The Times - UK (2020-10-14)

the times | Wednesday October 14 2020 1GM 11

News

An American study of a potential

vaccine has been halted in the late

stages by Johnson & Johnson after a

participant developed an “unexplained

illness”.

The pharmaceutical company

announced the decision on Monday

night, saying that illnesses and acci-

dents “are an expected part of any clini-

cal study, especially large studies”.

It said that doctors and a safety moni-

toring panel were trying to determine

the cause of the unspecified illness.

It is the second known suspension of

a coronavirus vaccine trial in the US.

Final-stage testing of a vaccine being

developed by Astrazeneca and Oxford

University is on hold as officials exam-

ine whether its trial poses a safety risk.

That trial was stopped after a woman

developed severe neurological symp-

toms consistent with transverse myeli-

tis, a rare inflammation of the spinal

cord. It has restarted in some other

countries, including the UK.

Pauses to medical trials are relatively

common and are not usually made

public but the focus on vaccine devel-

opment has magnified even potentially

minor complications. The latest sus-

pension was first reported by Stat, a

health news website.

Yesterday morning shares in John-

son & Johnson, which is based in New

Jersey, fell about 2 per cent.

The company was aiming to enrol

60,000 volunteers to prove that its

single-dose vaccine was safe and

protects against the coronavirus.

Unlike its rivals, the vaccine does not

rules to block a second wave

News

Confirmed cases in Europe

125

100

75

50

25

0

Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct

7,011,

Confirmed deaths in Europe

6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct

total

247,

SPAIN

888,968 cases

33,124 deaths

Rules: Madrid partly locked down

and gatherings limited to six. Bars

and restaurants close by 11pm;

similar in Catalonia. Outdoor

gatherings limited to 10 in most

parts, and masks mandatory.

Travel: Restrictions on all non-EU

countries except Australia, Canada,

Georgia, Japan, New Zealand,

Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand,

Tunisia, Uruguay and China

SWEDEN

98,451 cases

5,894 deaths

Rules: No curbs for bars and

restaurants except in city of

Uppsala where they must close

at 11pm. Outdoor and indoor

gatherings allowed up to 50, or

more for weddings.

Travel: Non-essential visits from

outside EU, UK and Switzerland

are banned. Exemptions for

relatives and seasonal farm

workers

87,913 cases

2,094 deaths

Rules: Bars & restaurants

required to close by 11pm.

Festivals are banned and

gatherings outside are limited to

a maximum of 10, the same limit

applies indoors.

Travel: Open to EU travellers and

a few other countries including

Australia, Canada, China, South

Korea, and New Zealand. US

tourists are barred

PORTUGAL

000s 000s

Source: WHO

TOTAL TOTAL

Late-stage vaccine

trial halted after

volunteer falls ill

Henry Zeffman Washington

need two shots to be effective and does

not need to be frozen.

Companies are compelled to investi-

gate any unexpected reaction that

occurs during drug trials. Given that

tests are conducted on tens of

thousands of people, there is a high

probability of some coincidental

complication. The first step Johnson &

Johnson is likely to take will be to

ascertain whether the participant who

became ill was given the vaccine or a

placebo.

Phyllis Tien, an infectious disease

expert at the University of California,

San Francisco, told The New York

Times: “It’s actually a good thing that

these companies are pausing these

trials when these things come up. We

just need to let the sponsor and the

safety board do their review and let us

know their findings.”

Luciana Borio, a former head of

public health preparedness for Presi-

dent Trump, added: “It doesn’t mean

that the adverse event is related to the

vaccine, but it needs to be investigated

thoroughly.”

Meanwhile a trial of an antibody

treatment developed by the drug com-

pany Eli Lilly was also paused because

of a “potential safety concern”.

The trial was testing the effects of the

antibody therapy on hundreds of

people hospitalised with Covid-19.

The Eli Lilly treatment is similar to

the Regeneron antibody cocktail which

President Trump received in a military

hospital earlier this month. He has

since hailed it as a “cure” and claimed it

will be distributed to all infected Ameri-

cans for free.

Test tents appear as China

screens 4.2m in two days

Didi Tang Beijing

Within two days of beginning to screen

all nine million people living in the port

city of Qingdao to try to curb a new

cluster of virus cases, the Chinese

authorities have collected 4.2 million

samples and tested almost half of them.

In a sign of the authorities’ ability to

screen large numbers of people quickly,

tented testing centres have sprouted up

in public squares and residential com-

pounds, where health workers in PPE

collect samples from queuing locals.

The tests are free and to boost effi-

ciency the collected swabs are tested in

large batches rather than individually.

If the results from the group tests come

back positive the individual samples

within that group are then reanalysed

to determine who within it is positive.

Hygiene officials ordered the mass

testing after three asymptomatic carri-

ers were identified at a local hospital,

part of which has been used to quaran-

tine travellers from overseas, and tests

of their close contacts uncovered nine

more cases. That triggered the citywide

testing scheme as authorities try to de-

termine the true scale of the outbreak

and prevent it spreading. Hundreds of

testing centres are now operational in

the city, with a core staff of 10,000.

China claims to have essentially

eradicated domestic circulation of the

virus, with the new cases it has detected

recently almost all imported. As a result

there are virtually no domestic restric-

tions and economic activity is rising. No

more cases are known to have yet been

found from the mass testing in Qing-

dao, which is a commercial centre

known for electronics and the country’s

most famous beer, as well as for being

the home of the navy’s northern fleet.

Quick city-scale screening has been

used elsewhere: all nine million inhab-

itants of Wuhan, for example, where

the virus is thought to have originated,

were voluntarily tested in a 15-day

period from May 14.

China has reported 4,634 deaths

from coronavirus and 85,591 cases. The

last reported local outbreak was in the

northwestern city of Urumqi, in the far

western Xinjiang region, last month.

6 About 100 members of the Hong

Kong Philharmonic Orchestra are

being quarantined after one of them

tested positive. The orchestra had

begun its new season last Friday with a

sold-out socially distanced concert.

had a temperature and a cough. A

second test proved positive and she

died three weeks later. Twenty-

three cases of second coronavirus

infections have been reported.

poland

The prime minister is in quarantine

after coming into contact with an

infected person. Mateusz

Morawiecki called on Poles to wear

masks and follow social distancing.

russia

The shalaika, a jackal-dog hybrid

developed in the 1970s by a Soviet

biologist to help to stop opium

smuggling from Afghanistan, is

being taught to detect coronavirus

in humans by smelling urine

samples from infected patients.

singapore

Nine hundred people have paid up

to £357 to dine on board a grounded

Singapore Airlines A380 super-

jumbo. With the industry in crisis,

airlines have found other ways to

raise cash, including aircraft tours.

peru

A Japanese tourist who has been

stranded in Peru for seven months

has been given a solo tour of the

ruins of Machu Picchu. Jesse

Takayama, 26, a boxing coach, has

now been allowed to fly home.

south korea

Football stadiums will reopen at a

quarter of their normal capacity

from Friday. Baseball, the country’s

most popular spectator sport,

resumed this week with fans in

attendance.

World update

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

11

(^121) Reported new cases
45,
17,
13,
12,
10,
8,
8,
6,
5,
4,
26
Source: WHO
Countries with populations greater than 20 million
India 55,
US
UK
Russia
Brazil
Argentina
Colombia
France
Netherlands
Ukraine
Italy
China
1 2 3 4 5 6
Peru
Brazil
Spain
Mexico
US
UK
708
704
650
644
632
1,
US 213,
Brazil 150,
India 109,
Mexico 83,
UK 43,
Italy 36,
Countries reporting most deaths
Deaths per million population
Global cases
37,601,
Global deaths
1,077,
Most new cases
Spain did
not report
cases
yesterday