Vaccine Expert Predicts Normal Life in May

reporter 1222 — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 07:50:11 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – As the United States recorded its 12th million Covid-19 case, the Trump administration’s vaccine program adviser predicted that life in America could be back to normal around May of 2021 as immunization is set to begin.

The note of optimism came even as millions of Americans were expected to travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday this week and many appeared to be ignoring warnings from health officials about furthering the spread of the infectious disease.

Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser of the government’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine development and distribution program, which involves the military and the private sector as well as government health experts, said that pending regulatory approval for the first vaccine means the first Americans could be vaccinated outside of clinical trial by mid-December.

And Slaoui said that if the vaccination distribution and immunization plan goes well, enough Americans should be vaccinated by “May or something like that” of 2021 to allow life to go back to normal.

The first application to the US government for vaccine approval was made on Friday by the pharmaceutical team of Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory body is scheduled to hold a key meeting on December 10 that could award the team emergency authorization for the vaccine.

“By December 11 or 12 I’m hopeful the first people will be immunized across the US, in all states,” Slaoui told CNN’s State of the Union politics show on Sunday morning.

The administration plans to vaccinate 20 million people in December and another 30 million per month thereafter. Healthcare workers and the most vulnerable populations, such as residents of nursing homes, are expected to be first in line.

Slaoui said that with the first vaccines – the US pharmaceutical firm Moderna is expected to apply for regulatory authorization soon on its vaccine – need to be given to at least 70% of the US population “for true herd immunity to take place”.

He added: “That is likely to happen somewhere in the month of May, or something like that based on our plans. I really hope and look forward to seeing … people’s acceptance of the vaccine increasing. That’s critical.”

As Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede his election defeat by Joe Biden or cooperate with the Biden transition efforts, Slaoui told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he had had no contact with Biden’s team.

Meanwhile, Maryland’s Republican governor Larry Hogan said “we are pretty worried” about American planning to defy advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and travel for Thanksgiving and gather in unsafe circumstances.

“Family gathering is the number one transmission event,” he said, warning that people let their guard down at such events, failing to wear masks properly and breaking social distancing rules.

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Gates Gives a Gloomy Picture for Normal World

reporter 1222 — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 08:44:47 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Technology tycoon and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has given a gloomy picture for the world looking to get to normal after being hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Gates said life can get back to normal only when a second generation of COVID-19 vaccines is widely available and the virus is eradicated worldwide – a higher bar than was set for any disease in history.

“The only way we’ll get completely back to normal is by having, maybe not the first generation of vaccines, but eventually a vaccine that is super-effective, and that a lot of the people take, and that we get the disease eliminated on a global basis,” Gates said Sunday in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press program. “That is where we can finally start taking all the problems that have been created — in education, mental health — and start to build back in a positive way.”

According to that standard, Americans might need to live for years, or for life, under social-distancing guidelines and other COVID-19 restrictions. It’s certainly gloomier than the assessment Gates gave in a Fox interview last month, when he said progress on vaccines might make it possible for a return to normalcy in the US by the summer of 2021. He said he expects several of the first generation of vaccines to get emergency approval by early next year.

Gates blasted the US COVID-19 response as one of the worst in the world, except for the Trump administration’s aggressive investments in vaccine development. “There are lots of additional deaths coming if we don’t get our act together,” the billionaire philanthropist told NBC host Chuck Todd.

Gates cited the fact that test results often don’t come back within 24 hours, a problem that could be alleviated by not reimbursing “for these worthless things.” He said the US COVID-19 testing system is the worst of any country “in terms of who gets access to it.” “You do have to admit that you haven’t done a good job and make some straightforward changes,” he added.

That message won’t likely resonate with US President Donald Trump, who has hailed his administration’s COVID-19 response as “phenomenal” and it saved potentially millions of lives, although 215,000 Americans have reportedly died from the virus. Trump himself tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 1 and said he was cured by an experimental monoclonal-antibody treatment.

Gates said it’s wrong to call the treatment a “cure” because it won’t work for every patient, but he sees it as the most promising COVID-19 therapeutic developed so far. His foundation reserved factory capacity last spring and has partnered with drug-maker Eli Lilly & Co. in hopes of getting a monoclonal-antibody drug approved by the FDA with supplies ramped up in the next few months.

“Adding this to the tools would be a great thing,” Gates said.

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Vaccine Expert Predicts Normal Life in May

Gates Gives a Gloomy Picture for Normal World