We are tentatively calling this “New Crown Vaccine 2.0,” referring to the vaccines specifically for the British, South African, Amazonian, and Indian variants of the CCP virus ……. Researchers are concerned that existing vaccines may become ineffective as the virus continues to spread and continue to mutate. As a result, vaccine developers are working intensively on a new generation of vaccines for the variants.
A May 17 report on Germany’s “Daily News” website took stock of the “New Crown Vaccine 2.0” research. According to the report, the German company CureVac, which has yet to come up with a first-generation vaccine, has already begun work on a second-generation vaccine. In the development of Vaccine 2.0, CureVac has partnered with British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Clinical trials for the next-generation vaccine are expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. In the animal testing phase, the next-generation vaccine was particularly effective against the Danish variant, the British variant and the South African variant.
Also, Moderna (USA) is working on Vaccine 2.0 and is testing three different vaccine boosters. One of the three is for the virus that originally appeared in Wuhan, China; another is for the South African variant; and another is testing a different mRNA strand that would make it effective against both the Wuhan-appearing virus and the British and South African variants, its European head, Dan Staner, told German newspaper “Handelsblatt. If all goes well, the vaccine could be approved in October and be on the market in the fourth quarter of this year.
Several major vaccine developers are already working on New Crown Vaccine 2.0
In addition, German company BioNTech and British company AstraZeneca are also working on the development of New Crown Vaccine 2.0. The Daily News reports that BioNTech/Pfizer is likely to maintain its market leadership position in the Neocon 2.0 field. This is inextricably linked to the EU’s huge order. The EU has extended its contract with BioNTech/Pfizer in May and has pre-ordered 900 million doses of the second-generation vaccine, which will be delivered by 2023, with an option to order an additional 900 million doses. The U.S. and the U.K., the first countries to get the first-generation vaccine, have also opened related negotiations.
As of May 16, more than 59 percent of adults in the U.S. had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and more than 37 percent of the population had completed the full vaccination, according to U.S. media reports. President Joe Biden’s goal is to vaccinate 70 percent of adults by July 4, the U.S. national holiday. The U.S. is currently averaging 1.98 million doses of vaccine per day, a slowdown from the previous rate of vaccination. By way of comparison, 37% of the population in Germany has now received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 11.2% completing all vaccinations. Recently, the outbreak in Germany has improved, with the 7-day infection rate (the number of new confirmed cases per 100,000 people in 7 days) now down to 83.1.
“Rich countries need to give up more vaccines to poor countries”
At a time when Western countries are already looking at “Vaccine 2.0,” the United Nations is pointing out that the quest for vaccination in poor countries cannot be ignored. WHO Director General Desai Tan issued a call Friday (May 14) for rich countries to provide vaccines to Covax (the new crown vaccine access mechanism) first, rather than vaccinating their own lower-risk children and adolescents first.
In addition, a new study shows that wealthy countries can close the global vaccination gap by donating more than 150 million doses of vaccine through the UN Covax mechanism without jeopardizing their own vaccination programs.
The report, released to UNICEF’s British research firm Airfinity, notes that G7 countries, as well as the European Union, could afford to donate 20 percent of their vaccines to poor countries this summer. Covax currently has a vaccine gap of about 190 million doses. The G7 summit is scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom in June.
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