PUNE, India, March 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Demand for global corona virus vaccine market in terms of revenue was worth of USD 0.37 Billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 75.75 Billion in 2021. The global corona virus vaccine market is expected to grow at significant growth rate due to number of driving factors.
The study provides a crucial view of global corona virus vaccine market by segmenting the market based on infection type, vaccine type and region & country level. Based on infection, the corona virus vaccine market is segmented into HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HKU1-CoV, NL63, MERS-CoV, New Haven CoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Based on vaccine type, the market is segmented into S-protein based coronavirus vaccine, live attenuated coronavirus vaccine, inactivated coronavirus vaccine, MRNA vaccine and DNA-based vaccine. The regions covered in global virus testing diagnostic kits market are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. On the basis of country level, global virus testing diagnostic kits market is sub divided into U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, India, South East Asia, Brazil, Mexico, GCC, Africa, etc.
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Key Companies Covered in the Corona Virus Vaccine market: Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Moderna, Inc., Protein Potential, LLC, Novavax, Inc., Synairgen PLC, AlphaVax, Inc., NanoViricides, Inc., Zydus Cadila, Bravovax, GeoVax, Altimmune, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, CanSino Biologics, Vaxart, Vaxil Bio Ltd
When most people in a community are vaccinated against a disease, the ability of the pathogen to spread is limited as vaccines can prevent infectious diseases. It greatly reduces the risk of infection by training the immune system to recognize and fight pathogens such as viruses or bacteria. As Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus i.e. SARS-CoV-2, which has spread rapidly throughout the world and in March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. This pandemic has severely weakened health systems & economic and social progress globally. While countries, have taken strong measures to cover the spread of COVID-19 through better diagnostics and treatment, the coronavirus vaccines will provide a lasting solution by enhancing immunity and containing the disease spread. In response to the pandemic, the vaccine development process has been fast-tracked, as these vaccines safely deliver an immunogen which is a specific type of antigen that produces a resistant response for training the immune system to recognize the pathogen when it is come across naturally. There are many different COVID-19 vaccines are at development stage because it is not yet known which ones will be effective and safe. In April 2020; the access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator was launched to speed up development & delivery to countries of diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
Factors such as the present coronavirus outbreak, increasing healthcare expenditures, growing concerns regarding Corona virus outbreaks at regular intervals and the growing need to protect populations across the globe from known as well as unencountered virus strains are expected to drive the growth of the market. For example; the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was officially named as COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization and has spread to more than 180 countries and the pandemic has had a negative impact on mental health. And, as of February 16th, 2021, India has about 10925710 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and globally, there are about 10,91,51,283 confirmed COVID-19 cases across 192 counties which has led to about 24,07,688 deaths.
In addition, health financing is necessary to the ability of health systems to maintain & improve human welfare and as there is a rapid growth in cases of COVID-19, which has challenged national healthcare capacity, testing systems at an advanced ICU and public health infrastructure level to develop the preventive measure for the pandemic. Thus, many regional governments are taking so many efforts and spending much more expenditures to develop a vaccine. For instance; on February 11th, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his administration has secured about 200 million more doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines i.e. about 50% increase and also the Biden administration plans to deliver more doses directly to drugstores & pharmacies to speed up delivery of vaccine as part of about $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan. Hence, increasing healthcare expenditure for corona vaccine is also driving the growth of global coronavirus vaccine market. Moreover, increasing research & development for the corona vaccine may boost the growth of global coronavirus vaccine market growth within the forecast period. However, time required for each stage of clinical trials of vaccine and high costs associated with research & development of vaccines and drugs may hamper the market growth.
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Global Coronavirus Vaccine Market: Market Player Analysis
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Moderna, Inc., Protein Potential, LLC, Novavax, Inc., Synairgen PLC, AlphaVax, Inc., NanoViricides, Inc., Zydus Cadila, Bravovax, GeoVax, Altimmune, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, CanSino Biologics, Vaxart, Vaxil Bio Ltd
Geographically, North America region is expected to dominate the coronavirus vaccine market. This is due to increasing research & development activities for corona virus vaccine in the region and presence of major players such as Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Moderna, Inc. and Novavax, Inc. & among others, in this region. For instance, according to springer nature limited; Most COVID-19 vaccine development activity is in North America, with about 36 i.e. 46% of developers of the confirmed active vaccine candidates compared with about 14 (18%) in China, about 14 (18%) in Asia (excluding China) and Australia and about 14 (18%) in Europe. Also, on April 08, 2020, Novavax, Inc. Company has announced that it has identified a coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373 and it will initiate a first-in-human trial in Mid-May of 2020.
Moreover, Europe is at second position in dominance and this is due to huge demand for coronavirus vaccine due to diverse coronavirus outbreaks in the current past, the presence of major players in countries in the region and rising investments in R&D activities, along with strong support from the government. For instance; on February 17th, 2021- Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE announced an agreement with the European Commission (EC) to supply an additional about 200 million doses of COMIRNATY-the companies' COVID-19 Vaccine to the 27 European Union (EU) member states. This new agreement is in addition to about 300 million doses which have already been committed to the EU through 2021 under the first supply agreement signed last year. The additional 200 million doses are expected to be delivered in 2021, with an estimated about 75 million to be supplied in the second quarter. So, the total number of doses to be delivered to the EU member states by the end of 2021 is about 500 million, with the potential to increase to about 600 million based on the option granted in the new agreement.
Global Market Trends of Corona Virus Vaccine.
In recent years, scientists and leading organizations are developing more than 110 vaccines by using wide range of techniques some of which are never been approved for medical purpose before and some of which are already well established. There are two sectors among the newest approaches for corona virus vaccine development that are viral vectors and RNA vaccines. These approaches are implementing for COVID-19 widely for numerous reasons such as their speed of development, scale and manufacturing fit as well as small dose size, all of which are highly desirable features for a rapid pandemic response. Both RNA and viral vectored vaccines have advents from doing investments in cell and gene therapies over the last 10 to 20 years. Some of the major trends in the global coronavirus vaccine market are.
A) Inactivated and Live Attenuated Vaccines:
Nowadays, almost all vaccines in use integrate an activated or weakened form of virus that is not able to cause diseases. When immune cells find out that they can make antibodies and these types of vaccines mainly contain selected viral proteins or inactivated viruses. These are pathogens that can be killed. The dead viruses can no longer multiply, but the body still determines them as intruders therefore, the body's defense system capable that antibodies are produced. The vaccinated individual does not develop the disease. This method utilizes based on tried and tested technology and it is already used in vaccines against diseases such as influenza, polio, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and tetanus.
Inactivated vaccines use a pathogen that can be modified so that it cannot replicate to stimulate individual immune system. They are safe because they cannot cause any type of diseases, but at the same time booster doses are particularly required. The inactivation approach includes heat, radiation or chemicals to eliminate the pathogen's genetic material, which stops it from replicating. Inactivated vaccines can trigger a strong immune reaction, but it is not as advantageous as reaction that live attenuated vaccines can produce. Owing to this reason, a person may need booster shots to ensure ongoing protection. The COVID-19 vaccines that Bharat Biotech, Sinovac and Sinopharm, have developed are inactivated vaccines. For example; Scientists at the private company Sinovac developed an activated COVID-19 vaccine called as CoronaVac, on the other hand, Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research co developed Covaxin.
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B) Genetic vaccines:
The gene-based vaccines include pure genetic information in the form of coronavirus DNA or mRNA type. Individual parts of genetic information from the pathogen are packed into nanoparticles and introduced into another cells. Once the vaccine is given inside the body, it should form harmless viral proteins that deliver strong immune protection.
o DNA Based Vaccine:
Many experimental vaccines do not give whole viruses. Instead, they offer genetic instructions for creating a viral protein. The protein can stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies and help in defensing against other coronaviruses. This method is known as a DNA vaccine. For example; the biotechnology company Inovio pharmaceuticals has previously developed experimental vaccines against MERS-CoV (INO-4700) and is evaluating a DNA vaccine against COVID-19. From the new study, comparing the immunogenicity of two investigational DNA based COVID 19 vaccines, researchers or scientists has shown the results that both prototypes induced potent immune response in mice. According to the scientists, their vaccines are based on a DNA-launched self-amplifying RNA (DREP) platform which is inexpensive, stable and also easy to produce and have a good safety profile.
o RNA Based Vaccine:
From the last few years, new technological innovation and research investment have enabled mRNA to become the milestone as a therapeutic tool in the fields of corona virus vaccine development. For example; the mRNA-1273 was the first mRNA vaccine which is developed by Moderna to be designed to fight against COVID-19 and has gained a time record of 63days from vaccine design to human trials. RNA vaccines hold more benefits including faster, cheaper, more adaptable and easier to volume produce than other vaccines. For example; BioNTech and Pfizer Company launched a coordinated program to compare RNA based COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical studies conducted in Germany and the United States. The program was arranged to support the selection of a single vaccine candidate and dose level for a pivotal international safety and efficacy trial purpose.
C) Viral Vector Vaccine:
Viral vectors use modified viruses as boosters to access genetic and cellular material are one of the most commonly deployed tools in the search for a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, scientists are increasingly using viral vector vaccines in therapeutics research well before the coronavirus pandemic, due to their use in gene therapy and cell therapy has proven to be effective. Now, those same applications are being repurposed to develop a coronavirus vaccine. These vaccines use a well-established inactivated or killed viral vector including adenovirus to evaluate proteins of SARS COV2, so that proteins can be determined by individual immune system to produce an immune response.
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People who have already had COVID-19 even if they didnt show symptoms may be able to get away with just a single dose of a two-dose coronavirus vaccine, a study of health care workers suggests.
Researchers tested for antibodies in the blood of 59 health care workers who got vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Some of the volunteers had COVID-19 eight to nine months before vaccination.
Their bodies remembered it, no problem, and reacted very quickly to the vaccine, says Mohammad Sajadi, an infectious disease doctor at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. After the first vaccine dose, antibody levels quickly shot up in people who previously had COVID-19 either with or without symptoms to more than 500 times the levels seen in people who were never infected.
Those results, published March 1 in JAMA, suggest that people who have had COVID-19 could get one shot or be moved to the end of the line for vaccinations. An estimated 9 percent of people in the United States have had confirmed cases of COVID-19. Limiting those people to one dose of vaccine could free up 4 to 5 percent of vaccine doses, Sajadi says.
Immunologically it makes sense, he says. With the ongoing pandemic and vaccine shortages, it makes sense, too. The cost of inaction is just too great not to spare vaccine doses where possible.
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When experts envision the future of the coronavirus, many predict that it will become a seasonal pathogen that wont be much more than a nuisance for most of us who have been vaccinated or previously exposed to it.
But how long that process takes and how much damage the virus inflicts in the interim is still anyones guess.
The most predictable thing about this coronavirus is its unpredictability, said Howard Markel, a historian of medicine at the University of Michigan, who has studied other pandemics.
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However long it takes, the transition to a mild endemic virus is unlikely to be a straight line. Some infectious disease researchers envision a healthier summer with low circulation of the virus and more people vaccinated but a more tenuous fall. Other factors, like how long protection provided by vaccines will last, what percentage of people gets them, and whether variants of the virus sap the strength of vaccines, will determine the outcome.
These are not predictions that people fed up with the pandemic will want to hear. But at the same time, some experts are optimistic that the end of this phase the crisis phase is within sight, at least in this country, as vaccines reach more people and protect them from the worst outcomes of Covid-19.
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The challenge might be recognizing what the end looks like. Some experts might mark it when daily deaths fall below a certain threshold or when hospitals are no longer facing crushes of cases. But there wont be a single moment, like jolting awake from a nightmare, and we wont be finished for good with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Gradually, fewer people will get sick, more activities will be considered safer, and something approaching normalcy will return.
Its sort of like getting into a cold pool, said virologist Angela Rasmussen of the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security. You go in and you get a little deeper, and you get a little deeper, and finally youre in the pool and it feels normal.
The U.S. right now seems to be at an inflection point. Cases have plummeted from peaks earlier this year, but have more recently plateaued at levels that remain dangerous. There is still a lot of virus circulating in the U.S.; over the past week, the country has averaged more than 65,000 cases per day, which ismore than twice the number of cases, in total, that Australia has recorded since the start of the pandemic. Vaccines are being rolled out with a third option authorized last weekend but supply for now remains limited.
Worrisome variants of the virus are also growing more prevalent. One, known as B.1.1.7, is more transmissible and deadlier than other forms of the virus and is expected to become the dominant strain in the U.S. later this month. But its not clear how that will have an effect on case counts.
The variants are a bit of a curveball, said Caitlin Rivers, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. I could see a scenario where B.1.1.7 could slow down our progress and maybe precipitate resurgences in some communities, though perhaps not throughout the country.
Conditions may be ripe for a better summer, however. Vaccine supplies should be flowing more freely, at least in the U.S.; the Biden administration now expects enough vaccine doses in hand for all adults by the end of May. With most vulnerable populations protected, there should be fewer hospitalizations and deaths. And with warmer weather, people can return to outdoor life.
Widespread transmission of the virus could be replaced by more sporadic and localized outbreaks. Theres also growing evidence that vaccines dont just protect people from getting symptomatic Covid-19, but can reduce transmission.
The country will not reach herd immunity over the summer that is, the point at which there are so few susceptible to the virus that it cant find new hosts to infect. Kids and adolescents, who make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. population, wont be vaccinated yet in large numbers, and a still unknown number of adults will resist getting the shot. But experts stress that if the country can reduce transmission, as well as take the bite out of the most severe consequences of the disease through immunizations, the future will look different than the past year has.
If you look at a country like Australia, or other countries that have really controlled spread, they are doing normal things, and its not because theyve reached the herd immunity threshold, Rasmussen said. Its because theyve controlled transmission.
Then comes the fall. Two factors people spending more time indoors plus colder weather could allow SARS-2 transmission to pick up again among those who remain susceptible, a potential threat if vaccine uptake is limited. Whats more, some experts have raised the possibility that even people who have been vaccinated or who have been previously infected could be vulnerable to infections if variants are able to evade some of the immune systems defenses and circulate more widely. The top threats now appear to be B.1.351 (first seen in South Africa) or P.1 (first seen in Brazil), but other variants could appear as well, particularly if vaccines are not provided globally and transmission persists.
B.1.1.7 could result in more of a wave in, say, April, May, than we would have expected otherwise, but I still do suspect that things will be brought under control in the summer, and there will be very little Covid circulating, with a combination of all these infections that have occurred, all this vaccination thats occurring, Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said at a briefing last week. What I am concerned about is that we could have something of a fall wave caused by these variants.
Generally, people who have been reinfected by viruses like SARS-2 or been infected after being vaccinated tend to experience mild illness; even if their immune systems cant block the virus entirely, they have enough experience with the pathogen to recognize it and prevent more severe disease. In clinical trials, Covid-19 vaccines that were put to the test against B.1.351 did not fare as well at preventing mild illness as they did against other forms of the virus, but they still seemed to prevent hospitalization and death.
Its possible then that any fall wave driven by variants could bring a spike in mild infections but not a surge of severely ill people crowding into hospitals. But that scenario depends on getting more people vaccinated and the virus not evolving in a way that further undermines the effectiveness of vaccines. It also depends on the vaccines providing protection that lasts, even especially among older adults, whose immune systems are in decline and dont generally develop as strong a response to vaccines as children and younger adults.
For a fall wave, is it going to be big and devastating, or is it going to be a little hump? I dont know, said infectious disease researcher Jennie Lavine of Emory University. We really need to know how severe disease is going to be after vaccination or upon reinfection, and with different strains.
Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health, worries not just about the public health toll of a potential fall wave, but the psychological and societal ones as well.
Fall comes along and people have gotten so excited about being back in school and doing this and that without what happened last year, Mina said. And then we start to see spread again. And I just think its going to be demoralizing. And its going to happen swiftly. My hope is that it will not happen in such a way that we see the type of death [we saw previously], but I do think we will start seeing deaths again because the older people who are vaccinated early are going to be losing their immunity at that point. (Researchers dont know for sure that protection provided by Covid-19 vaccines will wane faster in older people, but that is the case with some other immunizations.)
Even in the absence of a big fall surge, public health authorities will likely continue to recommend mask-wearing in certain settings, particularly because the situation is fluid and because children and adolescents among those at the end of the vaccine line may still be in the process of being inoculated.
I really believe that until we get kids being vaccinated, that the smart thing to do is to wear a mask, said Anna Durbin, a vaccine researcher from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Its possible that children dont contribute to transmission much once most adults are vaccinated, Durbin added, but until we have 70%, 80% of the population vaccinated and that includes kids we dont know if were going to be able to affect transmission enough that its essentially going to go away.
Not everyone is embracing that kind of recommendation. Already, at least four governors have ended mask mandates, and some never instituted them even in the worst parts of the pandemic. Responses in other states have varied widely. In some places, people have been back to barhopping and movie theaters, whereas gyms just reopened in San Francisco, with 10% capacity.
The sad fact is, were going to do that experiment in different states and were going to learn from states that take more risks, how risky that is, said Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CEO of the global health initiative Resolve to Save Lives.
Herd immunity has been portrayed by some as a logical endpoint of the pandemic. But that goal, even if attainable, is likely fleeting.
Thats not to say that the country, or the world, will still be in a crisis phase over the next couple years. But even if the U.S. reaches herd immunity through vaccinations, its unlikely to last, experts note. Neither a Covid-19 infection nor vaccination is believed to confer lifelong immunity that blocks infections entirely. Instead, people will once again become vulnerable, either because their immunity wanes or the pathogen evolves in ways that allow it to infect even people who have protection against earlier strains. Newborns will also add to the pool of susceptibles.
Susceptible replenishment, as its known, is why some experts expect seasonal waves going forward. The virus might hover at low levels, passing mostly among people who are unvaccinated, but rear up again as even the vaccinated become vulnerable and seasonal factors give it a boost. Some regions or countries could eliminate the virus through widespread immunizations, but they could also face reintroductions.
How serious future outbreaks will be in terms of disease will be influenced by whether vaccines can continue to prevent severe outcomes, as well how many people are vaccinated, how long vaccine-derived immunity lasts, and how the virus evolves. Those factors will also shape how often people need vaccine booster shots and whether vaccines need to be adapted to better match a changing virus, a possibility that vaccine makers are already exploring.
Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said he thinks Covid-19 could cause more deaths than flu over the next decade, in part because of the continued emergence of variants.
I think were still going to face the problem that hospitals are going to be flooded with Covid cases, Cowling said. But maybe well be better at coping with that, with the experience from Covid, better prepared for what happens if theres a big surge. And maybe health departments, city mayors, and state governors will also have better plans in place to react and know what they should or shouldnt do if there is a sign of a surge coming.
Others are more sanguine. Vineet Menachery, a coronavirologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch, described a scenario in which 70% to 75% of a population gets vaccinated. That would drastically minimize spread of the virus and keep people protected from infections. Even if vaccine uptake was somewhat lower than that, it should still avert a lot of worst-case outcomes, he said.
For Menachery and others, the durability of vaccine protection remains an open question. If vaccines arent able to provide as much protection against certain variants, maybe the durability isnt going to be as long. Maybe its going to be one to two years versus three to four, Menachery said.
Experts hesitate to make predictions about viral evolution; after all, variants emerge as the result of random mutations.
But for a number of reasons its possible the evolution of SARS-2 might lose some pace going forward. For one, there will or at least, there should be less transmission. The fewer people the virus cycles through, the fewer chances it has to mutate. More generally, when a virus spills into a new host, as SARS-2 did into humans in 2019, there are more avenues for it to morph in ways that give it an advantage in infecting host cells and replicating low-hanging fruit, as virologist Adam Lauring of the University of Michigan explains it. Over time, there should be fewer ways for an altered SARS-2 virus to outcompete other forms and undermine vaccines.
Its perfectly reasonable to think that a couple years from now, it might be evolving more slowly, Lauring said.
Years from now, SARS-CoV-2 could join the ranks of OC43, 229E, NL63, and HKU1 the four endemic, seasonal coronaviruses that cause a chunk of common colds every year. Essentially, our immune systems primed by vaccines, boosters, and previous encounters with the coronavirus will be ready to knock back SARS-2 when we see it again, potentially blocking an infection or leading to one that causes no symptoms or maybe just the sniffles.
We tend to lump cold-causing viruses in with influenza when describing cold and flu season; after all, theyre all respiratory pathogens and have overlapping seasonal arcs. But experts stress that having SARS-2 join the ranks of flu viruses would be a most unwelcome outcome. While most people dont see the flu as an existential threat, it still kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S., and hundreds of thousands around the world, every year. (This year was a notable and welcome exception due to the ways in which Covid-19 restrictions inhibited spread of flu.)
It would be a damn shame to have another influenza, said Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago.
But many experts think SARS-2 is more likely to behave in the way we regard cold-causing coronaviruses, which would make it mostly an irritant.
Veteran coronavirus researcher Stanley Perlman of the University of Iowa raised the idea that viral evolution could perhaps even play to our advantage. Its possible, he said, that SARS-2 mutates in ways that actually weaken how sick it makes people, pushing it toward becoming a virus that causes colds for the vast majority.
But right now, Perlman cautioned, thats just a hope.
The Oregon Health Authority announced 251 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, along with nine new deaths.
The new cases came in as Gov. Kate Brown announced she would require all schools to return to in-person learning within the next month and a half.
Brown said in a news conference that she would order the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Education to revise guidelines on how to operate schools during the pandemic by March 19. She said elementary schools should begin offering classroom instruction by March 29 and that middle and high schools should do the same by April 19.
Districts that fail to meet Browns deadlines risk losing some state funding. But Charles Boyle, a spokesperson for Brown, told The Oregonian/OregonLive the governor doesnt believe that will happen based on conversations shes had with local leaders.
Virtual learning will still be an option for students, but districts must default to offering either full in-person instruction or a hybrid model based on community infection rates, Brown said.
Where the new cases are by county: Baker (7), Benton (5), Clackamas (17), Clatsop (1), Coos (31), Crook (1), Curry (5), Deschutes (15), Douglas (24), Grant (3), Jackson (29),Jefferson (1), Josephine (7), Klamath (4), Lake (1), Lane (14), Linn (4), Malheur (4), Marion (22), Multnomah (13), Polk (10), Tillamook (4), Umatilla (10), Union (2), Wallowa (1), Washington (15) and Yamhill (1).
Who died: The 2,285th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old Deschutes County woman who tested positive on Dec. 25 and died on Jan. 20 at her residence.
The 2,286th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old Deschutes County woman who died on Jan. 24 at her residence.
The 2,287th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old Jackson County man who tested positive on Jan. 28 and died on March 3 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.
The 2,288th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Jan. 27 and died on Feb. 26 at his residence.
The 2,289th COVID-19 death is a 64-year-old Josephine County woman who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Feb. 19 at Stanford Health Care.
The 2,290th COVID-19 death is a 95-year-old Lane County man who tested positive on Feb. 19 and died on Feb. 27 at his residence.
The 2,291st COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old Lane County woman who tested positive on Dec. 23 and died on Dec. 29 at her residence.
The 2,292nd COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old Polk County woman who died on Jan. 27 at her residence.
The 2,293rd COVID-19 death is an 81-year-old Washington County woman who tested positive on December 31 and died on Jan. 10 at her residence.
Unless noted above, each person who died had underlying health conditions or state officials were working to determine if the person had underlying medical conditions.
Prevalence of infections: On Friday the state reported 827 new cases out of 52,906 tests performed. Thats a positivity rate of 1.5%.
Who got infected: New or presumed infections grew among the following age groups: 0-9 (14); 10-19 (30); 20-29 (44); 30-39 (34); 40-49 (13); 50-59 (37); 60-69 (31); 70-79 (15); 80 and older (2).
Whos in the hospital: As of Friday, 132 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, eight fewer than the previous day. There were 30 patients with the virus in intensive care, one more than Thursday.
Vaccines administered: The state reported 38,632 new vaccine doses were added to its immunization registry as of Friday. Of that total, 22,438 doses were administered Thursday and 16,194 were administered on previous days but entered into the registry Thursday. Oregon has now administered 1,082,241 first and second vaccine doses about 80% of its total supply.
Since it began: Oregon has had 156,884 confirmed or presumed cases of COVID-19 and 2,293 deaths since the pandemic began, one of the lowest positivity rates in the country. The state has reported administering 3,850,973 tests.
Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR
Eder Campuzano of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
by: Rachel Skytta, KDVR, Nexstar Media Wire
DENVER (KDVR) Health experts are trying to determine how effective the COVID-19 vaccine is at stopping the spread of the virus.
Its hard to crystal-ball this, said Dr. Richard Zane, chief innovation officer with UCHealth, a nonprofit health care system headquartered in Colorado.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a person who is vaccinated against COVID-19 can still be infected with or carry the virus that causes COVID-19 while not feeling sick or having symptoms. Experts call this asymptomatic infection.
The CDC says the vaccine is effective at keeping you from getting sick, but scientists are still learning how well it prevents people from spreading the virus.
The short answer is theres some emerging evidence that vaccines protect you from not just getting sick but also getting infected and spreading COVID. And its scientifically intuitive that that should be the case, said Zane. What we really need is more information, and this information is more difficult to study than whether people get sick or not after getting vaccinated.
Zane said the evidence indicating the vaccine does help prevent the spread of COVID-19 includes studies out of Israel.
One study conducted by the Israeli Health Ministry and Pfizer Inc. found that the vaccine reduced infection, including asymptomatic cases, by 89.4% and in symptomatic cases, by 93.7%.
Zane said a true indication of whether the vaccine helps prevent the spread of the virus will come from studying those who live or work with people who have been vaccinated.
We need to compare them to those who are not close to someone whos been vaccinated and then we also have to measure people who have been vaccinated and see if there is virus in their nose, essentially, said Zane.
Zane said asymptomatic infection sets COVID-19 apart from other viruses and makes it difficult to measure.
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Days after Gov. Greg Abbott announced he will lift many coronavirus restrictions next week, including a statewide face mask mandate, the Texas Supreme Court has largely opened up the courts as well.
Texas courthouses no longer need a state safety review before conducting in-person hearings, including jury trials. And requirements that people wear masks and socially distance will be left up to local officials, according to the all-Republican courts revised emergency order issued Friday.
In the year of the pandemic, much of the state court system has been put on pause, creating a backlog of cases that will likely take years to overcome. In 2019, there was an average of 186 civil and criminal jury trials per week, according to the Texas Office of Court Administration. From March 2020 through this January, there were 222 jury trials total.
The growing backlog prompted some in the criminal justice system to call for bringing the court system back up to speed. But Grant Scheiner, president of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, asked judges to remain vigilant in hopes of preventing another surge of coronavirus infections.
We hope this isnt a case of moving too fast, too soon, he said.
Before Friday, judges were required to hold hearings remotely as much as possible, through phone or videoconference. Last month, Texas marked its millionth virtual court hearing with a guilty plea in a criminal case out of Johnson County, the states court administration office reported. By December, more than a dozen virtual jury trials were held in civil cases or low-level criminal cases that at most would result in a fine, not jail time.
But for jailable criminal cases, where a persons liberty is on the line, virtual trials were essentially off the table. District or county courts could hold in-person jury trials, but theyd first have to submit safety plans for approval from the states court administration office and public health authorities. In the meantime, local officials pushed to bond more inmates out of jail before trial, jails became overcrowded and the state prison population shrank.
Starting Friday, courts will no longer need state approval or be required to conduct remote hearings, though the high courts order still encourages them. Instead, any court can hold in-person hearings if local judicial officials agree on safety measures. Those can, but dont have to, require face masks or physical distancing in courthouses.
In jury trials, courts will have to inform potential jurors who are summoned to the courthouse of the safety precautions, and excuse or reschedule those who confirm they are infected with, have been exposed to, or are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Local judicial officials will also need to create communication protocols to ensure no one coming to court has the virus. In August, a Brazos County man was sent to trial even though the jail knew he was infected. Jurors, attorneys and court staff found only out the next day, pausing the trial and sending many into quarantine.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Officials say more than 600,000 Oklahomans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Friday, data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health shows that the state has had 427,558 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March of 2020.
Thats an increase of 917 cases or a 0.2% increase.
State health officials say they are now including the CDCs number ofCOVID-19 deaths as a provisional count.
COVID-19 death discrepancy: OSDH adds CDC numbers to daily report
Health officials tell KFOR that since the switch, the death counts will only be updated weekly on Tuesdays.
The Oklahoma State Health Department has always tracked COVID-19 deaths in multiple ways. We have reported the CDC death numbers, which are based purely on death certificates, and our own methodology, which counts deaths after an epidemiological investigation in Acute Disease Service (ADS). Both systems are correct, but each comes with its pros and cons for evaluating deaths related to COVID-19.
As cases increased toward the end of 2020, our investigating epidemiologists began encountering larger numbers of incomplete records requiring in-depth investigation. This has resulted in an increasing difference between the OSDH death count and the one reported by CDC.
Both the CDC and ADS numbers will continue to be available to Oklahomans, but the CDC number will become our primary reported number.
We will also continue our case investigation process through ADS and state epidemiologists. However, we feel this reporting change will align better with CDCs numbers and will provide the most up-to-date and transparent information for Oklahomans.
Addressing a global crisis in our home state requires flexibility to change course when conditions on the ground mandate a new approach. This is one of those times.
Transparency and access to data is the priority here, and we feel this change is best to keep our state accountable to all Oklahomans during the ongoing fight against COVID-19. Every single death in Oklahoma is a tragedy, and every single life has been and will be counted and remembered as we endure this pandemic.
As a result of that inclusion, the deaths jumped to 7,202, compared to the 4,534 reported by the health department.
Right now, officials say there are 396 people in Oklahoma hospitals with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
So far, the state reports that 638,966 Oklahomans have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 368,851 have completed both doses.
Here is a link to the most recentEpidemiology Reportprovided by the state.
Here is the breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma counties:
In all, officials believe there are12,246 active cases of COVID-19 across Oklahoma.
According to health department data on Friday, officials believe 410,778 Oklahomans have recovered from the virus.
State officials urge Oklahomans to stay away from ill patients and to frequently wash their hands. Also, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
At this point, Americans are urged to practice social distancing by staying in their homes as much as possible and not going out into a crowd.
The virus is mainly spread from person-to-person, and symptoms usually appear two to 14 days after exposure. Officials stress that the most common symptoms are fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
If you do become sick, you are asked to stay away from others. If you have been in an area where the coronavirus is known to be spreading or been around a COVID-19 patient and develop symptoms, you are asked to call your doctor ahead of time and warn them that you might have been exposed to the virus. That way, experts say, they have the ability to take extra precautions to protect staff and other patients.
by: Darcie Loreno, WJW, Nexstar Media Wire
(Credit: Getty Images)
(WJW) Mothers who have received the COVID-19 vaccination have antibodies in their breast milk that may protect their infants, according to a new study.
The research suggests babiesmay beprotected from COVID-19 by acquisition of antibodiesthrough breast milk following their mothers vaccinations, Dr. Jason Baird, research scientist, said on Providence.org. We dont know how long the antibodies will remain in the mothers or the infants.There is more to learn.
The pilot study, conducted at Providence Portland Medical Center, looked at six lactating women who planned to receive both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine between December 2020 and January 2021.
There were significantly elevated levels of antibodies in their breast milk beginning at Day 7 after the initial vaccine dose, according to the study.
According to Providence.org, the study provides promising results of a potential immunebenefit for infants by lactating mothers who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, two of the three current COVID-19 vaccine providers, excluded pregnant and breastfeeding women from participating in their clinical trials.
To our knowledge, this study is the first to show that maternal vaccination results in SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulins in breast milk that may be protective for infants, said Bernard Fox, Ph.D. with the Providence Health and Services, a nonprofit health care system.
The researchers involved in the study plan to continue studying the immune response following maternal vaccination.
Research on SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in lactating women and the potential transmission of passive immunity to the infant through breast milk is needed to guide patients, clinicians and policy makers during the worldwide effort to curb the spread of this virus, the study stated.
There are more than 28 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S, with an average of about 2,000 people dying each day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That average is down from a high of more than 3,000 a day on average in mid-January. A total of more than 520,000 people have died in the U.S. so far.
1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now passed 115.6 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 2.56 million.
Israel, Austria and Denmark have said they will set up a joint research and development fund, and possibly production facilities for COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure they have long-term supplies for booster shots or to tackle mutation.
More than 60% of all new COVID-19 infections in France are linked to the variant first detected in the UK, Prime Minister Jean Castex said yesterday.
Moderna and IBM have announced they'll work together on technologies to track COVID-19 vaccine administration.
Egypt has expanded its vaccine rollout to include the elderly and people with chronic diseases, having been focused on medical staff up until now.
California will set aside 40% of its COVID-19 vaccines for the hardest-hit communities, Governor Gavin Newsom said yesterday. He also said the state would establish a "vaccine equity metric" to make sure inoculations are conducted fairly.
New Zealand will lift a lockdown in Auckland on Sunday, which was imposed last Saturday after one new case of COVID was reported.
Viet Nam is set to launch its COVID-19 vaccination programme on Monday, after receiving 117,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
South Korea's drug safety ministry has granted final approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccination programmes continue around the world.
Image: Our World in Data
2. Fake vaccines seized in South Africa
Police in South Africa have seized hundreds of fake COVID-19 vaccines, Interpol the global police co-ordination agency said.
The agency issued a global alert in December warning member nations to prepare for organized crime networks to target COVID-19 vaccines.
Some 400 ampoules equivalent to about 2,400 doses containing the fake vaccine were found, along with a large number of fake 3M masks.
Whilst we welcome this result, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine related crime, said Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock.
As part of work identifying promising technology use cases to combat COVID, The Boston Consulting Group recently used contextual AI to analyze more than 150 million English language media articles from 30 countries published between December 2019 to May 2020.
The result is a compendium of hundreds of technology use cases. It more than triples the number of solutions, providing better visibility into the diverse uses of technology for the COVID-19 response.
To see a full list of 200+ exciting technology use cases during COVID please follow this link.
3. Germany approves AstraZeneca vaccine for over-65s
Germany's vaccination authority has approved the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for the over-65s, the health ministry said yesterday.
It also said the Permanent Vaccination Commission had recommended extending the period between first and second doses to a maximum of 12 weeks. It comes after studies have shown a longer gap improved its efficacy.
This is good news for older people who are waiting for a vaccine. They can now be vaccinated more quickly, Health Minister Jens Spahn said in a statement. We will shortly issue a regulation implementing both recommendations.
CLEVELAND, Ohio The reality about the three coronavirus vaccines approved for use in the U.S. is very different than some of the narratives that proliferate online.
Clinical trials have shown the vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are safe and effective, but a series of false claims have sprung up on social media and other internet forums. Health care workers and government leaders have worked to debunk misinformation that is often peddled by anti-vaccination activists.
However, the false claims threaten to derail the current mass-vaccination effort.
Survey data released earlier this year indicated nearly four in 10 people in the U.S. wouldnt sign up for a vaccine appointment when theyre eligible. That could hinder the effort the get the pandemic under control, because experts have suggested at least 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
Here is the truth to counter some of the most common false claims found online.
Fact No. 1: The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are not fake vaccines.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were created using new technology, but clinical trials have shown the technology is safe and effective.
Traditionally, vaccines like the flu shot have been made with weakened and inactivated forms of a virus. But the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not contain live virus.
Both of those vaccines are made with messenger RNA, which teaches the body to make a harmless part of the spike protein that is found on the coronavirus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That induces an immune response that protects against the virus that causes COVID-19.
Clinical trials have shown both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are roughly 95% effective at preventing COVID-19 infections.
Fact No. 2: The vaccines cannot give you COVID-19.
None of the three vaccines approved for use in the U.S. can cause a coronavirus infection. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are made with mRNA do not contain a live form of the coronavirus, so the virus is never introduced into your body.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was developed in a more traditional manner, but it cant cause infection, either.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine adds the gene of a coronavirus spike protein to an adenovirus, which are common viruses that cause cold- or flu-like symptoms, according to The New York Times. The modified adenovirus cannot replicate inside cells or cause infection.
Fact No. 3: Vaccines have not been linked to any long-term health problems.
The vaccines have been linked to short-term side effects like fever, fatigue and muscle aches, but there is no evidence linking them to any long-term health problems.
The vaccines are new, so experts dont have any long-term data on their side effects. Other types of vaccines typically cause side effects within two months. Examples throughout history include the oral polio vaccine, the yellow fever vaccine and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.
In fact, one of the reasons to get vaccinated is to avoid any long-term health complications from a COVID-19 infection. Coronavirus long haulers have reported lingering symptoms that could persist for months, ranging from fatigue or a cough to depression and insomnia.
Other studies have also found that COVID-19 may do long-term damage to vital organs like the heart, lungs and kidneys. The National Kidney Foundation found most coronavirus patients who developed acute kidney injury continue to have low kidney function after theyre discharged.
Fact No. 4: There is no evidence the vaccines cause infertility.
The CDC, the World Health Organization and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine have all said women who are planning a pregnancy can receive a coronavirus vaccine. There is no evidence suggesting that fertility problems are a side effect of any vaccine.
Based on current knowledge, experts believe that COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to pose a risk to a person trying to become pregnant in the short or long term, CDC guidance says.
Millions of people have already received the Moderna and Pfizer shots, and as of mid-January, the most recent data available, no loss of fertility had been detected.
As part of its vaccine study, Johnson & Johnson injected its vaccine into rabbits prior to mating and during pregnancy. No vaccine-related adverse effects on fertility or fetal development were found, the pharmaceutical company said.
Modernas animal studies showed no impact on female reproduction or fetal development either, according to a briefing document the company submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Fact No. 5: The vaccines do not alter your DNA.
The false claim that the vaccines could alter your DNA has been debunked by medical experts but continues to circulate online. Experts believe the anti-vaccination movement may be spreading the misinformation to sow distrust.
The various coronavirus vaccines cannot alter someones DNA. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, addressed the issue for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines by noting that messenger RNA is different from DNA, and it cannot combine with or change DNA.
The weakened and inactivated form of the virus used in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine cannot alter DNA, either.
Some treatments do alter a persons DNA, but for positive reasons; for example, in 2017 the FDA approved a novel gene therapy that is intended to correct a defect that causes blindness. But neither the coronavirus nor its treatment can alter someones DNA.
Fact No. 6: The vaccines do not contain microchips.
One conspiracy theory claims the vaccines contain microchips, and that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is using them to monitor peoples movements via 5G. The debunked claim took hold on social media; a Yahoo News and YouGov poll found 44% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats believed it was true.
The conspiracy theory appears to have arisen from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding a pilot study for a device that could impart an invisible mark that a smartphone could detect. The idea was to create a cloud-based storage system for medical records and ID documents, according to Snopes.
However, the technology was theoretical and could not actually track or monitor anyone. Gates has not funded any research into a COVID-19 vaccine that could track or monitor someone, according to Snopes.
Your coronavirus vaccine questions answered:
Can you request one coronavirus vaccine if you have concerns about the other?
Should you get the coronavirus vaccine if youve had a bad reaction to the flu shot?
Are you contagious if you have side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine?
Can you mix and match two doses of coronavirus vaccine from different manufacturers?
Can I still get my second dose of coronavirus vaccine if I develop COVID-19 symptoms after the first?
Should you get the second vaccine if you contract COVID-19 after your first coronavirus vaccine dose?
Will your COVID-19 vaccine be less effective if you need to wait longer for the second dose?
If the coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective, how will you know if youre in the other 5%?
Why do I need to keep a mask on if Ive been vaccinated for coronavirus?
