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Canadian researchers find COVID-19 antibodies last for months, likely years

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Hart Jackson’s colleagues at Sinai Health in Toronto have affectionately nicknamed him ‘the human pincushion.’

For months now, Jackson has been routinely pricking his finger to provide blood samples, in hopes of helping to answer a central question in the fight against COVID-19: How long does immunity last?

And so far, the findings appear promising.

“From all indications, I think there is a good chance that it can be longer lasting,” he said.

After completing his training in Switzerland, Jackson moved home to Toronto in March 2020, just as the first wave of COVID-19 was crashing into Canada.

“At about day five (of our quarantine), my partner developed a dry cough. And then it all started, where we all had slight fevers and coughs, including our six-month-old,” he recalled.

“We got the (COVID-19 test) results back very fast, which were positive and shocked all of us.”

Following his recovery in April, Jackson heard that some of his colleagues at Sinai Health and the University of Toronto were developing an antibody test to investigate whether patients who’d previously been sick with COVID-19 were immune to re-infection.

“As soon as the trial started, I was signing up right away and hoping to get involved and provide any samples that I can,” he said. “At the time, it wasn’t known how long this (immunity) was going to last.”

But now 10 months since he became infected with COVID-19, Jackson’s antibodies remain robust. And COVID-19 researchers are growing increasingly optimistic that immunity — whether acquired through infection or vaccination — will endure for some time.

“We know several people that were infected back in February and they still have quite a bit of antibodies,” said Anne-Claude Gingras, a biochemist and senior investigator at the LTRI, who developed one of the earliest COVID-19 antibodies tests.

“The neutralizing antibodies decline a little bit, but they decline very, very slowly.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/7589668/canadian-researchers-coronavirus-antibodies/

Moderna: ‘We’re Ready’ To Ship 20 Million Coronavirus Vaccine Doses By The End Of 2020

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The third and final clinical trial for Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is still underway, but the company is already setting an aggressive schedule to manufacture and ship the vaccine immediately if the Food and Drug Administration approves it.

“By the end of this year, we expect to have approximately 20 million doses ready to ship in the U.S.,” Moderna chief medical officer Dr. Tal Zaks said at an investor briefing on Thursday. “From a distribution standpoint, we’re ready.”

The company has also agreed to supply several other countries including Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Israel and Qatar with tens of millions of doses, Zaks said. By the end of 2021, the company hopes to supply the world with up to a billion doses – or 500 million full courses of the two-dose vaccine.

But that hinges on whether the FDA and the equivalent regulatory agencies of other countries approve Moderna’s product, which is built on a new and untried vaccine technology. Moderna’s vaccine uses RNA, a type of genetic code that also served as the inspiration for Moderna’s name – a portmanteau of the words Mode and RNA. This genetic code instructs human cells to produce a coronavirus protein. The body’s immune system then generates a defensive response to that protein.

The ongoing third clinical trial for the vaccine will determine if that immune response is enough to protect against coronavirus infection. Until the results of that trial are out, there’s no saying if the vaccine will really work.

According to the FDA, Zaks said, a final analysis of the clinical trial would need to show the vaccine is at least 50 percent effective for approval. But, he added, Moderna is setting a higher bar.

“In order to call it a success, we will need to show a vaccine efficacy of 74% or greater,” Zaks said during the investor meeting.

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/10/29/moderna-vaccine-end-of-yearHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Countries turn to rapid antigen tests to contain second wave of COVID-19

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Countries straining to contain a second wave of COVID-19 are turning to faster, cheaper but less accurate tests to avoid the delays and shortages that have plagued efforts to diagnose and trace those infected quickly.

Germany, where infections jumped by 4,122 on Tuesday to 329,453 total, has secured 9 million so-called antigen tests per month that can deliver a result in minutes and cost about 5 euros ($5.90) each. That would, in theory, cover more than 10% of the population.

The United States and Canada are also buying millions of tests, as is Italy, whose recent tender for 5 million tests attracted offers from 35 companies. Switzerland, where new COVID-19 cases are at record levels, is considering adding the tests to its nationwide screening strategy.

Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) now recommends antigen tests to complement existing molecular PCR tests, which have become the standard for assessing active infections but which have also suffered shortages as the pandemic overwhelmed laboratories and outstripped manufacturers’ production capacity.

PCR tests detect genetic material in the virus while antigen tests detect proteins on the virus’s surface, though both are meant to pick up active infections. Another type of test, for antibodies the body produces in response to an infection, can help tell if somebody has had COVID-19 in the past.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-rapid-tests/countries-turn-to-rapid-antigen-tests-to-contain-second-wave-of-covid-19-idUSKBN26Y2PXHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Covid-19 tests that give results in minutes to be rolled out across world

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Tests for Covid-19 that show on-the-spot results in 15 to 30 minutes are about to be rolled out across the world, potentially saving many thousands of lives and slowing the pandemic in both poor and rich countries.

In a triumph for a global initiative to get vital drugs and vaccines to fight the virus, 120m rapid antigen tests from two companies will be supplied to low- and middle-income countries for $5 (£3.90) each or even less.

The tests, which look like a pregnancy test, with two blue lines displayed for positive, are read by a health worker. One test has received emergency approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the other is expected to get it shortly.

The quick and easy but high-quality tests will allow mass screening of health workers, who are dying in disproportionate numbers in low income countries.

Wealthy countries that have signed up to the Access to Covid tools initiative (ACT accelerator), as the UK has, will also be able to order the tests. The initiative was launched in March by the WHO, the European commission, the Gates Foundation and the French government.

In return for a volume guarantee from the Gates Foundation, the companies are making 20% of their production available to low- and middle-income countries and 80% to the rest. Germany has already ordered 20m tests and France and Switzerland are following suit.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/28/covid-19-tests-that-give-results-in-minutes-to-be-rolled-out-across-worldHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Moderna expects to make 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by 2020 end

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Moderna said on Friday it was on track to produce 20 million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, while maintaining its goal of readying 500 million to 1 billion doses in 2021.

Vaccines and treatments are seen as essential in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic that has shown no signs of slowing and killed over 944,000 people worldwide.

A handful of vaccines, including those from Pfizer and AstraZeneca, are also being tested in large studies.

Moderna had enrolled 25,296 participants out of a planned 30,000 in its late-stage study as of Wednesday.

The company is working with Switzerland’s Lonza Group and Spain’s Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi to make the vaccine outside the United States.

Moderna has a vaccine supply deal in place with the U.S. for 100 million doses, and has finished advanced talks with the European Union for the vaccine.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/18/moderna-expects-to-make-20-million-doses-of-coronavirus-vaccine-by-2020-end.htmlHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Switzerland officially ends its “emergency orders” and reduces its threat alert. All businesses including sports, clubs, movies can reopen

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Switzerland said on Wednesday it would lift curbs on larger public gatherings next month and free up travel within Europe’s 26-nation Schengen zone by July 6, further easing restrictions on public life as the coronavirus outbreak ebbs.

Summer camps, cinemas, theatres and concert halls can reopen under a decision to allow public events of up to 300 people once again from June 6. Spontaneous gatherings of up to 30 people can start on May 30, up from a limit of five now.

“We need to stay humble, but I think we have the situation under control,” Health Minister Alain Berset told reporters, stressing the need for people to maintain physical distance from each other and to closely monitor any fresh COVID-19 infections.

“We can enjoy all the things that are now possible again,” President Simonetta Sommaruga said. “With today’s decision we can prepare ourselves for a new normality.”

https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-swiss/theatres-cinemas-summer-camps-to-reopen-as-swiss-relax-virus-curbs-idINKBN2332LD

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Switzerland says young children can hug grandparents

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Swiss authorities say it is now safe for children under the age of 10 to hug their grandparents, in a revision to official advice on coronavirus.

The health ministry’s infectious diseases chief Daniel Koch said scientists had concluded that young children did not transmit the virus.

However, he said such meetings should be brief and not involve babysitting.

Switzerland is one of several European countries beginning to ease their lockdown measures.

This week, garden centres and hairdressers have been allowed to open their doors. Schools and shops selling items other than food will be allowed to reopen in two weeks’ time.

Dr Koch told a news conference this week that the original advice to keep distance between children and their grandparents was made when less was known about how the coronavirus was transmitted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52470838​HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Roche to commence rollout of coronavirus antibody test in UK

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The pharmaceutical giant Roche has devised a new coronavirus antibody test, which it is aiming to launch in the UK next month.

Antibody testing, which has already been utilised in Germany, South Korea and Finland, is seen as a way for countries to exit lockdown by showing who has already had Covid-19 and could therefore have a degree of immunity.

Roche, which has its headquarters in Switzerland, says it will be able to produce its tests in the order of the high tens of millions by June and will then scale up production “as fast as possible”.

Geoff Twist, managing director of Roche Diagnostics UK and Ireland, said: “Roche Diagnostics has been working around the clock to develop a high-quality antibody test. We are now collaborating with public health bodies to validate the new antibody test and our aim is to commence a phased rollout across the UK from mid-May.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/roche-coronavirus-antibody-test-uk​HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Roche Aims to Start Selling Covid-19 Antibody Test Next Month

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Roche Holding AG developed an antibody test for Covid-19 that it says it plans to start selling early next month, adding another of the diagnostic tools experts think will be needed to lift social-distancing measures put in place around the globe.

The test will probe blood samples for antibodies that show whether a person has been infected by the new coronavirus, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said in statement. Monthly production could reach the high double-digit millions by June.

“We will have a very, very steep ramp up,” said Thomas Schinecker, Roche’s head of diagnostics, in a phone interview. It plans to adopt the same high-intensity approach to making this test as it has been using to churn out its molecular tests, which have been around since January. “We are working 24 hours, seven days a week.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-17/roche-aims-to-start-selling-covid-19-antibody-test-in-early-may​HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Roger Federer donates $1 million for COVID-19 relief in Switzerland

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Roger Federer and his wife Mirka say they have donated 1 million Swiss francs ($1.02 million) “for the most vulnerable families” in Switzerland.  Federer writes on his social media accounts that “these are challenging times for everyone and nobody should be left behind.”

https://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/roger-federer-donates-1-million-covid-19-relief-switzerland/sn-amp/?__twitter_impression=true