Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force discusses new vaccines, need for continued efforts to battle virus around the world
Dr. James Koopman remarked that he’s pretty enthusiastic about new vaccines at the March 1 meeting of the Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force.
“I think that one of the good characteristics is that it was administered to a lot of the people that carry the South African strain and no one died from taking the vaccine,” said Koopman, although he admits we are far from home free.
Task Force member Martha Huard pointed out that although the vaccine is being made in South Africa, the locals there can’t seem to get immunized, due to more affluent first world countries purchasing it.
Koopman said one advantage of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is that it’s administered in one dose.
“It stimulates a more cellular immune response, as opposed to the antibody responses,” said Koopman, “because of the way it brings in different steps to emphasize that. This is an adenovirus. An adenovirus is constructed with the spike protein on it. It has the whole spike protein, not just the receptive binding.”
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov), adenoviruses can cause mild to severe illness, though serious illness is less common. People with weakened immune systems, or existing respiratory or cardiac disease, are at higher risk of developing severe illness from an adenovirus infection.
Huard explained that it’s in the best interest of the U.S. to help fund immunizations in other countries because if the effort to immunize is not made international the virus will continue to spread and mutate throughout the globe, only to wind up in the U.S. again.
“Spending money to help immunize poorer countries is to our advantage,” Huard said. “It’s not just totally altruistic … ultimately it protects us.”
Koopman agreed, saying the CDC has made this same argument for the last 25 years or more.
Dr. Daniel Hanley, another Task Force member, reported to the group that the demand for COVID-19 testing seems to be waning, and that he’s not seeing many cases of the virus at this point.