Page 11 - HOH

A12 HEALTH
Thursday 19 November 2020
Volunteers still needed to test variety of COVID-19 vaccines

By LAURAN NEERGAARD so scientists had no idea if
AP Medical Writer or how well the COVID-19
Two COVID-19 vaccines candidates might work.
might be nearing the fin- Both manufacturers are
ish line, but scientists cau- working to scale up pro-
tion it’s critical that enough duction in factories in the
people volunteer to help U.S. and Europe.
finish studying other can- They can’t simply partner
didates in the U.S. and with other vaccine compa-
around the world. nies to take on some of the
Moderna Inc. and com- work because the technol-
petitor Pfizer Inc. recently ogy is so different than the
announced preliminary re- way most of today’s shots
sults showing their vaccines are made.
appear more than 90% ef- “It is not a very easy or
fective, at least for short- quick swap,” said Moderna
term protection against CEO Stéphane Bancel.
COVID-19. TROJAN HORSE VACCINES
If those early results hold up A different way to target
and U.S. regulators agree the spike protein: Use an-
the shots are safe, emer- other, harmless virus to
gency use of small, ra- carry the spike gene into
tioned supplies could start the body. Once again, the
in late December. body produces some spike
Other countries with con- In this March 16, 2020, file photo, Neal Browning receives a shot in the first-stage safety study of a protein and primes the im-
tracts for early doses would potential vaccine for COVID-19 at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in mune system.
Seattle.
undertake their own re- Associated Press Britain’s Oxford University
views. and AstraZeneca are mak-
But multiple vaccines will of Health Director Francis portant to complete these frontrunners in the global ing their version of this “vi-
be needed to meet global Collins, urging Americans clinical trials and the trials vaccine race: ral vector” vaccine with a
demand and help end the to sign up. of the other vaccines so we GENETIC CODE VACCINES cold virus, or adenovirus,
pandemic, raising concern Additionally, participants can make comparisons.” The Moderna-NIH vac- that normally infects chim-
that studies that still need in the Moderna and Pfizer The promising Moderna cine and the candidate panzees. Studies of tens of
to sign up thousands of vol- studies who originally got and Pfizer news bodes well developed by Pfizer and thousands of people are
unteers could run short if dummy shots would al- for some of their competi- its German partner BioN- underway in the U.K., U.S.
people wait for an already most certainly be offered tors, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Tech aren’t made with the and several other coun-
OK’d option instead. the real vaccine if the U.S. the U.S. government’s top coronavirus itself, meaning tries.
“We don’t want to see that Food and Drug Administra- infectious disease expert there’s no chance anyone Johnson & Johnson is us-
happen,” said Dr. James tion allows emergency use. whose team at NIH helped could catch it from the ing a human adenovirus for
Cutrell, an infectious dis- But no one knows how develop the Moderna can- shots. Instead, the vaccines its version, and is the only
ease expert at UT South- long protection would last, didate. are made with a brand- option in advanced U.S.
western Medical Center in meaning those studies also Those shots target the new technology that in- testing aiming to show if a
Dallas. must continue to track re- “spike” protein that studs jects a piece of genetic single dose rather than two
Supplies aside, other CO- cipients somehow.“It’s one the surface of the corona- code for the spike protein. would be enough.
VID-19 vaccines under thing to be effective two virus, and the early results That messenger RNA, or China’s government au-
development may work months after your last vac- prove that’s enough to mRNA, instructs the body to thorized emergency use
differently in different pop- cination and another thing generate “a protective re- make some harmless spike of CanSino Biologics’ ad-
ulations and “we likely to be effective a year” sponse,” Fauci said. protein, enough to prime enovirus shots in the military
will benefit from having a later, said Dr. Jesse Good- “Conceptually this looks the immune system to re- ahead of any final testing.
menu of vaccine options,” man of Georgetown Uni- good” for other spike-fo- act if it later encounters the Russia likewise began of-
Cutrell said. versity, a former director of cused vaccines made in real virus. fering an adenovirus vac-
“We still need volunteers,” the FDA’s vaccine division. different ways. There are no licensed cine ahead of late-stage
stressed National Institutes “It’s going to be really im- Here’s a scorecard of the mRNA vaccines for people, tests.q

‘Dueling dinosaurs’ fossils donated to North Carolina museum

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The to the Raleigh museum’s museum paleontologists
fossil skeletons of two dino- vertebrate paleontology an unprecedented op-
saurs intertwined in what collection. portunity for research and
looks like a final death The Tyrannosaurus rex and education.
match have been do- Triceratops horridus known The skeletons are worth
nated to a North Carolina as the dueling dinosaurs millions of dollars and were
museum. were buried together 67 the subject of a court
The nonprofit organization million years ago. battle over who owned
Friends of the North Caroli- Their fossils were discov- them after their discovery
na Museum of Natural Sci- ered on a Montana hillside in 2006. In June, a U.S. ap-
ences said in a statement and remain entombed peals court ruled the fossils
Tuesday that it acquired within the sediment where belong to the owners of
In this Nov. 14, 2013, file photo, one of two “dueling dinosaurs” the fossilized animals with they were found. the land’s surface rights,
fossils is displayed in New York. private funds. The nonprofit said the dis- not the owners of the min-
Associated Press The skeletons will be gifted tinct preservation will give eral rights.q