Tag Archives: COVID-19 variants

White Houses still sees inflation abating, can’t say exactly when

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House expects supply chain pressures that are fueling higher inflation to abate in the “not-too-distant future,” but cannot say exactly when, a senior official said on Tuesday after June consumer prices showed the biggest gain in 13 years.

The official declined to repeat earlier forecasts that inflation would peak in the summer months, citing continued uncertainty about when the supply chain pressures would ease, and concerns over the emergence of new COVID-19 variants.

Asked if the bump in prices for certain services reflected any price gouging, the official said, “that probably remains to be seen,” and added that it was an issue worth investigating.

The U.S. consumer price index increased 0.9% in June amid supply constraints and a continued rebound in the costs of travel-related services from pandemic-depressed levels as the economic recovery gathered momentum.

The CPI had jumped 0.6% in May.

White House officials remain convinced that the bump in prices is transitory, citing moderating pressures in the semiconductor market and a drop in lumber prices – two factors that have led to bottlenecks and pushed prices higher.

They cited recent upward revisions in overall growth forecasts and said President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 rescue plan had been effective in driving a stronger-than-expected recovery, but also signaled growing concern about new COVID-19 variants and lingering disparities in vaccination rates.

“We expect that these things will work themselves out in the not-too-distant future, but I can’t say exactly when,” said one official. “We also can’t say whether or not we really truly do have this pandemic under control.”

Pressed to put a timeframe on when the inflationary pressures would ease, the official said, “We are just watching the data closely, week by week, month by month.”

About 60% of the June increase was due to used and new cars and auto parts, the official said.

Officials were looking at the sectors driving the higher prices carefully, the official said, adding that some of the increase was due to the so-called base effect, reflecting the low level of prices seen during the pandemic.

A second official said there was continued concern about the automotive market, but administration officials were in close touch with dealers, producers, semiconductor suppliers and others, and remained convinced current pressures would diminish.

The White House did not expect the sharp increases in used car prices to last beyond this year, said one of the officials.

The official said some underlying problems in the U.S. economy – including a severe shortage of housing and the high price of pharmaceuticals – would remain a problem.

Biden’s proposed budget included $213 billion in funding for affordable housing to address part of the issue, while the executive order he signed on Friday should result in lower pharmaceutical and hearing aid prices, the official said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Canada needs stricter health measures to counter rapid spread of COVID-19 variants – officials

By Steve Scherer and Julie Gordon

OTTAWA (Reuters) – COVID-19 variant cases are increasing rapidly in several parts of Canada and longer-range forecasts show that stronger public health restrictions will be required to counter the spread of the disease, health officials said on Friday.

Canada is expecting enough coronavirus vaccine doses to double its supply by the end of next week as it ramps up its vaccination program. But more transmissible variants now account for a high proportion of new cases, health officials said.

“Increasing case counts, shifting severity trends and a rising proportion of cases involving variants of concern is a reminder that we are in a very tight race between vaccines versus variants,” Canada’s chief medical officer, Theresa Tam, told reporters.

While Canada has handed out first shots to many of the most vulnerable and very elderly, recent data shows that young adults between 20 and 39 years of age are driving new cases now, health officials said.

Many parts of the country have begun to relax some health restrictions put in place to beat back a second wave, but Tam said Canadians should buckle down now to avoid a sharp rise in cases and a third wave.

“We are closer now than ever, but it is still too soon to relax measures and too soon to gather in areas where COVID-19 is still circulating in Canada,” Tam said.

“So as Passover, Easter and Ramadan approach, make plans to celebrate safely, including having virtual celebrations to protect each other as we make this the last big push to keep the path clear for vaccines,” she said.

As of Thursday, Canada had reported 22,790 deaths and 951,562 total coronavirus cases. On Friday, the officials told reporters that new modeling showed the domestic death toll could rise to between 22,875 and 23,315 by April 4, with total cases rising to between 973,080 and 1,005,020.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer and Julie Gordon; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Indian vaccine makers say can quickly adapt to tackle variants

By Krishna N. Das and Neha Arora

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian pharmaceutical companies Bharat Biotech and Biological E. Ltd said on Monday they could quickly rework their COVID-19 vaccine products to fight new variants once their genetic sequence is known.

In recent months, India has confirmed the presence of the variants first identified in Brazil, Britain and South Africa, which are believed to explain an upsurge in cases in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Kerala.

In all, India has reported more than 11 million coronavirus infections, the highest number in the world after the United States, and about 156,000 deaths.

“As we are seeing a lot of resurgence of cases, we are picking up samples from hotspots and clusters and we are trying to sequence them,” Nivedita Gupta, deputy director-general of the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told the BioAsia conference.

ICMR and Bharat Biotech have collaborated to develop India’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine, which, along with another licensed from AstraZeneca and Oxford University, is being used in the country’s immunization campaign that has covered more than 10 million people since mid-January.

India is the world’s biggest maker of vaccines, and its companies have promised to produce billions of doses of COVID-19 shots.

Bharat Biotech Chairman Krishna Ella said his company would mainly need data from the ICMR or the World Health Organization on the genetic sequence of any variant to quickly make an effective vaccine.

Speaking at a conference organized by the state of Telangana, home to India’s vaccine hub Hyderabad, Ella said a product to tackle the South African variant could be made in 15 days and would not require any change to the manufacturing process.

Biological E. Managing Director Mahima Datla said there was no need to be “overly concerned” about the mutations.

“Eventually we don’t know which variant of the virus, which mutants will take over, but we think that it’s prudent to work on technologies that address the new variants as well,” she said.

Biological E., which is developing a vaccine with Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and Dynavax Technologies, recently completed Phase 1/2 clinical trial in India, Datla said.

Its product uses the recombinant-protein technology in which a harmless agent is used to stimulate an immune response in cells.

“Once you know the variant, when it’s sequenced, it is fairly quick to deploy into a vaccine,” said Datla, whose company will also contract-manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s shot.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das and Neha Arora; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Fauci says vaccinate quickly to fight COVID-19 variants

(Reuters) – The best defense against the evolution of COVID-19 and the emergence of variant strains is getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, top U.S. infectious disease doctor Anthony Fauci said on a Monday media briefing.

Fauci said while it was reasonable to think about studying the efficacy of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccine as a one-dose regimen in light of supply vaccine constraints, such a study would take months to complete, thus likely making its conclusions moot. Fauci continued to encourage people get two doses of the vaccine.

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell, Editing by Franklin Paul)

World faces around 4,000 COVID-19 variants as researchers explore mixed vaccine shots

By Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) – The world faces around 4,000 variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, prompting a race to improve vaccines, Britain said on Thursday, as researchers began to explore mixing doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots.

Thousands of variants have been documented as the virus mutates, including the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants which appear to spread more swiftly than others.

British Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was very unlikely that the current vaccines would not work against the new variants.

“Its very unlikely that the current vaccine won’t be effective on the variants whether in Kent or other variants especially when it comes to severe illness and hospitalization,” Zahawi told Sky News.

“All manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and others, are looking at how they can improve their vaccine to make sure that we are ready for any variant – there are about 4,000 variants around the world of COVID now.”

While thousands of variants have arisen as the virus mutates on replication, only a very small minority are likely to be important and to change the virus in an appreciable way, according to the British Medical Journal.

The so called British variant, known as VUI-202012/01, has mutations including a change in the spike protein that viruses use to bind to the human ACE2 receptor – meaning that it is probably easier to catch.

“We have the largest genome sequencing industry – we have about 50% of the world’s genome sequencing industry – and we are keeping a library of all the variants so that we are ready to respond – whether in the autumn or beyond – to any challenge that the virus may present and produce the next vaccine,” Zahawi said.

VACCINE RACE

The novel coronavirus – known as SARS-CoV-2 – has killed 2.268 million people worldwide since it emerged in China in late 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

Israel is currently far ahead of the rest of the world on vaccinations per head of population, followed by the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, the United States and then Spain, Italy and Germany.

Britain on Thursday launched a trial to assess the immune responses generated if doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca are combined in a two-shot schedule.

The British researchers behind the trial said data on vaccinating people with the two different types of vaccines could help understanding of whether shots can be rolled out with greater flexibility around the world. Initial data on immune responses is expected to be generated around June.

The trial will examine the immune responses of an initial dose of Pfizer vaccine followed by a booster of AstraZeneca’s, as well as vice versa, with intervals of four and 12 weeks.

Both the mRNA shot developed by Pfizer and BioNtech and the adenovirus viral vector vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca are currently being rolled out in Britain, with a 12-week gap between two doses of the same vaccine.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Andy Bruce and Alistair Smout, editing by Estelle Shirbon and Nick Macfie)