Josephine Ma

With six Covid-19 vaccine candidates undergoing final clinical trials, initial data about whether they can protect people from the disease is expected to be available in the next two to three months, assuming all goes well. That gives hope to the possibility that a vaccine could hit the market by early next year. However, that does not necessarily mean the global community will be out of the woods.  One concern is that, while the possible candidates use different technologies, they have adopted a similar strategy for attacking the SARS-CoV-2 virus.   The worry is that if the one candidate proves to be effective, the chances of the others succeeding are high. But the opposite scenario also a

As China leads the race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, its scientists are largely pinning their hopes on a technology that has been used for decades. Five out of 10 potential vaccines undergoing clinical trials have been developed by Chinese scientists, while a sixth is the result of a partnership between a Chinese company and a German biotech firm, according to the World Health Organization. But China is adopting a very different approach in its hunt for a vaccine against the disease caused by the new coronavirus. It is the only country pouring resources into the use of inactivated viruses, a technique used in vaccines against numerous diseases in the past – including hepatitis A, influenza

China’s official tally of coronavirus cases could have been four times higher in mid-February if one broader system for classifying confirmed patients had been used from the outset of the pandemic, according to researchers at the University of Hong Kong. In a study published in the Lancet medical journal on Tuesday, the researchers said China might have had 232,000 confirmed cases by February 20 if a revised definition adopted earlier in the month had been applied from the start of the outbreak. That is more than four times higher than the official tally then of about 55,000. To date, China has reported a total of about 83,000 infections. “The true number of infections could still be higher

Around 60% of people who contracted the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan were asymptomatic or very mild cases not reported to the authorities, according to a study led by a group of Chinese researchers. The paper suggests that by February 18 the total number of infections in Wuhan, the first epicenter of the coronavirus, could have exceeded 125,000, more than three times the number of confirmed cases, 38,020, reported at the time. The estimate adds to a body of research seeking to estimate the true extent of the spread of coronavirus beyond counting patients with clear symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The study, conducted by researchers from Huazh

Developing a new drug usually takes years, but scientists are racing against that clock to repurpose existing medications or pre-approved substances to manufacture an antiviral drug to battle Covid-19. As the coronavirus pandemic hit more countries around the world, and death tolls rose, the World Health Organization identified four medications last week and started a global trial. The trial is known as Solidarity. Two of the potential medications are drug cocktails. The non-cocktail treatments center around remdesivir, which was originally designed for treating Ebola, and the antimalaria drug chloroquine. One cocktail is a combination of two HIV drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir. The other co

The number of “silent carriers” – people who are infected by the new coronavirus but show delayed or no symptoms – could be as high as one-third of those who test positive, according to classified Chinese government data seen by the South China Morning Post. That could further complicate the strategies being used by countries to contain the virus, which has infected more than 340,000 people and killed more than 14,000 globally. More than 43,000 people in China had tested positive for Covid-19 by the end of February but had no immediate symptoms, a condition typically known as asymptomatic, according to the data. They were placed in quarantine and monitored but were not included in the offici

The first case of someone in China suffering from Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, can be traced back to November 17, according to government data seen by the South China Morning Post. The finding suggests that the first case of the illness was dated two to three weeks earlier than the first confirmed Covid-19 case recognized by the World Health Organization and some researchers. China first alerted the WHO to cases of the then-unknown disease on December 31. Interviews with whistle-blowers from the medical community suggest Chinese doctors only realized they were dealing with a new disease in late December. Several Chinese medical professionals have accused the authoriti

Seventeen years after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, and seven years since the first Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) case, there is still no coronavirus vaccine despite dozens of attempts to develop them. As research institutes and companies around the world race to find potential vaccines for a new coronavirus strain that has infected more than 80,000 people and claimed over 2,700 lives, the question is, will this time be different? To stop communicable diseases, it is important to stop transmission, using medicine and developing vaccines. But those vaccines take time as they have to go through trials to ensure they are safe and effective. They are also costl

At least 500 hospital staff in Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, had been infected with the deadly new strain of coronavirus as early as mid-January, multiple medical sources have confirmed. The large number of doctors and nurses infected by the virus has reflected the dire situation in Wuhan, where the outbreak is believed to have originated. Hospitals have been overwhelmed by the growing number of patients.  The Chinese government has yet to disclose the number of infected medical professionals, although it has reported individual cases of doctors or nurses becoming sick.  The sources said doctors and nurses had been told not to make the information public.  The reason for th

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called China’s ruling party the “central threat of our times,” as he sought to convince allies to push back against Beijing’s growing influence. The top American diplomat made the declaration in London after the United Kingdom defied US pressure in approving limited use of Huawei equipment in its next-generation, or 5G, wireless network. The Trump administration has called on its European allies to join the United States in banning the Chinese telecoms giant, accusing the company of being a security threat. Western allies must “ensure that the next century is governed by … Western democratic principles,” Pompeo said during a joint appearance with British For