COVID-19 vaccines Archives - Page 23 of 24

4 things to keep in mind as COVID-19 vaccination efforts scale

In the early days of the pandemic, hopes were high that a vaccine could return society to normalcy. But now that FDA has authorized two vaccines, much of the general public is waiting for them to become broadly available.

Some 4.5% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated as of Feb. 17, according to the New York Times vaccination tracker. “If you’re looking over the past 12 months, it doesn’t look like we’ve gotten very far,” said Reed Stephens, a partner at the global law firm Winston & Strawn.

But the rate of vaccination is picking up. The U.S. vaccination rate is now hovering between 1.5 to 2 million doses per day. Production is ramping up, and FDA will likely authorize additional vaccines in the coming months. Stephens said the goal of getting a large percentage of U.S. adults vaccinated by the end of summer seems within reach.

To get the full story, check out our sister site Pharmaceutical Processing World.

4 things to keep in mind as COVID-19 vaccination efforts scale

[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]

In the early days of the pandemic, hopes were high that a vaccine could return society to normalcy. But now that FDA has authorized two vaccines, much of the general public is waiting for them to become broadly available.

Some 4.5% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated as of Feb. 17, according to the New York Times vaccination tracker. “If you’re looking over the past 12 months, it doesn’t look like we’ve gotten very far,” said Reed Stephens, a partner at the global law firm Winston & Strawn.

But the rate of vaccination is picking up. The U.S. vaccination rate is now hovering between 1.5 to 2 million doses per day. Production is ramping up, and FDA will likely authorize additional vaccines in the coming months. Stephens said the goal of getting a large percentage of U.S. adults vaccinated by the end of summer seems within reach.

Sinc…

White House promises states additional increase in COVID-19 vaccine doses

Photo by Tabrez Syed on Unsplash

The federal government is increasing the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses from 11 million to 13.5 million, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced today.

The tally is 57% higher than the dose volumes states had received at the beginning of the year.

The federal government is also beginning to prioritize sending vaccines to pharmacies. Some 2 million vaccine doses will be sent to pharmacies this week.

The bipartisan National Governors Association recently asked President Biden for improved coordination of vaccine shipments.

Biden has promised that enough vaccine doses will be available for 300 million Americans by July.

Biden had promised to administer 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 million days in office. The current rate has exceeded that and is hovering around 1.72 million doses.

One recent hurdle to vaccine administrat…

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy rates remain high

Image courtesy of Unsplash

While estimates vary, achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 will likely require vaccinating at least 70% to 80% of the public, if not more. Some diseases, like measles, require a vaccination rate of 95%, according to the World Health Organization.

Yet, many people in the U.S. public remains guarded about COVID-19 vaccines. Almost one out of three Americans say they definitely or probably wouldn’t get vaccinated, according to a recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A total of 15% were certain they wouldn’t get vaccinated.

Kaiser Family Foundation research from December found that 27% of the public remains vaccine-hesitant.

A survey from late last year found that 58% of adults aged 50 to 80 would be somewhat or very likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Ultimately, vaccine hesitancy could be a bigger challenge to herd imm…

Disgraced pharmacist faces prison time over COVID-19 vaccine charges

Steven Brandenburg

A Wisconsin pharmacist who allegedly spoiled 57 vials of Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) pleaded guilty to two federal counts of consumer product tampering. Each vial contains 10 vaccine doses.

The pharmacist Steven Brandenburg, who recently had his license revoked, is accused of deliberately removing the vials from refrigeration for several hours before the vaccine was administered to 57 people.

Brandenburg entertained conspiracy theories about the vaccine, according to federal court filings. The documents state that Brandenburg believed the Moderna vaccine contained microchips, caused DNA mutations and could cause infertility. He also apparently believes the earth is flat.

Brandenburg also allegedly brought guns to his former workplace at Advocate Aurora Health in Grafton, Wis. and was involved in substituting flu vaccines with saline.

U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig in Mil…

Facebook cracks down on COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine image courtesy of Wikipedia

Facebook announced today that it would delete unpaid posts with false vaccine information from its service.

The move follows the company’s October decision to eliminate COVID-19 misinformation from its advertising programs.

In December, the company went further, deleting posts with COVID-19 claims that government and health authorities had debunked.

But Facebook had allowed some misinformation to remain on the site, choosing in some cases to make it less visible rather than eliminate it.

Protestors who recently disrupted vaccination efforts at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles had communicated on the social media platform. Vaccine opponents have long used Facebook as a sounding board.

The new policies also extend to Facebook-owned Instagram.

The social media giant has taken steps to combat vaccine misinformation in the past. A…

Which companies will likely produce the most COVID-19 vaccine in 2021?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Since the beginning of the pandemic, much of society has pinned its hopes on the availability of a vaccine. Now that several are available across the world, there is hope, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, in a recent JAMA interview. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

One thing that will make the light at the end of the tunnel brighter as we head into the spring is the greater availability of vaccine doses. “The discordance between supply and demand will be diminished,” Fauci said.

The roster of companies producing vaccines is steadily increasing, making it possible to vaccinate a substantial portion of the world’s population this year. (Note: Most of the companies in this list have two-dose vaccines.)

Here’s a roundup of notable companies’ production targets for 2021:

AstraZeneca and Oxford University: Up to 3…

COVID-19-free Palau could be among the first to reach herd immunity

[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]

To date, in the U.S., some 6.5% of the population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Alaska is currently the frontrunner in vaccinating its population. Almost 12% of Alaskans have received at least one dose.

But two U.S.-linked countries — Palau and American Samoa — have vaccinated more people per capita than any U.S. state. More than 17% of the inhabitants of Palau, a cluster of more than 500 islands east of the Philippines, have received at least one dose. For American Samoa, the same figure is 14.6%.

The U.S. territories, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have also administered more COVID-19 vaccine doses per capita than any U.S. state other than Alaska and West Virginia.

Palau (population 18,000) is noteworthy in that it has reported no COVID-19 cases to the World Health Organization. Neither had American Samoa.

Like Is…

White House could promise states additional COVID-19 vaccines doses next week

Image from René DeAnda on Unsplash

Federal shipments of COVID-19 vaccines could increase roughly 16% next week, potentially reducing some states’ shortfalls as they have broadened access to adults 65 and older.

The U.S. government plans to increase its weekly allocation to states from 8.6 million doses to approximately 10 million doses, according to The Washington Post.

Government authorities ship COVID-19 vaccine doses to 64 jurisdictions spread across the country and eight U.S. territories.

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) is likely to provide the supply boost.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) has decided to send the U.S. fewer doses of its vaccine jointly developed with BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) after the surprise discovery that its vials contained an extra dose. It negotiated with the U.S. government to count the extra sixth dose in its vials toward its prior commitment to provide 200 million doses.

Bot…

The U.S. COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to lag but is accelerating

Photo by Thirdman from Pexels

Some 20.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered as of Jan. 23 — roughly in line with the CDC’s end-of-2020 goal.

The pace of vaccination as of the morning of Jan. 21 was roughly 1 million, about four-fifths involving initial doses of the two-dose vaccine.

For the sake of comparison, COVID-19 tests were 1.9 million on the same day.

At the current vaccination rate, vaccinating the majority of Americans could occur by January 2022, according to an analysis from The Wall Street Journal.

It is likely, however, that the pace will continue to quicken as a growing number of organizations become involved in administering shots. Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) could also file for emergency use authorization for a single-dose vaccine as early as February.

At present, UBS estimates that 4.6% of the U.S. population has received at least…

7 core strategies in Biden’s battle against COVID-19

[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]

Included in President Joe Biden’s sprawling strategy document for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic are an array of plans intended to ramp up vaccination efforts.

Also included are proposals for accelerating the development of therapies such as antiviral compounds effective against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses with pandemic potential.

The “full-scale, wartime” plans have considerable relevance for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. (More information is available on the medical-device ramifications of the plan from our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.)

While the plan stands out from the prior administration’s COVID-19 response in its detail and earnestness, several portions effectively represent a continuation of existing policy. The policy, for instance, says it will end the U.S. government’s practice of stockpil…

Biden leaning on Defense Production Act to bolster COVID-19 vaccine supplies

[Joe Biden photo from Wikipedia]

President Joe Biden has unveiled a series of anti-COVID-19 measures in his first full day in office, including signing an executive order instructing federal agencies to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) and other tools to speed the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and materials.

In total, the president has signed 10 executive orders intended to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

According to the “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness” document, the Biden administration will use the Defense Production Act to “fill any distribution gaps, including with respect to any needed refrigeration, transportation, or storage facilities.”

Biden has also moved to create a centralized federal approach to virus testing while ramping up the U.S. government’s involvement in vaccine distribution.

“President B…