The timing for this morning’s hearing on COVID-19 vaccines in the House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce was serendipitous, coming just a day after Oxford University announced a breakthrough in its quest for a vaccine. Dr. Mene Pangalos, executive vice president for biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca, which plans to mass-produce the Oxford vaccine, offered testimony, as did representatives of four other companies also pursuing a vaccine: Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna and Pfizer.
Congress being Congress, the proceedings started on a partisan note, with Chairman Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, criticizing the Trump Administration’s handling of the pandemic. “From day one,” Pallone said, “President Trump has done everything he can to minimize the severity of this pandemic and to undermine his public health experts. The Administration still has not developed a national plan to combat the pandemic, it has no national testing strategy, no one in charge of the supply chain and [has made] little effort to invoke the Defense Production Act.”
Reasonable minds can disagree on whether Pallone’s criticism was warranted. But few can disagree that there was more important business to attend this morning to than political disputes—and the hearing did make news of its own, with Congressman John Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat, getting each company to follow Pfizer's lead and promise to help mass produce another company's vaccine if theirs is not the first one ready.
Pangalos, the AstraZeneca rep, seemed the greater of the industrial equals this morning, with the medical community still buzzing about the latest Oxford University findings, published yesterday in The Lancet. The study began in April, with 1,077 adults aged 18 to 55 divided roughly in half; some got Oxford's experimental vaccine and others served as a control group.
Oxford's vaccine uses a harmless-to-humans chimpanzee adenovirus as a delivery vector. That virus is modified to carry spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Those spike proteins should, in theory, induce the sought-after immune response in humans. What the researchers were looking for were two kinds of immune reaction: humoral immunity, or the system-wide generation of antibodies against the virus; and cellular immunity, or the activation of T-cells that attack infected human cells.
They very much got what they were looking for. T-cell responses became detectable by day seven after injection, peaked at day 14, and remained elevated at least until day 56. Humoral antibodies peaked at day 28 and remained elevated until at least day 56. That eight-week mark is a good early measure of a vaccine’s ability to confer at least short-term immunity.
Furthermore, getting a second dose of the Oxford vaccine seems to increase its efficacy. Of the 1,077 subjects, 10 were selected for a second booster dose on day 28. When the antibodies of 37 of the subjects who had received a single dose were tested against the virus in a test tube, 23 of them, or 62%, completely neutralized the virus as late as day 56. When the same was done with the subjects who had received a second dose, the neutralizing effect was a perfect 100%.
Those are exactly the kinds of results that drugmakers—and lawmakers—are looking for, especially now as cases are spiking again throughout the U.S. If America can’t social-distance its way out of the pandemic, perhaps it can vaccinate its way out. With the curve nowhere near being flattened, that may be our best remaining route.
More than 14.7 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 1 AM eastern time today, and nearly 609,900 had died.
Here is every country with over 250,000 confirmed cases:
Back in the spring, Spain looked like lots of other European Union countries, with a runaway COVID-19 outbreak that has left more than 28,000 dead. But the central government in Madrid imposed a three-month nationwide lockdown earlier this year, which mostly snuffed the pandemic. Now Spain looks more like the U.S., with regional outbreaks in places where local leaders opened up too soon. In Spain’s case, the hotspot is Barcelona and the Catalonia region more broadly . Madrid returned virus-control measures to local leaders there in late spring after demands to do so from some in the area, which is home to a long-simmering separatist movement. But they have not appeared up to the task: Catalonia has recorded 9,600 cases since May 10, the most of Spain’s 19 states. The biggest problem is a lack of adequate contact tracing; patients are often told to track and alert anyone with whom they might have come into contact on their own.
It’s always paid to be a plutocrat in Russia, especially since the fall of the Soviet Union. Now, it appears the rich and well-connected are benefiting in yet another way: they’re among the first people to receive experimental doses of a new vaccine being developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow (with more than 776,000 recorded cases of the disease, Russia is the fourth hardest-hit country in the world). The new vaccine has been fast-tracked, with some volunteers receiving injections as early as April and the government teasing a wider rollout as early as September. Phase 3 trials of the vaccine—which is made of an ordinary human adenovirus paired with spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19—are underway. Among the lucky few receiving the experimental vaccine are ranking executives at major Russian companies, like aluminum giant United Co. Rusal, as well as numerous government officials. One prominent Russian who has not yet received the shot, however: President Vladimir Putin. “It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to use an uncertified vaccine on the head of state,” one Kremlin spokesman told reporters yesterday.
As South Africa goes, so goes the continent. That’s the concern of the World Health Organization, which fears that the country’s 373,000-plus cases (the fifth most worldwide) are a bellwether for the 53 other African nations. “Sometimes, this disease can take off very quickly and sometimes, in other situations, it takes off more slowly, and then accelerates,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, in a call with reporters yesterday, according to CNN. In multiple African countries, that rapid acceleration is clearly underway, with Madagascar, Namibia and Botswana, for example, showing new-case increases of 50%, 69% and 66% respectively in just the past week. Over 736,000 cases have been recorded across Africa as of this morning.
Here’s the good news: You can now go see a movie in China. Here’s the bad news: no popcorn, soda or other snacks, and it could get awkward if you want to hold hands, as audience members must be seated at least a meter apart. Still, the fact that movies are opening in most of the country—along with museums, libraries and gyms in Beijing—is one more sign that the country that was hit first by the virus is also among the first to climb out successfully from under it. According to the South China Morning Post, all of China is now considered low risk for the virus, with the exception of two high risk and three medium risk areas in the far west. But the country is not letting its guard down. “We should make preparations for a possible COVID-19 comeback in fall and winter,” one government official told the Morning Post.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. recorded more than 3.8 million coronavirus cases as of 1 AM eastern time today. Nearly 141,000 people have died.
On July 20, there were 56,750 new cases and 372 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
The only thing everyone agrees on when it comes to whether U.S. schools will reopen in the fall is that no one can agree at all . Students in hard-hit Atlanta will resume classes on August 24, but at least the first nine weeks of the school year will take place online only. Dallas schools will open sometime in August—a date has not even been set—but in-person classes won’t be offered until September 8 at the earliest. Houston will begin the school year online on September 8, with in-person classes resuming October 19, maybe. All this comes as U.S. President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continue to call for all schools to open nationwide in the fall. But the Administration is showing cracks on the issue. Today, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said on CBS This Morning that schools should reopen only when the U.S. has lowered its COVID-19 transmission rate—which it clearly has not done.
Just how President Trump will respond to independent voices like the Surgeon General’s and others on the White House Coronavirus Task Force will become clearer today, as the task force briefings resume—starring Trump alone . The daily briefings were must-watch TV in the spring, but were eventually scuttled after presidential stumbles, including his (incorrect and dangerous) recommendation that people inject disinfectant to battle the coronavirus. But Trump will retake the dais today, with briefings resuming on a schedule of perhaps three times per week. There is still a chance that Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, both task force members, will be invited to attend. “They are still figuring that out,” Surgeon General Adms said during the same CBS This Morning interview. For now, though, it’s solely the Trump show.
As Florida battles a resurgent coronavirus, determined beachgoers and partiers know exactly where to go to escape social distancing restrictions—and continue to spread the virus in the process: party boats. Even as daily hospital admissions in the state jumped from 1,656 on July 7 to 2,278 on July 20 and ICU occupancy rose from 343 to 513 in the same period, recreational boats packed with partiers are increasingly crowding coastal waters, The Daily Beast reports. "'There's no corona in the water' is a general statement I hear a lot," one boater told The Daily Beast.
Think the relationship between President Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci couldn’t get worse? Think again, as Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals have invited Fauci to throw out the ceremonial first pitch during the team’s July 23 home opener against the New York Yankees—often a presidential duty. For Fauci, it’s all upside: The Nats and Yanks are his two favorite teams. For the Nationals, it’s a big plus too. “Dr. Fauci has been a true champion for our country during the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career, so it is only fitting that we honor him as we kick off the 2020 season and defend our World Series Championship title,” the team said in a statement.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of July 21, 1 AM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
DeSantis Heckled As Virus Surges in Florida
As popular as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis might have been when he reopened his state after its initial coronavirus lockdown, he’s now taking heat as cases explode. For the second time this week, a gubernatorial press conference was disrupted by protesters who blame him for the current crisis, chanting “shame on you” and “you are lying.” Read more here.
Are U.S. Cases Being Undercounted?
A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that in some parts of the country, cases have been dramatically underreported. That's because many infected people either had no symptoms or did have them but never contacted medical services. The actual totals in different regions might be anywhere from two to 13 times higher than reported. Read more here.
New Poll Reveals the Economic Pinch
It’s easy to say that the pandemic has clobbered the American economy as a whole, and family budgets in particular. But a new poll from research organization NORC lays out the numbers much more starkly: About 25% of Americans have had to burn through at least some of their savings to remain solvent as a result of the pandemic. Meanwhile, 42% of Hispanic Americans, 32% of Black Americans and 21% of white Americans have suffered a loss in income. Read more here.
Chicago Is Closing Back Down
With 1,173 new cases reported yesterday, Chicago—which, like Illinois as a whole, is seeing a surge of new infections—is returning to a state of semi-lockdown. Bars that don’t serve food will be forbidden to serve liquor inside; personal fitness classes will be limited to 10 people or fewer and apartment buildings are being asked to limit guests to five people per unit. Mayor Lori Lightfoot could issue more restrictions soon. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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