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A new national consortium of virologists has been set up to systematically assess how mutations in SARS-CoV-2 affect key outcomes such as effectiveness of vaccines and therapies, transmissibility of the virus and the severity of COVID-19 infections...Now is the critical time to do this, as the level of both natural and vaccine-conferred immunity that might drive natural selection is increasing, said Wendy Barclay, head of the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London, who is leading the G2P-UK (Genotype to Phenotype-UK) project...“The virus has circulated in humans for more than a year; we’re in a phase where the virus is constantly throwing up new variants and we need to gear up to assess the risk they pose, and to understand the mechanisms by which they act,” Barclay said...READ MORE

A special fund for vaccine research that was set aside by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2010 has been misused to pay for unrelated expenses, a government report shows...In a letter to newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden and Congress, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said millions of dollars intended to be used to bolster preparedness for public health emergencies such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other potential viral outbreaks, have been flagrantly misused to finance other expenses...READ MORE

Dr. Anthony Fauci made $417,608 in 2019, the latest year for which federal salaries are available. That made him not only the highest paid doctor in the federal government, but the highest paid out of all four million federal employees...In fact, Dr. Fauci even made more than the $400,000 salary of the President of the United States. All salary data was collected by OpenTheBooks.com via Freedom of Information Act requests...In an August 13, 2020 Instagram interview with actor Matthew McConaughey, Dr. Fauci was asked if he had millions of dollars invested in the vaccines. Dr. Fauci laughed and answered, “Matthew, no, I got zero! I am a government worker. I have a government salary.”...READ MORE

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the profile of mRNA vaccines in a dramatic way in about a year. Looking forward, the technology holds more promise and could displace traditional shots in some diseases, experts said, but it's not time to give up on well-known vaccine platforms, either...researchers at Moderna...reached human testing for their mRNA vaccine in record time. And separately, in under a year of development, testing and manufacturing, Pfizer and its mRNA partner BioNTech were able to score an FDA emergency use authorization last December...In addition to being able to rapidly advance new vaccines in response to emerging threats, the “beauty” of the platform is that the production process is “universal,"...Still, it’s not time to go all-in on mRNA... While experts are clearly enthusiastic about the platform, that “doesn’t guarantee that mRNA will immediately work against all pathogens,"...READ MORE

Pfizer and Moderna have agreed to deliver another 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the U.S., bringing the total on tap to 600 million, or enough to vaccinate 300 million people...President Joe Biden announced the pending deals on Tuesday, noting the extra doses would be delivered this summer. Moderna confirmed the negotiations in a press release...although it said the discussions are for “delivery in the third quarter of 2021.” Pfizer also confirmed the negotiations but didn't specify the timing...READ MORE

Moderna announced it has started development on a booster to its COVID-19 vaccine, which the company hopes will work against the recently discovered (and more transmissible) SARS-CoV-2 variant from South Africa...Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 appears to be effective for protecting against B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, two highly infectious strains first discovered in the U.K. and South Africa, respectively...The South African B.1.351 variant features ten mutations found in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. Variants from both the U.K. and South Africa have spread quickly across the globe, with some data suggesting these variants are associated with increased transmission and greater post-infection viral burden...READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to look into why Nevada is near the bottom of the list for the amount of COVID-19 vaccine it has been allocated per capita...“We need our fair share of vaccine doses to stand up and sustain successful vaccination efforts to reach Nevadans in an equitable fashion,” Sisolak wrote in a letter to acting Health and Human Services Secretary Norris Cochran, according to a news release on Monday. “Through this letter I am asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to look into why Nevada is so low on the allocation list, and more important, to find ways to increase our allocation both immediately and for the long term.”...READ MORE

Within days of AstraZeneca's surprise cut to first-quarter COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Europe, a fierce debate between the drugmaker and government officials is playing out behind the scenes—and in the press...CEO Pascal Soriot said the company has no legal obligation to deliver vaccines on a specific timeline. The EU maintains AZ’s new delivery schedule is “not acceptable.”...The sides were set to meet Wednesday, but an EU official told Politico the drugmaker had pulled out. AstraZeneca told Fierce Pharma via email it hadn't...READ MORE

Merck announced that it is going to stop developing its two COVID-19 vaccine candidates, dubbed V590 and V591, after poor responses in Phase I trials. They are shifting their attention to advancing two therapeutic drugs for COVID-19, MK-4482 and MK-7110...“We are grateful to our collaborators who worked with us on these vaccine candidates and to the volunteers in the trials,” said Dean Y. Li, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “We are resolute in our commitment to contribute to the global effort to relieve the burden of this pandemic on patients, health care systems and communities.”...READ MORE

Last year, President Donald Trump decided to halt United States funding to the World Health Organization and withdraw from the organization based on its inept response to COVID-19 and its obsequious failure to confront China over its lack of transparency and cooperation during the outbreak...President Joe Biden, in one of his first actions, reversed those decisions in a letter to the United Nations secretary-general...Trump was correct in his criticism of the WHO. Had China been more transparent and cooperative, many lives could have been saved and economic damage avoided in the U.S. and around the world...READ MORE