The White House plans to allocate $5 billion to develop effective treatments and vaccines against the entire family of coronaviruses, not just Covid.
“Project Next Gen” is expected to be launched in the near future as a sequel to the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed”. Funding will be taken from funds set aside by the Department of Health and Human Services for Covid tests and PPE.
Similar to the landmark project that led to the rapid development of Moderna Covid vaccines, the government will work with private companies to fund research and development of the shots.
The goal is to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, and treatments that will be able to withstand future threats from the family of viruses that include Covid, SARS, and MERS.
But interest in the pandemic and vaccines has waned dramatically, with some questioning why money is being spent in this way.
President Biden (pictured) is set to launch a $5 billion initiative to develop effective vaccines and treatments against Covid and other strains of the coronavirus.
“It was very clear to us that the market in this area is moving very slowly,” said Dr. Ashish Jan, White House Covid Response Coordinator. Washington Post.
“There’s a lot the government can do, and the administration can do, to accelerate those tools…for the American people.”
The initiative will have three main objectives. First, making a mucosal COVID vaccine that is effective in preventing infection with the virus.
This means that instead of a vaccine shot, the vaccine will be given either through the nose or through the mouth.
That was the goal of the initial Covid vaccines, which were launched in late 2020 with help in part through Operation Warp Speed.
Initially, injections can reduce the risk of contracting a Covid infection by about 90 percent. But this dropped significantly after the Omicron variant broke out in late 2021.
The current batch of bivalent Covid vaccines are designed to fit Omicron, but they are still not particularly effective at preventing infection or transmission.
Biden officials also hope that injecting them with the condition will boost the development of monoclonal antibodies that remain effective against all strains of the virus.
Several drugs in this class received early emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fight the virus. It was the main tool used in many American hospitals.
But like vaccines, the effectiveness of these drugs dropped dramatically once Omicron appeared. They have now been removed as a cure for the virus.
The ultimate goal among the triple goals is to develop an effective vaccine against all types of coronaviruses.
This will not only include Covid, but both past and future versions of it that may break out.
Over the past three decades, there have been three major outbreaks of coronavirus around the world.
WaPo reports that Biden has wanted to launch this initiative for about a year but struggled to convince Congress to fund it. Now with HHS money, the business will finally get under way.
Dr. Jha did not share a timeline regarding when the aforementioned drugs and vaccines will be available.
Once developed, he says, the scientific findings could also spur innovation in vaccines and treatments for other conditions, too.
When the initiative is officially launched, the first task for health officials is to identify ongoing projects in the private sector that deserve funding.
Among these potential candidates is a class of nasal vaccines that has shown promising results in early clinical trials.
Georgia-based startup Blue Lake Biotechnology Inc is making one of the mucosal vaccine candidates.
Their vaccine, which is sprayed into a person’s nose, can reduce the likelihood of contracting the virus by 86 percent when used as a booster shot in early trials.
These first trials only involved 72 participants and the company is looking forward to larger studies to prove the shot’s effectiveness.
Nasal vaccines have been seen by many as an important part of the future response to Covid.
Some hope that nebulizers will be more acceptable for parents to give to their young children and help get vaccinated for some who are reluctant to get vaccinated.
It can also be simply administered by a person at home in some cases.
However, whether such investment is needed is still being debated.
The Covid pandemic is almost no longer a problem for the entire world, as case and death numbers never rebounded after the summer 2022 surge.
In America, and across much of the world, daily updates are almost over as it is now assumed that Covid will remain at low levels for the rest of the time.
Between the natural immunity that millions have from previous infections and vaccines, the relative risk that the average person faces from the virus is relatively low.
Covid itself is rare among coronaviruses with its ability to spread all over the world and cause many deaths.
While both MERS and SARS have been devastating to small areas of the world, there have only been about 10,000 cases and 1,500 deaths across both outbreaks.
These numbers pale in comparison to the countless Covid cases and 6 million deaths recorded over the past two years.
This story is evolving
