVID-19 vaccine."
As I stated elsewhere: Not pretty. Handing the vaccines out like Santa Claus is easier than the early work of getting them up and running. Joe the Human Trafficker, I am looking at you. JandJ is single dose so 15 million is enough to vaccinate the adults of many small states combined. 15 million would go a long way in Canada. You could vaccinate every adult over the age of 40 in Canada with that amount. J and J has met its near-term production commitments to the U.S. so I don't think they get in trouble with the Americans unless they miss June deliveries or so. They do not owe more production until a couple months down the road. But some of the hinterland countries were depending on it, like our Canadian colony.
I've talked about this before a few times in the past year since the Pandemic was declared... People should be tested first to determine if they have antibodies to Covid-19. If they do not have the antibodies...they should then take the vaccine if they choose to do such. Those that still have the antibodies should not be taking the vaccine...there risk level will be increased to an immune allergic reaction that could be dangerous to their health in which they'll need to be monitor for many days / weeks or longer...not the current 15min - 30mins for those that get vaccinated. Yet, he's in a unique situation...he's a doctor. Many hospitals will soon require their medical staff to be vaccinated. At least they're smart enough to know they can test those that refuse vaccination to determine if they already have antibodies or have a medical reason that exclude the person from vaccination. If his hospital excludes him from vaccination for whatever reason...he'll be require to disclose such to his patients so that they can determine if they want to continue using him as their doctor. The reason is because scientist still do not know if someone that's vaccinated or has antibodies via a prior Covid infection...they still may be able to carry the virus as a asymptomatic person. Immunity from a prior Covid infection...nobody yet knows how long it will last. Simply, eventually, he's need to one day get vaccinated to be able to continue doing his job that he seems passionate about. As for now, I wouldn't worry about it until his hospital request that he gets vaccinated. Only then begin sharing his antibody tests. Yet, the big worry is the current variants of Covid. If he was infected early in the Pandemic...his immune system may not be as strong as he thinks because of the different types of variants to Covid. Some people have recently been fully vaccinated and they still because infected / sick with a Covid infection within weeks after being fully vaccinated. Ongoing research now to determine if they were infected with a variant of Covid. Good news...they did not die which is one of the good things about vaccination. You can still get sick but not life threatening nor something that requires hospitalization. wrbtrader
Any non-China aligned results for SinoVac? And yes, I'm counting the WHO as China friendly. we'll be opening the country to the world before year's end
Not really is the short answer. The longer answer is that the Sinopharm and Sinovac and Coronavac vaccines are used to align you with China even if you are not so you end out being corrupted in your assessment of the vaccine. Turkey and Brazil and Indonesia for example found a good but lower effectivity rate than the Chinese represented. China then helped them to "correct" their studies and stop saying that if they wanted more vaccine, and told Turkey that they would not get any more vaccine if they kept complaining publicly about the treatment of muslims in China. So they are not "China-aligned" but are under their thumb nevertheless. I don't trust any data coming out of China on anything. Nevertheless I assume the vaccines are effective to some degree. They are just old style ground up dead virus vaccines so there is every reason to believe that they result in some antibodies to some unknown level. Mostly third world grade crap though, no independent testing done. China is working on at least sixteen vaccines so the others in the pipeline might be a little more advanced. As I have said before, Biden just gave WHO 4 billion for covax/who approved vaccines. So the WHO will be buying billions of dollars of chinese vaccines with American money to give to third world countries very shortly. The Chinese love Joe. We have established that.
Pfizer Shot Remains More Than 91% Effective After Six Months https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...mains-more-than-91-effective-after-six-months Company releases long-term follow-up data from phase 3 trial Covid vaccination stopped almost all cases of severe illness Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine remained highly effective after six months, according to new long-term results that the company said could be used to seek an expansion of its regulatory status. Follow-up data from a final-stage trial of 46,307 people showed the vaccine was 91.3% effective in preventing symptomatic cases starting one week after the second dose through as long as six months. In the U.S. alone, the efficacy rate was 92.6%, according to a report Thursday by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech SE. At the same time, the companies provided some of the first data on how their vaccine might handle the immune-evading B.1.351 variant that arose in South Africa. Nine of 800 trial participants in that country got sick with Covid, including six infected with B.1.351. However, all were in the placebo group, suggesting the shot retains efficacy against the variant. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s Chief Executive Officer, said in the statement that the results “position us to submit a Biologics License Application to the U.S. FDA.” The vaccine has already secured an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, which means it’s only in effect until the emergency ends and it can be revoked or changed at any time. Formal approval is for the long term. Pfizer shares rose 0.5% in pre-market trading while BioNTech gained as much as 1.4%. Pfizer will soon share the data with regulators around the world and submit it for publication in a scientific journal, Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose said in an email. The six-month result is only slightly lower than the 95% efficacy rate that was originally found for the vaccine, based on much shorter term results. The two-shot vaccine also prevented all or nearly all severe cases of the disease over six months, depending on the exact definition used. The companies said that no new serious safety concerns were identified. The data was released in a joint company statement and hasn’t been independently reviewed and published in a scientific journal. Nonetheless, it provides an early reassuring sign that the vaccine’s strong efficacy seen in the short-term results will hold up and not fade away quickly.
Pfizer expected to seek FDA authorization to vaccinate kids ages 12 to 15 https://krdo.com/news/local-news/20...uthorization-to-vaccinate-kids-ages-12-to-15/ A new report out from Pfizer and BioNTech shows their vaccine is 100% effective against the virus in children ages 12 to 15. Pfizer plans to submit the data to the FDA in the coming weeks to amend the emergency use so kids in that age range can also get vaccinated. KRDO Newschannel 13 crunched the numbers to see how the virus has impacted people in the youngest age group listed on El Paso County’s COVID-19 dashboard. According to El Paso County Public Health, about 15% of positive COVID-19 test results in the county come from newborns to age 19. However, the recorded hospitalizations and deaths for the same age group are much lower than that. Two COVID-19 deaths were reported among people younger than 20 in El Paso County to date. Deaths among young people account for about 0.25% of deaths in the county. In the same age group, El Paso County Public Health reports 91 hospitalizations or about 3% of hospitalizations across all age groups. It's statistics like that giving Donna Killian pause for her 15-year-old. "I just feel like the younger kids aren’t at risk of death, so I just think they should wait," said Killian. On the other hand, Elise Cutler-Dysart's 12-year-old son will get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible. "He’s 12 and he asks every day. 'When will I get a vaccine?' Because everyone else in the family has been able to get vaccinated," said Cutler-Dysart. "And he wants to go back to school and he wants to do summer camp." After a health scare with another child, no statistics showing the virus is less sever among children could change their minds. "She’s a leukemia survivor," said Cutler-Dysart about her daughter. "So when people say it’s really rare…we were one of the one in million families. It ruined our lives for four years and she nearly lost hers as an infant. So we don’t take chances." Health experts warn although children are less likely to die of COVID-19, it’s still possible for them to get sick and spread the virus to other, more vulnerable populations.
I did not know that Cuba developed a COVID vaccine. Interesting... Inside Cuba's race to vaccine sovereignty https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/31/americas/cuba-vaccines-covid-phase-three-intl-latam/index.html The sign on the door was written by hand and the lights were turned off to save electricity, but inside the clinic Cuban doctors were administering what they say is a cutting-edge vaccine against the coronavirus. Despite a worsening economy and increased US sanctions, the communist-run island has pulled off a feat no other Latin American country can claim to date: the development of five Covid-19 vaccine candidates, two of which that are in their final phase three trials. As the number of coronavirus cases on the island continue to rise, its vaccine candidates and the island's aspirations to be a biomedical powerhouse will be put to the test. On Wednesday, Cuba hit a grim new record in Covid-19 infections -- 1,051 new cases diagnosed in 24 hours. Cuban officials in March announced they were expanding the vaccine trials already underway to include hundreds of thousands more people. First up in the expanded trials are 150,000 front line workers, including Ida Martínez Hernández, a dentist who early on in the pandemic was sent by the government to help fight the spread of the virus. "We have been working this whole time. In testing, at the airport, in isolation centers. We are people who are at high risk, this will give us more protection," Martínez told CNN as she received her first shot of Cuba's home-grown Soberana-02 vaccine, which means "sovereign" in Spanish. In times of crisis, the Cuban government has often marshaled its people to carry out seemingly quixotic undertakings, from attempting to cut a record sugar cane harvest to massive demonstrations demanding the return of Elían González. Now, at the same time Cuba endures shortages of food and basic medicines, the island's government has set its sights on developing the kind of sophisticated Covid-19 vaccines that have eluded far richer countries. While the results of the final trials for the two most advanced vaccines are not expected for months, already some in the island are taking an early victory lap. A slickly produced video tweeted out by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel proclaimed that that Cubans were producing "more than a vaccine, it's a country." The superstar Cuban musical duo Buena Fe penneda song about the vaccines, crooning the drugs were like "brave David confronting the bully Goliath." Chest thumping and politics aside, some researchers say that Cuba's approach of making their own vaccines that could go in the arms of every Cuban and millions of others across the region is badly needed right now. "Latin America unfortunately lacks some of this ecosystem of being self-sufficient and Cuba is ideal because they have their own production capacity and they also are very well recognized and have a good reputation," said Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, the associate dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Long cut off from much of the rest of the world, Cuba for decades has made many of the medicines the island needs and increasingly exports Cuban-made vaccines abroad. When the pandemic hit, Cuba was one of the few developing countries that was well positioned to produce their own vaccines. Other countries, particularly those that can't afford the vaccine -- or for political reasons don't want to accept vaccines from Western countries -- are hoping Cuba's promised cheap and easy to store vaccines can make up the difference. Iran, where the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei banned the use of American and British vaccines, is currently carrying out large-scale trials with 100,000 doses of Soberana-02 and could begin producing the Cuban vaccines in the Islamic Republic. In March, Cuba announced it was sending 30,000 doses of the Soberana-02 and Abdala vaccine candidates to socialist ally Venezuela and that Cuban and Chinese scientists would co-develop a new vaccine against emerging strains of the coronavirus. Cuba has gambled their entire response to the pandemic on making their own homegrown vaccines and now the island is doubling down on that bet by vastly expanding the testing of those drugs. In March, Cuban officials said wider interventional trials would include the entire adult population of Havana, nearly two million people, and the epicenter of the virus on the island. By August, half the island's population, about six million, would receive the vaccines officials said. But moving so quickly to mass vaccination is a risky strategy that could backfire if the vaccine candidates prove be less effective than what Cuban scientists predicted. While previous testing showed the vaccines' safety, Cuban researchers have yet to determine exactly how well the vaccines will work. "The Cuban vaccines haven't even completed the plan of vaccination for volunteers in phase three and we don't know their efficacy," wrote in a Facebook posting Amílcar Pérez Riverol, a former University of Havana professor of Microbiology and Virology, who closely follows Cuba's vaccine efforts. But at a Havana clinic, where doctors and nurses are administering about 100 doses of Soberana-02 to frontline workers each day, administrators said they had observed no serious side effects during the expanded trials and were positive the increased vaccination would help turn the tide of the pandemic on the island. "We are all convinced," said nurse Norma Olivares, "The vaccine works and the vaccine gives immunity."