Tag: shots

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UAE, Bahrain supply third Sinopharm photographs amid vaccine efficacy worries

UAE, Bahrain offer third Sinopharm shots amid vaccine efficacy worries

People are waiting for their turn to get vaccinated against the coronavirus on February 3, 2021 at a vaccination center at the Dubai International Financial Center in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. The UAE has administered more than a quarter of at least three million doses to its population.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are offering a booster shot of the Sinopharm vaccine developed in China to residents and citizens who have already received two doses, the country’s medical authorities said.

“An additional supportive dose of Sinopharm is now available to people who previously received the vaccine and have now completed more than six months since the second dose,” the UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority tweeted Tuesday evening.

Bahrain’s National Medical Taskforce to Fight the Coronavirus also announced “the opening of registration for a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine for the most vulnerable groups in Bahrain, at least 6 months after taking the second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine, for first aiders as well Citizens and residents over the age of 50, as well as those suffering from obesity, low immunity, or other underlying health conditions. “

The announcements come amid questions about Sinopharm’s effectiveness and reports of Covid-19 reinfections in people who have received their two shot doses.

The World Health Organization approved Sinopharm for emergencies at the beginning of May, making it the first non-Western vaccine to receive the green light for the organization. Developed by China’s state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (commonly referred to as Sinopharm), it is one of the country’s two main intakes, administered to millions of people in China and elsewhere, especially in developing countries.

The UAE’s vaccination campaign, one of the fastest in the world, has relied heavily on the Sinopharm shot since the end of 2020, which is available to all residents and citizens. Pfizer / BioNTech, AstraZeneca / University of Oxford and Sputnik V vaccines are also available in Dubai for several months, while the United Arab Emirates’ capital, Abu Dhabi, only offered Sinopharm to its residents until it recently changed course to end April also to offer Pfizer.

Mixed effectiveness figures

The United Arab Emirates government announced in December last year that an “interim analysis” of Phase 3 trials of the vaccine in Abu Dhabi by China National Biotec Group (a subsidiary of Sinopharm) showed an efficacy of 86%. However, the announcement contained few details and did not reveal how that 86% figure was calculated.

In the same month, China announced that the vaccine was 79.34% effective based on “preliminary trial data” without releasing Phase 3 results, contradicting UAE figures.

Sinopharm has not responded to multiple CNBC requests for comment.

The UAE will play an important role in expanding access to vaccines in developing countries thanks to its partnership with China to manufacture millions of doses locally through a joint venture between Sinopharm and UAE-based tech company G42. The vaccine made in the UAE is called Hayat-Vax. Hayat means “life” in Arabic.

In March, the UAE gave “a small number” of people who did not develop antibodies after their first two shots the third dose of Sinopharm, local news reported.

Coronavirus cases in the UAE peaked at around 4,000 a day in late January but have since dropped to less than 1,500 a day. After a very strict spring lockdown in 2020, the Gulf Sheikh’s economy has reopened completely. The commercial capital of Dubai is one of the first places in the world to resume tourism and personal conferences.

Nevertheless, it has been on the “Red List” for Great Britain, a top tourism partner, since January. France and a number of other EU countries have also put the UAE on their red list and require a ten-day quarantine upon arrival.

In late April, the UAE announced it would take “tough measures” to limit the movement of people not vaccinated against the coronavirus to its national vaccination campaign, which has already fired nearly 11.5 million shots in a population of around 10 million has to expand further.

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Health

Pfizer and Moderna Pictures Are Powerfully Efficient in opposition to Virus, Evaluation Says

Pfizer and Moderna Shots Are Powerfully Effective against Virus, Analysis Says

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Coronavirus vaccines are 94 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 disease, according to a new study of 1,800 US healthcare workers.

The research the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Friday provides even more evidence that the vaccines work well outside of controlled clinical trials.

“This report provided the most compelling information yet that Covid-19 vaccines are working as expected in the real world,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, in a statement Friday.

“This study, which was added to the many previous studies, was instrumental in changing the CDC’s recommendations for those fully vaccinated against Covid-19.”

The results are based on an ongoing study of healthcare workers in 25 states. This interim analysis included data on 1,843 healthcare workers who were routinely tested for coronavirus infection. More than 80 percent of the participants were female.

About 623 workers tested positive between January and mid-March. Those who were fully vaccinated were 94 percent less likely to develop symptomatic coronavirus infections than their unvaccinated counterparts, the researchers found. The numbers are consistent with the effectiveness estimates from the clinical studies.

The scientists also found that a single dose of the two-shot regimen was 82 percent effective in preventing symptomatic infection. This number is higher than reported in other studies and may be due to the relative youth of the study participants, who had an average age of 37 to 38 years. Less than 2 percent were 65 years of age or older.

CDC scientists had previously found that fully vaccinated health, frontline, and essential workers were 90 percent less likely to get coronavirus. These results helped allay fears that vaccinated people might even asymptomatically transmit the virus and spread it to others.

Concern was a major reason for asking vaccinated Americans to continue wearing masks, a recommendation the CDC overturned Thursday.

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We are able to vaccinate our method out of this epidemic if all adults get photographs, says physician

J&J asked Pfizer, Moderna to help study blood clots but they declined: WSJ

Daylight saving time in the United States could return to pre-Covid-19 normal if 75% to 80% of the US population are vaccinated, said Dr. Peter Hotez on Friday.

“We can vaccinate out of this epidemic if all adults and adolescents are vaccinated by summer. We can have an exceptional quality of life by returning to concerts and music events, as well as ball games, bars, restaurants, clubs and clubs.” all the things we like to do so we have to work towards them, “said Hotez.

Hotez, co-director of the vaccine development center at Texas Children’s Hospital, told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith that vaccine hesitation will prevent the US from getting 75% to 80% of the population vaccinated.

The demand for the Covid-19 vaccine has fallen in all states. Louisiana, for example, asked for fewer cans because the demand was so low. Polls show that more than 40% of Republicans do not plan to vaccinate, and Hotez advised health professionals to reach out to conservative groups to help protect the entire US population.

“About 40% to 45% of Republicans say they may not or may not take the vaccine, and when you add the numbers that’s about 10% of the adult population,” Hotez said. “There we have to work harder to reach conservative groups … that we have to fix.”

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Health

Individuals who get Covid between vaccine pictures can get second dose after restoration

People who get Covid between vaccine shots can get second dose after recovery

The director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on April 13, 2021.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

People who contract the coronavirus between Covid-19 vaccinations can get their second dose after recovering from the disease and are no longer considered contagious, White House chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Thursday.

Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid vaccines require two doses three to four weeks apart. Both vaccines are about 95% effective against the virus, but that strong protection doesn’t kick in until two weeks after the second dose, officials say.

Some people have reported that Covid was diagnosed after the first vaccine shot and before the second vaccine. In that case, Fauci said, they can get their second dose after they recover from the disease and meet the isolation criteria.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who have had Covid-19 may be around others after at least 10 days, 24 hours without a fever, and when other symptoms, if any, improve.

Fauci also noted that a small percentage of fully vaccinated people will continue to develop Covid-19 – so-called “breakthrough cases”. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday that U.S. health officials had confirmed fewer than 6,000 cases of Covid-19 from 84 million Americans with full protection against the virus.

Fauci said officials do not yet understand the risk of developing persistent symptoms, also known as “long covid,” after a breakthrough post-vaccination.

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Health

Prime Biden Covid officers to debate vaccine rollout with Home after J&J pictures paused

Top Biden Covid officials to discuss vaccine rollout with House after J&J shots paused

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (left), speaks to Dr. David Kessler, Chief Science Officer of the White House COVID-19 Response Team on the Federal Coronavirus Response on Capitol Hill March 18, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Susan Walsh | Getty Images

The House’s coronavirus subcommittee will hear from three leading health officials in the Biden government on Thursday about United States efforts to step up vaccinations as Covid cases, including those of dangerous variants, are on the rise.

The hearing, which will also focus on the continued need for people to wear masks and follow social distancing measures, is slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET. It is streamed live.

The event comes two days after dozens of states abruptly stopped administering Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid vaccine in response to the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation to suspend those recordings while investigating cases of women, who have developed a rare bleeding disorder.

Some fear the recommendation, issued in response to six reported blood clot cases from nearly 7 million J&J doses administered, could hamper the global campaign to vaccinate the world against the pandemic.

The selected subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, led by James Clyburn, DS.C., is led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s foremost infectious disease expert, and the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky. David Kessler, a senior Covid official in President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services, is also on the witness list.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, listens to the response from Covid-19, DC during a hearing with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on March 18, 2021 in Washington on Capitol Hill, DC .

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

While the US is vaccinating more people than ever before, Covid cases are increasing in more than half of its states. According to the Johns Hopkins University, an average of more than 71,000 cases per day were counted for the past week.

“It’s almost a race between vaccinating people and this surge that is apparently about to increase,” Fauci told CNN on Wednesday.

The emergence of variants of Covid – like B 1.1.7, which recently flooded Michigan and is now the most common strain in the US – has led health officials to urge Americans to continue to take precautionary measures despite accelerated vaccination efforts.

Experts say Johnson & Johnson’s recent vaccination problems could fuel skepticism about vaccines.

In their quest to have all eligible individuals in the U.S. vaccinated against Covid, officials have stressed that all of the options available – from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – are safe and effective. All three have been approved by the FDA for emergency use. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two separate doses given three to four weeks apart.

But the six cases of women who developed the rare blood clots urged the FDA to stop J & J’s shot “out of caution.”

All women developed the disease within about two weeks of being vaccinated, health officials told reporters Tuesday. One of the women died.

“I think it will affect the hesitation, period. Whether it should or not is a different matter,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University, told CNBC.

With Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine only containing one dose, experts say the hiatus could also reduce vaccine access for some communities.

“This vaccine was biased to be used in harsher environments, places where you couldn’t deliver two doses. You wanted to deliver one dose and stick to the vaccination schedule,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who sits on the Pfizer board of directors at CNBC on Tuesday.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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 Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.

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To Velocity Vaccination, Some Name for Delaying Second Pictures

To Speed Vaccination, Some Call for Delaying Second Shots

The prospect of a fourth wave of coronavirus, with new cases skyrocketing in the upper Midwest, has sparked renewed debate among vaccine experts about how long to wait between first and second doses. Extending this period would quickly increase the number of people with partial protection from a single shot, but some experts fear that this could also lead to dangerous new variants.

In the United States, two-dose vaccines are three to four weeks apart, which is what has been tested in clinical trials. In the UK, however, health officials have postponed the dosage by up to 12 weeks in order to reach more people faster. And in Canada, where vaccines are few and far between, a government advisory council recommended on Wednesday that the second dose be delayed even longer, up to four months.

Some health professionals believe the United States should follow suit. Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, co-director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, has suggested that all U.S. vaccines should go to people on their first dose in the next few weeks.

“That should be enough to suppress the fourth surge, especially in places like Michigan like Minnesota,” he said in an interview. Dr. Emanuel and his colleagues posted the proposal in USA Today on Thursday.

However, opponents, including health advisors to the Biden government, argue that delaying dosing is a bad idea. They warn that the country will be prone to variants – those that are already in circulation, as well as new ones that could develop in the bodies of partially vaccinated people who are unable to fight off infection quickly.

“Postponing the second dose to a later date is a very dangerous suggestion,” said Dr. Luciana Borio, the former acting chief scientist of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, agreed. “Let’s move on to what we know is the optimal level of protection,” he said.

The cornerstone for the debate was laid in December when clinical studies first gave scientists a good look at how vaccines work. For example, in the clinical trial for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, volunteers enjoyed robust protection from Covid-19 two weeks after the second dose. But just 10 days after the first dose, the researchers found that the volunteers got sick less often than those who received the placebo.

In the same month, the UK saw a surge in cases caused by a new, highly communicable variant called B.1.1.7. After the UK government approved two vaccines – from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca – it decided to combat the variant by delaying the second dose of both formulations by 12 weeks.

In January, some researchers campaigned for the United States to follow Britain’s lead.

“I think right now, before this surge, we need to take as many single doses as possible in as many people over 65 as possible to reduce the serious illness and deaths that will occur in the coming weeks,” said Michael T. Osterholm of the University of Minnesota said “Meet the Press” on NBC’s Jan. 31st.

But the government stayed on track, arguing that it would be unwise to venture into the unknown in the middle of a pandemic. Although the clinical trials showed early protection from the first dose, no one knew how well this partial protection would last.

“When you’re talking about doing something that can do real harm, you need empirical data to back it up,” said Dr. Céline R. Gounder, Infectious Disease Specialist at the Bellevue Hospital Center and member of the Coronavirus Advisory Service for Mr Biden Tafel. “I don’t think you can make your way out of it logically.”

Over the past few weeks, however, those in favor of dosing delay have been able to point to mounting evidence suggesting that an initial dose can provide effective protection that lasts for several weeks.

Updated

April 9, 2021, 12:10 p.m. ET

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that two weeks after a single dose of the Moderna or Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, a person’s risk of developing coronavirus infection was reduced by 80 percent. And researchers in the UK have found that the first dose provides protection for at least 12 weeks.

Dr. Emanuel argued that the UK’s campaign to get more people first doses played a role in the 95 percent drop in cases since their peak in January. “It was pretty breathtaking,” said Dr. Emanuel.

He cites such data as further evidence that the United States should extend vaccination. He and his colleagues estimate that if the country had used a 12-week schedule from the start of its introduction, by April 5 an additional 47 million people would have received at least one dose.

Sarah E. Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, said the United States had lost a valuable opportunity to save many lives with such a strategy. “We missed a window and people died,” she said.

But even now, said Dr. Emanuel, it is worth postponing the dosage. The United States issues about three million vaccines every day, but nearly half goes to people who have already received a shot. All of the nation’s offering, he argued, should go to first-timers instead.

If so, according to his team’s calculations, it would take the United States two or three weeks to catch up with Britain. The extra protection would not only save the lives of those vaccinated, it would also help reduce the transmission of the virus to people who are not yet protected.

Still, some scientists say it is premature to acknowledge the belated vaccination schedule for the decline in cases in the UK.

“They did a couple of other things like shutdown,” said Dr. Fauci.

“I think the real test will be whether we see a rebound in cases where the UK reopens.” Said Dr. Gounder.

Rather than experimenting with vaccination schedules, critics think it wiser to take basic preventive measures like wearing masks seriously. “It is crucial that we don’t just rejoin a big national party,” said Dr. Borio.

You and others are also concerned about recent studies showing that a single dose of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech doesn’t work as well against certain variants like B.1.351, which were first found in South Africa.

“Relying on a dose of Moderna or Pfizer to stop variants like B.1.351 is like using a BB gun to stop a charging rhino,” said John P. Moore, virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Moore said he also feared delaying dosing could encourage the spread of new variants that vaccines can better resist. When coronaviruses multiply in the bodies of some vaccinated people, they can acquire mutations that allow them to evade the antibodies produced by the vaccine.

But Dr. Cobey, who studies virus evolution, said she wasn’t worried about delayed doses that produce more variants. “I would bet my money on it, with the opposite effect,” she said.

Last week, she and her colleagues posted a comment in Nature Reviews Immunology to defend the delay of doses. Vaccinating more people – even with moderately less protection – could curb the spread of the virus in a community more than if fewer people had more protection, they said. And that decline wouldn’t just mean more lives were saved. Variants would also have a lower chance of showing up and spreading.

“There are fewer infected people who can have variants,” she said.

Dr. Adam S. Lauring, a University of Michigan virologist who was not involved in the comment, said he felt that Dr. Cobey and her colleagues had come up with a compelling case. “The arguments in this piece really agree with me,” he said.

While the United States is unlikely to change course, its northern neighbor has adopted a delayed strategy to deal with a booming pandemic and vaccine shortage.

Dr. Catherine Hankins, a public health specialist at McGill University in Montreal and a member of Canada’s Covid-19 Immunity Task Force, approved this decision based on the emerging evidence for single doses. And she said that she thought other countries facing even worse deficits should consider this too.

“I will advocate, on a global level, that countries look closely at Canada’s strategy and think seriously about it,” said Dr. Haskins.

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Biden to maneuver deadline for states to open photographs to all U.S. adults to April 19

Biden to move deadline for states to open shots to all U.S. adults to April 19

Joe Cobarrubio, 34, will receive a vaccination against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on April 5, 2021 in Artesia, California, United States.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

President Joe Biden is expected to announce Tuesday that states will open Covid-19 vaccine appointments for all adults in the United States by April 19, extending its original deadline by nearly two weeks, a White House official confirmed to NBC News .

Biden is expected to announce the new deadline later Tuesday after visiting a vaccination site in Alexandria, Virginia. While the deadline is voluntary, it puts public pressure on states to expand their eligibility guidelines.

A few weeks ago, Biden urged states, tribes and territories to question all adults in the US for a vaccination by May 1 at the latest. Most states, however, have already announced plans to open the rating to all adults by April 19. Only Hawaii and Oregon are havens, according to NBC News, no open eligibility plans have been announced as of this date.

Biden announced last week that 90% of adults in the US will be eligible for Covid-19 shots by April 19 and will be within five miles of their home on an expanded vaccination schedule. Around 40,000 pharmacies will sell the vaccine, up from 17,000, Biden said, and the US is setting up a dozen more mass vaccination sites by April 19.

“For the vast majority of adults, you don’t have to wait until May 1. You can be eligible for your shot on April 19,” Biden said on March 29 during a news conference on the government’s and Covid-19 response Vaccination efforts across the country.

Biden is pushing for 200 million Covid shots to be administered within his first 100 days in office. The pandemic rate of U.S. vaccinations averaged 3.1 million doses per day over the past week, according to Andy Slavitt, the White House’s senior pandemic advisor.

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Fauci says two photographs of Pfizer or Moderna are higher than one

Fauci says two shots of Pfizer or Moderna are better than one

46-year-old Edith Arangoitia (who came to accompany her older mother) was born on February 16, 2021 by Dr. Galen Harnden in La Colaborativa in Chelsea, Massachusetts, was vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

Joseph Precious | AFP | Getty Images

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that Americans should continue to receive two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, although a recent study in the US showed the shots were highly effective after just one dose.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last week found that a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna was 80% effective in preventing coronavirus infections in healthcare workers and other key workers. Two doses are better than one, federal health officials said, adding that the vaccines’ effectiveness rose to 90% two weeks after the second dose.

While the 80% figure was good news, Fauci said Monday he was still concerned about the length of protection after a single dose, particularly the emergence of highly contagious variants that have shown they can evade the vaccines’ protection .

“If you look at the level of protection after a dose, you can say it’s 80%, but it’s a little weak 80%,” Fauci said during a White House press conference on the pandemic. “If you leave it at one dose, how long will it take?”

Highly infectious Covid-19 variants that have shown some resistance to vaccines also pose a challenge, Fauci said. “You’re in a weak zone if you don’t get the full effect of two doses,” he said.

Fauci’s comments come as some health experts and public health officials argue that the U.S. should prefer to give Americans just one dose of the vaccines before moving on to a second dose, accelerating the pace of vaccinations across the country.

Unlike the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires one dose, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two vaccinations three to four weeks apart. In the UK, health officials decided to increase the time between the first and second dose to 12 weeks to speed up vaccinations.

Fauci has said repeatedly over the past few months that the US should stick to the two-dose regime.

Dr. Paul Offit, a voting member of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee who reviewed both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines for emergency approval, told CNBC last week that studies showed immunity after the second dose actually appears to be “more permanent”, meaning that protection can last longer.

The two-dose vaccination schedule also produces ten times the amount of neutralizing antibodies, which play an important role in fighting the virus, from the first dose to the second, Offit told CNBC.

Second, and more importantly, after the second dose, scientists also discovered what are known as T cells, another important part of the immune response that usually provides longer-lasting immunity, he said.

Fauci said Monday he “respects” the case for a one-dose strategy, but added that the US currently has enough doses to provide Americans with the first and second dose. “Although we always stay open, we consider the route we are on to be the best route,” he said.

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World News

As U.S. Pictures Close to three Million Day by day, Consultants Warn of Complacency

As U.S. Shots Near 3 Million Daily, Experts Warn of Complacency

As President Biden steps home from his first 100 days in office, the general decline in new virus cases, deaths and hospitalizations since January offers signs of hope for a weary nation.

But the average number of new cases has increased 19 percent in the past two weeks, and federal health officials say complacency with the coronavirus could spark another major wave of infections.

“There is so much we can look forward to, so much promise and potential where we are, and so much reason to hope,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made an emotional appeal to Americans this week. “But right now I’m scared.”

On the positive side, nearly a third of the people in the United States have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. By early Saturday morning, an average of nearly three million people received a shot every day, up from about two million in early March.

The rising vaccination rate has led some state officials to speed up their rollout plans. This week Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont expanded access to people aged 16 and over a few days ahead of the scheduled date. And Colorado Governor Jared Polis opened general authority about two weeks ahead of schedule.

“You no longer have to sort out whether you’re inside or outside,” said Julie Willems Van Dijk, the assistant secretary of the Department of Health in Wisconsin, where anyone 16 years or older is eligible for a vaccine Monday. “It’s time to just go forward and get everyone in the arm with one shot.”

In another promising development, federal health officials said Friday that Americans fully vaccinated against the coronavirus can travel within the US and abroad “at low risk to themselves.”

But most of the signs of hope these days are counterbalanced by danger.

For the past week, there was an average of 64,730 cases per day, up 19 percent from two weeks earlier, according to a New York Times database. The number of new deaths has decreased on average but is still 900 per day. More than 960 were reported on Friday alone.

The CDC forecast this week that the number of new Covid-19 cases per week in the US “will remain stable or show an uncertain trend” over the next four weeks and that the weekly number of cases could reach 700,000 even in the US End of April.

In many states, especially in the Midwest and Northeast, cases are already increasing significantly as variants spread and some governors relax mask mandates and other restrictions. Dr. Walensky said this week that the nation could face a potential fourth wave if states and cities continued to ease public health restrictions.

Michigan, one of the hardest-hit states, reports nearly 6,000 cases a day – up from about 1,000 a day at the end of February – even though half of those over 65 are now fully vaccinated.

And in Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine said new variations added to the state’s case numbers even as vaccinations increased.

“We have to understand that we are in a battle,” he said.

As if to underscore how fragile the nation’s recovery is, a typical American ritual – the start of baseball season – has already seen a virus-related delay.

Major League Baseball officials said Friday the league found only five positive cases in more than 14,000 tests by league staff. But because four of those people were Washington Nationals players, the team’s opening game against the New York Mets was postponed, and then the entire weekend series of three games.

“It’s one of those things that brings out that we haven’t made it yet,” Brian Snitker, executive director of Atlanta Braves, told The Associated Press. “We’re still fighting against it.”

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Health

U.S. begins testing Moderna’s Covid vaccine booster photographs for variant from South Africa

U.S. begins testing Moderna's Covid vaccine booster shots for variant from South Africa

A nurse draws a vaccine for Moderna Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on March 5, 2021 at the East Valley Community Health Center in La Puente, California.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

The National Institutes of Health have started testing a new coronavirus vaccine from Moderna, which is designed to protect against a problematic variant first found in South Africa, the agency said on Wednesday.

According to the agency, the phase 1 study, which is led and funded by the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases of the NIH, will test how safe and effective the new shot is against the variant known as B.1.351 in around 210 healthy adults .

The study, which has already had some of the first vaccinations, will include approximately 60 adults who participated in Moderna’s original Covid-19 vaccine studies last year, as well as approximately 150 people who have not yet received a Covid-19 vaccine at one Statement.

Returning participants, who were given two syringes of the original vaccine 28 days apart at different doses early last year, will split up.

Some of them get a single booster shot with the new vaccine at a higher dose while others get the new vaccine at a lower dose, the statement said. Remaining participants will be offered a booster shot with the original vaccine “as part of a separate clinical trial protocol”.

Researchers will take blood samples from participants throughout the study, which can be tested against other circulating strains of the virus to see if the vaccine elicits an immune response.

The study will recruit volunteers in the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Seattle and Nashville, Tennessee areas and should be fully enrolled by the end of April, the agency said.

Variant B.1.351, first discovered in South Africa at the end of last year, has given scientists more cause for concern compared to other variants. The variant appears to spread more easily than the original “wild-type” strains, and research shows that it may evade some of the safeguards created by therapeutics and vaccines.

So far, 312 Covid-19 cases with variant B.1.351 have been identified in the United States, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Preliminary data shows that the COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the US should provide adequate protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants,” said NIAID Director and Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in a statement.

“However, out of caution, NIAID has continued its partnership with Moderna to evaluate this variant vaccine candidate should an updated vaccine be required,” said Fauci.

The US Food and Drug Administration has already announced that it will accelerate the approval process for the updated vaccines, which target the problematic variants, so that no lengthy clinical trials are required.

However, an independent safety monitoring committee will continue to monitor the trials to ensure the shots are safe, the NIH statement said.