Former President Donald Trump upset his supporters in three separate social media posts within 48 hours, which ranged from rebuking claims President Joe Biden made about the COVID-19 vaccine, opposing a TikTok ban, and complimenting Senator Katie Britt on her response to Biden's State of the Union (SOTU) address.
During Biden's SOTU speech on Thursday night, Trump, who will likely be the Republican presidential nominee in November, criticized it on his social media platform, Truth Social.
In one post, Trump quoted Biden on the COVID-19 vaccine and then took credit for accelerating the vaccine's introduction amid the pandemic.
"'The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The Vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat Cancer Turning setback into comeback!' YOU'RE WELCOME, JOE, NINE MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU!" the former president wrote.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.
Trump's post received backlash on X, formerly Twitter. Many Republicans opposed the COVID-19 shot and the federal vaccine mandates that were implemented under the Biden administration.
"The amount of anger I have over this can't be quantified in words," Tracy Beanz, editor-in-chief of conservative media outlet UncoverDC, wrote on Friday.
"Almost everything that makes you angry about the authoritarian government response to the pandemic started with the Trump administration," wrote commentator Matt Kibbe. "Reminder: Biden simply doubled down on the same policies."
Ryan Matta, a personality on conservative streaming site Rumble, wrote: "@realDonaldTrump will be wearing @pfizer hat at his next rally! WTF is wrong with this man? Who the F*** would say this s***! We all have friends family and children we know who we're murders by these vaccines!"
Late Thursday night, Trump posted to Truth Social about TikTok, a social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, as TikTok claims that the bill would amount to a ban.
"If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!" he wrote.
Members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party introduced a bill this week, which was passed in a 50-0 bipartisan vote by the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, that would "incentivize divestment of TikTok" by excluding it from mobile app stores in the United States and establish executive branch powers to similarly target social media companies controlled by a "foreign adversary." The legislation that was advanced now goes to a vote to the full U.S. House of Representatives.
Trump seemed to shift his opinion on TikTok, considering that as president in August 2020, he issued an executive order ordering ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets and destroy all data within 90 days.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham wrote on X on Friday: "This is a big mistake by the Trump campaign: Trump claims TikTok ban would only help 'enemy' Facebook."
Igor Bobic, senior politics reporter at HuffPost, wrote via X on Friday that Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, disagrees with Trump's comments.
"I'm not a fan of Facebook but TikTok is a qualitatively different deal. It's a backdoor for the Communist Chinese party," Hawley told Bobic.
Steve Bannon, a conservative media personality and Trump's former White House chief strategist, wrote on Gettr on Saturday about Trump's new stance on TikTok: "Simple: Yass Coin."
Bannon was referring to billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a $33 billion stake in Bytedance. Last week, Trump spoke at the Club for Growth retreat where he called Yass "fantastic," despite the billionaire being critical of Trump in the past.
The former president also received some heat for his response to Senator Katie Britt's attack on Biden's SOTU speech. The Alabama Republican bashed Biden's border security policies and called the president "a dithering and diminished leader" in a video that has been widely mocked.
Trump posted late Thursday night: "Katie Britt was a GREAT contrast to an Angry, and obviously very Disturbed, 'President.' She was compassionate and caring, especially concerning Women and Women's Issues. Her conversation on Migrant Crime was powerful and insightful. Great job Katie!"
"I thought she was terrible! And I am on your side," Truth Social user @MaryUSAfan1776 replied to Trump's post.
User @Kjkj629 wrote: "It was actually pretty embarrassing.. Her speech was okay.. but her delivery was terrible."
Responding to Trump's post, user @insidetrackcoach commented: "Totally disagree. Didn't need a bedtime story. We should have called out the lyes [sic], explained the bs bills, and hit hard that the border could have been closed by an executive order. Republican rebuttal sucked."
Update 3/10/24, 9:40 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) West Virginia's GOP-controlled state Legislature voted Saturday to allow some students who don't attend traditional public schools to be exempt from state vaccination requirements that have long been held up as among the most strict in the country.
The bill was approved despite the objections of Republican Senate Health and Human Resources Chair Mike Maroney, a trained doctor, who called the bill an embarrassment and said he believed lawmakers were harming the state.
I took an oath to do no harm. There's zero chance I can vote for this bill, Maroney said before the bill passed the Senate 18-12. The House already approved a version of the bill in February and swiftly approved the Senate bill on Saturday, the last day of the state's 60-day legislative session.
Its a bad bill for West Virginia, its a step backward. Theres no question, no question there will be negative effects," Maroney said. He added, Its an embarrassment for me to be a part of it, it should be an embarrassment to everybody.
West Virginia, with some of the lowest life expectancy rates in the U.S. and a quarter of all children living in poverty, is one of only two states, along with California, that don't permit nonmedical exemptions to vaccinations as a condition for school entry.
Mississippi had the same policy until July, when a judge allowed people to start citing religious beliefs to seek exemptions from state-mandated vaccinations that children must receive before attending day care or school.
The new proposed vaccine law in West Virginia, which now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Jim Justice, allows virtual public school students to be exempt and for private and parochial schools to institute their own policies either exempting students or not.
All students participating in West Virginia school activities that result in competition, including but not limited to sports, still need to be vaccinated.
The bill stipulates parents cant sue private schools and school owners, administrators, boards and staffers for deciding whether to allow exemptions or not, as long as the school provides families with a notice for parents to sign acknowledging the policy annually and upon enrollment.
I personally do not urge passage, but your health committee urged passage of this bill, Maroney said before introducing the bill in the Senate.
The bills original intent, as introduced in the state House of Delegates, was to eliminate vaccine requirements for students in public virtual schools. It was expanded in a House committee to allow private schools to set their own vaccination standards, unless a student participates in sanctioned athletics.
The bill also created a religious exemption for any child whose parents or guardians present a letter stating the child cannot be vaccinated for religious reasons. That was taken out in the Senate.
During the Senate Health Committee meeting earlier this week, West Virginia University School of Medicine Professor Dr. Alvin Moss argued for the bill, saying the state's current compulsory vaccination policy is medically unethical because it doesnt allow informed consent.
The number of parents who don't want their children to receive vaccinations is growing, Moss said.
In 2017, the anti-vaccine requirement group West Virginians for Health Freedom had 300 families included in his members. That number has grown to at least 3,000 members in 2024, Moss said.
Former West Virginia Republican Delegate Chanda Adkins, a group member, said during the meeting that religious families who don't want to vaccinate their children deserve to be able to live their convictions.
Former West Virginia Medical Association Dr. Lisa Costello disagreed, saying West Virginias current vaccine policy is the "gold standard" across the nation.
West Virginia is seen as a national leader when it comes to our routine, child immunizations," she said, later adding, Measles does not care if you go to private school or public school. Measles does not differentiate depending on where you go to school."
West Virginia law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough, unless they receive a medical exemption. West Virginia does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.
When the curtain rises Monday on this years regular legislative session, education will take center stage.
Gov. Jeff Landry, the states new Republican leader, has promised to make schools a top priority, along with crime and the economy. Lawmakers are equally focused on schools: They've already filed nearly 100 education-related bills and more are expected before the session ends June 3.
The bills pursue a wide range of conservative policy objectives, from forbidding lessons on gender and sexuality to prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Other proposals are less partisan, such as providing intensive tutoring to struggling students or banning cellphones in school.
The Legislature passed some of the measures such as the restriction on lessons about sexual orientation, which critics call a Dont Say Gay bill in previous sessions, but former Gov. John Be Edwards vetoed them. Now, with Republicans controlling the Legislature and governors office, such bills are almost certain to become law.
This is our time, Landry said during a conservative policy conference Thursday, which many state lawmakers attended. This is our opportunity.
Here are some education proposals to watch:
SB 207: Requires students to stow away their cellphones during school.
SB 358: Lowers the age when students can be expelled for bringing guns or drugs to school from 16 to 13.
HB 322: Protects teachers who discipline students for violating school rules or disrupting class.
SB 262: Forbids schools to teach that students are either oppressors or oppressed due to their race.
HB 121: Requires parental permission for students to use a name or gender pronoun other than whats on their birth certificates.
HB 122: Prohibits educators from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity beyond whats in the state standards. Educators also may not discuss their own gender or sexuality with students.
HB 8: Prohibits the state board of education from creating an appeals process to allow students to still graduate if they fail a mandatory state test. The board briefly established such a process last year, but Landry promptly repealed it after taking office.
HB 264: Requires students to pass a computer science course to graduate.
HB 66: Creates a voucher-like program, called an education savings account, for families of children with disabilities. The program gives eligible families public money to pay for private school and other approved education expenses.
HB 191: Creates an education savings account program for families of children who have been bullied.
TBD: An education savings account program that will eventually be open to all families is expected to be filed early in the session.
HB 71: Requires public schools and colleges to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The bill includes the required language, including this biblical rule: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
HB 334 and SB 123: Allow schools to hire chaplains.
HB 320: Repeals policies that required teachers to give lessons on a range of topics including cursive writing, dating violence, internet safety and mental health. Also says teachers no longer need training in first aid, suicide prevention, bullying and other issues.
HB 420 and SB 205: Pays teachers for time spent planning and working with students after school.
SB 288: Requires schools to provide students who score below a certain level on state tests with high-dosage tutoring, which consists of three to five weekly sessions for at least 10 weeks.
HB 244: Expands a program (which few families have used) that covers the cost of private tutoring.
HB 46: Prohibits any public or private school from requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
HB 47: Allows parents to opt out of providing proof that their children have been immunized against contagious illnesses.
A 62-year-old man in Germany decided to get 217 Covid-19 vaccinations over the course of 29 months for private reasons. But, somewhat surprisingly, he doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from the excessive immunization, according to a newly published case study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The case is just one person, of course, so the findings can't be extrapolated to the general population. But, they conflict with a widely held concern among researchers that such overexposure to vaccination could lead to weaker immune response. Some experts have raised this concern in discussions over how frequently people should get Covid-19 booster doses.
In cases of chronic exposure to a disease-causing germ, there is an indication that certain types of immune cells, known as T-cells, then become fatigued, leading to them releasing fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances, according to co-lead study author Kilian Schober from the Institute of Microbiology Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. This, along with other effects, can lead to immune tolerance that leads to weaker responses that are less effective at fighting off a pathogen, Schober explained in a news release.
The German man's extreme history of hypervaccination seemed like a good case to look for evidence of such tolerance and weaker responses. Schober and his colleagues learned of the man's case through news headlinesofficials had opened a fraud investigation against the man, confirming 130 vaccinations over nine months, but no criminal charges were ever filed. "We then contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests in Erlangen [a city in Bavaria]," Schober said. "He was very interested in doing so." The man then reported an additional 87 vaccinations to the researchers, which in total included eight different vaccine formulations, including updated boosters.
The researchers were able to collect blood and saliva samples from the man during his 214th to 217th vaccine doses. They compared his immune responses to those of 29 people who had received a standard three-dose series.
Throughout the dizzying number of vaccines, the man never reported any vaccine side effects, and his clinical testing revealed no abnormalities related to hypervaccination. The researchers conducted a detailed look at his responses to the vaccines, finding that while some aspects of his protection were stronger, on the whole, his immune responses were functionally similar to those from people who had far fewer doses. Vaccine-spurred antibody levels in his blood rose after a new dose but then began declining, similar to what was seen in the controls.
His antibodies' ability to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be between fivefold and 11-fold higher than in controls, but the researchers noted that this was due to a higher quantity of antibodies, not more potent antibodies. Specific subsets of immune cells, namely B-cells trained against SARS-CoV-2's spike protein and T effector cells, were elevated compared with controls. But they seemed to function normally. As another type of control, the researchers also looked at the man's immune response to an unrelated virus, Epstein-Barr, which causes mononucleosis. They found that the unbridled immunizations did not negatively impact responses to that virus, suggesting there were no ill effects on immune responses generally.
Last, multiple types of testing indicated that the man has never been infected with SARS-CoV-2. But the researchers were cautious to note that this may be due to other precautions the man took beyond getting 217 vaccines.
"In summary, our case report shows that SARS-CoV-2 hypervaccination did not lead to adverse events and increased the quantity of spike-specific antibodies and T cells without having a strong positive or negative effect on the intrinsic quality of adaptive immune responses," the authors concluded. "Importantly," they added, we do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance adaptive immunity.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
Many vaccines, including vaccines for hepatitis B and whooping cough, consist of fragments of viral or bacterial proteins. These vaccines often include other molecules called adjuvants, which help to boost the immune systems response to the protein.
Most of these adjuvants consist of aluminum salts or other molecules that provoke a nonspecific immune response. A team of MIT researchers has now shown that a type of nanoparticle called a metal organic framework (MOF) can also provoke a strong immune response, by activating the innate immune system the bodys first line of defense against any pathogen through cell proteins called toll-like receptors.
In a study of mice, the researchers showed that this MOF could successfully encapsulate and deliver part of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, while also acting as an adjuvant once the MOF is broken down inside cells.
While more work would be needed to adapt these particles for use as vaccines, the study demonstrates that this type of structure can be useful for generating a strong immune response, the researchers say.
Understanding how the drug delivery vehicle can enhance an adjuvant immune response is something that could be very helpful in designing new vaccines, says Ana Jaklenec, a principal investigator at MITs Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and one of the senior authors of the new study.
Robert Langer, an MIT Institute Professor and member of the Koch Institute, and Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a professor at Harvard Medical School, are also senior authors of the paper, which appears today in Science Advances. The papers lead author is former MIT postdoc and Ibn Khaldun Fellow Shahad Alsaiari.
Immune activation
In this study, the researchers focused on a MOF called ZIF-8, which consists of a lattice of tetrahedral units made up of a zinc ion attached to four molecules of imidazole, an organic compound. Previous work has shown that ZIF-8 can significantly boost immune responses, but it wasnt known exactly how this particle activates the immune system.
To try to figure that out, the MIT team created an experimental vaccine consisting of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding protein (RBD) embedded within ZIF-8 particles. These particles are between 100 and 200 nanometers in diameter, a size that allows them to get into the bodys lymph nodes directly or through immune cells such as macrophages.
Once the particles enter the cells, the MOFs are broken down, releasing the viral proteins. The researchers found that the imidazole components then activate toll-like receptors (TLRs), which help to stimulate the innate immune response.
This process is analogous to establishing a covert operative team at the molecular level to transport essential elements of the Covid-19 virus to the bodys immune system, where they can activate specific immune responses to boost vaccine efficacy, Alsaiari says.
RNA sequencing of cells from the lymph nodes showed that mice vaccinated with ZIF-8 particles carrying the viral protein strongly activated a TLR pathway known as TLR-7, which led to greater production of cytokines and other molecules involved in inflammation.
Mice vaccinated with these particles generated a much stronger response to the viral protein than mice that received the protein on its own.
Not only are we delivering the protein in a more controlled way through a nanoparticle, but the compositional structure of this particle is also acting as an adjuvant, Jaklenec says. We were able to achieve very specific responses to the Covid protein, and with a dose-sparing effect compared to using the protein by itself to vaccinate.
Vaccine access
While this study and others have demonstrated ZIF-8s immunogenic ability, more work needs to be done to evaluate the particles safety and potential to be scaled up for large-scale manufacturing. If ZIF-8 is not developed as a vaccine carrier, the findings from the study should help to guide researchers in developing similar nanoparticles that could be used to deliver subunit vaccines, Jaklenec says.
Most subunit vaccines usually have two separate components: an antigen and an adjuvant, Jaklenec says. Designing new vaccines that utilize nanoparticles with specific chemical moieties which not only aid in antigen delivery but can also activate particular immune pathways have the potential to enhance vaccine potency.
One advantage to developing a subunit vaccine for Covid-19 is that such vaccines are usually easier and cheaper to manufacture than mRNA vaccines, which could make it easier to distribute them around the world, the researchers say.
Subunit vaccines have been around for a long time, and they tend to be cheaper to produce, so that opens up more access to vaccines, especially in times of pandemic, Jaklenec says.
The research was funded by Ibn Khaldun Fellowships for Saudi Arabian Women and in part by the Koch Institute Support (core) Grant from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
A patient is transferred to a hospital after receiving medical care at an improvised military aid station set up to treat suspected cases of dengue fever in the administrative region of Ceilandia, on the outskirts of Brasilia, on Feb. 6. Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A patient is transferred to a hospital after receiving medical care at an improvised military aid station set up to treat suspected cases of dengue fever in the administrative region of Ceilandia, on the outskirts of Brasilia, on Feb. 6.
It was 3 a.m. on Feb. 6 when the dengue field hospital in Braslia temporarily shut its doors.
The generator powering the medical facility had blown and the 29 members of the Brazilian Air Force in charge had to change it before they could see patients again. Medical professionals who'd been trained to care for dengue patients, they expected to attend to up to 600 people with suspected cases per day. In the first 24 hours after the doors opened on Feb. 5, they saw 1,300. The generator couldn't keep up.
As they worked through the middle of the night and into the wee hours of the morning to get power back to the tents set up next to the neighborhood emergency care unit, a new line started to form. By the time the new generator was in place at 8 a.m., some people had been waiting for hours, sitting on the ground in an attempt to stave off dizziness, headache and body aches from a disease so painful it's known as "breakbone fever."
Just two days later, there was an explosion in the number of confirmed dengue cases in the Federal District, where Brasilia is situated. That Brazilian state had issued an emergency decree two weeks earlier because of the havoc the mosquito-borne disease was wreaking on its population. In the midst of an unprecedented dengue outbreak that began in 2022, the Federal District is the Brazilian state most affected this year. By Feb. 17, it surpassed 72,600 confirmed cases which was the total for all of 2023.
Patients with dengue symptoms are seen at the Municipal Hospital Raphael de Paula Souza in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 5. The virus can can start with fever, rash, muscle and joint pain and progress to persistent vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose and difficulty breathing. Mauro Pimental/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Patients with dengue symptoms are seen at the Municipal Hospital Raphael de Paula Souza in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 5. The virus can can start with fever, rash, muscle and joint pain and progress to persistent vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose and difficulty breathing.
At least six Brazilian states in addition to the Federal District are facing dengue epidemics and 17 cities have declared a state of emergency as the country has already registered 1 million cases of dengue in the first two months of 2024, more than half the 1.6 million cases confirmed last year which was already almost 18% higher than in 2022. The fatality count in those same two months was 214.
As a result, Brazil's public health-care system, known as SUS, has been grappling to keep up, resorting to field hospitals like the one in Braslia and tents in strategic points around its cities to triage patients with suspected cases of dengue.
While caring for those who are already ill, Brazil continues to tackle prevention with its usual methods: using a fog machine to kill mosquitoes by spraying fine droplets with low concentrations of insecticides mixed with water and running campaigns to remind people how to avoid a bite from dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes (using bug spray, keeping stagnant water out of homes and wearing long sleeves and pants are all helpful), where the species breeds (it's important to remove stagnant water and anything that collects it from homes) and what to do if symptoms arise (don't self-medicate make sure to see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment).
A worker sprays insecticide during a fumigation campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue, in Brasilia. It's one of many strategies being employed to fight an unprecedented outbreak of the virus. Andressa Anholete/Getty Images hide caption
A worker sprays insecticide during a fumigation campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue, in Brasilia. It's one of many strategies being employed to fight an unprecedented outbreak of the virus.
Brazil's not the only place where dengue is running rampant. Nearby Peru is in the throes of an epidemic. Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam have also seen dengue spike dramatically. Niger, a subtropical country, reported its first case of the disease in 2022. And in the last year, high-heat states like Texas, Florida and California have seen a smattering of unexpected cases of dengue.
The mosquito-borne viral disease which causes symptoms like fever, rash, muscle and joint pain in mild cases and can lead to persistent vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose, difficulty breathing and death when it becomes hemorrhagic had only occurred in seven countries before 1970. But over the last 20 years, the World Health Organization reports the number of yearly dengue cases has increased by eight times with 100 to 400 million registered worldwide every year. Now, roughly half the world's population is at risk of infection.
Why is dengue making such unprecedented strides?
The answer lies in the method of transmission and the changing environment of Earth.
Dengue is transmitted to humans in tropical and subtropical climates through the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The species prefers to live and breed in urban and semi-urban areas because of its need for human blood in the egg-production process. Those eggs, laid on the surface of stagnant water, can be found in construction sites, tire shops, cemeteries, abandoned swimming pools, plant pots and anyplace else where water collects.
The mosquitoes are thriving in areas where climate change has made temperatures higher and precipitation more abundant than in the past this species likes it hot and humid. In the last handful of years, migration, urbanization and other socioeconomic issues have also all played a hand in providing ideal conditions for the spread of Aedes aegypti and the dengue it can carry.
So it's not enough to tell people to get rid of standing water and be more fastidious with their use of bug spray. And in its response to this unprecedented outbreak, Brazil has become a test case: experimenting with other interventions to prevent a dengue-ridden future.
A girl in Manaus, Brazil, receives a dose of the Odenga dengue vaccine on Feb. 22. A previous dengue vaccine, used in the Philippines, was linked to 10 deaths. This new vaccine, according to specialists, has a different formulation; its deployment is being closely monitored. Michael Dantas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A girl in Manaus, Brazil, receives a dose of the Odenga dengue vaccine on Feb. 22. A previous dengue vaccine, used in the Philippines, was linked to 10 deaths. This new vaccine, according to specialists, has a different formulation; its deployment is being closely monitored.
In February, Brazil's public health-care system started rolling out Japan's two-dose Qdenga vaccine already available on the private market in several countries in Europe, the U.K., Indonesia and Thailand, as well as private and public programs in Argentina in the country's first attempt to immunize the most vulnerable members of the population against dengue. During clinical trials, the vaccine's efficacy was 80% one year after the second dose was administered.
The Butantan Institute, a biological research center located in So Paulo, is also developing a vaccine to prevent all four variations of the mosquito-borne disease. In its most recent clinical trials, conducted across Brazil from 2013 to 2015, the single-dose vaccine protected 79.6% of those immunized including both those who have and have not had dengue before.
But dengue vaccines have a controversial history. While Brazil hasn't taken steps to vaccinate its population against dengue until now, the Philippines did attempt to immunize children across the country in 2016. The vaccination campaign went horribly wrong, with at least 10 deaths blamed on the vaccine, which seemed to increase the risk of plasma leakage syndrome, a complication in which blood vessels leak blood's yellow fluid, in children who had never been exposed to dengue before. The tragedy left the population cautious about new dengue vaccines.
But experts are optimistic that safer options are to come.
"The new vaccines are made in a different way, so I would hope they don't have the same effect [as the vaccine used in the Philippines]," says Andr Siqueira, an infectious-disease expert and febrile-illness researcher at Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) who is not involved in the development of any of the vaccines. "They're very promising. But they need to be strictly observed and monitored."
An Aedes aegypti mosquito seen through a microscope. A campaign is underway to inject mosquitoes and mosquito eggs with the Wolbachia bacteria, which can bring a halt to virus replication and transmission. Mauro Pimental/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
An Aedes aegypti mosquito seen through a microscope. A campaign is underway to inject mosquitoes and mosquito eggs with the Wolbachia bacteria, which can bring a halt to virus replication and transmission.
Other solutions focus on the mosquito. Brazil has been working with the World Mosquito Program for over a decade and, in collaboration with Fiocruz, is building a mosquito biofactory.
The project, called Wolbito, will produce mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, a bacteria found naturally in the majority of insects (including other types of mosquitoes) but not in Aedes aegypti. When scientists insert the bacteria into the species' eggs, it should have a number of beneficial results.
First, a virus can no longer replicate inside a mosquito born from those eggs so the mosquitoes can't transmit the dengue virus.
Second, females carrying Wolbachia pass the bacteria on to their descendants, so there's a continuing impact.
And third, any males with it make females they mate with incapable of laying eggs.
When Wolbachia is established in a mosquito population (after scientists release mosquitoes from the factory and plant eggs with the bacteria around a community) it should mean a decrease in incidences of dengue, among other mosquito-borne diseases, according to Neelika Malavige, who is not affiliated with the biofactory and is head of Dengue Global Program and Scientific Affairs at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).
"The Wolbachia method is one of the best interventions for vector control so far," says Malavige. "Since it's a biological method, the harm to the environment by chemical fogging is eliminated. So far the trials have shown very promising results, but we need to further understand the costs involved in implementing this method in low- and middle-income countries to determine if it's affordable and we also need to better understand how this technology can be transferred to the countries."
When it's ready next year, the mosquito biofactory will be able to produce 400 million Wolbachia eggs a month for Aedes aegypti the species that can carry and spread not only dengue but also yellow fever, chikungunya and zika.
"The number of dengue cases have shot up," says Luciano Moreira, a senior research scientist at Fiocruz and project lead of the World Mosquito Program in Brazil. "With our biofactory, we project that, in 10 years, we will be able to protect around 70 million people in several cities across Brazil."
Malavige agrees with Moreira that the process might not be quick, but the method has shown promise.
So far, Wolbito has released mosquitoes in five municipalities around the country, with plans to add another six this year. The team of experts first takes two to four weeks to talk to the communities about what it wants to do and the benefits.
Residents often have a lot of questions. They want to know if the bacteria could contaminate the environment when the mosquito dies (no, when the mosquito dies at the end of its lifespan the bacteria dies with it), if Wolbachia passes to humans when they're bitten (it doesn't) and if the process genetically modifies the mosquitoes (no, their genes stay the same). One downside is an initial increase in mosquitoes when those with Wolbachia join the local population, but that only causes some annoyance because of mosquito bites.
Once they have permission from people living in the community, the scientists take to the streets for four to six weeks, driving or walking around with containers full of Aedes aegypti with Wolbachia to release in strategic points of the city. They also hang open containers of eggs from trees, allowing Wolbachia mosquitoes to hatch in the local habitat.
"It's not a method that allows you to see change from one day to the next," says Moreira. "But it is self-sustaining.
"In some areas of Brazil where we released our mosquitoes more than eight years ago, more than 90% of the population still has Wolbachia."
The project has only been carried out in a handful of Brazilian cities, which is why dengue outbreaks have led to epidemics in many places that don't yet work with Wolbito.
But in the cities where it's been working, the scientists have seen encouraging results. Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, started with Wolbito in 2015 and, just last year, became the first city to release Wolbachia mosquitoes in all of its neighborhoods. According to its secretariat of health, the city has seen a 70% reduction in its number of dengue cases following the implementation of the program (there were 158 cases in 2015 and 55 in 2023) and has not seen a spike during this latest surge.
Another method being used in Brazil to curb the Aedes aegypti population is the release of male mosquitoes sterilized with nuclear radiation, meaning they can't fertilize eggs.
The males, sterilized at two biofactories in Brazil, are released in the same way as Wolbachia mosquitoes experts head out on foot and in cars, opening containers in areas known to be Aedes aegypti breeding grounds.
For one company, coming up with a way to distribute sterile mosquitoes more widely was a strategy worth developing.
Called Birdview, the startup originally used drones to release insects that naturally fight agricultural pests, reaching areas of farms that were otherwise difficult to get to and lowering the use of pesticides on crops. Now, it flies drones equipped with insect cassettes into hard-to-reach corners of narrow city neighborhoods. Each of those cassettes, which has a film-covered bottom that slowly opens to release the sterile males, can carry up to 17,000 of them per 10-minute flight that covers roughly 25 acres.
"We're still in pilot mode right now," says Ricardo Machado, engineer and founder of Birdview. "But we're ready and eager to do this in larger areas. And eventually we want to decentralize the process, training local people to fly the drones so that communities can be self-sufficient, the cost can be kept low and jobs can be created."
As the number of cases of dengue across Brazil continues to tick upward, the field hospital in Braslia has gotten its operations under control. But lines of people with suspected cases of dengue continue to be in the thousands, so the Federal District upped the number of individual dengue tents around the city another way to triage patients that is complementary to the hospital and its permanent health-care units from nine to 20.
It's a cautionary tale for the world as dengue continues to spread.
"It's not like measles, where you give a vaccine and it's end-of-story," says Malavige. "Look at COVID. We have vaccines, we have drugs, and when things get really bad and there's an outbreak, governments ask people to mask up again. For dengue it's the same. We have to have multiple strategies."
Jill Langlois is an independent journalist based in So Paulo, Brazil. She has been freelancing from the largest city in the western hemisphere since 2010, writing and reporting for publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian and Time. Her work focuses on human rights, the environment and the impact of socioeconomic issues on people's lives.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, who has been critical of the U.K.s business environment for the life sciences industry, is directing a big chunk of money into the Big Pharmas home country.
AZ plans to invest 650 million ($827 million) in the U.K., Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced Wednesday.
The money will be divided into two tranches. About 450 million will go to AZs manufacturing site in Speke, Liverpool, to build out the companys R&D and manufacturing capabilities for vaccines.
The remaining 200 million will be used to expand AZs presence near its global headquarters in Cambridge. The plan includes a facility that will house around 1,000 employees.
AZs spending is contingent upon a mutual agreementwith the U.K. government and undisclosed"third parties," as well as the clearance of regulatory hurdles, according toWednesdays press release.
AstraZenecas planned investment would enhance the U.K.s pandemic preparedness and demonstrates our ongoing confidence in U.K. life sciences, Soriot said in a statement.
The investment will help the Liverpool siterespond to the threat of future pandemics and meet the growing demand for vaccines, an AZ spokesperson told Fierce Pharma. The exact vaccines to be made there will be determined as the companys pipeline progresses, the spokesperson added.
As for the Cambridge site, the facility was already included in development plans for AZs newly opened innovation center. The site will primarily support commercial and regular business operations, the spokesperson said.
AZs refreshed commitment to the U.K. comes about a year after Soriot blamed the countrys discouraging tax rate for his companys decision to build a $400 million active pharmaceutical ingredient facility in Ireland at the Alexion campus in Dublin.
Were very committed [to the U.K.], but we need to see also supporting policies for the whole industry, Soriot said at the time.
In his statement Wednesday, U.K. Chancellor Hunt touted the U.K. as one of the most competitive business tax regimes of any major economy.
AstraZenecas investment plans are a vote of confidence in the attractiveness of U.K. as a life sciences superpower and strengthen our resilience for future health emergencies, Hunt added.
Late last year, amid tensions between the industry and government, U.K. officials and industry representativesreached an accord on a voluntary drug rebate scheme. Soon after, though, theAssociation of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) lashed outat a separate statutory scheme thats designed to control drug costs.
At that time, the ABPI said the rebate levels included in the statutory program have damaged the U.K.s international standing with global life science companies."
Nevertheless, the U.K. remains AZs home base. The drugmaker last year opened its flagship 1 billionR&D site in Cambridge, Soriot noted during a press briefing in February. The chief executive also pointed to the work the British government has done to facilitate clinical trials, as well as tax policies that are helping incentivize companies to invest.
Theres still more to do, but the U.K. is moving in the right direction toward offering a better environment for the life sciences field, he said.
In addition to Liverpool, AZ will also open a new manufacturing facility to make a cancer drug at its Macclesfield manufacturing and development campus later this year as part of a 380 millioninvestment, according to the U.K. government.
For a global company like AZ, manufacturing investments are certainly bound to be scattered in different parts of the world. Last month, AZ announced it will plow $300 million into a new facility in Rockville, Maryland, for its cell therapy programs.
At the same time, the firm is investing in a facility in the Chinese city of Qingdao to manufacture inhaled medicines.
We continue to invest in manufacturing around the world, and each time we look at, what is the environment, Soriot said during the February press conference.
More often its more general environment in terms of, is the ecosystem attractive for investment in innovation? Soriot explained. Is it a country where there is clearly an understanding that incentives have to be created through appropriate tax policies, but also importantly, access to innovation?
Protecting oneself from SARS-CoV-2 with vaccines and boosters is a good thing. But, when it comes to vaccines, could there be too much of a good thing?
If anyone would know, it would be a 62-year-old hypervaccinated man from Magdeburg, Germany who received at least 134 vaccinationspossibility 217against SARS-CoV-2 within a period of 29 months.
After finding out about the man via a newspaper article, researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt in Germany examined him, finding a stronger-than-expected immune system and increasing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
Hypervaccination has not been extensively studied. Some scientists were of the opinion that immune cells would become less effective after becoming used to the antigens. Others thought it could negatively impact the immune systems effectiveness against other pathogens.
In the case of the German man, researchers found both of those to be untrue. After researchers read about the man in the newspaper, they contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests, which he was very interested in.
In the course of the examination, the man insisted on receiving another SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, what he claimed to be his 217th. The team found documentation for at least 134 vaccinations.
The researchers took blood samples when the man received the latest vaccination, and were even able to compare them to the mans previous blood samples, which had been taken in a healthcare setting before the vaccinations and frozen.
The study results, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, showed that the individual has large numbers of T-effector cells against SARS-CoV-2. These act as the bodys own soldiers that fight against the virus. The man even had more of these compared with the control group of people who have received three vaccinations. The researchers did not perceive any fatigue in these effector cellsthey were similarly effective as those in the control group who had received the normal number of vaccinations.
The team also recorded no negative effects on the mans memory T cells.
The number of memory cells was just as high in our test case as in the control group, said Katharina Kocher, one of the leading authors of the study. Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary.
Even the 217th vaccination the man received during the study still had an effect: the number of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 increased significantly as a result, according to the researchers observations.
Further tests indicate that there is no change to the immune systems effectiveness against pathogens that are not SARS-CoV-2.
The observation that no noticeable side effects were triggered in spite of this extraordinary hypervaccination indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability, said study author Kilian Schober.
The study authors stress that this is one individual case, and although the results are positive, the conclusions reached are not sufficient to make recommendations for the general public.
Current research indicates that a three-dose vaccination, coupled with regular top-up vaccines for vulnerable groups, remains the favored approach. There is no indication that more vaccines are required, said Schober.
A 62-year-old man who claims to have received 217 COVID-19 vaccinations shows no signs of adverse events linked to the shots and appears to have stronger immunity against the virus than others, researchers said as they cautioning others to not get more than the recommended vaccinations.
In a study published Monday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers in Germany said they were surprised by the findings, expecting the mans immune cells to be less effective after becoming used to the antigens administered through eight different vaccines.
Over all, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary, Katharina Kocher, one of the leading authors of the study, said in a news release.
Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen-Nrnberg (FAU) and Universittsklinikum Erlangen in Germany said they reached out to the man, who is not identified in the study, after seeing his unusual story in newspaper reports.
According to the study, a public prosecutor had collected evidence to officially support 130 of his claimed 217 vaccinations while investigating him for possible fraud. No criminal charges were filed against him.
The researchers invited the man, who said the shots took place over 29 months, to undergo various testing, and he was very, very interested in doing so, said Dr. Kilian Schober from FAUs Institute of Microbiology.
As part of the study, the man, who said he received the multiple shots for private reasons, permitted researchers to study various blood tests that he had undergone in recent years, including samples that had been frozen. They also took samples of blood from him after he received yet another vaccination dose, which was done at his own insistence, Schober said.
We were able to use these samples to determine exactly how the immune system reacts to the vaccination, Schober said.
The study ultimately found no change to the effectiveness of the mans immune system in fighting other pathogens. The man also did not have any noticeable side effects from the vaccinations and showed considerably higher concentrations of certain immune cells and antibodies that fight SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, than people who have only received three vaccinations.
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While we found no signs of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections in [the man] to date, it cannot be clarified whether this is causally related to the hypervaccination regimen. Importantly, we do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance adaptive immunity, the study concludes.
Last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, advising adults 65 and older to receive an additional, updated vaccine dose. People who are immunocompromised had already been eligible for the additional dose.
Data continues to show the importance of vaccination to protect those most at risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19, the CDC said. An additional dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine may restore protection that has waned since a fall vaccine dose, providing increased protection to adults ages 65 years and older.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. West Virginia's GOP-controlled state Legislature voted Saturday to allow some students who don't attend traditional public schools to be exempt from state vaccination requirements that have long been held up as among the most strict in the country.
The bill was approved despite the objections of Republican Senate Health and Human Resources Chair Mike Maroney, a trained doctor, who called the bill an embarrassment and said he believed lawmakers were harming the state.
I took an oath to do no harm. There's zero chance I can vote for this bill, Maroney said before the bill passed the Senate 18-12. The House already approved a version of the bill in February and swiftly approved the Senate bill on Saturday, the last day of the state's 60-day legislative session.
Its a bad bill for West Virginia, its a step backward. Theres no question, no question there will be negative effects," Maroney said. He added, Its an embarrassment for me to be a part of it, it should be an embarrassment to everybody.
West Virginia, with some of the lowest life expectancy rates in the U.S. and a quarter of all children living in poverty, is one of only two states, along with California, that don't permit nonmedical exemptions to vaccinations as a condition for school entry.
Mississippi had the same policy until July, when a judge allowed people to start citing religious beliefs to seek exemptions from state-mandated vaccinations that children must receive before attending day care or school.
The new proposed vaccine law in West Virginia, which now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Jim Justice, allows virtual public school students to be exempt and for private and parochial schools to institute their own policies either exempting students or not.
All students participating in West Virginia school activities that result in competition, including but not limited to sports, still need to be vaccinated.
The bill stipulates parents cant sue private schools and school owners, administrators, boards and staffers for deciding whether to allow exemptions or not, as long as the school provides families with a notice for parents to sign acknowledging the policy annually and upon enrollment.
I personally do not urge passage, but your health committee urged passage of this bill, Maroney said before introducing the bill in the Senate.
The bills original intent, as introduced in the state House of Delegates, was to eliminate vaccine requirements for students in public virtual schools. It was expanded in a House committee to allow private schools to set their own vaccination standards, unless a student participates in sanctioned athletics.
The bill also created a religious exemption for any child whose parents or guardians present a letter stating the child cannot be vaccinated for religious reasons. That was taken out in the Senate.
During the Senate Health Committee meeting earlier this week, West Virginia University School of Medicine Professor Dr. Alvin Moss argued for the bill, saying the state's current compulsory vaccination policy is medically unethical because it doesnt allow informed consent.
The number of parents who don't want their children to receive vaccinations is growing, Moss said.
In 2017, the anti-vaccine requirement group West Virginians for Health Freedom had 300 families included in his members. That number has grown to at least 3,000 members in 2024, Moss said.
Former West Virginia Republican Delegate Chanda Adkins, a group member, said during the meeting that religious families who don't want to vaccinate their children deserve to be able to live their convictions.
Former West Virginia Medical Association Dr. Lisa Costello disagreed, saying West Virginias current vaccine policy is the "gold standard" across the nation.
West Virginia is seen as a national leader when it comes to our routine, child immunizations," she said, later adding, Measles does not care if you go to private school or public school. Measles does not differentiate depending on where you go to school."
West Virginia law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough, unless they receive a medical exemption. West Virginia does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.
