A new study suggests that cousins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can survive on frozen meat and fish for up to 30 days.
The research — prompted by COVID outbreaks in Asia in which packaged meat was suspected as the virus’ source — was conducted on frozen chicken, beef, pork and salmon. The findings were published June 11 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology , a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
“Although you might not store meat in the fridge for 30 days, you might store it in the freezer for that long,” said first author Emily Bailey, assistant professor of public health at Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C.
Her team conducted its research without use of the actual coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Instead, researchers relied on surrogate viruses with similar protein spikes. Read more here.
The United States Government Plans to Buy 3.2 Million Doses of Novavax’s Covid Vaccine
The Biden administration announced on Monday that it would buy 3.2 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine from the Maryland pharmaceutical company Novavax that is expected to soon receive authorization in the United States.
If cleared by regulators, Novavax’s two-dose vaccine would become the fourth coronavirus vaccine available in the United States. It would be available at first as a primary immunization series for adults. After that initial authorization, the Food and Drug Administration could later authorize the vaccine as a booster shot.
The company hopes that its protein-based shot, a vaccine technology that has been widely used for decades, will appeal to Americans who declined to be vaccinated with shots using messenger RNA technology. About two-thirds of people in the United States are fully vaccinated. Read more here.
Novavax Stock Rises
Novavax NVAX +0.27% stock rose almost 3% in the premarket Wednesday as the Food and Drug Administration appeared poised to authorize the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Regulatory clearance of the two-dose shot for adults could come as early as Wednesday, according to a Politico report, which cited two unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.
The FDA and Novavax did not immediately respond to requests from Barron’s for comment. Shares of Novavax (ticker: NVAX), which have fallen by more than 51% so far this year, rose 2.9% to $71.82 ahead of the market open. Read more here.
