February 22 coronavirus news

Covid-19 vaccination rollout has been linked to a substantial fall in the risk of admission to hospitals from the disease in Scotland, according to early data from a study on the effect of the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca shots in the community. 

Researchers compared hospital admissions among those who have had their first dose and those who have not.  

The preliminary study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, is the first to look at the two vaccines’ effect on preventing severe illness resulting in hospitalization across an entire country, with previous efficacy results coming from clinical trials.

The EAVE II project, carried out by researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Aberdeen, Glasgow and St Andrew’s and Public Health Scotland (PHS), analyzed a dataset covering almost the entire Scottish population of 5.4 million.  

Researchers analyzed data for every week between December 8 and February 15. During this period 1.14 million vaccines were administered (some 650,000 people got the Pfizer shot and some 490,000 had Oxford-AstraZeneca) with 21% of the Scottish population receiving a first dose, according to a University of Edinburgh press release. 

Among those aged 80 years and over -- one of the highest risk groups -- vaccination was associated with an 81% reduction in hospitalization risk from Covid-19 in the fourth week, when the results for both vaccines were combined, according to the press release. 

“These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future. We now have national evidence -- across an entire country -- that vaccination provides protection against Covid-19 hospitalizations,” lead researcher Aziz Sheikh, director of the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, said in the release.

The researchers say the findings are applicable to other countries that are using the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines but caution that the data does not allow for comparisons between the two vaccines. “We haven't done a direct comparison between the two,” Sheikh said during a Monday news press conference.

Dr. Jim McMenamin, national Covid-19 incident director for PHS, stressed that the results are from a single dose, rather than a complete course of the vaccine. He said the bottom line is the team are “very encouraged” by the national data that shows the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines “are providing substantial protection against the risk of hospital admissions.

“No matter which of the two vaccines that any of our population are receiving, on the basis of the information that we're presenting ... there's encouragement, about the effect of both vaccines,” he added.

This week is President Biden's first big test, as his massive relief Covid-19 relief bill comes together on the Hill, with very little bipartisan support.   

On the cusp of 500,000 Covid-19 deaths and nearly one year into the pandemic that devastated the economy, saw rising unemployment, shuttered businesses and shattered families, Democrats will try to remain united and pass one more massive $1.9 trillion relief bill testing the party’s ability to deliver for their new President and lead together.

Bottom line: The next three weeks will give an early glimpse into how the Democrats’ moderates and progressives work together, who is willing to make good on their threats to torpedo legislation and who is willing to set aside their political grievances in the name of the bigger picture. The goal is to pass this bill and get it signed by March 14. Everything has to go smoothly for that to happen.

One party having the House, Senate and White House is never as easy as it looks, and that’s true even when talking about legislation that is overwhelmingly popular with the American public. When you ask members on the fence why they are voting for a bill that includes provisions they may not be so keen on their answer is simple: you cannot vote against Biden’s first big ask and you certainly can’t vote against it when it polls like this package does.

What you’ll see in the House this week: The House Budget Committee is going to meet at 1 p.m. ET today to mark-up their 591-page bill and work to pass it out of Committee. The mark-up will be an opportunity for Republicans to message against the bill, rail against the increase in health care subsidies, attack provisions that provide funding to humanities, the arts and the preservation of Native American languages – which they will argue have nothing to do with coronavirus– and rail against the overall price tag of the package.

They’ll offer amendments that we don’t expect to pass and then when everyone has had enough, there will be a vote to advance the bill out of committee and send it to the floor. 

The final vote on the package on the floor will be later this week likely Friday or Saturday.

As the United States approaches half a million deaths from Covid-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that the situation didn’t have to be this bad, the country needs to be unified and committed to fighting the virus together. 

“It’s so tough to just go back and try and, you know, do a metaphorical autopsy on how things went,” Fauci said. “It was just bad; it is bad now.” 

In late winter and early spring last year, when it was said that the numbers could get as high as 240,000, “people were thinking we were being hyperbolic about it, and now here we are with a half a million deaths, just a stunning figure.” 

Rather than looking back and saying “what the heck happened here?” Fauci said, he would encourage everyone “go forward and be completely committed as a unified country to just go at this together. This is a common enemy, we’ve all got to pitch in.” 

There’s good news on vaccines, he said, but it’s a race against the infections – and public health measures to limit spread must continue.

“That is the weapons that we have against this horrible disease,” he said. 

The biotechnology company Novavax announced on Monday that it has completed enrollment of its PREVENT-19 trial, a Phase 3 study of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States and Mexico. 

The trial has enrolled 30,000 volunteers across 118 locations, according to the announcement. 

In January, Novavax announced that early results from a Phase 3 trial in the UK show its coronavirus vaccine has an efficacy of 89.3%.

The company's announcement also included the diversity breakdown of its trial participants, with 20% identifying as LatinX, 13% as Black, 6% as Native American, and 5% as Asian American. 

The announcement noted that 13% of volunteers are 65 and older.

The Alpes-Maritimes police commissioner on Monday announced a partial lockdown in between the French coastal towns of Menton and Theoule over the next two weekends in an effort to curb a surge in Covid-19 cases and the spread of new variants.

Bernard Gonzalez said controls at the France-Italy border would be tightened and that shopping centers larger than 5,000 square meters that do not sell food are to close starting Tuesday.

An additional 4,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been sent to the region on Monday for use in the 48 to 72 hours that follow.

The partial weekend lockdown announcement follows a visit from French Health Minister Olivier Véran to the province on Saturday during which he called for stricter restrictions.

French President Emmanuel Macron has done everything to avoid a third nationwide lockdown, implementing a 6 p.m. curfew and reinforcing border controls.

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said Monday they had begun a Phase 2 trial of their Covid-19 vaccine candidate, and if results are positive, a Phase 3 study could start in the second quarter of 2021.

The “protein subunit” vaccine uses Sanofi's recombinant antigen technology with a GlaxoSmithKline adjuvant, an immune booster. The Phase 2 study will include 720 volunteers age 18 and older in the United States, Honduras and Panama.

The trial will assess the dosage of the companies’ vaccine; three different antigen doses will be tested with a fixed adjuvant dose and the two injections will be given 21 days apart.

Phase 1/2 trials showed the vaccine candidate elicited an immune response in younger adults that's comparable to patients who recovered from Covid-19, but the vaccine did not produce the desired immune response in older adults. The Phase 2 trial will include equal numbers of adults ages 18 to 59 years, and 60 years and above.

“Over the past few weeks, our teams have worked to refine the antigen formulation of our recombinant-protein vaccine, based on learnings from our initial Phase 1/2 study,” Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president and head of Sanofi Pasteur, said in a statement. “We are confident that our vaccine candidate has strong potential and we are very encouraged by the latest preclinical data."

The companies said the vaccine could be available in the fourth quarter if trial results are positive and the vaccine is authorized. In statements, the companies also said Sanofi has begun work against new coronavirus variants “which will be used to inform next stages of the Sanofi/GSK development program."

France rugby captain Charles Ollivon is among five new players to have tested positive for Covid-19, the French rugby federation (FFR) announced on Monday.

Ollivon, along with Cyril Baille, Peato Mauvaka, Romain Taofifenua and Brice Dulin, returned positive results following the latest round of testing on Sunday. The FFR added that two members of staff are also suspected to have contracted the virus.

It brings the total number of France players to have returned positive Covid-19 results to 10.

All five of the players who returned positive tests on Sunday have been replaced in France’s 31-man squad.

The FFR said the team is set to return to training at the National Rugby Centre in Marcoussis, on the outskirts of Paris, on Wednesday.

France, who currently top the Six Nations standings, are scheduled to face Scotland in Paris on Sunday.

From Washington state to Florida, from California to Massachusetts, facilities are opening to help the growing number of Americans who suffer from Covid-19 symptoms many months after their diagnosis.

Just a little more than a year into the pandemic, it's not clear how many Covid-19 patients go on to develop what's called long-term Covid, or long Covid. A recent study that included mostly people who had just mild cases found 30% were reporting symptoms as long as nine months after contracting the virus. Other studies have found a higher percentage.

And almost every day that doctors work with these Covid long haulers brings new revelations about the syndrome, which manifests itself in a vast array of symptoms in patients of all ages and of every health status pre-Covid.

"We now realize it goes way beyond the standard post viral syndrome," said Dr. William Li, a physician of internal medicine and founder of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on the role of blood vessels in diseases.

"These symptoms can last for nine months. And we're going on to a year now, we're still seeing new symptoms unfold," said Li, a vascular biologist who has been researching Covid for almost a year.

Read the full story here:

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has renewed its call for Tanzania to start reporting Covid-19 cases and share information on what measures it is taking to combat the pandemic.

“WHO is yet to receive any information regarding what measures Tanzania is taking to respond to the pandemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Saturday. 

Early on in the pandemic, the country’s President John Magufuli dismissed the seriousness of coronavirus in Tanzania, urging his citizens to "pray coronavirus away." In June, he claimed his country had eradicated coronavirus "by the grace of God."

Tanzania belongs to a small list of countries that don’t publish data on Covid-19 cases or deaths. Tedros called on the country to reverse course and provide transparent data. 

The extent to which coronavirus has spread in Tanzania remains unknown, but Tedros said cases involving infected Tanzanians traveling abroad underscored the need for “robust action.”  

“A number of Tanzanians traveling to neighbouring countries and beyond have tested positive for Covid-19. This underscores the need for Tanzania to take robust action both to safeguard their own people and protect populations in these countries and beyond,” his statement said. 

Tanzania has not updated its Covid-19 data since late April, leaving the last number of reported confirmed cases at 509 and the death toll at 21. Those are also the latest numbers that Johns Hopkins University has published on its website. 

Last month, WHO urged officials in Tanzania to follow science in the fight against coronavirus, after Magufuli suggested approved vaccines are "dangerous" and that "not all vaccines are of good intentions to our nation."

"There are some of our fellow Tanzanians who recently did travel abroad in search of corona vaccines, they are the ones who brought back corona in our country after returning," Magufuli said at an event on January 27. 

"My fellow Tanzanians, let us stand firm, some of these vaccines are not good for us."