28 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • AUGUST 2020
RACE FOR CURE
RAISES QUESTIONS
No vaccine has yet been approved for
COVID-19, the disease caused by the
new coronavirus that has killed more
than 664,000 people as of press time
and unleashed economic havoc worldwide.
There are more than two dozen
coronavirus vaccines at the human
clinical trial stage as the race to tame
the pandemic heats up.
Among those in development, Massachusetts
based Moderna Inc. said
its experimental COVID-19 vaccine
induced a “robust immune response”
and protected against infection in
a study on monkeys. Australian
biotechnology company Vaxine Pty
Ltd expects to start Phase II trials of
its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the
next few weeks after “positive” results
from the first-stage human study. And
Russia’s first potential COVID-19 vaccine,
developed by the Moscow-based
Gamaleya Institute, will win local
regulatory approval in the first half of
August after completing early human
trials in July and be administered to
frontline health workers soon afterwards,
a development source close to
the matter told Reuters.
“Although a vaccine is still some
months away, early research shows
promise that a vaccine could prevent
a resurgence of COVID-19,” Dr. Glatt
“We’re hopeful that as one is developed,
tested, and proven effective, people’s
attitudes will change,” said Dr. Aaron Glatt.
said. “Science is on our side. Right
now, there is still too much unknown
about a potential vaccine, and I assume
that uncertainty is what we are seeing
reflected in the poll results.”
On Long Island, formerly one of the national
coronavirus hot spots in April,
the number of cases has held steady.
There were 86,184 confirmed COVID-19
cases — 43,100 in Nassau County,
43,084 in Suffolk County — and 4,190
residents succumbed to the virus,
including 2,194 in Nassau and 1,996 in
Suffolk as of July 28, according to the
New York State Department of Health.
There were 413,593 cases statewide,
4.3 million nationwide, and 16 million
worldwide as of that date, data shows.
“We have successfully flattened the
curve, but we have not eliminated the
virus,” says Dr. Bettina Fries, Chief of
the Division of Infectious Diseases at
Stony Brook Medicine. “I don’t think
we will get rid of the coronavirus, it
will stay around, and you will see cases
pop up, but it will be identified and
the outbreak will be taken care of. The
majority of people will be protected
because they will be vaccinated.”
But because the virus mutates, uncertainty
remains.
“We just have to see whether it will be
a long-term vaccination, or will it be
similar to a flu vaccine where it will
be repeated every year,” Dr. Fries says.
Dr. Miriam Rahav, a Manhattan-based
internal medicine, hospice, and palliative
care specialist, says it may not be
so simple. She says a COVID-19 vaccine
does not come without risk, has only
been tested on healthy individuals, and
the virus has already mutated into 30
variants.
“A lack of long-term safety testing is
a red flag for the new coronavirus
vaccine,” she says. “Knowledge about
these mutations may prove useful to
clinicians wanting to better tailor their
COVID-19 treatments, but the proliferation
of mutations makes the chances
of developing an effective vaccine
immensely more uncertain.”
-With Reuters and Timothy Bolger
PRESS HEALTH
continued from page 27
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