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Scientist behind coronavirus shot says next target is cancer

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The scientist who won the race to deliver the first widely used coronavirus vaccine says people can rest assured the shots are safe, and the technology behind it will soon be used to fight another global scourge — cancer.

Ozlem Tureci, who founded the German company BioNTech with her husband Ugur Sahin, was working on a way to harness the body’s immune system to tackle tumors when they learned last year of an unknown virus infecting people in China.

Over breakfast, the couple decided to apply the technology they’d been researching for two decades to the new threat.

Britain authorized BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine for use in December, followed a week later by the United States. Dozens of other countries have followed suit and tens of millions of people worldwide have since received the shot developed together with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

“It pays off to make bold decisions and to trust that if you have an extraordinary team, you will be able to solve any problem and obstacle which comes your way in real time,” Tureci told The Associated Press in an interview.

As BioNTech’s profile has grown during the pandemic, so has its value, adding much-needed funds the company will be able to use to pursue its original goal of developing a new tool against cancer.

The vaccine made by BioNTech-Pfizer and U.S. rival Moderna uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, to carry instructions into the human body for making proteins that prime it to attack a specific virus. The same principle can be applied to get the immune system to take on tumors.

“We have several different cancer vaccines based on mRNA,” said Tureci.

Asked when such a therapy might be available, Tureci said “that’s very difficult to predict in innovative development. But we expect that within only a couple of years, we will also have our vaccines (against) cancer at a place where we can offer them to people.”

https://montreal.citynews.ca/2021/03/19/scientist-behind-coronavirus-shot-says-next-target-is-cancer/

White House considers lifting European travel restrictions

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The White House is considering rescinding entry bans for most non-U.S. citizens who recently were in Brazil, Britain, Ireland and 26 other European countries, five U.S. and airline officials told Reuters.

The Trump administration imposed the bans in a bid to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic. It is not considering lifting separate entry bans on most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in China or Iran, the officials said.

The plan has won the backing of White House coronavirus task-force members, public health and other federal agencies, the people briefed on the matter said, but President Donald Trump has not made a final decision and the timing remains uncertain.

The White House, Department of Homeland Security and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not comment.

Many administration officials argue the restrictions no longer make sense given that most countries around the world are not subject to the entry ban. They contend lifting the restrictions would be a boost to struggling U.S. airlines, which have seen international travel fall by 70%, according to airline industry data.

https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN2851EPHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Taiwan just went 200 days without a locally transmitted Covid-19 case. Here’s how they did it

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As much of the world struggles to contain new waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, Taiwan just marked its 200th consecutive day without a locally transmitted case of the disease.

Taipei’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been one of the world’s most effective. The island of 23 million people last reported a locally transmitted case on April 12, which was Easter Sunday. As of Thursday, it had confirmed 553 cases — only 55 of which were local transmissions. Seven deaths have been recorded.

Easter was an important milestone in the United States because President Donald Trump had said a month earlier he wanted the country “opened up and just raring to go” by the holiday.

Taiwan has never had to enact strict lockdowns. Nor did it resort to drastic restrictions on civil freedoms, like in mainland China.

Instead, Taiwan’s response focused on speed. Taiwanese authorities began screening passengers on direct flights from Wuhan, where the virus was first identified, on December 31, 2019 — back when the virus was mostly the subject of rumors and limited reporting.

Taiwan confirmed its first reported case of the novel coronavirus on January 21 and then banned Wuhan residents from traveling to the island. All passengers arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao were required to undergo screening.

All this happened before Wuhan itself went into lockdown on January 23. By March, Taiwan banned all foreign nationals from entering the island, apart from diplomats, residents and those with special entry visas.

Former Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chien-jen, who is an epidemiologist by training, said lockdowns are not ideal. Chen also said that the type of mass-testing schemes undertaken in mainland China, where millions of people are screened when a handful of cases are detected, are also unnecessary.

“Very careful contact tracing, and very stringent quarantines of close contacts are the best way to contain Covid-19,” he said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/29/asia/taiwan-covid-19-intl-hnk/index.htmlHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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China becomes first major economy to recover from Covid-19 pandemic

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The Chinese economy grew 4.9% between July and September, according to government data, as China becomes the first major economy to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The year-on-year expansion, while slightly lower than analyst expectations, represents a dramatic reversal from the first quarter of this year when the economy shrunk by 6.8%, China’s first contraction since 1992 when officials began keeping quarterly GDP data.

China’s central bank governor Yi Gang said on Sunday that officials predict annual growth of about 2%. “The Chinese economy remains resilient with great potential. Continued recovery is anticipated, which will benefit the global recovery,” he said.

China is expected to be the only G20 economy to grow this year. The global economy is slated to contract by 4.4%, according to the International Monetary Fund, the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.

Covid-19 first emerged in central China in Wuhan in December and by early April, lockdowns were lifted as the country gradually re-opened factories and businesses while travel restrictions were loosened. Policymakers released targeted stimulus measures from tax cuts and lower interest rates to credit local governments and cheaper lending for businesses.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/news/china-becomes-first-major-economy-to-recover-from-covid-19-pandemic/ar-BB1a9ZjmHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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How Covid-19 is changing the flu

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The presence of flu-free societies raises an important question: could the rest of the world ever be rid of this virus? As it happens, the world is making some tantalising first steps towards this goal.

Back in January 2020, at the end of the Australian summer, the country had 6,962 cases of the flu confirmed via a laboratory test. At this time, Covid-19 was still known only as “the novel coronavirus” and mostly confined to China. Ordinarily, you would have expected to see more and more cases of the flu as the days became shorter and winter descended.

Instead, something unexpected happened. By April there were just 229 cases of the flu – down from 18,705 at the same time the previous year. Covid-19 had already ripped across the world, collectively infecting more than a million people, including the British prime minister, and spreading to every continent except Antarctica. Lockdowns had been imposed, hand-washing had been popularised and mask-wearing had become commonplace – though the latter was still much more widely practiced in Asia than elsewhere.

By August, it was clear that Australia’s flu season had been the mildest on record. In all, there were fewer than a 10th of the infections seen in 2019 – and the vast majority of these occurred before the pandemic hit. This is all against a backdrop of more testing than had ever been conducted before.

The same pattern also occurred elsewhere. The co-head of South Africa’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) recently told CBS News that the country “just didn’t have a flu season this year”, while in New Zealand, doctors didn’t detect a single flu case during their annual screening drive, though last year 57% of the swabs they took were positive.  

Now winter is over in the Southern Hemisphere and beginning in the North. And though it’s still early in the season, already things look radically different to how they ordinarily would.

As of September, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported the missing flu cases were a global phenomenon, with significantly lower levels than would be expected, from tropical Africa to the Caribbean. For the week beginning 7 September, the flu tracker FluMart recorded just 12 lab-confirmed cases of the flu on the entire planet.  

“What we’re seeing in Australia, New Zealand, South America, Hong Kong, are really, really attenuated seasons of not just the flu, but also respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),” says Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist at the University of Chicago. 

Peter Palese, a microbiologist and expert in RNA viruses at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York Palese is keen to stress the importance of getting vaccinated against the flu. “Even if it is not completely protective, it is certainly resulting in a more mellow disease – and it’s a very safe vaccine,” he says.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201009-could-social-distancing-make-the-flu-extinctHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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US authorities exploring use of testing to ease air travel restrictions between NYC and London

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After months of stringent international travel restrictions, efforts are underway to open travel between London and New York City, according to sources familiar with the plans.

There is ongoing planning for a pilot program that would use a combination of testing and quarantines to help get international air traffic moving again, according to one of the sources familiar with the plans. The NYC-London route would be a pilot route for the program.

However, the program is “far from a done deal yet,” the source said.

Earlier this year, the US implemented a set of severe travel restrictions as the Trump administration grappled with how to handle the spreading coronavirus pandemic, which included banning travelers from dozens of countries, rerouting flights and diverting thousands of airline passengers for medical screening. In March, the administration expanded its restrictions from Europe to include the United Kingdom and Ireland as it tried to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The US had already blocked certain travel from Iran and China.

A Department of Homeland Security official told CNN: “We’re at the early stages of working with our interagency partners, the industry, and our international partners for means to safely encourage transatlantic travel while mitigating public health risks.”

Officials are hoping to open travel between the two cities before the end of the year, but there are still details to be worked out and the timing is unclear, an administration official said. “We want to get to a program. We are trying to figure out what an opening would look like,” such as “what criteria we would have to meet” and “who would be responsible,” the official said.

To open travel, officials are going to want a “recent negative test,” but it is still unclear who would collect the information and verify the results, according to an administration official. “Who is going to verify the negative test? Who will do that — TSA, the airlines? It hasn’t matured yet to a pilot program yet,” the official said.

Knowing that quarantines aren’t something the US has been able to enforce, it may be a recommendation but likely not a requirement to allow trans-Atlantic travel, the official said.

On September 22, the International Air Transport Association called for coronavirus testing at airports as a requirement for all passengers and airplane crew members before international flights.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/12/politics/testing-ease-air-travel-nyc-london/index.htmlHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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WHO says 180-plus countries including China committed to vaccine effort

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More than 180 countries have committed to participate in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) effort to finance COVID-19 vaccines to be distributed fairly to both rich and poor countries, the group’s chief scientist said on Monday.

That figure, which WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan updated during a media call, is an increase from the 170 countries including China that were announced on Friday by the GAVI vaccine alliance, which is working with the WHO on the COVAX financing facility.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-covax/who-says-180-plus-countries-including-china-committed-to-vaccine-effort-idUSKBN26X25EHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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WHO joins the Great Barrington Declaration by condemning lockdowns

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The World Health Organisation has backflipped on its original COVID-19 stance after calling for world leaders to stop locking down their countries and economies.

Dr. David Nabarro from the WHO appealed to world leaders yesterday, telling them to stop “using lockdowns as your primary control method” of the coronavirus.

He also claimed that the only thing lockdowns achieved was poverty – with no mention of the potential lives saved.

“Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer,” he said.

“We in the World Health Organisation do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,” Dr Nabarro told The Spectator.

“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.”

Dr Nabarro’s main criticism of lockdowns involved the global impact, explaining how poorer economies that had been indirectly affected.

“Just look at what’s happened to the tourism industry in the Caribbean, for example, or in the Pacific because people aren’t taking their holidays,” he said.

“Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world. … Look what’s happening to poverty levels. It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.”

Melbourne’s lockdown has been hailed as one of the strictest and longest in the world. In Spain’s lockdown in March, people weren’t allowed to leave the house unless it was to walk their pet. In China, authorities welded doors shut to stop people from leaving their homes. The WHO thinks these steps were largely unnecessary.

Instead, Dr Nabarro is advocating for a new approach to containing the virus.

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/global/coronavirus-who-backflips-on-virus-stance-by-condemning-lockdowns/news-story/f2188f2aebff1b7b291b297731c3da74?whoHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Covid-19 death rates are lower worldwide, but no one is sure whether that’s a blip or a trend

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After working for three months straight at Detroit Medical Center, Said El Zein noticed that the coronavirus patients who began arriving in May appeared less sick than those who came before.

More than 4,000 miles away in northern Italy, researcher Chiara Piubelli was struck by the same thing.

Rafael Cantón, an infectious-disease specialist in Madrid, also marveled at the change. “It’s totally different,” he said last month of the falling admissions at his medical center, noting that only 130 of 1,000 beds were full despite surging infections — a huge change from early spring when every bed was occupied.

Death rates from the novel coronavirus are lower in hot spots around the world, even as new infections accelerate in what may be the pandemic’s next wave. Scientists are confident the change is real, but the reasons for it — and whether it will last — are a matter of intense debate.

“Is this a trend or a blip?” asked Joshua Barocas, an infectious-disease specialist at the Boston University School of Medicine. “Nobody really knows.”

The mortality rate of the coronavirus has been a moving target since the outbreak began.

Early reports out of China put it as high as 7 percent. But that was based mostly on hospitalized patients, and by the time the wave hit the United States, epidemiologists believed it was closer to 2 to 3 percent. Now, factoring in asymptomatic infections, as well as mild cases that might not be part of official tallies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the mortality rate at 0.65 percent.

One prominent but still unproven theory suggested by early research is that we miscalculated humanity’s susceptibility to the coronavirus, and that a slice of the population may be partially immune, perhaps due to previous exposure to the common cold coronavirus, childhood vaccinations or something else.

The other possibility is that something important has changed in our environment — the weather, behaviors or the virus itself.

Most viruses lose their killing edge eventually, due to a lack of hosts, mutations that make them less deadly, or new treatments or vaccines. The novel coronavirus will, too, experts say, but it’s a matter of when and how many lives are lost until then. But most scientists doubt that’s what we are seeing now, based on genetic sequencing research.

One idea that has generated a lot of discussion recently, bolstered by two back-to-back studies — El Zein’s and another from Italy, presented in late September to the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases — is that social distancing and masks are reducing the dose of virus people are receiving, resulting in less-severe illness.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/10/09/covid-mortality-rate-downHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Dozens of COVID-19 vaccines are in development. Here are the ones to follow

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More than 150 coronavirus vaccines are in development across the world—and hopes are high to bring one to market in record time to ease the global crisis. Several efforts are underway to help make that possible, including the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, which has pledged $10 billion and aims to develop and deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by January 2021. The World Health Organization is also coordinating global efforts to develop a vaccine, with an eye toward delivering two billion doses by the end of 2021.

Vaccine prospects

The COVID-19 candidates, like all vaccines, essentially aim to instruct the immune system to mount a defense, which is sometimes stronger than what would be provided through natural infection and comes with fewer health consequences.

To do so, some vaccines use the whole coronavirus, but in a killed or weakened state. Others use only part of the virus—whether a protein or a fragment. Some transfer the coronavirus proteins into a different virus that is unlikely to cause disease or even incapable of it. Finally, some vaccines under development rely on deploying pieces of the coronavirus’s genetic material, so our cells can temporarily make the coronavirus proteins needed to stimulate our immune systems. 

Novavax

Name: NVX-CoV2373

What: Novavax has bioengineered the coronavirus’s spike proteins, the parts that help the virus invade cells but cannot replicate or cause COVID-19. Its vaccine candidate combines those proteins into a knucklebone-shaped nanoparticle. This can be injected along with its proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant—a compound that stimulates immune cells—to elicit an immune response. The vaccine is administered in two doses, 21 days apart. On September 2, a study of the company’s phase one trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the vaccine was safe and produced coronavirus antibodies at a higher level than is seen among those who have recovered from COVID-19. It also stimulated T cells, another arm of the human immune response.

Status: On September 24, Novavax announced the launch of its phase three trial in the United Kingdom, which will evaluate the vaccine in up to 10,000 people, both with and without underlying conditions. Up to 400 participants will also be vaccinated against the seasonal flu as part of a sub-study that will help determine whether it is safe to give patients both vaccines at the same time.

Johnson & Johnson

Name: JNJ-78436735

What: Johnson & Johnson is developing an adenovector vaccine, which introduces a piece of DNA from SARS-CoV-2 into the common cold-causing adenovirus that has been genetically changed so that it can’t replicate in the body. This vaccine builds on the technology Johnson & Johnson used to develop an Ebola vaccine as well as vaccine candidates for Zika and HIV. In July, a study published in Nature showed that the vaccine elicited neutralizing antibodies in monkeys and provided “complete or near-complete” protection with just one dose.

Status: On September 23, Johnson & Johnson announced the launch of a phase three ENSEMBLE trial that will evaluate the safety of the vaccine—and how well it works—among up to 60,000 adults from a variety of countries. The trial will include “significant representation” from older populations and will include those with underlying conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19.

Moderna Therapeutics

Name: mRNA-1273

What: This vaccine candidate relies on injecting snippets of a virus’s genetic material, in this case mRNA, into human cells. They create viral proteins that mimic the coronavirus, training the immune system to recognize its presence. This technology has never been licensed for any disease. If successful, it would be the first mRNA vaccine approved for human use. This vaccine requires two doses, four weeks apart.

Status: On July 27, Moderna announced it had started the third phase of its clinical trials, even as it continues to monitor phase two results. Preliminary findings from phase one have shown that healthy subjects—including elderly patients—produced coronavirus antibodies and a reaction from T cells. Phase three will test the vaccine in 30,000 U.S. participants; Moderna says it is on track to deliver at least 500 million doses per year beginning in 2021, thanks in part to the deal it has struck with Swiss manufacturer Lonza that will allow it to manufacture up to one billion doses a year. In September, however, Moderna’s chief executive Stéphane Bancel told the New York Times that it was unlikely the vaccine would be widely available in the first half of 2021.

Pfizer

Name: BNT162b2

What: Pfizer and BioNTech are also developing an mRNA vaccine based on the German company’s earlier efforts to use the technology in experimental cancer vaccines. Pfizer has signed a nearly $2 billion contract with the U.S. government to provide 100 million doses by December 2020—an agreement that goes into effect when and if the drug is approved and delivered.

Status: On July 27, Pfizer and BioNTech launched a trial that combines phase two and three by enrolling a diverse population in areas with significant SARS-CoV-2 transmission. It has expanded the trial to include 44,000 people across multiple countries. The project is aiming to seek regulatory review before the end of the year—and hopes to supply 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. Preliminary results of phase one/two data show the vaccine produces antibodies and T-cell responses specific to the SARS-CoV-2 protein.

University of Oxford

Name: ChAdOx1 nCoV-19

What: Oxford’s candidate is what’s known as a viral vector vaccine, essentially a “Trojan horse” presented to the immune system. Oxford’s research team has transferred the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein—which helps the coronavirus invade cells—into a weakened version of an adenovirus, which typically causes the common cold. When this adenovirus is injected into humans, the hope is that the spike protein will trigger an immune response. AstraZeneca and Oxford plan to produce a billion doses of vaccine that they’ve agreed to sell at cost.

Status: Preliminary results from this candidate’s first two clinical trial phases revealed that the vaccine had triggered a strong immune response—including increased antibodies and responses from T-cells—with only minor side effects such as fatigue and headache. It is in phase three of clinical trials, aiming to recruit up to 50,000 volunteers in Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. On September 8, AstraZeneca paused the trials for a safety review due to an adverse reaction in one participant in the U.K. The details remain unclear, though the company has described the pause as a “routine action.” After an investigation by independent regulators, the trials resumed in the U.K., Brazil, South Africa, and India but remained on hold in the U.S. as of September 23.

Sinovac

Name: CoronaVac

What: CoronaVac is an inactivated vaccine, meaning it uses a non-infectious version of the coronavirus. While inactivated pathogens can no longer produce disease, they can still provoke an immune response, such as with the annual influenza vaccine.

Status: On July 3, Brazil’s regulatory agency granted this vaccine candidate approval to move ahead to phase three, as it continues to monitor the results of the phase two clinical trials. Preliminary results in macaque monkeys, published in Science, revealed that the vaccine produced antibodies that neutralized 10 strains of SARS-CoV-2. Sinovac has also released preprint results of its phase two human trial that likewise showed the vaccine produced antibodies with no severe adverse reactions. Phase three will recruit nearly 9,000 healthcare professionals in Brazil. Sinovac will also conduct phase three trials in Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Sinopharm

What: Sinopharm is also using an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine that it hopes will reach the public by the end of 2020. Preliminary findings from two randomized trials, published in JAMA, have shown the vaccine can trigger an antibody response with no serious adverse effects. The study did not measure T cell-mediated immune responses. These results are significant, though, as they are the first published data from human clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine that uses a whole, inactivated virus.

Status: On September 29, the New Yorker reported that Sinoparm is filing its application to China’s regulatory commission for approval of the vaccine, which could arrive sometime in October. The story also notes that hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians have already been vaccinated under the government’s emergency-use approval. China began to innoculate medical workers and other high-risk groups with the Sinopharm trial vaccines in July, making it the first experimental vaccine available to civilians beyond clinical volunteers. Also in July, Sinopharm launched its first phase three trial among 15,000 volunteers—aged 18 to 60, with no serious underlying conditions—in the United Arab Emirates. The company selected the UAE because it has a diverse population made up of approximately 200 nationalities, making it an ideal testing ground. Sinopharm will also undertake phase three trials in locations such as Peru and Bahrain.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Name: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin BRACE trial

What: For nearly a hundred years, the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine has been used to prevent tuberculosis by exposing patients to a small dose of live bacteria. Evidence has emerged over the years that this vaccine may boost the immune system and help the body fight off other diseases as well. Researchers are investigating whether these benefits may also extend to SARS-CoV-2, and this trial has reached phase three in Australia. Though as of April 12, the World Health Organization says there is no evidence that the BCG vaccine protects people against infection with the coronavirus.

Status: In April, researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute began a series of randomized controlled trials that will test whether BCG might work on the coronavirus as well. They aim to recruit 10,000 healthcare workers in the study.

CanSino Biologics

Name: Ad5-nCoV

What: CanSino has also developed a viral vector vaccine, using a weakened version of the adenovirus as a vehicle for introducing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the body. Preliminary results from phase two trials, published in The Lancet, have shown that the vaccine produces “significant immune responses in the majority of recipients after a single immunisation.” There were no serious adverse reactions documented.

Status: Though the company was still technically in phase two of its trial, on June 25, CanSino became the first company to receive limited approval to use its vaccine in people. The Chinese government has approved the vaccine for military use only, for a period of one year. On August 15, Russian biopharmaceutical company Petrovax announced it had launched the first phase three clinical trial of Ad5-nCoV.

The Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology

Name: Sputnik V

What: Gamaleya has developed a viral vector vaccine that also uses a weakened version of the common cold-causing adenovirus to introduce the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the body. This vaccine uses two strains of adenovirus, and it requires a second injection after 21 days to boost the immune response. Russia has not published any data from its clinical trials, but officials with the institute state that they have completed phases one and two. The researchers also claim the vaccine produced strong antibody and cellular immune responses.

Status: Despite the lack of published evidence, Russia has cleared the Sputnik V vaccine for widespread use and claimed it as the first registered COVID-19 vaccine on the market. Russia reports that it will start phase three clinical trials on August 12; the World Health Organization, however, lists the Sputnik V vaccine as being in phase one of clinical trials.