Vaccine search heats up in US, China

Japan sees more patients, a dire projection

WASHINGTON, April 15, (AP): Three potential COVID-19 vaccines are making fast progress in early-stage testing in volunteers in China and the US, but it’s still a long road to prove if they’ll really work.

China’s CanSino Biologics has begun the second phase of testing its vaccine candidate, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology said Tuesday.

In the US, a shot made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. isn’t far behind. The first person to receive that experimental vaccine last month returned to a Seattle clinic Tuesday for a second dose.

NIH infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Associated Press there are “no red flags” so far and he hoped the next, larger phase of testing could begin around June. A third candidate, from Inovio Pharmaceuticals, began giving experimental shots for first-step safety testing last week in the US and hopes to expand its studies to China.

Initial tests focus on safety, and researchers in both countries are trying out different doses of different types of shots.

But moving into the second phase is a critical step that allows vaccines to be tested in many more people to look for signs that they protect against infection.

Last week, CanSino filed a report showing it aimed to enroll 500 people in this next study, comparing two doses of the vaccine to dummy shots. As of Monday, 273 of the volunteers had been injected, state media said.

Looking ahead, Fauci said if the new coronavirus continues to circulate widely enough over the summer and fall, it might be possible to finish larger studies slightly sooner than the 12 to 18 months he’d originally predicted – maybe toward “mid to late winter of next season.”

“Please let me say this caveat: That is assuming that it’s effective. See, that’s the big ‘if,’” Fauci stressed. “It’s got to be effective and it’s got to be safe.”

During a news conference in China,

are pretty quiet.”

Reynolds said state officials were assisting other companies with reported cases. The Iowa Premium beef plant in Tama closed this week after several of its 850 employees tested positive. The governor also confirmed that the number of long-term care facilities with outbreaks has doubled to six since last week.

The Iowa Department of Public Health defines an outbreak in a long-term care facility as one in which three residents test positive for authorities also cautioned that the studies must be done properly.

“Although we are in an emergency, we cannot lower the standards of safety and effectiveness in the reviews of vaccines,” said Wang Junzhi, a Chinese biopharmaceutical expert. “The public is paying huge attention.”

The World Health Organization this week counted more than five dozen other vaccine candidates in earlier stages of development being pursued around the world. Many research groups are teaming up to speed the work; in an announcement Tuesday, vaccine giants Sanofi and GSK became the latest to partner on a candidate.

On the WHO’s list are a wide variety of ways to make vaccines – so if one approach doesn’t pan out, hopefully another one will.

CanSino’s vaccine is based on a genetically engineered shot it created to guard against Ebola. The leading U.S. candidates use a different approach, made from copies of a piece of the coronavirus’ genetic code.

Measures

Meanwhile, Japan could see some 850,000 people seriously sickened by the coronavirus and almost half of them dying if no social distancing or other measures are followed, according to an expert estimate released Wednesday.

Japan has the world’s oldest population, which is a particular concern since COVID-19 can be especially serious and fatal in the elderly. And there are concerns that Japan’s government has done too little and acted too late to stave off high numbers of seriously ill patients.

The current state of emergency is voluntary and doesn’t compensate workers who’ve lost earnings. Japanese companies also have been slow to adapt to remote work, meaning people still have continued to use public transit to commute to large offices in the densely populated capital region.

Already, patients are being moved to

COVID-19.

The new outbreaks included: 22 people infected at a rehabilitation center for the disabled in Ankeny; six at a Des Moines nursing home specializing in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia; and six at a Lutheran retirement home in Waverly.

Several more of the state’s 440 long-term care facilities have reported coronavirus infections of residents and staff that do not reach the state’s threshold for an outbreak. more hospitals and even hotels in Tokyo as infections surge in the capital, where medical experts warn the health care system is on the brink of collapse.

The projection by the government-commissioned team is a worst-case scenario, said Hokkaido University professor Hiroshi Nishiura, an expert on cluster analysis. He urged people to cooperate in the social distancing effort. “We can stop the transmission if all of us change our activity and significantly reduce interactions.”

The report projected 420,000 potential deaths because the seriously ill would require respiratory care or treatment in intensive care units and ventilators would run out if no preventive measures were taken, according to the report provided by the health ministry. “If we are unprepared and hit by the pandemic, we will run out of respirators,” Nishitani told reporters.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures on April 7 and asked people to curb their public activities. It was expanded nationwide Saturday. Nishiura expressed concerns that slowing infections would take longer if social distancing was limited.

An estimated 652,000 people 65 or older will become seriously ill under a hypothesis of one patient infecting 2.5 others, Nishiura said. An estimated 201,000 people from ages 15 to 64 would become seriously ill without social distancing and other preventive measures.

Japan currently has more than 8,800 cases of infection and 231 deaths, including about 700 positive cases from a cruise ship that was quarantined at a port near Tokyo earlier this year.

The health ministry reported 457 new cases on Wednesday. Tokyo has about a quarter of Japan’s total cases and many of the sick patients are hospitalized. Officials are under pressure to expand space for more patients, while transferring those with no or slight symptoms to hotels to make room for others in serious condition.

For instance, Linn County reported Monday that two residents at Linn Manor in Marion have died and three employees have been sickened after testing positive. (AP)

4 workers get virus:

Four employees at a state-run prison in Juneau have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Monday.

No staff at other Department of Corrections facilities have tested positive, and no inmates within the system have tested positive, department spokeswoman Sarah Gallagher said by email.

Three recent cases in Juneau have involved staff from the Lemon Creek Correctional Center. Results from a fourth case came in as positive but given reporting protocols will show up in the state’s count Tuesday, according to the state health department.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

As of Monday morning, the state had reported 277 total cases of COVID-19, and there have been eight COVID-19-related deaths.

Gallagher said since Thursday, when the department said it was notified of the first positive test of a Lemon Creek Correctional Center worker, 32 staff members at the facility have received tests. Staff will not be cleared to return until health officials give the OK, she said.

Megan Edge, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, said the state’s correctional system is overcrowded and understaffed. The organization has called on state officials to implement actions it says would reduce the number of people coming into the legal system as the state deals with the coronavirus. (AP)