Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. is showing promise so far and will move to the final phase of trials later this month.

The results of the first tests on human volunteers were published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trials showed that two shots of the vaccine resulted in antibodies in the bloodstream equivalent to those in COVID-19 survivors.

“No matter how you slice this, this is good news,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press.

The first results involved only 45 people ages 18 to 55, all in good health. They were given the vaccine in two doses 28 days apart, according to a summary of the study posted on the medical journal's website.

Expanded results from the first phase that include older age groups are expected soon. The next round of the study is slated to include 30,000 volunteers, including older adults and people with chronic health conditions that make them more at risk. It's expected to start around July 27, the AP reported, and would be the largest trial of any vaccine to date.

The experimental vaccine was developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., and is one of many being researched and tested worldwide.

The results showed that those administered the vaccine developed "neutralizing antibodies" that are key to blocking infection.

“This is an essential building block that is needed to move forward with the trials that could actually determine whether the vaccine does protect against infection,” Dr. Lisa Jackson of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle, who led the study, said, according to the AP.

The initial group to receive it reported no serious side effects, although more than half had flu-like symptoms that are also common with other vaccines and similar to those of COVID-19.

The government hopes to have results by the end of the year, and Fauci has repeatedly said he is optimistic that a vaccine will be available sooner rather than later.

People think “this is a race for one winner," Fauci told the AP. "Me, I’m cheering every one of them on."

The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus continues to climb. In the U.S., 3.4 million cases have been reported, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 136,200 people have died because of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Worldwide, more than 575,000 people have died, and 13.2 million cases have been confirmed.

Latest Developments

United States:

-A majority of counties in the U.S. are in a position to reopen their schools, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday afternoon. “I think there’s actually a majority of counties in this country that are in a position to reopen their schools based on the data we have now, case counts, the percent positive, the availability of testing and the resilience of the health system they have,” Redfield said at a webinar with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. He added that he thinks a majority of counties would meet the criteria to reopen, as long as teachers, administrators and parents had the confidence to do so, according to a CNN report about the webinar. The webinar came a day after California's two largest school districts announced students won't be returning to classrooms when the new year starts, and school districts across the country debate how to proceed. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have said schools must reopen in the fall, while an Axios-Ipsos poll released Tuesday found 71% of U.S. parents say sending their children back to school would be moderately or very risky.

-Later Tuesday at a webinar with the Journal of the American Medical Association, Redfield, the CDC chief, said he thinks "the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be the probably one of the most difficult times that we experienced in American public health." He said that's because the co-occurrence of COVID-19 and seasonal influenza have the potential to stress the health system. “Keeping the health care system from being overstretched, I think, is really going to be important. And the degree that we're able to do that, I think, will define how well we get through the fall and winter,” he said.

-Hospitals have been ordered to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington at the Department of Health and Human Services, the New York Times reported. The new instructions were in a little-noticed document posted on the HHS website and they came from a working group of government and hospital officials convened by Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.

-International students will be allowed to keep their U.S. visas even if their coursework is entirely online after an agreement between the Trump administration and Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The universities sued after the administration announced a policy on July 6 that would have stripped the foreign students of their visas if they were not attending in-person classes.

-Dr. Robert Redfield also said among the additional resources coming on how to reopen schools will be information on how to really take advantage of face coverings, CNN reported. "Because to me, face coverings are the key. If you really look at it, the data is really clear — they work,” Redfield said. “We're not defenseless against this virus. We actually have face coverings and I do think the more confidence that the American public has — that face coverings are not a symbol, but they're actually a very important preventive intervention that can really block this virus,” he said.

-Florida surpassed its previous one-day record for coronavirus deaths Tuesday when it reported 132 additional deaths, topping the previous record for the state set just last week. The new deaths raised Florida's seven-day average to 81 per day, more than double the figure of two weeks ago and now the second-highest in the United States behind Texas. The state recorded 9,194 new cases Tuesday.

-The New York Times reported that Republican officials are considering moving the national convention Aug. 25-27 in Jacksonville, Florida, from an indoor arena to an outdoor venue.

-First Lady Melania Trump tweeted a photo of herself wearing a mask. In the tweet she said, "Even in the summer months, please remember to wear face coverings & practice social distancing. The more precaution we take now can mean a healthier & safer country in the Fall."

-In California, which has more than 333,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 7,000 deaths, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced indoor operations must close for all restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, family entertainment, museums, zoos and cardrooms. He said bars must close all operations. In 30 counties, including Los Angeles, inside operations must shut down at fitness centers, places of worship, nonessential office spaces, personal care services, hair salons and barbershops, and malls.

-"Miami is now the epicenter of the pandemic," said Lilian Abbo, an infectious disease expert with the Jackson Health System. "What we were seeing in Wuhan – six months ago, five months ago – now we are there," Abbo said during a news conference Monday. Coronavirus cases are soaring in Florida. Across the state, at least 48 hospitals have zero ICU beds available, CNN.com reported.

-New York now requires travelers from 22 states flagged for high coronavirus spread to share personal information and travel plans at airports or face a $2,000 fine. Travelers from the 22 states, which include Florida and much of the South, must quarantine for 14 after arriving in New York.

-Fauci said the attempt to save masks for health care workers early in the pandemic may have led to some people thinking face coverings were not beneficial. "What got, I think, a little bit misrepresented in that message was not that it was just we wanted to preserve them, but they don't really work that well anyway," Fauci told Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, host of the Crooked Media podcast "America Dissected." "That was the mistake, because in fact there's no doubt that wearing a mask is better than not having a mask for the general public," Fauci added.

Worldwide:

-CNN reported the US-Canada border, which has been closed to all non-essential traffic since March, is expected to remain closed until at least Aug. 21. CNN's report, which cited two Canadian government sources with knowledge of the situation, said there will be stepped-up enforcement and surveillance at most Canadian land borders in the coming weeks.

-Face coverings will be mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. The requirement is expected to take effect on July 24, the Associated Press reported.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.