By ETHAN ENNALS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

​Experts told The Mail on Sunday that there is one jab ready to go that might already be highly effective against this version of the virus: the one developed by French firm Valneva and ordered by the UK Government – but then cancelled.
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It could have an advantage over current jabs because the way it’s been made differs.

It contains what is known as a fully inactivated virus – a whole Covid virus that has been neutralised. 
Though it can’t cause illness, the immune system reacts by recognising the threat and creating antibodies and other fighter cells, enabling the body to fight off the real virus if it becomes infected.

​Other shots such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca use genetic fragments from one part of the Covid virus, called the spike protein – the section that allows it to bind with healthy cells.

It is this part that’s prone to mutations: the 32 mutations seen in the Botswana variant are all found on the spike protein, which increases the chances that the antibodies developed in response to the above vaccines may not ‘recognise’ it, allowing the virus to slip past.

Since the Valneva jab has more parts of the virus for the immune system to learn from, experts believe it could be more ‘variant-proof’ than the others.

Professor Adam Finn, paediatrician and member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the Government’s advisory group, says there is a ‘strong theoretical argument’ that the Valneva jab could provide protection against the Botswana variant. 

‘This is potentially a more resilient vaccine,’ he said. 

‘Obviously we’d need to look at how it reacts to this particular variant but I think there’s a strong argument for doing that right now.’
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Trial results published last month found two doses of Valneva were 95 per cent effective at preventing infection. The trial of 4,000 participants also reported no cases of severe illness.
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SINGAPORE: Several private clinics here have been seeing a demand for Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines as booster shots, owing largely to a fear of side effects from the third dose of an mRNA jab.
Vaccines like Sinovac and Sinopharm use inactivated viral particles to teach one's immune system to make antibodies.

So far, it has been recommended that those aged 50 and above take an additional mRNA shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines at least six months after their two-dose vaccine regimen, to ensure a high level of protection from severe disease is maintained across a longer period.
The Expert Committee on Covid-19 Vaccination is still studying the possibility of mixing vaccines for the booster dose.

Dr Chua Guan Kiat, a general practitioner at Chua Medical Clinic and Surgery in Bukit Batok, told The Straits Times that there has so far been a "sizeable demand" for Sinovac and Sinopharm as vaccine boosters, the bulk of which comes from the elderly who had been fully vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine.

Since his clinic started offering Sinovac jabs on Sept 23, Dr Chua said that 20 to 30 doses of booster vaccine are being administered each day, with demand likely to rise steadily now that those over 50 have also been invited to take their booster doses.
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He added that the fear of potential side effects from a third dose of the mRNA vaccine has been a major driving force to opt for an inactivated vaccine like Sinovac as a booster.

"Anecdotally, many who had one dose of the inactivated vaccine after receiving two doses of the mRNA had very good antibody results. No doubt, the best antibody results were still obtained with a third mRNA dose, but many didn't want to go through the same side effects again," he said.
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One of his customers, Mr Ho, who is in his 60s, recently received his Sinopharm booster jab after two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Asked why he had opted for Sinopharm instead of an mRNA vaccine, Mr Ho said he felt the Sinopharm vaccine uses a tried-and-tested inactivated virus technology, whereas the mRNA technique was previously used to help stimulate antibody response in patients with late-stage cancers.

Mr Ho, who declined to give his full name and his occupation, said the long-term effects of mRNA still remain unknown.

He told ST that he experienced severe pain at his injection site after his second Pfizer dose but not after his Sinopharm booster.

​Read the full article here.

CANBERRA — Australia has approved CoronaVac and Covishield vaccines, allowing travelers and foreign students immunized with them to enter the country. As the national immunization rate approaches 80% of the population vaccinated with at least one dose and 45.6% with both, Canberra will begin in November to eliminate one of the strictest border controls imposed in the world to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

CoronaVac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, is one of the most used anti-Covid vaccines worldwide, with applications from Indonesia to Brazil and Turkey. CoviShield is the version of the vaccine from the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca laboratory produced by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. Australia uses Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines in its campaign, so travelers who have taken these immunizations will also be free to enter the country.

The announcement, made on Friday, opens the door to thousands of foreign students who were excluded from Australia during the pandemic as, according to the main Australian drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Agency, the entry of immunized travelers into the country it will only be released to people who have received “nationally recognized vaccines”.
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“Very soon, we can open international borders again,” said Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “This will start to happen from next month.

Read the full article here.

Governments should consider offering another COVID vaccine specifically tailored to the Delta variant, according to a U.K. government advisor and Delta researcher.

The guidance comes after a new study indicated that the Delta variant was eight times less sensitive to the antibodies that vaccines provide to people compared to an earlier version of COVID from April 2020, in a lab environment.
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This means it would take more antibodies from a vaccinated person to block Delta than to block this earlier version of the virus.

​"We should seriously consider Delta-specific vaccines," said professor Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University, member of the U.K. government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) virus advisory group, and lead author of the study. "The infectivity enhancement likely explains a lot of the vaccine breakthrough that we see."

Read the full article by Ed Browne here.
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The variant was 27 times more likely to break through Pfizer protection from January-February and cause symptoms than it was to penetrate natural immunity from the same period.

Natural immunity from contracting coronavirus provided Israelis with longer-lasting protection against the Delta variant than two shots of the Pfizer vaccine given early this year, new Israeli research suggests.

The study by Maccabi Healthcare Service looked at individuals who had either gotten two shots of the vaccine by the end of February or tested positive for COVID-19 by that time.

It compared 46,035 Maccabi members who caught the coronavirus at some point during the pandemic and the same number of double-vaccinated people.

People who had two vaccine shots had a six-fold higher chance of getting infected with Delta than patients who hadn’t been vaccinated but previously contracted the coronavirus, according to the research.
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The study, published online but not yet peer reviewed, is the largest of its kind. It doesn’t take booster shots — now widely given in Israel — into account, but given that most of the world is still giving a two-dose regimen, has international relevance.

Read the full article and study.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved China's Sinovac Covid vaccine for emergency use.

The WHO said it prevented symptomatic disease in 51% of those vaccinated and prevented severe symptoms and hospitalisation in 100% of samples.

Some evidence and data gaps are still lacking though, according to WHO experts.

It is the second Chinese vaccine to receive the green light from the WHO, after Sinopharm.

The approval opens the door for the jab to be used in the Covax programme, which aims to ensure fair access to vaccines.

The vaccine, which has already been used in several countries, has been recommended for over 18s, with a second dose two to four weeks later.

The emergency approval means the vaccine "meets international standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing", the WHO said.

A study in a Brazilian city saw a 95% drop in Covid deaths after it vaccinated almost all of its adults with Sinovac.

Serrana, in the Southeastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, is home to 45,000 residents. Once 75% of its population was vaccinated, the number of cases and hospitalisations fell, according to the study.

Read the full article here.

A small commuter town surrounded by sugarcane fields in southeastern Brazil, one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19, has shown that even a vaccine that had low efficacy in some clinical trials can dramatically control the pandemic virus.

As part of an unusual experiment to track the real-world effectiveness of CoronaVac, a COVID-19 vaccine made by a Chinese company, almost all adult residents of Serrana, in the state of São Paulo, received the required two shots between February and April, long before most would otherwise have become eligible for the vaccine. The results were dramatic. Symptomatic cases of COVID-19 have dropped by 80% since the start of mass vaccination, related hospitalizations fell 86%, and deaths plummeted 95%, the research team in charge of the experiment reported during a press conference yesterday.

​Read the full article here.

The government's scientific advisers say COVID may continue to evolve for years to come and "eradication is extremely unlikely".

Current COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to protect against new variants of the virus in the future, the government's scientific advisers have warned.

In a paper published on Friday, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said coronavirus may continue to evolve for years to come and that "eradication is extremely unlikely".
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The experts warn that eventually it is likely "current vaccines will fail to protect against transmission, infection, or even against disease caused by newer variants".

Read the full article here.

​The World Health Organization (WHO) has granted emergency approval for a Covid vaccine made by Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm.

It is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get WHO backing.

The vaccine has already been given to millions of people in China and elsewhere.

The WHO had previously only approved the vaccines made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.

But individual health regulators in various countries - especially poorer ones in Africa, Latin America and Asia - have approved Chinese jabs for emergency use.

With little data released internationally early on, the effectiveness of the various Chinese vaccines has long been uncertain.

But the WHO on Friday said it had validated the "safety, efficacy and quality" of the Sinopharm jab developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products.

The WHO said the addition of the vaccine had "the potential to rapidly accelerate Covid-19 vaccine access for countries seeking to protect health workers and populations at risk".

It is recommending that the vaccine be administered in two doses to those aged 18 and over.

A decision is expected in the coming days on another Chinese vaccine developed by Sinovac, while Russia's Sputnik vaccine is under assessment.

​Read the full article here.

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A real-world study of millions of Chileans who had received the Chinese-developed CoronaVac vaccine has found it 67% effective against symptoms and 80% against death from COVID-19, the South American country's Health Ministry said Friday.

Ministry adviser Rafael Araos said the study covered 10.5 million people, including 2.5 million who had received both doses of the vaccine and 1.5 million who had received a single dose between Feb. 2 and April 1.

It counted cases starting 14 days after application of the second dose of the vaccine, which in Chile was given 28 days after the first.

The vaccine has been widely used across the world, though not in the United States or Europe.
Araos said it had reduced hospitalizations by 85%, intensive care visits by 89% and deaths by 80%.

Read the full article here.