Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
30,000 Volunteers Begin World’s Biggest COVID-19 Vaccine Study
The Associated Press: Virus Vaccine Put To Final Test In Thousands Of Volunteers
The world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine study got underway Monday with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the U.S. government — one of several candidates in the final stretch of the global vaccine race. There’s still no guarantee that the experimental vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., will really protect. (Neergaard, 7/27)
Stat: Covid-19 Vaccines May Cause Mild Side Effects, Experts Say
While the world awaits the results of large clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines, experts say the data so far suggest one important possibility: The vaccines may carry a bit of a kick. In vaccine parlance, they appear to be “reactogenic,” meaning they have induced short-term discomfort in a percentage of the people who have received them in clinical trials. This kind of discomfort includes headache, sore arms, fatigue, chills, and fever. As long as the side effects of eventual Covid-19 vaccines are transient and not severe, these would not be sources of alarm — in fact, they may be signals of an immune system lurching into gear. (Branswell, 7/27)
The Wall Street Journal: A Big Unknown In Covid-19 Vaccine Development: How Long Will Protection Last?
If any of the most-advanced Covid-19 vaccines prove to work safely, they may protect people for months or years rather than the rest of their lives, according to emerging science and health experts. Only a handful of vaccines generate lifetime immunity for most people, such as the ones for measles, a viral infection that naturally produces lifelong immunity. Experts caution against expectations of such longevity for Covid-19, citing experience with other respiratory viruses plus emerging data on the longevity of the antibodies that can prevent the virus from entering human cells and replicating. (Hopkins, Hernandez and Loftus, 7/26)
San Jose Mercury News: COVID Vaccines: Here's How We'll Beat Coronavirus
This past week’s vaccine news gives us reason to hope. Scientists are increasingly optimistic that COVID-19 will someday join the ranks of smallpox, yellow fever, polio, mumps, measles and other near-vanquished diseases. What will it take to get there? The challenges — in science, manufacturing, distribution and citizen participation — are formidable. Vaccines, alone, don’t save people; vaccinations do. To make this nightmare truly go away, forever, we need to inoculate nearly 330 million Americans and, ultimately, all 7.6 billion people on the planet. (Krieger, 7/26)
In related news —
Kaiser Health News: The Color Of COVID: Will Vaccine Trials Reflect America’s Diversity?
When U.S. scientists launch the first large-scale clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines this summer, Antonio Cisneros wants to make sure people like him are included. Cisneros, who is 34 and Hispanic, is part of the first wave of an expected 1.5 million volunteers willing to get the shots to help determine whether leading vaccine candidates can thwart the virus that sparked a deadly pandemic. “If I am asked to participate, I will,” said Cisneros, a Los Angeles cinematographer who has signed up for two large vaccine trial registries. “It seems part of our duty.” (JoNel Aleccia, 7/27)
The Washington Post: Coronavirus Vaccine Trials Aim To Include The Black And Hispanic Communities
Each fall, the Rev. Rob Newells urges the congregation at Imani Community Church in Oakland, Calif., to get a flu shot. He builds bridges everyday between the country’s most vulnerable, marginalized communities and the medical system, defusing suspicion about HIV prevention treatments and educating people about medical research. He prods health-care leaders to think harder about their messengers: Don’t send a white doctor to tell black people what they “need” to do for their own good. But with the first massive coronavirus vaccine trial in people set to start Monday, Newells finds himself in an unfamiliar place: on the fence about what to tell his colleagues, his community, his cousins. Biomedical research, Newells knows, is a long and painstaking process — and he is concerned about a vaccine campaign that seems so narrowly focused on speed. (Johnson, 7/26)
