Science’
s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
When the number of COVID-19 cases began to rise again in Manaus, Brazil, in December 2020, Nuno Faria was stunned. The virologist at Imperial College London and associate professor at the University of Oxford had just co-authored a paper in
Science estimating that three-quarters of the city’s inhabitants had already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the pandemic coronavirus more than enough, it seemed, for herd immunity to develop. The virus should be done with Manaus. Yet hospitals were filling up again. “It was hard to reconcile these two things,” Faria says. He started to hunt for samples he could sequence to find out whether changes in the virus could explain the resurgence.
The more contagious version, first identified in Britain, is expected to spread widely and lead to further strains on an already overburdened health care system.
Large clinical trials found that two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines prevented 95% of illnesses caused by the coronavirus. While those results are impressive, 1 in 20 people are left unprotected, said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - An unprecedented COVID-19 vaccine campaign is underway with tens of millions now inoculated in the U.S. and around the world. Dozens of vaccine candidates are still in the pipeline, bringing hope for an end to a global pandemic.
A healthcare worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Chez Mauricette coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination center in Poissy near Paris, France, January 13, 2021. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
As part of our #AskReuters Twitter chat series, Reuters invited a group of healthcare experts to discuss what you should know before getting your shot.
Below are edited highlights.