Cancer Vaccine Breaking News

The U.S. Department of State reissued its Level 3: Reconsider Travel for the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.

On April 11, 2023, the State Department announced travelers should reconsider visiting Papua New Guinea due to crime, civil unrest, and piracy.

U.S. government employees must obtain authorization before traveling to areas of concern, including the southern part of Bougainville and the provinces of Southern Highlands, Western Highlands (excluding Mt. Hagen), Eastern Highlands (excluding Goroka), Hela, Enga, Jiwaka, and other areas of Papua New Guinea where one is unable to fly directly.

Additionally, the Travel Advisory says 'do not travel' to:

• Southern Bougainville, particularly areas near the Panguna mine.
• The Highlands region, other than the towns of Mt. Hagen and Goroka.

And there have been reports of criminals attacking resorts popular with foreign tourists to steal goods and money. And police presence is limited outside of the capital, Port Moresby.

Furthermore, piracy is active in the waters surrounding Papua New Guinea, located in the eastern area of New Guinea, the world's second-largest island. The western half of the island is part of Indonesia.

Travelers by boat should reconsider travel to the Bismarck and Solomon Seas along Papua New Guinea's north and eastern coasts. In 2021 and 2022, the Embassy was aware of at least three occasions in which sailboats operated by or carrying U.S. citizens were boarded by criminals and, in one incident, severely injured the captain.

From a health perspective, the U.S. CDC suggests various travel vaccines before visiting Papua New Guinea.

U.S. HHS Secretary Becerra today announced that in the coming weeks, he would issue an amendment to the declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act for medical countermeasures against COVID-19. 

In light of the significant impact of the PREP policy on the healthcare landscape and to provide further clarity, HHS offered additional information about key elements of its plan's flexibilities and protections on April 14, 2023, that will remain in place moving forward.

For example, extending protection coverage for COVID-19 vaccines, seasonal influenza vaccines, and COVID-19 tests will be enhanced.

And PREP Act immunity from liability will be extended through December 2024 to pharmacists, pharmacy interns, and pharmacy technicians to administer COVID-19 and seasonal influenza vaccines and COVID-19 tests, regardless of any USG agreement or emergency declaration.

In the month remaining before the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, HHS stated it would continue to work closely with its partners, including Governors, state, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies, industry, and advocates to ensure an orderly transition.

Additional, unedited information is posted at this HHS link.

SAB Biotherapeutics today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted Fast Track designation for SAB-176, an investigational therapeutic for Type A and Type B influenza illness in high-risk patients, including those who have anti-viral resistant strains.

SAB-176 offers the potential for additional treatment for influenza, particularly in higher-risk patients.

SAB also received FDA guidance and regulatory alignment on advancing SAB-176 into the next development phase by initiating a Phase 2b dose-range finding efficacy and safety trial in high-risk patients for developing severe disease.

SAB-176 is a novel, highly potent immunotherapy grounded in the fundamentals of the natural immune response to neutralize Type A and Type B influenza viruses, which mutate rapidly.

SAB-176 has undergone multiple clinical and pre-clinical studies, including a Phase 1 trial in healthy volunteers and a Phase 2a challenge study completed last year.

In the Phase 2a study, SAB-176 showed broad cross-protection that included influenza strains not explicitly targeted in manufacturing the therapeutic.

"We are pleased to receive the FDA Fast Track designation for SAB-176. Influenza continues to be one of the biggest public health challenges the world faces continuingly, with an excessively high number of hospitalizations and deaths each year," said Eddie Sullivan, Ph.D., co-founder, President & CEO of SAB Biotherapeutics, in a press release on April 13, 2023.

"We are excited about the potential role SAB-176 can play in tackling a highly mutagenic pathogen like influenza."

SAB-176 is also being studied in emerging and mutating pandemic strains by targeting multiple epitopes of the virus rather than a single epitope. 

While Tamiflu® is an effective therapy for treating influenza if used within two days of symptom onset, some patients still develop severe disease and resistant strains of influenza to anti-viral drugs. 

Throughout the 2022-2023 flu season in the U.S., over 171 million influenza vaccines were distributed, which remain available at health clinics and pharmacies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today published its weekly epidemiological update focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On April 13, 2023, the WHO's Edition #138 highlighted very positive trends.

Over the last 28 days (March 13 to April 9, 2023), COVID-19 cases decreased by 28%.

And related fatalities declined by 30% compared to the previous period.

However, contrary to the global trend, increases in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths were seen in the South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions and several individual countries.

At the regional level, the number of newly reported 28-day cases decreased across four of the six WHO regions: The African Region (-45%), the Western Pacific Region (-39%), the Region of the Americas (-33%), and the European Region (-22%).

While case numbers increased in two WHO regions: the South-East Asia Region (+481%) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (+144%).

The highest numbers of new 28-day cases were reported at the country level from the U.S., the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea, Brazil, and France.

The WHO suggests international travelers remain fully protected against COVID-19 by speaking with a healthcare provider to determine if a Spring or Summer COVId-19 booster is recommended, as well as various travel vaccines.

Various types of COVID-19 vaccines have been approved to reduce the disease burden during the recent pandemic. To better appreciate differences, South Korean researchers conducted an observational study to evaluate the effectiveness of Novavax's NVX-CoV2373 and BNT162b2 vaccines in protecting adults.

This non-peer-reviewed study was published on February 19, 2023, and compared the results from 3,019 recipients of NVX-CoV2373 and 3,027 recipients of BNT162b2 vaccines.

The 40-week risk ratios for recipients of the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine compared with recipients of the BNT162b2 vaccine were 1.169 (95% CI, 1.015 to 1.347) for laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.

And 0.504 (95% CI, 0.126 to 2.014) for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The estimated risk of severe infection was 0.001 events per 1000 persons (95% CI, 0 to 0.003) for the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine and 0.002 events per 1000 persons (95% CI, 0.001 to 0.006) for the BNT162b2 vaccine.

These researchers wrote this 'study identifies the reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe infection after receipt of three doses of either NVX-CoV2373 or BNT162b2 vaccines in Korean adults.

The study authors did not declare any competing industry interest.

The U.S. government today announced it is releasing the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan. This plan lays out the roadmap to help fight COVID-19 in the future.

'We look to a future when Americans no longer fear lockdowns, shutdowns, and our kids not going to school,' wrote the U.S. government on April 12, 2023. 

'It's a future when the country relies on the powerful layers of protection we have built."

"And invests in the next generation of tools to stay ahead of this coronavirus."

The President's National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan focuses on four key goals, which are linked here.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced a previously unscheduled meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) focused on COVID-19 vaccinations.

According to the CDC's website, on April 12, 2023, the ACIP will digitally meet on April 19, 2023, at 11 am EST. This meeting's agenda has yet to be posted for public review, and no registration is required to watch the webcasts.

A summary of recent changes (last updated March 16, 2023) is posted on this CDC page.

Updated on April 19, 2023, with the meeting's agenda.