Showing posts with label COVID-19 Vaccines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COVID-19 Vaccines. Show all posts

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Sinovac highly effective against serious COVID – Malaysia study

KUALA LUMPUR — Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective against serious illness, although rival shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca showed better protection rates, a large real world study from Malaysia showed.

The latest data is a boost to the Chinese firm, whose COVID-19 vaccine has been under growing scrutiny over its effectiveness following reports of infections among health-care workers fully immunized with the Sinovac shot in Indonesia and Thailand.

The study, conducted by the Malaysian government, found that 0.011 percent of about 7.2 million recipients of the Sinovac shot required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) for COVID-19 infections, health officials told reporters on Thursday.

Comparisons

By contrast, 0.002 percent of about 6.5 million recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine needed ICU treatment for COVID-19 infections, while 0.001 percent of 744,958 recipients of the AstraZeneca shot required similar treatment.

Kalaiarasu Peariasamy, a director at the Institute for Clinical Research that conducted the study along with a national COVID-19 task force, said vaccinations—regardless of the brand—have reduced the risk of admission to intensive care by 83 percent and lowered the risk of death by 88 percent based on a smaller study involving about 1.26 million people.

“The breakthrough rate for intensive care unit admission is extremely low,” he said, adding overall ICU admissions among fully vaccinated individuals stood at 0.0066 percent.

Mortality rate of the fully vaccinated people was also low at 0.01 percent and the majority of them were either above 60 years of age or with comorbidities.

Demographics

There were differences in the demographics of the recipients of the three vaccines and it could have resulted in the different results, Peariasamy said.

Many of AstraZeneca recipients were in the “midadulthood age,” while the Pfizer and Sinovac shots were “very much for the vulnerable population,” he said.

AstraZeneca recipients also accounted for a much smaller proportion of the study, which involved about 14.5 million fully vaccinated individuals and conducted for more than five months since April 1.

In July, Malaysia said it will stop administering the Sinovac vaccine once its supplies end, as it has a sufficient number of other vaccines for its program.

The Sinovac vaccine has been widely used in several countries including China, Indonesia, Thailand and Brazil, and the company said earlier this month it had supplied 1.8 billion doses at home and abroad.

Malaysia has fully vaccinated 58.7 percent of its 32 million population and gave at least one dose to 68.8 percent.

-reuters-

Monday, June 7, 2021

Vax appeal: Dating apps help UK vaccine drive

LONDON - Popular dating apps on Monday launched a campaign encouraging British users to post "I got my shot" on their profiles as the UK rollout reaches young adults.

In partnership with the government, apps including Tinder, Bumble and Hinge are offering special stickers, badges and bonuses for users who say they have had the coronavirus jab, the Department of Health said.

This comes as the UK rollout this week reaches the under-30s, as Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed Sunday.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said he was "thrilled that we are partnering up with dating apps to boost vaccine uptake across the country".

The United States launched a similar initiative in May, linking up with apps including Tinder, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish.

In the UK, dating app users can show their support for vaccination on their profiles in return for complimentary credits or give in-app bonuses to others who say they are vaccinated.

Users of Plenty of Fish can post a badge saying "I got my shot" while OkCupid users can add a badge saying: "I'm vaccinated."

The apps are also advertising the British government's "Every vaccination gives us hope" campaign.

The Department of Health even suggested that users could boost their romantic chances by telling potential dates they are vaccinated.

It cited a YouGov poll in May that found 28 percent of adults would not date someone who was unvaccinated and 31 percent would prefer not to.

Despite turning to dating sites for help, the UK government has not formally given the green light to casual dating during the pandemic. 

The advice for England is that people can choose not to socially distance while meeting friends and family but should be "cautious". 

So far, the UK has given more than 27 million people both vaccine doses and more than 40 million have received a single dose.

Those under 40 are being offered an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to a slightly higher risk of blood clots.

Agence France-Presse

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Bill Gates says world should be back to normal by end-2022 due to vaccines: Polish media

WARSAW - The world should be back to normal by the end of 2022 thanks to COVID-19 vaccines, Bill Gates said in an interview for Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and television broadcaster TVN24.

"This is an incredible tragedy," the Microsoft co-founder said on the pandemic, adding that the only good news was the access to vaccines.

"By the end of 2022 we should be basically completely back to normal," Gates said.

Gates, a billionaire who stepped down as chairman of Microsoft Corp in 2014, has through his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed at least $1.75 billion to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That includes support for some makers of vaccines, diagnostics and potential treatments.

The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower income countries by the end of 2021. 

-reuters-

Thursday, March 18, 2021

European Union regulator: AstraZeneca vaccine 'safe, effective'

Europe's medical regulator said Thursday the AstraZeneca vaccine is "safe and effective" and not associated with a higher blood clot risk, after more than a dozen countries paused rollouts over health fears. 

The closely watched announcement comes after the WHO and Britain's health watchdog both said the vaccine was safe, adding that it was far riskier to not get the shot as several countries face a worrying rise in coronavirus cases. 

"The committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion: this is a safe and effective vaccine," European Medicines Agency (EMA) chief Emer Cooke said Thursday after a probe by the body's safety committee. 

"The committee also concluded that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events or blood clots," she added.

However, the agency "cannot rule out definitively" a link to a rare clotting disorder. 

The UK health regulator on Thursday also said there were no links between blood clots and the AstraZeneca jab, or the Pfizer vaccine. 

"There is no evidence that blood clots in veins is occurring more than would be expected in the absence of vaccination, for either vaccine," said June Raine, chief executive of the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). 

And the World Health Organization (WHO) said again Thursday it was better to take the AstraZeneca vaccine than not, after saying it was looking into available data on the shot.

- 'Situation critical' -

The furore around the jab has marred the global vaccine drive aimed at ending a pandemic that has killed more than 2.6 million people, and comes as several countries report jumps in new cases.

France recorded its highest daily caseload in nearly four months Wednesday, with the authorities set to announce on Thursday new measures.

"Let's be clear, we're in a third wave mostly down to the rise of this famous British variant," French President Emmanuel Macron said, referring to the more-contagious variant first detected in the UK. 

"The situation is critical. It's going to be very hard until mid-April."

Bulgaria and Ukraine readied for tougher restrictions to stem rising cases, while the WHO issued a grim update on rising infections in Central Europe and the Balkans.

- 'Italy's Wuhan' -

So far, more than 399 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered globally, mostly in wealthier nations that have secured contracts with drug makers. 

AstraZeneca's shot, among the cheapest available and easier to store and transport than some of its rivals, has been billed as the vaccine of choice for poorer nations.

It is currently a vital part of Covax, which was set up to procure Covid-19 vaccines and ensure their equitable distribution around the world.

Countries ranging from France to Venezuela and Indonesia paused the rollout of the jab after several reports emerged of blood clots among people who had received the vaccine. 

The head of WHO Africa said Thursday she hoped the controversy surrounding the British-Swedish jab would not deter people from getting the vaccine on the continent, where more than 16 million vaccine doses, mostly AstraZeneca, have been distributed under the Covax scheme. 

"A lot of countries have doubts" about AstraZeneca, Matshidiso Moeti told reporters. 

"But we hope that will not create doubts around anti-Covid vaccines in general." 

And in Britain, which has not halted the jab, officials insisted that an expected vaccine shortfall at the end of the month would not scupper plans to lift virus restrictions as the government has promised. 

Italy, the first European country to become engulfed by the pandemic, held a national day of mourning Thursday, with a ceremony in Bergamo, the northern city that became known as "Italy's Wuhan".

Italy chose March 18 for the memorial to coincide with the day in 2020 when the army had to step in to carry away scores of coffins from Bergamo's overwhelmed crematorium.

Images of coffin-laden camouflaged trucks crossing the city at night quickly became one of the symbols of the pandemic and still haunt the country today.

- 'Aggressive interventions' -

Meanwhile, vaccination efforts were under way in Chile, where 49 scientists and members of the armed forces working at a research station in the icy wastes of Antarctica got the jab, the first inoculations on the southernmost continent.

Antarctica was one of the last places on Earth to be affected by the virus, but on December 21, an outbreak was reported at a Chilean army base, with 36 people infected.

For some, vaccines have brought a sigh of relief -- especially for those working on the frontlines. 

Being vaccinated has allowed Colombian doctor Norberto Medina to return to his job at an intensive care unit in the capital Bogota feeling "more relaxed". 

Medina, 41, has lived all facets of the pandemic, seeing patients die on his ward, nursing others back to health -- and eventually staring death in the face when he contracted the virus himself.

"The pandemic has changed me forever," he told AFP after he returned to work, 54 days after he was diagnosed.

"It has made me more humane."

Agence France-Presse


Friday, February 12, 2021

EU drugs regulator plans to fast track variant-modified COVID vaccines

MILAN, Italy - Europe's medicines regulator is planning to speed up assessments of any COVID-19 vaccines that are modified to protect against variants of the virus, the head of the agency's COVID-19 task-force told Reuters on Friday.

Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaluation team at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said there should be no need for lengthy large-scale trials like those needed to evaluate the first COVID-19 vaccines, since tweaks for new variants can be tested on smaller groups.

"We are working on updated guidelines, assuming that we cannot ask for large Phase III trials. This will allow us to go faster," said Cavaleri.

"We will ask for much smaller trials, with a few hundred participants, rather than 30,000 to 40,000," he told Reuters. He said the EMA would focus primarily on immune response data.

Drugmakers including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have been testing their COVID-19 vaccines against several fast-spreading, more infectious variants of the novel coronavirus.

Variants which emerged in Brazil (known as P.1.), Britain (known as 20I/501Y.V1 or B.1.1.7) and South Africa (known as 20I/501Y.V2 or B.1.351) have already spread around the world, piling more pressure on governments struggling to tame the pandemic which has killed almost 2.5 million people.

These are the three major variants that are worrying scientists, with their spread raising the risk that newly-developed COVID-19 vaccines will need to be updated or tweaked to be effective against some variants, and that people may require one or more booster shots.

STREAMLINING

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also said it is considering a rapid review process for the quick turnaround of new COVID-19 booster shots if variants emerge against which the vaccines do not provide protection.

Vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as AstraZeneca and Moderna, whose COVID shots have been authorised for emergency use in Europe, have said they are preparing for the possibility that variants will emerge that could require tweaks to their vaccines.

Normally, an EMA approval requires extensive studies with large numbers, starting with safety and ending with efficacy.

"We will also try to streamline regulatory procedures doing something similar to what happens with flu vaccines. In short, without the drugmakers having to submit all the preliminary data again", Cavaleri said.

He added that the EMA is also aware that in the near future it may no longer be possible to do clinical trials with placebo for categories such as the elderly, due to rollout of current COVID-19 vaccines.

"In that case we could think about a head-to-head comparison with an already approved vaccine", he said.

Cavaleri also told Reuters Johnson & Johnson will file its vaccine formal application in the next few days.

"Probably as early as next week", he said, noting that the EMA has been conducting a rolling review of the vaccine for some time. "Mid-March is reasonable for the EMA decision," he said.

The EMA, he added, has been in contact to date with about 50 pharmaceutical companies working on COVID vaccines.

Regarding the Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, he said the agency is in constant contact with the company producing it.

"There is a constructive cooperation. If there are no problems with the answers we receive on the subject of the production phase, the rolling review could start within a matter of weeks," he said

The EMA is also in contact with the Chinese companies developing vaccines, particularly Sinovac Biotech, but the process for the Chinese vaccine is a few steps behind the Russian one, he said. 

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Kate Kelland and Kirsten Donovan)

-reuters-

Friday, August 28, 2020

Japan to secure COVID-19 vaccines by 1st half of 2021: Abe


TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday Japan would aim to secure COVID-19 vaccinations for all citizens by the first half of 2021.

Abe announced at a government meeting a set of measures against the novel coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 respiratory illness, including increasing the country's virus testing capacity ahead of the flu season.

The measures will include greatly expanding the country's testing capacity to conduct mass testing on health care providers and nursing home staff, who are seeing a rise in new infections.

The government will review its guidelines on recommending hospitalization of COVID-19 patients, prioritizing those with severe symptoms, and asking those with mild or no symptoms to self-isolate at home or in designated lodging facilities.

It wants to ensure that enough hospital beds are secured for severe cases in anticipation of a scenario in which Japan is also hit by an influenza outbreak in the winter.

Furthermore, there are plans to create a system that will allow residents to easily access the vaccines at their place of residence, alongside implementing relief measures in the event of side effects or other health problems caused by the vaccines.

The government is looking to cover the cost of compensation that vaccine manufacturers may face if health issues occur.

Vaccine purchases will be financed by reserve funds from the budget of the current fiscal year to March 2021.

Kyodo News