Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Plant-Based Covid Vaccine Shows Promise
The Washington Post: First Plant-Based Coronavirus Vaccine Shows ‘Positive’ Results, Say GlaxoSmithKline And Medicago
Pharmaceutical companies Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline announced on Tuesday “positive efficacy and safety results” from a global trial using what they say is the world’s first plant-based coronavirus vaccine. ... Plant-based vegan and vegetarian alternatives in food and materials markets have become increasingly popular globally, as consumers choose them for environmental or religious reasons, but Brian Ward, medical officer at Medicago, told The Washington Post that it would not be appropriate to categorize the vaccine candidate as such: “The plants that are used simply act as bioreactors to produce the antigen.” (Suliman, 12/7)
NPR: A COVID Vaccine Grown In Plants Measures Up
A Canadian biotech firm is reporting positive results from a large study of its COVID-19 vaccine. What makes it unusual is that the key ingredient of the vaccine is grown in plants. Medicago has already developed an experimental flu vaccine in Nicotiana benthamian, a plant related to tobacco. When the pandemic struck, the company decided to try to make a COVID-19 vaccine. Now it appears those efforts have succeeded. "This is an incredible moment for Medicago and for novel vaccine platforms," Medicago CEO and President Takashi Nagao said in a statement. (Palca, 12/7)
In other updates on the vaccine rollout —
Axios: CDC: 60% Of U.S. Is Fully Vaccinated
Sixty percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 71% of the U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose, and around 23% have had a booster shot. Some 64% of those over 5 years old are fully vaccinated. That number is around 72% for all adults. (Gonzalez, 12/7)
CIDRAP: Unvaccinated Parents Highly Unlikely To OK COVID Vaccine For Their Kids
A research letter yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics shows that 25.6% of a sample of US parents responding to an online survey said they were hesitant to vaccinate themselves against COVID-19, and these parents were highly unlikely to approve of COVID vaccination for their children—by a wide margin. In the ongoing CHASING COVID nationwide cohort study, City University of New York researchers analyzed responses from the June 2021 survey of 1,162 parents of 1,651 children 2 to 17 years old. (Van Beusekom, 12/7)
Stat: Changing ‘Fully Vaccinated’ Definition Is More Than Semantics, Experts Say
Who’s “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19 — and who’s not — is starting to get a lot more complicated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says you are only granted the status two weeks after you get a single-dose vaccine or the second dose in a two-dose series. But with the advent of boosters, certain colleges, the NBA, and the state of New Mexico are saying you’re only there with three shots. “For the time being, the official definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ is two,” although that determination could change as we learn more about the Omicron variant, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House briefing last week. (Bender, 12/8)
In global news —
Reuters: Exclusive: Up To 1 Million COVID Vaccines Expired In Nigeria Last Month
Up to one million COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used, two sources told Reuters, one of the biggest single losses of doses that shows the difficulty African nations have getting shots in arms. Governments on the continent of over one billion people have been pushing for more vaccine deliveries as inoculation rates lag richer regions, increasing the risk of new variants such as the Omicron coronavirus now spreading across South Africa. (Mcallister, George and Nebehay, 12/7)
Axios: Poor Global Equity Likely In COVID Pill Access
The same countries that have struggled to obtain coronavirus vaccines will also have to wait longer for new treatments, the WSJ reports. These pills could keep unvaccinated people out of the hospital if taken soon after a person becomes infected with the virus. Pfizer and Merck, the companies developing the treatments, have licensed their formulas so generic companies can sell them at a much lower price. But low-income countries may still struggle to pay the generic prices, and generic manufacturers still need several months to ramp up production. (Owens, 12/7)
