Aiding pandemic fight, India pledges to export vaccine again
India said this week its vaccine manufacturers will resume exporting COVID-19 shots in October, potentially eliminating a major roadblock for global vaccine equity. Indian officials said the country’s producers could churn out 1 billion more coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of the year, but did not specify how many would be exported. The Serum Institute of India (above) and other local producers had stopped exports at the government’s behest in the spring, when only about 2% of India’s population had been fully vaccinated and daily reported cases in the country soared to nearly 400,000. That deprived the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility of hundreds of millions of doses it had planned to distribute in lower and middle-income countries. (So far, India has exported fewer than 70 million doses.) Now some 15% of India’s population has become fully vaccinated, and daily new cases have fallen to about 30,000. “Our supplies are comfortable, and the pace of local vaccination has risen rapidly, leaving room for exports,” Indian health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said ahead of a global COVID-19 vaccine summit this week.
Pfizer says vaccine works in kids
Pfizer and BioNTech announced their messenger RNA–based COVID-19 vaccine prompts “robust” antibody responses in children ages 5 to 11. In a 20 September news release, the companies said the antibody levels, observed in 2268 children 1 month after a second dose, were on par with those seen in 16- to 25-year-olds, with “generally comparable” side effects. The younger children received one-third of the dose that older teens and adults get. But the companies did not report case numbers among the children in the new study, as they did for a similar trial of 12- to 15-year-olds. “It’s frustrating that we’re in an age of science by press release,” says vaccinologist Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The companies said they will quickly seek permission from U.S. and EU regulators for emergency use in 5- to 11-year-olds. The firms expect results from even younger children soon. U.S. pediatric cases of COVID-19 have grown by about 240% since July.
Second J&J shot adds protection
Johnson & Johnson said on 21 September that a second dose of its COVID-19 vaccine improved protection against moderate and severe disease in a large clinical trial. In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a single dose of the vaccine based on earlier evidence of substantial efficacy. In the new trial, which involved more than 30,000 people in 10 countries, the two doses, administered 8 weeks apart, provided 75% efficacy against moderate to severe disease; participants who received the shots were compared with unvaccinated ones who got a placebo. Efficacy against severe to critical disease was 100%, although the number of COVID-19 cases observed was small—only eight in the placebo arm, and none in the vaccine arm. Among trial participants in the United States, the two-dose regime provided 94% efficacy against moderate to severe disease; the single shot had delivered 67%. The second dose was generally well tolerated, the company said. About 14.6 million U.S. residents have received one dose of the vaccine, which uses a modified, common cold virus. The single-dose vaccine is also authorized in 64 other countries.
U.S., EU seek cut in methane to hit 1.5°C target
The United States and the European Union last week proposed cutting record-high global methane emissions by nearly one-third by decade’s end to control global warming. The primary component of natural gas, methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but not as long-lived: It breaks down in the atmosphere in about 12 years. By targeting methane emissions from natural gas, landfills, livestock, and some farming, officials hope to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels within reach. The European Commission and the Biden administration will announce new methane regulations later this year. They want other nations to join the pledge in advance of the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, U.K., in November.
Coronavirus spillovers abound?
Viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 may jump from bats to humans much more frequently than believed, according to work led by the global nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, whose leader, Peter Daszak, has argued the COVID-19 pandemic started this way. After overlaying a map of the habitats of 23 bat species known to carry severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-related coronaviruses with data on human populations, researchers found that close to 500 million people live in areas where spillovers can occur, including northern India and most of Southeast Asia. Based on antibody surveys and data on human-bat interactions in those areas, they conclude in a preprint that as many as 400,000 infections with SARS-related viruses likely occur annually, without being noticed or causing big outbreaks. But the estimate comes with a huge confidence interval because the underlying data are scant, and David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, calls the modeling “shaky.” Even if the number is off, the study is “important,” says virologist Angela Rasmussen of the University of Saskatchewan, because it “provides a road map for thinking about how to quantify zoonotic spillover” to prepare for future pandemics.
Remdesivir draws more doubts
Despite widespread use for COVID-19 cases and billions of dollars in sales, the antiviral drug remdesivir offers no clinical benefit to hospitalized patients already receiving oxygen support. That’s according to the latest large-scale, phase 3 clinical trial published last week in The Lancet. In October 2020, after months of allowing emergency use of the drug, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved remdesivir (Veklury), which works by inhibiting viral RNA synthesis, for all hospitalized COVID-19 cases. Studies had shown that patients given the intravenous drug early after symptom onset improved more quickly than those given a placebo. But enthusiasm for the drug was quickly tempered by other results showing remdesivir had no effect on reducing mortality. The new trial, part of the European multicenter Discovery trial, evaluated outcomes in 857 patients on oxygen support who received either standard of care or the same care with remdesivir and found no difference in clinical effectiveness or mortality after 15 days.
BY THE NUMBERS
79%
Share of white U.S. Catholics who say they are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, versus 57% of white Evangelicals. Although the vaccines don’t contain cells from aborted fetuses, many Evangelicals who refuse the shots note that such cells were used to test and make several of them. The Vatican has called the connection too “remote” to justify refusing shots. (Pew Research Center)
345
Number of universities in China offering degrees in artificial intelligence, up from zero in 2018. It’s by far the most rapid growth of any degree program there during that period. (Center for Security and Emerging Technology)
Pandemic extends NIH preference
Reversing its previous practice, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) last week modified a policy meant to improve the odds for young scientists to win a research grant: Those for whom the agency has extended their eligibility may now request a further extension before the current one expires. The agency gives preference to these “Early Stage Investigators” (ESIs) in awarding its independent research grants; to qualify, they must have completed advanced degrees or medical residencies within the previous 10 years. But NIH had told women whose ESI status it previously extended because of a maternity leave or other personal reasons that they could not apply for an additional, COVID-19–related extension while the first extension was still in effect. Nearly 500 people signed a petition posted online on 12 September calling that practice discriminatory against women with children. The petition also questioned NIH’s policy of tying ESI status to Ph.D. completion, noting that many scientists spend years doing postdoctoral work—leaving some with far fewer than 10 years of ESI eligibility.
Iran sanctions lead to jailing
The United States charged an Iranian-born medical geneticist and two family members last week with conspiring to launder money and violate sanctions on Iran. Mohammad Faghihi ran a Miami-based genetic testing firm, Express Gene, that received nearly $3.5 million in overseas wire transfers between 2016 and 2020, according to the U.S. government, which alleges that the company used some of that money to buy genetic sequencing machines that were shipped to Iran without a required license. Faghihi ran a lab at the University of Miami until leaving in 2020; he is an author on several high-profile papers on antisense transcription and was recently studying rare genetic disorders in Iran. A judge last week deemed Faghihi a flight risk and ordered him detained before trial.
Australia backtracks on preprints
After an outcry from scientists, the Australian Research Council (ARC) last week said it scrapped an unusual policy that forbade grant applicants from mentioning preprints in their funding proposals. After the council introduced the policy in 2020, some researchers said they unwittingly violated it and lost ARC grants, costing them job offers. In a statement, the council said the change “reflects contemporary trends and the emerging significance of preprint acceptance and use across multiple research disciplines.”
Marburg outbreak in Guinea ends
The first outbreak of Marburg disease in West Africa has ended after just a single case, authorities declared last week. On 3 August, samples from a man who had died 1 day earlier in Guinea tested positive for Marburg virus, a filovirus similar to the Ebola virus that can also cause fatal hemorrhagic fever. Health authorities identified 173 contacts, but none developed symptoms over the 21-day incubation period. Authorities waited the recommended 42 days after the man’s death before declaring the outbreak over. Carried by fruit bats, the Marburg virus has also caused outbreaks in central and southern Africa as well as laboratories in Europe. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the disease.
Shaped like seeds, tiny fliers ride the wind, collecting data
Engineers have designed and tested tiny flying machines—spinning, motorless microchips that could record environmental data after their release from airplanes. A team at Northwestern University modeled them after the helicopterlike, windborne seeds of maple trees and woody vines, but at a smaller scale. Their diameters range from 0.5 to 40 millimeters, including onboard antennas and transistors. Simulations and wind-tunnel tests suggest the microfliers would spread out as they slowly fell through the atmosphere; their predictable descent paths would make them suitable for monitoring air and water pollution as a networked sensor array, the designers say. Next, the team is working to build the devices from biodegradable materials. The work appears this week in Nature.
Chile targets sexual harassment
Chile enacted a law last week giving state-funded universities 1 year to develop protocols for preventing and responding to cases of sexual harassment, violence, and gender discrimination. Noncompliant institutions risk losing state accreditation and funding. In 2017, only about 12% of the nation’s 60 universities had such protocols in place. The new law, originally proposed by the Chilean Network of Women Researchers, was partly a response to a wave of protests held across the country in 2018; students and faculty members demanded more support for victims of sexual harassment at universities. The new protocols must include plans to provide education aimed at preventing sexual harassment on campus. Institutions must also individually establish policies setting sanctions for offenders and develop plans to protect victims who come forward.
Science forum: COVID-19’s origin
Science will host an online discussion about how SARS-CoV-2 emerged and sparked the pandemic, featuring several scientists who have carefully evaluated the “lab leak” and natural origin theories, the two leading contenders. At 9 a.m. EDT on 30 September, Senior Correspondent Jon Cohen will discuss the theories with researchers Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Alina Chan of the Broad Institute, Linfa Wang of Duke-NUS Medical School, and Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona. The event can be viewed live on Science’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts, and a recording will be archived.
Source: Science Mag