Germany Wants Controversial Coronavirus Vaccines To Reach Poor Nations
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – After Pope Francis urged “solidarity”, German Chancellor Angela Merkel demands the distribution of controversial coronavirus vaccines among poorer nations. Her appeal comes as countries rush to start with coronavirus vaccinations before Christmas, despite fresh concerns they impact people’s behavior and DNA.
“By making precise tweaks to synthetic mRNA and injecting people with it, any cell in the body could be transformed into an on-demand drug factory,” reported STAT, the investigative health news service.
“There are about a dozen experimental vaccines in late-stage clinical trials globally, but the ones being tested by [pharmaceutical firms] Pfizer and Moderna are the only two that rely on messenger RNA. For decades, scientists have dreamed about the seemingly endless possibilities of custom-made messenger RNA, or mRNA,” STAT commented.
However, Merkel seemed upbeat about the jab and even expressed concern about a global race between richer and poorer nations to access COVID-19 vaccines.
She asked government leaders at an online meeting of the world’s 20 biggest economies, the G20, to ensure those coronavirus vaccines are available in impoverished countries. “To halt the pandemic, every country needs to have access to and be able to afford the vaccine. The funds pledged so far are not yet enough to achieve this. I, therefore, appeal to all of you to support this important initiative,” she said.
The chancellor made clear she would also raise the issue with the global vaccine alliance GAVI. “This short-term assistance is in the interest of us all. And it is also in our interest to improve global pandemic preparedness in the long term. To this end, we need to sustainably strengthen the World Health Organization.”
RELIABLE FUNDING
Merkel warned: “We need reliable funding, better cooperation, and greater independence. And the G20 can provide important, indeed crucial, support in this area. If we stand together across the globe, we can control and overcome the virus and its impact.”
Her comments came while pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Monday that late-stage trials showed its coronavirus vaccine was up to 90 percent effective. The results are based on an interim analysis of trials in Britain and Brazil of a vaccine developed by Oxford University and manufactured by AstraZeneca.
It is the third major drug company to report late-stage results for a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer and Moderna last week reported preliminary results from late-stage trials showing their vaccines were almost 95 percent effective. But, unlike its rivals, the AstraZeneca vaccine doesn’t have to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, making it easier to distribute, especially in developing countries.
Yet STAT cautioned that although relatively easy and quick to produce compared to traditional vaccine-making, no mRNA vaccine or drug has ever won approval. “Even now, as Moderna and Pfizer test their vaccines on roughly 74,000 volunteers in pivotal vaccine studies, many experts question whether the technology is ready for prime time.”
If approved, however, it would mean another breakthrough in the career of Hungarian-born scientist Katalin Karikó who was behind a key mRNA discovery. She spent the 1990s collecting rejections but eventually succeeded with support from Drew Weissman, an immunologist with a medical degree and Ph.D. from Boston University.
SWAPPING TIRE
“The stumbling block, as Karikó’s many grant rejections pointed out, was that injecting synthetic mRNA typically led to that vexing immune response; the human body sensed a chemical intruder, and went to war. The solution, Karikó, and Weissman discovered was the biological equivalent of swapping out a tire, STAT reported.
Eventually “Karikó and Weissman simply subbed it out for a slightly tweaked version, creating a hybrid mRNA that could sneak its way into cells without alerting the body’s defenses.”
Russia has also been developing coronavirus vaccines. Hungary announced it would test the Russian coronavirus vaccine after it became the first country in Europe to receive samples of the drug last week. Some Hungarian opposition legislators urged the European Union’s executive to prevent the Hungarian government from what it called “experimenting” on Hungarians.
However, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin seemed confident about the vaccines. “Russia is naturally ready to provide the vaccine developed by our scientists to the countries that need them. This is the first registered vaccine, Sputnik V, on a human’s adenoviral vectors platform. The second vaccine EpiVac Corona, created by a scientific center in Novosibirsk, is also ready, and another vaccine is coming,” he told the G20.
“The scale of the pandemic obliges us to use all the available resources and scientific information. Our common goal is to form a portfolio of vaccines and secure safety for the global population,” Putin added. “This means…that there is enough work for every party and I think that is even the case when competition is unavoidable. But in the first place, we must consider the humanitarian issues and make them our top priority.”
CONTROVERSY REMAINS
None of the G20 leaders addressed concerns over the possible side-effects of coronavirus vaccines. Instead, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who himself recovered from COVID-19, agreed that cooperation is crucial as the world struggles to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is only by joining forces and working together that we will defeat the coronavirus and build back better from this crisis. Our fates are in each other’s hands,” he stressed.
In Britain, news of vaccines came as gyms and non-essential shops in all areas are due to reopen when England’s lockdown ends. On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Johnson was to explain the details of England’s return to the “three-tier system” when lockdown ends on December 2.
But in several other nations, such as in Hungary, people wonder whether measures such as night curfews will end in time for Christmas. And whether they will one day be forced to take a contested coronavirus vaccine.
(With additional reporting by Worthy News editor and founder George Whitten)
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