COVID-19 vaccine

While coronavirus vaccine trials are ongoing and a U.S. vaccine has yet to be approved, state health officials are planning ahead for how to eventually immunize a large swath of the population.

Facing Many Unknowns, States Rush To Plan Distribution Of COVID-19 Vaccines

1:03pm October 16, 2020

A vaccine will only work if a lot of people can get immunized. State health officials are working furiously to design outreach and distribution plans, with little clarity from the federal government.

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Tobacco plants are being used in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. One is already being tested in humans.

Tobacco Plants Contribute Key Ingredient For COVID-19 Vaccine

5:09pm October 15, 2020

by Joe Palca

Here's irony: tobacco plants may be key in preventing COVID-19. Two companies are using the plants to produce proteins for a vaccine. One candidate vaccine is already in a clinical trial.

Until now, children under 16 have not been included in any of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Health & Safety

Will Kids Get A COVID-19 Vaccine? Pfizer To Expand Trial To Ages 12 And Up

9:22pm October 13, 2020

by Allison Aubrey

Pediatricians have been asking policy makers to include children in COVID-19 vaccine trials. Now, the FDA has given Pfizer approval to enroll adolescents as young as 12 years old.

A volunteer received an injection as part of a clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine at Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Fla. Studies of vaccines backed by Operation Warp Speed have enrolled tens of thousands of people in a matter of months.

Health & Safety

Call For Administration's COVID-19 Vaccine Contracts To Be Disclosed

11:39am October 10, 2020

by Sydney Lupkin

Members of Congress and advocacy groups say Operation Warp Speed should release its contracts with vaccine makers after NPR reporting found the terms of many aren't public.

A worker feeds vials for production of a vaccine for COVID-19 at the SinoVac vaccine factory in Beijing. China said on Friday that it is joining the COVID-19 vaccine alliance known as COVAX.

China Joins WHO-Led Global Coronavirus Vaccine Effort As U.S. Sits It Out

2:32pm October 09, 2020

by John Ruwitch

The Chinese foreign ministry said it took this step "to uphold the concept of a shared community of health for all and to honor its commitment to turn COVID-19 vaccines into a global public good."

A volunteer in a clinical trial for an experimental COVID-19 vaccine receives an injection last month at Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Fla.

Health & Safety

FDA Releases Long-Awaited COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance

7:43pm October 06, 2020

by Sydney Lupkin

The requirements laid out by the Food and Drug Administration in advice for drugmakers underscore why it's unlikely a vaccine could clear the agency before Election Day.

President Trump announced the creation of Operation Warp Speed in May to fast-track a coronavirus vaccine. He called it "a massive scientific and industrial, logistic endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project."

Health & Safety

How Operation Warp Speed's Big Vaccine Contracts Could Stay Secret

7:51pm September 29, 2020

by Sydney Lupkin

More than $6 billion in federal funding has been routed through a firm that manages defense contracts, making the agreements subject to less federal scrutiny and transparency.

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Researchers in Miami hold syringes containing either a placebo or the candidate COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna. Their work is part of a phase three clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Why Tens Of Thousands Of People Are Key To Testing A COVID-19 Vaccine

7:14am September 23, 2020

by Joe Palca

Volunteers getting the shot help determine if a candidate vaccine works. But what with social distancing and masks, scientists must discern if it's the shot or these other measures preventing illness.

Nurse Kathe Olmstead (right) gives volunteer Melissa Harting an injection in a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.

Health & Safety

With Limited COVID-19 Vaccine Doses, Who Would Get Them First?

1:44pm September 22, 2020

by Pien Huang

A CDC advisory committee is debating this issue Tuesday. Half of U.S. adults could be considered high priority, yet the initial supply is likely to be only enough for 3% to 5% of the population.

Earlier in the week, AstraZeneca had paused worldwide studies of its candidate vaccine after one U.K. participant developed symptoms consistent with the spinal cord inflammation known as transverse myelitis.

AstraZeneca Resumes Its COVID-19 Vaccine Trials In The U.K.

5:50pm September 12, 2020

by Joe Palca

The company had placed its worldwide vaccine trials on hold for several days. It now says a safety review by regulators and reviewers is complete. No word on when studies in the U.S. might resume.