Choque entre el norte y el sur por las patentes covid-19

Choque entre el norte y el sur por las patentes covid-19: India y Sudáfrica lideran una petición ante la Organización Mundial del Comercio para que se suspenda temporalmente la propiedad intelectual sobre tecnologías, medicamentos y vacunas contra el nuevo coronavirus mientras dure la pandemia; 99 países les apoyan, el mundo rico se resiste

 

The global economic cost of COVID-19 vaccine nationalism: Findings in full

Until there is a widely available vaccine for COVID-19, physical distancing measures will continue to affect key sectors of the global economy negatively, especially those that rely on close physical proximity between people. The global cost associated with COVID-19 and its economic impact could be $3.4 trillion a year. For the EU it will be about 5.6 per cent of annual GDP, about $983 billion. The UK would incur a loss of about 4.3 per cent—an annual cost of $145 billion. The US loses about 2.2 per cent of annual GDP, about $480 billion.

Vaccine nationalism could lead to the unequal allocation of COVID-19 vaccines and cost the global economy up to $1.2 trillion a year in GDP terms. Even if some countries manage to immunise their populations against the virus, as long as the virus is not under control in all regions of the world, there will continue to be a global economic cost associated with COVID-19.

Even if nationalistic behaviour is inevitable, there are economic incentives to providing access to vaccines across the globe. Based on estimates by Oxfam International in 2020, it would cost $25 billion to supply lower-income countries with vaccines. The US, the UK, the EU and other high-income countries combined could lose about $119 billion a year if the poorest countries are denied a supply. If these high-income countries paid for the supply of vaccines, there could be a benefit-to-cost ratio of 4.8 to 1. For every $1 spent, high-income countries would get back about $4.80.

If the poorest countries cannot access vaccines, the world could still lose about £153 billion a year in GDP. All high-income countries, as well as countries such as India, China and Russia, would still incur together an estimated GDP loss of about $119 billion a year, or approximately $10 billion a month. The EU would lose about $40 billion a year, the US $16 billion and the UK between $2 billion and $10 billion.

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine: Here's what's in it.

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine: ingredients, allergic reactions: Two people with known, severe allergies in the UK had non life-threatening anaphylactic reactions shortly after receiving Pfizer's vaccine. 

They might've been reacting to one of the vaccine ingredients, or the reaction could have just been their body's immune system stimulation. 

"Allergic people should not be disheartened by this news, because there are other vaccines in the pipeline," one allergist said. "And over time we will know more about the profile of these individuals who had a reaction, so that we can take the necessary precautions." 

Pfizer said people with common food allergies were not excluded from this study, "because there is no trace of nuts, eggs, or any food in our vaccine." 

Here is the full list of ingredients in Pfizer's shot:

• A nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) encoding the viral spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 (this is what makes the shot work)
• Lipids (i.e. fatty substances) including:
  • (4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate),
  • 2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N, N-ditetradecylacetamide,
  • 1,2-distearoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine,
  • and cholesterol
• Potassium chloride (in other words, potassium and chlorine)
• Monobasic potassium phosphate
• Sodium chloride (a.k.a salt)
• Dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate 
• Sucrose (yes, that's sugar)

 

The placebo paradox & How to Build Trust in Covid-19 Vaccines

How to Build Trust in Covid-19 Vaccines: Fresh thinking and behavioral research are needed to build trust and complement authoritative and data-oriented communications. A lot has been written on the importance of known, trusted messengers of information including doctors and nurses, community thought leaders like ministers, or heads of important community groups. However, our existing knowledge base is in the context of childhood vaccines. Trusted voices and strategies to support a potential COVID-19 vaccine need to be identified. Discussions with family and friends can help address people’s concerns, yet this is not part of the current strategy to encourage vaccination.²⁵ There is evidence that traditionally trusted sources like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are seen as less reliable in the context of a COVID-19 vaccine than are doctors and nurses.²⁶ Given the importance of community opinions and social norms, vaccine messaging and engagement should address specific communities known for low vaccination compliance.²⁷ We have a window of opportunity to course correct to ensure that we have a vaccine that is not just safe, effective and available but is also trusted. That work should begin immediately.

The placebo paradox: Why a COVID-19 vaccine trial participant might drop out: A third solution to the placebo paradox—and the holy grail of vaccine research—is called a “correlate of protection,” a measurement of a specific immune system marker that vaccine researchers could use to predict immunity requirements for protection from the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2. Last week, vaccine expert Dan Barouch and a team of researchers published their discoveries from a new primate study that suggests future vaccines could be licensed based on immune correlates, rather than clinical efficacy. Testing future Covid-19 vaccines swiftly and without human subjects removes the placebo control arm dilemma entirely and is already done annually with influenza vaccines.

To further these possible solutions, the 21^st Century Cures Act was signed into law in 2016, mandating research into new ways of generating “real world evidence” from “sources other than randomized control studies.”

For today’s crisis, ensuring the safe approval of the quantities and variety of vaccines needed to supply the entire world will require the FDA and other regulatory bodies to consider implementing variants of these solutions, with the same open mind that allowed the initial rapid success of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. If the FDA finds a way for trial participants to make informed decisions and provides a reasonable endpoint for the studies, those of us who can safely and practically do so will not abandon our posts.

 

Paper beats app: Vaccine verification will likely be proven offline. Here's why.

Paper beats app: Vaccine verification will likely be proven offline. Here's why.: It's an intuitive idea: an app that provides proof that a person has received a coronavirus vaccine. 

Plenty of technologists are working to make it a reality. Companies of all sizes have been pouring in resources: Microsoft, major airlines, Ticketmaster, prominent nonprofits, security companies, tech startups and blockchain companies are all taking hacks at what some call vaccine passports. Apple and Google have participated in discussions about how to create digital Covid-19 vaccine certificates, experts said, but they haven't announced plans. 

But behind the scenes, the realities of medical records, privacy concerns and the virus itself mean such products are unlikely to be widely available in the coming months, experts said. 

"This is something that almost no one can focus on right now," said Rebecca Coyle, executive director of the American Immunization Registry Association, a membership organization for state and local vaccine registries. She said digital Covid-19 certificates may seem like "a nice shiny object" but might not be a reality for many months.

How kids’ immune systems can evade COVID

How kids’ immune systems can evade COVID: Young children account for only a small percentage of COVID-19 infections — a trend that has puzzled scientists. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests why: kids’ immune systems seem better equipped to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 than are adults’.

Ventilation FAQ

Ventilation | CDC: FAQ

Ventilation improvements may include some or all of the following considerations:

• Increase outdoor air ventilation, using caution in highly polluted areas.
• When weather conditions allow, increase fresh outdoor air by opening windows and doors. Do not open windows and doors if doing so poses a safety or health risk (e.g., risk of falling, triggering asthma symptoms) to occupants in the building.
• Use fans to increase the effectiveness of open windows. To safely achieve this, fan placement is important and will vary based on room configuration. Avoid placing fans in a way that could potentially cause contaminated air to flow directly from one person over another. One helpful strategy is to use a window fan, placed safely and securely in a window, to exhaust room air to the outdoors. This will help draw fresh air into room via other open windows and doors without generating strong room air currents.
• Decrease occupancy in areas where outdoor ventilation cannot be increased.
• Ensure ventilation systems operate properly and provide acceptable indoor air quality for the current occupancy level for each space.
• Increase airflow to occupied spaces when possible.
• Turn off any demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) controls that reduce air supply based on occupancy or temperature during occupied hours. In homes and buildings where the HVAC fan operation can be controlled at the thermostat, set the fan to the “on” position instead of “auto,” which will operate the fan continuously, even when heating or air-conditioning is not required.
• Open outdoor air dampers beyond minimum settings to reduce or eliminate HVAC air recirculation. In mild weather, this will not affect thermal comfort or humidity. However, this may be difficult to do in cold, hot, or humid weather.
• Improve central air filtration:
  • Increase air filtrationexternal icon to as high as possible without significantly reducing design airflow.
  • Inspect filter housing and racks to ensure appropriate filter fit and check for ways to minimize filter bypass.
  • Check filters to ensure they are within their service life and appropriately installed.
• Ensure restroom exhaust fans are functional and operating at full capacity when the building is occupied.
• Inspect and maintain local exhaust ventilation in areas such as kitchens, cooking areas, etc. Operate these systems any time these spaces are occupied. Consider operating these systems, even when the specific space is not occupied, to increase overall ventilation within the occupied building.
• Consider portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) fan/filtration systems to help enhance air cleaning (especially in higher risk areas such as a nurse’s office or areas frequently inhabited by persons with higher likelihood of COVID-19 and/or increased risk of getting COVID-19).
• Generate clean-to-less-clean air movement by re-evaluating the positioning of supply and exhaust air diffusers and/or dampers (especially in higher risk areas).
• Consider using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) as a supplement to help inactivate SARS-CoV-2, especially if options for increasing room ventilation are limited. Upper-room UVGI systemspdf icon can be used to provide air cleaning within occupied spaces, and in-duct UVGI systems can help enhance air cleaning inside central ventilation systems.

*Note: The ventilation intervention considerations listed above come with a range of initial costs and operating costs which, along with risk assessment parameters such as community incidence rates, facemask compliance expectations and room occupant density, may affect considerations for which interventions are implemented.  Cost estimates per room for the listed ventilation interventions in cost. Here are some examples:

In non-residential settings, consider running the HVAC system at maximum outside airflow for 2 hours before and after the building is occupied.

• No cost: opening windows; inspecting and maintaining local exhaust ventilation; disabling DCV controls; or repositioning outdoor air dampers
• Less than $100: using fans to increase effectiveness of open windows; or repositioning supply/exhaust diffusers to create directional airflow
• $500 (approximately): adding portable HEPA fan/filter systems
• $1500 (approximately): adding upper room UVGI