Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Participant In Vaccine Trial Will Receive Dose On Monday, But Wide-Spread Use Is Still A Year Away
The Associated Press: Government Official: Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Starts Monday
A clinical trial evaluating a vaccine designed to protect against the new coronavirus will begin Monday, according to a government official. The first participant in the trial will receive the experimental vaccine on Monday, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the trial has not been publicly announced yet. The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at a Kaiser Permanente research facility in Washington state, the official said. (Miller, 3/15)
The New York Times: U.S. Offered ‘Large Sum’ To German Company For Access To Coronavirus Vaccine Research, German Officials Say
The Trump administration attempted to persuade a German firm developing a possible vaccine for coronavirus to move its research work to the United States, German officials said, raising fears in Berlin that President Trump was trying to assure that any inoculation would be available first, and perhaps exclusively, in the United States. The offer arose from a March 2 meeting at the White House that included the chief executive of the German firm CureVac, Daniel Menichella. President Trump briefly attended the meeting and Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus task force, was also there. (Bennhold and Sanger, 3/15)
The Washington Post: Germans To Discuss Reported U.S. Attempt To Buy CureVac Coronavirus Vaccine Rights
German officials will discuss a reported U.S. attempt to secure the rights to any coronavirus vaccine developed by a German pharmaceutical company in crisis meetings on Monday, the country's interior minister said, amid concerns that the Trump administration was trying to monopolize the market. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, when asked to confirm a report the Trump administration was attempting to secure exclusive rights to any vaccine created by the German biopharmaceutical firm CureVac, said he had “heard from several other members of government today that is the case.” (Morris, 3/15)
Stat: As Coronavirus Worsens, Officials Fear Nationalization Of Drugs And Supplies
Exactly what the Trump administration was offering, and how CureVac responded, was unclear. A U.S. official denied the reports, and the company’s main shareholders — including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — immediately made clear CureVac’s vaccine would not be sold to a single country. (Branswell, 3/15)
The New York Times: These Lab Animals Will Help Fight Coronavirus
Among the many lessons of the coronavirus pandemic is how close humans are to the rest of the animal kingdom. We get diseases from other animals, and then we use more animals to figure out how to stop the diseases. As research ramps up treatments and vaccines, animals are crucial to fighting the pandemic. There are different animals at each end of the pandemic, of course. The new disease almost certainly began with a bat virus, scientists agree. That virus probably passed through another animal, perhaps pangolins, on its way to humans. (Gorman, 3/14)
