Will it ever end? In November, we were celebrating the announcement that the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine seemed to be highly effective against Covid-19, followed with bewildering speed by similar claims for the Sputnik V, Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines. Nearly three months later, hospitals are overwhelmed and the global death toll is climbing twice as fast as…
Covid-19: How close is the light at the end of the tunnel? — Tim Harford
pharmaceutical
Necessity of 2 Doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines – JAMA
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine be given within 3 weeks of the first dose for the Pfizer vaccine and within 4 weeks for the Moderna vaccine. No more than 6 weeks should lapse between doses, although if the second dose is not given during these time frames, it can be given without the need to repeat the first dose. It is not recommended to give the second dose any earlier than stated above, but if a person needs to get the second dose earlier, giving the second dose up to 4 days ahead of schedule is allowed.
Necessity of 2 Doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines — https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776229
Just Another SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Chart
Doctors keep making cool graphics. I keep finding them. Note Column six from the left in yellow.
Monica Gandhi MD, MPH is Professor of Medicine and Associate Division Chief (Clinical Operations/ Education) of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF/ San Francisco General Hospital. She also serves as the Director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the Medical director of the HIV Clinic at SFGH (“Ward 86”). Dr. Gandhi completed her M.D. at Harvard Medical School and then came to UCSF in 1996 for residency training in Internal Medicine. After her residency, Dr. Gandhi completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, both at UCSF. She also obtained a Masters in Public Health from Berkeley in 2001 with a focus on Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.gandhi
Love the Zeroes
Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, is a physician, health policy researcher, and the third Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. Before joining Brown, he was the K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI).
https://www.brown.edu/academics/public-health/about/people/dean/ashish-jha
Quote for Today – 01.30.21
“In the event that you have the choice to get vaccinated, I’d encourage you to take the vaccine that you’re given,” John Brooks, the chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 response, said at a briefing Friday.
Additional Covid-19 vaccines bring choices — and complications — to the rollout — https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/29/additional-covid19-vaccines-bring-choices-and-complications-to-rollout/
Let’s get one thing clear: I am not a medical doctor nor is anything you read on this blog to be considered medical advice. Now that we have mutual understanding…
This is NO time to be picky. You can be picky about the brand of coffee you drink (or how it should be brewed). Or you can be picky about which vegan eatery serves up the best tofu in your town. Go ahead. Be picky on pretty much anything in your life.
But when it comes down to a vaccine for a virus that to the best of our knowledge we have no known natural immunity I suggest you take whatever vaccine is available.
Leave the debates about efficacy to experts who know what they’re talking about.
Rant over.
Indian scientists divided over restricted use approval for Covaxin — Science Chronicle
While some scientists have raised concerns about granting restricted use approval to Covaxin even in the absence of efficacy data, four-dozen scientists have in a statement slammed them saying “reprehensible utterances are causing huge credibility crisis for the Indian scientific community”. Apparently, questioning the approval process by the Indian regulator is seen as being anti-Indian […]
Indian scientists divided over restricted use approval for Covaxin — Science Chronicle
India’s drug regulator approved two COVID-19 vaccines on 3 January, a decision Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed on Twitter as “a decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight!” against the pandemic and a testament to the Indian scientific community’s self reliance. But some scientists and patient advocates are sharply critical of the move—in particular, the decision to greenlight Covaxin, a vaccine developed in India by Bharat Biotech, without awaiting the results of a phase III trial to determine efficacy and safety…
Efficacy data from a challenge study in rhesus macaques and immune responses in a human phase II trial suggested the vaccine was likely to be very effective.
The approval of a vaccine without phase III data is “unconscionable,” says Vineeta Bal, an immunologist at India’s National Institute of Immunology.
Scientists criticize ‘rushed’ approval of Indian COVID-19 vaccine without efficacy data — https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/scientists-criticize-rushed-approval-indian-covid-19-vaccine-without-efficacy-data
It worked in monkeys so let’s just skip the Phase III trial.
See my earlier post I would not take Covaxin without efficacy data: Gagandeep Kang — Science Chronicle
I would not take Covaxin without efficacy data: Gagandeep Kang — Science Chronicle
Serum’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin are examples of atmanirbhar (self-reliance) but have an element of non-Indian science — and at least to me that is fine, says Dr. Gagandeep Kang. Though Covaxin uses inactivated virus, neutralising antibodies against the spike protein are critical for reinfection. So if Covaxin is based on an old viral […]
I would not take Covaxin without efficacy data: Gagandeep Kang — Science Chronicle
CDC reports more allergic reactions to Covid-19 vaccines, but cases remain few
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at present it looks like anaphylaxis cases are occurring at a rate of about 5.5 per 1 million vaccine doses given, though the agency cautioned that figure may change as the vaccination effort continues.
The allergic reactions do not change CDC’s recommendations on who can be vaccinated against Covid-19, with senior officials stressing that the risk of severe illness and death from the disease still outweighs the risk of developing anaphylaxis after vaccination.
CDC reports more allergic reactions to Covid-19 vaccines, but cases remain few — https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/06/cdc-reports-more-allergic-reactions-to-covid-19-vaccines-but-cases-remain-few/?utm_campaign=rss
Get jabbed.
The Pandemic Will Not End Soon – a Case Study in Finger Pointing and Blame Games
Some vaccine experts, though, said they are not surprised by the speed of vaccine distribution so far. “It had to go this way,” Paul Offit, a professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told STAT. “We had to trip and fall and stumble and figure this out.”
Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, said some of the gap between doses administered and delivered is likely due to a program run by CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate those in nursing homes. States participating in the program have to set aside 50% of their doses, which Hannan said could account for a share of the difference between doses shipped and doses administered nationally.
“I don’t think it’s bad,” she said of the pace of distribution so far. “I think it was always going to be like this. And I think that this is actually the easy part.”
Frustration over vaccine rollout builds, as new variant reported in U.S. for first time — https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/29/public-health-experts-grow-frustrated-with-pace-of-covid-19-vaccine-rollout/?utm_campaign=rss
We are definitely so screwed.
Phase 3 trial of Novavax investigational COVID-19 vaccine opens
In animal tests, NVX-CoV2373 vaccination produced antibodies that blocked the coronavirus spike protein from binding to the cell surface receptors targeted by the virus, preventing viral infection. In results(link is external) of a Phase 1 clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, NVX-CoV2373 was generally well-tolerated and elicited higher levels of antibodies than those seen in blood samples drawn from people who had recovered from clinically significant COVID-19. NVX-CoV2373 also is being evaluated in a Phase 2b trial in South Africa, now fully enrolled with 4,422 volunteers, and data from a Phase 1/2 continuation trial in the United States and Australia is expected as early as first quarter 2021. Novavax also recently completed enrollment of more than 15,000 volunteers in a Phase 3 trial of the candidate vaccine in the United Kingdom, which is also testing two injections of 5 mcg of protein and 50 mcg of Matrix-M adjuvant administered 21 days apart.
Phase 3 trial of Novavax investigational COVID-19 vaccine opens — https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/phase-3-trial-novavax-investigational-covid-19-vaccine-opens
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