Oxford scientists begin HIV vaccine clinical trial

HIV Vaccine

Scientists at Oxford University, United Kingdom, have commenced a clinical trial for a novel HIV vaccine.

The trial known as HIV-CORE 0052 began on Monday.

The goal of the trial, according to Oxford, is to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the HIVconsvX vaccine – a mosaic vaccine targeting a broad range of HIV-1 variants, making it potentially applicable for HIV strains in any geographical region.

For this clinical trial, 13 healthy adults aged between 18–65 who were considered not to be at high risk of infection received one dose of the vaccine which will be followed by a further booster dose at four weeks.

Speaking on the trial, Professor of Vaccine Immunology at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford and lead researcher for the trial, Tomáš Hankeof in a statement said, “An effective HIV vaccine has been elusive for 40 years.

“This trial is the first in a series of evaluations of this novel vaccine strategy in both HIV-negative individuals for prevention and in people living with HIV for a cure.”

Describing how this vaccine would work on Oxford University’s official website, the researchers said “While most HIV vaccine candidates work by inducing antibodies generated by B-cells, HIVconsvX induces the immune system’s potent, pathogen obliterating T cells, targeting them to highly conserved and therefore vulnerable regions of HIV – an “Achilles’ heel” common to most HIV variants.”

This trial is part of the European Aids Vaccine Initiative (EAVI2020), an international collaborative research project funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020 Health Programme for Research and Innovation.

The researchers said they hope to be able to report the results of the HIV-CORE 0052 trial by April 2022.

There are also plans to start similar trials in Europe, Africa and the US, the site reports.

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Tanzania's President Criticized for Dismissing COVID-19 Vaccines

FILE - People use a handwashing station installed for members of the public entering a market in Dodoma, Tanzania, May 18, 2020. Tanzania’s government stopped reporting cases of COVID-19 in May.

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s sharp rejection of COVID-19 vaccines was met Thursday with criticism, concern and confusion.

Magufuli in a speech Wednesday scorned the idea of a lockdown to prevent the coronavirus from spreading and poured doubt on the effectiveness of vaccines.

He claimed that Tanzanians vaccinated abroad had brought a coronavirus variant back to the country and repeated his stance that praying and inhaling steam offered better protection.

People should stand firm because vaccinations are dangerous, Magufuli said. He contended that if whites were able to come up with vaccinations, they would have found a vaccination for AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and cancer by now.

'Extremely dangerous' remarks

Tanzanian opposition politicians criticized Magufuli’s words as undiplomatic and said they sent a poor message to the world.

Zitto Kabwe, a former member of parliament and a leader of the opposition Alliance for Change and Transparency party, said, “Africa is struggling because of the limited supply of vaccinations, and here you have a president of the second-largest economy in East Africa, and this president saying that vaccinations are problematic.  This is extremely dangerous, and I really don’t know how deadly this comment from the president will be going forward.”

Tanzania’s government stopped reporting cases of COVID-19 in May, when it had 509 infections and 21 deaths. Magufuli said there was no need to report cases or take precautions against the virus because God had protected Tanzania from it.

 

FILE - President John Magufuli gestures during a rally in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Oct. 23, 2015. Magufuli in a speech Jan. 27, 2021, scorned the idea of a lockdown to prevent the coronavirus from spreading and said vaccinations were dangerous.

Tanzanian activists and critics have been urging the government via social media to reveal COVID-19 infections in the country.

Kumbusho Dawson, an activist with the Change Tanzania Organization, said he hadn't seen any measures by the government, but that it should be taking all necessary precautions and following the World Health Organization’s advice on fighting the coronavirus. He said people should wear masks and wash their hands to keep themselves and others safe.

The WHO’s regional director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, also urged Tanzanians on Thursday to ramp up public health measures.  She tweeted that science shows vaccines work, and she encouraged Tanzania to prepare a COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Some confused

The contrasting messages from the world and Magufuli left some Tanzanians, like Dar es Salaam resident Dorcas Mselle, confused.

She said that at least during the first wave of the pandemic, residents were given instructions on what to do, and schools were closed. But now, she said, if people decide to wear a mask or not, or to wash their hands or not, there seems to be no official objection. Mselle called the situation confusing and said Tanzanians still don't know the extent of the problem.

Magufuli was re-elected in a disputed October election but has come under increasing criticism from opposition parties and Western governments for stifling democracy.

 

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COVID-19 will disappear without vaccine – US President, Trump insisted

 

US President, Donald Trump has said the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic is going to “end without a vaccine.”

Trump told the press during his daily briefing at the White House at the weekend, “This is going to go away without a vaccine, it’s gonna go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.”

He added, “You may have some flare-ups, and I guess I would expect that.”

As at Friday, the deadly virus had infected at least 1.2 million people in the US killing more than 76,000.

The leading expert on infectious diseases on the US COVID-19 task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, had repeatedly said a vaccine is still at least a year to 18 months from being produced.

Meanwhile, President Trump insists he relies on what doctors tell him, adding that doctors believe COVID-19 will go away but did not say if it was going to be this year.

“It doesn’t mean, frankly, it’s going to be gone before the fall or after the fall, but eventually it’s going to go away.

The question is whether we will need a vaccine. At some point, it will probably go away by itself.”

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Vaccine telethon raises billions as Europe eases virus lockdown

Hopes rose in the fight against the coronavirus on Monday as world leaders pledged billions of euros for a vaccine in a special telethon and European countries edged out of lockdown.

Despite US President Donald Trump snubbing the fundraising effort, the World Health Organization hailed the 7.4 billion euro ($8.1 billion) haul as a “powerful” show of global solidarity.

The world is desperately hunting a vaccine for the disease that has killed nearly 250,000 people across the planet and infected 3.5 million since it emerged in China late last year.

Countries are keen to lift lockdowns imposed on half the planet that have sent the world economy into a tailspin, but there are fears doing so too early could cause a second wave of the pandemic.

Italy, the world’s longest locked down country and the worst hit after the United States, led the way with easing restrictions on Monday, with more than a dozen other European nations taking similar steps.

Governments believe they have passed the peak of the disease with death tolls in Europe’s worst affected countries having dropped as a result of nearly two months of confinement.

– ‘Joy and fear’ –

“We are feeling a mix of joy and fear,” 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome.

“There will be great happiness in being able to go running again carefree, in my son being allowed to have his little cousin over to blow out his birthday candles, to see our parents,” the father-of-three said.

 

Italian restaurants reopened for takeaway orders, but bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut. The use of public transport is being discouraged and everyone will have to wear masks in indoor public spaces.

Spain and Portugal made face masks mandatory on public transport starting Monday as they further eased their lockdowns.

In Germany people queued up at hair salons as they finally reopened, while Slovenia, Poland and Hungary also allowed public spaces and businesses to partially reopen.

“I looked like Robinson Crusoe,” joked 87-year-old Helmut Wichter as he emerged clean shaven from a barber in Berlin.

 

But a vaccine is widely seen as the only real hope of avoiding more deaths from a once-in-a-century pandemic and bringing back normality to the world.

– ‘Powerful and inspiring’ –

Leaders of major European powers along with Japan and Canada made the biggest pledges, along with philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates, at the videoconference hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

They called for cooperation and not competition in the search for a cure that could not only be potentially lucrative but also spark fights over who gets access to a vaccine first.

“This was a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the donations.

 

But the shine was taken off the pledges by the absence of the United States, with Trump in open warfare with the WHO over its handling of the pandemic and its relationship with China.

Trump — fighting for reelection in November — said Sunday that the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year.

His prediction was met with scepticism in some quarters, with Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn warning it could take years for anyone to develop a vaccine.

With 30 million Americans out of work and his poll numbers sagging, Trump has increasingly taken to blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak.

– ‘Insane’ –

China‘s state broadcaster on Monday attacked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for “insane” remarks in which he said the virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic first emerged.

The WHO also risked a fresh clash with Trump, saying it had received no evidence on the “speculative” Wuhan lab claims

The renewed tensions between the US and China — the world’s two biggest economies — set financial markets on edge on Monday from Asia to New York.

The United States has the most coronavirus deaths in the world at more than 67,600.

Trump had initially played down the virus, before later warning that it could cost 60,000 lives, but on Sunday he acknowledged a higher eventual death toll of between 75,000 and 100,000.

“That’s a horrible thing,” he said.

Many parts of Asia have, however, begun to inch towards a post-pandemic life, with schools in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi reopening on Monday after two weeks without new infections anywhere in the country.

Malaysians headed back to work, while Australia and New Zealand discussed creating a “trans-Tasman bubble” that would allow travel between the two countries.

But regional heavyweight Japan extended its state of emergency to the end of the month, despite a comparatively small-scale outbreak.

The disease continued its march in some places.

Russia is rapidly becoming Europe’s black spot, with officials in Moscow urging residents to stay home in an effort to tamp down the growing daily tally of new cases.

“The threat is apparently on the rise,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told citizens.

[AFP]

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