Experimental coronavirus vaccine trials show promising early results
Scientists at Oxford University said their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who received doses. In research published Monday in the journal Lancet, scientists said that they found their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a dual immune response in people aged 18 to 55.
“We are seeing good immune response in almost everybody,” said Dr. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University. “What this vaccine does particularly well is trigger both arms of the immune system.” Hill said that neutralizing antibodies are produced – molecules that are key to blocking infection. In addition, the vaccine also causes a reaction in the body’s T-cells, which help fight off the coronavirus. He said that larger trials evaluating the vaccine’s effectiveness, involving about 10,000 people in the U.K. as well as participants in South Africa and Brazil, are still underway. Another big trial is slated to start in the U.S. soon, aiming to enroll about 30,000 people.
How quickly scientists are able to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness will depend largely on how much more transmission there is, but Hill estimated they might have sufficient data by the end of the year to decide if the vaccine should be adopted for mass vaccination campaigns. Oxford has partnered with drug maker AstraZeneca to produce their vaccine globally, with the company having already committed to making two billion doses. About a dozen different experimental vaccines are in early stages of human testing or poised to start around the world, with dozens more in earlier stages of development.
Chinese researchers also published a study on their experimental COVID-19 vaccine — made with the human cold virus — in the Lancet on Monday, using a similar technique as the Oxford scientists. The vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc. and China’s military research unit studied about 500 people, detecting an immune response in those who received a shot. The results from the mid-stage study, published in the medical journal Lancet, supports the testing of the vaccine candidate in a large trial, the study authors said.
In an accompanying Lancet editorial, Naor Bar-Zeev and William Moss of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called both the Oxford and Chinese results “encouraging,” but said further judgment should wait until the vaccine is tested on much bigger populations. Bar-Zeev and Moss also called for any effective COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed equitably around the world. Mike Ryan, the head of emergencies at the World Health Organization expressed the same concern and warned “there’s a long way to go” in the vaccine trials.
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Yearning to travel as COVID-19 drags on? Here’s what you need to know
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and provinces ease their lockdown restrictions, travel is slowly opening up. Many Canadians have struggled this summer to figure out where they can vacation domestically because each province and territory has created its own travel rules in response to the pandemic — and those rules are subject to change. To help navigate the varied rules, the Canadian Travel & Tourism Roundtable — a new travel and tourism lobby group — has created an interactive map to assist Canadian travellers.
Currently, Canadians can freely travel to Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. without having to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. Visitors to Yukon, Manitoba and Nova Scotia may be required to self-isolate, depending on which part of the country they’re travelling from. Earlier this month, Canada’s four easternmost provinces created a travel bubble that allows Atlantic Canadians to travel freely within those provinces — with no self-isolation requirement. Canadians outside that bubble are barred from visiting Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador — unless they meet specific criteria.
Internationally, the federal government’s advisory against all non-essential international travel during the pandemic remains in effect until further notice — even as other countries start to open their borders. Because it’s an advisory — not an order — Canadians can still travel abroad, but they do so at their own risk. Global Affairs said it’s not planning any repatriation flights after July. And until the advisory is lifted, international travellers likely won’t be able to purchase medical insurance that covers COVID-19-related illnesses. Canadians must also self-isolate for 14 days upon their return home, and there are limits for those who choose to travel. The roundtable’s website lists countries that have opened their borders, including Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
Read more about travelling amid the pandemic
Commons returns as Liberals seek to extend wage subsidy, approve disability payment
The House of Commons is sitting today as the Liberals seek to pass a bill to extend their wage subsidy program, send a special payment to people with disabilities and extend some legal deadlines for court cases. Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the wage-subsidy program needs to be extended to December — and have its criteria loosened a little — so that businesses can reopen and employ workers even if trade is slow at first as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
But the opposition Conservatives say the approach the Liberals are taking to the wage subsidy is overly convoluted and they’re going to press for changes. “We have major concerns around the wage subsidy. We’ve highlighted ideas to make it simpler,” Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said ahead of the Commons sitting. Scheer said the Tories do support the elements of the bill that grant up to $600 for people with disabilities and allow for court extensions, and they don’t want to hold those up. Since the Bloc Québécois has said its MPs will support the bill, the Liberals have the majority of votes required to ensure it passes the Commons.
The original program covered 75 per cent of wages, up to a weekly maximum of $847, for eligible companies and non-profits. Companies had to show a 30-per-cent drop in revenues. The proposed changes would see the program pay on a sliding scale based on revenue drops due to the pandemic, with the hardest-hit businesses eligible for a 25-per-cent increase to the previous maximum payment. Separately, the federal government is taking a second look at how quickly it will dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to social services looking to tap into new sources of capital, particularly as the pandemic dries up traditional donations. Social Development Minister Ahmed Hussen’s office said the government is reviewing the launch of what’s known as the “social finance fund” given the pandemic.
Read more about what’s happening in Parliament
Toronto, Peel, Windsor-Essex to stay in Stage 2 of Ontario’s COVID-19 recovery plan
Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex public health units will not be entering Stage 3 of Ontario’s COVID-19 recovery plan this week, Premier Doug Ford announced on Monday. The other seven public health units in the province that are still in Stage 2 got a green light from Ford today to proceed into the next stage of reopening. Those regions are Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand-Norfolk, Sarnia-Lambton and York Region.
This means that by the end of the week, 31 of Ontario’s 34 public health units will have moved into Stage 3, which allows for activities such as indoor dining in restaurants, live performing arts shows and the reopening of movie theatres and playgrounds. Ford asked those living in the remaining areas, including Toronto, to exercise patience as they wait to move to the next stage. “We know as a province that we can’t ease up, we can’t give this virus an absolute inch and part of the process is learning from other jurisdictions,” he said. Twenty-four health units entered into Stage 3 last Friday.
Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex accounted for 78 of the 135 new cases of COVID-19 reported by the Ministry of Health this morning. The new cases mark a 0.4 per cent increase in total infections of the novel coronavirus in Ontario, slightly above what has been typical in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Ford said that while he looks forward to the federal government’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, which is set to be released soon, it would not affect Ontario’s reopening schedule. “What I understand, the app, possibly will be coming out Friday, I hear that from the federal government, but I don’t think that will have anything to do with moving forward for Peel and Windsor and Toronto,” he said.
Read more about what’s happening in Ontario
Do masks reduce your oxygen levels?
CBC News readers, viewers and listeners have sent in countless questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, including this one. If you have a question of your own, reach out at [email protected].
As for the issue at hand: The experts CBC News spoke to said there’s no truth to that claim. “I haven’t seen any medical or scientific evidence that shows that wearing a mask depletes your body of oxygen,” said Dr. Susy Hota, medical director of infection prevention and control at Toronto’s University Health Network. Nor do they let any harmful gases, such as carbon dioxide, build up, she said. So, you may feel hot or become more aware of your breathing, but “it’s not dangerous,” Hota said.
Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician in Burlington, Ont., agreed. Oxygen and carbon dioxide still get through your mask, but it catches the droplets that contain the virus, “which is what helps reduce transmission,” she said. “As a medical professional, we wear masks in our day-to-day practice and it has not caused doctors or nurses or surgeons any harm.”
The real risk, said Kwan, is wearing your mask incorrectly, including sharing it with others, reusing non-reusable masks or not cleaning cloth masks properly. “It’s very important with the increase in mask-wearing to also be teaching people to wear them properly,” she said. That includes washing or sanitizing your hands before putting it on and taking it off, handling it by the ear straps only (don’t touch the front) and keeping your face covered from above your nostrils to below your chin.
COVID-19 cancelled the chicken races at a B.C. national historic site — so they’re moving online
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tourists from around the world came to Fort St. James National Historic Site in northern B.C. to see the chicken races on summer mornings, surrounded by Canada’s largest collection of fur trade-era wooden buildings from the 1800s. But this year’s races will be an online-only affair; races will be recorded and posted to the fort’s Facebook page — with play-by-play commentary in both official languages.
“It’s a wonderfully absurd thing and I think that [travellers] come here for the absurd and they stay for the history,” said Jim Williams, a historical interpreter who organized the races. Parks Canada said more than 2,000 travellers a year — about a third of all visitors to the site — decide to visit the fur trading post after seeing highway billboards promoting “World Class Chicken Racing.” “One-third of visitors said this was an unplanned stop, so the road signs which depict chicken racing got them here,” a Parks Canada spokesperson said in a written statement.
Although the highway billboards are still up, visitors won’t be able to experience it live this summer. The fort’s visitor centre is also closed, but the rest of the historic site is still open with COVID-19 health measures in place for visitors — as well as a coop full of chickens. While the modern-day chicken racing is a feather in the cap of the fort, Parks Canada said chickens were also kept at the fort more than a century ago to supply eggs and meat to the officer in charge of the fort and his family. In that same era, horse races helped pass the time at the fort.
Read the full story about the (modified) chicken run
Send us your questions
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With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters
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