Widescale testing began Monday in the United States on two potential COVID-19 vaccines to determine their safety and effectiveness.   A volunteer in Savannah, Georgia early Monday morning received the first dose of an experimental vaccine manufactured by U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna and developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  The volunteer is the first of 30,000 healthy people around the country who will receive two doses of the vaccine over the next several weeks in a late-stage phase of the study to see whether people get infected or sick from COVID-19.   An earlier phase of the study discovered that while none of the volunteers experienced a serious side effect from the new vaccine, more than half reported mild or moderate reactions such as fatigue, headaches, chills, muscle aches and pain at the injection site.    Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters Monday that the first results of the late-stage trial of the vaccine may be known by as early as November.  If the trial is successful, Moderna will produce 500 million doses a year, with the hopes of making 1 billion doses annually beginning in 2021.   Development of the Moderna/NIAI vaccine is part of President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, which is aimed at delivering 300 million doses of an approved vaccine by January.  Moderna has received nearly $1 billion in funding from the program, including $472 million committed just on Sunday to support the late-stage testing phase.Nurse Kathe Olmstead prepares a shot as the world’s biggest study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., gets underway, July 27, 2020, in Binghamton, N.Y.The second experimental vaccine, made by U.S.-based Pfizer in collaboration with Germany-based BioNTech SE, will also be given to 30,000 people across the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Germany.  Pfizer, which is conducting its research independent of Operation Warp Speed, has received a $1.95 billion commitment to produce 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine if it proves to be safe and effective. Researchers on both projects are relying on a new process called messenger RNA to improve the efficacy of their respective vaccines.  Messenger RNA, or mRNA for short, tricks the body into producing a similar protein found in COVID-19, which the immune system sees as foreign and learns to recognize. The immune system would then be prepared to protect the body if the person is exposed to the real virus.   Utilizing Messenger RNA has yet to result in the production of any new vaccines, but it has the potential, more than current methods, to quicken the process.   “Having a safe and effective vaccine distributed by the end of 2020 is a stretch goal, but it’s the right goal for the American people,” Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, told reporters Monday.  Dr. Collins said the government is seeking volunteers from groups who have been the most affected by COVID-19, including African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and the elderly.   He also insisted that safety is not being compromised despite the fast pace of development.   The two potential COVID-19 vaccines are among the nearly 150 being developed around the world that are in various stages of testing.  Three more new vaccines   developed, respectively, by U.S.-based biotech firm Novavax, pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson, and a joint collaboration between Britain’s University of Oxford and U.S.-based AstraZeneca will soon enter late-stage testing also involving 30,000 participants.  All three companies are taking part in the Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed. More than 16.4 million infections have been reported around the world, including over 654,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.     The United States leads the world in the number of confirmed cases with more than 4.2 million, including 148,011 deaths. 
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Much of Hawaii was spared when Hurricane Douglas passed just north of Oahu, Maui and the island of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island, early Monday. The Category 1 storm was on what forecasters had called a “dangerously close” path, but the islands managed to “dodge the bullet” as one police chief put it, when the storm veered slightly away from its forecast path. No severe damage has been reported from Douglas’ heavy rain and fierce winds. But the threat to Hawaii is not totally over. Hurricane warnings are out for some parts of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument – a World Heritage site described as “cluster of small, low lying islands and atolls” – northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. Tropical storm warnings and watches have been issued for other parts of Papahānaumokuākea, which is the largest contiguous fully protected conservation area in the U.S., and one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, encompassing 1,508,870 square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean. As of Monday afternoon, Hawaiian time, Douglas was still a dangerous storm with top sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour but is forecast to weaken Tuesday into Wednesday.  
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For the second time, U.S. President Donald Trump has been photographed wearing a mask amid the coronavirus pandemic.  Trump wore the face covering as he toured a North Carolina laboratory where key components are being manufactured for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax. “I trust all Americans to do the right thing, but we strongly advise everyone to especially, especially focus on maintaining a social distance, maintain a rigorous hygiene, avoid crowded gatherings and indoor bars and wear masks when appropriate,” Trump told a group of reporters traveling with him just before his tour of the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies Innovation Center. “Nothing’s happened like this since the end of World War II,” the president said of the billions of dollars being spent in the global race to produce and mass deploy a vaccine in record time.  Before the tour of the plant, Trump spoke to several dozen North Carolina politicians, scientists, White House officials, journalists and Secret Service agents, Trump was the only person not wearing a mask.  The president who has faced criticism for what is perceived as a belated and inadequate response by the federal government to the coronavirus pandemic, said the U.S. states “largely had what they needed” but that all of them “are not out of the woods.”  Trump defended his administration’s response to the pandemic, despite the U.S. reporting the largest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world.  “We report our cases. Most of the world doesn’t,” Trump said.  The United States has conducted more than 52 million tests, the president said, adding, “nobody’s even close.”  President Donald Trump wears a face mask as he participates in a tour of Bioprocess Innovation Center at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, July 27, 2020, in Morrisville, North Carolina.Trump said U.S. officials are monitoring caseloads in Latin America, a region of particular concern.  “You have some very, very highly infected countries outside of our borders,” he said.  The mortality rate for U.S. COVID-19 patients older than 18 is 85% lower than it was in April, according to the president, giving credit to better therapies and improved knowledge about the coronavirus.  In the past week, the disease killed more than 1,000 Americans a day for five straight days, according to the Vice President Mike Pence, center, gestures as he speaks during a news conference with FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, left, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, right, at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, July 27, 2020.While Trump was in North Carolina, Vice President Mike Pence was in Miami, where clinical trials of another vaccine jointly developed by The National Institutes of Health and the Moderna Inc. began Monday.   “It’s a historic day, a day when we begin in earnest to work on a vaccine,” Pence said.  Some health experts say it sometimes can take years for a safe, effective vaccine against a disease to be successfully developed.  Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Stephen Hahn was with Pence in Miami and told reporters the FDA “will not cut corners” to evaluate a vaccine.    Several other countries are also working on developing a COVID-19 vaccine.  
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Indonesia is set to move into the front ranks of countries pursuing a vaccine against the coronavirus next week with the launch of phase 3 clinical trials in Bandung, West Java. About 2,400 samples of an experimental vaccine have been shipped from China to Bandung for the trial, which will begin August 3. The vaccine, developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, is one of only five out of 166 candidates to have reached such an advanced stage of testing. An American entrant in the race for a vaccine, developed by Moderna, entered phase 3 trials in the United States on Monday.  Phase 3 testing involves giving a vaccine to thousands of volunteers to see how many become infected, compared with others who are given a placebo. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced the Bandung plan in a virtual press conference last week, saying the project is directed in Indonesia by the state-owned pharmaceutical holding company Bio Farma. The firm’s CEO, Honesti Basyir, said the clinical trial is scheduled to run for six months and will be completed by January 2021. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced via virtual news conference, July 23, 2020, that Indonesia is set to begin phase 3 clinical trials of coronavirus vaccines from Bio Farma and Sinovac Biotech. (Courtesy Indonesian Foreign Minister)She said Bio Farma expects to distribute 40 million doses of the vaccine per year as soon as the government authorizes its widespread usage and plans to expand distribution to 250 million doses per year. Bio Farma chose Sinovac Biotech as a partner because the manufacturing method used by the Chinese company matches the competencies of Bio Farma, which has already developed similar vaccines, such as one for the respiratory disease pertussis, or whooping cough. Retno said the partnership with Sinovac Biotech is one of multiple initiatives that Indonesia is taking to find an effective vaccine. She said Indonesia is working closely with Genexine, a South Korean biopharmaceutical firm, to develop a DNA-based vaccine. The foreign minister said Indonesia’s ambassador in South Korea, Umar Hadi, has facilitated the cooperation between Indonesia’s Kalbe Farma and Genexine. “Genexine has held its first phase clinical trial in South Korea and it will last until this August. The second phase will be held in Indonesia on September or October,” Retno said.Daniel Tumpal Simanjuntak, director for Africa in the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said details of trials of vaccines from South Korea are still under discussion. (Courtesy Indonesian Foreign Minister)Daniel Tumpal Simanjuntak, the Indonesian foreign ministry’s director for Africa, said details of that trial are still under discussion. “We still don’t have any information on how many vaccine samples will be sent to undergo the second phase of clinical trials in Indonesia, as well as other arrangements,” Tumpal said. Indonesia is coordinating its vaccine efforts with the Oslo, Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI), which is funded by philanthropies, civil society organizations and several national governments.  CEPI was founded in 2017 to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and ensure equitable access for all. Bio Farma is already on CEPI’s list of producers that will potentially produce a COVID-19 vaccine. Retno said Indonesia will work to make sure that any vaccine that is proved safe and effective will become widely available. “At every international meeting, Indonesia continued to reiterate the need to maintain equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 vaccine,” she said. “When a vaccine has been developed or the drugs currently undergoing clinical trials have been acquired, the next question is whether all countries have access to the vaccines and medicine at affordable rates.” Retno emphasized that Indonesia has been discussing the effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine with 11 countries, 12 international organizations and 97 NGOs. As of Monday, Indonesia had more than 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and had suffered more than 4,800 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracking site in the United States. 
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A new study suggests dry climates and dense human populations are key factors in how mosquitoes have evolved to bite people.Noting that only a handful of the 3,500 species of mosquito feeds on human blood, researchers at Princeton University set out to determine why certain mosquitoes feed on humans. The World Health Organization named mosquitoes one of the deadliest animals on Earth, citing their ability to carry and spread disease.The team studied a variety of mosquito — Aedes aegypti — known to carry ailments that include the Zika virus and dengue fever — and collected samples from 27 sites in sub-Saharan Africa. Through genetic analysis, they found mosquitoes became more likely to feed on humans as population grew denser or more urbanized. This was only in regions with a significant dry season.Authors of the study, published recently in the scientific journal Current Biology, found that during dry seasons, mosquitoes may rely more on water stored by people.The researchers also learned that the preference for feeding on people was the result of specific genetic changes in mosquitoes, meaning they evolved to specifically target humans.They noted that in the areas where the mosquito samples were taken in sub-Saharan Africa urbanization is happening quickly. This could lead to more mosquito bites in many African cities over the next 30 years. The researchers suggest having people in cities make sure their water supplies are well-managed, clean, and not left open to air to help fight off the growing mosquito threat.
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