The Great Vaccine Race: Inside the Unprecedented Scramble to Immunize the World Against COVID-19
The cleverest of enemies thrive on surprise attacks. Viruses—and coronaviruses in particular—know this well. Remaining hidden in animal hosts for decades, they mutate steadily, sometimes serendipitously morphing into more effective and efficient infectious agents. When a strain with just the right combination of genetic codes that spell trouble for people makes the leap from animal to human, the ambush begins.
Such was the case with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind COVID-19, and the attack was mostly silent and insidious at first. Many people infected with SARS-CoV-2 remained oblivious as they served as the v...
Source: TIME: Health - September 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Magazine Source Type: news
Biopharma Leaders Unite To Stand With Science
NEW YORK, September 8, 2020 — The CEOs of AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/NYSE: AZN), BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX), GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY), today announced a historic pledge, outlining a united commitment to uphold the integrity of the scientific process as they work towards potential global regulatory filings and approvals of the first COVID-19 vaccines. All nine CEOs signed the following pledge: We, the unders...
Source: Johnson and Johnson - September 8, 2020 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Our Company Source Type: news
Navigating Safely Through The Pandemic
By Stephen LeahySep 2 2020 (IPS-Partners) Having reported on SARS, Ebola, Bird Flu (H5N1) outbreaks, as well as writing about efforts to combat HIV, I was horrified by what was going on in Wuhan, China last Jan mainly because of how fast this new SARS-CoV-2 virus spread. By early Feb it seemed likely there’d be a global pandemic and by the end of Feb I started to freak out as the pandemic took hold. I’ve never been to Wuhan or China nor seen anyone who had; and I hadn’t travelled any where recently. It was nearly impossible for me to have encountered the virus but that didn’t keep me from getting sick with fear and...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - September 2, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Stephen Leahy Tags: Health Humanitarian Emergencies Source Type: news
Exclusive: The Scientist Who Sequenced the First COVID-19 Genome Speaks Out About the Controversies Surrounding His Work
Over the past few years, Professor Zhang Yongzhen has made it his business to sequence thousands of previously unknown viruses. But he knew straight away that this one was particularly nasty. It was about 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 that a metal box arrived at the drab, beige buildings that house the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. Inside was a test tube packed in dry ice that contained swabs from a patient suffering from a peculiar pneumonia sweeping China’s central city of Wuhan. But little did Zhang know that that box would also unleash a vicious squall of blame and geopolitical acrimony worthy of Pandora herself....
Source: TIME: Health - August 25, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Campbell / Shanghai Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 overnight Source Type: news
Exclusive: The Chinese Scientist Who Sequenced the First COVID-19 Genome Speaks Out About the Controversies Surrounding His Work
Over the past few years, Professor Zhang Yongzhen has made it his business to sequence thousands of previously unknown viruses. But he knew straight away that this one was particularly nasty. It was about 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 that a metal box arrived at the drab, beige buildings that house the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. Inside was a test tube packed in dry ice that contained swabs from a patient suffering from a peculiar pneumonia sweeping China’s central city of Wuhan. But little did Zhang know that that box would also unleash a vicious squall of blame and geopolitical acrimony worthy of Pandora herself....
Source: TIME: Science - August 25, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Charlie Campbell / Shanghai Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 overnight Source Type: news
Exclusive: The Chinese Scientist Who Sequenced the First COVID-19 Genome Speaks Out About the Controversies Surrounding His Work
Over the past few years, Professor Zhang Yongzhen has made it his business to sequence thousands of previously unknown viruses. But he knew straight away that this one was particularly nasty. It was about 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 that a metal box arrived at the drab, beige buildings that house the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. Inside was a test tube packed in dry ice that contained swabs from a patient suffering from a peculiar pneumonia sweeping China’s central city of Wuhan. But little did Zhang know that that box would also unleash a vicious squall of blame and geopolitical acrimony worthy of Pandora herself....
Source: TIME: Health - August 25, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Campbell / Shanghai Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 overnight Source Type: news
How Convalescent Plasma Could Help Fight COVID-19
The last time most of us gave any thought to antibodies was probably in high school biology, but we’re getting a crash refresher course thanks to COVID-19. They are, after all, the key to our best defenses against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that’s caused the global pandemic. People who have been infected likely rely on antibodies to recover, and antibodies are what vaccines are designed to produce.
Or at least that’s what infectious-disease and public-health experts assume for now. Because SARS-CoV-2 is such a new virus, even the world’s best authorities aren’t yet sure what it will take to build p...
Source: TIME: Health - August 24, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news
Leading in Time of COVID: A True Test of Leadership
By Folake OlayinkaAug 15 2020 (IPS) In 1918, the Spanish Flu, a deadly influenza caused by the H1N1 virus, decimated the world. Over the course of four successive waves, it infected 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population at the time, resulting in 50 million deaths.
More recently between 2014 and mid-2016 , the Ebola virus epidemic was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history—causing devastating loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the West Africa region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. These outbreaks, as well as SARS and MERS, each have provided lessons...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - August 15, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Folake Olayinka Tags: Democracy Headlines Health Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson Announces Agreement with U.S. Government for 100 Million Doses of Investigational COVID-19 Vaccine
New Brunswick, N.J., August 05, 2020 – Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) (the Company) today announced its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies have entered into an agreement with the U.S. government for the large scale domestic manufacturing and delivery in the U.S. of 100 million doses of Janssen’s SARS-CoV-2 investigational vaccine, Ad26.COV2.S, for use in the United States following approval or Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant ...
Source: Johnson and Johnson - August 5, 2020 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Our Company Source Type: news
Religion & the Pandemic: A Call Beyond the Here & Now
Religions for Peace Interreligious Council of Albania distributing Covid relief supplies from the Multi-religious Humanitarian Fund. Credit: Erzen CarjaBy Prof. Azza KaramNEW YORK, Aug 4 2020 (IPS) — I have never been interested in religion or spirituality before, but I found myself tuning in to all sorts of on-line religion and spirituality related forums “in search of something.”
These are the words of a 30-something single young, middle class man (born into a Protestant-Catholic family background) in a European country.
The latter is known more for turning several churches into museums or shopping centers, p...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - August 4, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Azza Karam Tags: Civil Society Featured Global Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity Religion TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news
Dr. Anthony Fauci Expresses ‘Cautious’ Optimism That COVID-19 Vaccine Will Be Available to Americans in 2021
(WASHINGTON) — Once a coronavirus vaccine is approved as safe and effective, Americans should have widespread access within a reasonable time, Dr. Anthony Fauci assured lawmakers Friday.
Appearing before a House panel investigating the nation’s response to the pandemic, Fauci expressed “cautious” optimism that a vaccine would be available, particularly by next year.
“I believe, ultimately, over a period of time in 2021, that Americans will be able to get it,” Fauci said, referring to the vaccine.
There will be a priority list for who gets early vaccinations. “I don’t think we...
Source: TIME: Health - July 31, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Uncategorized Congress COVID-19 News Desk wire Source Type: news
Inside the Global Quest to Trace the Origins of COVID-19 —and Predict Where It Will Go Next
It wasn’t greed, or curiosity, that made Li Rusheng grab his shotgun and enter Shitou Cave. It was about survival. During Mao-era collectivization of the early 1970s, food was so scarce in the emerald valleys of southwestern China’s Yunnan province that farmers like Li could expect to eat meat only once a year–if they were lucky. So, craving protein, Li and his friends would sneak into the cave to hunt the creatures they could hear squeaking and fluttering inside: bats.
Li would creep into the gloom and fire blindly at the vaulted ceiling, picking up any quarry that fell to the ground, while his companion...
Source: TIME: Health - July 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Campbell/ Yuxi, Yunnan and Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 feature Magazine Source Type: news
Report: Members of Russia ’s ‘Business and Political Elite’ Have Been Receiving Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine
(Bloomberg) — Scores of Russia’s business and political elite have been given early access to an experimental vaccine against COVID-19, according to people familiar with the effort, as the country races to be among the first to develop an inoculation.
Top executives at companies including aluminum giant United Co. Rusal, as well as billionaire tycoons and government officials began getting shots developed by the state-run Gamaleya Institute in Moscow as early as April, the people said. They declined to be identified as the information isn’t public.
The Gamaleya vaccine, financed by the state-run Russian D...
Source: TIME: Health - July 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Stepan Kravchenko, Yuliya Fedorinova and Ilya Arkhipov / Bloomberg Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 News Desk russia wire Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson Reports 2020 Second-Quarter Results
New Brunswick, N.J. (July 16, 2020) – Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) today announced results for second-quarter 2020. “Our second quarter results reflect the impact of COVID-19 and the enduring strength of our Pharmaceutical business, where we saw continued growth even in this environment,” said Alex Gorsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Thanks to the tireless work of our colleagues around the world and our broad range of capabilities, we continue to successfully navigate the external landscape, and we remain focused on advancing the development of a vaccine to help address this pandemic and save lives....
Source: Johnson and Johnson - July 16, 2020 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
UN Chief Warns of Deadly Germs as Potential Bioterrorist Weapons
Credit: United NationsBy Thalif DeenUNITED NATIONS, Jul 8 2020 (IPS) The coronavirus—which has claimed the lives of over 538,000 people and infected more than 11.6 million worldwide—has destabilized virtually every facet of human life ever since its outbreak in late December.
Providing a grim economic scenario of the devastation caused by the pandemic– including rising poverty, hunger and unemployment– UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last week of the possibility of an even worse disaster: the risks of bioterrorist attacks deploying deadly germs.
He said it has already shown some of the ways in...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 8, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Thalif Deen Tags: Armed Conflicts Featured Global Global Geopolitics Global Governance Headlines Health IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Peace TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news
