New top story from Time: Moderna Is Testing a New Version of Its COVID-19 Vaccine That Wouldn’t Require Ultra-Cold Storage

https://ift.tt/3t33uU6

As safety concerns over COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson–Janssen have led to disruptions in the inoculation efforts of numerous countries relying on those shots, companies like Moderna are attempting to fill the resulting gaps.

The Massachusetts-based biotech company announced on April 29 that it is investing billions to boost manufacturing facilities in Switzerland, Spain and the U.S., building enough capacity to produce up to 3 billion doses of its mRNA-based vaccine through 2022. The company’s vaccine technology differs from that of AstraZeneca and J&J, which both use an adenovirus to deliver COVID-19 virus genes to the immune system—and which both have been have been associated with serious, life-threatening—albeit very rare—blood clots.

Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, says that some of the wealthier, developed countries are eager to up their orders of the mRNA vaccines (which include both the Moderna shot and one produced by Pfizer/BioNTech). “In the last month or so, in the discussions we have had with heads of state, prime ministers, presidents of countries and health ministers, when governments look at efficacy, safety, manufacturing scalability, and the speed to the next generation of vaccines, what we are hearing loud and clear is that mRNA is the best for the problem at hand,” says Bancel. “And governments around the world want more and more mRNA product.”

To meet that need, and the needs of facilities in less-resourced countries that don’t have the freezer capabilities required to store the company’s vaccine currently, Bancel says that his scientists are studying a new version of the Moderna vaccine that won’t need to be frozen, and instead would simply need to be kept under refrigerated conditions for up to three months. Right now, it can only be stored at those temperatures for one month after the doses are thawed from their frozen storage temperature of about -20°C (14°F)—which requires special equipment that is not widely available. If the studies show the new vaccine could be stable and efficacious at refrigerated temperatures, that could increase the number of places that could vaccinate with Moderna’s shot.

“We played with a couple of key technological decisions and it is indeed a very different product,” says Bancel about the refrigerated version, which the company has just started testing in people. That means efficacy data won’t be available until the end of summer at the earliest; the company is working with the FDA to figure out what the authorization process would look like for that vaccine.

Meanwhile, the company is also studying three new versions of its COVID-19 vaccine to address viral mutations. One is specifically designed to protect against a more infectious variant of the virus, B.1.351, first identified in South Africa. The current Moderna vaccine has been shown in studies to bestow sufficient protection against this variant, but that protection is slightly lower than that provided against the original viral strain, and Moderna researchers are testing if the new shot activates a stronger immune response against the B.1.351 variant. Studies in animals are promising and human studies have just begun, so by early fall, says Bancel, “we expect the data [for the new vaccine] in humans to be as strong as what we saw last year with the current vaccine.”

The Moderna team is also testing whether a third shot of its currently authorized vaccine—at a lower dose than the first and second shots—could be effective as a booster, to increase protection against variant strains. And finally, the company is also testing a vaccine that combines the original vaccine with the new one against the South African variant.

Looking ahead, some public health experts believe controlling COVID-19 may require regular vaccinations, similar to flu shots, to maintain immune protection. Anticipating that, Moderna scientists are also working on a combined flu and COVID-19 shot that would protect people against both respiratory diseases.

Comments

New top story from Time: All 53 People Aboard Indonesia Submarine Declared Dead After Vessel’s Wreckage Found

https://ift.tt/3ezrzg5 ANYUWANGI, Indonesia — Indonesia’s military on Sunday officially said all 53 crew members from a submarine that sank and broke apart last week are dead, and that search teams had located the vessel’s wreckage on the ocean floor. The grim announcement comes a day after Indonesia said the submarine was considered sunk, not merely missing , but did not explicitly say whether the crew was dead. Officials had also said the KRI Nanggala 402’s oxygen supply would have run out early Saturday, three days after vessel went missing off the resort island of Bali. “We received underwater pictures that are confirmed as the parts of the submarine, including its rear vertical rudder, anchors, outer pressure body, embossed dive rudder and other ship parts,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters in Bali on Sunday. “With this authentic evidence, we can declare that KRI Nanggala 402 has sunk and all the crew members are dead,” Tjahjanto said. An underwater ro...

New from Equal Rights Advocates: Remembering Legal Pioneer Barbara Babcock

The post Remembering Legal Pioneer Barbara Babcock appeared first on Equal Rights Advocates . By: Delia Coleman Published at: May 23, 2020 at 07:27AM

New top story from Time: Timothée Chalamet Wants You to Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve

https://ift.tt/3uZ3cQu T imothée Chalamet and I are on the run, chasing down Sixth Avenue on a bright September day in search of a place to talk. The restaurant in Greenwich Village where we had planned to meet ended up getting swarmed by NYU students while I was waiting for him, chattering excitedly to one another—“Timothée Chalamet is here!” “Shut up!” “Yeah, he’s right outside!”—so, trying to avoid a deluge of selfie seekers, I bolt from the table, tapping Chalamet on the shoulder where he stands under the awning, on the phone, and we make our escape. Face covered with a mask and hoodie pulled up over his curly hair, he’s mostly incognito but still cuts a distinct enough figure that we’d better find a new location fast, and standing at a crosswalk with him, I feel briefly protective, like I should be prepared to body-block an onslaught of fans at any moment. <strong>“I feel like I’m here to show that to wear your heart on your sleeve is O.K.”</strong> [time-br...

New top story from Time: Almost Every Doctor Recommends Sunscreen. So Why Don’t We Know More About Its Safety?

https://ift.tt/3llOUXn Each year, as Memorial Day approaches, Holly Thaggard braces herself for the headlines. About how sunscreen may be damaging coral reefs . About the possible flammability of spray-on sunscreen . Headlines—as there were this year—about how sunscreen contains chemicals that could harm your health . “This has happened every single year for the last decade of my life,” says Thaggard, founder of Texas-based Supergoop, a sunscreen company that brands itself as reef-safe and free of hundreds of potentially problematic ingredients. This year, the is-sunscreen-dangerous news cycle started in May, when Valisure, an independent laboratory dedicated to quality-testing pharmaceuticals and personal-care products, released a report warning that its scientists found benzene—a carcinogen also found in vehicle emissions and cigarette smoke—in 78 U.S. sun-care products. Benzene is not an ingredient in sunscreens, but rather a contaminant likely introduced during the manu...

New top story from Time: Ireland Abandons 12.5% Tax Pledge as Global Deal Races to Finish

https://ift.tt/3iFmrts Ireland is ready to sign up to a proposed global agreement for a minimum tax on companies, a climbdown that removes one hurdle to an unprecedented deal that would reshape the landscape for multinationals. On the eve of a key meeting between 140 countries hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Irish government said it will join the push for a floor of 15% levied on profits of corporate entities. “This agreement is a balance between our tax competitiveness and our broader place in the world,” Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said in a statement Thursday evening announcing the pledge. The decision “will ensure that Ireland is part of the solution in respect to the future international tax framework.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The rate agreed is 2.5 percentage points higher than the longstanding level that has been a pillar of Ireland’s economic model for a generation, underscoring its huge symbolic signifi...

New top story from Time: Tesla Racism Verdict of $137 Million Could Be Halved if the Company Appeals

https://ift.tt/3iEw1No Tesla Inc. may end up paying only about half of the stunning $137 million verdict a jury awarded a former contractor over racism at one of its auto plants, if it appeals. Billionaire Elon Musk’s electric automaker has been ordered to pay punitive damages almost 20 times as large as the actual damages former contract worker Owen Diaz won—well in excess of a typical punishment, according to law professor Michael Selmi. Punitive damages are generally calculated as 9 to 1 or 10 to 1 when compared to actual damages, said Arizona State University’s Selmi. Diaz was awarded $6.9 million for emotional distress, but an appeals court could very well cut the $137 million award in half, Selmi said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] While on rare occasion high-multiple damages have been upheld, the Tesla award is “unlikely to survive a challenge,” Selmi said. The parties could also settle rather than risk an appeal, he said. But regardless of the final number, the...

New top story from Time: This Is the White House’s Plan to Take on Facebook

https://ift.tt/3oEQl4Y Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony this week on Capitol Hill turned the Klieg lights on the social media platform’s algorithm that, by design, amplifies dangerous disinformation and lures people to spend more and more time scrolling. The question now is what the Biden Administration will do about it. White House officials know that the momentum generated by Haugen’s testimony will fade over time and the window of popular support for major structural changes to the technology landscape will close. “The White House, like everyone else in Washington, recognizes that the tide is high and the time for action is now,” Tim Wu, special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy, said in a statement to TIME. White House officials are “distressed” by Haugen’s revelations that social media companies’ products are targeting children, Wu said, and “the era of ‘let’s just trust the platforms to solve it themselves’ needs to be ...

New top story from Time: The Seven Secrets of Indra Nooyi’s Success

https://ift.tt/3AyQUQ0 Indra Nooyi struggles to be heard over the sounds of outdoor dining, midtown traffic, and a fountain gushing down the wall. That’s clearly rare for the former PepsiCo CEO —so she beckons the restaurant’s owner and asks if he can shut off the water. He obliges, and Nooyi proceeds to regale us, a table of female journalists at the helm of various New York media, with anecdotes from her just-released book, My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future . The whole lunchtime interaction—assess problem, determine what’s in your control, improve outcome, go forth with grace—is signature Nooyi. Her book delves even further into this exacting style punctured by compassion, loyalty, and deep relationships that get results. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] I confess to having studied Nooyi for a long time now. I’ve watched her interviews, live and on YouTube, during my own career trajectory. A manager training I once attended spent hours dissecting Nooyi’s ab...

New top story from Time: An Innovative Washington Law Aims to Get Foreign-Trained Doctors Back in Hospitals

https://ift.tt/3v0a9kk Growing up in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, where people sometimes die of preventable or treatable illnesses like diarrhea, typhoid and malaria, taught Abdifitah Mohamed a painful lesson: adequate health care is indispensable. In 1996, Mohamed’s mother died of septicemia after spending nine months hospitalized for a gunshot wound. Her death, Mohamed says, inspired him to go to medical school, and for about four years he worked to treat the sick and injured in Somalia, Sudan and Kenya. But Mohamed hasn’t been able to work as a doctor since 2015, when he left for the United States, where his wife emigrated in 2007. Before moving, Mohamed believed that being allowed to practice in the U.S. was a simple matter of passing the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)—a three-step exam for receiving a U.S. medical license that tests medical knowledge, principles and skills—and then completing a medical residency. However, he didn’t expect that af...

New top story from Time: The Problem With Jon Stewart Could Be Great, If It Ever Catches Up to the Present

https://ift.tt/3D2oRKm There’s a telling moment in an early episode of The Problem With Jon Stewart . During a lively discussion on contemporary authoritarianism, Francisco Marquez, a Venezuelan activist and former political prisoner, mentions an event from the host’s Daily Show days . “I remember your march,” he says, referring to Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s jokey Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear , held on the National Mall in 2010. “I think it was against insanity or something along those lines.” In the perfect sarcastic deadpan that is his trademark, Stewart cracks: “Yeah, we won.” It’s a throwaway exchange, but one that captures Jon Stewart’s uncertain place in the culture, six years after leaving a role in which he helped launch so many still-thriving comedy careers and reshape late-night talk shows and political satire for the 21st century. At this point, the pleas for common sense and critical thinking—from politicians, the media and the public at large—that he i...

My precise view

Search This Blog