coronavirus vaccine - The African Mirror

Dec

2020

OPINION: Why coronavirus vaccine tourism would be a disaster for equality

IT'S happening. Highly sought-after vaccines making their way on to the private market. Doses of the coronavirus jab developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca could be available for purchase in India as soon as March, according to comments made by the CEO of the Serum Institute in India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. Why does the future availability of vaccines for sale privately in countries such as India matter? Because it means a secondary market emerges for vaccines where wealthy foreign visitors could pay for a vaccination if not eligible to be immunised under their own government’s scheme. In…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

“20-million Americans could be vaccinated this year”

WORLD

THE U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expects to move quickly after a December 10 review of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and 20 million Americans could be vaccinated this year, its commissioner has revealed. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn declined to give a specific timeline of how long approval of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech would take but said that he hoped there would be a decision by the regulator in December. As soon as the FDA approves a vaccine, "I will be first in line and I will encourage my family to take this vaccine," Hahn…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

J&J says review of illness that led to coronavirus vaccine trial pause could take days

COVID-19

CARL O’DONNELL and MANAS MISHRA JOHNSON & Johnson has announced that it would take at least a few days for an independent safety panel to evaluate an unexplained illness of a study participant that led to a pause in the company's COVID-19 vaccine trial. J&J shares fell more than 2% following news of the pause and safety review. Rival AstraZeneca Plc's U.S. trial for its coronavirus vaccine candidate - which uses a similar technology - has remained on hold for more than a month after a participant in the company's UK trial fell ill. J&J, whose vaccine effort is among…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Russia’s Putin wants stronger WHO, proposes conference on coronavirus vaccine

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has told the U.N. General Assembly that the World Health Organization should be strengthened to coordinate the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and proposed a high-level conference on vaccine cooperation. "We are proposing to hold an online high-level conference shortly for countries interested in cooperation in the development of anti-coronavirus vaccines," Putin said. "We are ready to share experience and continue cooperating with all states and international entities, including in supplying the Russian vaccine which has proved reliable, safe, and effective, to other countries," he said. Russia was the first country to grant regulatory approval…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Oxford scientists: these are final steps we’re taking to get our coronavirus vaccine approved

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

REBECCA ASHFIELD, Senior Project Manager, Jenner Institute, University of Oxford PEDRO FOLEGATTI, Clinical Research Fellow at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, Jenner Institute, and PhD Candidate in Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford OF the hundreds of potential COVID-19 vaccines in development, six are in the final stages of testing, known as phase 3 clinical trials. One of these – ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 – is the vaccine we’re developing at the University of Oxford. To be approved, vaccines need to go through multiple rounds of testing to show that they’re safe and effective. A combined phase 1 and phase…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

South African volunteers on AstraZeneca vaccine trial say not alarmed by pause

COVID-19

SOUTH African volunteers on AstraZeneca’s experimental coronavirus vaccine trial said they were not worried to hear the trial had been paused after a participant fell ill and they hoped to be part of a potential solution to the pandemic. The vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, has been described by the World Health Organization as probably the world’s leading candidate and the most advanced in terms of development. Some 2,000 volunteers in South Africa are taking part in the trial which was paused globally on Tuesday after an unexplained illness in a participant. An independent committee will review safety…