President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck will help Johnson & Johnson manufacture its newly authorized coronavirus vaccine to boost supply, a senior administration official tells Axios. The big picture: The development has the potential to vastly increase supply, possibly doubling what the J&J could make on its own, the official said. The company has run into challenges while trying to expand its vaccine production to a global scale. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeJeff Zients, the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator, said at a briefing Monday that 3.9 million doses of the J&J vaccine will be distributed to states, tribes, territories, pharmacies and community health centers this week, starting as early as Tuesday.The state of play: Merck will dedicate two U.S. facilities for J&J shots, one to help place vaccine in vials and package and the other to make the
Starting next week, the "very small number" of travelers arriving from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be funneled to six U.S. airports, the CDC said.
Image/Dr. Frederick Murphy,CDC
The outbreak, the 12th ever in the DRC is in the North Kivu (Kivu Nord) province in the eastern part of the country–the same location as the 10th outbreak in DRC that began in August 2018 and was declared over in June 2020.
To date, eight confirmed cases, including four deaths have been recorded in the outbreak declared on February 7.
In Guinea, there is an outbreak of Ebola in the rural community of Gouéké, N’Zérékoré Prefecture of Guinea. This was declared on Feb. 14.
To date, nine total cases (5 confirmed and 4 probable), including 5 deaths have been reported.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one dose. Phill Magoke/AFP via Getty ImagesThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine in adults. Maureen Ferran, a virologist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, explains how this third authorized vaccine works and explores the differences between it and the Moderna and Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines that are already in use. 1. How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine work? The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is what’s called a viral vector vaccine. To create this vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson team took a harmless adenovirus – the viral vector – and replaced a small piece of its genetic instructions with coronavirus genes for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. After this modified adenovirus is injected into someone’s arm, it enters the person’s cells. The cells then read the genetic instructions needed to make the spike protei
Since the epidemic s resurgence this month, we have already registered six Ebola cases, the provincial health minister in North Kivu province in the DRC s northeast said.As in past outbreaks, the population refuses to believe in the existence of Ebola and rejects measures aimed to check its spread