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Russia is close to completing clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine for domestic animals and mink and expects to begin the regulatory approval process in February, according to Russia’s agricultural safety watchdog.

The Federal Centre for Animal Health began developing the vaccine in spring after the authorities established the virus could be passed from humans onto some domestic animals.

Russia became the first country to give regulatory approval to a human vaccine — Sputnik V — in August, and is in the process of rolling it out across the country. Over 150,000 people have already received it.

The Russian animal vaccine is aimed at rabbits, mink, cats and some other animals. Clinical trials will end in January and the approval process is likely to begin at the end of February, Yulia Melano, an aide to the head of the agricultural safety watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, told Reuters.

The World Health Organization has expressed concern over the transmission of the virus between humans and animals. Denmark last month ordered the culling of all 17 million mink on its farms after concluding that a strain of the virus passed from humans to mink had mutated and spread back to humans.

Russia has said it believes there will be commercial interest in the new vaccine from its own animal fur breeders and from U.S. and EU businesses.

Two cases of COVID-19 have been registered in cats in Russia but its mink population has not been affected, according to the watchdog.

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Ivan Nesterov, acting head of state fur company Russian Sable, told the Zvezda TV station last month that Russia was testing a vaccine and would vaccinate its minks once the process was finished.

The global fur trade, worth more than $22 billion a year, is reeling from Denmark’s decision to kill millions of farmed mink.

Worries of a sudden shortage of mink pelts, of which Denmark was the top exporter, have lifted prices by as much as 30% in Asia, the International Fur Federation (IFF) says.

Source:   Ghana News

New Zealand agreed on Monday to allow quarantine-free travel with Australia in the first quarter of 2021, nearly a year after it locked down its borders to protect its population from the novel coronavirus.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the cabinet had agreed in principle on a trans-Tasman, quarantine-free travel bubble pending confirmation by Australia’s cabinet and no significant change in circumstances in either country.

“It is our intention to name a date … in the New Year once remaining details are locked down,” Ardern said at a news conference in the capital, Wellington.

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New Zealand’s has virtually eliminated the novel coronavirus by enforcing a tough lockdown and keeping its borders shut to all foreigners for most of the year.

Ardern said more work was needed to ensure safe travel and New Zealand would move cautiously to finalise arrangements like managing airline crews.

A trans-Tasman travel bubble has been under discussion for months and many Australian regions have allowed New Zealanders in without quarantine requirements since October, but New Zealand had not reciprocated.

Australia also closed its international borders early in the pandemic and apart from New Zealanders, only allows returning Australians to fly in.

“This is a sign that New Zealand and Australia aren’t just working together but that families can be back together in both directions, friends can be back together in both directions and flights can be full in both directions,” Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters.

Hunt said the bubble was “good for the economy, good for our airlines and good for both countries” and the first step on a return to international normality.

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Last week, New Zealand stuck its first pact on a reciprocal, quarantine-free travel bubble, agreeing to open up travel with the Cook Islands by March.

Ardern said progress on a novel coronavirus vaccine was nothing less than remarkable and everyone was as optimistic as possible for 2021.

When asked to describe 2020 in two words, she used one: “Horrendous”.

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Public resistance to vaccines has been much discussed this year, but the issue became very real on Monday when Pfizer and BioNTech announced their candidate was more than 90% effective in large trials – hoisting an actual shot onto the horizon.

Numerous opinion polls carried out before and during the pandemic showed confidence is volatile, and that political polarization and online misinformation threatens uptake. Many people have concerns about the accelerated speed of COVID-19 vaccine development.

The World Health Organization estimates about 70% of people must be inoculated to break transmission of the virus. Since it is unlikely a vaccine, once approved, will be immediately available for the masses, experts said getting medical workers on board will be critical.

“We should have really targeted discussions and engagement with healthcare providers,” Heidi Larson, director of the global Vaccine Confidence Project, told Reuters.

“Not only are they going to be the first ones expected to get a vaccine – if not required to – they’re also going to be the ones on the frontlines facing the onslaught of questions from the public.”

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FIRST IN LINE?

While about 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in development globally, with dozens in human clinical trials, no shot has actually crossed the finish line and been approved, though the one from Pfizer-BioNTech appears to be on track.

The high rate of efficacy in the Pfizer-BioNTech interim results could help boost confidence, Cornell University government Professors Douglas Kriner and Sarah Kreps said.

Their recently published research showed that if an initial COVID-19 vaccine was about as effective as a flu shot, uptake by the American public may fall far short of the 70% level needed to achieve “herd immunity”.

“However, if the vaccine was 90% effective it would significantly increase Americans’ willingness to vaccinate by more than 10%, critical to ensuring enough public acceptance to help the U.S. eventually get closer to herd immunity,” said Kreps.

Experts are also cautioning any conversation over a vaccine’s risks and rewards must be frank. A return to normal life will still take time, with no one shot likely to be a silver bullet. And many questions are likely to remain, including how long a vaccine will provide protection.

The Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, a non-profit that supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been holding focus groups to gauge the public mood and is now crafting campaign messages to help tackle concerns.

Its chief executive, Susan Winckler, said more than a dozen focus groups of 150 people in total held since August – some in person, some by video – had unearthed numerous concerns.

“We heard distrust of both government and the healthcare system,” Winckler said. “Many didn’t want to be first in line for the shot.”

It’s a global phenomenon; a survey from early November, carried out by the World Economic Forum and covering 18,526 people in 15 countries, showed 73% of people willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a four-point fall since August.

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EARLY BATTLE

Regulators and the drug industry have taken pains to reassure the public they won’t cut corners on safety, with a top U.S. drug agency official saying he would quit if an unproven vaccine were rubber stamped.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, a drug industry group, also plans a campaign by 2021, while the U.S. Council for International Business, with 300 multinational corporations as members, is also getting behind a campaign pushing for workforce take-up of eventual COVID-19 vaccines.

Some studies show government and employer recommendations will help convince people to get vaccinated.

Scott Ratzan, co-leader with Larson of ‘CONVINCE’, an initiative supporting communication and engagement for vaccine uptake globally, stressed the importance of medical workers getting inoculated, saying others would then be more likely to follow suit.

“If we don’t have the medical folks signed on … we’ll lose the early battle,” he added. “The only way to get back to normal is if we can get enough workers or employees covered.”

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