Last month we discussed Roberta Cava’s book: How Women Can Advance in Business – and Break the Glass Ceiling.
Her newest book will be available in mid-March 2021 that’s entitled:
Here is an excerpt from the book:
Kinds of Vaccines being currently developed
Since the start of the pandemic, scientists around the world have been racing to develop a vaccine that prevents Covid-19.
In December, the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine beat its rivals to be the first approved for use in the UK. Two more vaccines, from Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca, have since been authorised, and there is a fourth, fifth, and sixth potentially on the way.
One is the Janssen vaccine, from American company Johnson & Johnson, the world’s first single-shot Covid vaccine, which was found to be 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe Covid-19 but offers high protection against people needing to go to hospital, according to trial results.
Meanwhile, the Government has ordered 60 million doses of another Covid vaccine candidate from Novavax, which is due to be made on Teeside if approved. The vaccine was found to be 80.3% effective at preventing Covid-19 in UK trials and worked against the new Kent and South African variants.
The large-scale manufacturing of another potential vaccine made by the French company Valneva, started in Scotland in January. It is expected to deliver up to 60 million doses to the UK by the end of this year if approved.
Here are the differences between the vaccines:
Pfizer/BioNtech: Trials have shown the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine to be more than 90% effective, but it has to be stored at minus 70 degrees C so is not the easiest vaccine to use. Patients need two doses.
It is known as a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Conventional vaccines are produced using weakened forms of the virus, but mRNAs use only the virus’s genetic code.
An mRNA vaccine is injected into the body where it enters cells and tells them to create antigens. These antigens are recognised by the immune system and prepare it to fight coronavirus. No actual virus is needed to create an mRNA vaccine. This means the rate at which it can be produced is dramatically accelerated. As a result, mRNA vaccines have been hailed as potentially offering a rapid solution to new outbreaks of infectious diseases.
In theory, they can also be modified reasonably quickly if, for example, a virus develops mutations and begins to change. mRNA vaccines are also cheaper to produce than traditional vaccines, although both will play an important role in tackling Covid-19. One downside to mRNA vaccines is that they need to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures and cannot be transported easily.
Moderna: This vaccine works in a similar way to the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech.
Coronavirus is studded with ‘spike proteins’ that it uses to enter human cells. Covid-19 vaccines target this spike protein. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA), a genetic material that contains information about the spike protein. The vaccines provide the body with instructions to produce a small amount of this protein which, once detected by the immune system, leads to a protective antibody response.
Moderna’s vaccine does not require the same ultracold storage as Pfizer’s and can remain stable at normal fridge temperature for 30 days. Trials on more than 30,000 people in the US have shown the Moderna vaccine to be 94% effective in preventing coronavirus and Moderna has not identified any significant safety concerns and its vaccine has been approved for use in the US.
The MHRA accepted the recommendation of the Commission on Human Medicines and authorised the Moderna Vaccine on January 8, 2021.
Oxford/AstraZeneca
The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was approved by the MHRA in December last year. The Oxford vaccine is not an mRNA vaccine. Instead, it uses a harmless weakened version of a virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees.
Oxford data indicates the vaccine has 62% efficacy when one full dose is given followed by another full dose, but when people were given a half dose followed by a full dose at least a month later, its efficacy rose to 90%. The combined analysis from both dosing regimes resulted in an average efficacy of 70.4 %. In separate research, results showed the vaccine offers 76% protection up to three months after the first dose and could reduce transmission by 67%.
However, a study of around 2,000 people has shown the vaccine only offers minimal protection against mild disease of the South Africa variant and, due to the young age of participants, could not conclude whether the vaccine worked against severe disease.
Health minister Edward Argar said on Monday that Oxford researchers remained confident their vaccine could prevent severe disease for those affected by the variant and that booster vaccines to tackle new strains are already in the pipeline.
Valneva: Clinical trials are still ongoing for this vaccine, but manufacturing has started at the French biotech company’s site in Livingston, West Lothian. The candidate is currently in phase one/two trials and will need approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) before it is rolled out. Initial results from the ongoing clinical study, involving 150 participants at testing sites in Bristol, Southampton, Birmingham and Newcastle, are expected in April.
The vaccine works by using technology already used in existing vaccines that are used for prevention of diseases such as as the flu and Japanese encephalitis. It uses inactivated whole particles of SARS-CoV-2 to induce a strong immune response.
Novavax: This fourth Covid-19 vaccine could be approved for use in the UK within weeks, as late-stage trials suggested it was 89% effective in preventing coronavirus. The vaccine is the first to show in trials that it is effective against the new virus variant found in the UK.
The UK has secured 60 million doses of the vaccine – to be produced on Teesside – which is believed to offer protection against the new UK and South African variants.
It was shown to be 89.3% effective at preventing coronavirus in participants in its Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK, which involved more than 15,000 people aged between 18-84, of which 27% were older than 65, Novavax said.
The vaccine will now be assessed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines rely on technology that has not been used in previous vaccines, but the Novavax vaccine uses a more traditional method of recreating part of the spike protein of the virus to stimulate the immune system. Like the Oxford vaccine, the Novavax vaccine can be stored at regular fridge temperature – which means it can be distributed more easily.
In the South African part of the trial, where most of the cases were the South African variant of the virus, the vaccine was 60% effective among those without HIV.
Johnson & Johnson: The Janssen vaccine, from American company Johnson & Johnson could become the sixth vaccine to be approved in the UK. The firm said the vaccine was 85% effective in preventing severe disease ‘and demonstrated complete protection against Covid-19-related hospitalisation and death as of day 28.’
The vaccine worked across multiple variants of coronavirus, including the South African variant which has been worrying scientists, the firm said. The UK has secured access to 30 million doses of the Janssen vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.
The vaccine is estimated to remain stable for two years at minus 20C and at least three months at 2-8C, which will make the logistics of rolling the vaccine out easier as it can be stored in a standard fridge. It could be available at designated vaccination sites across the UK, alongside existing vaccines.
British regulators have been conducting a so-called rolling review of the data from Johnson & Johnson. This means that rather than waiting until the end of the clinical trial to assess the data, experts from the MHRA have been assessing data on a rolling basis during the trial and helped speed up the approval process.
Vaccine Tests to date:
Roberta Cava has written 52 books – 44 are non-fiction and 8 are fiction. She lives on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia.
To order her books:
Go to amazon.com then click ‘Books’ and under ‘search’ put Roberta Cava (which will bring up all of her books).
To contact Roberta Cava or Cava Consulting, please send an e-mail to cavaconsulting@ozemail.com.au