Dec. 22, 2020 2:28 pm ET
LONDON Scientists around the world are racing to assess the dangers posed by a new variant of the coronavirus that has spread rapidly in Britain, as more countries shut their borders to travelers from the U.K. in an effort to keep it out.
Epidemiologists and virologists advising the British government say initial evidence indicates the new strain is more contagious than older variants, but that so far there are no signs that it causes more severe disease.
Transmissibility how easily the virus spreads from one person to another and the seriousness of the illness it causes are both important metrics for gauging the potential threat. And scientists say there is still much they don’t know.
EC orders additional 80 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine
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Europe will receive an extra 80 million doses of Moderna’s mRNA-1273, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, following the EC’s decision.
Moderna has announced that the European Commission (EC) has exercised its option to purchase an additional 80 million doses of mRNA-1273, the company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, bringing its
confirmed order commitment to 160 million doses.
The first deliveries of mRNA-1273 to European countries from Modena’s dedicated European supply chain are expected to commence early in 2021, following regulatory approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
These deliveries are subject to receipt of the positive opinion from the EMA’s committee for human medicines (CHMP) and the EC’s decision regarding the Conditional Marketing Authorisation (CMA)
Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Severe allergy-like reactions in at least eight people who received the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech over the past 2 weeks may be due to a compound in the packaging of the messenger RNA (mRNA) that forms the vaccine’s main ingredient, scientists say. A similar mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna, which was authorized for emergency use in the United States on Friday, also contains the compound, polyethylene glycol (PEG).
PEG has never been used before in an approved vaccine, but it is found in many drugs that have occasionally triggered anaphylaxis a potentially life-threatening reaction that can cause rashes, a plummeting blood pressure, shortness of breath, and a fast heartbeat. Some allergists and immunologists believe a small number of people previously exposed to PEG may have high levels of antibodies against PEG, putting them at risk of an anaphylactic reac
Scientific American
Two RNA vaccines will be useful as U.S. infections surge, but the speedy authorizations complicate clinical trials
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Boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the McKesson distribution center on December 20, 2020 in Olive Branch, Mississippi. Credit: Paul Sancya
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A week after granting an emergency-use authorization for the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine, US regulators have followed with a second: another RNA vaccine, this one made by Moderna of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The emergency-use authorization followed quickly after a panel of external advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously, with one abstention, to recommend use of the vaccine on 17 December. One week earlier, the agency authorized a similar vaccine made by Pfizer of New York City and BioNTech of Mainz, Germany, about a week after UK regulatory authorities did the same.
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