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Covid-19: Countries using China, Astra shots increasingly eye boosters

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DUBAI: Growing concern that Covid-19 vaccines being deployed across much of the developing world aren’t capable of thwarting the delta variant is prompting some countries to look at offering third doses to bolster immunity against more-infectious virus strains.
Though definitive evidence is yet to emerge backing the need for so-called “booster” shots, health officials from Thailand to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have already decided to offer the extra doses to some people already inoculated with vaccines from Chinese makers Sinovac Biotech Ltd, Sinopharm and from AstraZeneca.
Officials are being motivated by concerns that delta and other variants appear to be breaking down defenses of vaccines not made from the super-effective messenger RNA technology, or mRNA. In places like Mongolia and the UAE, high levels of coverage with Chinese shots using the older, less effective inactivated vaccine platform hasn’t stopped a surge in cases. In the Seychelles, five people fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s shot have died.
Research shows that the delta mutation is powerful enough to make even mRNA shots from BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc less effective, bringing down protection to below 90%. The effectiveness of AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine against symptomatic infections caused by the variant was lower at 60%, a study showed, though it can still prevent more than 90% of hospitalizations.
Countries are hoping a booster — either mRNA or a dose of another shot previously taken — could bolster protection ahead of the return of colder weather that’s optimal for the virus’s spread. Unlike western developers, Sinovac and Sinopharm have shared little about how their vaccines could protect against variants. Shao Yiming, a researcher with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in May that preliminary studies indicated Chinese vaccines were still protective against variants emerging from India, without elaborating.
The two inactivated vaccines produced by Sinopharm were 73% and 78% effective against symptomatic Covid in phase III trials. Various results from Sinovac’s clinical trials across Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey put efficacy at a wide range of 50% to over 80%, which has fueled uncertainty about how well it works.
“We recognize that the weaker vaccines in particular seem to lose their ability to protect against Covid-19 relatively quickly, particularly against the variant strains,” said Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor at the College of Medicine and Public Health at Australia’s Flinders University. “Even the better vaccines seem to be showing increasing levels of vaccine failure due to variant infections.”
Yet any plans by wealthier nations to acquire additional shots stands to further strain global supply and exacerbate the inequality gap that has left poor countries with fewer inoculations. The World Health Organization has called on richer countries to share doses to help meet a goal of vaccinating at least 40% of every country’s population by the end of the year. Global deaths passed 4 million this week, as the disparity leaves poorer places exposed to outbreaks.
Giving extra doses “could easily divert one to two billion doses of vaccines over the coming 12 months to boost people already immunized that might otherwise go to developing countries where people have yet to receive their first immunization,” Petrovsky said.
Pfizer Inc CEO Albert Bourla tweeted Thursday that the company believes a booster dose “will likely be necessary to maintain highest levels of protection” against Covid, with initial data from its booster study demonstrating that the added dose was eliciting five-to-10 fold higher antibody response. The drugmaker plans to request US emergency authorization in August for a third booster dose of its shot, based on early data showing it can increase immune protection from Covid.
Great unknown
The US Centers for Disease Control and Food and Drug Administration said in a joint statement Thursday that people who are fully vaccinated don’t need a booster shot at this time, adding that they were engaged in a science-based process to consider whether or when such doses might be necessary.
The WHO has expressed caution in encouraging third doses. Chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in June that such a recommendation was unnecessary and premature given the paucity of data on booster shots and the fact that high-risk individuals in much of the world still haven’t been fully vaccinated.
But governments are racing ahead as the delta variant spreads to more than 100 countries after devastating India, where it was first identified. The concern is particularly acute in places which had earlier relied on Chinese vaccines, which are available in nearly 100 nations.
In the Middle East, some countries have already started offering booster shots — including Pfizer and Sinopharm — for people who completed their vaccinations months ago, mostly with Sinopharm.
Thailand plans to use vaccines from AstraZeneca and Pfizer as boosters for healthcare workers who earlier received Sinovac shots. The Indonesian Doctors Association this week also called for booster shots for health workers, after some medical staffers died despite being fully inoculated with Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
In Singapore — which has indicated that it’s preparing to ensure booster shots can be administered as early as year-end should they be needed — people inoculated with Sinovac aren’t being counted in the official vaccine tally, amid efficacy concerns and risk of vaccine breakthrough.
Preliminary studies from Thailand show that a first dose of Sinovac followed by an AstraZeneca shot three to four weeks later can elicit a stronger immune response than two doses of the Sinovac vaccine.
Even China, which has fully immunized more than a third of its 1.4 billion people with homegrown vaccines, has a study underway to evaluate the benefit of booster shots. Sinovac CEO Yin Weidong has said a third shot of the company’s vaccine, given three to six months after full inoculation, could raise antibody levels by as much as 20 times.
China is currently reviewing the BioNTech vaccine for approval. A few options are being considered by officials, including using it a booster shot for people already fully inoculated with local vaccines, according to people familiar with the matter, asking not to be named as the talks are not public. No decision has been made, and adding the mRNA shot as another option in China’s general rollout is also being discussed, the people said.
“If you can explore different combinations, there frequently is a combination where you get a better outcome than just using the same vaccine twice in a row,” said Shane Crotty, a professor at the Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research at California’s La Jolla Institute for Immunology. “I do think that’ll happen for Covid vaccines.”



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New post-infection treatment for Covid-19 identified

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WASHINGTON: Scientists have identified a post-infection treatment for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and successfully demonstrated its efficacy in stopping viral reproduction in mice.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that animal models infected with SARS-CoV-2 and treated with an inhibitor of protease enzymes had significantly increased survival and decreased lung viral quantity.
These protease inhibitors are a class of antiviral drugs that prevent viral reproduction by selectively binding to viral enzymes and blocking the activation of proteins that are necessary for the production of infectious viral particles.
“We developed the protease inhibitor GC376 for treating a fatal coronavirus infection in cats, which is now under commercial development as an investigational new animal drug,” said Yunjeong Kim, associate professor at Kansas State University in the US.
“After Covid-19 emerged, many research groups reported that this inhibitor is also effective against the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, and many are currently pursuing the development of protease inhibitors as a treatment,” Kim said.
The research team modified GC376 using a tool called deuteration to test its efficacy against SARS-CoV-2.
Treatment with a deuterated variant starting at 24 hours post-infection resulted in significantly increased survival of mice compared to untreated mice, the researchers said.
The results suggest that deuterated variants have excellent potential as antiviral agents against SARS-CoV-2, they said.
“Treating SARS-CoV-2-infected mice with deuterated GC376 significantly improved survival, viral replication in lungs and weight losses, which shows the efficacy of the antiviral compound,” said Kyeong-Ok Chang, professor at Kansas State University.
“The results suggest deuterated GC376 has a potential for further development, and this deuteration method can be utilised to other antiviral compounds to generate potent inhibitors,” Chang said.
The virologists are continuing to develop improved inhibitors using various methods. Deuterated GC376 is currently being evaluated for further potential development.



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Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2021: Shortlist revealed

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The Royal Observatory Greenwich’s 13th Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition has announced its shortlist of extraordinary celestial scenes.

image copyrightPeter Feltoti
image captionBicolour Veil Nebula, a remnant of a giant supernova explosion, by Peter Feltoti from Hungary

The shortlisted photographers captured sights from across our Solar System, galaxy and the wider Universe.

image copyrightVitaliy Novikov
image captionAurora in Murmansk, Russia, by Vitaliy Novikov

The competition has received more than 4,500 entries from 75 countries.

The judges include Art Editor of BBC Sky at Night Magazine Steve Marsh, and comedian and keen amateur astronomer Jon Culshaw, alongside other experts from the worlds of art and astronomy.

The winning images will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum from 18 September.

Here is a selection of shortlisted images.

Dolphin Head Nebula, by Yovin Yahathugoda from Sri Lanka

image copyrightYovin Yahathugoda

This is one of the photographer’s favourite images and it remarkably depicts how interstellar winds and forces have created this perfect cosmic bubble in outer space.

The star responsible for creating the bubble is the bright star near the centre of the nebula and is categorised as a Wolf-Rayet star.

Harmony, by Stefan Liebermann from Germany

image copyrightStefan Liebermann

The image depicts a mesmerising panorama of the Milky Way over lavender fields in Valensole, France.

The colour tones and the lines of the fields are truly amazing, even though the light pollution is clearly visible over the whole area.

Iceland Vortex, by Larryn Rae from New Zealand

image copyrightLarryn Rae

This is a panorama of the aurora borealis in Iceland and is made up of 20 images.

The photographer came across an estuary that reflected the sky perfectly on a freezing winter’s night.

He captured the panorama first, and then took a shot of himself out on the ice.

Luna Park, by Ed Hurst from Australia

image copyrightEd Hurst

This immense face forms the entrance to Luna Park, Sydney’s harbourside theme park.

It has leered in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge since 1935 and many generations of children have skipped through its mouth for days of fun, as the world and the city have changed and grown around it.

The photographer took thousands of frames, with the stars passing by, and blended them together to show the patterns of time.

Moonrise over Jodrell Bank, by Matt Naylor from the UK

image copyrightMatt Naylor

It was the photographer’s long-held ambition to capture the Moon and the famous Lovell Telescope.

Finding a spot with a clear view, far enough away from the subject, and the Moon being in the sky at the correct time of day was all part of the puzzle.

The setting Sun lit up the clouds producing some lovely colours.

NGC 2024 – Flame Nebula, by Steven Mohr from Australia

image copyrightSteven Mohr

The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 and Sh2-277, is an emission nebula in the constellation Orion, lying some 900 to 1,500 light years away from Earth.

The bright star Alnitak (just outside the field of view at the top of this image), the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion, shines energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame and this knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there.

Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionised hydrogen recombine.

NGC 3981, by Bernard Miller from the USA

image copyrightBernard Miller

NGC 3981 is a spiral galaxy about 65 million light years away in the constellation Crater.

Its windswept look is due to its outer arms being stripped away by an interaction with another galaxy.

Path of the Full Moon above the Sleeping City, by Remi Leblanc-Messager from France

image copyrightRemi Leblanc-Messager

The photographer’s aim for this image was to focus on the Moon’s trajectory at the centre of the photograph, dividing the human world from the sky.

The woman standing on the roof appears to be the link between Paris and the sky.

Pleiades Sisters, by Jashanpreet Singh Dingra from India

image copyrightJashanpreet Singh Dingra

This is an outstanding image of shining stars over the photographer’s region in winter.

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus.

Saturn at its Best, by Damian Peach from the UK

image copyrightDamian Peach

In this image, Saturn displays a wealth of details across the globe and ring system.

The famous polar hexagon can be seen around the pole at the bottom, while many other belts and zones are seen across the planet.

Star trails over the Lujiazui City Skyline, by Daning Kai in China

image copyrightDaning Kai

This image shows star trails over Lujiazui city in Pudong District, China, and you can even distinguish the Belt of Orion.

The photographer captured this photo on a very clear autumn night.

Star Watcher, by Yang Sutie in China

image copyrightYang Sutie

As the photographer was driving on the mountain road late at night and turned the corner, he saw a mound on the right side of the road.

He stopped and climbed up the side of the road, set the camera to shoot automatically, and then drove back and forth in this curve.

Then he climbed up the hillside and integrated himself into the picture.

Sunrise of the Magic City, by Jiajun Hua from China

image copyrightJiajun Hua

The photo is taken 16km (10 miles) away from Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai.

Every year there are only a few weeks when photographers can capture the scene of the Sun rising in the Central Business District.

The photo is composed of four different exposures from the same perspective, recording the process of the Sun rising.

The Exceptionally Active Ion Tail of Comet 2020F8 SWAN, by Gerald Rhemann from Austria

image copyrightGerald Rhemann

In this photo the very gas-rich comet shows numerous structures in its ion tail.

The difficulty with comet imaging is not only to compensate for the movement of the comet in front of the stars, but also to consider the rapid changes in the structures during the exposure time.

The Soul of Space (Close-up of the Soul Nebula), by Kush Chandaria from the UK

image copyrightKush Chandaria

The Soul Nebula is one of those incredible targets that no matter where you point your telescope, there are always some incredible structures and details to be uncovered.

With 14 hours of exposure, faint details and structures deep within the nebula began to emerge.

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Covid-19 virus highly adapted to infect human cells, says study

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MELBOURNE: The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, is most ideally adapted to infect human cells, rather than bat or pangolin cells, according to a study that raises questions about the origin of the virus.
The researchers from Flinders University and La Trobe University in Australia used high-performance computer modelling of the form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the beginning of the pandemic to predict its ability to infect humans and 12 domestic and exotic animals.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports on Thursday, aimed to help identify any intermediate animal vector that may have played a role in transmitting a bat virus to humans.
The researchers used genomic data from the 12 animal species to painstakingly build computer models of the key ACE2 protein receptors for each species.
These models were then used to calculate the strength of binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to each species ACE2, which acts as the receptor for SARS-CoV-2 and allows it to infect the cell.
The results showed that SARS-CoV-2 bound to ACE2 on humans cells more tightly than any of the tested animal species, including bats and pangolins.
The researchers explained that if one of the animal’s species tested was the origin, it would normally be expected to show the highest binding to the virus.
Humans showed the strongest spike binding, consistent with the high susceptibility to the virus, but very surprised if an animal was the initial source of the infection in humans, said David Winkler, a professor at the La Trobe University.
The computer modelling found the virus’s ability to bind to the bat ACE2 protein was poor relative to its ability to bind human cells, Winkler said.
This, the researchers said, argues against the virus being transmitted directly from bats to humans.
If the virus has a natural source, it could only have come to humans via an intermediary species which has yet to be found, said Professor Nikolai Petrovsky from Flinders University.
The team’s computer modelling shows the SARS-CoV-2 virus also bound relatively strongly to ACE2 from pangolins, a rare exotic ant-eater found in some parts of South-East Asia.
Winkler said pangolins showed the highest spike binding energy of all the animals the study looked at, significantly higher than bats, monkeys and snakes.
The researchers said it was incorrectly suggested early in the pandemic by some scientists that they had found SARS-CoV-2 in pangolins.
This was due to a misunderstanding and this claim was rapidly retracted as the pangolin coronavirus they described had less than 90 per cent genetic similarity to SARS-CoV-2 and hence could not be its ancestor, Petrovsky said.
This study and others have shown, however, that the specific part of the pangolin coronavirus spike protein that binds ACE2 was almost identical to that of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
This sharing of the almost identical spike protein, which allows the virus to enter the cells, almost certainly explains why SARS-CoV-2 binds so well to pangolin ACE2, according to the researchers.
Overall, putting aside the intriguing pangolin ACE2 results, our study showed that the Covid-19 virus was very well adapted to infect humans, Petrovsky said.
The study also suggests that some domesticated animals like cats, dogs and cows are likely to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection too.
The extremely important and open question of how the virus came to infect humans has two main explanations currently, they said.
The virus may have passed to humans from bats through an intermediary animal yet to be found (zoonotic origin), according to the researchers.
However, it cannot yet be excluded that it was released accidentally from a virology lab, they said.
A thorough scientific, evidence-based investigation is needed to determine which of these explanations is correct, the researchers added.



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Don’t count on needing a Covid booster shot, WHO scientist says

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GENEVA: As some governments and pharmaceutical officials prepare for Covid booster shots targeting more-infectious virus variants, health authorities say it’s too early to tell if they will be required.
“We do not have the information that’s necessary to make the recommendation on whether or not a booster will be needed,” Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said in a Zoom interview Friday. The “science is still evolving.”
Such a call is “premature” while high-risk individuals in most of the world haven’t yet completed a first course of vaccination, Swaminathan said. Data from countries introducing precautionary extra inoculations later this year — particularly for vulnerable people whose immunity to SARS-CoV-2 may wane faster — will inform WHO’s guidance, she said.
Covid booster shots are likely to be rolled out in UK in the fall to avoid another winter surge. Seven different vaccines are being tested in volunteers in England in the world’s first booster study, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last month.
The UK, which has inoculated a larger proportion of people than any other major economy, has been forced to delay a planned lifting of coronavirus restrictions amid a resurgence of cases driven by the delta variant. The strain, first reported in India, is the most infectious reported to date.
Tweaking shots
More-transmissible variants, including the beta strain that emerged in South Africa, require higher antibody levels to prevent infection, prompting vaccine makers including Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. to test whether tweaked versions of their existing shots will provide broader immunity.
One dose of Novavax Inc.’s variant-directed vaccine may provide sufficient protection against the beta strain in individuals previously immunized against Covid-19, according to pre-clinical research released this month by scientists at the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based company and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The modified shot also has the potential to provide broad protection against various strains if used as a primary vaccine regimen, said Gregory M. Glenn, Novavax’s president of research and development, in a June 11 statement.
So far, the existing US-approved vaccines work well enough to protect against beta, delta and two other strains that the WHO has designated as variants of concern, said Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.
‘Our Future’
“Nobody is saying you need a booster today,” Collins said in an interview with biologist Lee Hood at the Precision Medicine World Conference Thursday. “But boosters might very well be in our future at some point, and they might be here sooner if other variants pop up” that aren’t covered as well by existing vaccines.
As a minimum, vaccines will need to protect against hospitalization, ICU admission and death, according to Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “With that bar, we probably would need a vaccine maybe every three to five years,” he said in a STAT biotech podcast on Thursday.
Immunization with a combination of vaccinations may offer longer immunity or fewer side effects for certain individuals, Offit said.
Early data from the UK, Spain and Germany suggest a “mix-and-match” regimen using two different types of vaccines generates more pain, fever and other minor side effects compared with two doses of the same inoculation, the WHO’s Swaminathan said.
Still, the so-called heterologous prime-boost combinations appear to spur a more robust immune response, leading to both higher levels of virus-blocking antibodies and the white blood cells that kill virus-infected cells, she said.
Combinations of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech shots are being considered in Malaysia, where the government is trying to speed up immunizations to achieve population-level immunity by year-end, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Wednesday.
“It seems to be working well, this concept of heterologous prime-boost,” Swaminathan said. “This opens up the opportunity for countries that have vaccinated people with one vaccine and now are waiting for the second dose they have run out of, to potentially be able to use a different platform vaccine.”



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Exposure to common cold can help combat Covid-19: Study

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LONDON: Exposure to the rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, can protect against infection by the virus which causes Covid-19, researchers have found.
The study by Yale researchers found that the common respiratory virus jump-starts the activity of interferon-stimulated genes, early-response molecules in the immune system which can halt replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus within airway tissues infected with the cold.
Triggering these defenses early in the course of Covid-19 infection holds promise to prevent or treat the infection, said Ellen Foxman, assistant professor of laboratory medicine and immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine.
One way to do this is by treating patients with interferons, an immune system protein which is also available as a drug.
“But it all depends upon the timing,” Foxman said. Interferon treatment holds promise but it could be tricky, she said, because it would be mostly effective in the days immediately after infection, when many people exhibit no symptoms.
In theory, interferon treatment could be used prophylactically in people at high risk who have been in close contact with others diagnosed with Covid-19. Trials of interferon in Covid-19 are underway, and so far show a possible benefit early in infection, but not when given later.
The results were published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. For the study, the team infected lab-grown human airway tissue with SARS-CoV-2 and found that for the first three days, viral load in the tissue doubled about every six hours. However, replication of the Covid-19 virus was completely stopped in tissue which had been exposed to rhinovirus. If antiviral defenses were blocked, the SARS-CoV-2 could replicate in airway tissue previously exposed to rhinovirus.
The same defenses slowed down SARS-CoV-2 infection even without rhinovirus, but only if the infectious dose was low, suggesting that the viral load at the time of exposure makes a difference in whether the body can effectively fight the infection.



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Study finds more reliable rapid tests for Covid-19

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WASHINGTON: During a recent study, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) developed two rapid diagnostic tests for Covid-19 that are nearly as accurate as the gold-standard test currently used in laboratories.
Unlike the gold standard test, which extracts RNA and uses it to amplify the DNA of the virus, these new tests can detect the presence of the virus in as little as five minutes using different methods. The findings were published in the journal Nature Protocols.
One test is a Covid-19 molecular diagnostic test, called Antisense, which uses electrochemical sensing to detect the presence of the virus. The other uses a simple assay of gold nanoparticles to detect a color change when the virus is present. Both tests were developed by Dipanjan Pan, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and Pediatrics at UMSOM, and his research team. Dr. Pan has a joint appointment at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
“These tests detect the presence of the virus within 5 to 10 minutes and rely on simple processes that can be performed with little lab training,” said Dr. Pan. They do not require the extraction of the virus’s RNA – which is both complicated and time-consuming.
They also are more reliable than the rapid antigen tests currently on the market, which detect the virus only in those with significantly high viral levels. “These two newer tests are extremely sensitive and can detect the presence of the virus, even in those with low levels of the virus,” Dr. Pan said.
Dr. Pan’s team included UMSOM research fellow Maha Alafeef, UMSOM research associate Parikshit Moitra, PhD, and research fellow Ketan Dighe, from UMBC.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registered the laboratory of Dr. Pan as an approved laboratory development site for the Antisense test. The move paves the way for Dr. Pan’s laboratory to begin conducting the test at the university, in research settings, as it undergoes further development.
In February, RNA Disease Diagnostics, Inc. (RNADD) received an exclusive global license from UMB and UMBC to commercialize the test. Dr. Pan serves as an unpaid scientific advisor to the company.
This test detects the virus in a swab sample using an innovative technology called electrochemical sensing. It uses a unique dual-pronged molecular detection approach that integrates electrochemical sensing to rapidly detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
“The final prototype is like a glucometer, which patients with diabetes use at home to measure their blood glucose levels,” said Dr. Pan, “and is just as easy for people to do themselves.”
Dr. Pan and his colleagues, in collaboration with RNA Disease Diagnostics, are launching a study of NBA basketball players in New York City to compare the Antisense test to rapid Covid tests that the NBA is using to monitor Covid infections in its players.
“We would like to see whether our test can yield more reliable results compared to the existing platforms,” he said. “Current antigen-based rapid Covid tests miss infections about 20 percent of the time and also have high rates of false-positive results. Our Antisense test appears to be about 98 percent reliable, which is similar to the PCR test.”
Similar to the Antisense test, the second rapid test also does not require the use of any advanced laboratory techniques, such as those commonly used to extract RNA, for analysis. It uses a simple assay containing plasmonic gold nanoparticles to detect a color change when the virus is present. In April, Dr. Pan and his colleagues published a stepwise protocol in the journal Nature Protocols, explaining how the nano-amplified colorimetric test works and how it can be used.
Once a nasal swab or saliva sample is obtained from a patient, the nucleic acid (bits of genetic material) in the sample is amplified via a simple process that takes about 10 minutes. The test uses a highly specific molecule attached to the gold nanoparticles to detect a particular protein. This protein is part of the genetic sequence that is unique to the novel coronavirus. When the biosensor binds to the virus’s gene sequence, the gold nanoparticles respond by turning the liquid reagent from purple to blue.
“Innovations in Covid-19 testing remain incredibly important even as the epidemic appears to be waning in this country,” said E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. “As we continue to monitor infections in unvaccinated segments of our population and the potential spread of new variants, there will be a vital need for inexpensive rapid tests to ensure that we continue to maintain low infection rates.”



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delta variant: Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines protect against Delta variant: Lancet study

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LONDON: The Delta variant of coronavirus, first identified in India, doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant first found in the UK, but Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines provide good protection against the strain, says a study published in The Lancet journal.
Researchers at Public Health Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, UK, found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offered better protection against the Delta variant compared to the Oxford-AstraZeneca preventive, known as Covishield in India.
The analysis covered the period from April 1 to June 6, 2021, for the demographic distribution of cases.
The team analysed 19,543 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections over the period of interest, of whom 377 were admitted to hospital for Covid-19 in Scotland.
Around 7,723 community cases and 134 hospitalisations were found to have the Delta variant of coronavirus.
The study found that the Pfizer vaccine offered 92 per cent protection against the Alpha variant and 79 per cent against the Delta strain two weeks after the second dose.
For AstraZeneca’s vaccine, there was 60 per cent protection against Delta compared with 73 per cent for Alpha variant, the researchers said.
They also found that two doses of vaccine provide much better protection against the Delta variant compared to a single dose.
“Risk of Covid-19 hospital admission was approximately doubled in those with the Delta variant of concern (VOC) when compared to the Alpha VOC, with risk of admission particularly increased in those with five or more relevant comorbidities,” the authors of the study noted.
“Both the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Pfizer–BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines were effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covid-19 hospitalisation in people with the Delta VOC,” they said.
However, the researchers noted that these effects on infection with Delta variant appeared to be diminished when compared to those with the Alpha VOC.
The authors of the study warned that the vaccine comparison should be interpreted with caution due to differences in the groups which received each type of vaccine, and also in how quickly immunity is developed with each shot.



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Scientists finish sequencing 100% of human genome

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NEW DELHI: The process of human genome sequencing is finally complete, 20 years after researchers first cracked the human gene code.
This should usher in a new era of genomics and sharply increase our understanding of a wide variety of disorders affecting people. It could also lead to better genetic screening that enables quick and specific diagnostic tests to treat various maladies.
In 2001, Celera Genomics and International Human Genome Sequencing published the first drafts of the human genome. That was a breakthrough moment in genomics, allowing scientists to understand human evolution and biology better.
But scientists at that time were not able to decode 15% of the genome sequence because they didn’t have the technology. They made more progress over the years, but even by 2013, 8% of the genome (all genes together) still had not been sequenced.
Now, researchers at the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium, an international collaboration, have sequenced the “first truly complete human reference genome”.
TOI accessed the preprint paper titled ‘The complete sequence of a human genome’ which dubs the new sequence T2T-CHM13.
Human genome is the complete set of the DNA. DNA strands are like a four-letter language — four chemical units or bases that are the alphabet. The ‘letters’ combine specifically with ‘letters’ in the opposite strand to form ‘words’, encoding information. All these ‘words’ are stored in the chromosomes in human cells. If a human genome were a book, it would have around 3-billion words (base pairs) across 22 chapters (chromosomes). So, with 8% of the genome not sequenced, it meant some pages of this book were missing. This has now been plugged.



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China launches four satellites into planned orbits

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BEIJING: China on Friday successfully sent four satellites into planned orbits that will be used for ecological environment monitoring, asteroid resource exploration, disaster prevention and mitigation among others.
The satellites were launched by a Long March-2D rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in northern Shanxi Province at 11:03 am local time, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Among them was the Beijing-3 satellite, a commercial remote sensing satellite developed by China Spacesat Co Ltd. It is used mainly for resource investigation, ecological environment monitoring, urban management, and disaster prevention and mitigation, the CGTN news channel reported.

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the Shenzhou-12 manned spaceship with its Long March-2F carrier rocket is being prepared at the launching area of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China Gansu province, on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. (AP)

The other three satellites will be used in researching marine ecological environment observation, asteroid resource exploration, and in-orbit service teaching and training, it said.
On June 3, China successfully launched the first of a new generation meteorological satellites into planned orbit.
The FY-4B satellite will be used in the fields of weather analysis and forecasting, and environmental and disaster monitoring.
It will further strengthen China’s observation and response capability of small and medium scale disaster events and provide information security services for a range of sectors including meteorological, agricultural, aviation, marine and environmental protection, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) had said in a press release.



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