Tag: important

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Business

This is why it’s necessary to get second Covid shot

Here's why it’s important to get second Covid shot

Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Monday he was not yet concerned about the number of Americans who missed their planned second dose of Covid vaccine.

“We’re not sure if these people will come back anytime. They just didn’t come back on time,” said the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

However, Gottlieb said receiving the second Covid shot is necessary to receive the full protective benefits of the vaccines for months to come. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots. (Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine, the third emergency approved in the US, only takes a single dose.)

“My advice to anyone would be that we don’t know the shelf life of this response, even if you are young and there is evidence that you are already starting to derive a robust immune response with that first dose,” said Gottlieb, who sits at Pfizer’s Tafel. “If you really want the vaccine to work over the long term, you really should get the second dose.”

On Friday, the White House chief medical officer, Dr. Anthony Fauci that approximately 8% of US citizens who received the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines did not come back for the second shot.

“The number of people who have not yet returned to the second dose is low compared to historical standards or historical norms,” ​​said Gottlieb, who headed the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. For example, he said, the response rate for the Covid vaccine is better than for the two-dose shingles vaccine.

Gottlieb admitted that it is possible that a higher percentage of US vaccine recipients could skip the second shot if more young people get the shot. This is partly because “younger people know they can derive a more robust immune response from just the first dose than older people, who really need that second dose to get full immune protection,” he repeated.

People who haven’t yet returned for the second shot aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong on purpose, Gottlieb added. He praised the pharmacies that deliver vaccines for “trying to implement reminders for these patients.”

“Often it is only lost for tracking. It is not people who purposely do not come back,” said Gottlieb. “There are some situations I’ve spoken to people who are worried about the second dose, the side effects supposedly associated with the second dose compared to the first dose. But right now the percentage of people who came back are because this second shot is pretty high. “

Nearly 105 million people in the United States, nearly a third of the population, have been fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to CDC data, about 147 million, or about 44% of the US population, received at least one dose.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion Inc., and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.

Categories
World News

Iran Says It Started Enriching Uranium to 60 P.c. How Essential Is That?

Iran Says It Began Enriching Uranium to 60 Percent. How Important Is That?

In response to the sabotage of an Israeli-affiliated Iranian nuclear site last weekend, Iran began enriching its uranium supply to 60 percent purity – the level the country has ever reached for a weapon.

Iran’s move, reported in state media on Friday, made good the threats Iranian officials announced following the sabotage that threw a new cloud over the talks to save the 2015 deal that broke the nuclear Limits Iran’s ability to trade in exchange for the relief of sanctions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went further and, when those talks resumed in Vienna, boasted that his scientists could easily enrich uranium to 90 percent purity – weapons grade fuel – despite the fact that, as Iranian leaders have repeatedly stressed, he did insisted that Iran “never aspires to make an atomic bomb. “

What is the significance of uranium purity, which is at the heart of the deal the negotiators are trying to save? And why is Iran making these claims? Some basic questions and answers:

Uranium contains a rare radioactive isotope called U-235, which can power nuclear reactors with low enrichment and atom bombs with much higher propulsion. The goal of uranium enrichment is to increase the percentage of U-235, which is often achieved through the use of centrifuges – machines that spin some form of unrefined uranium at high speed.

Under the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran was allowed to keep up to 300 kilograms of uranium, which was enriched to 3.67 percent for civilian nuclear power. Iran also agreed to stop enriching uranium above 5 percent and shut down hundreds of centrifuges. The uranium supply fell well below the amount needed to make a single bomb.

After President Donald J. Trump rejected the Iran deal in 2018, imposed economic sanctions on Iran, and imposed further penalties, Iran took a tiered series of steps from complying with the deal to retaliation – increasing its uranium supply by 3.67 percent , Adding centrifuges and increasing uranium purity in part of the supply to 20 percent and restricting international inspectors’ access to some nuclear sites. Meanwhile, the country said these were easily reversible acts.

What makes the 60 percent enrichment level particularly threatening is that the difficult enrichment process becomes much easier and requires fewer centrifuges when it gets to the higher purities. In other words, a purity of 90 percent is much easier from 20 percent and even easier from 60 percent.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear surveillance arm, Iran had amassed 2,967.8 kilograms of uranium in February – roughly 14 times the nuclear deal limit and theoretically enough to power about three atomic bombs if refined to weapon quality. The stock contains 17.6 kilograms, enriched to 20 percent – also banned until 2030.

Almost certainly yes. While Iranian officials have come up with conflicting reports about the extent of centrifuge damage at Natanz, the sabotaged enrichment complex, at least one has claimed that several thousand machines have been destroyed. But Iran also has a second well-known enrichment site, an underground facility called Fordow, which houses around 1,000 centrifuges. Some were used earlier this year to enrich uranium to 20 percent.

Nuclear experts estimate that Iran would have to use around 500 centrifuges for this task in order to enrich uranium with a purity level of 20 percent to 60 percent. Around 100 more spinning machines would be needed to further increase the degree of cleaning to 90 percent.

In an interview, Olli Heinonen, a former chief inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran could theoretically enrich from 60 percent to 90 percent in a week, compared to a month or so if it went up from 20 percent.

“It’s not a big difference. At this point, this is a demonstration, ”he said of Iran’s 60 percent risk of enrichment. “They want to show that they can.”

No. Dr. Heinonen and others said it was far more difficult to turn 90 percent enriched uranium into the core of an atomic bomb. It could take months. And such an estimate does not include the technology, testing, and time required to mount the weapon on a missile warhead, which could take much longer.

The danger of militarizing its nuclear capabilities has always been a negotiating tool for Iran – both in the talks that led to the 2015 agreement and in the ongoing negotiations. At the same time, Tehran has made it clear that it wants to reach an agreement that will end the onerous American sanctions that are severely hampering Iranian oil sales and international financial transactions. This partly explains Iran’s reluctance to take military revenge on attacks on its nuclear sites.

“Iran sees itself as a boxer in the ring,” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran expert, professor and director of the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech. “People hit left and right without damaging the other side.”

With the 60 percent gain, Boroujerdi said, “Iranian leaders are trying to fall back on their aces.”

Categories
Health

India might play an essential position in producing vaccines

India could play an important role in producing vaccines

A medical professional holds Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin vial during the nationwide vaccination campaign in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Saturday, February 6, 2021.

Vishal Bhatnagar | NurPhoto | Getty Images

India could become the second largest Covid vaccine maker in the world, and analysts say the country has the capacity to manufacture for both its own people and other developing countries.

Most of the world’s vaccines historically came from India. Even before Covid-19, the South Asian country was producing up to 60% of the world’s vaccines – and at relatively low costs.

“India was a vaccine manufacturing center before the pandemic and should be a strategic partner in vaccinating against COVID-19 worldwide,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a report last month.

Consultancy firm Deloitte predicts India will rank second after the US in terms of coronavirus vaccine production this year. PS Easwaran, partner at Deloitte India, said more than 3.5 billion Covid vaccines could be produced in the country in 2021, compared to around 4 billion in the US

In addition, companies in India are currently increasing production to meet demand.

“We are expanding our annual capacity to deliver 700 million doses of our intramuscular COVAXIN,” said Indian company Bharat Biotech, which worked with the Indian State Council for Medical Research to develop a Covid vaccine.

Covaxin was approved for emergency use in India, but was controversial due to criticism that the approval was not transparent enough and because not enough efficacy data was published.

India vaccines suitable for developing countries

Another vaccine – known in India as Covishield and jointly developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford – has also been approved as an emergency in India. It is made locally by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

SII manufactures around 50 million cans of Covishield every month, according to Reuters, and plans to grow production to 100 million cans per month by March.

Other Indian companies have agreed to make vaccines for developers such as the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the US company Johnson & Johnson. To be clear, these vaccine candidates have not yet been approved for use.

“Even without successful vaccine development from our own pipelines, the available capacity offers the opportunity to work as a contract manufacturer with approved vaccine developers in order to meet the supply needs, particularly for India and other countries [emerging markets]”said the JPMorgan report.

With a proven track record on the scale that vaccines are made, India should be able to ramp up production to meet international demand as well.

Nissy Solomon

Center for Policy Research

India’s vaccines are likely to be more suitable for developing countries, said K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

Some of today’s leading vaccines, such as those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, use messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which uses genetic material to trigger the body’s infection control process.

These vaccines require “stringent cold chain requirements” that will be difficult or even “out of the realm of possibility,” for most health systems, Reddy said.

Vaccines made in India are easier to transport and cheaper, putting the country in a better position than the US and Europe when it comes to meeting demand in developing countries, he added.

India’s “proven record”

India’s enormous manufacturing capacity also gives analysts confidence that the country can provide vaccines to other nations.

New Delhi has pledged to send vaccines to its neighboring countries and has already delivered 15.6 million doses to 17 countries, according to Reuters.

“India’s manufacturing capacity is sufficient to meet domestic demand,” said Nissy Solomon, senior research associate at the Center for Public Policy Research (CPPR).

“With a proven track record of the same scale as vaccines, India should be able to ramp up production to meet international demand as well,” she told CNBC.

Solomon added that the country is monitoring domestic needs before making decisions about exports.

For its part, Bharat Biotech said it was “fully prepared to meet the needs of India and global public health”.

Vaccine storage and distribution challenge

However, there will be challenges as the country attempts to meet vaccine demand in India and beyond.

Jefferies stock analyst Abhishek Sharma wrote in a note that vaccine adoption in India has been slow. Even assuming the speed of vaccination will increase, Sharma estimates that only 22% of India’s 1.38 billion people can be vaccinated in one year.

That is roughly the number of people India would like to vaccinate by July or August.

“The supply of vaccines is less of an issue than the storage, distribution and intake of vaccines,” said Solomon of CPPR.

“India is unable to store and distribute such large quantities to the masses,” she said, adding that the country should “strategically” choose vaccines that do not need to be stored in extreme temperatures.

I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed limiters slowing the program down than actual roadblocks where the program must be stopped.

K Srinath Reddy

Public Health Foundation of India

The vaccines India is currently manufacturing require normal refrigeration. However, the vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech must be stored at extremely cold temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius, while those made by Moderna must be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit).

The “real challenge” lies in the sheer number of people who need to be vaccinated, said Reddy of the Public Health Foundation of India.

“This is the first time an adult vaccination program has been carried out on such an unprecedented scale,” he told CNBC.

He said vaccination programs usually focus on vaccinating children and mothers, and the logistics network may not be prepared to handle vaccines for entire populations.

Reddy suggested using the existing food cold chain for vaccines, hoping this could be resolved.

“I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed limiters slowing down the program than actual roadblocks where the program has to be stopped, “he said.