COVID-19 vaccines - The African Mirror

Sep

2020

Top adviser steps aside from FDA COVID-19 vaccine reviews over potential conflict

DAN LEVINE and MARISA TAYLOR A physician who heads the influential U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee recused herself from the panel's review of COVID-19 vaccines because of her role overseeing a clinical trial for Moderna Inc's candidate, her spokeswoman told Reuters. Hana El Sahly, associate professor of virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Hana El Sahly, associate professor of virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, last year became chairwoman of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee - the panel of outside experts that will make recommendations…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Vaccine confidence volatile, vulnerable to misinformation, global study finds

COVID-19

KATE KELLAND POLITICAL polarisation and online misinformation are threatening vaccination programmes worldwide, with public trust volatile and varying widely between countries, according to a global vaccine confidence study. The study, which maps trends in vaccine confidence across 149 countries between 2015 and 2019, found that scepticism about the safety of vaccines tended to grow alongside political instability and religious extremism. "It is vital with new and emerging disease threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that we regularly monitor public attitudes," said Heidi Larson, a professor at the London school of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who led the research. "Perceptions about…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

WHO says $700 million raised so far for COVID-19 vaccines initiative for poor

COVID-19

INTERNATIONAL donors have raised $700 million - less than half the target - to purchase future coronavirus vaccines for poor countries in a global initiative to ensure eventual vaccines do not go only to rich countries, a World Health Organization official has said. The COVAX Advanced Market Commitment has an initial target of $2 billion to buy the vaccines. "Up to today, what has been mobilised so far is $700 million ... So there is a great deal of work to be done to diversify the possible sources of funding," Matshidiso Moeti, Africa regional director for the WHO, told an…