Fight to eradicate disease getting ‘back on track’ after surge in cases due to pause in vaccination campaigns
Polio vaccination campaigns have resumed in Afghanistan and Pakistan – the last two polio-endemic countries in the world – after a “surge” in cases.
The pandemic halted campaigns in both countries in March and confirmed cases have now reached 34 in Afghanistan and 63 in Pakistan – where cases are being recorded in areas of the country previously free of the disease.
Continue reading...Sputnik V’s development has been marked by worrying opacity and ethical issues
The race to find a vaccine against Covid-19 has not always been particularly edifying, driven at times by so-called “vaccine nationalism”, much cautioned against by the World Health Organization, which has itself been accused of being invested as much in self-interest and prestige as global public health.
Russia’s announcement that it has registered its Sputnik V vaccine as safe and effective for mass production and inoculation even before so-called phase 3 large-scale safety trials, which usually take months, fits the pattern.
Continue reading...From the UK government over-promising on testing to scientific spin on a vaccine, realism is in short supply
They were billed by the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, as “lifesaving” and “hugely beneficial”: two new coronavirus tests that claim to deliver results within 90 minutes, promoted enthusiastically to the public with the help of front pages in the Times, the i and the Daily Mail, which declared they would “transform the war on corona”.
The suppliers are little known, evaluation data is not yet available, and it is unclear how effective the tests are outside hospital settings, not least because taking blood or swabs is difficult for non-medics.
Continue reading...World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns there may never be an effective vaccine for Covid-19. Speaking in Geneva, Tedros explains the need for caution despite progress developing some vaccines. 'A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection' he says. 'However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be'
Continue reading...Britain takes its stockpile to 250m doses after most recent agreement
Four potential Covid-19 vaccines have been secured so far by the UK, which aims to buy up to 12 to ensure that the country has one or more that work as soon as possible. They are:
Continue reading...The onset of Covid-19 has devastated immunisation programmes, leaving huge numbers of infants unprotected from deadly diseases
Tens of millions of children around the world have been denied life-saving vaccines against measles in both rich and poor countries due to Covid-19 disruptions, with fears of further outbreaks this year.
Since March, routine childhood immunisation services have been disrupted on a scale unseen since the 1970s, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Data collected by Unicef, the Gavi Alliance, WHO and Sabin Vaccine Institute found in May that immunisation programmes had been substantially hindered in at least 68 countries, leaving 80 million children under the age of one unprotected from diseases including measles, tetanus, polio and yellow fever.
Continue reading...Prime minister makes comments while promoting extension of free winter flu jabs
Boris Johnson has said people opposed to vaccinations are “nuts” as he promotes an expanded programme of flu jabs that ministers hope will ease pressure on the NHS if there is a second wave of coronavirus this winter.
Visiting a doctors’ surgery in London on Friday, the prime minister said to staff: “There’s all these anti-vaxxers now. They are nuts, they are nuts.”
Continue reading...How seasonal viruses interact with the coronavirus is unknown – it may lessen or sharpen the pandemic – so flu vaccinations are vital
Optimists had hoped Covid-19 might not withstand the blistering heat of a British summer. However those hopes have faded: the virus staged a recent resurgence in Iran amid actual blistering temperatures, and has had no trouble persisting in sultry Singapore.
But what happens to Covid-19, and us, when the rain and chill – and flu and sniffles – of autumn set in? Especially, how will the annual winter flu epidemic play out amid a Covid-19 pandemic?
Continue reading...UK National Cyber Security Centre says drug firms and research groups being targeted by group known as APT29
Russian state-sponsored hackers are targeting UK, US and Canadian organisations involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine, according to British security officials.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said drug companies and research groups were being targeted by a group known as APT29, which was “almost certainly” part of the Kremlin’s intelligence services.
Continue reading...Promising details were released this week about Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine but it remains in the early stages of development
Hopeful news about a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US government researchers and Moderna Inc has buoyed expectations – and markets – on the potential for a preventive measure against a global pandemic that has killed more than half a million people and upended daily life.
Moderna first announced its vaccine, backed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prompted an immune response in 45 adults in May.
Continue reading...Team is using new approach that could be cheap and scalable and become the norm within five years
Prof Robin Shattock would have liked slightly longer to develop the revolutionary approach to vaccines that he is pretty sure will not only save lives in the Covid-19 pandemic but become the norm for vaccine development within five years.
His team at Imperial College were working on Ebola and Lassa fever vaccines using new technology but had not got as far as human trials when a novel coronavirus started to kill thousands of people in Wuhan, China.
Continue reading...More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine
Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 140 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Continue reading...The US is 'unlikely' to achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus, according to the country's top public health expert, Dr Anthony Fauci. With the nation reaching record numbers of new Covid-19 cases last week, Fauci said a significant challenge for the government would be education around vaccinations, if one became available. He told CNN: "There is a general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country – an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking."
Continue reading...Science editor Ian Sample explains how vaccines work, runs through some of the main obstacles to creating one for coronavirus and preparing it for public use, and tells us which scenario he thinks is most realistic in the next 18 months
Continue reading...While many believe a Covid-19 vaccine will be a ‘ticket out’, experts are concerned getting people to take it is the real challenge
When Susan had a baby daughter, she was not planning on having her vaccinated. It didn’t seem abnormal to her – most of her mothers’ group didn’t vaccinate either.
“I had friends who believed in natural healing, healthy food, being vegan, eating raw food. I just didn’t think that vaccines were necessary.”
Continue reading...Officials voice concern as coronavirus halts annual programme in country already struggling against resurgence in cases
In April, almost 40 million children missed their polio drops in Pakistan after the cancellation of the nationwide vaccination campaign.
Alongside Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic. It was very close to becoming polio free, with only 12 cases in 2018, but last year the number of cases rose to 147. In the same year, Pakistan was accused of covering up the resurgence of the P2 strain of the virus, which was thought to have been eradicated in 2014.
Continue reading...In a recent survey, 24% of Americans said they will refuse a coronavirus vaccine. Adam Gabbatt investigates the anti-vaxxer movement in the United States – and how the pandemic is helping to fuel its resurgence
Continue reading...Report also warns of ‘dire impact’ of pandemic worldwide with large number of children failing to return to school after lockdowns ease
The suspension of vaccination programmes, school closures and a surge in domestic violence during coronavirus lockdowns are likely to derail a decade’s worth of progress for children, according to new global research.
The Kidsrights Foundation on Tuesday published its annual rankings of children’s rights in 182 countries with Iceland scoring top for the second year running followed by Switzerland, Finland and Sweden.
Continue reading...World’s top drug firms turned down proposals for work on pathogens like coronavirus
The world’s largest pharmaceutical companies rejected an EU proposal three years ago to work on fast-tracking vaccines for pathogens like coronavirus to allow them to be developed before an outbreak, the Guardian can reveal.
The plan to speed up the development and approval of vaccines was put forward by European commission representatives sitting on the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) – a public-private partnership whose function is to back cutting-edge research in Europe – but it was rejected by industry partners on the body.
Continue reading...The Royal Society president says scientists must not be made scapegoats for policy failures
In 1981, a virus that had jumped the species barrier some decades earlier to infect humans began to wreak havoc among the gay community in San Francisco and New York. A taskforce was set up to study the cause of this disease, and it took a few years to identify HIV as the definitive cause of Aids and its genome to be sequenced, and nearly 15 years before a cocktail of drugs meant that having an HIV infection was no longer a certain death sentence.
Forty years later, the cause of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan was identified as a new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2, and its sequence determined in a matter of weeks. That, in turn, paved the way for a sensitive test for infection and, now, antibody tests for people who may have had the disease. That we know so much in such record time is due to sustained international investment in science.
Continue reading...