February 3 coronavirus news

Switzerland declined to authorize the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, saying data submitted by AstraZeneca was "not yet sufficient to permit authorisation" of the vaccine.

"To obtain more information about safety, efficacy and quality, additional data from new studies are needed," Swissmedic said in a statement Wednesday.

In a preprint posted Tuesday by researchers at the University of Oxford, the Covid-19 vaccine showed 66.7% efficacy against symptomatic disease starting two weeks after the second shot. Oxford researchers also suggested the vaccine may reduce transmission of the virus, rather than simply reducing the severity of disease. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie earlier today that he hadn't seen the data himself. However he added that if the data from the vaccine preprint bears out, it’s good news because it adds another vaccine against Covid-19 into the mix.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that if data from an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine preprint bears out, it’s good news because it adds another vaccine against Covid-19 into the mix.

Fauci said that he hadn’t seen that data yet and noted that it had not been peer-reviewed. 

In the preprint posted Tuesday by researchers at the University of Oxford, the Covid-19 vaccine showed 66.7% efficacy against symptomatic disease starting two weeks after the second shot. Oxford researchers also suggested the vaccine may reduce transmission of the virus, rather than simply reducing the severity of disease. 

“I certainly have every reason to believe the Brits, but I’d like to see the data myself,” he said.

However, if it is true that it stops transmission, Fauci said on Today Wednesday, “that’s good news, you know, yet again another vaccine candidate in the mix.” 

Fauci referenced other recent vaccine news, including the Russia’s vaccine, which yesterday was reported to have over 90% efficacy, and the Johnson and Johnson candidate, which released promising results last week. 

“As we’re going on, getting into February now we’re going to have multiple candidates in the mix, which is good news,” he said. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on the Today Show Wednesday, that the United States isn’t vaccinating people fast enough to stay ahead of new variants, but the supply is improving.

Fauci said it’s “certainly a possibility” that new strains of the coronavirus could become dominant in the US. The way to prevent further mutation of the virus, is to suppress the replication of the virus, he told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie.

“The best way to do that is twofold,” he said. Double down on public health measures to prevent person to person spread and get as many people as possible vaccinated. 

When Guthrie asked if the US was vaccinating at a pace that was fast enough to keep ahead of the new variants, Fauci said “we’re getting better and better, but Savannah, we’re not, because the situation is we still have a demand that far exceeds the supply.” 

On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced that it would begin direct shipments of coronavirus vaccines to pharmacies starting Feb. 11. Fauci said this is good news. 

“If you get pharmacies to distribute, if you get community vaccine centers to distribute and then later on we’ll probably have mobile units to get out there, but we’ve got to get the steady supply of vaccines so that we can put it in people’s arms,” he said.  

The more companies that give vaccine data that looks like they’ll be able to get in the mix of vaccines, “the better we are.” 

“The more companies, the more vaccines, the more vaccines, the more people get protected, he said.

An ensemble forecast published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects there will be 496,000 to 534,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Feb. 27.

Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections a few weeks into the future.

The previous ensemble forecast, published Jan. 27, projected up to 514,000 coronavirus deaths by Feb. 20.

At least 446,910 people have already died from Covid-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The Biden administration announced Tuesday it will begin direct shipments of coronavirus vaccines to retail pharmacies next week. The program will start at about 6,500 stores that will receive a total of 1 million doses before eventually expanding, according to White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients.

“It’s better if we turn on the spigot, test out the system, make sure everything’s in place and robust, and then start increasing the vaccine that’s distributed to those outlets … We need to test the waters gently and then ramp up quickly,” Bright said. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Good Morning America Wednesday that he hopes the Super Bowl will not become another superspreader event and that it is absolutely not the time to have watch parties. 

Speaking with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos about whether the Super Bowl could become a superspreader event, Fauci said “I hope not.” If people abide by the public health measures — masking, distancing, avoiding congregate settings, and being outside and at a distance from others – Fauci said, “You could be OK, as long as people abide by that and don’t slip.” 

But now is “absolutely not” the time for Super Bowl parties.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Good Morning America Wednesday that delaying second doses of Covid-19 vaccine so that as many people in the US can get a first dose is “not necessarily” what he recommends.

Fauci told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that it looks like there is going to be a much steadier supply or cadence of vaccines coming in through February and into March. 

“I think you can accelerate it without necessarily dramatically delaying the second dose,” Fauci said. “If you miss it by a few days to a week or two, I don’t think that’s a big problem, as the CDC says, but I’d be concerned about delaying it for three months or so.”

When asked about Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine data that found 76% efficacy up to three months following one dose and  possible higher efficacy among more spaced-out doses, Fauci reminded that this a different type of vaccine from the mRNA vaccines already in use in the United States.

“You got to be careful because you’re dealing with different vaccine platforms,” he said, adding that the data that is available for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines “are solid” about getting a second shot 28 days and 21 days later, respectively.  

“We know just from immunology in general that a little flexibility on either end of that is not going to be a big deal, however if you delay it longer you don’t know whether or not the efficacy is going to be maintained over a period of time, and you don’t know how low it’s going to go,” he said. 

England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty was verbally abused in the street and called a liar, a video uploaded to TikTok on Tuesday showed.

In the video, a young man can be seen repeatedly telling Whitty he is a liar.

The TikTok account that posted the video has since been deleted.

Whitty has been at the forefront of Covid-19 pandemic as an adviser for the UK’s government, and regularly appears in press conferences with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock condemned the video and told BBC Breakfast: “I think the individual concerned is pathetic. I think it’s ridiculous what he’s doing.”

Hancock praised Whitty, saying, “Chris Whitty is one of the greatest living scientists and his advice to the government, all the way through this, and his advice to all of us in the population has been incredibly, incredibly smart and thoughtful and he's a great asset to this nation.”

Matt Vickers, Conservative MP for Stockton South, also criticized the video via Twitter.

UK Health Department told CNN that they are “worried that the more these videos circulate, the more it might encourage others to do the same thing.”

Britain's GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and German biopharmaceutical company CureVac plan to develop a Covid-19 vaccine that could be available in 2022 and would address emerging variants, the two companies said Wednesday in a joint statement.

The two firms have teamed up in a €150 million euro ($180 million) collaboration to "jointly develop next generation mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 with the potential for a multi-valent approach to address multiple emerging variants in one vaccine," the statement reads.

The development program will “begin immediately, with the target of introducing the vaccine in 2022, subject to regulatory approval.”

GSK will also support the manufacture of up to 100 million doses of CureVac’s first generation Covid-19 vaccine candidate CVnCoV in 2021.