Puzzle Financial Advice

Broader spectrum vaccines that can cover all variants.

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/03/11/new-hope-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-that-protects-against-all-variants/?sh=6837ffb9259d  "New Hope For A Covid-19 Vaccine That Protects Against All Variants"  11/Mar/21

  • The first generation of Covid-19 vaccines has proven to be remarkably effective. But now that new variants of SARS-CoV-2 are on the rise, the durability and true extent of the protection they offer is being called into question. While we certainly hope that their makers will be able to adapt, there is now evidence that a vaccine capable of immunizing against coronaviruses more broadly—not just SARS-CoV-2 and its new variants—could be on the horizon. Were this pancoronavirus vaccine to come to fruition, revising existing Covid-19 vaccines year in and year out wouldn’t be necessary.

• https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/vaccines-can-protect-against-many-coronaviruses-could-prevent-another-pandemic "Vaccines that can protect against many coronaviruses could prevent another pandemic"  15/Apr/21

  • In 2017, three leading vaccine researchers submitted a grant application with an ambitious goal. At the time, no one had proved a vaccine could stop even a single beta coronavirus—the notorious viral group then known to include the lethal agents of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), as well as several causes of the common cold and many bat viruses. But these researchers wanted to develop a vaccine against them all.

  • Grant reviewers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) deemed the plan “outstanding.” But they gave the proposal a low priority score, dooming its bid for funding. “The significance for developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine may not be high,” they wrote, apparently unconvinced that the viruses pose a global threat.  How things have changed.

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Australian COVID-19 vaccine researchers critical in global search to find booster shots and 'next generation' jabs

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-11/the-australian-next-generation-covid19-vaccines/100271062

• "Across the world, eight COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for full use, with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna — and to a lesser extent Johnson & Johnson and Novavax — dominating the world landscape. .... Yet, as mutant strains of the virus continue to appear, the search for COVID-19 vaccines is far from over."

• '"In fact, according to the World Health Organization, almost 300 COVID-19 vaccines are still in development; 105 are in human-trial phase and 184 are in the pre-clinical phase. Scientists and researchers are calling them the "next generation" of COVID-19 vaccines, while other researchers are focused on developing "booster shots" for specific strains of the virus.'

• 'At least eight locally-developed "next generation" vaccines and "booster shots" are in various stages of development, with Australian researchers also involved in numerous COVID-19 vaccine research projects. Some are a little unusual, such as a vaccine "patch" being developed out of the University of Queensland and a "nasal spray" vaccine being tested in Brisbane.'

• 'Professor Cunningham and Dr Lee's project itself is focused on something a little different: a T-cell booster shot to help induce long-duration immunity. "You could say antibodies [the current vaccines] are like the forward troops, and the T-cells are like the reservists," Professor Cunningham said. "So if there's an attack, through a variant strain, the reservists can help move the defence. '

• '"The vaccines we have at the moment [are] protecting us from those variant strains, but they might not in the future, and that's what we're preparing for."'

• '"Australia and the world is entering a new phase [in the pandemic] where there's a new selective pressure for the virus to evolve, what we call 'immune evasive mutations'. '

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Merck pill seen as 'huge advance,' raises hope of preventing COVID-19 deaths  5-Oct-21

• https://twitter.com/i/events/1443890863222890496?s=12

• https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/mercks-covid-19-pill-cuts-risk-death-hospitalization-by-50-study-2021-10-01/

  • Merck says its new experimental COVID-19 pill cuts risk of death and hospitalisation by half German pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. said on Friday that findings from a recent study showed its experimental antiviral pill molnupiravir reduced hospitalisations and deaths by half in people who had recently been infected with COVID-19. The company says it will soon ask health officials around the world to authorise its use. If approved, it would become the first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19. The study results, which were released by the company, have not been peer-reviewed.

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Complete protection by a single-dose skin patch–delivered SARS-CoV-2 spike vaccine    29-Oct-21

• https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1454516454057857024      

• A single-dose skin patch protein subunit Covid vaccine more effective than shots, including vs variants, in an experimental model. So much potential for even better vaccines, including nasal/oral for mucosal immunity and pan-sarbecovirus

  • https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj8065   

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Pfizer's anti-Covid pill --Paxlovid --that reduced hospitalization and death by 89%   5-Nov-21

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-06/pfizer-antiviral-covid-pill-trial-89-per-cent-effective/100600146 

• https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1456597579169361923  

  • Big and very positive news today on Pfizer's anti-Covid pill --Paxlovid --that reduced hospitalization and death by 89%, taken within 3 days of diagnosis https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizer-says-covid-19-pill-is-89-effective-in-preliminary-assessment-11636109100  @JaredSHopkins  This week's  @ScienceMagazine  paper below on the 2nd such pill