New top story from Time: Moderna Ships a New COVID-19 Vaccine for Testing Against More Infectious Variant

https://ift.tt/3uxeg6I

On Feb. 24, Massachusetts-based biotech Moderna announced that has shipped a new version of its already-authorized COVID-19 vaccine to testing sites. The new vaccine is one aspect of a three-part strategy the company is taking to address new viral mutations that make the virus more infectious. They plan to test them in both participants of the early trials of the original vaccine, who were vaccinated six to 12 months ago, as well as unvaccinated individuals.

All three efforts involve studying adding a third dose following the current two-dose regimen of Moderna’s vaccine, which has emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One study will simply add a third dose of the existing vaccine to the two-dose regimen. The company’s earlier data showed that while its original vaccine continued to provide sufficient protection against COVID-19 disease caused by the major known faster-spreading mutations, that protection was diminished somewhat against one of the variants that was first identified in South Africa, known as B.1.351. This study will investigate whether adding a third dose of already authorized vaccine can increase virus-fighting antibodies to levels that would provide the same protection as the two-dose regiment provided against the original, non-mutated virus.

The company is also testing a new vaccine that it developed specifically against the B.1.351 variant. Moderna’s vaccine relies on mRNA technology, which enables the company to rapidly develop new versions simply by changing the genetic information programmed into the shot. (The original vaccine was developed in a record 42 days, and began human testing in a record 63 days; the new vaccine was similarly developed in about six to eight weeks). In the initial trials, Moderna is testing this new vaccine as the third dose after two doses of the original vaccine are given.

Finally, the vaccine maker’s scientists are also testing another new vaccine that combines the original and the new version designed to protect against the B.1.351 variant. This vaccine too would be used as a third dose after two doses of the original shot.

Additionally, the company said in a statement that it also plans to study the two new vaccines as stand-alone shots in people who have not yet been vaccinated and are negative for COVID-19, to see if the shots can protect against disease on their own.

The company said these studies are being done “out of an abundance of caution,” noting that its original vaccine still provides strong protection against COVID-19 disease. But infectious disease experts are growing concerned about the new variants that are popping up—especially B.1.351, which seems to be more resistant to the current immune defenses the body makes after being vaccinated. In a Moderna study first released in January and later published in the New England Journal in February, the company reported a six-fold drop in the level of antibodies that can neutralize the B.1.351 virus, as compared to the non-mutated version of virus.

The company hopes that amplifying the immune response generated by the original vaccine with a third dose, either of the same shot or one of the new ones, will make up for that diminished immune attack. Depending on the results of the studies, Moderna will work with regulatory authorities like the FDA to decide whether any changes to the current authorization will be needed, and if the company can provide the vaccine to the public.

Alongside the Feb. 24 announcement of these new studies, company officials also committed to producing an extra 100 million doses of its original vaccine this year, for a total of 700 million doses globally in 2021. To further expand the number of doses reaching people who need them, Moderna said it is also investigating ways to include up to 15 doses in each vial, instead of the current 10.

Comments

New top story from Time: Many U.S. At-Home COVID-19 Test Results Could Be Going Unreported

https://ift.tt/3jdyI9f Popular at-home COVID-19 tests from Abbott Laboratories and Quidel Corp., available without a prescription, were launched without a mechanism for reporting results to health officials, potentially leaving many cases uncounted by authorities as the delta variant spreads around the U.S. How many of the products have been sold in pharmacies and online and used isn’t clear. When Abbott’s BinaxNOW Self Test became available through retail stores in late April, the company said it planned to make at least tens of millions each month. The company last month said a group of COVID tests including BinaxNOW brought in $1 billion in global sales. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] While COVID testing sites and labs are required to report their findings, the Food and Drug Administration relaxed requirements for some at-home tests to speed their path to market. Abbott said customers are encouraged to report results of its tests, while Quidel didn’t respond to a req...

New top story from Time: Why Lorde’s Solar Power Is a Pop Oddity

https://ift.tt/3DdBK5t As a pop star, Lorde stands out for many reasons: her reclusiveness on social media , her emotional acuity , her idiosyncratic dancing . But one of the key elements that makes her so distinctive from her peers is more theoretical: her use of the mixolydian mode. Without getting too technical, the mixolydian is a type of major scale in which the leading tone—used relentlessly in pop music to build tension and yearning—is replaced by a flat seven. The mixolydian is a primary part of blues music as well as much of early rock: think the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” or the Doors’ “L.A. Woman.” But it’s much less common in modern pop music, to the point that it was nearly nonexistent in charting songs when Lorde brought it back to the top with the foreboding “Royals” in 2013. (You can read a more granular, precise definition of mixolydian on Stereogum .) [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Four years after “Royals,” Lorde achieved similarly huge success with the ...

Big Study Casts More Doubt on Malaria Drugs for Covid-19, Reveals Greater Risk of Death Friday’s report in the journal Lancet is not a rigorous test of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, but it is by far the largest look at their use in real world settings, spanning 671 hospitals on six continents. Friday’s report in the journal Lancet is not a rigorous test of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, but it is by far the largest look at their use in real world settings, spanning 671 hospitals on six continents.

Friday’s report in the journal Lancet is not a rigorous test of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, but it is by far the largest look at their use in real world settings, spanning 671 hospitals on six continents. from Top World News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3cWZ3CZ https://ift.tt/2LUfGDg Friday’s report in the journal Lancet is not a rigorous test of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, but it is by far the largest look at their use in real world settings, spanning 671 hospitals on six continents.

New top story from Time: Indonesia Is Searching for a Missing Submarine With 53 People Aboard

https://ift.tt/32PnPlb JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s navy ships are intensely searching the waters where one of its submarines was last detected before it disappeared with 53 people on board, as neighboring countries are set to join the complex operation. The KRI Nanggala 402 was participating in a training exercise Wednesday when it missed a scheduled reporting call. Officials reported an oil slick and the smell of diesel fuel near the starting position of its last dive, about 96 kilometers (60 miles) north of the resort island of Bali. Indonesia’s military said that five navy ships and a helicopter were taking part in the search while a hydro-oceanographic survey ship equipped with underwater detection capabilities is on its way to the site around the oil spills. Officials said they had not yet been linked to the missing submarine. Rescue ships from Singapore and Malaysia are expected to arrive Saturday. The military said Australia, the United States, Germany, Fran...

China Reports No New Coronavirus Cases, For the First Time Since Pandemic Began The number of new asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus fell to 28 from 35 a day earlier, the NHC said. The number of new asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus fell to 28 from 35 a day earlier, the NHC said.

The number of new asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus fell to 28 from 35 a day earlier, the NHC said. from Top World News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2zdTamo https://ift.tt/3eA0x7w The number of new asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus fell to 28 from 35 a day earlier, the NHC said.

New top story from Time: DOJ Reportedly Investigating Whether New York Gov. Cuomo Manipulated Data on COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths

https://ift.tt/3u8AJab (ALBANY, N.Y.) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced mounting challenges to his leadership on the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday as state lawmakers threatened to strip him of the power to issue emergency orders and federal investigators scrutinized his administration’s handling of nursing home data. The U.S. Justice Department has been examining the governor’s coronavirus task force and trying to determine whether the state intentionally manipulated data regarding deaths in nursing homes, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The people, who weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Cuomo administration had not been cooperative with prosecutors, especially in the early stages of the probe, and for months had not produced documents and other data the Justice Department had requested. The inquiry began months ago in the Justice Department’s civil division, and parts of it have ...

Van Ness Improvement Project Nears Completion

Van Ness Improvement Project Nears Completion By Nehama Rogozen After years of planning and construction, work on the Van Ness Improvement Project is progressing rapidly and the end is in sight! Construction is projected to be finished by the end of this year, with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service running on Van Ness Avenue from Mission to Lombard beginning in early 2022. Work on the red transit lanes between Broadway and Pacific is almost complete. Crews have been busy on Van Ness Avenue. You may have noticed them building new medians and sidewalks, paving the roadway and installing poles that provide lighting and power to the BRT system. Most recently they have installed the red lanes that will allow buses to move Muni and Golden Gate Transit riders quickly along the corridor, without getting stuck in traffic. To ensure durability and reduce fading, these red transit lanes are made from poured red concrete, as opposed to red paint or thermoplastic on top of concrete. We are als...

New top story from Time: Environmental Crises Are Forcing Millions Into Cities. Can Countries Turn Climate Migrants Into an Asset?

https://ift.tt/3sEUWCv When he was a child, James Owuor loved hearing the elders talk about the way life used to be. So it comes as something of a surprise that at 38, he is now the one tasked with the job of describing the Before Times in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Before Lake Baringo started to rise, before it flooded and stole everything he knew. “At the beginning, we just thought it was a bad rainy season, that the water would recede when the dry season came. It didn’t,” he says ruefully, peering over the edge of his motorized canoe at what used to be houses below the milky brown waters. Over the past decade, an unprecedented increase in annual rainfall—widely attributed to climate change —has raised the lake by 40 ft. (12 m), inundating nearly 22,000 acres and destroying homes, businesses and Roberts Camp, the lakeside resort where Owuor has worked for most of his adult life. In 2014, he watched the waters overtake the two-story-tall shorefront lodge. The restaurant went next...

New top story from Time: What Women Owe One Another on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day

https://ift.tt/2Vlj9D9 Given the durability of the so-called “ glass ceiling ,” it is apt that, when the U.S. government brought its first gender pay discrimination lawsuit, in the late 1960s, the company at the center of the case was a large New Jersy glassmaking facility . The company had been founded in the late 1880s , but by 1956 ran headlong into what it described in court documents as a shortage of male workers . The situation prompted the company, in an agreement with a union representing its workers, to hire women as “selector-packers,” forbidden from lifting items over 35 lbs. Beyond that one limitation, many men and women inside the company did the same work and were responsible for almost all the same tasks. And yet, they did not take home the same salaries—until the government’s lawyers ultimately prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court in January 1970 , winning wage equality (and back pay) for the women. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The case established a cor...

New top story from Time: China Calls U.S. Policy ‘Misguided’ in High-Level Talks

https://ift.tt/3iPgwS0 TIANJIN, China — China came out swinging at high-level face-to-face talks with the United States on Monday, blaming the U.S. for a “stalemate” in bilateral relations and calling on America to change “its highly misguided mindset and dangerous policy.” Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng accused the administration of President Joe Biden of trying to contain and suppress China’s development, according to an official summary of his remarks in talks with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. The fundamental reason why relations between the two face serious difficulties is because some Americans portray China as an “imagined enemy,” the Foreign Ministry quoted Xie as saying. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Sherman, America’s No. 2 diplomat, is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit China since Biden took office six months ago. She was having separate meetings with Xie, who is in charge of U.S.-China relations, and Foreign Minister Wang Y...

My precise view

Search This Blog