Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

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As U.S. experts have warned that concerts wont go head untilmaybe 2021, Californias governor says that they wont return until theres a vaccine against COVID-19.

This year has been a major bummer. At first, only a select few large concerts and festivals became cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. Then, smaller gigs were given the boot. Once it hit mid-March, even pub-based gigs were halted.

As music fans await to hear when their sought after cancelled gigs will be rescheduled, it looks like we might be without live shows for even longer than predicted, especially if youre Californian, as the governor of the West-coast state has said that concerts will not go ahead until a vaccine is readily available.

The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine, governor Gavin Newsom stated in a press conference.

So, large-scale events that bring in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of strangers, all together across every conceivable difference, health and otherwise, is not in the cards based upon our current guidelines and current expectations, he explained.

With many concerts already seeing rescheduling dates as early as July and August, Newsom noted that when you suggest June, July, August, it is unlikely.

Although we know that you all are itching to get back into the live scene, or simply have your jobs restored with live gigs, sadly by expert health opinions and government advice, it doesnt look like well be able to get sweaty and roughed up at the front of a Bad//Dreems mosh pit or sing along to the beautiful melodies of Tones And I live at any point, soon.

As healthcare expert Dr. Emanuel of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania notes, we probably wont get to that point where we used to be for quite some time.

Restaurants where you can space tables out, maybe sooner. In Hong Kong, Singapore and other places, were seeing resurgences when they open up and allow more activity. Its going to be this roller coaster, up and down.

The question is: When it goes up, can we do better testing and contact tracing so that we can focus on particular people and isolate them and not have to reimpose shelter-in-place for everyone as we did before?

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Californias governor says that concerts wont return until theres a COVID-19 vaccine - Tone Deaf

WASHINGTON, N.C. (WITN) - When the weather is nice, a popular gathering spot is the waterfront in downtown Washington.

Even with the pandemic going on, that continues to be somewhat of the case. Mayor Mac Hodges says other parts of Main Street in the downtown area are really quiet. Fast food restaurants are doing fine, but small businesses, like so many throughout the country, are struggling. He knows of some that have been forced to close, which has been hard on employees. Hodges says they have had to go find other jobs in the area in the meantime.

"A lot of people started walking and activity going up and down the waterfront out here," Hodges said.0" Other than that, it is pretty quiet. You can walk down Main Street and not see two people. At all."

Moving forward, Hodges said he is concerned about how a return to normalcy could impact those who are scared of the virus.

"People that are really scared of this virus are just going to stay home anyway," Hodges said. "They're not coming out until they feel confident that there's a vaccine or a treatment."

Hodges said on Monday night, the city council approved a 30 percent deduction in electric bills for this upcoming month.

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Mayor of Washington concerned about current lack of COVID-19 vaccine - WITN

Moderna CEO forecasts 2021 as the earliest for an approved Covid-19 vaccine  CNBC

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Moderna CEO forecasts 2021 as the earliest for an approved Covid-19 vaccine - CNBC

And just like that, Novavax (NVAX) is back in the spotlight. Gaining a whopping 328% since the start of 2020, the healthcare company has consistently attracted attention from market watchers, primarily thanks to its efforts to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. The latest reason for its appearance on Wall Streets radar? Its vaccine development programs giant leap forward.

On April 8, the company announced that it had identified a lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The experimental vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, is a prefusion protein created using NVAX's patented lipid nanoparticle platform, with a Phase 1 first-in-human study set to begin in mid-May. As a result of this rapid timeline, NVAX could release early safety and immunogenicity data as soon as July based on the expected 35-day trial schedule.

It should be noted that according to preclinical data, NVX-CoV2373 was able to produce high titer neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 virus after a single immunization, with the result being eight times higher following the second dose. This is significant because the result demonstrates the vaccine could offer significant immune protection in humans.

B.Riley FBR analyst Mayank Mamtani highlights the fact that NVAX's proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant is incorporated within NVX-CoV2373, along with full-length recombinant spike protein to further enhance immune responses in the Phase 1 placebo-controlled observer blinded study of ~130 healthy adults to assess safety and efficacy, dosage response, and number of vaccinations.

Expounding on the candidates potential, Mamtani wrote in a recent research note to clients, We believe this to represent incremental validation for NVAX's underappreciated recombinant nanoparticle vaccine platform and the ability to rapidly evaluate and advance a candidate to the clinic. With a strong balance sheet, i.e, $230 million in cash equivalents, and positive Ph. III NanoFlu data already reported in 4,000-plus patients, we believe NVAX to be well positioned to execute on a number of upcoming 2020 milestones including (1) reporting data on key secondary endpoints, microneutralization (MN) and cell-mediated immune (CMI) responses, ahead of a BLA filing for NanoFlu, and (2) Ph. I NVX-CoV2373 proof-of-concept data.

As NVAX already revealed it has a standing agreement with Emergent BioSolutions to utilize Emergent's rapid manufacturing and deployment capabilities to advance its vaccine products as well as a $4 million grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Mamtani tells investors his bullish thesis remains firmly intact.

To this end, he reiterated a Buy rating and $20 price target. This implies shares could surge 15% in the next year. (To watch Mamtanis track record, click here)

What does the rest of the Street have to say? Out of 5 reviews published recently, 100% were bullish, making the consensus rating a Strong Buy. At $22.80, the average price target is more aggressive than Mamtanis and puts the upside potential at 31%. (See Novavax stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for healthcare stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

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Is COVID-19 Vaccine Maker Novavax a Buy Right Now? Heres What You Need to Know - Yahoo Finance

The return to normality after the coronavirus pandemic will be far from straightforward and a lot hinges on the development of an effective vaccine against Covid-19 according to medical experts and world leaders. Several options are being investigated and one team, led by British researcher Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, suggests that it may be September before a vaccine becomes readily available.

I think theres a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine, Dr. Gilbert told UK daily The Times.Its not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at. I would go for 80 percent, thats my personal view.

Dr. Gilbert added that human trials could begin within two weeks after talks with the UK government.

Keep up to date with all the latest on the Covid-19 pandemic with our live blog

In the US, pharmaceutical company Moderna started human trials in March in tandem with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) according to a report by Bloomberg and the first results could be available in two months. The vaccine will be initially made available to front line health care workers if it proves successful. However, the NIH and the US Food and Drug Administration have warned that it could be at least a year before a vaccine is made available for the public at large.

Separately, Pfizer Inc has said that early data has helped it identify a drug candidate with the potential to help treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus. It also finalized a plan to develop a coronavirus vaccine in partnership with German drugmaker BioNTech SE and saidthe companies hope to produce millions of vaccines by the end of 2020. The companies said they plan to start trials of the vaccine as early as this month.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that normal business in the country will not resume until a vaccine is available and also sounded a note of caution that such a scenario could be a "long way off."

The global economy faces huge challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic and the International Monetary Fund has made the grim prediction that the world could be set for "the worst economic fallout since the great depression."

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Coronavirus: when will the Covid-19 vaccine be ready? - AS English

The precise, nationally coordinated campaigns of Covid-19 testing and contact isolation that helped South Korea and Singapore avoid broad lockdowns are conspicuously absent in the United States.

The federal government has not been able to rapidly and effectively institute Covid-19 testing, from actively blocking early efforts to providing false reassurance on testing availability. In the absence of national leadership, states and counties are left to their own judgments, to procure their own essential supplies, and to set their own policies, making large-scale coordinated testing even more challenging. And the county-level public health institutions we defer to for policymaking do not control the financial or health care delivery resources required to implement the testing and contact tracing we need today and the vaccinations we will need tomorrow.

I believe that American employers will be our fastest path to establishing the framework for, or alternative to, the national public health system we do not have. Employers already provide health care coverage to 49% of Americans. Extending the reach of American employers to take the lead on broad testing for disease among their workforces and their affiliates, certifying who is clear to return to work, and eventually verifying vaccination will be essential to beating the pandemic and getting Americans back to work.

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Covid-19 testing organized and sponsored by employers to confirm that workers are either not infected with SARS-CoV-2 or are immune due to prior infection may be the most effective tool to gradually relax social distancing measures and get the country back to work. Employers could enable broad and frequent testing of their employees and require certification that they are not currently infected before they come back into the workplace.

Employers have a powerful financial incentive to test their full- and part-time employees, contractors, temporary workers, and gig workers: They want to bring them back to work and restart their businesses, which have slowed or stopped on a scale we have never seen before. These employers also have a social and legal obligation to ensure the safety of their employees and their customers, students, and patients.

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The cadence of testing would need to be determined by the disease trajectory in a given region, and by the risk exposures of the population. Health care workers, for example, might initially require daily testing, while others might initially require weekly testing. As the spread of disease slows, the testing frequency could be relaxed.

Test results could come from multiple testing sources, from lab-based PCR tests that look for viral RNA to consumer antibody tests that look for immunoglobulins. Test results identifying people as either not being actively infected or immune from prior infection would qualify for a certificate of non-infection. These certificates would expire based on the testing protocols, which themselves would vary by the risks based on geography and type of work, informed by published testing protocols grounded in science and epidemiology. Employers, and the testing companies they work with, would be required to report Covid-19 results to local public health authorities, benefiting everyone in the areas where employers require testing and certification.

Employer-led testing has potential risks that must be anticipated and addressed: Employers, acting alone, may be susceptible to making decisions based on non-validated tests that make dubious claims. Employers, especially those with a national reach, may not have the infrastructure to share data with local public health authorities, organized at the county level. And employers would need to develop a set of certification protocols informed by epidemiology that could be rapidly changing. This is on top of the perhaps obvious compliance requirements associated with collecting health information that varies across the U.S. These risks could lead to a failure in translating Covid-19 testing into coherent action that can bring life back to normal.

As unpalatable as employer-based coronavirus testing may be to many, it is preferable to not having an employer at all. As we write this, more than 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment. We can bring America back to work with broad and regular testing facilitated by employers.

Employers were the first to institute large-scale stay-at-home orders, opening the way for local and state governments and public health agencies to follow suit. In California, the first state to institute a stay-at-home order, major employers and universities had already asked their employees and students to stay home before government orders were put in place. This voluntary and independent action was essential to clearing the path for the decisive government action that is proving effective.

Employers can play a similar role in requiring a process of testing and certification in order to return to work and, in the future, requiring and verifying vaccination.

Only states can mandate vaccination; the federal government cannot because of a 1905 Supreme Court case on smallpox vaccination. That means any employer with a national footprint should expect to encounter state-to-state variation in vaccination requirements.

There is precedent for employers to require vaccination, however, and not wait for state requirements. Health care workers are already accustomed to mandatory influenza vaccination, required and audited by their employers. This is justified since not being vaccinated is a workplace hazard to oneself and to others. The same justification may be used by many employers to require vaccination against Covid-19 when a vaccine becomes available.

As the federal government has struggled to enact critical services and plans for the next phase of this pandemic, employers have begun assuming some of the leadership we traditionally ascribe to government.

The leadership of every employer in the U.S. are focused on protecting the health of their teams and ensuring they can get back to work. Creating a consensus on testing and certification, driven by employers willing and able to take early action, will accelerate Americas return to work. No employer in America can afford to just sit and wait.

Rajaie Batniji, M.D. is co-founder and chief health officer at Collective Health.

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Employers should lead the way on Covid-19 testing, vaccination - STAT

"We know our vaccine is safe. Therefore, I will stick out my arm as the first vaccinee," said Chil-Yong Kang, PhD, DSc, FRSC, Professor of Virology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.

Kang is a Canadian scientist who developed a preventative HIV vaccine which is currently in human clinical trials. Now, his research team is working round-the-clock on a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Kang says his team is using its "well-established VSV (Vesicular Stomatitis Virus)-based platform technology" to create an effective vaccine against COVID-19. The same platform technology has been used successfully in his laboratory for the development of a vaccine for MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), another coronavirus disease. He says he is optimistic about having a preventive SARS-CoV-2 vaccine ready for testing soon.

His team is working 12-hour days, coming into the laboratory seven days a week to make their COVID-19 vaccine testable within three months, he says. That's breakneck speed for developing a vaccine for a new virus, which normally take years to develop, given that traditional vaccines take between eight and 10 years to develop. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), estimated that a vaccine could be ready for the general public in around 18 months.

Zoom interview by Linda Solomon Wood with Chil-Yong Kang, edited for brevity

But because of the urgency to halt the COVID-19 pandemic, Kang says he'd like to see the Canadian government fast-track vaccines for human clinical trial. And thats one of the reasons Kang and his team are working around the clock.

"Vaccines have to be safe. No matter how effective the vaccine is, if it isn't safe, we cannot use it," he says. "It [also] has to be effective. Ideally, we want to have a vaccine which can prevent over 90 per cent of infection."

The Government of Canada has provided funding for the research, nearly a million dollars through Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Other Canadian universities working to find a vaccine are at McMaster University, University of Alberta, Laval University, University of British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan and University of Manitoba.

Kang says in the near future he's going to need much more support for the human clinical trials.

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Canadian at work on COVID-19 vaccine is optimistic - National Observer

Meet 'Outstanding' Scientist Leading Charge on COVID-19 Vaccine | PEOPLE.com Top Navigation Close View image

Meet the 'Outstanding' 34-Year-Old Scientist Leading the Charge on Coronavirus Vaccine Trials

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Meet the 'Outstanding' 34-Year-Old Scientist Leading the Charge on Coronavirus Vaccine Trials - PEOPLE

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Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

Speaking of potential therapies. KSTP reports: HealthPartners Institute says its begun testing a drug for severe COVID-19 pneumonia that could help prevent lung inflammation in patients. HealthPartners said the FDA gave fast-track investigational approval for testing of the drug, formally known as CM4620-IE, which can block the bodys production and release of molecules that cause inflammation, potentially reducing lung damage and the need for a ventilator.

Social distancing while homeless. The Star Tribunes Chris Serres reports: Jennifer Hernandez hunched her shoulders against the biting wind and contemplated how she would find water to wash herself and her children. A month ago, the 40-year-old mother of two and her partner were among the first to pitch a tent along the light-rail line near Hiawatha Avenue and E. 28th Street. They wanted to be alone, to insulate themselves from the pandemic. But others have followed, turning a once-vacant stretch of grass and mud into a makeshift encampment with more than two dozen people. Most say they feel safer sleeping in the open air than being in shelters where physical distancing is impossible.

The doctor is on Fox News. City Pages Hannah Jones reports: Minnesota Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Chaska) takes issue with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidelines on how to classify COVID-19 deaths. Jensens opinions on the subject tend to carry more weight than most lawmakers. He happens to be a family physician in Watertown. That experience is why Jensens clashed with some of his fellow Republican colleagues over, say, outlawing conversion therapy, or providing emergency insulin. His beef with the death guidelines, in simple terms, is he feels theyre too squishy about designating COVID-19 as a cause of death.

The U is keeping things remote this summer. The Minnesota Dailys Niamh Coomey reports: University of Minnesota students and faculty are preparing for the summer semester to continue online. Due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns, University President Joan Gabel announced last week that the University would offer summer courses online only. Faculty are currently reworking courses to better fit the digital format. Some are concerned about student access to the internet and whether there will be financial resources to support the online-only instruction.

Good news: Twin Cities jazz great Nachito Herrera off ventilator, in stable condition [Pioneer Press]

Sad news: Tarvaris Jackson, former Vikings quarterback, dies in car crash [Star Tribune]

Op-ed from Sen. Amy Klobuchar and colleagues: Amid coronavirus uncertainties, dont put voter health at risk in fall election: Senators [USA Today]

Food help: Coronavirus In Minnesota: YMCA, Loaves & Fishes, UnitedHealth Group Partner To Provide Fresh Food To Communities [WCCO]

Five covers: Trampled by Turtles selling new EP exclusively through two Twin Cities record shops [Star Tribune]

That warm feeling inside isnt just the beer talking: Surly taps into our essential humanity to host food drive at liquor stores [City Pages]

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Minneapolis Fed prez Kashkari: Hard times for small business until COVID-19 vaccine or effective therapy developed - MinnPost

Would You Need a COVID-19 Vaccine Available Before Being in Big Crowds?  KFI AM 640

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Would You Need a COVID-19 Vaccine Available Before Being in Big Crowds? - KFI AM 640