New Coronavirus News from 30 Mar 2021b

Coronavirus likely came from animal, not a lab, WHO draft report finds [CNN, 30 Mar 2021]

By Maggie Fox and Sandi Sidhu

(CNN)Covid-19 probably came to people through an animal, and likely started spreading no more than a month or two before it was noticed in December of 2019, a World Health Organization draft report finds.

The least likely source: a laboratory leak, the WHO's joint international team concluded.

WHO is scheduled to release the final report on its investigation into the origins of coronavirus on Tuesday, but a draft version of the report obtained by CNN shows there's still no smoking gun and no evidence suggesting the virus was spreading any earlier than the very end of 2019.

The report gives four possible sources for the virus and the most likely scenario is via an intermediate animal host, possibly a wild animal captured and then raised on a farm.

But the investigation has not found what other animal was infected by a bat -- considered the most likely original source of the virus -- and then may have transmitted it to a human. "The possible intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2 remains elusive," it reads.

Next likely is direct transmission from one of the animals known to carry a similar coronavirus, such as a bat or a pangolin. Possible but not probable is transmission from frozen or chilled food, and least likely is an accidental laboratory release, the report finds.

Former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta that his personal opinion was the virus was released from a lab.

The report says this is "extremely unlikely." "There is no record of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in any laboratory before December 2019, or genomes that in combination could provide a SARS-CoV-2 genome," it reads. "In view of the above, a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely."

Independent researchers have been saying this for months. Genomic testing of the virus indicates it was not engineered in a lab but passed naturally from animals -- as did the SARS virus that infected 8,000 people globally in 2002-2004 before it was stopped.

Frozen food is also not a likely source, the report indicates. "There is no conclusive evidence for foodborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the probability of a cold-chain contamination with the virus from a reservoir is very low," it says.


10 things the 'pandemic doctors' revealed to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about their time fighting Covid-19

The role of the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan is also unclear. It's possible the market was not the original source of the outbreak, but that the crowds that gathered at the market -- which was densely packed, with a roof and open sewers -- may have amplified the spread of the virus.

Sampling at the market turned up the virus on surfaces but not in samples taken from animals or food sold at the market. Plus, there is evidence the virus was circulating before the Huanan market outbreak -- including at other markets.

"Many of the early cases were associated with the Huanan market, but a similar number of cases were associated with other markets and some were not associated with any markets. Transmission within the wider community in December could account for cases not associated with the Huanan market which, together with the presence of early cases not associated with that market, could suggest that the Huanan market was not the original source of the outbreak," the report added.

"No firm conclusion therefore about the role of the Huanan market in the origin of the outbreak, or how the infection was introduced into the market, can currently be drawn," the report concludes.

The report recommends more testing of blood samples taken and stored before the first outbreak in December, more testing of animals from Southeast Asia, and more in-depth study of mass gatherings that could have aided the spread of the virus.

The report was written by a joint international team made up of 17 Chinese experts plus 17 experts from other countries, WHO, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) participated as an observer.

"Following initial online meetings, a joint study was conducted over a 28-day period from 14 January to 10 February 2021 in the city of Wuhan, People's Republic of China," the report reads.

The team looked for evidence the virus was circulating in China before anyone noticed.
"The epidemiology working group closely examined the possibilities of identifying earlier cases of COVID-19 through studies from surveillance of morbidity (illness) due to respiratory diseases in and around Wuhan in late 2019," it read.

"It also drew on national sentinel surveillance data; laboratory confirmations of disease; reports of retail pharmacy purchases for antipyretics (fever reducers), cold and cough medications; a convenience subset of stored samples of more than 4,500 research project samples from the second half of 2019 stored at various hospitals in Wuhan, the rest of Hubei Province and other provinces. In none of these studies was there evidence of an impact of the causative agent of COVID-19 on morbidity in the months before the outbreak of COVID-19."

The report suggests further checks into farms as a possible source of the virus.

"Although the closest related viruses have been found in bats, the evolutionary distance between these bat viruses and SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to be several decades, suggesting a missing link," the report reads.

Animals such as mink and rabbits are susceptible to the virus, the report noted. Mink farms in several countries have been the cause of outbreaks of Covid-19.

"The increasing number of animals shown to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 includes animals that are farmed in sufficient densities to allow potential for enzootic circulation. High-density farming is common in many places across the world and includes many livestock species as well as farmed wildlife. There was a large network of domesticated wild animal farms, supplying farmed wildlife."

US White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the report is being reviewed by federal government agencies, including the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, the National institutes of Health and others. Psaki said those public health experts "will be reviewing this report intensively and quickly."

"We will wait for that review to conclude. We have been clear that an independent, technically sound investigation is what our focus is on, and once this is reviewed we'll have an assessment about the steps forward," she told a briefing.

Psaki said the US is communicating with its allies "to share our ongoing concerns, which we have stated in the past, of course, about the process and our scientific analysis of the report itself."

WHO calls for further studies, data on origin of SARS-CoV-2 virus, reiterates that all hypotheses remain open [World Health Organization, 30 Mar 2021]

The report of the international team on their Wuhan field visit, from 14 January -10 February 2021, was published today as WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for further studies.

The report stems from a Member State resolution adopted by consensus at the World Health Assembly in May 2020 and calling on WHO “to identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts, including through efforts such as scientific and collaborative field missions.”

In remarks to Member States today, Dr Tedros, who received the full report on the weekend, thanked the team for their tireless work. He said it advances our understanding in important ways, while raising questions that will need to be addressed by further studies, as noted in the report. “As far as WHO is concerned, all hypotheses remain on the table. This report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end. We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned as we do,” said Dr Tedros.
“Finding the origin of a virus takes time and we owe it to the world to find the source so we can collectively take steps to reduce the risk of this happening again. No single research trip can provide all the answers.”

The report is available on this webpage:
https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus/origins-of-the-virus
Below is the full text of the Director-General’s remarks that can be found here:
https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-remarks-at-the-member-state-briefing-on-the-report-of-the-international-team-studying-the-origins-of-sars-cov-2

Background information

From the very beginning of the pandemic WHO has stressed the need to understand the origin of the virus in order to better understand the emergence of new pathogens and possible exposures.

Only a few weeks into the outbreak, the IHR Emergency Committee of independent experts recommended that WHO and China pursue efforts to identify the animal source of the virus.

Throughout 2020, WHO continued to discuss with China and other Member States the need to study and share information around the virus origins.

The World Health Assembly resolution of May 2020, which was adopted by all Member States, cited a need “to identify the zoonotic source”:
• WHA73.1 from 19 May 2020: 9. (6) to continue to work closely with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and countries, as part of the One-Health Approach to identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts, including through efforts such as scientific and collaborative field missions, which will enable targeted interventions and a research agenda to reduce the risk of similar events occurring, as well as to provide guidance on how to prevent infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV2) in animals and humans and prevent the establishment of new zoonotic reservoirs, as well as to reduce further risks of emergence and transmission of zoonotic diseases;
In July 2020 WHO sent a small team to China to plan a joint study comprising Chinese and independent international scientists.

It was agreed that WHO would select the international scientists. The Terms of Reference for the Virus Origins Study were completed by fall 2020.

• Terms of reference of the Global Study of the Origins of SARS-COV2

The team of scientists came from around the world: Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Qatar, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Viet Nam.

The joint international team comprised 17 Chinese and 17 international experts from 10 other countries as well as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE); and WHO.

• Find the list of the members of the international team here.

From the outset, this study was designed as one step on the path of understanding the origins of COVID-19 reflecting the specific scope and mandate as outlined by Member States in the World Health Assembly resolution and negotiated Terms of Reference.

Mutations could render current Covid vaccines ineffective in a year or less, epidemiologists warn [CNBC, 30 Mar 2021]

By Holly Ellyatt

KEY POINTS
• Mutations of the coronavirus could render current vaccines ineffective within a year, according to a survey of experts in 28 countries.
• Of those surveyed, almost a third gave a time frame of nine months or less.
• Fewer than 1 in 8 said they believed that mutations would never render the current vaccines ineffective.

Mutations of the coronavirus could render current vaccines ineffective within a year, according to a majority of epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease specialists surveyed by the People’s Vaccine Alliance.

The survey of 77 experts from some of the world’s leading academic institutions across 28 countries found that almost a third gave a time frame of nine months or less. Fewer than 1 in 8 said they believed that mutations would never render the current vaccines ineffective.

Two-thirds thought that we had “a year or less before the virus mutates to the extent that the majority of first-generation vaccines are rendered ineffective and new or modified vaccines are required.”

The survey, published Tuesday, was carried out by the People’s Vaccine Alliance — a coalition of over 50 organizations including African Alliance, Oxfam and UNAIDS — that campaigns for equal global access to Covid vaccines.

The overwhelming majority of the experts — 88% — said that persistent low vaccine coverage in many countries would make it more likely for resistant mutations to appear. The People’s Vaccine Alliance warned that, at the current rate of global vaccination programs, only 10% of people in the majority of poor countries would likely be vaccinated in the next year.

Shots and boosters

A number of Covid vaccines have been developed, tested and authorized for emergency use in the past year. The three vaccines currently in use in the West — from Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, and AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford — are being made predominantly in the U.S., U.K. or EU, while China and Russia have developed their own vaccines.

Time is of the essence when it comes to life-saving immunization; the coronavirus pandemic has led to over 127 million Covid infections worldwide and over 2.7 million deaths. The U.S., Brazil, India, France, Russia and the U.K. have been the hardest hit, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The spread of more infectious (and in some cases, potentially more deadly) variants of the virus in the latter half of 2020 has made the race to vaccinate as many people as possible a highly charged event. Vaccine developers have already announced that they are developing booster shots to deal with Covid variants that have become more dominant, particularly those first discovered in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil.

The University of Oxford-AstraZeneca shot was hailed as a “game changer” for global immunization as it is cheaper to produce and easier to store and transport than the Moderna and Pfizer shots, although it has hit various stumbling blocks that have damaged public confidence, despite large amounts of clinical data showing that it’s safe and effective at preventing Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

AstraZeneca said it will provide access to its vaccine at no profit for the “duration of the pandemic” and has committed to provide the vaccine on a nonprofit basis in perpetuity to low- and middle-income countries.

Where vaccines are going
The countries where the shots have been developed or manufactured have prioritized the vaccination of their own populations over exporting doses elsewhere, to varying degrees.


Vaccine distribution has already become a source of heightened tensions, even among those with access to millions of doses already, such as the EU and U.K., although both sides have now said they will work toward a “win-win” solution on supplies.

The World Health Organization has led calls for wealthier nations that have been accused of “stockpiling” vaccines to donate doses to its COVAX initiative, which aims to distribute vaccine fairly among poorer nations that are quickly being left behind in the race to protect their populations. The WHO said in January that the world was on the brink of a “catastrophic moral failure” due to the unfair vaccine rollouts.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance survey found that almost three-quarters of those questioned — which included experts from Johns Hopkins University, Yale, Imperial College, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Cambridge University and The University of Cape Town — said that the open sharing of technology and intellectual property could increase global vaccine coverage.

The alliance said it was calling for “the lifting of pharmaceutical monopolies and the sharing of technology to urgently boost vaccine supply.”

Tokyo reports 234 new COVID-19 cases as fourth wave fears rise [The Japan Times, 29 Mar 2021]

Tokyo reported 234 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, as fears of a fourth wave of the deadly virus grow following the lifting of the state of emergency earlier this month.

The total was the first time it dipped below 300 since March 22, when the capital reported 187 cases.

Among Monday’s new cases in Tokyo, 54 people were in their 20s, 36 were in their 40s and 31 each were in their 30s and 50s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said in a statement. Those age 65 or older totaled 54 cases.

The number of severely ill COVID-19 patients under the metropolitan government’s criteria fell by one from a day earlier to 40.

The cumulative number of cases in the capital is now 120,208. The results came after 5,051 tests were conducted Friday. It usually takes about three days for test results to affect the daily case count.

Meanwhile, the weekly number of newly confirmed novel coronavirus cases nationwide exceeded 10,000 for the first time in six weeks.

As of 10 a.m. Monday, the cumulative number of cases, including cruise ship passengers and crew members, stood at 469,623, up 12,031 from a week before.

The weekly number rose for the fourth consecutive week.

Miyagi Prefecture saw 911 new infections over the past week, with the daily figures topping 100 for six straight days. Neighboring Yamagata Prefecture saw its weekly number more than double from the week before to 219.

Osaka Prefecture, meanwhile, recorded 1,799 new infections in the week, overtaking Tokyo in the number of cases per 100,000 people. Osaka’s cumulative infection count exceeded 50,000.

The country’s cumulative death toll from the coronavirus came to 9,078, up 229 from the previous week.

On Sunday, Japan confirmed 1,785 new coronavirus cases, the first below 2,000 in three days.
The country reported 29 new deaths linked to the virus and 341 severely ill patients, up 10 from Saturday.

World leaders call for new international treaty to improve pandemic response [UN News, 30 Mar 2021]

A group of world leaders have joined the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in calling for an international treaty to improve pandemic preparedness and response in the wake of COVID-19, for the sake of future generations.

In a joint article published on Tuesday across leading news platforms, the signatories said that the coronavirus pandemic had been a “stark and painful reminder that nobody is safe until everyone is safe” and that “there will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies”.
‘Not if, but when’

“The question is not if, but when. Together, we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion”, they said.

The question is not if, but when. Together, we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion
The main goal of the treaty, which would be rooted in the WHO Constitution, would be to foster a comprehensive approach to strengthen national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics, the leaders added.

Standing with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the leaders signing on so far, represent Albania, Chile, Costa Rica, the European Council, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

“At a time when COVID-19 has exploited our weaknesses and divisions, we must seize this opportunity and come together as a global community for peaceful cooperation that extends beyond this crisis”, the leaders said.

‘We must act boldly’: Dr. Tedros

Speaking at a press conference later in the day, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros highlighted that the idea behind the proposal for the treaty is to “systematically tackle the gaps exposed by COVID-19”.

The pandemic has brought out the best and worst in humanity, he added, recalling “acts of incredible courage” from health workers and communities around the world, on a daily basis, but also inequalities in societies, geopolitical fault lines and frayed trust in public institutions.
“The impacts on our societies, economies and health, especially for the poor and the most vulnerable, are too significant”, Dr. Tedros said, stressing that “we cannot do things the way we have done them before and expect a different result…we must act boldly”.

We cannot do things the way we have done them before and expect a different result … we must act boldly – Dr. Tedros

He went on to note that the treaty would strengthen the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) as well as provide a framework for international cooperation and solidarity.

It would help build resilience to pandemics and other global health emergencies, with robust national and global preparedness systems; ensure timely and equitable access to pandemic countermeasures, including vaccines; support sustainable funding and capacity for prevention, detection, and responses to outbreaks; and promote mutual trust.

Member States’ decision

Dr. Tedros also said that ultimately, the Member States would decide.

“How such a treaty is developed and what it looks like, and whether it is ratified, is a matter for our Member States – the nations of the world”, he added.

“We must leave a legacy for our children: a safer world for all.”

Germany 'cannot ignore AstraZeneca findings', says Merkel [The Local Germany, 30 Mar 2021]

Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended Germany's decision to advise against the use of AstraZeneca for under-60s in the country, saying findings could not be ignored.

During a press conference with Health Minister Jens Spahn on Tuesday, Merkel said that experts have recorded in recent weeks “very rare but very serious cases of thrombosis” in people vaccinated with AstraZeneca.

“They are findings that (Germany’s vaccine commission) and finally us, cannot ignore,” she said.
Germany’s vaccine commission known as STIKO earlier Tuesday recommended that use of the jabs be halted for under-60s because of “currently available data on the occurrence of rare but very severe thromboembolic side effects” in younger vaccinated people.

It intends to make another recommendation by the end of April on how to proceed with people under 60 who have already received a first dose of the vaccine, it said.

Pending this decision, ministers said people who are due for their second jab can either choose to take it if cleared by their attending doctor, or they can opt to wait for the commission to make its recommendation.

Under-60s can still decide to take the vaccine but only following “consultation with the doctor carrying out the vaccination … and with an individual risk analysis,” said ministers of Germany’s 16 states and Spahn in a policy statement earlier on Tuesday.

‘Openness and transparency’

“All this will bring uncertainty,” said Merkel when asked about a possible loss of confidence in the vaccine in Germany. “But openness and transparency are the best way to deal with such a situation.”

“Trust stems from the knowledge that every suspicion, every individual case will be examined,” she said.

Germany’s medicines regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), has now reported 31 cases of blood clots in people who have received AstraZeneca, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Tuesday.

Almost all cases are reportedly in younger and middle-aged women, prompting several German hospitals to suspend the use of the jab for women under 55 this week.

Germany has come under fire for its sluggish vaccination campaign.

Spahn stressed that Germany still expects to offer every adult a coronavirus jab by the end of the summer on September 21st.

“If delivery pledges are kept to and all vaccines receive their approvals as planned,” then Europe’s biggest economy would be able to vaccinate its population “by the end of summer”, said Spahn.

Spahn acknowledged that the development was “without question a setback” for the inoculation rollout. But he said the AstraZeneca vaccine was still “very effective” and could now be used more quickly in the over 60s age group.

The World Health Organization and the EU’s health watchdog have both deemed the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, but several countries have restricted its use over clotting fears.

In mid-March Germany and other countries temporarily stopped the use of the jab for an investigation into blood clots – before resuming with it.

The jab was also initially recommended only for under 65s as Germany said it lacked sufficient data on how effective it was for older people. But there was a U-turn on this decision in early March.

Use Covid 'emergency use authorisation' to fast track malaria jabs and save millions [iNews, 30 Mar 2021]

By Will Hazell

Use Covid ’emergency use authorisation’ to fast track malaria jabs and save millions, says Oxford scientist

The stunning success of the Covid vaccines has breathed new life into efforts to find solutions involving vaccination for diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis

Vaccines for malaria and other diseases that kill millions in Africa should be fast tracked for use just as Covid-19 jabs were in the UK, a leading scientist has urged.

Adopting the “emergency use authorisation” that Covid vaccines received could save the lives of “hundreds of thousands” of African children if vaccines for malaria are found to be effective, said Professor Adrian Hill.

The stunning success of the Covid vaccines has breathed new life into efforts to find solutions involving vaccination for diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis, said the director of Oxford University’s Jenner Institute. While the BCG vaccine exists for TB, it is only partially effective.

Professor Hill said: “Malaria, TB, all of these are difficult but probably doable diseases.”
He said that one of the reasons such vaccines had not yet arrived is because research has been stop-start, with funding “rationed slowly”.

“The reason I’ve been doing malaria vaccines for 20, 25 years, is not because it’s really that difficult, it’s because it takes you that long to get a small amount of money, spend it, show you’ve done something good with it, apply, wait a year, get some more money and on and on in that cycle of delay,” he said.

“That’s why it takes decades, not because it’s actually a hundred times more difficult than Covid, it’s just you can move faster.”

To date there has only been one phase three trial of a malaria vaccine, by GlaxoSmithKline. However, Professor Hill said that the Jenner Institute would be bringing its own candidate to a phase three trial next month. “We probably have the most promising malaria vaccine,” he said.
He said that if vaccines were found to be effective and safe, they should have the same fast-track authorisation as with Covid.

“We’ve got a big push at the moment with the World Health Organisation saying, ‘look, the death rate from malaria per capita is much higher in Africa than it is for Covid, so why can’t we have emergency use authorisation for a malaria vaccine?’”

He added: “If we do get good efficacy in the first year in phrase three, the question is how long would you do that for?

“You might want five years, but why should you wait another four years if children are dying in their hundreds of thousands every year, and you could do an emergency authorisation? So that is going to become a topical subject next year I think.”

US Study Confirms mRNA Vaccine Effectiveness Against SARS-CoV-2 [HealthDay News, 30 Mar 2021]

Estimated mRNA vaccine effectiveness 90 percent for full immunization, 80 percent for partial immunization

TUESDAY, March 30, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines are effective for preventing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, with 90 percent effectiveness for full immunization, according to research published in the March 29 early-release issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Mark G. Thompson, Ph.D., from the CDC COVID-19 Response Team, and colleagues routinely tested for SARS-CoV-2 infections every week during Dec. 14, 2020, to March 13, 2021, in prospective cohorts of health care personnel, first responders, and other essential and frontline workers in eight locations in the United States. Tests were conducted regardless of symptom status and onset of symptoms consistent with COVID-19.

Among 3,950 participants with no laboratory documentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, 62.8 and 12.1 percent received both doses and only one dose of mRNA vaccine, respectively. The researchers found that among unvaccinated participants, 1.38 SARS-CoV-2 infections were confirmed per 1,000 person-days. In contrast, 0.04 and 0.19 infections were reported per 1,000 person-days among fully immunized participants (≥14 days after the second dose) and among partially immunized persons (≥14 days after the first dose), respectively. After adjustment for study site, the estimated mRNA vaccine effectiveness was 90 and 80 percent for full and partial immunization, respectively.

"This study shows that our national vaccination efforts are working," CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., said in a statement. "The authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines provided early, substantial real-world protection against infection for our nation's health care personnel, first responders, and other frontline essential workers."

One author disclosed financial ties to Pfizer.

After About 50 Years, the mRNA Revolution is Here [BioSpace, 30 Mar 2021]

By Mark Terry

Between the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, there are two mRNA therapeutics on the market … the only two.

At least four years before the pandemic, Moderna and BioNTech were known as cutting-edge mavericks with completely unproven technology and sky-high market values. Moderna, in particular, was able to raise investor dollars—in January 2017 it had about $1 billion in cash, a Global Health Partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and numerous grants from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), but no products on the market.

It was only in January 2017 that the company publicly updated the world on its 12 mRNA development candidates, which included vaccines and therapeutics in infectious diseases, immuno-oncology and cardiovascular diseases. Most of BioNTech’s efforts with mRNA were in the oncology space. But mRNA therapeutics were all promise, no impact, until now.

Katalin Kariko began working on mRNA therapeutics in the 1970s while working in her native Hungary. She and her family left Hungary for the U.S. in 1985 to work at Temple University in Philadelphia, then moved to the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. But her research was believed to be too radical and too financially risky.

Eventually, continuing her work despite resistance on the part of funders, she and her colleague at the University of Pennsylvania, Drew Weissman, developed an approach using synthetic mRNA. This is now the basis of the COVID-19 vaccines and Kariko is a senior vice president of BioNTech.

Stephane Bancel, speaking on a 16z podcast created by Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, described how, having worked in infectious diseases his entire career, he had “developed an eye for outbreaks. So, one of the things I do is read The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times every morning as I get up. And between Christmas and New Year of last year (2019), I noticed an article saying that there is a new pathogen agent in China giving pneumonia-like symptoms – that’s all it says.”

He worked regularly with Barney Gram, who worked for Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and sent him an email asking him about it. He was told what little was known at the time—it was probably a virus, it’s a new coronavirus, and that in a couple of days the Chinese were going to have the virus’s sequence published online.

“And so on January 11 (2020),” Bancel said, “the Chinese put the sequence online and our team at Moderna used the sequence to design a vaccine. Barney’s team did the same thing.
And when they shared notes after around 48 hours, they’d designed exactly the same vaccine.”

The importance of this can’t be understated. Without actually having samples of the virus, using digital information about the viral genome, they were able to design a vaccine within 48 hours!

Bancel said, “We thought it up in silico, we never had access to a physical virus. And we designed the vaccine and we got the two teams at NIH and Moderna because we were so worried about making a mistake in the vaccine design, as you can imagine. So we were super happy when the team literally compared notes after two days with exactly the same design for our vaccine. Because it was an outbreak and we knew every day mattered. At the same time, we started to make a clinical-grade product to go into Phase I. And what’s really remarkable is that the vaccine that was reviewed by the FDA on December 17, it’s exactly the same vaccine that our guys designed in January in silico. We never changed one atom, it’s exactly the same molecule.”

Now that the mRNA technology has crashed through the proof-of-concept barrier as it sped toward ending the worst global pandemic in a century in record time, researchers are looking to where mRNA therapeutics might go next. The sky would appear to be the limit, as earlier backers of the research believed.

A research team at Yale recently patented a similar RNA-based approach to vaccinate against malaria. Pfizer has indicated they plan to use mRNA for its seasonal flu vaccines because it’s so easy to edit. BioNTech, as mentioned earlier, is working on cancer therapeutics—they are individualized therapies that could manufacture on-demand proteins associated with specific tumors that help the body’s immune system fend off advanced cancer. In other approaches, mRNA therapies have slowed and reversed multiple sclerosis in mouse models.

“I’m fully convinced even more than before that mRNA can be broadly transformational,” Özlem Türeci, BioNTech’s chief medical officer, told The Atlantic. “In principle, everything you can do with protein can be substituted by mRNA.”

This is not to say there aren’t limitations. As both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have demonstrated, mRNA can be fragile and currently requires very cold storage and transportation temperatures. There may also be significant limitations in other diseases—infectious diseases tended to be viewed as low-hanging fruit for mRNA therapeutics, more readily applicable.

“This has been a coming-out party for mRNA, for sure,” John Mascola, director of the Vaccine Research Center at NIAID, told The Atlantic. “In the world of science, RNA technology could be the biggest story of the year. We didn’t know if it worked. And now we do.”

But before we turn the corner on a new age of drug development, it’s worth remembering that it took 40+ years to get this far for two products.

Türeci, despite the overall optimism, noted, “I do not claim that mRNA is the holy grail for everything. We are going to find that there are diseases where mRNA is surprisingly successful and diseases where it’s not. We have to prove it for each and every infectious disease, one by one.”

Kenyans Pay $70 for a Shot of Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine [Bloomberg, 30 Mar 2021]

By David Herbling

• Country’s main vaccination campaign uses Astrazeneca shots
• Astrazeneca shots have been supplied through Covax initiative

Kenyans have begun getting inoculated with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines for a fee after the nation’s authorities approved the shots for emergency purposes.

A single shot costs 7,700 shillings ($70.30), according to Nairobi-based lawyer Donald Kipkorir, who got an injection Tuesday.

“Sputnik V got high reviews from medical journals and that is comforting for me,” another lawyer, Ahmednasir Abdullahi, said by text message. “The West is hoarding vaccine it doesn’t need, but Russia has made it available to poor Third World countries like Kenya.”

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board gave emergency use authorization for AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines “after a successful evaluation process,” the agency said March 24 on Twitter. “This is not a registration.”

Kenya was the 10th African nation to approve their use, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Sputnik V has a 91.6% efficacy and provides full protection against severe cases of the illness. The vaccines can be stored at 2 Celsius to 8 Celsius, meaning they don’t require additional cold-chain infrastructure, the fund said this month.

The East African nation has received a total of 1.1 million AstraZeneca Plc doses from the Covax initiative and a consignment donated by the Indian government. About 131,000 of the shots have been administered.

Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe and Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi did not respond to text messages and phone calls seeking confirmation about the private sales.

After tackling Covid-19 with AstraZeneca, Oxford's Jenner Institute is hard at work on a different kind of vaccine [Endpoints News, 30 Mar 2021]

By Nicole DeFeudis

The institute behind AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine with Oxford University just got funding to pursue a different kind of vaccine for an infection that’s not quite as pressing, but nevertheless on the rise.

The Jenner Institute was awarded $2 million from CARB-X to create a vaccine candidate for gonorrhea, a bacterial infection that has developed resistance to most antibiotics. The money comes from CARB-X, a global partnership looking to spur the development of new antibacterial drugs. And there’s plenty more where that came from, the initiative announced early Tuesday morning.

The funding is part of a three-stage grant according to Calman MacLennan, a senior clinical fellow who’s leading the project. If the Jenner Institute makes it all the way to the clinic, it’s eligible for up to another $5.3 million.

“What’s particularly good about the CARB-X’s funding is that actually allows us to move through three stages, without having to go back and apply for extra funding,” MacLennan said.

There are currently no approved vaccines for gonorrhea, though cases are on the rise worldwide. The WHO estimates that 78 million people a year are infected, with about 1.14 million cases in the US, just less than half of which involve drug-resistant bacteria. Developing a vaccine against the infection, which can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility or sterility, is challenging because infection doesn’t necessarily confer protective immunity, MacLennan said. So a vaccine would have to “do better than nature.”

Plus there’s been a lack of commercial incentive. Despite increases in resistance to current antibiotics, Big Pharma has retreated from the risky field, fraught with cheap generics and poor financial returns.

The Jenner Institute’s candidate, dubbed dmGC_0817560 NOMV, consists of blebs, or fluid-filled blisters from the outer surface of gonococcus called native outer membrane vesicles. The idea is to prime the immune system to respond to gonococcus, the bacteria that cause gonorrhea.

The approach has previously been used for meningococcal vaccines. In fact, investigators found that one vaccine used to deal with an outbreak of meningitis caused by Group B meningococcus in New Zealand — which is now part of GSK’s Bexsero — also led to a reduction in gonorrhea cases. That vaccine used vesicles of meningococcus.

“We reasoned that if we’ve got vesicles of gonococcus, that should have a better prospect of protecting against gonorrhea,” MacLennan said.

The institute is currently in the lead optimization stage, with hopes to enter the clinic by 2024.

“It feels like a glacial process compared to Covid vaccine development,” MacLennan said.

Back in August, Intravacc partnered with Therapyx on a similar approach to a microsphere vaccine candidate using encapsulated IL-12 and outer bacterial membrane vesicles from Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

“In some ways you can think of the problem we have with antimicrobial resistance as being a bit of a silent pandemic — one that you know is slowly creeping up on us,” MacLennan said, adding that a gonorrhea vaccine wouldn’t likely be given to everyone in the developed world. At least not yet.

But in places like Africa, where the prevalence among women is 1.9%, gonorrhea is a “huge problem,” he said. “It’s something that really has been neglected.”

Since its launch in 2016, CARB-X has pumped $305.2 million into the early development of new antibiotics and other therapies, vaccines and preventatives. Its goal is to invest up to $480 million in the space by 2022, supporting projects through early phases until they attract their own funding.

Scientists find blood-clot theory for AstraZeneca vaccine recipients [Arab News, 30 Mar 2021]

• Teams in Germany, Norway stress links not yet proven, clotting extremely rare
• EU, UK health regulators insist vaccine safe to use

LONDON: Scientists in Europe believe they may have found the cause of blood clots in the brains of a small number of people who have received the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

Its use was suspended by over a dozen EU states after the discovery of around 30 cases of cerebral sinus vein thrombosis (CSVT) in recipients across the bloc.

The suspensions came as authorities sought to establish whether there was any evidence to link the clots directly to the vaccine.

AstraZeneca said its data suggested that clots were occurring at a lower rate among vaccine recipients than across Europe’s population as a whole, with clots occurring in fewer than one in every 2 million vaccinated people.

Now two teams, in Germany and Norway, say there is a chance that the vaccine may, in very rare circumstances, cause the immune system to attack the body’s blood platelets, potentially leading to thickening and causing clots.

But they added that there is still no conclusive evidence that the vaccine is dangerous, and that the development may also be occurring naturally.

EU and UK health regulators have said the vaccine is safe to use, and neither team’s findings have yet been peer-reviewed.

The teams, from Oslo University Hospital and Greifswald University in Germany, say antibodies created by the body after receiving the vaccine could be mistaking platelets in the blood for an infection, attacking them and causing the body to then create more platelets, causing clots.

Similar effects have been observed in patients receiving other drugs, including heparin, which causes a clotting condition called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT).

The Greifswald team examined nine cases of clotting post-vaccination, seven of whom were found to have CSVT. Tests showed four had elevated platelet levels in their blood, similar to HIT sufferers.

A sample of 20 vaccinated people who did not develop clots, meanwhile, showed normal levels of platelets.

The team said it would submit its findings to British medical journal The Lancet shortly, and advised anybody who noticed bruising, swelling, dizziness or headaches after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine to seek medical advice as all those symptoms were experienced by those who went on to develop clots.

Oslo University Hospital’s Prof. Pal Andre Holme told Norwegian newspaper VG that his team had found a similar pattern, albeit with a smaller sample size than the Greifswald team.

“Our theory is that this is a strong immune response that most likely comes after the vaccine,” he said. “There is no other thing than the vaccine that can explain this immune response.”
France, Italy and Germany have since resumed use of the vaccine, but it remains suspended in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

Canada suspended its use in people under the age of 55 over fears of blood clots. It has yet to be approved in the US.

What's going on with AstraZeneca vaccine? Central Ohio doc clears up confusion [ABC6OnYourSide.com, 30 Mar 2021]

by Haley Nelson

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — The hunt is on to get a COVID-19 vaccine appointment, now that Ohioans 16 and up are eligible for the shot.

"I know sometimes it feels like you are on a treasure hunt but as more vaccines become available the treasure hunt should be getting easier," OhioHealth's Dr. Joseph Gastaldo, an infectious diseases expert, said

Three vaccines are a 'yes' in the US, with some like AstraZeneca, not yet approved here.

"It is not that they said we are not going to give it to people in their 50s they want to put a pause on it now," Gastaldo said.

That is to likely look into it further.

Gastaldo believes this comes back to being extra cautious.

"What has been reported out of the United Kingdom is roughly one out of a quarter of a million to one million people has sustained a blood clot after sustaining the vaccine, that is not more so than the baseline blood clot activity," he said. "Association is not always causation when these events happen it is very important to report them."

Keep in mind, this vaccine has not been authorized in the U.S.

"All we have from AstraZeneca so far are press releases from the American trial, and when it comes to what is being reviewed by the FDA, that is the data that is going to be reviewed and we don't even know when the actual date is," Gastaldo said.

He said the process to review and approve a vaccine here in the U.S. is the gold standard.
The supply we have and will get of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines could have a big impact too.

"Tentatively it appears that we will have enough vaccine supply for all Americans with our current three vaccines," he said.

Could some of this lead to more hesitancy when it comes to the vaccine?

"We have to follow the data and follow the vaccines that we have available today," Gastaldo said. "I think AstraZeneca could have done a better job with the communications piece of having a more polished message...when you make an announcement one day and then change it the next day it causes a lot of confusion for the public."

Gastaldo said it is important to be transparent and to air on the side of caution.

AstraZeneca vaccine - was it really worth it? [BBC News, 30 Mar 2021]

By Simon Jack

"It's appalling the way AstraZeneca has been treated. I wouldn't blame them if they were thoroughly fed up and decided to bow out of the covid vaccine business."
That was the view from one of the biggest institutional investors in the UK.

It's not a view the pharmaceutical giant and its talismanic boss Pascal Soriot would have expected to hear, having developed a safe, effective vaccine at breakneck speed, signing contracts to deliver nearly two billion doses and doing it all without making a profit.

Mr Soriot could be forgiven perhaps for thinking he would be getting a medal.

Instead he is getting brickbats from EU politicians like Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts, who has accused the company of dishonesty and arrogance, in the way he alleges, it has "over-promised and under-delivered".

Some are suggesting that the whole endeavour has been more trouble than it is worth.

AstraZeneca has foregone over $20bn (£14.5bn) in revenue, while becoming a household name in the EU and the US for all the wrong reasons.

Some investors have even questioned Pascal Soriot's position as chief executive.
Astra has become a political football in a European blame game.

One minute his compatriot, the French President Emmanuel Macron, is describing the vaccine as "quasi-ineffective", and the next, President Macron is volunteering to have the jab himself and backing a move to block exports outside the EU.

Oxford University's Sir John Bell said Mr Soriot was mystified by the French approach: "He's found dealing with the French one of the most difficult things he's had to do, because they have been so completely irrational."

There was also widespread anti-Astra outrage when a raid on an Italian pharmaceutical plant discovered a stash of nearly 30 million vaccines - only for it to dissipate when the company said that 16 million of them were for EU use and the rest were headed for poorer countries under an EU-backed program called Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX).

In the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), accused AstraZeneca of "unforced errors", in failing to include the most recent data in its trial submissions to US authorities.

Even insiders admit: "It's fair to say we are in a pretty uncomfortable spot right now."
Vaccines and politics

As one investor told the BBC, "[Pascal Soriot is] discovering what happens when you are doing politics, rather than business".

The story of AstraZeneca's adventures in vaccines and politics is impossible to separate from the background of the man in charge.

As one of his competitors put it: "Astra is Pascal's company, it's hard to tell where Pascal Soriot ends and AstraZeneca starts."

That is pretty unusual for a public company owned by huge institutional investors around the world.

Although he took over in 2012, Mr Soriot's dominant and hitherto unassailable position stemmed from his successful defence of the company from a $100bn takeover bid from American drug giant Pfizer in 2014.

"When he took over, Astra was in a bit of a mess and he took some big risks investing in more R&D - so when Pfizer came along he felt vindicated," said one insider.

"He thought if Pfizer wanted to buy it, I must be on the right track".

Mr Soriot used every defence trick in the book, including playing the British heritage card. Britain would be losing decades of science leadership historically and into the future.

He styled himself as the bringer of cures, rather than corporate cost savings.

The politicians of the day loved him for it - Sir Vince Cable, then-Business Secretary in David Cameron's Conservative Lib Dem coalition government remembers: "Despite the fact the takeover would have put extra money in shareholders' pockets short-term, he and his directors stuck to their guns.

"They took the view that it was a long-term project and they've been absolutely and completely vindicated and it's become a major national asset."

This episode cemented the affection of his staff, the respect and thanks of UK politicians, as well as an unshakeable personal self-belief. That last one can sometime be a double edged sword for any boss.

How the vaccine came about

AstraZeneca does not and has never had much experience with vaccines. Their strength is in treating cancer.

So when Covid hit, AstraZeneca was not necessarily the company many thought would lead the charge.

There was talk of a tie-up between Oxford University and US pharmaceutical giant Merck, but the UK government was keen that Oxford should partner with a UK firm to establish a strong vaccine capability within the UK.

It made sense for AstraZeneca as Oxford University had done a lot of the heavy research lifting - much of it funded by the UK government.

When the initial results came in, there was an atmosphere of euphoria. Astra and Oxford would help save the world with a safe, effective and cheap vaccine, supplied at cost to the world.

It doesn't get more pro-bono than that. This was arguably the high point.

Since then, AstraZeneca has had a fraught relationship with regulators and politicians; its name has been unfairly but undoubtedly caught up in recriminations over a slow vaccine rollout in the EU; and the share price is 20% lower than it was last summer when the news flow seemed so positive.

The problem is that manufacturing vaccines is really difficult. "It's a bit like brewing beer," said an insider.

"Some batches work better than others, and when you add in the complexity of regional supply chains, things get complicated and sometimes don't work."

So, if that's the case, is it not naïve at best and misleading at worst, to promise to deliver a fixed quantity of a potentially life or death product?

'We used our best efforts'

The insider added: "We signed a contract on a best efforts' basis and we used our best efforts."

This is where Astra's lack of experience in vaccines really tripped it up - managing expectations through simple and effective communication.

From the start, its efficacy numbers were hard to grasp, with separate numbers for different age groups.

Questions were asked over sample sizes in over 65s and efficacy numbers submitted to US regulators had to be revised down when more up-to-date results were included.

None of these made much of a difference to the overall picture - one of a safe and effective vaccine - but it fostered an impression the company was not being entirely competent, or entirely honest.

One source told the BBC that "if you looked on an organisational chart of AstraZeneca, the box labelled vaccine management wouldn't have much in it".

The company has already said it will review the status of its "not-for-profit" stance on its vaccine work when current contracts have been fulfilled.

But Sir John says he can't blame the firm, "given the way they have been treated".

A major investor suggested that when the contracts are fulfilled, this could be a moment the management review whether they want to be in the business at all.

"Maybe that's the time to offer up the patent and move on," the investor said. The company says this is not their current thinking.

Trying to save the world has taken up a lot of the management's time and energy, at a time when the pharmaceutical giant is in the process of buying a US company for $40bn and a Japanese firm for $7bn.

That would be enough of a to-do list for any chief executive under normal circumstances.
But any thought that this vaccine mission could be both Mr Soriot's legacy and his epitaph seems very premature.

One big investor pointed out that Mr Soriot will earn a lot of "brownie points" for taking on something so ambitious and delivering a vaccine that works.

"He gets extra brownie points on the Environment Social and Governance (ESG) scorecard and he is still the person who turned around a company that was a mess when he took over," said the investor.

"I don't sense knives are being sharpened for him yet."

The lasting legacy of this French businessman may end up being making AstraZeneca a household name of which the UK, at least, seems genuinely proud.

WHO chief faults Covid origin probe report, wants Wuhan lab leak possibility studied again [ThePrint, 30 Mar 2021]

By THOMAS MULIER and CORINNE GRETLER

Although WHO chief Tedros has said all options remain on table, Tuesday’s comments mark the first time he’s openly speculated about possibility of a lab leak.

Washington: The World Health Organization’s chief said a mission to study the origins of the coronavirus in China didn’t adequately analyze the possibility of a lab leak before it concluded that the pathogen probably spread from bats to humans via another animal.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said even though the international team of scientists determined that a leak is the least likely hypothesis for the origin of the pandemic, it requires further investigation. He said he’s ready to deploy additional missions involving specialist experts as he doesn’t believe the assessment was extensive enough. He made the comments in a briefing to WHO member countries Tuesday.

Although Tedros has consistently said all options remain on the table and the WHO wouldn’t shut down any lines of inquiry, Tuesday’s comments mark the first time he’s openly speculated about the possibility of a leak. The WHO chief was criticized by Trump administration officials for being too deferential to China in the early days of the pandemic.

The origin report was published Tuesday, confirming what researchers said in mid-February at the conclusion of their four-week mission to Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the first Covid cases emerged at the end of 2019, and in subsequent interviews.

Tedros said he would expect future studies to involve quicker and better data-sharing in some of his most pointed comments directed against China. The country has pushed back firmly against any suggestions of a leak from a high-security virus lab in Wuhan, a theory advanced by Robert Redfield, who led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the first year of the pandemic.

“To understand the earliest cases, scientists would benefit from full access to data, including biological samples from at least September 2019,” Tedros said. “We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned.”
The mission was organized jointly by the WHO and China.

The U.S. has “real concerns about the methodology and the process” of the report, including that the Chinese government “apparently helped to write it,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week on CNN.- Bloomberg

Nations challenge WHO report on origins of the coronavirus; 50% of all US seniors now fully vaccinated: Live COVID-19 updates [USA TODAY, 30 Mar 2021]

By John BaconElinor Aspegren

The U.S. and a dozen other countries issued a rare joint statement on Tuesday questioning the validity of a World Health Organization study into the origins of the coronavirus, which was first detected in Wuhan, China, and has now killed almost 2.8 million people across the globe.

“We support a transparent and independent analysis and evaluation, free from interference and undue influence, of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, we join in expressing shared concerns regarding the recent WHO-convened study in China,” reads the statement, which was issued by the U.S. State Department in coordination with a raft of other governments, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The controversy swirled as the U.S. reported that half of all seniors have now been vaccinated. "Vaccination milestone," tweeted Andy Slavitt, White House senior COVID adviser. "50% of all seniors have now been fully vaccinated."

The statement included strong support for the WHO and did not directly blame China for interfering with the scientific probe. But it said health experts were delayed in studying the origins of the virus and that even when granted access, they were denied “complete, original data and samples.”
“The mission of the WHO is critical to advancing global health and health security,” the statement said."Scientific missions like these should be able to do their work under conditions that produce independent and objective recommendations and findings.”
The WHO’s director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also highlighted China’s lack of cooperation.
“I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough," he said. "Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions.”
? Deirdre Shesgreen
Also in the news:
?German health officials recommended restricting the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in people under 60, amid fresh concern over unusual blood clots reported in a tiny number of those who received the shots. Canada suspended use of the vaccine among people under 55.
?The University of Connecticut football team cut its spring practices short because of positive COVID-19 test results and subsequent contact tracing protocols, the Hartford Courant reported. The Huskies were one of a small number of FBS teams to opt out of the 2020-21 season.
?England had a glimmer of good news: London had no deaths reported for one day. During a spike in cases during January, more than 200 deaths a day linked to the virus were recorded in the capital.
〓 Today's numbers: The U.S. has over 30.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 550,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: 127.7 million cases and 2.79 million deaths. More than 180.64 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 145.8 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
What we're reading: As a growing number of states have removed eligibility requirements for getting vaccinated, it’s become less clear why some act faster than others. Read more here.
USA TODAY is tracking COVID-19 news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Want more? Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox and join our Facebook group.
Student loan payments paused for another 1.4 million borrowers
The Education Department announced Tuesday that it was expanding its pause on student loan payments for about 1.4 million borrowers who weren’t previously eligible for relief during the coronavirus pandemic. The newest policy applies to borrowers who had defaulted on their Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL), a type of loan made by private parties then backed by the federal government. Typically, those in default hadn’t made payments in more than nine months.
The government ended the FFEL program in 2010, though millions still hold these types of loans. The action is the latest expansion of the government’s loan relief for borrowers struggling economically during the coronavirus pandemic. In recent weeks, it had also offered more relief to borrowers with severe disabilities and those who had proven their colleges had defrauded them.
? Chris Quintana
Baylor basketball coach wants COVID testing to end for Final Four
Baylor women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey says the NCAA should stop COVID testing at both the men’s and women’s tournaments ahead of the Final Four so no player runs the risk of testing positive and being ruled out. "Wouldn't it be a shame to keep COVID testing and you've got kids that end up testing positive or something and they don't get to play in a Final Four?" she said.
Mulkey, whose team was eliminated Monday night, spoke hours after CDC director Rochelle Walensky warned that infections, hospitalizations and deaths are again on the rise across the nation. "Right now I'm scared," a shaken Walensky said. "I just worry that we will see the surges that we saw over the summer and the winter again.”
'Skating on a knife's edge': Scientists worry US could see fourth surge
As COVID-19 cases creep up again across the country, federal officials and epidemiologists say they're worried we could hit another tipping point, leading to a fourth significant surge of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Average daily reported cases are up 10% compared to a week earlier, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, with more than 30 million COVID-19 cases reported since early last year. Hospitalizations and deaths, which usually lag cases by a few weeks, have inched upward as well, after a decline and plateau that began in early January.
"We're skating on a knife's edge right now," said Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Read more here.
? Karen Weintraub
US surpasses 550,000 deaths as vaccine push accelerates
More than 550,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus epidemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data, claiming the lives of 1 in every 600 residents. The nation is still averaging about 1,000 deaths per day. But more than a dozen states will open vaccine eligibility to all adults this week in a major expansion of COVID-19 shots for tens of millions of Americans. According to President Joe Biden, vaccine distribution will increase to a new high of 33 million this week.
It also comes amid a worrisome increase in virus cases and concerns about balancing supply and demand for the vaccines.
“Just please hold on a little while longer," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing. Several Northeastern states and Michigan have seen the biggest increases; some are reporting hundreds or thousands more new cases per day than they were two weeks ago.
California reported the second-lowest rate of COVID-19 spread compared to other states in the week ending Sunday, but a top United States public health official on Monday described a "recurring feeling I have of impending doom" as infections once again are on the rise across the nation.
California ranked 49th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Thirty-four states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. The U.S. has surpassed 30 million coronavirus cases.
There was some good news on the vaccine front: The double-shot vaccines sweeping across the nation reduce the risk of infection by 80% after just a single dose two or more weeks after vaccination, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
California ranked 24th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot; 29.3% of its residents are at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 28.2%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows.
? Palm Springs Desert Sun
Biden says 90% of adults will be eligible for vaccine by April 19
President Joe Biden said Monday that 90% of American adults will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines by April 19, and vaccination sites would be within five miles of an individual's home.
Biden's new timeline beats his previous May 1 goal for nationwide eligibility by nearly two weeks. The remaining 10% of the population would be eligible by that time, he said.
"More vaccines, more sites, more vaccinators, all designed to speed our critical work,'' said Biden, who also announced that the federal government would distribute a record 33 million vaccine doses this week.
The Biden administration is racing against the spread of virus variants that may fuel another surge in cases, especially with states loosening restrictions that helped limit transmission but also hurt the economy.
Biden urged governors who have lifted mask mandates to reinstate them, and he warned Americans that the battle against the virus is not over and could actually reverse course, so they need to remain vigilant and adhere to safety measures.
"If we let our guard down now,'' he said, "We could see a virus getting worse, not better."

Washington Post columnist blasts New York Times for calling Wuhan lab theory of COVID emergence 'debunked' [Fox News, 30 Mar 2021]

By Joseph A. Wulfsohn

Josh Rogin spars with Times columnist Ben Smith over reporting of claims by former CDC head Redfield

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin blasted The New York Times over the weekend for declaring the theory that the coronavirus emerged from a Wuhan lab to have been "debunked."

After former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield shared his belief last week that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory, Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy pointed out that the Google search results for the Times report on Redfield's comments read: "Ex-CDC Director Favors Debunked Covid-19 Origin Theory."

Except the theory was never actually debunked, despite claims from the Chinese government and the much maligned World Health Organization.

Rogin, the author of the book "Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century," panned the article's revised headline, which read, "The C.D.C.’s ex-director offers no evidence in favoring speculation that the coronavirus originated in a lab."

"They are bending over backwards to defend one theory over another. It’s the opposite of objective," Rogin reacted Sunday.

"It’s the worst case of confirmation bias in the media I’ve ever seen," he continued. "They think they know something so they reject any new information that contradicts whatever they already think. It’s really bad."

He later tweeted, "To anyone saying there is a 'scientific consensus' about the origin of the coronavirus - Robert Redfield is a scientist. There is no consensus. Stop writing that falsehood into your stories, please."

Rogin then engaged in a debate with Times columnist Ben Smith, who argued that the "no evidence" headline was the "right frame" while agreeing with critics who criticized the "debunked" descriptor.

"Worst case of confirmation bias in the media I have ever seen," Rogin told Smith, who suggested tweets he made last April back up his argument. "It doesn’t matter if what you tweeted a year ago holds up. New information requires re-evaluation. Biden admin confirmed [Trump's] claims about suspicious activity at the lab. That’s evidence. Not proof but evidence."
"Is there new information??" Smith asked.

"So much new information. A lot of it," Rogin replied with a link to his reporting. "Rethink your assumptions and biases. The best way to be right at the end is to be willing to acknowledge you might not have been right at the beginning. It’s ok."

"I don't understand the prosecutorial tone!" Smith exclaimed. "I thought, as you wrote in your book, it seemed possible, without evidence, but Trump spin was misleading. There is no new scientific info or intel in your story, just a calmer moment and reporting on current Bidenland thinking."

"No need to get defensive," Rogin wrote. "The book lays out a LOT of circumstantial evidence for the Lab Accident Theory. Not proof, evidence. This 'No evidence' narrative is wrong. Simple as that. By that standard, there is 'no evidence' of any theory at all."

"And my criticism is not of you, but of all the media today reporting as if the CDC Director stating on the record that he believes the lab accident theory is somehow not very significant and then botching their coverage horrendously at the same time," the Post columnist continued. "And nobody realizing that meanwhile circumstantial evidence is piling up, including NEW INFORMATION the Trump team released Jan 15 which Biden CONFIRMED that must be cause for more investigation into the lab theory not more over-politicized naval-gazing bulls---."

Smith still argued that it "seems to me there is no strong evidence for anything" and while he said that "speculation and research" by scientists is a good thing, "the passion on all sides is so totally political that Twitter is probably not where it will be solved."

Rogin fired back, "Robert Redfield is a scientist. A virologist. Head of the freaking CDC during the outbreak. He saw the intelligence. Dismissing his on the record, detailed explanation why he doesn’t believe the virus could have evolved only in nature as 'speculation' is a journalistic atrocity."

"Atrocity!? I didn't realize that was such a dirty word," Smith replied. "OK to call it an unproven theory? I think you're ignoring the context of Trump's China hawks overhyping what they had, or maybe you've priced that into the market more than others have?"

The Post columnist closed the conversation by urging Smith and "every journalist" to read Adam Grant's book, "Think Again."

"It’s really helped me understand why our media environment is so f---ed up right now," Rogin added.