NGO Urges Adoption of New ‘Pandemic Paradigm’ for COVID-19 Vaccine Development

CCP Virus Shows US Too Dependent on Cheap Medical Imports: Lighthizer

WASHINGTON—U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday said the United States would seek to promote more domestic manufacturing of key medical supplies in light of the strategic vulnerabilities laid bare by the CCP virus pandemic. The Epoch Times is referring to the novel coronavirus as the Chinese Communist Party virus. Lighthizer told trade ministers from the Group of 20 major economies (G20) that Washington agreed there was a need to resolve supply chain disruptions and be aware of the impact of its actions on neighbors. “Unfortunately, like others, we are learning in this crisis that over-dependence on other countries as a source of cheap medical products and supplies has created a strategic vulnerability to our economy,” Lighthizer said. “For the United States, we are encouraging diversification of supply chains and seeking…

Researchers at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI), an international nongovernmental organization, are calling for a new model of vaccine development for pandemics.

The team argues in a聽paper published聽on March 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine that overlapping otherwise linear stages of vaccine development and investing early in manufacturing capacity can bring pandemic vaccines to market faster and blunt the impact of a major outbreak like COVID-19.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus due to the regime’s initial coverup and mishandling of the outbreak, contributing to its widescale spread.

“Vaccine development is a lengthy, expensive process. Attrition is high, and it typically takes multiple candidates and many years to produce a licensed vaccine,” the CEPI team explained in聽a聽scientific聽article published聽on March 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The team argues that overlapping phases of vaccine development would shorten the time-to-market for a viable candidate, but at a cost.

“Developing a vaccine quickly requires a new pandemic paradigm with a fast start and many steps executed in parallel before confirming a successful outcome of another step, hence resulting in elevated financial risk,” the CEPI team said.

Because of the cost and high failure rates, vaccine developers typically follow a linear sequence of steps, pausing many times to analyze data and check their manufacturing processes. While this saves money by preventing mis-investment in non-viable vaccines, it drags out the development process.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has sparked social distancing measures and business shutdowns across the world, with major economic impacts. While pouring funds into vaccine manufacturing lines at an earlier stage than normally might seem financially imprudent, getting a vaccine out faster and bringing economic activity back online sooner might end up being less of a hit to the bottom line.

“The pandemic paradigm requires multiple activities to be conducted at financial risk to developers and manufacturers and without knowing whether the vaccine candidate will be safe and effective, including very early manufacturing scale-up to commercial scale before establishment of clinical proof of concept,” the team explains.

The new model would bring forward in time steps like the “go or no-go” decision to invest in a candidate vaccine and the development and scale-up of manufacturing potential, so that when a candidate vaccine is proven safe and effective, doses can be produced at a mass scale quickly.

Another example of a difference in process between traditional vaccine development and the pandemic paradigm is that phase 1 clinical trials may be able to proceed in parallel with testing in animals.

CEPI said it has not established financial mechanisms and instruments to support the development of pandemic vaccines in line with its proposed new model. It has issued a funding call to see COVID-19 vaccines through the development and scale-up manufacturing processes.

“Discussions with global stakeholders about organizing and financing large-scale vaccine manufacturing, procurement, and delivery are under way,” the team said.

Last week, British prime minister Boris Johnson announced a $270 million boost in funding for CEPI.

Johnson’s announcement followed a virtual conference with G20 leaders which acknowledged the coalition鈥檚 recent global call for $2 billion to progress COVID-19 vaccines through to manufacture.

The British prime minister also called on other governments to work together to create a vaccine as quickly as possible.

“This decisive action and financial support from the UK Government comes at a pivotal moment for a world that is in crisis. The UK has a long history of global health leadership and, today, the UK is once again stepping up as a global leader in its support CEPI and our crucial work to accelerate the development of a vaccine against COVID-19,”聽said Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI.

“We face one of the greatest challenges humankind kind has faced in the last century: a disease that has spread globally, that is most dangerous to the most vulnerable members of our society, and that threatens our economic order and very way of life,” Hatchett said.

The CCP virus that causes COVID-19 began in Wuhan, China, and has infected people in most countries around the world.

For most people, COVID-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, which clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with preexisting health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person, typically between people who are in close contact with one another and via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

This article is from the Internet:NGO Urges Adoption of New ‘Pandemic Paradigm’ for COVID-19 Vaccine Development

China Worries About Asymptomatic COVID-19 Patients Spreading the Virus Further

As more cases of asymptomatic patients carrying the CCP virus appear in China, medical experts recently expressed alarm that they could be further spreading the pathogen and cause another severe outbreak. “My team tested some patients who had no symptoms for three weeks, but the virus was found in their blood,” said Zhang Wenhong, head of a clinical expert team in Shanghai in charge of dealing with the current pandemic, during a research seminar on viruses held on March 27. “The asymptomatic carriers are the biggest risks [of a new outbreak].” Zhang said that if authorities don’t take action to prevent a future outbreak, “our doctors will be very busy for a long period of time in the future. An asymptomatic carrier may spread the virus to the community at…