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COVID-19 coronavirus update
A Pfizer vaccine trial participant gets injected in Hollywood, Florida.Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty
Pfizer COVID vaccine breakthrough
Early data show that the vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and BioNTech, a German biotechnology company, is safe and that it works. The companies say that the vaccine is more than 90% effective at preventing COVID-19. The results are based on the first formal review of the data by an outside panel of experts, and have not yet been peer reviewed or published. If they hold up, “it is close to a best-case scenario”, reports STAT. The vaccine presents formidable distribution challenges: 2 doses are required, and they have to be kept at an icy –80 ℃.
Nations, get ready for a COVID vaccine
“Creating a safe and effective vaccine is akin to striking base camp on Everest — the gruelling climb to procurement and delivery lies ahead,” write public-health researchers Yot Teerawattananon and Saudamini Dabak today in Nature. They outline five urgent steps that nations must take now to get ready for a COVID vaccine rollout.
Scientists are worried about how India’s drug regulator is handling desperately needed therapies for COVID-19. The Drugs Controller General of India has approved several repurposed drugs for ‘restricted emergency use’ for treating the disease — the first time it has used such powers. Scientists say it’s unclear on what basis the drugs were approved, and critics argue that the manufacturers’ data on their effectiveness are unconvincing so far.
“If I had any advice for my former self in January, I’d say take more holidays,” jokes vaccine investigator Teresa ‘Tess’ Lambe. She is one of the researchers at the University of Oxford, UK, working with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. She describes what it’s like to do such crucial work at break-neck speed.
Australia has a new chief scientist
Physicist Cathy Foley has been appointed Australia’s next chief scientist, and will begin her three-year term in the new year. Foley has spent 36 years at Australia’s national science agency, and was its chief scientist for the past 2 years. She says COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of the science sector in leading the country out of the pandemic. “Post-COVID-recession, we’re going to have a very different Australia, which has the chance to be more sustainable…with industries based on the fabulous research done here and elsewhere,” says Foley, whose research includes using superconductors to locate mineral deposits. Foley will be Australia’s ninth chief scientist and the second woman in the position.
300 million
The number — at least — of rocky, potentially habitable planets orbiting Sun-like stars in our galaxy, according to a new analysis of Kepler telescope data. (The New York Times | 6 min read)
Reference: arXiv preprint
US presidential election
Joe Biden is set to become the 46th president of the United States.Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty
President-elect Joe Biden has been welcomed by scientists who hope that he will reverse policies introduced by the administration of outgoing President Donald Trump that were damaging to science and public health. Among Biden’s first orders of business will be putting a more aggressive pandemic response plan in place and rejoining the Paris climate agreement. US government scientists look forward to a sea change in how the government uses scientific expertise. “There's a wide range of government agencies that now are going to finally get a chance to do their jobs properly,” says bioethicist Alta Charo.Nature | 7 min read
Five urgent to-dos for President Biden
Going back to business as usual in the United States is not enough to repair the damage to science done by the presidency of Donald Trump, argue science-policy researchers Roger Pielke Jr and Neal Lane. They recommend five fundamental and sometimes counter-intuitive actions for president-elect Joe Biden’s administration that will strengthen the use of science in US policy and by the research community more broadly.Nature | 8 min read
The window onto everything
A seven-windowed dome on the International Space Station — the cupola — has provided a decade of unmatchable views of Earth. Astronauts speak of the “the intensely beautiful light” and the altered perspective gained from a view of our planet without borders. “You realize that you are ‘up here’ and Earth is ‘over there’,” says NASA astronaut Terry Virts, who helped to install the window. “It’s a profound realization.”
