COVID-19: Vaccine/antidote and testing procedures Megathread [Mod Warning - Post #1]

ACitizenErased

Another Phase III trial of the Oxford vaccine ChAdOx-1 nCov-19 has begun in South Africa.

More information on the South Africa trial program is available from the university conducting the trial: http://www.wits.ac.za/covid19vaccine/fact-sheet/

Highlights:

• ⁠Testing a small group (n=50) of HIV-positive subjects along with the larger group of HIV-negative subjects (n=1,950) to examine any differences in response for HIV-positive patients.
• ⁠Unlike the UK trial, this university reports they are using a saline placebo instead of a pre-existing Meningitis vaccine as the control group.

The second point is interesting because the UK trial had to re-group the Phase 2/3 trial participants after noticing a low rate of side effects in the early participants. This caused them to double-check the dosing and discover that the lab making the Phase 2/3 doses had not achieved the potency they had used in the Phase 1 trials. They had to increase the dose for the remaining volunteers put them into a new trial group.

That implies that they expect a noticeable rate of side effects with the ChAdOx-1 vaccine.

Do keep in mind "side effects" in this context is almost completely minor flu-like symptoms, swelling/redness around the injection site, etc.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-06-23-trial-oxford-covid-19-vaccine-south-africa-begins

LiquidZeb

rusty cole wrote: »

one word! thalidomide.....
Two words : indemnity clause


good luck with the rushed vaccine..

You're just spreading false information at this point. I had thought you had genuine concern but you're just disgusting.

is_that_so

Retrospective study on statins. As stated in the piece, more research is needed to determine their efficacy with COVID 19.

The large-scale retrospective study also showed that mortality risk and other negative outcomes were not increased by combination therapy consisting of statins and blood pressure-lowering drugs

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200624/Statin-therapy-linked-to-lower-death-rate-in-hospitalized-patients-with-COVID-19.aspx

hmmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfN1oPBGXRk

LiquidZeb

Some more news on the Oxford vaccine. I've a good feeling about this one.


https://www.timesnownews.com/health/article/oxfords-covid19-vaccine-shows-very-good-results-in-trials-on-track-for-october-release-project-leader/611566

Stark

Question for people who would know better. Is it looking like it might give enough protection to stop someone getting it entirely (at least for a while) or is it still looking like it may reduce severity of the illness but not completely block infection? The latter sounds useful but the former would obviously have a more potent impact as it would stop those with the vaccine from infecting others.

Hmmzis

Stark wrote: »

Question for people who would know better. Is it looking like it might give enough protection to stop someone getting it entirely (at least for a while) or is it still looking like it may reduce severity of the illness but not completely block infection? The latter sounds useful but the former would obviously have a more potent impact as it would stop those with the vaccine from infecting others.

I'm afraid there simply isn't enough data available on that. There is at least one study where they compared intra muscular and intra nasal SARS vaccine dosing. Both were similar for AB titers and T cell responses in serum. The nasal version produced mucosal IgA antibodies while the intra muscular didn't. This would explain the ChAdOx results in the monkey challenge trials. Then again, their viral doses for the monkeys were quite overboard. As a result, no way to tell until the first vaccinated people get exposed and checked for active infections.

If in both groups, control and vaccine, the PCR tests come bsck positive in equal counts, then we'll know the nose is not protected. Then it's going to come down to comparing the clinical scores. If the controls have more svere symptoms than vaccinated ones, we have a working vaccine that will protect and save people, but most everyone will need the jab to be protected.

Then again, the study with the SARS vaccine didn't do a challenge on the mice, so it could be that upon a challenge the IgA mucosal titers do go up quick enough to diable the virus before it gets to infectious levels.

We need more BSL-3 labs to do all this, there simply ain't enough.

Stark

That's a great explanation, thanks!

is_that_so

A study into a broad spectrum antiviral using human cells and mice. They suggest there is potential for its use in reducing the severity of SARS-Cov-2 symptoms but very early days in the research.

We show that a nucleotide prodrug, GS-5734, currently in clinical development for treatment of Ebola virus disease, can inhibit SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV replication in multiple in vitro systems, including primary human airway epithelial cell cultures

https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/396/eaal3653?_ga=2.147898935.1647384617.1593329572-1069242579.1591437651

hmmm

Dramatic sounding news today that the Chinese are rolling out one of their candidate vaccines to their military.

Probably best seen as a large phase III trial.

Interesting discussion here:
https://twitter.com/HelenBranswell/status/1277590582207090688

Hmmzis

hmmm wrote: »

Dramatic sounding news today that the Chinese are rolling out one of their candidate vaccines to their military.

Probably best seen as a large phase III trial.

Interesting discussion here:
https://twitter.com/HelenBranswell/status/1277590582207090688

:eek::eek::eek:
Well, I guess the average age and health cohort would be quite suitable for that vaccine. CanSino had one of the worst looking side effects of them all, even Moderna looked fine in comparison.

Could be that Sinovac simply desn't have the volumes yet available to jab the whole military.

ShineOn7

There seems to be two regular contributors to this thread (Hmmmz and Hmmm) doing a good job of keeping us upto date

Would you mind keeping an eye out for new treatments that are doing well too?

I think we'll see better and more effective treatments long, long before we see a vaccine

ACitizenErased

The Phase III trial of Oxford's ChAdOx-1 nCOV-19 vaccine has begun in Brazil.
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-06-28-trial-oxford-covid-19-vaccine-starts-brazil

Hmmzis

Big (as in 'it's a long read') update from Derek Lowe:

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/06/29/coronavirus-vaccine-update-june-29

Wasn't aware that some travellers to high risk areas are already being jabbed in China (they're really not messing around with this one).

Lots in phase III now, even more so in phase I and II all over the world. All going well, we could have two possible candidates for some wider release in October (ChAdOx and Pfizer/BioNTech), that's in addition to whatever the Chinese decide to do with their candidates.

Hmmzis

As for acute treatments, this is probably helping the most now and is available absolutely everywhere:

https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13054-020-03063-6

Less people on vents, faster discharge rates and less traumatic for the patients overall.

Hmmzis

Study to be done in Ireland of a new therapy for patients headed for ICU or already in ICU.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/r-rbc062920.php

hmmm

The Regeneron antibody is the big hope for treatments I think. It's not an either/or anyway, we'll have a treatment first, and a vaccine to follow. The treatment will probably be reserved for the very sickest as it will be in short supply - so you really want to hang on until a vaccine in my opinion.

Here's an interesting short video with Professor Hill from Oxford. Very confident, and it will be disappointing if his confidence turns out to be incorrect.

https://twitter.com/askomartin/status/1276650836647653378

Hmmzis

hmmm wrote: »

The Regeneron antibody is the big hope for treatments I think. It's not an either/or anyway, we'll have a treatment first, and a vaccine to follow. The treatment will probably be reserved for the very sickest as it will be in short supply - so you really want to hang on until a vaccine in my opinion.

Here's an interesting short video with Professor Hill from Oxford. Very confident, and it will be disappointing if his confidence turns out to be incorrect.

https://twitter.com/askomartin/status/1276650836647653378

Anyone else think he has been jabbed with it?

Just how the interviewer is wearing a mask and he isn't while being in close proximity... indoors...

ACitizenErased

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Another Phase III trial of the Oxford vaccine ChAdOx-1 nCov-19 has begun in South Africa.

More information on the South Africa trial program is available from the university conducting the trial: http://www.wits.ac.za/covid19vaccine/fact-sheet/

Highlights:

• ⁠Testing a small group (n=50) of HIV-positive subjects along with the larger group of HIV-negative subjects (n=1,950) to examine any differences in response for HIV-positive patients.
• ⁠Unlike the UK trial, this university reports they are using a saline placebo instead of a pre-existing Meningitis vaccine as the control group.

The second point is interesting because the UK trial had to re-group the Phase 2/3 trial participants after noticing a low rate of side effects in the early participants. This caused them to double-check the dosing and discover that the lab making the Phase 2/3 doses had not achieved the potency they had used in the Phase 1 trials. They had to increase the dose for the remaining volunteers put them into a new trial group.

That implies that they expect a noticeable rate of side effects with the ChAdOx-1 vaccine.

Do keep in mind "side effects" in this context is almost completely minor flu-like symptoms, swelling/redness around the injection site, etc.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-06-23-trial-oxford-covid-19-vaccine-south-africa-begins

I almost like feeling side-effects from my annual flu jab, the few hours of mild fever and the couple of days of bruise-like soreness reassured me it’s taking effect nicely. And indeed since getting flu vaccines I have never had a full blown course of the flu, only 2 bouts of sudden onset self-limiting flu-like illness that lasted no more than 36 hours at worst, and that was after being in areas where there was known high influenza activity.

ACitizenErased

Trustworthy source has told me that vaccine production is to commence in Cork in the next few weeks. Not sure which vaccine/treatment it is but 95% positive it’s true.

Santy2015

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Trustworthy source has told me that vaccine production is to commence in Cork in the next few weeks. Not sure which vaccine/treatment it is but 95% positive it’s true.

That’ll be great if true. More then likely the oxford one?

ACitizenErased

Santy2015 wrote: »

That’ll be great if true. More then likely the oxford one?

As far as I know it’s GSK

Gael23

Will that ensure a swift supply for Ireland?

Marhay70

Gael23 wrote: »

Will that ensure a swift supply for Ireland?

Going by what happened with the ventilators earlier in the year, I wouldn't be confident.

Hmmzis

Gael23 wrote: »

Will that ensure a swift supply for Ireland?

Even if it does ensure that, GSK and the 3 or 4 partners they have for the vaccines are targetting 2nd half of 2021 for general availability. That does not mean there couldn't be emergency use authorization given well before that.

hmmm

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/oxford-covid-19-vaccine-safe-for-people-with-weak-immunity/articleshow/76728582.cms

We're fortunate that the front runner is based on proven technology.

Also
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-oxford-vaccine-idUSKBN24269P

hmmm

Pfizer vaccine showing good results.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.30.20142570v1.full.pdf

Higher doses caused a bit too many side effects, but that's what testing is for.

Hmmzis

hmmm wrote: »

Pfizer vaccine showing good results.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.30.20142570v1.full.pdf

Higher doses caused a bit too many side effects, but that's what testing is for.

Prime-boost seems to be the way to go for most of the current candidates. The RBD binding titers are very good, the nAB titer could have been higher, but still almost 3x higher than convalescent serum. Bit of a shame they didn't look for T cell responses and IgA titers.
The genral side effects are grand, but bit of a surprise about the lympocyte and neutrophil dips. That might need a second look.

Btw. This is the BioNTech mRNA candidate, Pfizer is the partnering manufacturer.

ACitizenErased

Oxford vaccine looks good for September. Please God we'll have a proper Christmas this year if all goes well.

Kermit.de.frog

Can't but be sceptical at imminent vaccine claims. From the very beginning it would always be a forlorn hope weapon to prop confidence with the public principally through the market. We'll be hearing about vaccines for the next decade. While genuine efforts are being made most of it is noise to prop up stocks.

This crossed the wires earlier today...

OXFORD SCIENTIST DEVELOPING POSSIBLE COVID-19 VACCINE SAYS DO NOT ASSUME VACCINE BY THE WINTER, BE PREPARED FOR THE WORST

Yeh don't say...