Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Wednesday that people could need multiple doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine to immunize themselves from the coronavirus. If necessary, the multiple doses could require more than 7 billion vaccinations to be administered worldwide.”None of the vaccines at this point appear like they’ll work with a single dose,” Gates said. “That was the hope at the very beginning.”
The Moderna vaccine, which requires two doses a month apart, will start a crucial step around July 27: A 30,000-person study to prove if the shots really are strong enough to protect against the coronavirus.
New Antibody Mix Could Form Potent Covid-19 Treatment, Say Scientists
Researchers have identified a potent cocktail of antibodies that may help doctors treat Covid-19 infections and protect people at risk from falling ill with the disease.The antibodies were collected from patients hospitalised with severe Covid-19, and they could be manufactured at scale by pharmaceutical firms and transfused into the blood to fight the virus or prevent it from taking hold.Before a vaccine, we’ll need treatments. Is interferon beta-1a a game changer?Charlotte SummersRead more
Scientists at Columbia University in New York screened antibodies from 40 Covid-19 patients and identified 61 types from five individuals that effectively wiped out coronavirus. Among them were nine that displayed “exquisite potency” for neutralising the pathogen.Tests on cells showed that the antibodies killed off the virus, while experiments with hamsters revealed that an infusion of one of the more potent antibodies protected the animals from disease. “It shut off infectious virus completely in the lung tissue of the hamsters we treated,” said David Ho, a professor of medicine at Columbia who led the research.