Category Archives: Medical research

Covax delivers first Covid vaccines in ‘momentous occasion’

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Doses land in Accra as part of scheme seeking to offset ‘vaccine nationalism’

Covax has delivered its first Covid-19 vaccine doses in a milestone for the ambitious programme that seeks to offset “vaccine nationalism” by wealthy countries and ensure poor ones do not wait years to start inoculating people.

An aircraft carrying 600,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine landed in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on Wednesday, where jabs will be administered to frontline health workers on Tuesday. Vaccine doses will arrive on Friday in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and will be given from Monday.

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Scientists say clinical trials for ‘variant-proof’ vaccines could start very soon

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From immunity to blocking transmission of the virus, labs across the UK are hunting for second-generation jabs


Scientists are developing a range of second-generation Covid vaccines aimed at expanding protection against the disease.

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Coronavirus: UK should donate vaccines to poorer nations now, says new WTO chief; French cities facing tougher lockdowns

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  • Russia registers third Covid vaccine
  • Argentina’s health minister resigns over vaccine allocations
  • France reports increase in daily Covid death toll
  • Ireland reports three cases of Brazilian variant
  • See all our coronavirus coverage

Greece reported 1,424 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, as well as 23 further deaths.

This compares with 1,222 cases and 26 deaths last Saturday.

There have been more than 3.8 million confirmed Covid-19 cases on the African continent, and more than 100,000 fatalities.

The number is understood to be an underestimation, with the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying last week that it was “definitely not counting all the deaths, especially in the second wave”.

Over 3.8 million confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 3.3 million recoveries & 100,000 deaths cumulatively.

View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/FKav40Cbdd pic.twitter.com/QaygLU6nic

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Covid: vaccinated Israelis to enjoy bars and hotels with ‘green pass’

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Mobile app inoculation certificate aims to help reopen economy, but privileges are untested and raise ethical questions

Israel is preparing itself to be split in half from next week, with the government creating a new privileged tier in society: the vaccinated.

Nearly 50% of the population who have chosen to be inoculated against Covid will be provided with a “green pass” a week after their second shot, as will those with presumed immunity after contracting the disease.

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‘I’ve accepted the risk’: volunteering to be exposed to Covid in new trials

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Healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 30 will be exposed to virus in controlled environment

Human challenge trials for coronavirus are to begin in the UK, a world first in the global fight against Covid-19.

Healthy adult volunteers aged between 18 and 30 will be exposed to coronavirus in a controlled environment, to learn more about how their body reacts to the virus, how it is transmitted and how much of the virus is needed to cause infection.

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Our understanding of Covid and the vaccines is constantly evolving. That’s a good thing | Abby Bloom

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There will continue to be plenty more data gaps because the Covid-19 strain simply behaves like all influenzas and mutates continuously

By the time you read this it will be out of date.

Why? Because every day we receive new data that causes us to rethink and rewrite our response to Covid-19, notably vaccine programs. This is good. I will explain.

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Life savers: the amazing story of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine

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A year ago, two scientists began work on the response to a new virus. Now, as their vaccine is being given to millions, they tell of their incredible 12 months

Exactly a year ago, Oxford University scientists launched a joint enterprise that is set to have a profound impact on the health of our planet. On 11 February, research teams led by Professor Andy Pollard and Professor Sarah Gilbert – both based at the Oxford Vaccine Centre – decided to combine their talents to develop and manufacture a vaccine that could protect people from the deadly new coronavirus that was beginning to spread across the world.

A year later that vaccine is being administered to millions across Britain and other nations and was last week given resounding backing by the World Health Organization. The head of the WHO’s department of immunisation, vaccines and biologicals, Professor Kate O’Brien, described the jab as “efficacious” and “an important vaccine for the world”.

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Nelson urged mistress to give their baby girl ‘new’ smallpox vaccine

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Naval hero praises Jenner’s cowpox jab in a newly found love letter to Emma Hamilton, written as he prepared for war

He is best remembered as the one-armed hero who defeated Napoleon, rewrote the rules of naval warfare and died at sea, in battle, onboard HMS Victory.

Now, the “chance discovery” of a 220-year-old love letter from Admiral Horatio Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton, his mistress, reveals how open-minded and ahead of his time the formidable captain was about a radical new scientific breakthrough: the smallpox vaccine. In the letter, dated July 1801, Nelson appears to advocate the use of the brand new vaccine on his own baby daughter.

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Boris Johnson ‘optimistic’ about easing some England lockdown measures

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Prime minister says priority is to reopen schools on 8 March once 15m in priority groups vaccinated

Boris Johnson has said he is optimistic about announcing the easing of some lockdown measures soon as the government nears its target of offering vaccines to 15 million people in priority groups.

Speaking on Saturday at a visit to the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies plant in Billingham, Teesside, where the new Novavax vaccine will be manufactured, the prime minister said his first priority remained opening schools in England from 8 March, to be followed by other sectors.

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Wales is first UK nation to offer Covid jab to top four priority groups

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Everyone in top four categories has been offered first vaccine dose, says first minister

Wales has become the first UK nation to have offered a Covid jab to everyone in the top four priority groups, the first minister, Mark Drakeford has announced.

Last month, Drakeford was forced to defend Wales’s vaccination programme after criticism of delays from opposition parties and doctors. But at a press conference on Friday, he said that 66 days after people in Wales first began getting the jab, the key target had been achieved.

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Ursula von der Leyen admits failings in EU Covid vaccine rollout

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European commission leader says bloc late to authorise jabs and ‘not where it wants to be’

The EU is “not where it wants to be” with its coronavirus immunisation programme, Ursula von der Leyen has conceded, as she faced MEPs in the European parliament amid mounting criticism of the bloc’s slow deployment of vaccines.

“We were late to authorise,” the European commission president said. “We were too optimistic when it came to massive production, and perhaps too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time. We need to ask ourselves why that is the case.”

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Europe’s oldest person survives Covid and set to celebrate 117th birthday

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French nun Sister Andrée tested positive in her retirement home in Toulon but had no symptoms

A French nun who is Europe’s oldest person has recovered from Covid-19 after it swept through a nursing home in the south of France, and will celebrate her 117th birthday this week.

Sister Andrée, born Lucile Randon in 1904, tested positive for the coronavirus last month at the Sainte-Catherine Labouré home near Toulon where 81 of the 88 residents contracted the virus – 10 of whom died.

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How can Covid vaccines be tweaked to tackle new variants?

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Drugmakers are looking at ways to improve their vaccines so they are ready for mutations of the virus

Emerging variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 have triggered concerns that the vaccines developed to date will not provide the high level of protection seen in clinical trials. Concerning variants have been identified in California, South Africa, Brazil and the UK.

But not every variant needs a new vaccine, since vaccines produce a broad immune response that will probably cover many mutations. Here’s what needs to be done to assess whether a vaccine needs to be tweaked, and how to tweak it.

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Study shows Oxford Covid vaccine has less protection against South African variant

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Researchers say vaccines’ focus must shift to protecting people from hospitalisation and death

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will not stop people becoming ill if they contract the South African variant of Covid-19, researchers have confirmed, warning that vaccines’ focus needs to shift from population immunity to protecting individuals from hospitalisation and death.

The small study in 2,000 people aged 31, who are less likely to become severely ill, adds to evidence from big trials of other vaccines carried out after the variant appeared in South Africa. Trial data from the Janssen and Novavax vaccines showed efficacy in South Africa was up to 60% against the variant, substantially lower than against the original virus.

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When will Britain’s Covid lockdown be lifted? Three scenarios

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At best, vaccines and lockdown could make life more normal by May. But at worst, a new mutation could undo any progress

Hopes are rising that Britain may soon put the worst of Covid-19 behind it. After a year in which the disease has paralysed the nation, killed more than 100,000 people, closed schools and universities, and brought the NHS to its knees, there are now signs of hope emerging.

Most optimism stems from Britain’s vaccination programme, which has resulted in the inoculation of more than 10 million people in the past two months alone, and which aims to have vaccinated the entire adult population later this year.

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Oxford Covid jab less effective against South African variant, study finds

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University of the Witwatersrand and Oxford University research shows vaccine has reduced efficacy against mutation

British drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Saturday that its vaccine developed with the University of Oxford appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of Covid-19, based on early data from a trial.

The study from South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand and Oxford University showed the vaccine had significantly reduced efficacy against the South African variant, according to a Financial Times report published earlier in the day.

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Oxford Covid vaccine almost as effective against Kent variant, trials suggest

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Scientists say it offers only slightly lower protection compared with original Covid

The Covid vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca is nearly as effective against the Kent variant as it is against older forms of the virus, according to preliminary research results.

Researchers analysed swabs from trial volunteers who developed asymptomatic or symptomatic infections to determine which variant of the virus they had caught after receiving the vaccine or a control jab.

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What are Covid variants – and should we be worried?

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In the UK, all eyes are on South African, Brazilian and Kent variants - with mutations transmitting among the population

With the discovery of new coronavirus variants in parts of the UK, prompting intensive testing, we take a look at what the variants are and how concerned we should be.

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Gout drug could reduce Covid hospital stays, new research finds

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Colchicine also found to reduce need for extra oxygen and has potential to be used in outpatient settings

A cheap drug normally used to treat gout has been found to have the potential to significantly reduce hospital stays among Covid-19 patients and the need for extra oxygen.

The results of new research into colchicine conducted in Brazil come after an international trial published on Wednesday found that it reduced hospitalisations and deaths among Covid-19 patients by more than 20%.

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UK minister announces launch of mix-and-match Covid jab trial – video

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The UK vaccine deployment minister, Nadhim Zahawi, says volunteers are being sought for a world-first trial giving a first dose of one vaccine type and a second dose of another.  Run by the University of Oxford, it will recruit 820 people over the age of 50 to receive a first dose of either the Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

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