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AVAC's weekly COVID News Brief provides a curated perspective on what COVID news is worth your time.
"In a globalized world with the risk of virus mutation increased by high levels of infection, no country is protected until all countries are protected. Countries around the globe will need to unite and establish effective governance to combat the global threat from SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.

— Neil Ferguson, Katharina Hauck and Christl Donnelly writing in STAT ([link removed])



** Latest Global Stats
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January 29, 2021
Confirmed Cases
101,567,466 Recovered
56,170,790 Deaths
2,193,577
Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University ([link removed])


** Table of Contents
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* If You Are in a Hurry (#hurry)
* The Variants (#variants)
* Vaccine Access (#access)
* Novovax and J&J (#novo)
* Pharma Cooperation (#pharma)
* COVID and Schools (#schools)
* Biden's COVID Plan (#biden)
* Vaccine Safety (#safety)








* COVID Fears Kept Kenyans from Hospitals (#kenyans)
* COVID Stigma (#stigma)
* Behavior Change Drives Falling Rates in US (#falling)
* Understanding and Harnessing Immunity (#understanding)
* Need a Hug (#hug)
* Roadside Vaccinations (#roadside)



Variants and vaccines continue to dominate the news once again this week. Will enough people get vaccines to slow the spread and will current or future variants be susceptible to vaccines? And it’s clear that there is still not a plan to ensure global access and vaccine equity and that could make things worse everywhere.


**
If You Are in a Hurry
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* Read a Vox ([link removed]) explainer that looks at why we’re seeing worrying variants and what may be driving them.
* Read a BBC ([link removed]) commentary from Zimbabwean psychiatrist Dr Dixon Chibanda that makes the case for why Zimbabwe and Africa need vaccines now.
* Read Science ([link removed]) on the tweaks to vaccines and what the next steps are.
* Read about the dire predictions for COVID vaccine access in poor countries in The Economist ([link removed]) .
* Read The Daily Maverick ([link removed]) on why South Africans should all be vaccinated.
* Find out what scientists think of the new US President’s COVID plan in Nature ([link removed]) .
* Read about vaccination inequities in the US on CNN ([link removed]) .
* Read about preliminary data on the Novovax vaccine in Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) .
* Read about parallels between HIV and COVID stigma in PaZimbabwe ([link removed]) .
* See how John Mascola and Nicole Doria-Rose’s work on the VRC01 antibody for HIV paved the way for COVID antibody work in Wired ([link removed]) .




** The Variants
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The Washington Post ([link removed]) reports “The variant identified in South Africa is not yet proved to be more lethal than others, including similarly highly transmissible variants recently detected in Britain and Brazil ([link removed]) , but mutations that make it around 50 percent easier to catch have allowed it to stage a takeover of what was already out-of-control community transmission in South Africa… "Of the cases we’ve [DNA-]sequenced in South Africa, more than 90 percent are the new variant," said Richard Lessells, a lead researcher at the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform, or KRISP ([link removed]) , which has played a pathbreaking role in identifying coronavirus ([link removed])
variants in South Africa and elsewhere. “It’s amazing and terrifying how quickly it came to dominate, and it does feel like we’re in the beginning stages of watching this variant, and the other new ones, become more dominant around the world.’”

The Hill ([link removed]) reports, “Federal health agencies are preparing for the possibility that the current COVID-19 vaccines might not be effective against future strains of the coronavirus, Anthony Fauci ([link removed]) said Wednesday, but he has confidence that drug companies will be able to quickly change the formula. ‘We are preparing, in anticipation that the virus will continue to evolve and may get to the point where it crosses the threshold that our vaccine is no longer effective as we want it to be. We don't want it to happen. We hope it doesn't happen. If it does, we're already doing what it takes to be able to address that,’ Fauci added.”

The Washington Post ([link removed]) reports “A highly transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa was reported Thursday in the United States, hours before Maryland biotech company Novavax announced that its coronavirus vaccine was highly effective in preventing illness—except against that variant… 'The South African variant is looking like it’s going to be a far more complicating factor than we had hoped,’ said Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine...”

A STAT ([link removed]) op-ed says, “Important new coronavirus variants have emerged in the United Kingdom ([link removed]) , Brazil ([link removed]) , and South Africa ([link removed]) . What is worrisome about these variants is that even though they evolved independently, they have some similarities. All share the N501Y mutation in the virus’s immunologically key spike protein. The strains in South African ([link removed]) and Brazil ([link removed]) also share the E484K mutation in the same
protein, which some experiments suggest may at least partially evade the antibody response ([link removed]) people generate after infection with older strains.” The authors argue, “To stay a step ahead of Covid-19, countries need to invest in robust genetic surveillance systems and increase their capabilities to identify coronavirus variants as they arise, and vaccine deployment needs to continue at the same pace or accelerate to safeguard vaccine efficacy as new variants emerge. The outlook is less optimistic for low- and middle-income countries. In a globalized world with the risk of virus mutation increased by high levels of infection, no country is protected until all countries are protected. Countries around the globe will need to unite and establish effective governance to combat the global threat from SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.”

Reuters ([link removed]) reports, “Moderna Inc said on Monday it believes its COVID-19 vaccine protects against new variants found in Britain and South Africa, although it will test a new booster shot aimed at the South African variant after concluding the antibody response could be diminished.” In a separate story Reuters ([link removed]) reports, “Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared to lose only a small bit of effectiveness against an engineered virus with three key mutations from the new coronavirus variant found in South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the US drugmaker.”

Science ([link removed]) reports both companies are working on “tweaks” to address the new variants. “Georgetown University virologist Angela Rasmussen says it’s ‘very wise’ to start to prepare boosters now. ‘It’s also wise to begin thinking about how they will be distributed,’ she adds. ‘For example, will they be allocated to regions with evidence that B.1.351 is circulating?’ Regulators still need to spell out what trials they would require for updated vaccines. At a press conference on Monday, World Health Organization official Bruce Aylward said ([link removed]) work to define a regulatory pathway was ‘kicking off right now.’”

The Independent ([link removed]) reports, “Scientists at Imperial College London ([link removed]) have announced they will not be proceeding with large-scale testing of their Covid-19 ([link removed]) vaccine because of the rapid approval of other jabs within the UK ([link removed]) . Professor Robin Shattock said his team would instead be using the RNA technology behind the vaccine to target new and emerging coronavirus ([link removed]) variants that have been identified around the world….’It is not the right time to start a new efficacy trial for a further vaccine in the UK, with the emphasis rightly placed on mass vaccination in response to the rapid spread of the new variant.’”

A Vox ([link removed]) explainer looks at why we’re seeing these worrying variants now. “A reasonable question you might be asking: Why now? Why have these three variants of concern popped up in such quick succession? The fact that the virus is mutating isn’t new. ([link removed]) It’s been mutating all along… Overall, experts outlined four reasons we’re seeing these variants now. And it all boils down to one thing: evolution… The virus will keep evolving. Vaccinations need to happen quickly, and cases need to decrease. The virus will keep changing, and there will be more variants. Not all will be variants of concern, though.


** Vaccine Access
------------------------------------------------------------
A BBC ([link removed]) commentary from Zimbabwean psychiatrist Dr Dixon Chibanda lays out the need for COVID vaccines in Africa now. He describes his own struggle with COVID and says, “Indeed, during the same period that I was sick, five doctors I have worked closely with over the years died from it. They had access to medical care and they still died. These individual deaths are devastating. But also, the impact of losing five experienced doctors within four weeks for a country like Zimbabwe represents a significant communal loss… I wondered how many health professionals and grandmothers will have to die before a vaccine is available here. How many frontline workers like them will suffer as they try to ease the suffering of others? Later, I received a WhatsApp message from a colleague: Another doctor had died from Covid-19. We need the vaccine to come to Africa.”

The Economist ([link removed]) says “A report ([link removed]) by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU…predicts that rich countries with access to proven vaccines—including America, Britain and most of the European Union—will manage to inoculate their most vulnerable citizens by mid-March… Other rich countries should catch up by the end of June. Most middle-income countries, meanwhile, will not be able to do the same until late 2022. The only exception is Russia, thanks to its home-grown “Sputnik V” vaccine. (China and India also have their own vaccines, but will probably be stymied by the size of their populations.) In poorer countries, meaningful vaccination
coverage—enough for life to return to normal—may not be possible until 2023, if ever.”

Zimbabwean reporter Roselyne Sachiti in The Chronicle ([link removed]) quotes Helen Rees, who, “said equitable vaccine access is critical hence the COVAX facility which has 190 plus countries, from the biggest superpowers to poorest small income countries who will have vaccines purchased for them through donors, bilateral agreements etc. She said the whole idea of COVAX is to try to level the playing field so that every country, before anyone gets more, has 20 percent of their population covered. COVAX is the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level. However, she noted there has been over purchasing of vaccines by richer countries pointing out that some of that was with good intentions. ‘The tragic irony for us in the global health is we are going to be vaccinating people with a very low risk profile throughout rich countries when we still have very small
amounts of vaccines for the poorest countries of the world, including the African region.’"

The Daily Maverick ([link removed]) quotes “Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, deputy director of the University of Cape Town’s Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, an infectious diseases specialist and a vaccine scientist, cautioned that if only a few people get vaccinated we are not going to control the virus. The numbers won’t go down because we will still have sufficient transmission going on to keep the epidemic going. ‘It needs to feed off itself and fuel the fire. If you don’t dampen it sufficiently then it will continue to burn. That’s the risk we run–yes, we might get some individual benefit but we won’t get the collective benefit if not enough people get vaccinated,’ she explained.” An accompanying editorial argues “South African activists were very successful at promoting HIV literacy. The Treatment
Action Campaign did it brilliantly, going into communities systematically. We need to do the same with the Covid-19 vaccine. Civil society and community engagement are key. Every one of us, every activist, church leader, political leader, community leader, celebrities and influencers must get on board. Our lives depend on it.”

The New York Times ([link removed]) reports, “A failure to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine in poor nations will worsen economic damage, with half the costs borne by wealthy countries, new research shows… The findings add a complicating layer to the basic assumption that the pandemic will leave the world economy more unequal than ever ([link removed]) . While this appears true, one striking form of inequality—access to vaccines—could pose universal problems. In an extraordinary testament to the innovative capacities of the world’s most skilled scientists, some of the leading pharmaceutical companies produced lifesaving vaccines in a small fraction of the time thought possible. But the wealthiest countries in North America and Europe locked up orders for most of the supply ([link removed])
—enough to vaccinate two and three times their populations—leaving poor countries scrambling to secure their share.”

CNN ([link removed]) reports that in the US “Black and Latino Americans are receiving the Covid-19 vaccine at significantly lower rates than White people—a disparity that health advocates blame on the federal government and hospitals not prioritizing equitable access. A CNN analysis of data from 14 states found vaccine coverage is twice as high among White people on average than it is among Black and Latino people. The analysis found that on average, more than 4% of the White population has received a Covid-19 vaccine, about 2.3 times higher than the Black population (1.9% covered) and 2.6 times higher than the Hispanic population (1.8% covered).”


**
Novovax and Johnson & Johnson
------------------------------------------------------------
Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) reports, “Novavax Inc. said Thursday its Covid-19 vaccine was 89.3% effective at protecting people from the disease in an interim analysis from its late-stage study in the U.K… In the study, 62 people came down with Covid-19 with symptoms after receiving either the vaccine or placebo, Novavax said. Of these, six had received the vaccine and 56 had gotten the placebo. Among sick patients, about half were infected with the U.K.-circulating strain… Yet the vaccine was less effective in a separate, middle-stage study in South Africa, where yet another variant has spread ([link removed]) . In South Africa, the Novavax shot was about 49.4% effective against Covid-19 in the study. Preliminary results showed that more than 90% of the sick subjects for
whom sequencing data were available were infected with the new variant circulating in South Africa.”

New York Times ([link removed]) reports “Johnson & Johnson announced on Friday that its one-dose coronavirus vaccine provided strong protection against Covid-19, potentially offering the United States a third powerful tool in a desperate race against a worldwide rise in virus mutations. But the results came with a significant cautionary note: The vaccine’s efficacy rate ([link removed]) dropped from 72 percent in the United States to 57 percent in South Africa, where a highly contagious variant is driving most cases. Studies suggest that this variant also blunts the effectiveness of Covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax.” Before the results were released FiercePharma ([link removed]) reported “orders for hundreds of millions
of doses are pending. But even as rivals face manufacturing and logistics hurdles, a top J&J exec said his company is ‘comfortable’ meeting its 2021 supply commitments. J&J's one-dose vaccine would provide a major boost to worldwide vaccination efforts… the drugmaker has agreed to supply 100 million doses to the U.S., plus 200 million to Europe and 100 million to developing countries through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. All of the deals carry options for hundreds of millions of additional doses.”


** Pharma Cooperation
------------------------------------------------------------
AP ([link removed]) reports “In an unusual and potentially groundbreaking decision, French drugmaker Sanofi said Wednesday it will help bottle and package 125 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer and BioNTech, while its own vaccine candidate faces delays... Sanofi is still pushing ahead with its own COVID-19 vaccine efforts, including a much-awaited candidate developed with British partner GlaxoSmithKline. Sanofi said they will start a new phase-2 trial next month. The two companies said last month that their vaccine won’t be ready until late 2021 because the shot’s effectiveness in older people needed to be improved. ([link removed]) ”

FiercePharma ([link removed]) reports “Novartis is exploring whether it can deploy its own manufacturing network to boost COVID-19 supplies. Separately, the US is weighing the Defense Production Act to compel drugmakers to produce Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines. Novartis is ‘currently in discussions with several companies with a view to supporting the manufacturing of vaccines and components for tests for Covid-19,’ a spokesman said.”


**
COVID and Schools
------------------------------------------------------------
NPR ([link removed]) reports “Data from [US] K-12 schools that reopened for in-person instruction in the fall show little evidence that schools contributed meaningfully to the spread of COVID-19, according to a new article ([link removed]) published Tuesday in JAMA…The CDC report says data from reopened classrooms show that ‘the type of rapid spread that was frequently observed in congregate living facilities or high-density worksites has not been reported in education settings in schools.’"


**
Biden's COVID Plan
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Nature ([link removed]) examines scientists’ thoughts on Biden’s COVID plan. “Many researchers posted messages ([link removed]) on Twitter expressing relief ([link removed]) that scientific evidence would have a central role in Biden’s plan. They also celebrated the existence of a coordinated national pandemic strategy ([link removed]) , after complaining that Trump’s failure to enact one impaired testing ([link removed]) , tracing and other responses required to tame the outbreak… Still, scientists who’ve long been working on the US coronavirus response say that Biden’s strategy needs more detail, particularly on the funding, staffing and procedures for some initiatives, such as the plan for scaling up surveillance of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.”


**
Vaccine Safety
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USA Today ([link removed]) reports “Early safety data from the first month of COVID-19 vaccination finds the shots are as safe as the studies suggested they'd be. Everyone who experienced an allergic response has been treated successfully, and no other serious problems have turned up among the first 22 million people vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”


**
COVID Fears Kept Kenyans from Hospitals
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In a story that has been repeated around the world, The Star (Kenya) ([link removed]) reports “Thirty-five percent of Kenyans could not visit health facilities out of fear of contracting Covid-19, a report shows... The study shows 32 per cent could not afford to visit a health facility, five per cent said the nearest facility was too far, while 10 per cent said healthcare facilities were either too busy or they couldn’t get an appointment with a doctor... The study examined actions taken in response to Covid-19 in the five major economic and cultural hubs in Africa. According to the report, initial contact tracing, quarantine, emphasis on personal hygiene, and social distancing all seem to have contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in Kenya. However, it faults Kenya for conducting very little emergency preparedness...”


**
COVID Stigma
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Reporting from a journalist training session at the HIVR4P conference, Zimbabwean reporter Roselyne Sachiti writes in PaZimbabwe ([link removed]) on COVID stigma. She shares a story of a Zimbabwean who faced stigma on returning to work after recovering from COVID and notes, “This stigma is an indication of the way society behaves and responds in pandemics and sort of goes back to the first days of HIV and Aids where people were stigmatised. Having thought communities’ reactions had changed given knowledge on HIV and how stigma was tackled, it seems many are going round in circles when it comes to Covid-19 stigma.” She quotes American advocate Rob Newells from one of the journalist pre-con sessions: “Newells said he hoped the guilt and shame around how one got Covid-19 was not preventing people from getting tested. ‘I do not think it is because people see Covid-19 differently than they saw HIV. I think
people recognize their own risk for the most part. But, I think when we are messaging, guilt and shame do not work. We have to meet people where they are, the harm reduction options are masks, social distancing, limiting the number of people at gatherings, outdoor rather than indoor.’”


**
Behavior Change Drives Falling Rates in US
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Medscape ([link removed]) reports, “A dozen states are reporting drops of 25% or more in new covid-19 cases and more than 1,200 counties have seen the same, federal data released Wednesday shows. Experts say the plunge may relate to growing fear of the virus after it reached record-high levels, as well as soaring hopes of getting vaccinated soon… A single reason is hard to pinpoint, said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said it may be due in part to people hoping to avoid the new, more contagious variants of the virus, which some experts say ([link removed]) appear to be deadlier as well.”


**
Understanding and Harnessing Immunity
------------------------------------------------------------
A long profile of John Mascola and Nicole Doria-Rose in Wired ([link removed]) looks at their work to find a monoclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2, in part building on work on the VRC01 antibody used in the AMP HIV prevention studies. “And then came Covid-19. That day in January 2020, Mascola immediately saw that everything he and his colleagues had learned from studying HIV antibodies could be mobilized to treat the new pathogen. It would be ‘the culmination of a life’s work,’ he says.”



** Need a Hug
------------------------------------------------------------
The Guardian ([link removed]) looks at what a year without hugs has done to us. “As the pandemic continues, many of us will be trying to cope with profound stress without the comfort of touch. We all have different needs and boundaries…, but the total absence of touch, particularly when emotions are high, contravenes the hardwiring that regulates us from our preverbal years.” But there’s hope. “A hunger for touch is a signal that a primitive need is not being met. But evolution is on our side. Every scientist I spoke to was hopeful that, once we can come together again, we will adjust quickly. ‘It will differ between people, probably based on the duration people have been alone, and there may be a period of clumsiness and renegotiation,’ says Dunbar. ‘But we have evolved to adapt.’”


**
Roadside Vaccinations
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The COVID feel good story of the week is about roadside vaccinations in a snow storm. AP ([link removed]) reports “Oregon health workers who got stuck in a snowstorm on their way back from a COVID-19 vaccination event went car to car injecting stranded drivers before several of the doses expired... The shots were meant for other people, but ‘the snow meant those doses wouldn’t make it to them before they expired,’ the Josephine County health department said.”








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