Preview of data on two more vaccines
Johnson & Johnson to seek FDA authorization next week; Novavax trial expected to finish enrollment next month. France and Germany tighten restrictions on travelers.
We have data on two more COVID-19 vaccines, while states are still struggling to improve the administration of the ones that are already available. The J&J vaccine has lower efficacy but its ease of use (no freezer needed, and it’s a single shot) means that it will be easier to get into people’s arms. And both France and Germany imposed new rules barring more people from entering the countries.
Johnson & Johnson reports that its vaccine is 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 and none of the people who received the vaccine required hospitalization for COVID-19. The study included more than 40,000 people in the United States, Central and South America and South Africa. The company is expected to file for an Emergency Use Authorization next week.
One big caveat: The vaccine is about 1/3rd less effective against the coronavirus strain first found in South Africa.
Novavax reported that its candidate COVID-19 vaccine was 90% effective at preventing COVID-19 illness in its United Kingdom trial of 20,000 people.
In a South Africa trial, the vaccine was only 60% effective, which appears to reflect that the B.1.351 variant at least partly escapes the immunity triggered by the vaccine.
Novavax’s US trial is half-way towards enrollment of 30,000 people, so that data won’t be ready for review until after February.
The World Health Organization rescinded its opposition to giving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to pregnant women.
Screening for cervical cancer among women in California dropped 80% during the first six months of the pandemic. The data raises concerns that preventable or treatable cancers are not being caught because of COVID-19.
A federal watchdog found that there was widespread disarray in the management of Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, at the start of the pandemic on January 29, 2020. Among the findings: There was confusion over a last-minute change of authority, and federal personnel were ordered not to wear protective gear to avoid “bad optics,” according to the Washington Post.