The first vaccine trial for the COVID-19 virus is underway in the state of Washington, and GV Wire spoke to one of the first participants, Neal Browning, via "Zoom" to learn what is happening and get his thoughts on the timeframe for a vaccine. On March 16, 2020, Kaiser Permanente...
Fighting COVID-19: Kaiser Permanente Launches First Vaccine Trial
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the National Institutes of Health, selected Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute as the first to begin clinical testing of a coronavirus vaccine. This is how the NIH describes the vaccine trial: "The experimental vaccine was developed using a genetic...
Fighting COVID-19: Drug Shows Promise in Treating Coronavirus Patients
Vancouver-based company CytoDyn Inc. shared positive test results on Friday from seven coronavirus patients who were treated with the company’s leronlimab drug at a leading medical center in the New York City area. Seven Patients With Severe COVID-19 Demonstrate Promise In a Friday press release sent to GV Wire, the company says...
Not All or Nothing: Anti-Virus Lockdowns Could Lift Slowly
WASHINGTON — For the millions of Americans living under some form of lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, not knowing when the restrictions will end is a major source of anxiety. Will life events — weddings, funerals, even just simple nights out with friends — be delayed for...
Can Blood From Coronavirus Survivors Treat the Newly Ill?
WASHINGTON — Hospitals are gearing up to test if a century-old treatment used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines, and tried more recently against SARS and Ebola, just might work for COVID-19, too: using blood donated from patients who’ve recovered. Doctors in China attempted...
First Coronavirus Vaccine Tests Begin. Public Availability Many Months Away.
SEATTLE — U.S. researchers gave the first shots in a first test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine Monday, leading off a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges. With careful jabs in the arms of four healthy volunteers, scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle...
Experts Scramble, but New Virus Vaccine May Not Come in Time
WASHINGTON — The flu-like virus that exploded from China has researchers worldwide once again scrambling to find a vaccine against a surprise health threat, with no guarantee one will arrive in time. Just days after Chinese scientists shared the genetic map of the culprit coronavirus, researchers at the U.S. National...
1st Malaria Vaccine Tried out in Babies in 3 African Nations
TOMALI, Malawi — A pinch in the leg, a squeal and a trickle of tears. One baby after another in Malawi is getting the first and only vaccine against malaria, one of history's deadliest and most stubborn of diseases. The southern African nation is rolling out the shots in an unusual pilot...
'Tough Year' for Measles and Other Infectious Diseases in US
NEW YORK — This year, the germs roared back. Measles tripled. Hepatitis A mushroomed. A rare but deadly mosquito-borne disease increased. And that was just the United States. Globally, there was an explosion of measles in many countries, an unrelenting Ebola outbreak in Africa and a surge in dengue fever...
Study: California Law Lifts Vaccination in 'High-Risk' Areas
SACRAMENTO — A study released this week has found that a law aimed at boosting vaccination rates across California had the greatest effect in high-risk areas where the vaccination rates were the lowest. The peer-reviewed study published in the journal PLOS Medicine on Monday shows that the 2016 legislation contributed to a...