Religious leaders have been listed as part of the segmented population to receive the first 600,000 doses of the Coronavirus vaccines received on Wednesday, February 24.
The deployment of the vaccines is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2 in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi metropolitan areas. Awutu Senya East and Awutu Senya West in the Central Region as well as Obuasi will also be covered.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Minister-designate for Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the COVID-19 “vaccination will be conducted in phases among segmented populationsâ€.
“The first segment of the population that will receive from the 600,000 doses will be health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary and their related staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers and other personalities in Greater Accra Metro including Awutu Senya West and Awutu Senya East in the Central Region.â€
In the early days of the outbreak of the viral disease in Ghana, some religious leaders lived in denial, espousing divine protection.
However, churches have since instituted temporal measures to ensure that the disease does not spread during services.
Social distancing, wearing of masks and hand washing-cum-sanitising are strictly enforced by churches.
The COVID-19 vaccines have been received at the Kotoka International Airport on Wednesday, February 24 by a delegation led by the Minister-designate for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu.
Information Minister-designate Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, says the vaccines will be deployed to health facilities from Tuesday, March 2.
“COVID-19 vaccination will be conducted in phases among segmented populations,†Mr. Oppong Nkrumah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi Constituency, stated.
“The first segment of the population that will receive from the 600,000 doses will be health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary, and their related staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers and other personalities in Greater Accra Metro including Awutu Senya West and Awutu Senya East in the Central Region.
“A similar segmented population in the Greater Kumasi Metro and Obuasi municipality will also be covered.â€
He said the government remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians “and is making frantic efforts to acquire vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agenciesâ€.
He acknowledged the “hard work†of the technical teams of stakeholders including the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Health, and the COVID-19 Task Force.
“Our development partners are also acknowledged for their tremendous financial and technical support.
“It is our hope that they will continue to support us in our sustained efforts in combating this virus and putting Covid-19 behind us.â€
Government has finally taken delivery of 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield).
The vaccines were received at the Kotoka International Airport on Wednesday, February 24 by a delegation led by the Minister-designate for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu.
A statement issued by the Minister-designate for Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, says the vaccines will be deployed to health facilities from Tuesday, March 2.
“Covid-19 vaccination will be conducted in phases among segmented populations,†Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi Constituency, stated.
“The first segment of the population that will receive from the 600,000 doses will be health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary, and their related staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers and other personalities in Greater Accra Metro including Awutu Senya West and Awutu Senya East in the Central Region.
“A similar segmented population in the Greater Kumasi Metro and Obuasi municipality will also be covered.â€
He said the government remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians “and is making frantic efforts to acquire vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agenciesâ€.
He acknowledged the “hardwork†of the technical teams of stakeholders including the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Health, and the COVID-19 Task Force.
“Our development partners are also acknowledged for their tremendous financial and technical support.
“It is our hope that they will continue to support us in our sustained efforts in combating this virus and putting COVID-19 behind us.â€
The Government of Ghana will today Wednesday, February 24, 2021, receive the first batch of 600,000 AstraZeneca Coronavirus vaccine at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.
A press statement issued by the Ministry of Information in Accra, said the Minister for Health Designate, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, would lead the government delegation to receive the vaccines at 0700 hours.
It said the brief ceremony would be televised live on Ghana Television (GTV) and also on the Ministry of Information’s Facebook page.
The statement encouraged media houses interested in the coverage to pick the live feed from the two platforms.
Bright Simons, the President of mPedigree Network and an honorary vice-president-at-IMANI Africa, has questioned why Ghana is paying as high as $10 per dose for COVID-19 vaccines.
“Kenya is paying $3 per dose for its vaccines (with an additional $0.07 planned for logistics). South Africa paid $5.25,†Bright Simons wrote on his Twitter timeline on Saturday, February 13, 2021. “Most EU countries are paying around $2.16 (but because of volume & bargaining power issues there, let’s discount). Why is Ghana budgeting $10 per dose?â€
Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS) revealed to the media on Thursday, February 11, 2021, that the Government of Ghana is expected to spend over 200 million dollars to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the entire population.
He disclosed that the price of the vaccine available presently ranged from USD 4 to USD 20 and that would be the cost at which every Ghanaian would be vaccinated.
“The goal is to vaccinate every Ghanaian and presently we are in excess of USD 200 million,†Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe told the Ghana News Agency in a report monitored by GhanaWeb that the first consignment of the vaccine would arrive in the country by the end of February.
Former Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye has dispelled all rumours and conspiracy theories regarding the COVID-19 vaccine development.
The vaccines, according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will arrive in Ghana by March, 2021.
Delivering his 23rd update on COVID-19 on Sunday, January 31, the President assured Ghanaians that only accredited, valid and certified vaccines will be imported into the country.
”Fellow Ghanaians, in Update No. 21, I indicated that Ghana is set to procure her first consignment of the COVID vaccines within the first half of this year. Since then, a lot of work has been done towards the realisation of this. Our aim is to vaccinate the entire population, with an initial target of twenty million people. Through bilateral and multilateral means, we are hopeful that, by the end of June, a total of seventeen million, six hundred thousand (17.6 million) vaccine doses would have been procured for the Ghanaian people. The earliest vaccine will be in the country by March,” he said.
However, there are some Ghanaians who are sceptical about the efficacy of the vaccines as some believe the vaccines will pose further health risks to the recipients.
Rumormongers also have it that the vaccines are a means to extinguish the African population, hence claiming an ulterior motive by the manufacturers to cause damage to the African race.
Reacting to the issues, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye says the vaccines will not cause any harm.
He noted during a panel discussion on Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo” that the vaccines are purposely made to provide immunity against the deadly Coronavirus and so-called on Ghanaians not to become anti-Coronavirus-vaccine crusaders but rather concentrate on the benefits of the vaccine.
”Vaccine reduces your chance of sickness and death significantly,” he said.
He also debunked claims that the vaccine will cause erectile dysfunction and infertility in men and women.
Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye alluded to other vaccines like that for Polio vaccination and asked whether the vaccines for Polio or any other disease have caused infertility in people.
“If vaccine manufacturers want to reduce our population, by now it would have affected the fertility of our sisters and brothers. It doesn’t also mean I’m saying those who manufacture the vaccines are Angels but the point is that we have ethical standards one has to meet before the person can send the vaccines to somebody’s country. So far, I haven’t seen any bad faith in vaccine production,” he stated.
Ghana is still experiencing an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases as the latest data shared by the Ghana Health Service shows.
In the latest update on its website, the GHS puts the number of active cases at 2,174 indicating a report of 366 new cases.
This pushes the cumulative case count to 55,899 whilst the number of deaths has seen an addition of six new deaths, bringing the total to 358. The number of recorded recoveries now stands at 55,899.
The current number of active cases has 98 being severe and 36 being critical.
According to the GHS, this data is as of January 16, 2020.
Ghana over the last few weeks has seen the number of active cases increase from a few hundred to its current state of over two thousand.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his last address to the nation on Sunday expressed worry over the situation and warned that his government will not hesitate on imposing more stringent restrictions and measures if need be.
The Greater Accra and the Ashanti regions continue to be the epicenter of the virus in the country with cumulative cases of 33,017 and 11,401 respectively.
Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has issued a Public Health Alert warning the general public against the patronage and use of any COVID-19 vaccine.
The FDA in a press release issued today said it had come to its attention that “some unscrupulous members of the business community are peddling information on the sale of COVID-19 vaccines to hospitals and other health facilities”.
The release said the “peddling of such information contravenes Section 118 of the Public Health Act 2012, Act 851 and constitutes a very serious offence”.
“It has come to the attention of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), that some unscrupulous members of the business community are peddling information on the sale of COVI D-19 vaccines to hospitals and other health facilities. The information is ostensibly to inform the general public of the availability of these vaccines from well known pharmaceutical brands indicating their price ranges,” the release said.
“The general public is hereby cautioned against the patronage of such vaccines since the FDA has not yet approved any COVID-19 vaccine for use in Ghana.
In view of the above, the FDA wishes to inform all health facilities and the general public that, peddling of such information contravenes Section 118 of the Public Health Act 2012, Act 851 and constitutes a very serious offence”.
The release further stressed that when the COVID-19 vaccine is approved by the FDA for use in Ghana, the Ministry of Health will issue a national policy on the use of COVID-19 vaccines throughout the health sector.
COVID-19 vaccine approvals
Currently, the United States (US) FDA has approved two vaccines; Moderna’s vaccine on December 18, 2020, and the Pfizer vaccine on December 11. The vaccines are currently being distributed across the US to battle the pandemic.
The United Kingdom (UK) has also approved three vaccines; the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The Pfizer, Oxford and Moderna vaccines each require two doses and you are not fully vaccinated until a week after your second shot.
Meanwhile, Guinea late last year began vaccinating against COVID-19 with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine on an experimental basis, starting with government officials. It ordered only 55 doses of the Russian vaccine.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that the country is expected to take delivery of the coronavirus vaccine in the first half of the year.
So far only two vaccines have been approved by the World Health Organization and are on sale.
The vaccines which are available are the BioNTech and AstraZeneca.
Speaking during a coronavirus address on January 3, 2020, President Akufo-Addo said the country is in the process of procuring a first shipment of the vaccine and that he is hopeful it will be done in the first half of the year.
“With Ghana set to procure her first consignment of the COVID vaccines within the first half of this year, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But, we are not yet out of the woods. So, let us all continue down the path of strict adherence to the protocols,†he said.
President Akufo-Addo warned that despite the availability of a vaccine, it is important that Ghanaians continue to observe the preventive protocols.
“The adherence to the enhanced hygiene, social distancing protocols and mask wearing protocols continue to be the tools of our welfare even when the vaccine arrive in Ghana. By observing these protocols, we are also making sure that the imposition of crippling restrictions and lockdowns do not become options for governmentâ€.
The President also announced the date for the reopening of all schools across the various levels of education.
“We are satisfied that in the current circumstances the reopening of our schools is safe. So, from 15th January our children in Kindergarten, Primary and Junior High in both private and public schools will be back in schools.
“All SHS 1 students will start classes from 10th March and all the students embarking on the single-track academic calendar , their seniors in SHS 2 and SHS 3 will however, return to school from 18th January.â€
The President further disclosed that the new variant of the coronavirus has not been detected in the country.
“Thus far, we in Ghana have not detected any case of this new variant. Our scientist tell us the genetic make-up of the virus in this country has still not changed. The Ghana Health Service with the support of other relevant institutions continue to monitor events closely and will advise government on the way forwardâ€.
A since-fired Wisconsin hospital worker was arrested for removing more than 500 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from refrigeration, causing them to spoil, police said Thursday.
A statement from police in Grafton, near Milwaukee, said the suspect was charged after “tampering with and causing the destruction of 57 vials containing approximately 570 doses of the novel coronavirus vaccine.” The name of the person charged has not been released.
Advocate Aurora Health initially reported that 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine were tossed after an employee “inadvertently” removed them from the fridge at the Grafton center and left them out overnight. The employee, however, admitted to doing it deliberately, officials said.
Dr Jeff Bahr, Aurora Health Care Medical Group president, said Thursday that the FBI and Wisconsin state police had joined the ongoing law enforcement investigation. He added that the individual’s motive remained unclear. The worker was fired Wednesday.
The vaccine must be stored in a freezer between minus 13 degrees and 5 degrees Fahrenheit, then thawed in a refrigerator for 21 and a half hours or at room temperature for an hour.
“We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic,” Aurora Health said in a statement.
“We are more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine. This was a violation of our core values, and the individual is no longer employed by us.”
Aurora Health said it has contacted “appropriate authorities for further investigation, but Grafton police have not publicized any potential charges. Bahr said there was no evidence the individual tampered with any other vials of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines at the facility. He credited the system in place at the hospital for preventing further losses.
“It’s become clear this is a situation involving a bad actor and not a bad process,” Bahr said during a news conference.
Bahr said that 57 people received vaccines from the doses that were removed from the facility’s refrigerators, before the rest of the vaccine was tossed. The doctor said those who received those doses have been informed that their inoculations may have been less effective.
Wisconsin has reported more than 477,000 positive Covid-19 cases so far and almost 5,000 deaths.
U.S. Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday live on television.
“I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. It is relatively painless. It happens really quickly. It is safe,” Harris said shortly after being administered the Moderna vaccine at United Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
“So I urge everyone, when it is your turn, get vaccinated.” The vice president-elect’s vaccination came just over a week after that of President-elect Joe Biden, who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that, together with the Moderna vaccine, got emergency use authorisation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In addition to Biden and Harris, Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence, as well as Surgeon General Jerome Adams also got inoculated.
All of them did it on live television to tout the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.
President Donald Trump earlier this month said he had reversed a plan to prioritise White House official in the national vaccination programme, saying that he himself is “not scheduled to take the vaccine,” but that he looked forward to doing so “at the appropriate time.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given the assurance that Ghana will have access to vaccines for the novel Coronavirus.
Giving updates on the management of the Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana, the President said a team of experts from various agencies and institutions had been constituted to ensure the procurement and deployment of vaccines across Ghana.
“Ghana, I assure you, is not going to be left behind in having access to the vaccines. I am aware of the anxieties relating to the safety and efficacy of newly-developed vaccines.â€
“Government will ensure that the COVID-19 vaccines to be deployed in the country are effective and are safe. To this end, I have put together a team of experts from the relevant agencies and institutions who are working assiduously towards the deployment and procurement of vaccines,†he added.
COVID-19 vaccines have already been rolled out in the UK and the US.
Reports, however, indicate that some countries such as Zimbabwe, Mexico and Pakistan are having a hard time procuring their vaccines.
There are other potential COVID-19 vaccines currently in development, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO is currently liaising with some partners to ensure the equitable distribution of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for persons across the world.
African countries will have access to the COVID-19 vaccines from the end of January through the first quarter of 2021, said a special envoy of the African Union (AU) on Wednesday.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the AU Special Envoy on Mobilising International Economic Support for the continent’s fight against COVID-19, gave the assurance after a closed-door meeting with Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama in the capital city of Abuja.
“As long as one person has it (COVID-19) in the world, no one is safe. And that is why poorer countries, lower-middle-income countries like Nigeria, need to get it as quickly as possible,” said Okonjo-Iweala, who is also Nigeria’s candidate for the Office of the Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
The international initiative to get the COVID-19 vaccines distributed to developing and poorer countries in a quick and affordable manner involved the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the international community, she said.
A platform called the COVAX facility has been developed with 186 countries on board, she noted, saying that the parties interested in serving the poor countries include 92 countries, for which resources have been raised in an attempt to distribute the vaccines quickly.
She said the vaccines will initially be made available for frontline health workers, followed by some other target groups – older people, and those with underlying conditions.
“I think the COVAX facility can cover about 20 percent to 23 percent of the population by the end of next year,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
According to the AU envoy, Africans are blessed for not having the same incidence rate of COVID-19 as those of other continents. However, she warned African nations against complacency.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the African continent has reached 2,284,907 as of Wednesday, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The continental disease control agency said in a statement that the death toll related to the pandemic stood at 54,503. A total of 1,961,471 people have recovered across the continent so far.
UK regulators have approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use.
But while many people want an injection as soon as possible, others are worried about putting something unknown into their bodies.
How do we know a vaccine is safe?
This is the first and most important question scientists ask when they start designing and testing a new vaccine or treatment.
Safety trials begin in the lab, with tests and research on cells and animals, before moving on to human studies.
The principle is to start small and only ever move on to the next stage of testing if there are no outstanding safety concerns.
What role do trials have?
As long as the safety data from the labs is good, scientists can check that the vaccine or treatment is effective too.
That means tests on large numbers of volunteers – around 40,0000 individuals in the case of Pfizer/BioNTech.
In trials, half of the people are given the vaccine and the other half a dummy or placebo jab. The researchers and participants are not told which group is which, until after the results have been analysed, to avoid bias.
All of the work and findings are checked and verified independently.
The Covid vaccine trials have happened at breakneck speed, but they haven’t skipped any of these steps.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine trial was voluntarily put on hold at one stage to investigate why one participant – out of many thousands – had died. It restarted once it was clear it was not related to the vaccine.
Who approves vaccines or treatments?
Approval will only be given for a vaccine if the government regulator, the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), is happy that it’s both safe and effective.
The MHRA is part of the Department of Health, and employs more than 1,200 people. Its head is Dr June Raine, who has spent her career working in medicine regulation.
In becoming the first agency in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine, Dr Raine said: “The public can be absolutely confident that the standards we have worked to are equivalent to those around the world”.
Checks on the vaccine will continue to make sure there are no further side effects or long-term risks.
The JCVI, which has about 20 members who are experts on vaccines, is led by Prof Andrew Pollard, who works at the University of Oxford.
What’s in the Covid vaccines?
There are lots of different Covid vaccines in development.
Some contain the pandemic virus itself in a weakened form.
The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine uses a harmless virus altered to look a lot more like Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19.
Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines use bits of genetic code to cause an immune response, and are called mRNA vaccines.
These do not alter human cells. They only present the body with instructions to build immunity to Covid.
Some Covid jabs contain proteins from coronavirus.
Vaccines sometimes contain other ingredients, like aluminium, that make the vaccine stable or more effective.
Will a vaccine make me ill?
There is no evidence that any of these ingredients cause harm when used in such small amounts.
Vaccines do not give you a disease. Instead, they teach your body’s immune system to recognise and fight the infection they have been designed to protect against.
Some people do suffer mild symptoms, such as muscle aches or a bit of a temperature, after being vaccinated.
This is not the disease itself, but the body’s response to the vaccine.
Allergic reactions to vaccines are rare. For any approved vaccine, the ingredients will be listed.
Prof Sir Munir Pirmohamed, who advises the MHRA, said it hadn’t identified any “serious adverse reactions” during the trial of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
He said: “Most of the adverse effects were mild and short-lasting, usually lasting for a day or two, similar to the kind of effects you get after any other vaccine”.
He added that the MHRA had a “vigilant” strategy to carry on monitoring the safety of the vaccine.
image captionTwo full doses of the Oxford vaccine gave 62% protection, a half dose followed by a full dose was 90% and overall the trial showed 70% protection.
Be aware that anti-vaccine stories are spread online through social media. These posts are not based on scientific advice (or blend facts with misinformation).
Is it safe for someone who had Covid to have the vaccine?
Once a coronavirus vaccine is approved, it is likely that people will still be offered the jab even if they have had Covid-19 in the past.
That’s because natural immunity may not be long-lived and immunisation could offer more protection.
Guidance from Public Health England says there are no safety concerns about giving jabs to people with long Covid either. But people who are currently unwell with Covid-19 should not receive the vaccine until they have recovered.
How animal-friendly are vaccines?
Some vaccines, such as the shingles vaccine and the children’s nasal flu vaccine, can contain pork gelatine.
And some vaccines are grown on hen’s eggs, or cells from chick embryos.
There are hundreds of Covid vaccines in development. We don’t have details on every ingredient yet, but many of the Covid vaccines are expected to be vegetarian or vegan friendly.
If everyone else gets vaccinated then surely I don’t need to bother?
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccination is the best defence against serious infections.
Covid vaccines appear to stop people getting very sick and could save lives.
The first doses that become available will probably be offered to people with the highest need – such as the elderly – who could become severely ill.
It is not yet clear how much protection vaccines might give in terms of stopping people from spreading Covid.
If they can do this well, vaccinating enough people would stamp out the disease.
By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online
The vaccine trains the immune system to fight coronavirus.
It is a new type of jab called an RNA vaccine and uses a tiny fragment of the virus’s genetic code. This starts making part of the virus inside the body, which the immune system recognises as foreign and starts to attack.
It is given in two doses – three weeks apart – and offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19.
Has this type of vaccine ever been used before?
This is the first RNA vaccine to be approved for use in humans.
The concept has been researched before and people have been given them in clinical trials for other diseases.
The vaccine will be considered by regulatory agencies around the world, who will decide whether the jab can be approved for use.
Who will get it first and how soon can I have it?
It depends how old you are, as age is the biggest risk factor for severe Covid-19.
Some people – such as those with a weak immune system – will not be able to have the vaccine.
Could the vaccine have long-term health effects?
Nothing in medicine is 100% safe – even something we take without thinking, like paracetamol, poses risks.
The data so far is reassuring – trials on 43,500 people discovered no safety concerns, although mild side effects have been reported.
If there were highly dangerous and common consequences of this vaccination, they should have become apparent.
However, rarer side effects may emerge as millions of people are immunised.
Will it mean we don’t need lockdown?
Hopefully yes, but not for some time.
If enough people are immune then the virus would stop spreading and we would not need other measures.
However, the manufacture and distribution of a vaccine will take some time.
So, testing, lockdowns, social distancing, and mask wearing are going to be a feature of our lives for a while yet.
Why can it only be made by Pfizer?
The vaccine has been designed and developed by Pfizer and BioNtech, and they own the intellectual property.
They already have the manufacturing capacity to produce 1.3 billion doses by the end of next year, but could partner with others to increase capacity even further.
What do we still need to know about the vaccine?
The announcement gave us the headline, but there is a still lack of fine detail.
We do not know if the vaccine stops you catching and spreading the virus or just stops you from getting ill. We also don’t know how protective the vaccine is in different age groups.
These will be crucial for understanding how it will be used.
What does this mean for other vaccines?
It is good news – it shows that a coronavirus vaccine is possible,.
About a dozen vaccines are in the final development stages and those produced by Oxford University/AstraZeneca and Moderna have also proved successful in trials. The UK has ordered supplies of both.
By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent
The first-ever Covid vaccine has been approved for use in the UK by the British regulator, the MHRA, for people aged 16 and over.
Immunisations could start early next week for people in some high-priority groups, with 800,000 doses arriving in the first batch.
When will I get a vaccine?
NHS staff and patients are likely to get the vaccine first because storage of the jab at freezing temperatures is easiest in hospitals. Some care home staff will be included too.
When more doses are delivered, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that people are given the vaccine in the following order:
residents in a care home for older adults, and their carers
everyone aged 80 and over, and frontline health and social care workers
everyone aged 75 and over
everyone aged 70 and over, and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable
everyone aged 65 and over
people aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and death from Covid-19
everyone aged 60 and over
everyone aged 55 and over
everyone aged 50 and over
These groups cover 90-99% of those at risk of dying from Covid-19, according to the JCVI.
The older you are, the higher your risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from the virus – and that risk rises sharply beyond 70. People with underlying health conditions are also vulnerable to the virus.
After these nine priority groups, there will be a second phase of vaccination for other groups in the population.
Local NHS and public health teams will be given some flexibility to allocate vaccines to other at-risk groups, including people from ethnic backgrounds and deprived communities.
People will be vaccinated twice – 21 days apart – and immunity starts seven days after the second dose.
Where will I get a vaccine?
You’ll be invited to get a vaccine as soon as it’s your turn, probably by letter.
More than 1,000 GP surgeries will act as local vaccination centres, and sports stadiums and conference centres will act as major vaccination hubs.
The first doses are likely to be given via 50 hospital hubs next week, which means healthcare staff and patients will probably be immunised first, rather than care home residents.
The NHS is recruiting 30,000 volunteers to help with the rollout, including lifeguards, airline staff and students – who will be trained to give the jabs.
Doses of the Pfizer vaccine need to be stored at freezing temperatures and can only last for five days in a fridge, which makes the logistics of getting it into people’s arms a challenge.
This isn’t an issue with the Oxford one, which can be stored at normal fridge temperature.
Can I pay to be vaccinated sooner?
No – this vaccine is being rolled out free to people via the NHS.
You can’t jump the queue by paying for it, but there should be plenty of vaccine to go round.
Should I leave a gap between getting the flu and Covid vaccines?
Having both infections at once this winter could be dangerous.
At its last meeting, the JCVI recommended leaving at least seven days between the vaccines.
Will the Covid vaccine be safe?
The UK regulator will not authorise any vaccine unless it believes it is safe.
The MHRA assesses all the data, ensures a vaccine works and that all the necessary trials and checks have been completed.
lab and clinical trial results
manufacturing and quality controls
product sampling
testing of the final product
It is doing this as quickly as possible without cutting corners, because these vaccines are a priority.
Companies have continually been sending trial data to the regulator, which has also shortened the process.
It will also seek advice from another independent body, the Commission on Human Medicines, before advising the government on a potential vaccine.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the fastest ever to go from concept to reality, taking just 10 months.
In the event the UK has a choice, the JCVI would decide which vaccine should be used for different groups of people.
image captionThe Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is currently in the final stages of testing
Will everyone be vaccinated?
The eventual aim is that as many people as possible over the age of 16 receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
If everyone over 16 in the UK is offered one, that would be more than 50 million people – a huge challenge.
There is no timeframe on this momentous task, but it’s clear that’s the long-term plan in 2021.
The NHS has plenty of experience delivering vaccines to huge numbers of people, for example this winter’s flu jab should reach 30 million.
A Covid vaccine won’t be compulsory though – no other vaccines in the UK are, and experts say this approach doesn’t help create confidence in the vaccine.
At present, the government has ordered seven different types of vaccine and expects to receive 355 million doses, including 100 million of the Oxford/AstraZeneca one.
If everyone needs two doses, that would certainly be enough for every adult in the UK.
Where is the vaccine made?
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is the first to be approved in the UK, is being manufactured and distributed from Belgium.
The first batch of 800,000 doses is expected to arrive in the UK in the coming days.
The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination.
Britain’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out.
The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs.
Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff.
But because hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at -70C, as required, the very first vaccinations are likely to take place there – for care home staff, NHS staff and patients – so none of the vaccine is wasted.
The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is the fastest vaccine to go from concept to reality, taking only 10 months to follow the same steps that normally span 10 years.
The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the jab – enough to vaccinate 20 million people.
The doses will be rolled out as quickly as they can be made by Pfizer in Belgium, Mr Hancock said, with the first load next week and then “several millions” throughout December.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the first people in Scotland will be immunised on Tuesday.
The bulk of the rollout will be next year, Mr Hancock said. “2020 has been just awful and 2021 is going to be better,” he said.
“I’m confident now, with the news today, that from spring, from Easter onwards, things are going to be better. And we’re going to have a summer next year that everybody can enjoy.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson added: “It’s the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again.”media captionHeath Secretary Matt Hancock says he is “thrilled” that the vaccine has been approved
The free vaccine will not be compulsory and there will be three ways of vaccinating people across the UK:
Hospitals
Vaccination centres “a bit like the Nightingales project and including some of the Nightingales”, said Mr Hancock
In the community, with GPs and pharmacists.
Around 50 hospitals are on stand-by and vaccination centres – in venues such as conference centres or sports stadiums – are being set up now.
It is thought the vaccination network could start delivering more than one million doses a week once enough doses are available.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the health service was preparing for “the largest-scale vaccination campaign in our country’s history”.
But experts said people still need to remain vigilant and follow rules to stop the virus spreading – including with social distancing, face masks and self-isolation.
“We can’t lower our guard yet,” said the government’s chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty.
This is the news we have all been waiting for
This is the news we have all been waiting for.
The NHS has already been gearing up for this moment for some time. The venues are in place and there is provision for extra staffing, with even lifeguards and airline staff to be brought in to help with the effort.
But the biggest hurdle will be supply.
The UK has been promised 40 million doses by the spring – enough to give the required two jabs to health and care workers and everyone over 65. But in the first few weeks of winter, our ability to vaccinate could easily outstrip supply.
Ministers say they will have 800,000 doses in the country within days – with several million more to follow in weeks – but the original expectation that there could be 10 million doses by the end of the year is already looking ambitious.
Getting the jabs into the country remains a challenge. It is being made in Belgium. Could Brexit be an issue? The government is confident it has secure routes to ensure supply does not get disrupted.
Nonetheless, major hopes are still being pinned to authorisation being given to the Oxford University vaccine so that rollout can happen as quickly as possible in 2021.
The order in which people will get the jab is decided by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations.
Mass immunisation of everyone over 50, as well as younger people with pre-existing health conditions, can happen as more stocks become available in 2021.
The vaccine is given as two injections, 21 days apart, with the second dose being a booster. Immunity begins to kick in after the first dose but reaches its full effect seven days after the second dose.
Most of the side effects are very mild, similar to the side effects after any other vaccine and usually last for a day or so, said Prof Sir Munir Pirmohamed, the chairman of the Commission on Human Medicine expert working group.
The vaccine was 95% effective for all groups in the trials, including elderly people, he said.
The head of the MHRA, Dr June Raine, said despite the speed of approval, no corners have been cut.
Batches of the vaccine will be tested in labs “so that every single vaccine that goes out meets the same high standards of safety”, she said.media captionDr June Raine from the MHRA: “The safety of the public will always come first”
Giving the analogy of climbing a mountain, she said: “If you’re climbing a mountain, you prepare and prepare. We started that in June. By the time the interim results became available on 10 November we were at base camp.
“And then when we got the final analysis we were ready for that last sprint that takes us to today.”
The Pfizer/BioNTech was the first vaccine to publish positive early results from final stages of testing.
It is a new type called an mRNA vaccine that uses a tiny fragment of genetic code from the pandemic virus to teach the body how to fight Covid-19 and build immunity.
An mRNA vaccine has never been approved for use in humans before, although people have received them in clinical trials.
Because the vaccine must be stored at around -70C, it will be transported in special boxes of up to 5,000 doses, packed in dry ice.
Once delivered, it can be kept for up to five days in a fridge. And once out of the fridge it needs to be used within six hours.
There are some other promising vaccines that could also be approved soon.
One from Moderna uses the same mRNA approach as the Pfizer vaccine and offers similar protection. The UK has pre-ordered seven million doses that could be ready by the spring.
The UK has ordered 100 million doses of a different type of Covid vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca. That vaccine uses a harmless virus, altered to look a lot more like the virus that causes Covid-19.
Russia has been using another vaccine, called Sputnik, and the Chinese military has approved another one made by CanSino Biologics. Both work in a similar way to the Oxford vaccine.
By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online
US biotech firm Moderna on Monday announced its experimental vaccine against Covid-19 was almost 95 percent effective, marking a major breakthrough in the quest to end the pandemic.
Moderna released early results from a clinical trial with more than 30,000 participants, after American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech last week said their vaccine was 90 percent effective.
The news came as virus infections surged across Europe and the United States.
Both vaccines are based on new technology that uses synthetic versions of molecules called “messenger RNA” to hack into human cells, and effectively turn them into vaccine-making factories.
“This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease,” said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.
“Today’s news of a second vaccine is further reason to feel hopeful,” tweeted President-elect Joe Biden, but he cautioned that its widespread distribution was months away.
“Until then, Americans need to continue to practice social-distancing and mask-wearing to get the virus under control,” he said.
Moderna plans to submit applications for emergency approval around the world within weeks, and says it expects to have approximately 20 million doses ready to ship in the US by the end of the year.
The company, which has received $2 billion from the US government under “Operation Warp Speed,” added it is on track to manufacture between 500 million to a billion doses globally in 2021.
Global infections from Covid-19 have soared past 54 million with more than 1.3 million deaths since the virus emerged in China late last year.
China and Russia also say that they have manufactured effective Covid-19 vaccines.
China is developing several vaccines, of which five are undergoing large-scale global trials
Questions remain The promising results of both vaccines are seen as a validation for mRNA technology, which has never before been brought to regulatory approval.
It works by providing human cells with the genetic instructions to make a surface protein of the coronavirus, which trains the immune system to recognize the real virus.
Making a traditional vaccine is a longer process that normally involves developing a weakened form of a pathogen.
It is not yet clear how long lasting the protection will be from either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, nor how well they work for the elderly, the age-group at highest risk from Covid-19.
Another open question is whether they stop people who are exposed to the virus from transmitting it on to the other people, even though they may be themselves protected from the disease.
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s chief executive said its coronavirus vaccine candidate could be ready for use at the end of December, pending regulatory approval.
“Regulatory authorities are working continuously with our data. If they are fast when we are ready, we can start vaccinating people in January, possibly at the end of December,” chief executive Pascal Soriot was quoted as saying by Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter on Saturday.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker is working with Oxford University in Britain to manufacture a possible coronavirus vaccine, tapped as one of the most promising in the race to find a cure for the pandemic.
“Perhaps we will never earn money from it [the vaccine], no one knows how often you’ll need to vaccinate,” Soriot said. “If the vaccine is very effective and protects people for many years, and the disease disappears, then there is no market.”
Soriot noted that many experts, however, believe there will be a need for re-vaccinations. “If that has to be done annually we can earn money off it from 2022.”
“But we have to ascertain that the vaccine really works,” he said. The vaccine entered phase-three trials in September. They were temporarily stopped because of health concerns with a participant in Britain, but have since been resumed.
The European Union, the United States, Britain, Japan and Brazil have signed initial contracts with AstraZeneca for vaccine deliveries if the medication is approved.
Final clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, have been put on hold after a participant had a suspected adverse reaction in the UK.
AstraZeneca described it as a “routine” pause in the case of “an unexplained illness”.
The outcome of vaccine trials is being closely watched around the world.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine is seen as a strong contender among dozens being developed globally.
Hopes have been high that the vaccine might be one of the first to come on the market, following successful phase 1 and 2 testing.
Its move to Phase 3 testing in recent weeks has involved some 30,000 participants in the US as well as in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Phase 3 trials in vaccines often involve thousands of participants and can last several years.
The New York Times is reporting a volunteer in the UK trial has been diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and can be caused by viral infections.
However, the cause of the illness has not been confirmed and an independent investigation will now work out if there was any link to the vaccine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that once a Covid-19 vaccine is approved, Africa will get at least 220 million initial doses.
The first batch will prioritise front-line healthcare workers and vulnerable groups, according to the WHO Africa Program Area Manager Richard Mihigo.
He said distribution will be based on the population of each country.
Mr Mihigo said all 54 countries had expressed interest in a Covid-19 vaccine.
Africa has a population of more than 1.3 billion people.
The global vaccine initiative, called COVAX, intends to help purchase and fairly distribute 2 billion doses of approved vaccines by the end of 2021.
The initiative has nine vaccine candidates that are being tested globally.
Two of the vaccine candidates are currently being tested in Africa, according to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) boss Richard Hatchett.
The Trump administration has indicated that it will not participate in international coalition efforts to find and distribute a vaccine for COVID-19 because the World Health Organization (WHO) is involved.
The Washington Post newspaper reported that the White House would not join 172 other countries participating in a WHO-led initiative to “ensure equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved”.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that the US would “continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat the virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organisations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China”.
US President Donald Trump has attacked the WHO over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, accusing it of being biased towards China in how it issued its guidance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a locally developed vaccine for Covid-19 has been given regulatory approval after less than two months of testing on humans.
Mr Putin said the vaccine had passed all the required checks, adding that his daughter had already been given it.
Officials have said they plan to start mass vaccination in October.
Experts have raised concerns about the speed of Russia’s work, suggesting that researchers might be cutting corners.
Amid fears that safety could have been compromised, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged Russia last week to follow international guidelines for producing a vaccine against Covid-19.
On Tuesday, the WHO said it had been in talks with Russian authorities about undertaking a review of the vaccine.
Currently, the Russian vaccine is not among the WHO’s list of six vaccines that have reached phase three clinical trials, which involve more widespread testing in humans.
More than 100 vaccines around the world are in early development, with some of those being tested on people in clinical trials.
Despite rapid progress, most experts think any vaccine would not become widely available until mid-2021.
What did President Putin say about the vaccine?
Calling it a world first, President Putin said the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, offered “sustainable immunity” against the coronavirus.
He said he knew the vaccine was “quite effective”, without giving further details, and stressed that it had passed “all needed checks”.
Mr Putin also said the vaccine had been given to one of his daughters, who was feeling fine despite a brief temperature increase.
“I think in this sense she took part in the experiment,” Mr Putin said.
He did not specify which of his two daughters had received the vaccine. It is rare for President Putin to talk publicly about his daughters. The lives of his daughters, named Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova in media reports, have been shrouded in secrecy.
Russian scientists said early-stage trials of the vaccine had been completed and the results were a success.
The Russian vaccine uses adapted strains of the adenovirus, a virus that usually causes the common cold, to trigger an immune response.
In July Russian scientists announced that early-stage trials of a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute had been completed / EPA
But the vaccine’s approval by Russian regulators comes before the completion of a larger study involving thousands of people, known as a phase-three trial.
Experts consider these trials an essential part of the testing process.
Despite this, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Tuesday the vaccine had “proven to be highly effective and safe”, hailing it as a big step towards “humankind’s victory” over Covid-19.
Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious disease official, raised concerns Friday regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccines under development by China and Russia. Several Chinese companies are at the forefront of the global vaccine race, while Russia has said it hopes to be the first in the world to produce a vaccine for the public, with a target date of September.
But the medicines will likely face heightened scrutiny given that the regulatory systems in both countries are far more opaque than they are in the West.
Fauci, who was asked during a Congressional hearing whether the US could make use of Chinese or Russian vaccines if they arrived first, indicated that was unlikely.
“I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone,” he said.
He added: “Claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing, I think, is problematic, at best.
“We are going very quickly. I do not believe that there will be vaccines, so far ahead of us, that we will have to depend on other countries to get us vaccines.”
Last month, Chinese media announced a coronavirus vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics was being used to immunize the Chinese military — making it the first approved for people, albeit in a limited population.
Many scientists however raised ethical concerns because the vaccine has not yet begun its final stages of testing.
‘Sputnik moment’? Two other Chinese companies Sinovac and Sinopharm, have launched final phase three trials in Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, respectively.
China, where the virus originated, has largely brought its outbreak under control and has therefore had to turn to other countries to test its vaccines.
The trials in Brazil and the UAE will be watched particularly closely, given China’s history of vaccine and other health scandals.
In 2018, more than 200,000 children were administered a defective vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (DPT) that caused paralysis in a few cases.
Russia, which was once a global vaccine leader during Soviet times, aims to bring two to market by September and October, respectively.
The first is being developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya institute and the defense ministry, and the second by the Vektor state laboratory near the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
Russia has released no scientific data proving the vaccines’ safety or efficacy.
Nevertheless, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund which is financing the Gamaleya trials, told CNN:Â “It’s a Sputnik moment.”
Sputnik was the world’s first satellite launched by Russia in 1957.
Three Western coronavirus vaccines are in final phase three trials.
One is produced by US biotech firm Moderna and the National Institutes for Health; one by the University of Oxford and Britain’s AstraZeneca; and the last by Germany’s BioNTech with US pharmaceutical Pfizer.
China and Russia both stand accused of attempting to steal Western coronavirus research — charges they deny.
Later today, we’re expecting to see the early-stage trial data on one of the most advanced coronavirus vaccines in development, from AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
The UK has already invested in 100m doses in the hope that it might stop the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as signing deals for 90m doses of other promising vaccines.
But why is a vaccine so important and how close are we to getting one? You can find out in this guide to the vaccine race.
A US firm has said it will soon start final-stage human trials for a possible vaccine.
The vaccine developed by the US pharmaceutical company Moderna has proved safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 volunteers in phase-one trials.
The last stage of the trials is expected to begin later this month and will involve recruiting 30,000 participants in the US.
Half will receive the vaccine, while the other half are given a placebo.
Researchers will then track them over two years to determine whether they are protected against infection by the virus. Or, if they do get infected, whether the vaccine prevents symptoms from developing.
The study should run until October 2022 but preliminary results should be available long before.
Moderna was the first company to start human testing of a vaccine back in March.
Drug company AstraZeneca is to start producing a potential vaccine for coronavirus, its boss has told the BBC.
Trials of the drug are under way but Pascal Soriot said the firm must start making doses now so that it can meet demand if the vaccine proves effective.
“We are starting to manufacture this vaccine right now – and we have to have it ready to be used by the time we have the results,” he said.
AstraZeneca says it will be able supply two billion doses of the vaccine.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Soriot said manufacturing was beginning already because, “we want to be as fast as possible”.
“Of course, with this decision comes a risk but it’s a financial risk and that financial risk is the vaccine doesn’t work,” he added.
“Then all the materials, all the vaccines, we’ve manufactured will be wasted.”
He said AstraZeneca would not seek to make a profit from producing the drug during the pandemic.
If it works, the company will be able to produce two billion doses after signing two new contracts on Thursday, one of which was with billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.
AstraZeneca, which is developing the vaccine with scientists at Oxford University, has agreed to supply half of the doses to low and middle-income countries.
One of the new partnerships is with the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume. The other is a $750m (£595m) deal with two health organisations backed by Bill and Melinda Gates.
The two charities, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and GAVI vaccines alliance, will help find production facilities to produce and distribute 300 million doses of the vaccine. Delivery is expected to start by the end of the year.
Mr Soriot has said he expects to know by August if the AZD1222 vaccine is effective, while CEPI chief executive Richard Hatchett said there is still a possibility the vaccine may not work.
AstraZeneca’s licensing agreement with India’s SII is to supply one billion doses for low and middle-income countries, with a commitment to provide 400 million before the end of 2020.
Mr Soirot said the company was building a number of supply chains across the world “to support global access at no profit during the pandemic and has so far secured manufacturing capacity for two billion doses of the vaccine”.
“Having a vaccine is one thing but you need to produce it at scale and I can tell you that It is not an easy thing to do,” the pharmaceutical boss told Today.
He has described the coronavirus pandemic as “a global tragedy” and “a challenge for all of humanity”.
AstraZeneca has already agreed to supply 300 million doses of the potential vaccine to the US and a further 100 million to the UK, with the first deliveries expected in September.
Governments around the world have pledged billions of dollars for a Covid-19 vaccine and a number of pharmaceutical firms are in a race to develop and test potential drugs.
“A vaccine must be seen as a global public good – a people’s vaccine, which a growing number of world leaders are calling for,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a video message on Thursday.
The head of the global vaccine alliance has warned “nobody is safe unless everybody is safe” from the new Coronavirus, urging international solidarity ahead of a fundraising summit as the pandemic threatens to trigger a resurgence of preventable diseases.
Scientists are racing to identify and test possible vaccines for COVID-19 as nations grapple with the economic and societal consequences of the virus lockdowns.
Seth Berkley of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, said the international community must ensure all countries will have access to any potential vaccines, regardless of their wealth.
“This is a global problem that needs a global solution and we have to all work together,” he said.
He spoke ahead of a virtual summit hosted by Britain on Thursday, where Gavi hopes to raise at least $7.4 billion to continue vaccination programmes against diseases like measles, polio and typhoid that have been severely disrupted by the pandemic.
The meeting will also see Gavi and its partners launch a financing drive to purchase potential COVID-19 vaccines, scale up their production, and support delivery to developing nations.
The fundraising goal for COVID-19 is $2 billion, although Berkley said it was an initial sum as they kickstart negotiations with manufacturers and could go up “substantially”.
The meeting comes as the pandemic exposes new ruptures in international cooperation.
US President Donald Trump last week announced he would pull out of the World Health Organization and there are fears America may use its economic clout to buy up vaccines.
Berkley said that countries needed a “different mindset”, adding that sharing access to drugs was not just a humanitarian and equality issue, but a global health security one.
“Nobody is safe unless everybody is safe. We saw the virus move from somewhere around Wuhan to 180 countries in less than three months, including islands and isolated areas,” he said.
‘Perfect storm’
The World Health Organization, UN children’s agency UNICEF and Gavi warned last month that the pandemic had hindered routine immunisation services in nearly 70 countries, affecting around 80 million children under the age of one.
Polio eradication drives were suspended in dozens of countries, including those still struggling with the debilitating illness, while measles vaccination campaigns were also put on hold in 27 countries, UNICEF said.
Recent Gavi-supported modelling from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine estimated that for every COVID-19 death prevented by halting vaccination campaigns in Africa, up to 140 people could die from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Berkley said the situation was improving, with new guidance on how to carry out immunisation campaigns safely.
But he said locating all the children who missed out on vaccines before new outbreaks emerge will be a “real challenge”.
Thursday’s funding drive is for a five-year period in which the organisation aims to reboot halted programmes in the countries it supports — allowing them to access vaccines at a much reduced cost — with the goal of reaching some 300 million children.
Berkley said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the target would be reached, with more new countries pledging donations despite the economic strains of the pandemic.
Recalling past episodes when vaccine work was stalled by the outbreak of diseases such as Ebola and SARS, another Coronavirus, he urged nations to move beyond “boom and bust” cycles of crisis planning.
“I don’t think this Coronavirus is going to go away like SARS did,” he said.
He also warned of an “unprecedented” level of rumour and conspiracy theory around vaccinations, particularly from the northern hemisphere.
“Distrust between people in their government, the rumours and the intentional spread of false information is not only at an all time high, but it also is being amplified by social media tools that didn’t exist 20 years ago,” he said.
Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh has charged the government to focus on supporting local herbal practitioners to find a cure for the novel coronavirus pandemic.
According to him, developing an effective local treatment; be it drugs or other treatment methods, can alleviate the conditions of sick persons and restore their health.
He believes Ghana is capable of finding a traditional cure for the virus if all stakeholders come on board to support manufacturers of herbal drugs and called on the government to empower local producers of both traditional and modern medicine to work together in that regard.
The NPP legislator said, “It is important to assess policies that will bring together our traditional herbal medicine experts and various stakeholder institutions like the Ministry of Health and the Food and Drugs Authority among others, to play a role in developing and enhancing local treatment methods backed by scientific evidence.â€
Citing the Madagascar COVID-19 drug as an example, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh said Ghana can follow suit if we support our local treatment practices with confidence in their ability to produce results.
He said, “This is also an opportunity to encourage our traditional medicine experts to work together with doctors and scientists in medicine for the purpose of providing more efficient treatment methods that will upsurge recoveries even further. In effect, we will eventually lighten the burden on healthcare services so that more efforts can be focused on securing an approved vaccine in the shortest possible time.â€
World Health Organisation (WHO) member states have signed a resolution that calls for COVID-19 vaccines to be classified as a global public good for health in order to bring the pandemic to an end.
This follows China’s commitment made by President Xi Jinping during the two-day World Health Assembly to make the vaccine a global public good, once one is available.
“The landmark resolution underlines WHO’s key role in promoting access to safe, effective health technologies to fight the pandemic,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus.
In addition to a vaccine, the resolution highlights three other critical points. It calls for countries to ensure the fair distribution of all quality essential health technologies required to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Second, that relevant international treaties should be harnessed where needed, including the provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.
The third point encourages collaboration to promote both private sector and government-funded research and development. This includes open innovation across all relevant domains and the sharing of all relevant information with WHO.
The historic consensus resolution on COVID-19 and the way ahead comes as 106 000 cases were reported.
“In the last 24 hours, there have been 106 000 cases reported to WHO – the most in a single day since the outbreak began. Almost two thirds of these cases were reported in just four countries,” said Ghebreyesus on Wednesday.
But, in good news, it has been particularly impressive to see how countries like the Republic of Korea have built on their experience of the Middle East Respiratory (MERS) outbreak to quickly implement a comprehensive strategy to find, isolate, test and care for every case, and trace every contact.
This was critical to the Republic of Korea curtailing the first wave and now quickly identifying and containing new outbreaks.
At the assembly, WHO expressed concern about the rising numbers of cases in low- and middle-income countries.
Governments in the assembly outlined their primary goal of supressing transmission, saving lives and restoring livelihoods.
As the world continues to battle COVID-19, Ghebreyesus called on governments to ensure that health systems continue to function to avoid the risk brought on by the suspension of essential services, like child immunisation.
About 80 groups around the world are researching vaccines and some are now entering clinical trials.
Most experts think a vaccine is likely to become available by mid-2021, about 12-18 months after the virus first emerged. But some have cautioned that there may never be one.
A small study that tested dozens showed eight participants developed antibodies against coronavirus.
The early results from Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial show participants developed antibodies against the virus.
Study subjects who received Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine had positive early results, according to the biotech company, which partnered with the National Institutes of Health to develop the vaccine.
If future studies go well, the company’s vaccine could be available to the public as early as January, Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told CNN.
“This is absolutely good news and news that we think many have been waiting for for quite some time,” Zaks said.
These early data come from the Phase 1 clinical trial, which typically studies a small number of people and focuses on whether a vaccine is safe and elicits an immune response.
The results of the study, which was led by the National Institutes Health, have not been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.
Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of eight developers worldwide doing human clinical trials with a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. Two others, Pfizer and Inovio, are also in the United States, one is at the University of Oxford in Britain, and four are in China.
Moderna has vaccinated dozens of study participants and measured antibodies in eight of them. All eight developed neutralizing antibodies to the virus at levels reaching or exceeding the levels seen in people who’ve naturally recovered from Covid-19, according to the company.
Neutralizing antibodies bind to the virus, disabling it from attacking human cells.
“We’ve demonstrated that these antibodies, this immune response, can actually block the virus,” Zaks said. “I think this is a very important first step in our journey towards having a vaccine.”
A vaccine specialist who is not involved in Moderna’s work said the company’s results are “great.”
“It shows that not only did the antibody bind to the virus, but it prevented the virus from infecting the cells,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the NIH panel that’s setting a framework for vaccine studies in the US.
While the vaccine had promising results in the lab, it’s not known if it will protect people in the real world. The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared the company to begin Phase 2 trials, which typically involve several hundred of people, and Moderna plans to start large-scale clinical trials, known as Phase 3 trials, in July, which typically involve tens of thousands of people.
Offit said before the pandemic, vaccine developers would typically test out their product in thousands of people before moving on to Phase 3, but that Moderna is “extremely unlikely” to have vaccinated that many by July, since they’ve only vaccinated dozens so far.
He said it makes sense to Moderna to move into Phase 3 without vaccinating that many people, given that Covid-19 is killing thousands of people each day.
“This is a different time,” Offit said.
In January, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said it would take about 12 to 18 months to get a vaccine on the market. Zaks said he agreed with that estimate for Moderna’s vaccine, putting a delivery date somewhere between January and June of next year.
In the Moderna study, three participants developed fever and other flu-like symptoms when they received the vaccine at a dose of 250 micrograms. Moderna anticipates the Phase 3 study on dosage will be between 25 and 100 micrograms.
So far, the Moderna study subjects who were vaccinated even at 25 and 100 micrograms achieved antibody levels similar to or even higher than people who naturally became infected with coronavirus.
But it’s not clear whether natural infection confers immunity to re-infection, and so similarly it’s not clear whether vaccination confers immunity.
“That’s a good question, and the truth is, we don’t know that yet,” Zaks said. “We are going to have to conduct formal efficacy trials where you vaccinate many, many people, and then you monitor them in the ensuing months to make sure they don’t get sick.”
A vaccine against coronavirus appears to have provided protection against the disease Covid-19 in six rhesus macaque monkeys.
It gives early to hope for the vaccine, which is now undergoing human clinical trials.
There is no guarantee this result will translate to people, though.
A group of monkeys was exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The six animals that were vaccinated had less of the virus in their lungs and airways.
The trial took place in the US, involving researchers from the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and from the University of Oxford.
The vaccine appeared to protect the animals against developing pneumonia.
Rhesus macaques have similar immune systems to humans.
Promisingly, the animals also didn’t develop “immune-enhanced disease” – which BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh describes as a “theoretical risk”. That’s when the vaccine triggers a worse response to a disease.
This response was seen in some early animal vaccine trials against SARS – another coronavirus – and proved a stumbling block in developing a vaccine for that disease.
The study hasn’t yet been reviewed by other scientists and formally published, but Prof Stephen Evans at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, described it as “high quality” and “very encouraging”.
Meanwhile, trials in the UK on more than 1,000 human volunteers are currently taking place through the University of Oxford.
There are more than 100 experimental coronavirus vaccines currently being developed.
Dr Penny Ward, a visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London, said it was “helpful” to see that the vaccine didn’t cause a worse disease response in these monkeys, and that they didn’t develop pneumonia after being vaccinated.
The vaccine is based on a small part of the virus’s distinctive “spike”. The idea is that by getting the body to recognise a unique part of the virus, when it is exposed to the whole thing it will know how to react, and produce the right antibodies to fight it off.
That did seem to be happening to the vaccinated macaques, which produced antibodies capable of fighting the virus.
It would be “unacceptable” for French drug giant Sanofi to give priority to the US market if it develops a Covid-19 vaccine, a French minister has warned.
Deputy Finance Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher was responding to comments by Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson, who said “the US government has the right to the largest pre-order because it’s invested in taking the risk”.
Many labs worldwide are involved in research to find a Covid-19 vaccine.
Vaccines usually take years to develop.
“For us, it would be unacceptable for there to be privileged access to such and such a country for financial reasons,” Ms Pannier-Runacher told France’s Sud Radio.
Earlier this month the EU chaired a global online summit to boost coronavirus research, and secured pledges of $8bn (£6.5bn) from some 40 countries and donors. The funding is aimed at developing a coronavirus vaccine and treatments for Covid-19.
The UK co-hosted the summit but the US and Russia did not take part.
The EU insisted on Thursday that all countries should get equal access to a vaccine.
“The vaccine against Covid-19 should be a global public good and its access needs to be equitable and universal,” said European Commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker, quoted by AFP news agency.
International collaboration
Sanofi’s Coronavirus vaccine research is partly funded by the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Barda).
But in recent years Sanofi has received tens of millions of euros in tax credits from the French government to help its research.
On Thursday Sanofi’s chief in France, Olivier Bogillot, said “the goal is to have this vaccine available to the US as well as France and Europe at the same time”.
Speaking on French news channel BFMTV, he said that would only be possible “if Europeans work as quickly as the Americans”, and added that the US government had pledged to spend “several hundreds of millions of euros”.
Last month Sanofi also teamed up with Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to work on a vaccine, though trials have not yet started.
Sanofi’s head of vaccine research, John Shiver, says “we are using an existing technology that was designed for influenza, and we’re applying it to the new virus that causes Covid-19 disease”.
Sanofi says GSK “will contribute its adjuvant technology, an ingredient added to enhance the immune response, reduce the amount of vaccine protein required per dose and improve the chances of delivering an effective vaccine that can be manufactured at scale”.
The candidate vaccine is expected to enter clinical trials in the second half of 2020 and to be available by the second half of 2021.
It would be “unacceptable” for French drug giant Sanofi to give priority to the US market if it develops a Covid-19 vaccine, a French minister has warned.
Deputy Finance Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher was responding to comments by Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson, who said “the US government has the right to the largest pre-order because it’s invested in taking the risk”.
Many labs worldwide are involved in research to find a Covid-19 vaccine.
Vaccines usually take years to develop.
“For us, it would be unacceptable for there to be privileged access to such and such a country for financial reasons,” Ms Pannier-Runacher told France’s Sud Radio.
Earlier this month the EU chaired a global online summit to boost coronavirus research, and secured pledges of $8bn (£6.5bn) from some 40 countries and donors. The funding is aimed at developing a coronavirus vaccine and treatments for Covid-19.
The UK co-hosted the summit but the US and Russia did not take part.
On Thursday Sanofi’s chief in France, Olivier Bogillot, said “the goal is to have this vaccine available to the US as well as France and Europe at the same time”.
Speaking on French news channel BFMTV, he said that would only be possible “if Europeans work as quickly as the Americans”, and added that the US government had pledged to spend “several hundreds of millions of euros”.
Sanofi’s Covid-19 vaccine research is partly funded by the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Barda).
But Sanofi has received tens of millions of euros in tax credits from the French government in recent years to help its research.
Last month Sanofi also teamed up with Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to work on a vaccine, though trials have not yet started.
Sanofi’s head of vaccine research, John Shiver, says “we are using an existing technology that was designed for influenza, and we’re applying it to the new virus that causes Covid-19 disease”.
Sanofi says GSK “will contribute its adjuvant technology, an ingredient added to enhance the immune response, reduce the amount of vaccine protein required per dose and improve the chances of delivering an effective vaccine that can be manufactured at scale”.
The candidate vaccine is expected to enter clinical trials in the second half of 2020 and to be available by the second half of 2021.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and cybersecurity experts believe Chinese hackers are trying to steal research on developing a vaccine against coronavirus, two newspapers reported Monday.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are planning to release a warning about the Chinese hacking as governments and private firms race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported.
The hackers are also targeting information and intellectual property on treatments and testing for COVID-19.
US officials alleged that the hackers are linked to the Chinese government, the reports say.
The official warning could come within days.
In Beijing Foreign Affairs ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian rejected the allegation, saying China firmly opposes all cyber attacks.
“We are leading the world in COVID-19 treatment and vaccine research. It is immoral to target China with rumors and slanders in the absence of any evidence,” Zhao said.
The warning would add to a series of alerts and reports accusing government-backed hackers in Iran, North Korea, Russia and China of malicious activity related to the pandemic, from pumping out false news to targeting workers and scientists.
The New York Times said it could be a prelude to officially-sanctioned counterattacks by US agencies involved in cyber warfare, including the Pentagon’s Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
Last week in a joint message Britain and the United States warned of a rise in cyber attacks against health professionals involved in the coronavirus response by organised criminals “often linked with other state actors.”
Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they had detected large-scale “password spraying” tactics — hackers trying to access accounts through commonly used passwords — aimed at healthcare bodies and medical research organisations.
A German-born Ghanaian doctor, Prof. Dr Marylyn Addo is deeply involved in the global search for a vaccine to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The virologist, who has already made a name for herself in the production of vaccines for some infectious diseases and Ebola as well as MERS in 2012.
Aged 50, she is the head of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and also the Head of Infectious Disease at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Her exploits may not be surprising as her Ghanaian father was himself a physician.
She had her medical education at the University of Bonn and later earned a diploma at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, during which she researched Candida albicans transmission between HIV-positive people.
Born in Germany, she moved to Boston in 1999 where she specialised in infectious diseases at the Harvard Medical School.
At Harvard, Prof Addo was made an Assistant Professor at the Ragon Institute and served as Associate Director of the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research.
Her impeccable records and achievements came to light last week as governments and scientists scrambled to find a cure to the disease which has killed more than 240,000 across the world.
Prof Addo was recently celebrated by the German Ambassador to Ghana, Christoph Retzlaff who tweeted;
“Prof Marylin Addo is a German Ghanaian doctor in Hamburg/ Germany. She and her team are at the forefront searching for a vaccine against #Coronavirus.â€Â
In 2014, she was involved with the development of the preparation RVSV-EBOV, an experimental recombinant live vaccination that can be used against the Ebola virus disease.
Prof. Addo worked on a recombinant live vaccination to tackle the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) vaccination and her vaccination was supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina has said that the country will begin clinical trials for an artemisia- based vaccine.
The vaccine that is developed using extracts from the artemisia plant, just like the drink named Covid-Organics, will be tried starting next week according to the president.
He urged the Malagasy people to plant artemisia.
President Rajoelina said he was in touch with scientists from the US to help with research.
He added that the country was also pursuing a validation of the Covid-Organics by the World Heath Organization (WHO).
The WHO said in a statement sent to the BBC that it did not recommend “self-medication with any medicines… as a prevention or cure for Covid-19”.
The Covid-Organics drink has been delivered to other African countries including Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea andTanzanian President John Magufuli said he will send a plane to Madagascar to collect a batch of the drink.
US President Trump has said he believes a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year. But how likely is this?
It’s been over a month since the first human trial of a vaccine took place in the US city of Seattle.
But there’s still lots to do – even if the initial safety tests go well, the vaccine will still need to go through clinical trials, medicine regulators must approve it and a way of producing it on a huge scale must be developed.
Vaccines normally take years, if not decades, to develop. Most experts think a vaccine is likely to become available by mid-2021, about 12-18 months after the new virus, known officially as Sars-CoV-2, first emerged.
That would be a huge scientific feat and there are no guarantees it will work.
Four coronaviruses already circulate in human beings. They cause common cold symptoms and we still don’t have vaccines for any of them.
Millions of children risk missing “life-saving” vaccines, the UN has warned, after a “massive backlog” of shipments built up due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The outbreak has had a huge impact on the air industry, drastically reducing commercial and charter flights.
Dozens of countries are at risk of running out of vital vaccines, the UN children’s agency Unicef says.
It wants governments and the private sector to free up freight space.
Immunization programs are one of Unicef’s key activities. The organization estimates that vaccinations for serious diseases like measles, polio, and tetanus save the lives of up to three million children a year.
With medical researchers hard at work on a coronavirus vaccine, Unicef says the outbreak is disrupting active efforts against other illnesses.
“Unicef is calling for support to unlock a massive backlog in vaccine shipments due to unprecedented logistical constraints related to Covid-19 mitigation measures including lockdowns in some countries,” said spokesperson Marixie Mercado.
Warning of a “dramatic decline” in commercial flights and the “exorbitant” cost of securing them, she said: “Countries with limited resources will struggle to pay these higher prices, leaving children vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases.
“Unicef is appealing to governments, the private sector, the airline industry, and others to free up freight space at an affordable cost for these life-saving vaccines.”
Last month the organisation warned measles outbreaks might occur as a result of vaccine programmes being delayed by the coronavirus outbreak.
Even before coronavirus emerged Unicef estimated that more than 20 million children a year were missing out on a measles vaccine, with the organisation citing scepticism of vaccines as a factor.
On Thursday, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg donated $100,000 (£80,000) she won from a Danish charity to Unicef to help its fight against coronavirus.
Launching a campaign to help protect children’s lives in the outbreak, she said: “Like the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is a child-rights crisis. It will affect all children, now and in the long-term, but vulnerable groups will be impacted the most.”
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Tuesday that a new coronavirus vaccine could be tested as early as next week — with the potential for emergency use by fall, a report said Tuesday.
“This is a crisis right now, and a solution is desperately needed by all,†Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla told the Wall Street Journal.
Pfizer is working with German-based BioNtech to deliver the possible vaccine. Clinical trials on human volunteers in Germany have already started.
Health regulators in the US may approve testing the vaccine on humans by next week, Bourla told the paper.
If that timeline holds true, study results could be delivered within a month. Then, with favorable testing outcomes, the vaccine may be ready to distribute in emergency cases by the fall, Bourla said.
The New York-based corporation has invested $650 million into developing and possibly manufacturing the vaccine.
“You can imagine the demand for something like that will be extremely, extremely high,†Bourla told the Journal.
The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in Manhattan REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
But the odds of developing a successful vaccine are slim, with just 6 percent of them becoming market-ready after a series of strict tests, the report said, citing a 2013 study published by PLOS ONE.
Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye says vaccine to treat the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) may be ready next year.
Speaking in an interview with host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye noted that like the most severe influenza pandemic which occurred in 1918 called ‘Spanish flu’, hasn’t become extinct but rather being treated with vaccine, the COVID-19 likewise may not easily disappear.
He was hopeful a vaccine will be developed to treat patients.
“Spanish flu didn’t disappear. It is the same flu we have today. The 1918 flu is the same flu today,” he said.
COVID-19 has become the bane of the entire Universe, threatening world economies and claiming lives of many people.
Scientists across the globe have been working tirelessly to fight the pandemic by ensuring patients fully recover from the virus infection and also working around the clock to provide vaccine to remedy the situation.
1042 people in Ghana have currently tested positive for COVID-19 with 99 fully recovered and 9 deaths recorded. More than 60000 people whose samples were taken through the enhanced surveillance testing by the Government of Ghana have also tested negative.
The question bothering the minds of many people is how soon will vaccines be made available to relieve the world of this life-threatening virus.
Answering this question, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye disclosed that the earliest possible time for the vaccine development will be in 2021.
He therefore advised Ghanaians to continue to adhere to the safety protocols and also boost their immune system by taking appropriate nutrition and having rest, not engaging in stressful activities in order to fight against the COVID-19 in the absence of a vaccine.
“I know there are many scientists working out to come up with a vaccine but what we hear is that probably, the earliest time will be somewhere in 2021. The whole thing is about your own immunity as a people which will help in making sure that you may get it, but it is not as severe as it is and that’s our luck. We’re hoping that it remains the same way and so that is why we still say that all the other bans on gathering . . . should stay . . . the borders are closed . . . So, if you follow all the education about social distancing which the whole world is using, definitely it will help us to resolve the situation,” he adviced.
The President and founder for Save The Nation For Future Leaders, Kwadwo Atta Apeakorang says he should be sacrificed to the gods if the local treatment he has discovered fails to cure Coronavirus.
According to him, the treatment, made up of prekese, hwentia, pepre, ginger and garlic is the only way to cure the deadly disease.
He intimated that he should be beheaded at the Black Star Square in the full glare of the general public if his treatment fails to work.
“I believe my ancestors never failed in any battle they encountered because they derived strength from our local herbs and they lived for about 130-150 years without going to the hospital”.
However, Mr. Apeakorang threw a challenge to his critics and doubters.
“I, Kwadwo Atta Apeakorang, challenge any doctor or health practitioner who doubts the cure I have discovered to come out and I will prove them wrongâ€, he revealed.
He pleaded with the Herbal Association of Ghana(HAG) to support members and desist from nepotism in order to promote the herbal medicine industry.
He also appealed to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) to test the efficacy of his herbs because he believes it can cure the Coronavirus.
Director-General of the Ghana Standard Authority, Professor Alex Dodoo, says eight candidate vaccines for treating COVID-19 are being evaluated for its safety and will be ready before the end of 2020.
According to him, two out of the eight vaccines have already begun human trails in different laboratories around the world.
Prof Alex Dodoo who is also a Clinical Pharmacologist and currently serves on a United Nations and World Health Organisation vaccine board said; “There are already vaccines in the works and I am serving on one committee looking at the safety of the vaccine as far as I can say, let’s face it, safety is number one and currently most of the vaccines we have I will say we are evaluating the safety without saying too much. There are at least 8 vaccines in different laboratories.â€
Explaining the development in an interview on JoyNews Prime on April 16, Prof. Dodoo indicated that the boards will in the next three weeks evaluate the vaccines that will grant permission for further works.
“These are being evaluated and one or two have started human trails but the issue is that you want to be sure they are safe. When you look at their safety it is more complex, are they safe on their own? Are they safe when you add other vaccines? Are they safe under all conditions of use? And who do you give them to. Within the next three weeks, we should conclusively say which ones will go further,†he added.
Globally, drug manufacturer Gilead is set to release a clinical trial data in the next couple of weeks for a potential coronavirus treatment.
The development is expected to be the next big benchmark in the race to produce a drug that will aid in the coronavirus fight.
Clinical pharmacologist and a professor at the Centre for Tropical Clinical Pharmacology, Prof Alex Dodoo, has revealed that there has been significant progress in the quest for a vaccine for the coronavirus.
Prof Dodoo, who is also Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), said there are indeed vaccines that are being evaluated for safety before they are given the green light.
“There are at least eight candidate vaccines that are being evaluated. One at least has started in human trials. The issue is that you want to be sure that they are safe,†he said Thursday evening on the business edition of PM Express.
He said the complexity of the safety evaluation is a significant contributor to delays in getting an approved vaccine.
“Within the next three weeks, we [scientific community] should be able to conclusively say which ones will go further better,†he revealed.
Uncertainty
There is uncertainty in the scientific community about when a vaccine will be available to defeat the virus.
There is also the question about the affordability and accessibility of the accepted vaccine.
Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, recently said that a vaccine for the virus could take 12 to 18 months to develop, test and approve for public use as new vaccines typically take years to earn approval.
However, there are indications that Covid-19 patients who have been getting an experimental drug called remdesivir have been recovering quickly, with most going home in days.
According to a news report on Thursday that was attributed to STAT News, patients taking part in a clinical trial of the drug have all had severe respiratory symptoms and fever but were able to leave the hospital after less than a week of treatment.
Whether a vaccine will soon be approved for use in the next three weeks or in 2021, Prof Dodoo said on PM Express on Thursday that an important consideration that the scientific community will have to make will be between the benefit of that vaccine versus its associated risks.
Growing numbers of fake medicines linked to coronavirus are on sale in developing countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
A BBC News investigation found fake drugs for sale in Africa, with counterfeiters exploiting growing gaps in the market.
The WHO said taking these drugs could have “serious side effects”.
One expert warned of “a parallel pandemic, of substandard and falsified products”.
Around the world, people are stockpiling basic medicines. However, with the world’s two largest producers of medical supplies – China and India – in lockdown, demand now outstrips the supply and the circulation of dangerous counterfeit drugs is soaring.
In the same week the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a pandemic last month, Operation Pangea, Interpol’s global pharmaceutical crime fighting unit, made 121 arrests across 90 countries in just seven days, resulting in the seizure of dangerous pharmaceuticals worth over $14m (£11m).
From Malaysia to Mozambique, police officers confiscated tens of thousands of counterfeit face masks and fake medicines, many of which claimed to be able to cure coronavirus.
“The illicit trade in such counterfeit medical items during a public health crisis, shows a total disregard for people’s lives,” said Interpol’s Secretary General Jurgen Stock.
According to the WHO, the broader falsified medicines trade, which includes medicines which may be contaminated, contain the wrong or no active ingredient, or may be out-of-date, is worth more than $30bn in low and middle-income countries.
“Best case scenario they [fake medicines] probably won’t treat the disease for which they were intended”, said Pernette Bourdillion Esteve, from the WHO team dealing with falsified medical products.
“But worst-case scenario they’ll actively cause harm, because they might be contaminated with something toxic.”
The supply chain
The global pharmaceutical industry is worth more than $1 trillion. Vast supply chains stretch all the way from key manufacturers in places such as China and India, to packaging warehouses in Europe, South America or Asia, to distributors sending medicines to every country in the world.
There is “probably nothing more globalised than medicine” said Esteve. However, as the world goes into lockdown, the supply chain has already begun to uncouple.
Several pharmaceutical companies in India told the BBC they are now operating at 50-60% of their normal capacity. As Indian companies supply 20% of all basic medicines to Africa, nations there are being disproportionately affected.
Ephraim Phiri, a pharmacist in Zambia’s capital Lusaka, said he was already feeling the strain.
“Medicines are already running out and we are not replenishing them. There is nothing we can do. It’s been really hard to get supplies… especially essential medicines like antibiotics and antimalarials.”
Producers and suppliers are also struggling as the raw ingredients to manufacture tablets are now so expensive, some companies can simply not afford to keep going.
One producer in Pakistan said he used to buy the raw ingredients for an antimalarial drug called hydrochloroquine for about $100 a kilo. But today, the cost has increased to $1,150 a kilo.
Image captionPresident Trump has touted the efficacy of hydrochloroquine – but there’s no clear evidence it can help fight Covid-19
With an increasing number of countries going into lockdown, it’s not only the reduction in production that’s problematic, it’s also the increase in demand, as people around the world anxiously stockpile basic medicines.
It’s this unstable combination of reduced supply and increased demand that has led the WHO to warn of a dangerous spike in the production and sales of fake drugs.
“When the supply does not meet the demand,” said Esteve, from the WHO, “it creates an environment where poorer quality or fake medicines will try to meet that demand.”
Fake medicine
Speaking to pharmacists and drug companies around the world, the global supply of antimalarials is now under threat.
Ever since US President Donald Trump began referring to the potential of chloroquine and a related derivative, hydroxychloroquine, in White House briefings, there has been a global surge in the demand for these drugs, which are normally used to tackle malaria.
Coronavirus and chloroquine: Is there evidence it works?
The WHO has repeatedly said there is no definitive evidence that chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine can be used against the virus that causes Covid-19. However, at a recent news conference, whilst referring to these antimalarials, President Trump said: “What do you have to lose? Take it.”
As the demand has soared, the BBC has discovered large quantities of fake chloroquine in circulation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. The WHO has also found the fake medicines for sale in Niger.
The antimalarial chloroquine is normally sold for about $40 for a pot of 1,000 tablets. But pharmacists in the DRC were found to be selling them for up to $250.
The medicine being sold was allegedly manufactured in Belgium, by “Brown and Burk Pharmaceutical limited”. However, Brown and Burk, a pharmaceutical company registered in the UK, said they had “nothing to do with this medicine. We don’t manufacture this drug, it’s fake.”
Image captionCounterfeit antimalarial drugs discovered in circulation in the DRC
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Professor Paul Newton, an expert in fake medicines at the University of Oxford, warned the circulation of fake and dangerous medicines would only increase unless governments around the world present a united front.
“We risk a parallel pandemic, of substandard and falsified products unless we all ensure that there is a global co-ordinated plan for co-ordinated production, equitable distribution and the surveillance of the quality of the tests, medicines and vaccines. Otherwise the benefits of modern medicine… will be lost.”
The West African Examination Council (WAEC), has suspended the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) timetable until further notice.
The examination body further directed that the conduct of WASSCE candidates be put on hold until further notice.
A statement issued said the directives “will be reviewed†when the outbreak of the pandemic coronavirus improves.
“Kindly note the information for further action and communicate the directives to the Ministry of Education and the general public in your country,†the statement signed by E. K. Myers Ag. Head, IED for the Registrar said.
About coronavirus
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.
Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.
Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
The new coronavirus, declared a pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) because of its global spread, and with more than 170,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and more than 7,000 deaths. The WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus yesterday referred to it as “the defining global health crisis of our time” .
The vast majority of the world’s population is not immune to this new virus. No cure has been found yet. Thus, all the measures that accumulate are, for the time being, preventive, and drastic and unprecedented at the least. The objective is to avoid the rapid spread of the virus through total containment measures.
The African continent is not being spared. The South African government declared a State of National Disaster and closed its borders, as well as all its schools. All gatherings of more than 100 people are prohibited in South Africa, while Ghana banned “cluster gatherings” of all kinds. In Senegal, the fourth most affected African country after Egypt, South Africa and Algeria, all public events are banned for 30 days. Ethiopia’s government closed all the schools for 15 days.
Italy and Spain are the two most affected European countries. And now France announced accelerated measures. The European Union has also announced the closure of its borders.
One of WHO’s urgent aims was to prevent the virus from reaching countries with the weakest health systems. A challenge which is compromised given the number of African countries that are currently affected (27 to date).
The race to the vaccine
Though preventive measures are effectively put in place over the days, laboratories around the world are working to find treatments as well as a vaccine.
In fact, a certain number of treatments have proven efficient in the laboratory. They now need to be tested on human beings who have contracted the new coronavirus. It would take one to three months to provide the treatments once their efficacy is proven. In the United States, Vice President Mike Pence announced that treatment may be available “by summer or early fall”. As for the vaccine, the time frame is longer; between 12 and 18 months, according to scientists.
Institut Pasteur in France is working on a vaccine to be derived from the one for measles. The German biotechnology group BioNTech has announced plans to start testing patients as from end of April.
Mologic Ltd in the UK also announced that it has been awarded about £1 million as part of the British government’s £46 million international coronavirus (COVID-19) prevention and research funding package. The funding will be used by Mologic and global partners, to develop a point-of-need diagnostic test for the virus, and build on their experience with the rapid test kit for Ebola.
This will allow health officials to test for the virus at home or in the community, providing results in 10 minutes, without the need for electricity or a laboratory. And with their work on diagnostics, UK aid is also supporting Mologic in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The company is working in close partnership with the Institut Pasteur de Dakar to validate and manufacture the COVID-19 test at a new manufacturing site, DiaTropix, in Senegal.
The Canadian bio-pharmaceutical company Medicago has announced significant progress in the development of a vaccine. The company is partly owned by Philip Morris International, which aims to diversify its business activities according to the framework of its new vision based on science, technology and innovation. Philip Morris International (PMI) purchased shares in Medicago in 2013 and currently holds approximately 30% of the company’s shares. The majority of the company’s remaining shares are held by Mitsubishi Tanade Pharma.
Medicago’s research works are based on tobacco plants unlike most research which is based on egg-based vaccines. The antibody is still at the research and development phase, and Medicago said it hopes to be able to make tests on patients by summer 2020.
As for international biopharmaceutical companies, such as Sanofi and Janssen, they are collaborating with the American Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in order to develop vaccines at the preclinical stage. The German company BioNTech, which currently works on the development of a number of vaccines for cancer and flu, also partnered with the American pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, in order to develop a vaccine.
Charitable associations also joined the race to the vaccine. The British organization, The Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Mastercard launched a €110 million offer to accelerate the marketing of COVID-19 treatments which currently are in the preclinical stage.
It is true that the biotechnology industry around the world plays an essential role in the fight against COVID-19 in terms of research and development of the vaccine, as well as in the discovery of therapeutic drugs. However, all the vaccines developed so far are currently under pre-clinical testing and will not be available for several months at least.
The first trial in people of a vaccine to protect against pandemic coronavirus is starting in the US later on Monday, according to reports.
A group of 45 healthy volunteers will have the jab, at the Kaiser Permanente research facility, in Seattle.
The vaccine cannot cause Covid-19 but contains a harmless genetic code copied from the virus that causes the disease.
Experts say it will still take many months to know if this vaccine, or others also in research, will work.
Scientists around the world are fast-tracking research.
And this first human trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health, sidesteps a check that would normally be conducted – making sure the vaccine can trigger an immune response in animals.
But the biotechnology company behind the work, Moderna Therapeutics, says the vaccine has been made using a tried and tested process.
Dr John Tregoning, an expert in infectious diseases at Imperial College London, UK, said: “This vaccine uses pre-existing technology.
“It’s been made to a very high standard, using things that we know are safe to use in people and those taking part in the trial will be very closely monitored.
“Yes, this is very fast – but it is a race against the virus, not against each other as scientists, and it’s being done for the benefit of humanity.”
Typical vaccines for viruses, such as measles, are made from a weakened or killed virus.
But the mRNA-1273 vaccine is not made from the virus that causes Covid-19.
Instead, it includes a short segment of genetic code copied from the virus that scientists have been able to make in a laboratory.
This will hopefully prime the body’s own immune system to fight off the real infection.
The volunteers will be given different doses of the experimental vaccine.
They will each be given two jabs in total, 28 days apart, into the upper arm muscle.
But even if these initial safety tests go well, it could still take up to 18 months for any potential vaccine to become available for the public.
While the world worries about the spread of the deadly coronavirus, now known as Covid-19, one would expect the major pharmaceutical firms to make millions, even billions, by rushing to develop a vaccine.
But in reality, this is not the case. While the global vaccine market is expected to grow to $60bn (£46bn) this year, big profits are not guaranteed.
”Successfully developing a preventive vaccine or treatment for a public health crisis is difficult. It typically takes a lot of time and money,” says US-based Brad Loncar, a biotechnology investor and chief executive of Loncar Investments.
“There is typically little money in it for companies that do successfully develop something, not the billions that some investors mistakenly expect.”
The global vaccines industry is dominated by big players such as Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi, and Johnson & Johnson.
Worldwide sales of vaccines totalled $54bn last year, and have almost doubled since 2014, according to data analysts Statista. Driving this growth is the increase of infectious diseases like influenza, swine flu, hepatitis and Ebola.
“One would think that the industry has the reserves to jump at this challenge. But none of the four top vaccine companies has shown significant interest,” says Dr Ellen ‘t Hoen, director at medicines law and policy at University Medical Center Groningen in Amsterdam.
Outside of the big firms, there are a handful of smaller pharma companies pushing to find a vaccine for the deadly Covid-19 outbreak, which has already claimed more than 1,000 lives.
Gilead, a US biotech business that makes anti-HIV drugs, has announced it will trial its drug Remdesivir. Meanwhile Kaletra, a combination of two anti-HIV drugs from pharma group AbbVie is being trialled on patients in China. Both trials are based on existing medicines.
“A large company like Gilead or AbbVie will be able to use an existing medicine against this as a therapeutic treatment, but it’s unlikely to be much of a needle mover from a stock market perspective for a large company like that,” adds Mr Loncar.
For Covid-19, charitable donations are being used to spark pharma companies into action to find a vaccine. One of the leading players is a not-for-profit organisation called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI co-founders include the governments of Norway and India, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust. CEPI is supporting vaccine development programmes by Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Moderna.
Among the big pharma companies, GSK has agreed to make its technology available to the CEPI to help it create a medicine against Covid-19.
Vaccines often require lengthy testing on thousands of people before they are allowed to be sold. But in 2002 and 2003, the Sars outbreak came and went before a vaccine could be produced. In fact, there is still no protective vaccine for Sars available.
Regarding Ebola, the first vaccine was produced by Merck, and successfully deployed in Guinea, west Africa, in 2015. At the time it was an unlicensed drug, yet it was rolled out in the country for “compassionate use” after the authorisation of the Guinean government. Merck’s vaccine was not given regulatory approval in the US until last year.
Another Ebola vaccine by Johnson & Johnson was made available from 2019 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ronald Klain served as the US Ebola response coordinator in 2014-15. “I don’t work for the companies, I’m not like a drug company fan,” Mr Klain told a panel last week hosted by not-for-profit think-tank Aspen Institute, “but there’s no question that a lot of them lost a lot of money trying to produce an Ebola vaccine.”
A key reason why vaccines often have to wait years before they are given regulatory approval is the potential for side effects. These can also happen even when a drug has been approved.
During the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic, six million people were given the Pandemrix vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline. However, it was subsequently withdrawn from sale after it was discovered to cause narcolepsy in some people. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes people to fall asleep numerous times a day.
Also speaking at last week’s Aspen Institute event, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said no major pharmaceutical company has come forward to say it would manufacture a vaccine for Covid-19. He called it “very difficult and very frustrating”.
“Companies that have the skill to be able to do it are not going to just sit around and have a warm facility, ready to go for when you need it,” Dr Fauci said.
Dr Fauci added that it would be at least one year before a Covid-19 vaccine would be available. That timeline assumes a large pharma manufacturer steps up to help make the product. The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes a vaccine will be ready within 18 months.
Pharma companies have responded to previous public health crises by developing vaccines, only to have those crises fade, and to be left with significant research and development costs. “When we were doing this with Ebola, it was a major vaccine company that got burned who’s now pulling out of that,” says Dr Fauci. “It is going to be a challenge to be able to get a major company to do that.”
Mr Loncar sums up the mentality of the big pharma firms when he said “most companies and investors are not in these things for the long haul”.
