News
Johnson & Johnson to Create Coronavirus Vaccines
On Monday, Johnson & Johnson made an announcement.
They said that testing on humans for their experimental vaccine will commence in September and should be available early next year in case of authorization for emergency use.
J&J said that it had allotted $1B of investment in partnership with the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a subsidiary of the Department of Health and Human Services, co-funding the research.
For Phase1, J&J’s lead vaccine candidate will start by September and will know the effects of it by the end of this year. If the vaccine is effective, then it will be available for those emergency usages in 2021.
In that case, J&J’s pre-market trading rose by more than 4%. It is also doing more on its manufacturing capacity, adding more sites in the US and other sites in other countries to be able to produce them and distribute the vaccine immediately.
The company has a target of 1 billion doses of the said vaccine.
The Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky announced on Monday on CNBC that, “We have excellent early indicators that not only can we depend on this to be a safe vaccine base but also one that will ultimately be effective based on all the early testing and modeling we’ve been doing. This is a bit of a moonshot for J&J going forward, but it’s one we feel is very, very important for users to be doing at this period in time.”
In a statement, he said, “The world is facing an urgent public health crisis, and we are committed to doing our part to make a COVID-19 vaccine available and affordable globally as quickly as possible.”
HE also mentioned that it is doing the vaccine for a “not-for-profit basis” but didn’t comment on the estimated cost for the consumer.
Other than that, Johnson & Johnson, as the top leading vaccine candidate, also has two back-ups and is now working on another COVID-19 vaccine early next year. The pace for a vaccine is more or less 5-7 years.
A lot of companies are trying to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. It has killed more than 34,000 worldwide, but experts have warned that it would take more than a year to prepare a vaccine.
Moderna’s vaccine was already given to one patient for their early-stage trial making it the first runner in developing a vaccine. They said it would be possible that a vaccine would be created this fall.
They didn’t comment further on other details. CanSino Biological is also another of the candidate doing its phase 1 trial, according to the World Health Organization.
Some of the health authorities are using the antiviral drug Remdesivir, that was used during the Ebola outbreak as of the moment that there are still no vaccines available in the market.
Bernstein analyst Wimal Kapadia, however, has something to say about it, “Developing a vaccine would be significantly more challenging if the virus is changing fast enough to cause true reinfections and would undermine the immunity patients develop from natural infections.”
He added, Based on our initial read, our assumption here is that immunity lasts for two years and that the virus does not mutate significantly, meaning a vaccine with regular boosters (not just in high-risk patients), could be the outcome.”
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NEW K.ID, the No.1 TV channel for all K-Pop entertainment and source (https://cutt.ly/NEWKID), announced its weekly chart for the 3rd week of August.
BLACKPINK retains its #1 spot in the NEW K.ID’s weekly chart for three consecutive weeks as they tie with WINNER’s previous record. BLACKPINK has announced a new single dropping on August 28th which will be a collaboration with American pop star, Selena Gomez. Selena Gomez also recently teased her collaboration with BLACKPINK on her Instagram post captioned, “SELPINK pulling up soon. 8/28”.
Following their release of the single, BLACKPINK will be releasing their first debut album on October 2nd.
PENTAGON, SHINee, GWSN, and N.Flying all retained their spots in TOP5. The 6th place, WINNER, celebrated their 6th year debut anniversary. MINO posted a photo of WINNER on his Instagram, celebrating the time and unforgettable memories that they have spent together for the last 6 years.
Ranked at #9, SF9’s Rowoon has been named as ‘The North Face white label’s F/W’ model and its brand ambassador. With a height over 6’3’’, Rowoon not only has a youthful personality but also has various talents as he can both sing and act in various entertainment fields. The North Face saw that Rowoon’s versatility perfectly matched its brand image and decided to partner with Rowoon.
Coming in at #10, DAY6’s sub-unit, Even of Day, is releasing a new album, ‘The Book of Us: Gluon – Nothing can tear us apart’ on August 31st. All 7 songs in the album are written and produced by the Even of Day members. Young K is expected to play guitar in place of Sungjin and Jae. JYP’s representative commented, “Young K showed his expertise on the bass guitar and will continue to play more instruments.” It was also mentioned that Wonpil’s synthesizer and Dowoon’s electronic drum will be key in this album.
Additionally, in last week’s ‘2020 SORIBADA BEST K-MUSIC AWARDS’, GWSN and LOONA won New Wave New Artist Awards while GFRIEND took the main prize (bonsang) home.
NEW K.ID, the only TV channel that allows viewers to enjoy K-POP Idol-related content programming 24/7 and exclusive episodes curated from 10K+ videos, is available at CH 511 for free on LG Smart TVs and XUMO apps on all Internet-connected devices.
Breaking News
Death after unmasked arrest – Mexico Floyd
The official reason for the arrest revealed by the police is not known, but the video footage posted on social media at the time of the arrest suggests that the reason is “not wearing a mask.”
Amid a stir across the U.S. over the “George Floyd” incident that killed white police abuses, similar cases of abuse of public power have been revealed in Mexico, sparking public outrage.
The daily El Universal has been protesting against the incident since it was belatedly revealed that construction worker Giovanni Lopez died the next day after being arrested by police in Guadalajara, western Mexico, on April 4.
The official reason for the arrest revealed by the police is not known, but the video footage posted on social media at the time of the arrest suggests that the reason is “not wearing a mask.”
Death of George Floyd
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street
