The overall case study for COVID-19 coronavirus disease reached 102 million on Friday, as health experts digested the latest vaccine updates from Novavax Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, in the hope that they will soon gain emergency permits and support the supply.
Novavax NVAX,
said late Thursday its vaccine candidate, which has a different mechanism than the one already authorized in the US – one developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE,
and German partner BioNTech SE BNTX,
and a separate one developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA,
– appears to be 89% effective, based on early data from a study in the UK involving 15,000 patients, the PA reported.
The company said about half of the participants in the trial who became infected with the virus had the mutant version circulating in the UK for weeks. A preliminary analysis suggested that the vaccine is almost 96% effective against the original virus and almost 86% effective against the new variant.
See also: The Novavax vaccine is effective. Now I seriously hope this was injected into me
Scientists have been even more concerned about a strain first discovered in South Africa that has different mutations – and the results of a smaller study from Novavax suggest that the vaccine works, but not as well as the Sea variant. Britain
Read now: Drug manufacturers examine the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and new, more infectious strains in South Africa
It was a similar story from J&J JNJ,
when he released early data from a phase 3 study of his COVID vaccine candidate early Friday, saying it seems 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe disease 28 days after vaccination, but less effective – only 57% – in relations with the Southern Stem of Africa.
J&J will send the data to a peer-reviewed journal in the coming weeks and expects to submit an emergency use permit in early February. There is high hope for this vaccine, as it requires a single dose, as opposed to those currently authorized, which requires two doses set weeks apart.
The data comes as the U.S. added at least 165,073 new cases on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, and counted at least 3,862 deaths, though this has dropped from more than 4,000 deaths reported in the past two days. .
Case numbers have fallen in the last 14 days. The US had an average of 159,598 new cases a day in the last week, down 34% from the average two weeks ago.
Hospitalization rates are also improving according to the COVID follow-up project. There were 104,303 patients with COVID-19 in US hospitals on Thursday, down from 107,444 the day before. The number has now dropped for 17 consecutive days and is at its lowest level since December 7.
“Reported deaths rose 7 percent this week, with states reporting a total of 22,797 lives lost to COVID-19,” the COVID Tracking Project wrote in its weekly blog. “Deaths are lagging behind – both because it takes time to die from the virus and because the process of reporting deaths is very slow. Even in US cases, we may have a week or more with a very large number of deaths. ”
In this context, President Joe Biden is pushing his pandemic response team to speed up the pace of vaccinations and buy more doses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed the vaccine showing that as of 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, 26.2 million doses and 48.4 million doses delivered to states were administered.
In another train of thoughts:
• The European Medicines Regulator authorized the use of the AstraZeneca AZN vaccine on Friday, -2.07% COVID-19 for people over the age of 18, MarketWatch reported Lina Saigol. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has stated that it has assessed the quality, safety and efficacy of AstraZeneca, which the drug company developed in partnership with Oxford University, and recommended it for conditional marketing authorization. market in the European Union.
Read: When can younger and healthier people be vaccinated? A former Biden COVID-19 councilor says it will be Monday
• Separately, Europe stepped up its fight for COVID-19 vaccines on Friday, after Brussels warned it would use all legal means to block fire exports if it did not receive the vaccine doses promised by companies such as AstraZeneca AZN,
AZN,
and Pfizer, reported Lina Saigol of MarketWatch. In a letter to the four leaders of the European Union, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, said the 27-member bloc could take “urgent action” by invoking an emergency provision in the EU treaties “to address the vaccine bloc deficit coronavirus, which is approaching a time of crisis. Several EU Member States – including France, Portugal and Spain – said this week they were suspending their inoculation programs due to a lack of vaccines.
Read: AstraZeneca vaccine should only be given to people under 65, Germany recommends as EU shortage crisis deepens
• Older people are at higher risk for COVID-19 hospitalization and death, but many may not have access to online systems that could help make vaccinations easier and save their lives, said Meera Jagannathan, of at MarketWatch. Forty-five percent of Americans between the ages of 65 and 80 say they have not established an account in the online service provider’s patient portal online system, according to a recent analysis of the University’s national survey data. from Michigan on healthy aging. Some older adults who may face an even higher risk of COVID-19 are less likely to use patient portals, the survey found: While 39% of older white adults did not have an account, nearly 50 % of older black adults and 53% of older Hispanic adults did not have one.
Read also: Quick information on COVID-19 vaccines for the elderly – where, when and how to get them
• The Swiss drug company Novartis has agreed to contribute to the manufacture of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, according to AFP, as many countries are struggling to ensure that supplies run out. The news comes after the French drug company said earlier this week that it will also contribute to the production of 125 million doses of Pfizer / BioNTech jab.
• World Health Organization experts will begin face-to-face meetings with their Chinese counterparts in downtown Wuhan on Friday at the start of the team’s long-awaited coronavirus fact-finding mission, the AP reported. These meetings should be followed by the first field visits to and around the industrial and transport center on Friday, the WHO said on Twitter, but did not provide further details on the team’s agenda. He said the team had already requested “detailed underlying data” and planned to talk to early respondents and some of the first patients with COVID-19. “All hypotheses are on the table, because the team is pursuing science in their work to understand the origins of the COVID19 virus,” the WHO wrote on Twitter. “As members begin field visits on Friday, they should receive the support, access and data they need.”
Latest accounts
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide rose to more than 101.6 million on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and the death toll rose to 2.19 million. About 56 million people have recovered from COVID-19.
The US leads the world by cases, at 25.8 million, and deaths, at 433,431, or about a fifth of the global total.
Brazil has the second highest number of deaths, at 221,547 and is the third in cases, with 9.1 million.
India is second in the world in cases with 10.7 million, and now fourth in terms of deaths at 154,010, after being overtaken by Mexico.
Mexico has the third highest number of deaths, at 155,145 and the 13th highest number of cases, with 1.8 million.
The United Kingdom has 3.8 million cases and 103,324 deaths, the largest in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, recorded 99,797 confirmed cases and 4,813 deaths, according to its official figures.
What does the economy say?
Americans cut spending in December for the second month in a row as a record increase in coronavirus cases opened new cracks in the economy and hampered the recovery, MarketWatch’s Jeffry Bartash reported.
Consumer spending fell 0.2%, the government said on Friday.
The fall in spending towards the end of the year robbed the economy of momentum. Gross domestic product slowed to 4% annualized growth and left the economy with open holes to fill.
If there is a silver lining, spending has not dropped as much as expected. Economists surveyed by the Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal forecast a decline of 0.4%. Moreover, the decline in November was not as pronounced as initially reported.
Read: The US economy grew 4% slower at the end of 2020, according to GDP
Meanwhile, revenues rose 0.6% in December, suggesting that consumers still have money to spend once they regain confidence in the economy. The savings rate is still extremely high, at 13.7%, about twice as much as normal.
Separately, Americans were upset but hopeful in late January about the prospects for economic renewal later in the year, once coronavirus vaccines become widely available, a poll showed.
The second of two readings of consumer sentiment this month fell to 79 from an initial 79.2, according to an index produced by the University of Michigan.
Economists surveyed by the Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast the index to remain at 79.2.
However, the index has changed slightly from the December reading of 80.7, suggesting that Americans are looking forward instead of looking back.
Read: Consumer confidence returns to the vaccine, Biden hopes
Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
and S&P 500 SPX,
they were smaller in mid-morning trade.