Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lack Of Diversity In Fast-Tracked Vaccine Trials Worries Experts
CNN: First Covid-19 Vaccine Trial Moving At A Good Clip, But Officials Still "Very Concerned"
The first coronavirus vaccine trial in the US is moving along at a good clip, but needs more minorities to enroll if it is to succeed, officials tell CNN. While Black people and Latinos account for more than 50% of Covid-19 cases nationwide, so far they make up only about 15% of participants in the nation's first large-scale clinical trial to test out a coronavirus vaccine, according to data obtained by CNN from a government official. That could potentially delay a vaccine from getting to the marketplace. (Cohen, 8/18)
Stat: Will Covid-19 Vaccines Be Safe For Children And Pregnant Women?
As potential Covid-19 vaccines speed their way through development, manufacturers and U.S. regulators have largely delayed testing in children and women who are pregnant, raising the possibility that experts will lack critical safety and efficacy data in those populations when there’s a pressing need to inoculate them. Vaccines are always tested first in healthy adults, a population that is most likely to provide a clear picture of whether a vaccine triggers protection. It’s also a population deemed to be at lowest risk should there be side effects from an experimental vaccine. (Branswell, 8/19)
In other treatment and research news —
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Lab-Created Antibodies To Be Tested In Coronavirus Patients By LSU Researchers
While the world waits on a vaccine, LSU Health New Orleans researchers are enrolling patients in a trial for a coronavirus treatment that could show results as early as this fall. The Phase 3 trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health and involving at least six hospitals in the U.S., is evaluating a drug at University Medical Center that uses lab-produced antibodies to mimic the body's natural defenses and fight back against the infection. (Woodruff, 8/18)
The Baltimore Sun: Coronavirus Genome Shows Only One Strain Spreading In Baltimore-Washington Region, Needing One Vaccine
New research from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory confirms that the coronavirus has not significantly changed since it began infecting people widely in the Baltimore-Washington area in March, boosting the view that one vaccine should help prevent it. Scientists looked at the genetic makeup of the virus, with samples taken from dozens of patients at Johns Hopkins Medicine, where early on more than a third of those infected were treated for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Cohn, 8/19)
Reuters: More Infectious Coronavirus Mutation May Be 'A Good Thing', Says Disease Expert
An increasingly common mutation of the novel coronavirus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but appears less deadly, according to a prominent infectious diseases doctor. (8/17)
Also —
The Hill: Fauci Says He Does Not See US Mandating COVID-19 Vaccination For General Public
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said Tuesday he doesn’t see the U.S. mandating a COVID-19 vaccine. “I don't think you'll ever see a mandating of vaccine particularly for the general public,” Fauci said during a livestreamed interview with Healthline. (Hellmann, 8/18)
