Category: General Health

It’s much easier to feel happy and healthy when the sun is shining, the air is warm, and the world around you feels alive and green. But sometimes staying healthy can feel like an uphill battle. Thriving is all about staying positive, spending as much time outside as possible, keeping your body nourished, and getting enough sleep.

Don’t worry, health doesn’t have to be complicated. By incorporating simple healthy habits into your daily routine, you can take your health and happiness to new levels! Let’s explore some simple ways to live healthier.

Use Food as Medicine

Shifting away from processed foods and towards a diet of whole foods like fruits and vegetables is one of the easiest ways to improve your whole-body health and keep you feeling younger. Eating a nutrient-dense diet will boost your immune system, combat depression, fight fatigue, and help you sleep better. Try to eat foods rich in vitamin D if you’re not getting enough sunlight. Also, drinking fruit and vegetable smoothies is a quick and easy way to pack more vitamins and minerals into your diet!

Say No to Stress at Work and Home

Stress gets to all of us. If you’re feeling extra stressed right now, take a good hard look at your stressors. Don’t settle for a job that causes chronic stress. Quitting a stressful job and making a career change might be one of the best things you ever do for your mental and physical health. Take a second look at your home. Decluttering, adding some indoor plants, and diffusing essential oils can also lead to stress reduction.

Find Ways to Exercise Indoors

Exercising regularly is one of the best ways to combat stress and alleviate symptoms of depression. While most of us already know that exercise is important, actually getting up off the couch to work out is much easier said than done, especially when it’s nasty outside. Look for fun exercises you can do in your living room!

The hardest part about working out is committing to a 45-minute exercise session. Here’s some good news—short but intense workouts can bring some serious benefits too! Try cutting back your workout goals to just 10 minutes every day. By committing to short bursts of activity, you’ll have a much easier time keeping up your exercise plan.

Hack Your Sleep Cycle

It’s not uncommon to experience sleep problems. Changing sunlight can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule, creating feelings of lethargy during the day and restlessness at night. To get your sleep schedule back under control, you can use a light therapy lamp to help reset your circadian rhythm during the day. Supplements, such as magnesium and CBD oil, can further decrease symptoms of insomnia and help you feel more rested in the mornings.

Speaking of the morning, consider establishing a morning routine to help jump-start your day. Having a morning routine will help you shake that groggy feeling and get your day off to a positive start!

Health and happiness go hand in hand. You can hardly have one without the other. The problem is that many of us focus on improving our physical health without giving much thought to our mental wellbeing, and vice versa. In order to thrive, take a holistic, whole-body approach to wellness!

 

Among patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, there was no difference in length of hospital stay in those given a single 200,000-IU dose of vitamin D₃ versus those given placebo in a randomized trial in Brazil.

Median length of hospital stay was about 7 days for both groups, with no significant differences in secondary outcomes including in-hospital mortality, admission to ICU, or need for mechanical ventilation, reported Rosa Pereira, MD, PhD, of Universidade de Sao Paulo, and colleagues in an online edition of JAMA.

An accompanying editorial by David Leaf, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and Adit Ginde, MD, MPH, of University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, noted that prior research showed that lower levels of vitamin D were independently associated with worse outcomes in patients with acute illness, but also that vitamin D supplementation as a treatment had no impact on clinical outcomes.

Leaf and Ginde said that COVID-19 has generated renewed interest in vitamin D, adding that this study was “the largest published randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D₃ administration among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 to date.”

While the findings taken in isolation “may appear ambiguous” and show no evidence of benefit for moderately to severely ill patients, they said, perhaps the door should not be closed altogether.

“It is important to remain open-minded to emerging results from rigorously conducted studies of vitamin D (despite smaller sample sizes and important limitations of some studies),” they wrote, adding that the study did not address outpatients with mild COVID-19 or the use of vitamin D as prophylaxis against the disease.

Pereira and colleagues examined data from hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 at two sites in Sao Paulo from June to August 2020, with the final follow-up in October. Participants were eligible if they were adults who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 via PCR or had a CT scan finding “compatible with the disease,” as well as “diagnosis of flu syndrome with criteria for hospitalization.” Primary outcome was length of hospital stay, defined as date of randomization to hospital discharge.

Overall, 240 patients were randomized: 120 to a single oral dose of 200,000 IU of vitamin D and 120 to placebo. Of these, 237 were included in the primary analysis. Participants’ mean age was 56, about 44% were women, and mean baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D level was 20.9. They were given the intervention after a mean of 10.3 days from symptom onset.

The adjusted hazard ratio for hospital discharge was 0.99 (95% CI 0.71-1.37, P=0.94). There were also non-significant differences between the intervention and placebo groups in secondary outcomes, including in-hospital mortality (7.6% vs 5.1%, respectively, P=0.43), admission to the ICU (16.0% vs 21.2%, P=0.30), and need for mechanical ventilation (7.6% vs 14.4%, P=0.09).

In the intervention group, 86.7% achieved 25-hydroxyvitamin D sufficiency versus 10.9% of the placebo group, meaning “the present null findings cannot be attributed to the failure of increasing serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.”

Researchers noted no adverse events, except a single episode of vomiting linked to the intervention. They also noted no significant differences between groups in any health-related laboratory markers following the intervention.

Limitations to the data included that a minimal clinically important difference in hospital length of stay among COVID-19 patients has yet to be determined, as well as the small and heterogeneous sample size, with different patients with co-existing diseases on different medication regimens.

Leaf and Ginde noted that 30 studies on vitamin D interventions in COVID-19 are currently listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, globally and across the disease spectrum. However, they suggested that many of these studies may be “underpowered or will not achieve target enrollment,” based on experience during the pandemic.

The Omicron coronavirus variant has been found in dozens of states across the country since it was first identified in South Africa in November, and many may be wondering: Will it upstage Delta and cause a winter surge? Is it still safe to gather with others for the holidays? How is this variant affecting children?

Experts addressed those and other questions in a webinar hosted by New York University last week, acknowledging that it will take some time to find out all the crucial facts about Omicron.

But in the meantime, here’s what’s known — and not — about Omicron in the fast-changing COVID landscape.

How widespread is Omicron now?

As of Dec. 15, Omicron transmission had been reported in 80 nations, according to Michael H. Merson, MD, a visiting professor of global health at the New York University School of Global Public Health. In the 35 states with Omicron cases, the numbers vary. Right now, New York and New Jersey are detecting the Omicron variant at about four times the overall rate in the country, he said. But whether or not the variant will remain in ”pockets” is currently unknown, he said.

How can people enjoy the holidays safely?

When it comes to deciding about gatherings and travel, “trust your instincts,” Elodie Ghedin, PhD, chief of the systems genomics section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and affiliate faculty member at NYU, said.

As an example of safe holiday gatherings, the experts cited President Joe Biden’s appearance last Tuesday at a party of 400, which was held on a hotel rooftop due to COVID concerns.

“It’s very important to spend the holidays with family and friends,” Merson said. “But do so wisely. That’s my advice about travel.”

That means getting vaccinated and boosted when eligible, making use of rapid testing when called for, masking, handwashing, avoiding crowded indoor spaces, and keeping your distance from others.

Knowing your risk level and that of family and friends when making plans for the holidays is also important, Merson said.

Is Omicron greatly affecting children?

Experts are waiting on data to find out.

“The jury is still out on how virulent Omicron will be for kids,” said Celine R. Gounder, MD, a member of President Biden’s COVID-19 task force and a clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “We don’t know.”

The best thing parents can do right now is to vaccinate their children ages 5 years and up who are eligible, she said.

Do monoclonal antibody drugs work well against Omicron?

No, Ghedin said.

“Most of the monoclonal antibodies do not seem to work very well against Omicron,” she said.

What’s known about how infectious Omicron is?

“It appears to be the most infectious variant to date,” said Gounder.

“Relative to Delta, Omicron appears to be 2-3 times more infectious.”

Put another way, she said, you are likely to infect 2 to 3 times more people than if infected with other variants.

People should not count on their natural immunity from a prior COVID infection to protect them from the Omicron variant, Gounder said.

It also does seem that the Omicron variant might be less virulent than other variants, she said. (Virulence refers to how severe a disease an infected person can get.)

If Omicron is less virulent, isn’t that good news?

Yes and no, Gounder said.

“Even if it’s a mild disease, you can still have lots of deaths. Let’s say COVID has a case fatality rate of 1% and you have 100 people who get infected — and one death,” she said.

Then say Omicron’s rate is .25%, but if you have 400 cases, since it is more infectious, that’s still one death.

“We really have to be very careful when we say less deadly and less severe [when talking about Omicron]. On a population level, Omicron could be just as deadly as Delta even if it causes mild disease, if more are infected,” she said.

If a COVID test is positive, will the results specify whether it’s the Delta or the Omicron variant?

“Unfortunately, you will not be able to get that information from a PCR test done in the community,” Ghedin said. “If you are doing it through a research entity, they might provide that information, but I highly doubt it.”

With more people vaccinated now than in the past, can we consider COVID endemic, not a pandemic, now?

No, Gounder said.

“We are nowhere near endemic [status],” she said. “We are still very much pandemic. Saying it is endemic now is like saying, ‘Let’s do nothing.'”

Currently the U.S. is at a level of about 60% of the population vaccinated, she said.

“We really need to be getting to 85, 90 percent” before transitioning into endemic status.

In tropical countries, the flu is endemic, Ghedin said, ”and it’s there year-round. We are not there with SARS-CoV-2.”

The genetics of human eye colour is much more complex than previously thought, according to a new study published today.

An international team of researchers led by King’s College London and Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam have identified 50 new genes for eye colour in the largest genetic study of its kind to date. The study, published today in Science Advances, involved the genetic analysis of almost 195,000 people across Europe and Asia.

These findings will help to improve the understanding of eye diseases such as pigmentary glaucoma and ocular albinism, where eye pigment levels play a role.

In addition, the team found that eye colour in Asians with different shades of brown is genetically similar to eye colour in Europeans ranging from dark brown to light blue.

This study builds on previous research in which scientists had identified a dozen genes linked to eye colour, believing there to be many more. Previously, scientists thought that variation in eye colour was controlled by one or two genes only, with brown eyes dominant over blue eyes.

Co-senior author Dr Pirro Hysi, King’s College London, said: “The findings are exciting because they bring us to a step closer to understanding the genes that cause one of the most striking features of the human faces, which has mystified generations throughout our history. This will improve our understanding of many diseases that we know are associated with specific pigmentation levels.”

Co-senior author Dr Manfred Kayser, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, said:

“This study delivers the genetic knowledge needed to improve eye colour prediction from DNA as already applied in anthropological and forensic studies, but with limited accuracy for the non-brown and non-blue eye colours.”

For the average adult, a diabetes diagnosis is life-changing. Managing diabetes involves a daily routine that shifts toward remembering to take medication, check blood sugar, and monitor carbohydrate intake.

Frequent trips to multiple doctors’ offices become the norm, as regular foot checks, dental appointments, eye exams, and primary care visits are crucial for avoiding the complications of poorly managed disease.

These complications can include gum disease, cardiovascular problems, nerve damage, kidney failure, blindness, and even amputation. Individuals who receive an early diagnosis and manage the disease well can expect to live as long as those without diabetes, but research has linked poor disease management to reduced life expectancy of up to 8 years.

For someone reentering society after being in prison, managing diabetes can be quite difficult. In the United States, more than 2 million people are incarcerated in jails and prisons on a given day, and nearly 5% of them have diabetes.

These individuals typically do not serve life sentences; rather, 95% eventually return to community settings that may not readily embrace them or their medical needs.

For example, taking medication every day requires having a safe place to live and store medications. This is not a given for formerly incarcerated people, many of whom often struggle simply to find a place to live.

In the U.S., individuals who have been inmates in jails or prisons just once are seven times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population. Meanwhile, those who have been incarcerated two or more times are 13 times more likely than other people to lack housing.

Individuals with a criminal history face numerous collateral consequences of conviction — legal restrictions that disqualify them from accessing a range of resources and opportunities upon release.

Unemployment is a major concern for people with a criminal history. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, individuals with a criminal history are nearly five times more likely to be unemployed than the general population.

Many employment sectors bar those with a criminal history, limiting their ability to earn the money necessary to afford adequate housing. Those who turn to low-income housing programs often face being denied access, as many public housing programs have strict eligibility criteria that exclude individuals with a criminal history.

This is true even for older adults. Many low-income senior housing assistance programs deny access to individuals with recent criminal convictions and permanently ban those with a history of criminal sexual conduct, even if the crime occurred decades earlier.

Additionally, food insecurity complicates diabetes management for formerly incarcerated adults. Access to adequate quantities of nutritious food is crucial for effective diabetes management.

A diabetes-friendly diet restricts carbohydrate intake, as carbohydrate-rich foods often raise blood glucose levels higher and faster than foods rich in protein and fiber.

Formerly incarcerated individuals, however, often report great difficulty in accessing healthful foods. Estimates of food insecurity among formerly incarcerated individuals returning to community settings are as high as 91%.

Among the many collateral consequences of criminal conviction in the U.S. are limitations on the receipt of federal supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits (i.e., SNAP or food stamps) for individuals convicted of certain criminal offenses.

While most states have eliminated lifetime bans on food assistance, more than 30 states still place some restrictions on food assistance for individuals with felony drug convictions.

Faced with an inability to afford nutritious foods, food-insecure individuals often turn to cheap, high calorie foods, which can lead to weight gain, poor blood glucose control, and an increased risk of diabetes-related health complications.

Likewise, poor healthcare access and utilization negatively affect diabetes management among formerly incarcerated adults. Access to affordable health insurance is crucial for disease management, as the self-management of diabetes requires visits to primary care doctors and specialists; the ongoing use of medication, such as insulin and oral medications; and daily use of testing supplies, including glucose test strips and glucose meters.

Uninsured adults with diabetes engage in fewer preventive healthcare activities than their insured counterparts, including less daily blood glucose monitoring, reduced participation in diabetes education classes, and fewer foot and eye exams.

Historically, a lack of health insurance has been a significant barrier to healthcare access for formerly incarcerated individuals. Given the difficulties of finding employment after incarceration, employer-based health insurance is typically not an option.

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Traditionally, Medicaid coverage has been limited to pregnant women, parents with a low income, and those under the age of 65 with disabilities. Notably, this does not include men (who make up about 93% of the U.S. state and federal prison population), unless they care for minor children or have disabilities.

At the end of their sentence, individuals with diabetes may have trouble obtaining health insurance, depending on where they live. Since the Affordable Care Act of 2010, 39 U.S. states (including the District of Columbia) have expanded Medicaid to include all adults with a low income, regardless of gender, disability, or parenting status.

Given the barriers that formerly incarcerated individuals face, ensuring adequate diabetes management in this population will require a host of system-level changes. Providing widespread access to health insurance for individuals with diabetes and a low income is crucial.

Without it, formerly incarcerated adults with diabetes will forego necessary medical care simply because they cannot afford it. This lack of treatment will only increase their risk of adverse disease-related complications.

The benefits of Medicaid expansion have been well-documented — if all remaining states fully implemented Medicaid expansion, nearly 4 million people would gain health insurance, decreasing the number of uninsured adults by 28%. The remaining states must be encouraged to expand their Medicaid programs to provide greater access to healthcare coverage in this population.

Additionally, there must be increased policy advocacy surrounding the health-related collateral consequences of criminal conviction. As they reenter community settings, individuals with a criminal history face countless barriers that adversely affect their ability to manage diabetes or any other chronic health condition effectively.

Most criminal justice advocacy work examines the impact of collateral consequences on economic security. However, policies that restrict employment, housing, and access to healthful food for those with criminal records also ultimately endanger population health.

Chronic disease management and population health must be a part of the conversation when advocating for criminal justice reform.

As the U.S. population ages, and chronic health conditions become more prominent, failure to integrate these issues into larger criminal justice policy discussions will just add to the difficulties that formerly incarcerated adults must deal with as they attempt to reintegrate into society.

Asymptomatic individuals carrying SARS-CoV-2 shed the virus longer than those with COVID-19 symptoms, with other lab findings suggesting the symptomatic patients mounted more robust immune responses, a small study in China found.

Median duration of viral shedding among 37 asymptomatic patients was 19 days (interquartile range 15-26; range 6-45) versus 14 days among 37 matched symptomatic patients (IQR 9-22; log-rank P=0.028), reported Jing-Fu Qiu, PhD, of Chongqing Medical University, and colleagues, though viral shedding does not necessarily mean the patients were infectious.
Virus-specific IgG antibody titers and cytokine levels were also significantly lower among asymptomatic patients in the acute phase of infection, when viral RNA can be found in respiratory specimens, the authors wrote in Nature Medicine — both of which indicated that immune responses weren’t as strong in the asymptomatic group.

Asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 is one of its biggest mysteries, with the World Health Organization recently reminding the public of the distinction between asymptomatic patients, who never develop symptoms, and presymptomatic patients, who go on to develop symptoms later in the course of disease.

Qiu and colleagues characterized asymptomatic carriers as the “silent spreaders” of COVID-19.

“However, our understanding of the clinical features and immune responses of asymptomatic individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection is limited,” the researchers added.

For the study, they examined data from 178 patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Wanzhou District in China, including 37 without symptoms. Median age in the latter was 41, and 22 were women. These individuals were matched by age, sex, and comorbidity with 37 symptomatic patients for antibody detection and cytokine measurement. Qiu and colleagues also included a group of 37 individuals who tested negative via RT-PCR for cytokine comparisons.

Lab values and imaging were not entirely normal for the asymptomatic group. Eleven had increased C-reactive protein levels and six had elevated levels of alanine aminotransferase. Chest CT found “focal ground-glass opacities” in 11 and “stripe shadows and/or diffuse consolidation” in another 10 of the group; in two-thirds of these 21 patients, the abnormalities were in only one lung. The remaining 16 showed entirely normal imaging.

Around 80% of both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients tested positive for IgG antibodies about 3-4 weeks after exposure. The difference was greater when examining IgM antibodies, with positive findings in 78.4% of symptomatic patients and 62.2% of asymptomatic patients.

In the early convalescent phase, defined as 8 weeks after hospital discharge, symptomatic patients had higher IgG levels, though both groups experienced over 90% decreases in IgG levels. A larger proportion of asymptomatic patients had decreases in neutralizing serum antibody levels versus symptomatic patients (81.1% vs 62.2%, respectively).

These findings should serve as a caution against assuming prior infection confers immunity to future infection, Qiu and colleagues said.

“These data might indicate the risks of using COVID-19 ‘immunity passports’ and support the prolongation of public health interventions, including social distancing, hygiene, isolation of high-risk groups, and widespread testing,” the team wrote.

Plasma levels of cytokines were also similar between asymptomatic patients and healthy controls, though significantly higher levels of stem cell factor and leukemia inhibitory factor were found in the asymptomatic group, the researchers noted, calling this a “reduced inflammatory response characterized by low circulating concentrations of cytokines and chemokines.”

Qiu and co-authors cited the varying sensitivity and specificity of antibody tests (obtained from a company called Bioscience) as a limitation to their study, adding that the results may be confounded by existing antibodies to other coronaviruses, such as SARS or MERS, as well as common cold viruses.

Developing a COVID-19 vaccine in record time will be tough. Producing enough to end the pandemic will be the biggest medical manufacturing feat in history.
That work is underway.

From deploying experts amid global travel restrictions to managing extreme storage conditions, and even inventing new kinds of vials and syringes for billions of doses, the path is strewn with formidable hurdles, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen vaccine developers and their backers.

Any hitch in an untested supply chain – which could stretch from Pune in India to England’s Oxford and Baltimore in the United States – could torpedo or delay the complex process.

Col. Nelson Michael, director of the U.S. Army’s Center for Infectious Disease Research who is working on the government’s “Warp Speed” project to deliver a vaccine at scale by January, said companies usually have years to figure this stuff out.

“Now, they have weeks.”

Much of the world’s attention is focused on the scientific race to develop a vaccine. But behind the scenes, experts are facing a stark reality: we may simply not have enough capacity to make, package and distribute billions of doses all at once.

Companies and governments are racing to scale-up machinery to address a critical shortage in automated filling and finishing capacity – the final step in the manufacturing process of putting the vaccine into vials or syringes, sealing them and packaging them up for shipping.

“This is the biggest logistical challenge the world has ever faced,” said Toby Peters, an engineering and technology expert at Britain’s Birmingham university. “We could be looking at vaccinating 60% of the population.”

Several developers, including frontrunner Moderna, are experimenting with new ways to mitigate the extreme cold storage demands of their vaccines, which at present need to be kept at minus 80 degrees Celsius (-112 Fahrenheit).

SiO2 Materials Science is working on producing vials that won’t shatter at super-cold temperatures.

Travel restrictions, meanwhile, are posing more prosaic problems; Johnson & Johnson, which plans to start clinical trials this summer, has struggled to send its vaccine experts to oversee the launch of production sites, for example.

‘NEVER IN HISTORY’
By setting up massive clinical trials involving 10,000 to 30,000 volunteers per vaccine, scientists hope to get an answer on whether a vaccine works as early as this October. But even if they succeed, manufacturing in bulk, getting regulators to sign off and packaging billions of doses is a monumental challenge.

Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccines alliance, said in reality, the world is unlikely to go straight from having zero vaccines to having enough doses for everyone.

“It’s likely to be a tailored approach to start with,” he said in an interview. “We’re looking to have something like one to two billion doses of vaccine in the first year, spread out over the world population.”

J&J has partnered with the U.S. government on a $1 billion investment to speed development and production of its vaccine, even before it’s proven to work. It has contracted Emergent Biosolutions and Catalent to manufacture in bulk in the United States. Catalent will also do some fill-and-finish work.

“Never in history has so much vaccine been developed at the same time – so that capacity doesn’t exist,” said Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, who sees filling capacity as the main limiting factor.

Emergent’s manufacturing plant in Bayview, Maryland, can accommodate four vaccines in parallel using different manufacturing platforms and equipment.

Funded by the government in 2012, the plant includes single-use disposable bioreactor equipment featuring plastic bags rather than stainless steel fermentation equipment, which makes it easier to switch from one vaccine to another.

This month, the company received an additional $628 million to make those four suites available to support any candidate the government selects, CEO Bob Kramer told Reuters.

BLOW-FILL-SEAL-REPEAT

As well as working with J&J, New Jersey-based Catalent signed a deal with British drugmaker AstraZeneca last week to provide vial-filling and packaging services at its plant in Anagni, Italy. It aims to handle hundreds of millions of doses, starting as early as August 2020 and possibly running through until March 2022.

It has ordered high-speed vial-filling equipment to boost output at its Indiana plant, where it is also hiring an additional 300 workers.

Michael Riley, Catalent’s North American president for biologics, told Reuters his biggest challenge was trying to compress work that normally takes years into months.

Adding to the challenge is that glass vials are in short supply.

To save glass, companies plan to use larger vials of five to 20 doses – but this raises new problems, such as potential waste, if not all the doses are used before the vaccine spoils.

“The downside is that after a healthcare practitioner opens a vial, they need to then vaccinate 20 people in a short, 24-hour time,” said Prashant Yadav, a global healthcare supply-chain expert at the Center for Global Development in Washington.

As part of the same drive, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense have awarded ApiJect Systems up to $138 million to upgrade its facilities to be able to make up to 100 million plastic pre-filled syringes by the end of this year, and as many as 600 million in 2021.

The company plans to use a technology called Blow-Fill-Seal, where syringes are blown out of plastic, filled with vaccine and sealed in seconds. This will need Food and Drug Administration approval, CEO Jay Walker told Reuters.

BREAKING COLD CHAIN
SiO2 Materials Science is, meanwhile, ramping up capacity of plastic vials with a glass lining, which are more stable at ultra-low temperatures.

“You can bring us down to minus 196 Celsius, which none of the vaccines need,” Chief Business Officer Lawrence Ganti said. “You can throw it against the wall and it doesn’t break. Our founder has done that. He’s thrown frozen vials at me.”

The company expects to boost production from the current 5-10 million vials a year to 120 million within three-and-a-half months, he told Reuters.

Once packaged, many vaccines need to be kept cold – and some leading contenders made from genetic material such as messenger RNA need to be kept very cold – presenting another challenge that may limit access.

“People who work with mRNA store it at minus 80 degrees centigrade, which is not something you’re gonna find in most pharmacies or doctor’s offices,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine.

Peters of Birmingham university has been gathering data from poorer regions of Africa and Asia, and said breaks in the temperature-controlled supply chain – “cold chain” – are already frequent.

In some places, it is common to lose 25% or more of vaccines because of broken cold chains, he told Reuters.

“So if you’re looking to manufacture four billion, and you reckon you’re going to lose 25%, then you have to manufacture five billion,” he said. “It’s all the elements to move it from the point of manufacture to the point of aggregation, right down to the health centres and then out to the community.”

QUARANTINE QUAGMIRE
Companies developing mRNA vaccines, including Moderna and Translate Bio, which is partnering with Sanofi, are working to make candidates stable at higher temperatures.

Ron Renaud, CEO of Translate Bio, said he was confident this would happen “within a short amount of time”.

Colleen Hussey, a Moderna spokeswoman, said: “We are getting more confident that we could run our supply chain at -20C, which is an easier storage condition than deep freezing,” she said.

Moderna plans to add a small period of time in which the vaccine can be stored at normal fridge temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius in doctors’ offices or clinics.

“We will know more in the next 2-3 months,” she said.

The pandemic is also presenting obstacles of a less technical nature.

Catalent, which has some 30 plants globally, has had to write special permission slips in eight languages explaining that their workers are considered essential.

J&J is having trouble getting experienced personnel to far-flung labs to oversee the transfer of technology to contract manufacturers because they’re subject to 14-day quarantines.

“It is absolutely a factor,” said Stoffels. “If you have to send your people to the middle of India to get to filling capacity, that’s not easy at the moment.”