As Virus Grows Stealthier, Vaccine Makers Reconsider Battle Plans
As the coronavirus assumes contagious new forms around the world, two drug makers reported on Monday that their vaccines, while still effective, offer less protection against one variant and began revising plans to turn back an evolving pathogen that has killed more than two million people.
The news from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech underscored a realization by scientists that the virus is changing more quickly than once thought, and may well continue to develop in ways that help it elude the vaccines being deployed worldwide.
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The vaccines are the only ones authorized for emergency use in the United States.
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And Merck, a leading drug company, on Monday abandoned two experimental coronavirus vaccines altogether, saying they did not produce a strong enough immune response against the original version of the virus.
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Moderna said it also planned to begin testing whether giving patients a third shot of its original vaccine as a booster could help fend off newly emerging forms of the virus.
Three shots. Okay, enough. I don't want to read anymore.
Let's do the numbers:
420,873 Deaths since Feb. 6, 2020.
132,537 New Infections under President Biden on June 24, 2021. (Monday is the last day of the reporting "weekend.")
1,776 Yes, 1776 Deaths on Jan. 24 under Biden in the country that declared independence in 1776. That is such an absurdly low figure, the lowest by over 900 since...last Monday.
14-day changes:
-33% Cases
-9% Hospitalizations
-5% Deaths
All three categories under water. It cannot be emphasized enough how good that is. No aberration, a solid trend, there is no mistaking it.
Cases continue to drop in the Times' 7-day average.
Hospitalizations likewise dropped again in the Jan 24 iteration.
Deaths...
Deaths:
