Britain orders 60 million Pfizer COVID-19 shots for booster programme - Reuters UK

Vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are pictured in a vaccination centre in Geneva, Switzerland, February 3, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo/File Photo

Britain will buy 60 million more doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s (PFE.N), COVID-19 vaccine, health minister Matt Hancock said, in a deal that more than doubles the country’s supply of the shot ahead of a booster programme later this year.

Britain has now ordered a total of 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, one of three COVID-19 shots being rolled out in the country.

Hancock said the shots had been secured to support a COVID-19 booster vaccination programme starting in the autumn, adding that the biggest risk to Britain's rollout so far was a new variant of the coronavirus.

"We're working on our plans for booster shots," Hancock said.

"These further 60 million doses will be used, alongside others, as part of our booster programme from later this year, so we can protect the progress that we've all made."

Earlier on Wednesday, Public Health England said the details of any booster programme were still being worked out, and it would be designed primarily with new variants in mind.

Britain’s health ministry said data from trials using different combinations of COVID-19 vaccines would help determine the design of the programme.

England's Deputy Chief Medic Jonathan Van-Tam said that by mid to late-summer, millions of people would have had two shots of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines, and the question then would be whether to give a different vaccine as a booster.

A study starting in June should provide answers, he said.

"We'll get an idea then of which gives you the highest boost, which perhaps gives you the broadest boost against a range of coronavirus variants, and indeed what the timings look like," he told a press conference.

"That is another reason why the vaccines taskforce has invested in contracts with not just one or two manufacturers, but six or seven so that we have that optionality."

Britain has administered 47.5 million vaccine doses so far, nearly 34 million of which are first shots.

While the country is second only to Israel in terms of the proportion of the population who have received a first dose, which stands at around 50%, it has suffered 127,000 deaths from COVID-19, the fifth-highest total globally.

Britain, which has a population of 67 million, has deals for 517 million doses of eight different COVID-19 vaccines, some of which remain under development.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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April 29, 2021 at 01:26AM
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Britain orders 60 million Pfizer COVID-19 shots for booster programme - Reuters UK

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Chinese companies considers mixing vaccines, booster shots - The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese vaccine makers are looking at mixing their jabs and whether a booster shot could help better protect against COVID-19.

Sinovac and Sinopharm, the two Chinese manufacturers that combined have exported hundreds of millions of doses all over the world, say they’re are considering combining their vaccines with those from other companies.

Earlier this month, the head of China’s Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, said that current vaccines offer low protection against the coronavirus and mixing them is among strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.

Gao later tried to walk back his comments, saying he was talking in general about improving vaccine efficacy.

China National Biotech Group has a plan for future “sequential use” of their vaccines, Li Meng, the head of international cooperation for the company, said Wednesday at an international conference.

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The company, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm, made two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines and a third in clinical trials.

Sinovac, a private company based in Beijing, also said they were in preliminary discussions with investigators, including China’s Center for Disease Control, about combining the doses of their vaccine, CoronaVac, with others.

Sequential immunization means mixing different vaccines and it is a strategy that could boost efficacy rates, said Ashley St. John, an immunologist at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

“They are trying to tweak the schedule to really find the best point to give people’s vaccines,” St. John said. “What’s the best combination and time point?”

Sinopharm’s vaccines, from its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, are 79% and 72% effective, respectively, the company said. It has not publicly revealed more data from the final stage of its clinical trials.

The practice is being considered in other countries as well. British scientists are studying a combo of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots. The study is also looking to test different intervals between doses, four weeks and 12 weeks apart.

The results of such investigations may have public health implications worldwide as governments around the world face delays in getting their vaccines in a timely manner and logistical hurdles in rolling out the shots.

Researchers in Brazil who conducted Sinovac’s clinical trials in the country released new data this month that reconfirmed the company’s previously announced 50% efficacy rate. The paper, which has not yet been peer reviewed but was published on a website for scientists, showed that the Sinovac vaccine was 50.7% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 cases and much stronger against severe disease.

CanSino, another Chinese company that has created an adenovirus-vector vaccine, said they were looking at the effects of a booster shot of their own vaccine six months after the first dose. The shot, which uses the same technology as the AstraZeneca shot, is 65.3% effective.

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April 28, 2021 at 02:39PM
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Chinese companies considers mixing vaccines, booster shots - The Associated Press

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Newsday panel: Booster shots may be needed to build immunity - Newsday

While all three COVID-19 vaccines widely in use in the United States are highly effective for at least six months, booster shots may be necessary over the long-term, doctors said in a Newsday Live panel conducted virtually Wednesday.

"This is a worldwide pandemic and the virus continues to evolve and there may be strains in the future that need a boosted response" or a reformulated vaccine, said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an attending physician in infectious diseases at Northwell Health. Hirsch also said that "with time the amount of immunity we have may gradually fade."

Should the science bear that out, Hirsch said, he would recommend boosters even to people given the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, use of which was paused this month after federal health officials found 15 recipients out of 8 million had developed blood clots.

All were women, most under 50; three died.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have since ended the pause, deciding that the small clot risk could be handled with warnings to help younger women decide if they should use that shot or another vaccine.

"If a person had Johnson & Johnson success, that’s a marker that the vaccine is safe for them and I would not hesitate to go ahead with the booster," Hirsch said.

A wide-ranging discussion Wednesday also covered mask comfort. Cotton pads under ear straps do wonders, as do caps that offer anchoring options besides the ears, the doctors said.

They also touched on the pandemic's psychological dimensions.

Alexander Tsynman, associate medical director of outpatient behavioral health services at Mercy Hospital, said patients seeking mental health treatment were among those most vulnerable to misinformation about vaccination.

Some share an "extreme preoccupation with social media," he said. "You get confused, you get disoriented, and you get hesitant to receive the vaccine … I strongly recommend you try to limit involvement with social media and listen to the experts."

Responding to a question from a Newsday reader who said she was anxious about returning to life outside the home, Tsynman offered a three-part prescription: "Paramount will be to get the vaccination." Then meet with your mental health worker, he said. Finally, "try to find something in yourself that will promote your optimism."

Hirsch ended with similar optimism: "We’re going to be stronger, we’re going to be wiser, we’re going to know we have limitations and vulnerabilities, but we always did," he said. "We’re getting through this together."

Nicholas Spangler covers the Town of Smithtown and has worked at Newsday since 2010.

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April 29, 2021 at 04:32AM
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Newsday panel: Booster shots may be needed to build immunity - Newsday

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Chinese companies considers mixing vaccines, booster shots - ABC News

Chinese vaccine makers are looking at mixing their jabs and whether a booster shot could help better protect against COVID-19

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press

April 28, 2021, 12:18 PM

• 3 min read

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Chinese vaccine makers are looking at mixing their jabs and whether a booster shot could help better protect against COVID-19.

Sinovac and Sinopharm, the two Chinese manufacturers that combined have exported hundreds of millions of doses all over the world, say they're are considering combining their vaccines with those from other companies.

Earlier this month, the head of China's Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, said that current vaccines offer low protection against the coronavirus and mixing them is among strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.

Gao later tried to walk back his comments, saying he was talking in general about improving vaccine efficacy.

China National Biotech Group has a plan for future “sequential use” of their vaccines, Li Meng, the head of international cooperation for the company, said Wednesday at an international conference.

The company, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm, made two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines and a third in clinical trials.

Sinovac, a private company based in Beijing, also said they were in preliminary discussions with investigators, including China’s Center for Disease Control, about combining the doses of their vaccine, CoronaVac, with others.

Sequential immunization means mixing different vaccines and it is a strategy that could boost efficacy rates, said Ashley St. John, an immunologist at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

“They are trying to tweak the schedule to really find the best point to give people’s vaccines,” St. John said. “What’s the best combination and time point?”

Sinopharm's vaccines, from its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, are 79% and 72% effective, respectively, the company said. It has not publicly revealed more data from the final stage of its clinical trials.

The practice is being considered in other countries as well. British scientists are studying a combo of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots. The study is also looking to test different intervals between doses, four weeks and 12 weeks apart.

The results of such investigations may have public health implications worldwide as governments around the world face delays in getting their vaccines in a timely manner and logistical hurdles in rolling out the shots.

Researchers in Brazil who conducted Sinovac’s clinical trials in the country released new data this month that reconfirmed the company’s previously announced 50% efficacy rate. The paper, which has not yet been peer reviewed but was published on a website for scientists, showed that the Sinovac vaccine was 50.7% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 cases and much stronger against severe disease.

CanSino, another Chinese company that has created an adenovirus-vector vaccine, said they were looking at the effects of a booster shot of their own vaccine six months after the first dose. The shot, which uses the same technology as the AstraZeneca shot, is 65.3% effective.

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April 28, 2021 at 02:43PM
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Chinese companies considers mixing vaccines, booster shots - ABC News

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Who would get the COVID-19 booster shots first, state leader details rollout plan - WBRC

“Probably there won’t be the same sort of logistical requirements because by the time this is established, and we have some guidelines about when boosters might be needed, we expect to have the vaccine widely available, we expect to have plenty to around, and we expect to push that out to our normal healthcare infrastructure,” Harris explained.

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April 28, 2021 at 10:41AM
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Who would get the COVID-19 booster shots first, state leader details rollout plan - WBRC

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New Booster Compressor Packages Double Range | 2021-04-27 - Packaging Strategies

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Watch Now: Will we need COVID-19 booster shots? - Lynchburg News and Advance

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