A huge U.S. study on another candidate for the COVID-19 vaccine began on Monday, as states continue to deploy scarce supplies of first shots to a nation eagerly awaiting relief from the catastrophic outbreak.
Public health experts say more options in addition to the two vaccines being dispensed now, one manufactured by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and the other by Moderna, are key to accumulating enough shots for the country and the world.
The candidate presented by Novavax Inc. is the fifth to reach the final stage tests in the United States. It takes about 30,000 volunteers to show if the shot (of a different type than its Pfizer and Modern competitors) really works and is safe.
“If you want to have enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone in the U.S. you want to vaccinate (up to 85% or more of the population), you’re going to need more than two companies,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Associated Press on Monday, the top American expert on infectious diseases.
The coronavirus is responsible for some 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including more than 330,000 in the United States. This has been the deadliest month of the outbreak in the United States, with approximately 65,000 deaths in December to date, according to the COVID monitoring project. The nation has repeatedly recorded more than 3,000 deaths a day in recent weeks.
And the United States could face a terrible winter: despite warnings to stay home and avoid other people over Christmas, nearly 1.3 million people passed through the nation’s airports on Sunday, a total of one more day. high since the crisis hit the United States nine months ago. .
Operation Trump Administration Warp Speed expects to ship 20 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to states in early January, less than initially planned to the frustration of states and health officials trying to schedule the shootings.
There is no real-time tracking of how quickly people receive the first of the two required doses. As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reports of more than 2.1 million vaccines of 11.4 million doses sent, but the agency knows the count is obsolete. Vaccine vendor reports may take days to be entered and added to the site.
“Just because a vaccine arrives doesn’t mean we can run an on-site clinic,” said Jenny Barta, a public health official in Carlton County, Minnesota.
But on Tuesday, his agency aims to vaccinate 100 people at a clinic for emergency medical workers that Barta hopes can become a model for larger attempts at mass vaccination. Nurses will vaccinate cars lined up in a county snowplow garage. Once drivers receive the shots, they will wait in the parking spaces to make sure they have no allergic reactions before returning home.
“Vaccinating one individual at a time is how we will get out of this pandemic,” he said.
There is yet another concern about the vaccine: will the shots block a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in Britain and could spread more easily? Fauci said data from Britain indicate that vaccines will still protect against the virus, but that researchers at the National Institutes of Health “will be looking at it very closely” to be sure.
A look at the avant-garde of the world vaccine race:
GENETIC CODE VACCINES
The United States based the emergency release of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar one by Moderna and the NIH on studies suggesting that both are approximately 95% effective. Over the weekend, Europe began its first shots with the Pfizer shot and on January 6 will decide whether to add the Modern one.
These traits are done with a new technology that injects a piece of genetic code for the ear protein that coats the coronavirus. This messenger RNA, or mRNA, induces the body to produce some harmless spike protein, enough to prepare the immune system to react if it later encounters the real virus.
Both vaccines must be kept frozen, the Pfizer has been removed at extremely low temperatures making it difficult to deliver to poor or rural areas.
Other companies are working to get their own mRNA candidates, including Germany’s CureVac, which has begun a large study in Europe.
PROTEIN VACCINES
The Novavax candidate is done differently, using what Fauci called a “more proven and true” technology that only needs ordinary cooling. The Maryland company grows harmless copies of the coronavirus ear protein in the lab and mixes it with a chemical that boosts immunity.
Novavax has already enrolled 15,000 people in a final study in Britain and 4,000 in South Africa. The newest and largest study, funded by the U.S. government, will recruit volunteers from more than 115 locations in the United States and Mexico and will target high-risk older adults along with volunteers from black and Hispanic communities, who have been severely affected by the virus.
“We need to protect our community and our people,” said Rev. Peter Johnson, 75, a prominent Dallas civil rights activist who was one of the first volunteers.
Two-thirds of participants will receive vaccines and the rest expressionless images, a twist from previous vaccine studies that gave half of their volunteers a placebo. This should help researchers recruit people who are wondering if it’s better to participate in a study or wait their turn to get an existing shot, said Dr. Gregory Glenn, head of research at Novavax.
For many people, this would be a long wait: Pfizer and Moderna’s plans are planned first for health workers and residents of nursing homes, followed by people over 75 and essential workers.
“If you wanted to cover your bets, for most people who are not part of these very high risk groups, the shortest route to getting the vaccine would be to sign up for a trial,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of NIH.
TROJÀ HORSES VACCINES
The next big news about the vaccine may come from Johnson & Johnson, which aims for a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
In other words, it uses a harmless virus (a cold virus called adenovirus) to carry the ear gene to the body. In mid-December, J&J completed enrolling about 45,000 volunteers in a final-phase study in the United States and half a dozen other countries. Fauci expects some first results next month.
In Britain, regulators are also considering eliminating a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Evidence of the shootings in Britain, South Africa and Brazil suggested they were safe and partially protective, about 70%. But questions remain about how well the vaccine works in people over the age of 55 and how to interpret the results of a small number of people with different doses.
An American study of AstraZeneca traits still recruits volunteers; Fauci said researchers hope he will provide a clearer answer.
Companies in China and Russia also produce adenovirus-based vaccines and began administering them before final test results arrived. Argentina is expected to use the Russian vaccine soon.
“DEAD” VACCINES
Peak-centered vaccines are not the only option. Making vaccines by growing a disease-causing virus and then killing it is an even older approach that gives the body a look at the germ instead of a single protein.
China has three “inactivated” COVID-19 vaccines in final tests in several countries and has allowed emergency use in some people before the results. An Indian company is testing its own inactivated candidate.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Department. The AP is solely responsible for all content.