In this file photo taken on April 16, 2021 a medical staff member prepares a syringe with a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a pop up vaccine clinic at the Jewish Community Center in the Staten Island borough of New York City. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
TORONTO / MEXICO CITY / LOS ANGELES / SANTIAGO – Moderna Inc on Tuesday said a COVID-19 booster designed to target the Beta variant as well as the original coronavirus generated a better immune response against a number of virus variants including Omicron.
Moderna said the results were a good sign for the company's plans for future shots targeting two COVID-19 variants.
Moderna said the results were a good sign for the company's plans for future shots targeting two COVID-19 variants
Dr. Jacqueline Miller, a top Moderna scientist, said the company had no immediate plans to file for authorization of the bivalent vaccine including the Beta variant. It will submit the data to the US Food and Drug Administration in order to lay the groundwork for a future bivalent vaccine candidate that includes the Omicron variant as a target.
The company said the bivalent vaccine with Beta generated higher neutralizing antibody titers against the Omicron variant at one and six months after the shot was given than the booster of its original vaccine currently in use.
The company said it was especially encouraging that the bivalent vaccine induced higher antibody responses against variants that were not specifically included in the vaccine.
The 50-microgram bivalent booster, which the company calls mRNA 1273.211, was tested in 300 people.
Moderna has started testing a different bivalent shot that combines an Omicron-specific vaccine with its original. Initial data from that vaccine is expected later in the second quarter, Moderna said.
It is also testing a monovalent booster targeted at Omicron alone.
"In order to be ready for the fall, we've had to start manufacture at risk," Miller said. "Our belief is that the bivalent, based on the data that we have already observed … offers the best hope for longer and more durable protection."
A person wearing a mask crosses the street during a winter storm in Montreal, Quebec on Jan 17, 2022. (ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP)
Canada
Canada's government said on Tuesday it has no plans to stop requiring masks on planes after a Florida judge struck down a US version of the law.
"We are taking a layered approach to keeping travelers safe, and masks remain an incredibly useful tool in our arsenal against COVID-19," a spokesperson for Canada's Transport Minister wrote in an email.
The spokesperson confirmed masks will be required on Canadian airlines and on flights that depart from or arrive in Canada. The federal government also requires travelers to wear masks and track close contacts for 14 days after arriving in Canada.
On Monday, US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down the US mandate, which required masks on airplanes, trains and in taxis, among other locations, saying the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had exceeded its authority.
In Canada, the landscape is different. Surveys have shown masking to be widely popular. More than challenges to mask mandates, there is vocal opposition and legal challenges to lifting them.
Last week an Ottawa school board introduced its own mask mandate after the province dropped its requirement. In a letter to parents, the board said students will not be suspended or expelled for non-compliance but their parents may be called.
Chile
Chile recovered all the jobs it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, after registering 9.16 million employed people in the first week of April, according to a survey released Tuesday.
The projected number of employed people in April has surpassed the pre-pandemic level of 9.06 million in March 2020, showed the study carried out by the Surveys and Longitudinal Studies Center of the Catholic University of Chile.
The employment rate of the country has also recovered, scoring 57.2 percent, just one percentage point below the pre-pandemic level of 58.2 percent, director of the center David Bravo said.
"We have already reached the absolute number before the pandemic, but in reality we still have to recoup more jobs because in these past two years, the population has increased," Bravo explained.
The survey was based on a national sample of households previously registered in 2016 and updated in 2021.
An illustration picture shows vials with COVID-19 Vaccine stickers attached and syringes with the logo of US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson on Nov 17, 2020. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday rescinded its forecast for sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, as hesitancy in low income countries has led to a glut of supply of a shot once hoped to be the inoculation of choice for the developing world.
The company had previously predicted as much as $3.5 billion in 2022 sales from the single-dose vaccine, but demand has withered.
Still, the company reported strong results for its medical devices business and raised its dividend, driving shares up around 3 percent.
J&J also cut both ends of its full-year profit forecast by 25 cents and now expects to earn $10.15 to $10.35 per share
Use of the shot has been weak in high-income countries, hurt by reports of rare, potentially deadly blood clots, production issues, including an accidental mix-up of ingredients by a contract manufacturer, and concerns about efficacy.
J&J's COVID-19 vaccine accounts for about 3 percent of all doses administered in the United States, and roughly 2 percent of doses in Europe.
Because of the soft demand from Europe and the United States, much of the company's supply has been shipped to lower income countries. As a one-shot vaccine that can be refrigerated for months, many hoped uptake would be better, but executives said it has encountered the same vaccine hesitancy as other manufacturers.
"Governments want to act, and what they're seeing is their populations are just a little bit more reticent than what we see in the US or the G5 with respect to accepting a vaccine," J&J Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said in an interview.
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Wolk noted that infrastructure, including refrigeration, has also been a hurdle for getting shots in arms in developing countries.
The World Health Organization has said poorer countries have asked for insufficient doses to meet its goal of vaccinating at least 70 percent of their populations by the middle of the year.
J&J also cut both ends of its full-year profit forecast by 25 cents and now expects to earn $10.15 to $10.35 per share. But it blamed the move on currency fluctuations rather than fundamental business issues and raised its dividend 6.6 percent.
"With the guidance cut driven exclusively by currency, I think shares are reacting to the forward looking comments," said Edward Jones analyst Ashtyn Evans. "J&J discussed accelerating growth in medical technology through acquisitions and also the belief that supply chain issues will improve in the second half of the year."
Other analysts said J&J remains a safe bet within the healthcare sector and that raising the dividend provided predictable income for investors despite vaccine sales woes.
J&J said its medical devices unit should recover this year after pandemic delays in non-urgent surgeries, and it expects above-market growth in its large pharmaceuticals business in 2022, despite falling short of Wall Street estimates in the first quarter.
The company reported pharmaceutical sales of $12.87 billion, well shy of forecasts for $13.6 billion, due in part to low vaccine sales.
Excluding items, J&J earned $2.67 per share for the quarter, beating analysts' expectations by 11 cents, according to Refinitiv.
Mexico
Mexico has accumulated three months with minimal COVID-19 indicators, representing a "very sharp" pandemic reduction, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Tuesday.
The official noted that the decline in the pandemic is reflected in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the virus.
"This reduction … is already very sharp, we already have minimal epidemic activity figures," Lopez-Gatell told journalists at the National Palace in Mexico City.
The country is currently in the fourth wave of the pandemic and is averaging 188 daily COVID-19 cases, according to official records.
At the same time, hospital occupancy is at 4 percent, Lopez-Gatell said, while there is an average of four daily deaths associated with the virus.
"There are states … that have had successive days without a single death due to COVID-19," he added.
As of Monday, Mexico had accumulated 5,727,832 COVID-19 cases and 323,949 deaths.
Portugal's Defence Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho poses upon his arrival for an informal meeting of European Union countries' Defence Ministers, as France currently holds the bloc's rotating presidency, in Brest, western France, Jan 13, 2022. (STEPHANE MAHE / POOL / AFP)
Portugal
Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs Joao Gomes Cravinho said Tuesday that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
In a tweet, the minister said his symptoms are "very mild" and he will spend the week on telework.
"It serves as a reminder that the virus is still with us, and that we must remain vigilant," he tweeted.
To date, Portugal has recorded more than 3.7 million COVID-19 cases.
US
As COVID-19 cases rise, disability advocates said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "isn't doing enough" for high-risk populations, said a report of ABC News.
After the Omicron wave of COVID-19 receded earlier this winter, states and cities across the country moved quickly to ease mitigation measures.
"However, for some high-risk populations, like the 7 million Americans living with weakened immune systems from cancer treatment, transplants or immune deficiencies, a return to pre-pandemic normalcy is still not on the horizon," said the report.
Moderately or severely immunocompromised people, or individuals who have a weakened immune system, are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness and death, according to the CDC.
As concerns over a new COVID-19 resurgence grow, advocates like Town have been pushing back on the administration's decision to roll back recommended restrictions and are urging officials to reconsider implementing restrictions such as masking, said the report.
