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Moderna Plots Vaccines Against 15 Pathogens With Future Pandemic Potential
Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O) said on Monday it plans to develop and begin testing vaccines targeting 15 of the world’s most worrisome pathogens by 2025 and will permanently waive its COVID-19 vaccine patents for shots intended for certain low- and middle-income countries.
The U.S. biotechnology company also said it will make its messenger RNA (mRNA) technology available to researchers working on new vaccines for emerging and neglected diseases through a program called mRNA Access.
Moderna is already collaborating with partners on vaccines against some of the 15 pathogens, which include Chikungunya, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Dengue, Ebola, Malaria, Marburg, Lassa fever, MERS and COVID-19.
Those collaborations include a Nipah virus vaccine with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and an HIV vaccine with the Gates Foundation and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in an interview.
WHO Recommends COVID Boosters in Reversal
The World Health Organization (WHO) updated its vaccine guidance on Tuesday to recommend the administration of COVID-19 booster shots, marking a reversal from what the U.N. organization has previously said about additional vaccine doses.
In a statement, the WHO said the Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition “strongly supports urgent and broad access to current COVID-19 vaccines for primary series and booster doses, particularly for groups at risk of developing severe disease.”
The WHO has previously spoken out against administering COVID-19 booster shots, arguing that wealthier countries should abstain from administering additional doses while low- and middle-income countries have struggled to provide initial rounds of vaccinations for their populations.
COVID Can Cause Brain Shrinkage, Memory Loss — Study
COVID-19 can cause the brain to shrink, reduce grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damage areas that control the sense of smell, an Oxford University study has found.
The scientists said that the effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalized with COVID, and whether the impact could be partially reversed or if they would persist in the long term needed further investigation.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the Nature journal, investigated brain changes in 785 participants aged 51-81 whose brains were scanned twice, including 401 people who caught COVID between their two scans. The second scan was done on average 141 days after the first scan.
Scientists Identify New Gene Differences in Severe COVID Patients
Scientists have pinpointed 16 new genetic variants in people who developed severe COVID-19 in a large study published on Monday that could help researchers develop treatments for very sick patients.
The results suggest that people with severe COVID have genes that predispose them to 1 of 2 problems: failure to limit the ability of the virus to make copies of itself, or excessive inflammation and blood clotting.
The scientists said their discoveries, published in the journal Nature, could help prioritize the likely treatments that could work against the disease. Eventually, the information could even help predict which patients were likely to become severely ill.
COVID Will ‘Probably’ Become a Seasonal Virus, Like the Flu, Walensky Says
Even as cases of COVID-19 continue to fall nationwide, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the coronavirus is most likely here to stay — and that it could behave similarly to influenza.
“I do anticipate that this is probably going to be a seasonal virus,” said the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. That means it could join the flu and other respiratory viruses that tend to spread during the cold winter months.
It’s Time to Prepare for Future Pandemics, Experts Say
America needs major new spending in areas like disease surveillance and next-generation PPE if it wants to avoid repeating mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to two reports out this week.
The reports are among recent attempts by public health officials to lay out the weaknesses exposed by the pandemic and the steps needed to build more resiliency in the health system before the next crisis.
A report released first to Axios by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) calls for Congress to fund a number of public health improvements, such as more resources to protect healthcare workers on the job.
It comes on the heels of Monday’s release of a COVID roadmap by dozens of healthcare experts, including former Biden advisers, calling for a more comprehensive playbook for shoring up the nation’s public health infrastructure as we transition out of the pandemic.
COVID Long-Haulers Face Grueling Fights for Disability Benefits
Deepa Singh, 30, of Louisville, has been seriously ill for 2 years, racked with extreme fatigue, racing heartbeat and memory problems from long COVID that she says prevent her from working. Adding to her distress, she says, has been a grueling — and so far unsuccessful — battle for disability payments.
Singh, who worked as a project manager for a Fortune 100 company, is among a cohort of long COVID patients who have been denied disability benefits, either by private insurance companies, which operate benefit plans offered by employers, or by the Social Security Administration, which manages government disability benefits.
Moderna Says It Will ‘Never’ Enforce COVID Vaccine Patents in Dozens of Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Moderna pledged on Monday to “never enforce” its patents for COVID-19 vaccines against manufacturers that are based in or producing in 92 low- and middle-income countries, a shift for the biotechnology firm that has come under pressure to share its mRNA technology to help address global vaccine inequity.
“We are committed to defeating the pandemic across the globe, and we are fulfilling that through our pledge not to enforce our COVID-19 related patents in low- and middle-income countries,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “We are dedicated to combatting COVID-19 globally and preparing for the next pandemic.”
CDC Adds Former COVID Success Stories to Its Highest-Risk Category for Travel
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved 3 high-profile destinations to its highest-risk Level 4 category for travel on Monday.
Hong Kong and New Zealand have spent much of the pandemic in near isolation with relatively few infections and had been lauded as COVID success stories. However, the Omicron variant has caused massive spikes in cases in both places.
Joining those 2 is Thailand, one of the crown jewels of world travel and the No. 1 Asian earner of tourism revenue in 2019. Thailand restarted its “Test & Go” program on Feb. 1, which allows vaccinated international travelers from all countries to enter without lengthy quarantines.
HHS Says It’s out of Coronavirus Funding
The Department of Health and Human Services says it has tapped out all its coronavirus funding, as some congressional Republicans raise their eyebrows at the Biden administration’s request for more dollars.
HHS recently sent Congress tables, obtained by The Health 202, showing that none of the dollars Congress previously provided the agency for coronavirus aid remain unallocated. That goes for all the spending categories, such as money for vaccines, therapeutics and testing.
“Before we would consider supporting an additional $30 billion” in COVID-19 relief, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and dozens of other GOP lawmakers wrote last week, “Congress must receive a full accounting of how the government has already spent the first $6 trillion.”
