Coronavirus Breaking News

'Russia recently announced that it has developed an effective vaccine against the COVID-19 virus despite less than 2-months of testing on humans. And a billion doses of the Sputnik V vaccine will be available by early 2021,' wrote Philippa Levine, a professor of history at The University of Texas Austin.

'Given that safe and successful vaccines are often a decade in the making, what did the Russians do to score this victory? Simple, they truncated and skipped the usual trials that preface the release of any new pharmaceutical and that help ensure its safety,' said Prof. Levine on August 17, 2020.

Adults 65+ account for 16% of the US population, but they represent about 80% of COVID-19 disease fatalities reported during 2020. Furthermore, the number of adults 65 and older who have died of COVID-19 is considerably higher in certain US states.

About 61% of senior (65+) COVID-19 disease-related fatalities reside in just 7 states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, and Michigan, reported Kaiser Health News. This CDC data, published as of July 22, 2020, are provisional and reflect time lags due to differences in how states report data.

The United Kingdom (UK) is one of the countries most severely affected by COVID-19 disease as recent outbreaks in English towns such as Oldham indicate. Contact within households is thought to be responsible for roughly 70% of SARS-CoV-2 transmission when widespread community control measures are in place reported the BMJ on August 14, 2020.

Current UK guidance advises household contacts to isolate within the same home as the index case for 14-days.

'Until an effective vaccine is widely available, strategies to prevent household transmission, and to support those in quarantine, will be vital and should be a core part of any government’s strategy. The UK government should consider amending its mantra of “test and trace” to “test, trace, isolate, and support," said the BMJ.

Novavax, Inc. announced on August 17, 2020, a Phase 2b clinical trial is launching in South Africa to evaluate the efficacy of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Dr. Shabir Madhi, Professor of Vaccinology at Wits University, will lead the clinical trial. Novavax said it expects that, if approved in South Africa, its COVID-19 vaccine would ultimately be supplied to South Africa through Novavax’s recently announced collaboration with the Serum Institute of India.

AstraZeneca announced on August 14, 2020, an agreement with the European Commission to supply up to 400 million doses of the AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which is targeted to prevent infections from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The Russian news agency TASS reported on August 16, 2020, the 3rd (post-registration) stage of the research on the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine developed by the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, may include 10s of thousands of participants.

On August 15, the Russian Health Ministry announced that the production of the Sputnik V vaccine had been launched.

On August 14, 2020, the U.S. CDC issued a clarification regarding coronavirus immunity. On August 3rd, the CDC updated its isolation guidance based on the latest science about COVID-19 disease showing that people can continue to test positive for up to 3 months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others.

Contrary to media reporting, this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the betacoronavirus that causes COVID-19, in the 3-months following infection.

The latest CDC data simply suggests that retesting someone in the 3-months following initial infection is not necessary unless that person is exhibiting the symptoms of COVID-19 and the symptoms cannot be associated with another illness.