More COVID-19 vaccines in the pipeline as US effort ramps up

A huge U.S. study of ar COVID-19 vaccine candidate got underway Monday as states continue to roll out scarce supplies of first shots to a nation anxiously awaiting relief from catastrophic outbreak.

Public health experts say more options in dition to two vaccines w being dispensed — one me by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, or by Moderna — are critical to amassing eugh shots for country and world.

candidate me by vavax Inc. is fifth to reach final-st testing in U.S. Some 30,000 volunteers are needed to prove if shot — a different kind than its Pfizer and Moderna competitors — really works and is safe.

“If you want to have eugh vaccine to vaccinate all people in U.S. who you’d like to vaccinate — up to 85% or more of population — you’re going to need more than two companies,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, top U.S. infectious disease expert, told Associated Press on Monday.

coronavirus is blamed for about 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including more than 330,000 in U.S. This has been deliest month of outbreak in U.S. yet, with about 65,000 deaths in December so far, according to COVID Tracking Project. nation has repeatedly recorded more than 3,000 de per day over past few weeks.

And U.S. could be facing a terrible winter: Despite warnings to stay home and avoid ors over Christmastime, nearly 1.3 million people went through nation's airports on Sunday, highest one-day total since crisis took hold in U.S. nine months ago.

Trump ministration’s Operation Warp Speed expects to have shipped 20 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to states by beginning of January, fewer than originally estimated to frustration of states and health officials trying to schedule shots.

re is real-time tracking of how quickly people are getting first of two required doses. As of Saturday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention h reports of more than 1.9 million vaccinations, out of more than 9.5 million doses shipped — but ncy kws that count is outdated. It can take days for reports from vaccine providers to trickle in and get ded to site.

“Just because a vaccine arrives doesn’t mean we can put an on--spot clinic up and running,” said Jenny Barta, a public health official in Carlton County, Minnesota.

But Tuesday, her ncy aims to vaccinate 100 people in a drive-thru clinic for emergency medical workers that Barta hopes could become a model for larger attempts at mass vaccination. Nurses will wheel vaccine to cars lined up in a county-owned swplow gar. Once drivers get ir shots, y will wait in parking s to be sure y don’t have an allergic reaction before heing home.

“Vaccinating one individual at a time is how we’re going to work our way out of this pandemic,” she said.

Yet ar worry hanging over vaccine scramble: Will shots block a new variant of coronavirus that emerged in Britain and appears to spre more easily? Fauci said that re is evidence it could outsmart vaccine and that National Institutes of Health researchers will be “looking at it very intensively” to be sure.

A look at frontrunners in global vaccine race:

GENETIC CODE VACCINES

U.S. based its emergency rollout of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar one me by Moderna and NIH on studies suggesting y are both roughly 95% effective. Europe over weekend began its first vaccinations with Pfizer shot, and on Jan. 6 will decide wher to d Moderna's.

se shots are me with a brand-new techlogy that injects a piece of genetic code for spike protein that coats coronavirus. That messenger RNA, or mRNA, induces body to produce some harmless spike protein, eugh to prime immune system to react if it later encounters real virus.

Both vaccines must be kept frozen, Pfizer shot at ultra-low temperatures that complicate its delivery to poor or rural areas.

ditional companies are working toward ir own mRNA candidates, including Germany’s CureVac, which has begun a large study in Europe.

PROTEIN VACCINES

vavax candidate is me differently, using what Fauci called a “more tried and true” techlogy that needs only ordinary refrigeration. Maryland company grows harmless copies of coronavirus spike protein in laboratory and mixes in an immune-boosting chemical.

vavax alrey has enrolled 15,000 people in a late-st study in Britain and 4,000 in South Africa. newest and largest study, funded by U.S. government, will recruit volunteers at more than 115 sites in U.S. and Mexico and target high-risk older ults along with volunteers from Black and Hispanic communities, which have been hit hard by virus.

“We've got to protect our community and our people,” said Rev. Peter Johnson, 75, a prominent civil rights activist in Dallas who was among first volunteers.

Two-thirds of participants will receive vaccine and rest dummy shots, a twist from earlier vaccine studies that gave half ir volunteers a placebo. That should help researchers recruit people who wonder wher it’s better to take part in a study or wait ir turn for an existing shot, said Dr. Gregory Glenn, research chief at vavax.

For many people, that would be a long wait: Pfizer and Moderna shots are slated first for health care workers and nursing home residents, followed by people 75 and older and essential workers.

“If you wanted to hedge your bets, for most people who aren’t in those very high-risk groups, shortest route to getting vaccine would be to sign up for a trial,” said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.

TROJAN HORSE VACCINES

next big vaccine news may come from Johnson & Johnson, which is aiming for a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine.

Me in yet ar way, it uses a harmless virus – a cold virus called an evirus -- to carry spike gene into body. In mid-December, J&J finished enrolling about 45,000 volunteers in a final-st study in U.S. and a half-dozen or countries. Fauci expects early results sometime next month.

In Britain, regulators also are considering clearing a similar vaccine me by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Tests of shots in Britain, South Africa and Brazil suggested y are safe and partially protective — about 70%. But questions remain about how well vaccine works in people over 55 and how to interpret results from a small number of people given a different set of doses.

A U.S. study of AstraZeneca shots is still recruiting volunteers; Fauci said researchers hope it will provide a more clear answer.

Companies in China and Russia also are producing evirus-based vaccines and began ministering m before results of final testing came in. Argentina is expected to soon use Russian vaccine.

“KILLED” VACCINES

Spike-focused vaccines aren’t only option. Making vaccines by growing a disease-causing virus and n killing it is a still older approach that gives body a sneak peek at germ itself rar than just that single spike protein.

China has three such “inactivated” COVID-19 vaccines in final testing in several countries and has allowed emergency use in some people ahe of results. An Indian company is testing its own inactivated candidate.

(Im Credits: AP)