ABC News: What you need to consider if you’re planning to travel overseas with your unvaccinated kids
With international borders now open in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, experts are urging people to plan trips carefully, especially when accompanied by unvaccinated children.
Dr Daryl Cheng, Fellow at the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne shares his key recommendations for parents travelling overseas with unvaccinated kids, including weighing up the risks and benefits, and the importance of being well prepared and familiar with local health systems in their travel destinations.
Follow the link below to read the full article:
What you need to consider if you’re planning to travel overseas with your unvaccinated kids
Omicron variant: will the COVID-19 Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca vaccines protect you?
Scientists around the world are looking at whether protective antibodies in the current COVID-19 vaccines are “sufficiently high” to cover the new Omicron strain. Additionally, the WHO and governments are assessing the severity of the new variant.
Vaccine makers, including Pfizer and Moderna have been working on “next-generation” mRNA vaccines that would be able to target particular variants circulating. Current data suggests that the COVID-19 vaccines used in Australia will protect against severe disease.
To read the full article, please click on the link below:
Omicron variant: will the COVID-19 Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca vaccines protect you?
Moderna says new vaccine for Omicron variant may be ready in early 2022
Moderna Inc. Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton has announced that they are working rapidly to test the current vaccine against the Omicron variant and studying two booster candidates.
Current data suggests that protection against the new strain still exists, depending on the length of time passed from an individual's second vaccine dose.
To read the full article, please follow the link below:
Moderna says new vaccine for Omicron variant may be ready in early 2022
New educational resource: Generation Next course on COVID and kids
MVEC has collaborated with the team at Generation Next on a new resource featuring Dr Daryl Cheng to provide helpful strategies to get kids back to school safely and reduce transmission of COVID-19 in this group.
Course content reflects the combined efforts of immunisation paediatricians, adult physicians, immunisation nurses, infectious disease, and allergy specialists, as well as infection control teams. The information works to provide guidance and support for parents and communities to ensure a safe transition to a new COVID normal.
To enrol in this free course, please click on the link below:
Next Generation course: Covid and kids
Final episode of COVID19 Road to a vaccine: Professor Walter Orenstein
In the final episode of this podcast series our host, Associate Professor Nigel Crawford, speaks with Professor Walter Orenstein. Dr Orenstein is a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, Global Health and Paediatrics at Emory University; Associate Director of the Emory Vaccine Center and the Director of Emory Vaccine Policy and Development. An expert in vaccinology, Dr Orenstein has worked at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Director of the United States Immunisation Program and is a current member of several WHO groups. Further to this he is the co-editor of the vaccine textbook, Plotkin’s Vaccines, 7th edition. In this episode they discuss:
- Lessons that can be learnt from Plotkin’s Vaccines in the setting of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and development of vaccines
- Recent press releases showing promising early results from two mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna
- The critical role of ongoing monitoring for safety and effectiveness of vaccines once they are in use
- The likely highest priority groups when vaccines do become available
- The role of children in SARS-CoV-2 transmission and whether or not they need to be vaccinated
- The importance of a correlate of protection in SARS-CoV-2 vaccines
- The need to monitor for vaccine associated enhanced disease (VAED)
- The importance of immunisation providers supporting reports of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI)
- The importance of communication in supporting vaccine acceptance and uptake
- Key next steps on the road to a COVID-19 vaccine: a better understanding of how many doses are required and when, a prioritisation process so the vaccines can be used most effectively (with a clear allocation system); and communicating to the public that social distancing and wearing a mask will be ongoing for some time as a level of normality won’t be reached immediately, even with the exciting new efficacious COVID-19 vaccines
Links:
- Plotkin’s Vaccines, 7th ed
- Pfizer/BioNTech conclude phase 3 study of COVID-19 vaccine candidate, meeting all primary efficacy endpoints
- Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate meets its primary efficacy endpoint in the first interim analysis of the phase 3 COVE study
You can listen to the episode here:
The Conversation: Moderna’s COVID vaccine reports 95% efficacy
The American biotech company Moderna has released early data from phase III clinical trials, announcing that its COVID-19 vaccine has an efficacy level of 94.5%.
Like Pfizer's vaccine, the Moderna vaccine is also an mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine, however will be easier to distribute as its temperature requirements are 4℃ for 30 days (rather than -70℃ as in the case of the Pfizer vaccine); and for storage requirements beyond 30 days it needs to be kept at -20℃.
The stage III trial involved 30,000 participants, out of those 95 people developed COVID-19 in the week after the final vaccination, with 90 of those being in the placebo group and only 5 in the group who received the COVID vaccine.
It is unknown how long protection from this vaccine lasts and how effective it is in the elderly, pregnant women or those with a chronic illness; however, in results Moderna published in September the vaccine produced a similar amount of antibodies in adults over 70 as adults under 70 years of age. It did however induce fewer T cells in people aged over 71, so at this stage it is not know whether this will result in lower protection or shorter lasting immunity in the elderly.
COVID19 Road to a vaccine episode 17: How the COVID-19 pandemic is being managed in British Columbia, Canada, with Dr Bonnie Henry
In episode 17 of our COVID19 Road to a vaccine series, our host, Associate Professor Nigel Crawford, speaks to Dr Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer (PHO) for the Province of BC in Canada. As the PHO Bonnie is leading the province’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bonnie has been in this role since the beginning of 2018 and prior to this was the deputy PHO for three years. She specialises in public health and preventative medicine, and has a background working with the World Health Organisation and UNICEF polio eradication program in Pakistan and with the WHO during the Ebola outbreak in Uganda. She has experience leading responses to SARS, the H1N1 pandemic and the overdose emergency in BC. Bonnie is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine and is a member of the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunisation. She and Nigel discuss the following:
- Bonnie’s current role leading BC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic
- What she learnt from the 2003 SARS outbreak and how this experience and knowledge can be applied to the current pandemic such as the importance of contact tracing, managing outbreaks and the importance of communicating with the public
- The role COVID-19 vaccines will play in Canada and challenges that will need to be faced such as logistics, ensuring adequate safety profiles, determining priority groups to be immunised first and protecting indigenous communities
- The critical importance of monitoring for adverse events following immunisation
Links:
- The New York Times: The top doctor who aced the coronavirus test
- BC Centre for Disease Control: BC COVID-19 data
- Government of Canada: Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Statement on Preliminary Guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) on Key Populations for Early COVID-19 Vaccination
- Government of Canada: Government of Canada signs new agreements to secure additional vaccine candidate and treatment for COVID-19
- BC Children's Hospital: Manish Sadarangani
- Dalhousie University Department of Pediatrics: Karina Top
You can listen to the episode here:
BBC: Covid vaccine - First 'milestone' vaccine offers 90% protection
Vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech have announced preliminary data shows their COVID-19 vaccine is demonstrating 90% effectiveness. The vaccine has been tested on over 43,000 people in six countries (USA, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey). They are planning to apply for emergency approval so the vaccine can be in use by the end of November.
Requiring two doses three weeks apart, the vaccine has been developed using an mRNA platform. Scientists take part of the virus’s genetic code and coat it in a lipid so that it can enter the body’s cells resulting in the production of the coronavirus spike protein, prompting the immune system to produce antibodies and T-cells to kill the infected cells. If the person who has been immunised encounters the virus, the antibodies and T-cells are then activated to fight the virus.
It is not known how effective the vaccine will be in elderly people as yet or how long immunity will last. This vaccine is not without manufacturing and logistical challenges, as mRNA vaccines need to be stored at minus 80 degrees Celsius. To date, no major safety issues have been identified.
Read more about this via the link below:
BBC: Covid vaccine: First 'milestone' vaccine offers 90% protection
COVID19 Road to a vaccine episode 16: COVID-19 vaccine candidates regulatory process update with Professor Norman Baylor
In episode 16 of our COVID19 Road to a vaccine series, our host, Associate Professor Nigel Crawford speaks once again with Professor Norman Baylor. Professor Baylor is the former Director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review Center at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is the President and CEO of Biologics Consulting and current advisor to the WHO.
In this episode they discuss:
- The recent FDA Vaccines and related biological products advisory committee meeting which was, as is customary, open to the public
- The huge amount countries like Australia can learn from the transparency of these open forums
- What vaccine efficacy thresholds are and what they have been set at for COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the USA
- Including children and special risk groups such as pregnant women in clinical trials
- Potential for confusion when more than one COVID-19 vaccine becomes available with varying levels of efficacy
- The ongoing collection of data to monitor vaccine safety and effectiveness
- Pauses or clinical holds being a normal part of clinical trials
- The importance of communication from regulatory bodies as COVID-19 vaccines become available
Links:
- Biologics Consulting
- FDA: Expanded access
- FDA: Emergency Use Authorisation
- FDA: Vaccines and related biological products advisory committee October 22 2020
- MVEC: COVID19 Road to a vaccine episode 7: The importance of regulatory bodies in the development of vaccines with Professor Norman Baylor
- The Conversation: Halting the Oxford vaccine trial doesn’t mean it’s not safe, it shows they’re following the right process
Download the episode at:
COVID19 Road to a vaccine episode 15: Professor Lynn Gillam
In episode 15, our host, Associate Professor Nigel Crawford, speaks to Professor Lynn Gillam. Lynn is a clinical ethicist who trained in philosophy and bioethics. She is a Professor in the Centre for Health Equity, in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne; and the Academic Director of The Children’s Bioethics Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. The Children’s Bioethics Centre provides support including ethical decision making for clinicians in relation to patient care issues. Nigel and Lynn will discuss some of the ethical issues raised in the setting of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, utilising a framework of points raised by Dr John Lantos from the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, USA, at the recent Bioethics E-Conference hosted by The Children’s Bioethics Centre:
- The importance of realising that not doing something or not conducting research is a decision in itself
- The notion of “too fast can’t be safe” – some steps need to take the time they have always taken, some things can be done more quickly, recognising that if you do nothing, you are allowing harm to happen
- The role of ethical boards and the way vaccines are developed, i.e. the use of younger, healthier participants in research, not the individuals who are getting the worst disease
- The involvement of children and elderly people in clinical trials and the key differences in the ethical considerations of this
- Global equity of access to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines when they become available, who gets them first and how should these decisions be made?
- The role of Citizens’ Juries in deciding who has priority of access to vaccines in a pandemic situation
- Mandatory vaccination
- The use of foetal embryonic cell lines in vaccine development
Links
- Australian Financial Review: Vaccine confronts humanity with next moral test
- MVEC: Foetal embryonic cells utilised in vaccine development platforms
- University of Melbourne: Gaining clarity on the ethical issues of a possible COVID-19 vaccine
- BMC Public Health: Including the public in pandemic planning: a deliberative approach
- Social Science and Medicine: The use of citizens’ juries in health policy decision making: a systematic review
- RCH Grand Rounds: Let no pandemic go to waste – how the COVID crisis could lead to better health care delivery
Listen to the episode here: