When will we have a vaccine? It’s a question most of us have asked at some point during the pandemic, especially as we long to safely return to some degree of normalcy. And most of us have heard the disappointing answer: All truly new vaccines have taken years, not months, to make.
But there is fresh hope that a vaccine for the novel coronavirus may arrive in record time. Yesterday, researchers from biotechnology company Moderna Therapeutics—one of several firms working to create a vaccine—published promising initial results from their efforts in the New England Journal of Medicine. Theirs is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be tested in people.
“There's a lot riding on a successful COVID-19 vaccine,” says TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park, who’s been following vaccine production efforts from day one. “These are the first results from a COVID-19 vaccine, and they're encouraging, so they bode well for the promise of having a vaccine against this disease.”
In the study, 45 people received two injections of the vaccine, administered a month apart. “It seems that two doses are needed, which is what is expected from this type of vaccine and from a vaccine against an emerging virus that hasn’t been present in the population," Dr. Lisa Jackson, lead author of the study, told Park. “The immune system needs to be set up by the first dose to then respond more vigorously to the second one.”
No one in the study suffered serious side effects. But about half had mild side effects, including fatigue, headache and chills. “Volunteers I've talked to have said that they weren't severe enough for them to give up the potential protection against COVID-19,” Park says.
The trial was designed to determine if Moderna’s vaccine is safe, not whether it’s effective. But there are hints of the latter—all of the participants produced antibodies to the virus. Much is still unknown, including how long any immune response might last. The next step is to test the vaccine in a group of 300 people, half of whom will form a control group and be given a placebo injection. After that comes phase 3, when researchers will test how the vaccine performs against a placebo among 30,000 volunteers.
It’s a promising start, especially considering other companies are working on vaccines of their own, potentially increasing the odds that at least one will wind up being both effective and safe. “If the results continue to be positive, some experts have predicted there may be some doses of vaccine available, at least for high-risk groups like health care workers, by the end of the year,” Park says.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 13.3 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 1 AM eastern time this morning, and more than 578,000 people had died.
Here is every country with over 200,000 confirmed cases:
Tokyo raised its pandemic alert level to red—the highest status—as the virus spreads throughout Japan (including in Okinawa, where infection levels are surging at U.S. military bases). Young people seem particularly affected by the recent spike in Tokyo, which officials have tied to the city’s entertainment district. Hospitals in Tokyo are filling up; the number of patients doubled from the prior week, Reuters reports. Japan has recorded nearly 23,000 cases, while nearly 1,000 people have died there.
India, where more than 24,000 people have died from the coronavirus, is reimposing lockdowns in at least two of its states: Bihar and Bangalore, the Associated Press reports. The reinstated measures come as the country reported almost 30,000 new cases and nearly 600 deaths today. While the lockdowns may help curb the spread of the virus, they stand to be devastating to India’s economy.
Finally, South Africa now has the eighth-most cases in the world (298,292)—surpassing the United Kingdom—and accounts for half of the known cases across Africa. The outbreak is “the gravest crisis in the history of our democracy,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said this week, the AP reports.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. recorded more than 3.4 million coronavirus cases as of 1 AM eastern time this morning. Nearly 136,500 people have died.
On July 14, there were 67,417 new cases and 900 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Alabama broke its own grim record today for the most coronavirus deaths there in a single day—47—leading governor Kay Ivey to announce that everyone must wear a mask in public across the state. Separately, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt announced at a press conference today that he is the first U.S. governor to test positive for the coronavirus, CNN reports. He said he feels mostly fine, but a “little bit achy.”
As the death count rises in some Texas and Arizona counties, officials there have requested refrigerated trucks that may be used to temporarily hold the bodies of outbreak victims, Newsweek reports. It’s a depressing echo of what New York City endured months ago during the peak of the virus there, when such trucks were used to help deal with what was an overwhelming crush of bodies.
Meanwhile, devastating news from a Montana care home serves as a reminder that what you don’t know can still hurt you: In May, a Billings facility turned down the state’s offer for free testing for assisted living and long-term care facilities. Now almost every resident of the facility has the coronavirus, while eight have died so far.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of July 15, 1 AM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Why Your Dreams Are So Weird During the Pandemic
Have your dreams been more vivid than usual lately? It’s not just you. A team of visual journalists teamed up with a Harvard University dream expert to animate—and analyze—one man’s wild pandemic dream. Read more here.
Going To Walmart? You’ll Have to Wear a Mask
Walmart and Sam’s Club shoppers will have to wear masks at locations nationwide starting Monday, according to new company rules. The companies join a growing number of major retailers that require patrons to wear masks—shoppers must also mask up at Best Buy, Costco and Starbucks. Read more here.
The White House’s COVID-19 Data Maneuver Has Some Experts Worried
The White House has ordered hospitals to send information from patients infected with the coronavirus directly to a Washington database, bypassing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the New York Times reports. While administration officials say the move will streamline data collection, public health experts are concerned that cutting the CDC out of the loop will further politicize the virus. Read more here.
14 Ways America Can Better Deal With the Pandemic
The state of the U.S. during the outbreak isn’t just bad—it’s a “raging dumpster fire,” as STAT reporter Helen Branswell puts it. She spoke with more than a dozen public health officials for their advice on moving the country in the right direction. 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 Mandy Oaklander and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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