The head of a Baltimore hospital's critical care unit, who "selflessly continued his work on the front lines" as the coronavirus pandemic swept through region, has died after contracting the virus.
The head of a Baltimore hospitals critical care unit, who selflessly continued his work on the front lines as the coronavirus pandemic swept through region, has died after contracting the virus.
Dr. Joseph Costa, the chief of the critical care unit at Mercy Medical Hospital in downtown Baltimore, died Saturday, the hospital said in a statement.
Costa was 56 and the cause of death was COVID-19, spokesman Daniel Collins told WTOP in an email.
Costa, who joined the hospital in 1997, had served as the hospitals critical care chief for the past 15 years.
He dedicated his life and career to caring for the sickest patients, hospital officials said in a statement shared on the hospitals Facebook page. And when the global pandemic came down upon us, Joe selflessly continued his work on the front lines deeply committed to serving our patients and our city during this time of great need. His memory will live on as an example to us all.
In addition to serving as chief of the critical care unit, Costa served as an officer on the Mercy medical staff for six years and as president of the medical staff for two years.
Costa earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia and completed his residency at the University of Maryland.
Costa was known for his warm and comforting bedside manner as well as his direct and informative communication style, according to the statement.
To nurses and other staff members, he was like an older brother that all admired and revered.
Planning for a memorial service is now underway, according to the statement from Sister Helen Amos, the executive chair of the hospitals board of trustees, and Mercy president and CEO Dr. David Maine.
Baltimore City, which has recorded more than 10,500 total COVID-19 cases and more than 380 deaths, has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, the health officers of a number of Maryland jurisdictions, including Baltimore City, called on Gov. Larry Hogan to reimpose some coronavirus restrictions amid an uptick in statewide cases.
According to a recent analysis by the PolicyLab at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Baltimore City has experienced one of the highest rates of growth in new coronavirus cases among major U.S. cities over the past two weeks.
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Missouri health officials are urging residents to take "aggressive actions" following nearly a week in which daily COVID-19 cases have reached four figures.
On Sunday, the state had its sixth straight day of more than 1,000 new cases, with 1,218. A four-day streak of record-breaking numbers of new cases peaked at 1,652 on Friday.
There are 41,927 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Missouri and 1,197 deaths, according to the state health department. The seven-day rolling average of positive tests is 8.8%.
Covid-19 testing site at the Walmart Supercenter in Joplin, Missouri, July 2, 2020.
"We're trending up," Dr. Randall Williams, director of the state's health department, said Wednesday at Missouri Gov. Mike Parson's coronavirus briefing. The 1,000-plus numbers likely represent community transmission, primarily among 20- and 30-year-olds, Williams said.
The average age of those contracting COVID-19 has been steadily declining, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. As of Sunday, the average age of a COVID-19 patient in the state is 43; the seven-day rolling average is 40.
Daily hospitalization data on the state's COVID-19 dashboard has not been updated since July 12, though Williams said those numbers are also "trending up." The lag in reporting is due to a change in how data is collected, after the White House switched data collection from the CDC to a private firm earlier this month. As a result, the Missouri Hospital Association said it has been left "in the dark" and unable to access state data.
Williams said he expects to have updated hospitalization figures this week.
Missouri started reopening its economy on May 4, with the governor allowing the state to fully reopen starting June 16. There is no statewide mask mandate, though several local jurisdictions, including St. Louis County and Kansas City, Missouri, have issued their own orders as COVID-19 cases have started to rise in recent weeks.
The Missouri Hospital Association is also among a coalition of eight state organizations urging residents to "mask up" amid the increase, pointing to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear cloth face coverings in public to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
"Missouri's stay-at-home order helped reduce transmission of the virus. However, with many regions of the state opening, Missouri's transmission rates have been rising," the association said in a statement. "Missourians can protect themselves, their families and members of the community by wearing a mask when in public and when in contact with at-risk individuals."
In a grim letter to the public released Friday, several health officials in the Kansas City region, including two in Missouri, urged residents to take steps to limit the spread of the disease due to recent data that suggests they are "losing the battle with COVID-19," the letter said.
"We are extremely concerned that hospitalizations will continue to escalate in the coming weeks and months, and that the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 will lead to increasing ventilator use and deaths," said the letter, which stressed mask-wearing indoors and when social distancing is not possible. "This is our best option right now for protecting our friends, families, neighbors and the economy."
One oft-cited example of the value of mask-wearing happened right in Missouri: After two symptomatic hairdressers potentially exposed 140 customers to COVID-19 in May, the county health department determined that no new cases were linked to the Springfield salon. Both hairstylists and all clients were wearing face coverings at the time, officials said.
The hardest-hit county in Missouri is its most populous one: St. Louis. As of Sunday, the county had about a quarter of the state's COVID-19 cases, with 10,995, based on state data. During the first two weeks of July, the average number of new COVID-19 cases more than doubled, according to a July 23 report from the St. Louis County Health Department. Hospitalizations increased by 73% during that period, it found. The overall testing positivity rate has been gradually climbing since mid-June, the report stated.
With a record numbers of new cases in recent days, county officials have warned they are considering reimposing restrictions. At a coronavirus briefing on Friday, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said that the county would start "talking about restrictions" when daily hospital admissions hit 40. That number has been hovering around there in recent days. On Sunday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported daily new hospitalizations at 36, down from 40 on Thursday. The seven-day moving average of new hospitalizations was 40 on Sunday, continuing an upward trend in the county.
"We're in a difficult place right now, and we do need to be taking some aggressive actions as a community to turn the curve around," task force head Dr. Alex Garza said Friday at a coronavirus briefing. "We have a lot of transmission in our community. It is still being driven by our younger population."
Last week, the county announced that it would be pausing youth summer league competitions, such as games and scrimmages, due to rising cases among children ages 10-19.
"While the risk of transmission during competitive youth sports games is most likely low, all of the activities surrounding the games increase the likelihood of spreading the virus. This includes teams, coaches and parents gathering before, during and after games and practices, carpooling and other activities associated with participating in sports teams, especially if proper mitigation practices are not in place," the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, the St. Louis Sports Medicine COVID-19 Task Force and the city of St. Louis said in a joint statement released Thursday. The guidelines only apply to summer sports, officials said.
Garza stressed "decisive actions," such as mask-wearing, social distancing and not congregating in large groups, to help reduce the curve and keep hospital admissions down in the region.
In a confluence of COVID-19 concerns, one recent outbreak in the state has been tied to a large gathering of young people. The Jackson County Health Department said on Friday it had traced five cases of the virus to a July 10 high school party attended by anywhere from 100 to 200 students.
The department is recommending that all those who attended get tested for the virus. Under the county's current guidelines, gatherings are limited to 100 people.
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Washington, DC, is living on a knife's edge in anticipation of yet another Covid-19 relief package. While the $600 federal enhancement to weekly unemployment benefits and a federal eviction moratorium may lapse on July 31, leaving millions of Americans in the lurch, it's increasingly unlikely that an agreement will be reached before then.
It's hardly a surprise Senate Republicans are taking such a firm approach. They, like me, have experienced Trump's inability to constructively negotiate on behalf of the American people -- and they know they cannot afford another misfire from the White House so close to November.
As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the Military Construction/Veterans Subcommittee from 2015 to 2018, I had an inside look at government dysfunction, which was especially pronounced after the tea party made sweeping gains in the 2010 midterm elections and a number of deficit hawks entered Congress with little to no desire to compromise.
Given this experience, it is hard for me to imagine how things could have gotten much worse. But they have. Sure, democracy can be messy and inefficient. Trump, however, has taken dysfunction to new heights with his disruptive, erratic behavior and chaotic approach to governing. While Trump can bluster his way through press briefings and make sweeping pronouncements on Twitter, he has repeatedly failed to negotiate and cobble together enough votes when it comes to legislating.
If you need proof, consider his failures on three high-profile occasions: his 2017 attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare; Trump's U-turn on spending in the 2018 Omnibus Appropriations Bill; and the 35-day government shutdown over border wall funding in late 2018 and early 2019.
Bottom line: Trump's failed leadership, his woeful disinterest and deficient knowledge in the basics of health care policy, along with his inability to unify Republicans around one coherent bill, meant the negotiations never had a chance.
I watched as House Speaker Paul Ryan and other legislative leaders made a Herculean and ultimately successful effort to persuade Trump to sign the bill he had originally agreed to. But how does one work with a man so fickle and so willing to undermine the subordinates he empowered to negotiate on his behalf?
Either way, don't hold your breath waiting for the author of "The Art of the Deal" to swoop in and save everyone from these swamp-infested negotiations.
Adam McKay Photo: Jon Kopaloff/WireImage/Getty Images
Forget theorizing about which one of Logan Roys failsons will get the coveted kiss from daddy; heres a show with capital-S stakes. Succession executive producer Adam McKay is working on a scripted drama about the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 for HBO, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series will adapt the forthcoming narrative nonfiction book The First Shot, by journalist Brendan Borrell, which the author describes as about the global coronavirus vaccine race, the companies that are risking all to win it, the fascinating and sometimes surprising science that it is based on, and the challenges playing out around access and safety. Earlier this year, HBO announced that McKay would also be developing a climate-change anthology series based on New York Magazine writer David Wallace-Wellss The Uninhabitable Earth for HBO, and a possible TV adaptation of Bong Joon Hos wealth-disparity parable Parasite. McKays really carving out a Terrible Global Crisis niche, huh.
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) A settlement was announced Monday between LA City Attorney Mike Feuer and a company that had touted radish paste as a protection and prevention of the COVID-19.
Koreatown-based Knature Co. Inc., which had been doing business as Insan Healing Inc., Insan Healing, and Angela Oh, sold a radish paste product, claiming it was capable of protecting against and preventing COVID-19, according to a complaint filed by the City Attorneys Office. Immediately after the lawsuit was filed, the City Attorneys office says the company took down the advertising at issue and agreed to an injunction prohibiting them from making such a claim.
Consumers were led into believing in a false COVID-19 prevention or cure might forego the steps we all need to take, from wearing masks to washing hands to physically distancing, Feuer said in a statement. In this pandemic, our residents lives depend on accurate information.
There is no known cure for COVID-19 at this time, but testing is underway for several vaccine candidates. To avoid infection, public health experts recommend wearing face coverings, maintaining a distance of at least six feet from people not from your own household, and being vigilant about hand hygiene.
The settlement requires Insan to provide give full refunds to those who bought the product and mandates a $20,000 civil penalty.
Americans anxiously await two key benefits that a Covid-19 vaccine will deliver: freedom from fear and a return to normal.
No single vaccine is likely to offer a panacea for this pandemic. And even if it did, it might not accomplish its job if we dont deal with hesitance to get vaccinated and counter vaccine disinformation. By failing to do these things, we risk a perpetual cycle of infectious disease coupled with persistent economic decline.
Now is the time to make sure that all residents of the U.S. understand the value of a Covid-19 vaccine and the necessity of getting one.
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Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination conspiracy theories have flourished, fueled by a potent combination of fear, misinformation, and social media amplification. According to new polling data, among adults who have heard of one or more Covid-19 conspiracy theories, 36% believe it to be probably or definitely true.
At first, many health professionals dismissed vaccine conspiracy theories as outlandish and unbelievable. Yet additional polling data indicates 20% of Americans would outright refuse a Covid-19 vaccine and 31% are unsure as to whether they would get vaccinated.
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In essence, conspiracy theories and anti-vax sentiment have reached the American mainstream, even as researchers and health care professionals are making progress toward effective treatments, with some Covid-19 vaccine candidates already showing positive results.
Our nation is hurtling toward a future where our scientific prowess makes preventing Covid-19 possible yet a substantial proportion of Americans may be unwilling to accept or avail themselves of these scientific breakthroughs, thereby continuing to fuel the global pandemic. We are already witnessing this problem with the refusal of a significant number of Americans to wear face coverings to reduce the transmission of Covid-19.
To effectively beat Covid-19 we will need solutions beyond those furnished by science.
Most Americans have a high level of trust in their personal medical providers, whether they are doctors, nurses, or physician assistants. These medical professionals should proactively reach out to their patients and discuss the potential benefits and risks of a Covid-19 vaccine before one becomes publicly available. This personal touch could go a long way in helping patients make a more informed and balanced decision with input from a trusted medical expert.
This could take many forms. It could become a standard and essential part of clinicians telehealth or in-person visits. Clinicians could reach out by email or letter to explain the benefits of vaccination against Covid-19, while addressing any potential concerns that patients may have about potential side effects. In addition to engaging individual patients, we encourage healthcare providers to seek out venues in which larger groups could be better informed about the benefits of a Covid-19 vaccine. In particular, local parent-teacher association meetings, town halls, or other virtual gatherings are opportunities to provide up-to-date and scientifically sound advice. These messages should highlight that vaccines benefit not only the individual but also family and friends, a message that preliminary evidence has been shown to be effective.
We must also invest in grassroots public outreach campaigns to communities in which vaccine hesitancy and skepticism are prevalent. On social media, false information spreads faster than true information. Coupled with public skepticism of government and public health officials, that poses a big challenge.
Heavy-handed, dry, and regulated government messaging wont be effective in a world where public opinion is ruled by tweets and sound bites. The messaging must be designed specifically for social media and carried by nontraditional messengers, like local and national celebrities, religious leaders, and other influencers with broad reach. These messengers would serve as an important counterpoint to some of the unfounded conspiracy theories that have propagated online.
On top of these efforts, social media companies must partner with public health experts to curb the spread of misinformation, expose the falsehoods driving vaccine hesitancy, and stop groups that incite attacks or violence directed at public health officials. Partnering with expert reviewers has been leveraged by Wikipedia via trusted editors. Others have suggested crowdsourcing approaches to help ensure the veracity of online claims. Social media has given us wondrous new, lightning-fast communication tools, and these assets need to drive evidence-based messaging that advances public health and ultimately, helps save lives.
With the surge in Covid-19 cases, its clear that we need to rewrite the pandemic strategy and playbook. Federal and state governments should do more to partner with the private sector to help America achieve community immunity. We simply cannot get there without investing in targeted, grassroots outreach campaigns to encourage the uptake of a Covid-19 vaccine while at the same time moderating purveyors of disinformation.
Beating Covid-19 will require nontraditional partnerships and new communication styles that will resonate with the American public and, at the end of the day, win hearts and minds.
Bill Frist is a physician, former Republican Senate majority leader from Tennessee, chairman of the executive council of the health care investment firm Cressey & Company, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and a co-chairman of the centers work on health innovation. Richard Pan is a pediatrician representing Sacramento in the California State Senate and chairs the Senate Committee on Health. Max G. Bronstein is the founder of the Journal of Science Policy & Governance. He was previously senior director of health policy and corporate affairs at Audentes Therapeutics and chief advocacy and science policy officer at the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases.
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A biotech production facility in College Station could begin manufacturing hundreds of millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine as early as next year.
As part of a $265 million contract with the federal government, the Texas A&M University System Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing which is owned and operated by Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies has been tapped to mass-manufacture a vaccine candidate that is still undergoing testing. That vaccine, which is being developed by the little-known Maryland company Novavax, is one of six candidates the federal government has put billions of dollars behind as part of its Operation Warp Speed, which is pursuing an aggressive timeline for mass-distributing a coronavirus vaccine.
President Donald Trump, appearing Monday afternoon at a North Carolina Fujifilm facility where the vaccine candidate is being developed for clinical trials, praised the progress of the Novavax vaccine and of other therapeutics.
We will have it delivered in record time, he said.
If clinical trials for the Novavax vaccine prove successful, the bulk production will be moved to the College Station facility which is quite the place, the president said Monday starting next year. The federal dollars will pay for equipment to significantly expand the facilitys production capacity. As many as 80 new hires are also expected.
W. Jay Treat, Texas A&Ms chief manufacturing officer for the Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, said although the federal contract does not specify a certain number of doses that his facility must produce, he is optimistic that the figure could be in the hundreds of millions. And if Novavax doesn't prove successful in clinical trials, he expects the facility could pivot to begin producing a different vaccine.
If all goes well, Treat said, "I think we might have the capacity here to provide enough [doses] for the U.S. There may even be excess capacity."
Novavax, which has never brought a vaccine to market, received the federal governments largest-yet vaccine contract of $1.6 billion earlier this month. A total of about $4 billion has been invested in companies pursuing vaccines.
According to the World Health Organization, Novavaxs vaccine is still in relatively early stages compared with competitors. Researchers began testing the vaccine in 130 humans in May and expect to report preliminary results by the end of this month. By contrast, Moderna has already found promising results from its early phase trials and launched a trial this week that will enroll 30,000 human participants across the country.
Researchers across the globe are pursuing 166 COVID-19 vaccine candidates, but only about two dozen vaccines are currently being tested in humans, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves less than 10% of drugs that undergo clinical trials for public use.
And developing a vaccine against any new infectious disease is a challenging, time-consuming project. Researchers have outlined an optimistic 12- to 18-month timeline on developing a vaccine against the new coronavirus; that would mark the fastest vaccine development in history.
Officials with the A&M System, as well as Fujifilm, praised the federal governments decision to entrust production to the Texas facility, which was founded with such a project in mind.
John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, called the project a triple win: for the A&M System, for Fujifilm and for the nation.
The A&M System facility was founded in 2012 as one of the U.S. governments three national biosecurity centers, intended to develop and produce drugs that would fight pandemics and bioterrorist threats. The U.S. government decided to make an investment in domestic production facilities in the wake of the 2009 H1N1 influenza, not wanting to be reliant on other countries for vaccines in times of crisis.
Fujifilm, a photography, medical equipment and biotech corporation, now owns and operates the facility, but the federal contract runs through the A&M System as part of its long-standing partnership with the federal government on such projects.
The facility has done some work for the government, on drugs for Zika and other diseases, but the coronavirus vaccine will be its first large-scale government contract, Treat said.
Disclosure: The Texas A&M University System has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
It was the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, and not Al Pacino in The Godfather Part 2, who first said, Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Yin Weidong, the CEO of Chinese biotech firm SinoVac, seems to have taken that advice to heart.
On the desk in his office in Beijing are two plastic models of a viruseach blue core surrounded by red protein spikes. From the time it started spreading in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late December, containing that virus has occupied virtually every waking moment for the scientist.
The pandemic we now know as COVID-19 is rampaging across every continent. On the dozens of daily infection charts, broken down by nation and pasted floor to ceiling on Yins office wall, the numbers tell a horrifying story: 16 million infections and 640,000 deaths worldwide, including 146,000 American lives lost as of Monday.
But if the enemy is close, so is a possible new friend. Yins desk is now also home to several small glass vials of SinoVacs COVID-19 vaccinedubbed CoronaVacthat began phase 3 trials involving 9,000 volunteers in Brazil last week. (A phase 1 trial involves small groups of patients to check a vaccine for negative side effects, and a phase two trial usually tests for a combination of safety and efficacy, while a phase 3 trial is like a phase 2 but involving many more participants.)
Looking at the data collected, I think we have more than an 80% chance of success, says Yin.
Normally, getting from pathogen identification through phase 3 trials in about 10 years is considered quick. The mumps vaccine is generally considered the fastest ever developed at four years. But if all goes well, CoronaVac might be ready for regulatory approval early next year. Not that Yin is satisfied.
Do you really think this is fast? Compared with the spread of the virus, its not fast enough, he says, holding his plastic nemesis aloft with grudging respect. That is how we should measure our progress.
During the 2002 to 2003 SARS outbreak, which claimed over 774 lives worldwide, SinoVac was the only firm to go into phase 1 vaccine trials, but the pandemic suddenly disappeared. That meant that research was discontinued at a huge loss for the firm. It wasnt entirely wasted, however. Now, 17 years later, SinoVac is able to build on that earlier work, given that COVID-19 is very similar to SARS. It and coronavirus are like brothers, says Yin.
Still, creating an effective vaccine is just a third of the battle. The other two prongs of vaccine development are production capacity and getting regulatory approval. At present, every nations FDA equivalent would need to approve CoronaVac independently, though given the unprecedented need, there are conversations about streamlining.
The virus doesnt require a passport but the vaccine needs to be licensed by every country, says Yin.
SinoVac CEO Yin Weidong in his Beijing office on Tuesday, July 21, 2020.
Charlie Campbell
SinoVac is aiming to triple current capacity to produce 300 million doses per year. That might sound impressive, but accessibility is likely to be a big issue. Given that at least two doses will be required to immunize one person, it would still take almost a decade to vaccinate every person in China alone, never mind sharing the vaccine with the worlds 7.6 billion people.
If only one or two countries get protected this wont solve the problem and get economic activity back to normal Yin says.
SinoVac isnt the only company with a potential vaccine in clinical evaluation. There are over 20 companies around the world engaged in the task with more than 130 vaccines in development, according to the WHO. But given the scale of the need, theres going to be no quick fix to the pandemic.
Another vaccine candidate, developed by U.S. biotech firm Moderna with the National Institutes of Health, provoked the desired immune response in a test of 45 individuals, and is about to enter phase 3 trials. It functions by introducing an mRNA sequencea molecule that tells cells what to buildcoded for a disease-specific antigen. Once produced within the body, the antigen is logged by the immune system, empowering it to fight the real virus.
But while such RNA vaccines, as theyre known, have multiple benefitsincluding speed of productionthey must be stored at sub-zero temperatures. That means their distribution to far-flung populations is problematic. While SinoVac initially experimented with RNA and other vaccine prototypes, they found that a traditional inactivated virus vaccine produced the best results. Under normal conditions, Yin believes CoronaVac has a shelf life of three years.
The purpose of this work is not to discover which technology is better, says Yin. The purpose is to control the disease.
In principle, SinoVac is a private company that owns CoronaVac as its licensed intellectual property, meaning where the vaccine is distributed should be a purely commercial decision. However, the Chinese government has contributed to the estimated one billion renminbi (about $140 million) the firm is investing in CoronaVac. This and other contributions from international NGOs currently under negotiation all come with distribution commitments attached.
In a speech to the World Health Assembly on May 18, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to make a COVID-19 vaccine produced in China a global public good. In reality, of course, every queue has someone at the back, meaning there will be much jostling for priorityand potentially boosting Beijings global clout.
According to Benjamin N. Gedan, a former regional director on the White Houses National Security Council now with the Wilson Center, If China produces the first coronavirus vaccine at scale, it would be an extraordinary diplomatic tool anywhere in the world.
SinoVac has already committed to sharing 60-100 million doses in Brazil through a collaboration with So Paulo-based Instituto Butantan, which is performing the phase 3 study. In Asia, the firm is actively in discussion with several countries, says Yin, including Indonesia and Turkey, and is exploring options in Europe. It has also had more than 30 meetings with the WHO to update the global health body on its progress.
We will share our vaccine with the world, says Yin.
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Write to Charlie Campbell at charlie.campbell@time.com.
Vaccines usually take years to develop, but as the coronavirus pandemic stretches into its fifth month in the U.S., scientists and companies all over the world are racing to find a cure to treat COVID-19 by next year.
Testing has been in the works since January, and vaccines must go through at least three phases of human trials before being approved. According to The New York Times, 27 vaccines are in various stages of human trials.
Many have argued that a vaccine will allow the economy to eventually rebound to pre-coronavirus levels. But some are concerned about the accelerated process and possible safety protocols that may be moved forward too quickly to meet the goal.
We spoke to three Texas doctors about whether they would receive the first COVID-19 vaccine. Heres what you need to know.
All three health experts said they would get the first COVID-19 vaccine, provided the data from human trials is promising.
Dr. Trish Perl, chief of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center and an infectious-disease specialist at Parkland Health and Hospital System, said she would feel comfortable with a vaccine that shows it has a strong immune response both in a lab setting and in humans.
They actually have several candidate vaccines right now, and theyre generating an immune response, its very evident to us, Perl said.
You form antibodies, which is whats supposed to happen when we give you a vaccine, she said. But that antibody needs to be what we call neutralizing it needs to kill the virus. And thats the part of the puzzle that we need to solve right now.
Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said he would feel comfortable getting an approved COVID-19 vaccine. But he added that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will probably prioritize vaccinating certain groups, such as pregnant women and people over 65. A similar approach was taken with the H1N1 vaccine used in the swine flu epidemic in 2009.
People in high-risk groups or who frequently interact with people in high-risk groups should definitely get vaccinated, said Dr. Beth Kassanoff, an internal medicine physician with North Texas Preferred Health Partners and 2021 president-elect of the Dallas County Medical Society.
I think I would certainly get it, she said, adding that shed feel most comfortable with a vaccine that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Im in a high-risk group. Im immunosuppressed, and my elderly father-in-law lives with me. I think I would encourage my teenagers that live at my house, [for] us all to get it.
The experts said that while its unprecedented for a vaccine to be created in such a short period of time, the benefits will probably outweigh any risks, as long as vaccine trials are conducted responsibly.
We know that not only is it hurting people, but straining the health care system, Perl said of coronavirus. And we have a lot of people who are exposed, and its harming the economy. When you factor all of that in, it gives you a different risk profile.
In general, she said, vaccines are safe. However, she noted, the risk can vary depending on a persons circumstances. Elderly people, for example, may not have the same immune response to a vaccine as young adults.
Kassanoff said that she wouldnt hesitate to recommend vaccination for people in high-risk groups since they are more likely to experience the most severe illness. Vaccination is worthwhile provided it only yields minor side effects, such as aches or low-grade fever lasting only a few days, she said.
Typically, Im not the first person to prescribe a new medication, she said. I want to see it be around for a while before I start giving it to my patients. I think this is going to be a little bit different though, because the people who get so sick with it are the ones who already have so many health problems.
Huang said there isnt cause of worry about vaccines, provided shortcuts arent taken during development.
Health experts have said that a vaccine that skips animal trials, for example, could be dangerous. Animal trials help researchers determine whether a vaccine runs the risk of vaccine enhancement, which makes an illness worse in vaccinated individuals.
Wed have to review the processes, how they conducted the trial and evaluate them, he said. But you have to make an assumption that theyre doing it the way its supposed to be done.
As more data and information are being released on a COVID-19 vaccine, Huang said hell be looking for high efficacy rates and positive data from the safety tests. He also said the public should look at what the benefits of each treatment would be.
Wed have to wait if it only had minimal benefits but really bad side effects or something, he said. But, I mean, these are assumptions.
When evaluating a vaccine, Perl said, the public should start by looking for evidence of three things: that it works in animals, that it generates an immune response in humans, and that it can prevent infection in humans.
Its also important to consider the groups of people on which the vaccine is tested. If it is tested on healthy, young adults, that may not inspire confidence in people who are in high-risk groups.
Its also important, she said, to look at a vaccines side effects. Ideally, they would be mild or rare.
Everything has a side effect, Perl said. We know theres going to be this side effect, but we want it to be rare. Or if it has a common side effect, we want it to be mild, such as with the HPV vaccine, you have a pretty sore arm.
She said the public should also look for, and even demand, that companies follow up with vaccinated individuals to ensure no long-term side effects occur.
Health experts have said its possible that the COVID-19 vaccine will require more than one dose, and that it may not be 100% effective. But even a vaccine that behaves like the flu vaccine, which is anywhere from 40% to 60% effective each year, would still be a big step forward in battling the pandemic.
This may end up being very much like the flu vaccine where it may not be as effective as some of these other vaccines at preventing illness in the individual, but it actually may decrease shedding enough that if we get enough of the population vaccinated, then we get that herd immunity that we really need, Perl said.
The Environmental Protection Agencys Office of Inspector General said today it will evaluate the agencys rollback of Obama-era vehicle emissions requirements.
In May, Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Eenvironment and public works committee, asked the inspector generals office to investigate whether EPA officials improperly circumvented the Clean Air Act, regulatory and other procedural requirements, citing documents obtained by Carpers office, Reuters reports.
The inspector generals office said it would conduct an evaluation to determine if EPA actions were consistent with requirements, including those pertaining to transparency, record-keeping and docketing, and followed the EPAs process for developing final regulatory actions.
The EPA did not immediately comment.
In March the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized revised rules requiring 1.5% annual increases in fuel efficiency through 2026.Under the Obama rules, automakers were to average about 5% improvements per year through 2025.
The new requirements mean the US vehicle fleet will average 40.4 miles a gallon rather than 46.7 mpg under the Obama rules.
The administration says the new rules will result in the consumption of about 2bn additional barrels of oil and the emission of 867m to 923m additional metric tons of carbon dioxide and will cut the future price of new vehicles by about $1,000 and reduce traffic deaths.
Environmentalists dispute that the rule will reduce traffic deaths and say higher fuel costs will surpass any future new vehicle price reduction.
The inspector general wants numerous documents including briefing materials on the final rule.
Carper said the documents obtained show significant inaccuracies and technical errors in the final rule that the EPA apparently asked the transportation department to correct.
According to these documents, EPA officials believed the failure to correct those inaccuracies and errors would make the rule legally vulnerable to challenge, Carper wrote.
