vaccine

Rising cases fan testing debate; Fauci optimistic on vaccine timeline

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Global coronavirus diagnoses topped 9 million, underscoring the difficulties governments around the world are having in trying to contain the pandemic — which is hammering Brazil and India while sparking more debates over testing and relaxing economic lockdowns.

Amid a new controversy over federal support for COVID-19 testing, the U.S. is struggling to contain the virus that’s sickened 2.3 million and killed 120,000. Currently in the U.S., younger individuals are increasingly impacted by the virus, which disproportionately affected older patients in the outbreak’s early stage.

Still, most public officials are balking at the idea of reinstating strict stay-at-home orders that have throttled the global economy. In Texas, one of the many concerning states in the south with surging hospitalizations, Gov. Greg Abbott said a new lockdown would be the last option.

Over the last few days, President Donald Trump sparked concern — and confusion— among health experts by suggesting the

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Our coronavirus vaccine is aiming for a 70% success rate

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is setting a relatively high bar for its experimental coronavirus vaccine, with a top executive telling Yahoo Finance that it is aiming for a success rate in at least 70% of its clinical trials.

The pharmaceutical giant is but one of over 100 companies in the race for a COVID-19 cure, but among the handful perceived as having a shot at immediate success. J&J Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Stoffels told “On the Move” on Thursday.

“So the statistics in the clinical trials are built around 70%,” said Stoffels, who leads the company’s effort to create an effective vaccine against the coronavirus. Recently, J&J announced plans to accelerate its testing program, and will begin human trials of the vaccine in July instead of September, based largely on promising results in pre-clinical models.

Stoffels said pointing out those results helped convince the U.S. and European regulators

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Peter Navarro says the manufacturing of a coronavirus vaccine will be swift

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Entities around the world are locked in a race to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Organizations like the World Health Organization and companies like Moderna (MRNA) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) are vying to be the first to develop a way to curb the spread of COVID-19.

It’s a process that is expected to require many months of testing and trials, but if successful (which is far from certain) the next hurdle will be to ensure that factories and labs can produce the millions of doses needed.

As the National Defense Production Act policy coordinator, one of Peter Navarro’s jobs at the White House will be to make that happen.

Peter Navarro with President Trump at the White House in March. (Pete Marovich-Pool/Getty Images)

During a Yahoo Finance Presents interview with Andy Serwer, Navarro promised, “We won’t be in a situation where we have too little.” 

He

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US reopening dogged by fears of new wave as pharma presses on with vaccine

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

A sudden spike in new coronavirus cases across key U.S. states put markets back on the defensive on Thursday, worrying public health experts as more regions continue to make tentative steps toward reawakening their economies.

The global case count is nearing 7.5 million as more than 477,000 have died. This week, the world’s largest economy set a new milestone of 2 million cases, with deaths climbing past 113,000.

Memorial Day weekend, and growing public gatherings since then as summer approaches, have punctuated a concerning trend of rising COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in at least a dozen states. Texas and Florida, two of the U.S.’s most highly populated places, are among the most concerning cases — as is Arizona, which is also experiencing a jump in its daily counts.

Until recently, the U.S. trend had been leveling off, but is now starting to reflect the impact of what some fear may

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Reopenings continue as virus counts spike in key states; J&J ramps up vaccine push

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

A jump in the coronavirus counts of California and southern states fanned fears of a second wave, even with infections on the decline in the northeast, and other regions forging ahead with their own plans to reopen.

New Jersey and New York City, two major COVID-19 epicenters, lifted stay-at-home restrictions this week as their number of daily cases continues to ebb.

However, public health officials nervously eyed states like Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Texas, all of which have reported consistent increases in cases. Meanwhile, the virus continues to spread globally, with over 7 million infected worldwide and over 400,000 dead.

Lauren Sauer, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, told Yahoo Finance’s On The Move Wednesday that many states have significant cases in rural areas.

“Those are the places where we are likely to see challenges in managing these new surges,” Sauer said. However, since the surge is

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