Indian coronavirus vaccine ‘highly efficacious’: study

Covaxin, the first Covid-19 vaccine developed in India, is "highly efficacious" and presents no safety concerns, according to a study published in the Lancet on Thursday.

Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech, gained emergency approval from the World Health Organization last week and has already been cleared for use in 17 countries.

The UN body has described it as "extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements".

Some of the other approved vaccines must be stored at very low temperatures, which throws up logistical and cost problems.

Covaxin "was highly efficacious against laboratory-confirmed symptomatic Covid-19 disease in adults," the report said.

The jab was also "well tolerated with no safety concerns raised in this interim analysis", it added.

The Indian-developed vaccine has a 78-percent efficacy rate after two doses over a month, according to the WHO.

It has joined the anti-Covid vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson&Johnson, Sinopharm and Sinovac on the WHO-approved list.

The roll-out of Covaxin can "increase the finite global manufacturing capacity, and improve insufficient supply of vaccines which disproportionately affects low-income and middle-income countries", said Chinese researchers Li Jingxin Li and Zhu Fengcai, who did not take part in the study.

They did however mention certain limits to the study, saying that as the trials had been conducted solely in India, there was a less ethnically diverse study group.

Also the studies were carried out between November 2020 and January 2021, before the more contagious Delta variant of the virus became widespread.

But despite the trial dates, the researchers involved were able to identify which of the patients were infected with the Delta variant. For this sub-group the study found that Covaxin still provided protection against Covid, but was slightly less effective.

Agence France-Presse

Biden: Biggest vaccine donation 'supercharges' battle against coronavirus

CARBIS BAY, England—U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that a donation of 500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the world's poorest countries would supercharge the battle with the virus and comes with "no strings attached."

Biden, speaking alongside Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla in the English seaside resort of Carbis Bay ahead of a G7 summit, thanked other leaders for recognizing their responsibility to vaccinate the world.

"The United States is providing these half billion doses with no strings attached. No strings attached," Biden said. "Our vaccine donations don't include pressure for favors, or potential concessions. We're doing this to save lives."

Biden, keen to burnish his multilateral credentials on his first foreign trip as leader, cast the donation as a bold move that showed America recognized its responsibility to the world and to its own citizens.

"America will be the arsenal of vaccines in our fight against COVID-19, just as America was the arsenal of democracy during World War Two," Biden said.

The largest ever vaccine donation by a single country will cost the United States $3.5 billion but will spur further donations from other G7 leaders - including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

G7 leaders want to vaccinate the world by the end of 2022 to try to halt the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 3.9 million people, devastated the global economy and upended the normal lives of billions of people.

Vaccination efforts so far are heavily correlated with wealth: the United States, Europe, Israel and Bahrain are far ahead of other countries. A total of 2.2 billion people have been vaccinated so far out of a world population of nearly 8 billion, based on Johns Hopkins University data.

'SAVE LIVES'

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have agreed to supply the U.S. with the vaccines, delivering 200 million doses in 2021 and 300 million doses in the first half of 2022.

The shots, which will be produced at Pfizer's U.S. sites, will be supplied at a not-for-profit price. Around 100 countries will get the shots.

Pfizer CEO Bourla said the eyes of the world were on the leaders of rich nations to see if they would act to solve the COVID-19 crisis and share with poorer nations.

"This announcement with the U.S. government gets us closer to our goal and significantly enhances our ability to save even more lives across the globe," he said.

While such a large donation of vaccines was welcomed by many, there were immediately calls for the richest nations of the world to open up more of their giant hoards of vaccines.

Anti-poverty campaign group Oxfam called for more to be done to increase global production of vaccines.

"Surely, these 500 million vaccine doses are welcome as they will help more than 250 million people, but that’s still a drop in the bucket compared to the need across the world," said Niko Lusiani, Oxfam America’s vaccine lead.

"We need a transformation toward more distributed vaccine manufacturing so that qualified producers worldwide can produce billions more low-cost doses on their own terms, without intellectual property constraints," he said in a statement.

Another issue, especially in some poor countries, is the infrastructure for transporting the vaccines which often have to be stored at very cold temperatures.

IP WAIVER

Biden has also backed calls for a waiver of some vaccine intellectual property rights but there is no international consensus yet on how to proceed.

The new vaccine donations come on top of 80 million doses Washington has already pledged to donate by the end of June. There is also $2 billion in funding earmarked for the COVAX programme led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the White House said.

GAVI and the WHO welcomed the initiative.

Washington is also taking steps to support local production of COVID-19 vaccines in other countries, including through its Quad initiative with Japan, India and Australia. (Reporting by Steve Holland in St. Ives, England, Andrea Shalal in Washington and Caroline Copley in Berlin; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Keith Weir; Editing by Leslie Adler, David Evans, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Giles Elgood, Jane Merriman and Marguerita Choy)

-reuters-

Donuts and hangouts: US kicks off COVID vaccination for teens

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, United States - Harrison Hunger, 14, received his Covid shot at a clinic in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on Thursday and now has pastries on his mind.

Asked what he plans to do first, the teen doesn't skip a beat: "Probably go to Krispy Kreme, because they are offering free donuts to people with one of these," he says, showing off his vaccine card.

The campaign to immunize America's 17 million adolescents aged 12-to-15 kicked off in full force on Thursday, a key part of President Joe Biden's strategy to push the country toward herd immunity.

Across the country, kids lined up with their parents, eager to return to some semblance of their pre-pandemic lives.

"It will help me get back out more," said Daniel Fox, a 13-year-old among the first in the door when the Javits Center in New York City opened at 10 am. "Online playdates are pretty fun, but it's also fun to have an in-person playdate once in a while."

Fourteen-year-old twins Anaya and Jay Tsai also received their first doses.

"I've been very much looking forward to this day for a while. It's hugely important," said their mother Purva Tsai, 47.

"I hope it means things will start to get back to normal for the kids and they can socialize with their friends."

Numbers were a little low at a vaccine site set up at the Walter E Washington Convention Center in the US capital.

Kandall Frederick, 15, was driven in by her mom ahead of the school day.

"I was excited," she said. "I was the last one in the family to be vaccinated so now we will be all safe and sound, be on the go and do things more freely."

PIZZA AND BAND

In Hartford, Connecticut, 13-year-old Charles Muro said he was looking forward to worrying less post-vaccination -- and being able to grab some pizza. 

"This will be the future," he said. "It feels revolutionary... it is pretty cool to be in this unique group."

And 14-year-old Sadie Sindland, who was also in Hartford, said she is ready to get back to school full-time, to play in a band and to see friends, despite some nervousness. 

"I am always very scared of getting vaccines," Sadie said. "But I was really excited to get this Covid vaccine, because this is the first step to getting back to a normal society."

An April poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation that interviewed parents of 12-to-15-year-olds found that three in ten were keen to get their children vaccinated right away, a quarter will wait to see how it's working, a fifth will vaccinate only if their child's school requires it, and the remaining quarter will refuse the vaccine.

Teens are much less susceptible to Covid than older age groups, and the main reason to vaccinate them is to drive down overall transmission.

But extremely rare cases of severe Covid can still occur, as can a post-viral complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has called this week's authorization of the Pfizer Covid vaccine for youths aged 12 to 15 an important tool for more schools to return to in-person learning this fall.

Agence France-Presse

Afghanistan begins COVID-19 vaccination drive amid rising violence

KABUL - Afghanistan began its first COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday, administering doses initially to security force members, health workers and journalists, in a campaign that may face challenges from a sharp rise in violence.

The war-damaged country received 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII), which is producing the vaccine for mid- and low-income countries, earlier this month.

In a ceremony at the presidential palace, acting health minister Waheed Majroh said the vaccines would be provided to 250,000 people, mostly from the security, health, education and media sectors.

"Today is a fortunate day for Afghanistan as we launch the first vaccination drive, but it would be a challenge to roll the plan to the whole country," Majroh said.

Taliban insurgents fighting the foreign-backed Afghan government have announced their backing for the vaccination campaign.

However, the inoculations will take place amid relentless violence despite the government and the Taliban insurgents opening peace talks in September. The discussions have produced no progress to date.

A report by the United nations released on Tuesday said civilian casualties escalated sharply after peace talks begin last year and it called for a ceasefire.

Afghan health officials have said that the international COVAX program, which is aimed at improving access to the COVID-19 vaccine for developing countries, would provide vaccines to cover 20 percent of the country's 38 million population. 

President Ashraf Ghani, one of several Afghan leaders who witnessed the first injections, said the pandemic is still a serious problem for the country and called on health workers to vaccinate people in a fair and transparent manner.

He added efforts are under way to cover 40 percent of the population in a second round.

Afghanistan has registered 55,646 infections and 2,435 deaths. But experts say cases are significantly under-reported due to low testing and limited access to medical facilities in the war-torn country. 

-reuters-

COVID-19 vaccine frontrunner pauses trial after unexplained illness

WASHINGTON -- Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Tuesday it had "voluntarily paused" a randomized clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine in what it called a routine action after a volunteer developed an unexplained illness.

The company, which is developing the drug alongside the University of Oxford, is a frontrunner in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine. 

"As part of the ongoing randomized, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee," a spokesperson said.

"This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials."

It added that in large trials, illnesses will sometimes happen by chance but must be reviewed independently.

"We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline," the spokesperson added.

It was not immediately clear where the patient was, or the nature and severity of their illness.

Holds during clinical trials are not uncommon, but this is thought to be the first time it has happened for a COVID-19 vaccine trial.

AstraZeneca is one of 9 companies currently in late-stage Phase 3 trials for their vaccine candidates.

In the US, the company began enrolling 30,000 volunteers across dozens of sites on August 31. 

The vaccine, called AZD1222, uses a weakened version of a common cold causing adenovirus that has been engineered to code for the spike protein that the novel coronavirus uses to invade cells.

After vaccination, this protein is produced inside the human body, which primes the immune system to attack the coronavirus if the person is later infected.

Agence France-Presse