TheNewsGuru

Tag: vaccine

  • COVID-19 vaccines ready for trial on humans in China

    Chinese scientists have begun a recruitment drive for volunteers to take part in clinical trials to test the safety and effectiveness of newly developed vaccines for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an official said.

    Wang Junzhi, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said this during a news conference on Tuesday.

    “There are some work units that made rapid progress in the development (of vaccines) and have submitted applications for clinical trials to the National Medical Products Administration.

    “They began discussions on various clinical trial plans and the recruitment of volunteers. They will move forward upon receiving approval from the National Medical Products Administration,” Wang remarked.

    Research groups across the globe are racing to develop a vaccine against the disease that has already been contacted by more than 180,000 people worldwide.

    On Monday, the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced the start of a clinical trial for a vaccine at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.

    According to a statement, 45 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 55 years will be recruited for the trial, and the first participant received an injection earlier in the day.

    The World Health Organisation has registered a total of 41 potential COVID-19 vaccines currently in development across the world, according to a document published on Friday.

    Research groups have received funding both from governments and individuals in the race to develop a safe vaccine.

    Jack Ma, one of the co-founders of Alibaba Group, donated 100 million yuan (14.2 million dollars) through his foundation in late January to support vaccine research.

    In March, Ma also announced a donation of 3.2 million Australian dollars (1.92 million dollars) to an institute in Australia currently working towards developing a vaccine.

  • BREAKING: Trump says America ready for coronavirus, boasts vaccine coming along ‘rapidly,’

    BREAKING: Trump says America ready for coronavirus, boasts vaccine coming along ‘rapidly,’

    As fears spread of a possible coronavirus outbreak in the U.S, President Trump was addressing the nation in a Wednesday evening news conference at the White House to discuss how his administration was handling the virus threat — saying that a vaccine is being developed “rapidly” and “coming along very well.”

    However, Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said later at the press conference that a vaccine would not be applicable to the epidemic for a “year to a year-and-a-half,” due to delays from testing, development, production, and distribution.

    The freewheeling and sometimes confusing press conference marked a rare appearance by the president in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, as he usually takes questions from reporters outside the White House while his Marine One helicopter prepares for takeoff.

    “It’s really nice to talk to you without the helicopter,” a reporter shouted at one point, as others laughed and applauded. (“We’ll do more of ’em,” Trump said after some journalists asked him to “come back” to the briefing room in the future.)

    Some of Trump’s targets remained the same, despite the new setting. In particular, the president excoriated both the Federal Reserve and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, calling her “incompetent” after she challenged his response to the virus and said he couldn’t be trusted on the matter.

    “I think she’s not thinking about the country; instead of making a statement like that, where I’ve been beating her routinely at everything … she should be saying we should work together,” Trump said.

    The president announced he was putting Vice President Mike Pence “in charge” of coronavirus prevention efforts, effective immediately. The White House had reportedly considered naming a virus czar to be the point person on the disease.

    “Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low,” Trump said. “We’re ready to adapt, and we’re ready to do whatever we have to.”

    The president revealed that of the “15” Americans confirmed to have the virus, eight have “returned to their homes to stay in their homes until fully recovered, one is in the hospital, and five have fully recovered; and one is, uh, we think in pretty good shape, and is in between hospital and going home.” Trump later said the person was “pretty sick and hopefully will recover.”

    So far, there have been 60 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. in total. That figure includes individuals who have been repatriated to the United States, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar later clarified at the podium. 15 people were in the initial set of cases, three came more from evacuation flights, and 42 from the Diamond Princess ship that was quarantined by Japanese health authorities earlier this month.