Science News Roundup: Wanted: Volunteers to catch COVID in the name of science; Easier to produce COVID vaccine shows promise in trials; nasal spray vaccine booster works in mice and more

New COVID-19 vaccine could be manufactured like flu shots Scientists want Britain to back COVID patent waivers Scientists on Friday called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to support the waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the wake of the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Wanted: Volunteers to catch COVID in the name of science

The world's first medical trial authorized to deliberately expose participants to the coronavirus is seeking more volunteers as it steps up efforts to help develop better vaccines. The Oxford University trial was launched last April, three months after Britain became the first country to approve what is known as challenge trials for humans involving COVID-19.

Easier to produce COVID vaccine shows promise in trials; nasal spray vaccine booster works in mice

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. New COVID-19 vaccine could be manufactured like flu shots

Scientists want Britain to back COVID patent waivers

Scientists on Friday called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to support the waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the wake of the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. In a letter, also addressed to the British health, trade, business and foreign ministers, the scientists asked Johnson to support the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.

Scientists amazed by blinking star's 'totally unexpected' behavior

Scientists have detected what appears to be an incredibly dense star behaving unlike anything else ever seen - and suspect it might be a type of exotic astrophysical object whose existence has until now been only hypothesized. The object, spotted using the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in outback Western Australia, unleashed huge bursts of energy roughly three times per hour when viewed from Earth during two months in 2018, the researchers said.

Boosters increase protection against death from Omicron in over-50s to 95% - UKHSA

COVID-19 boosters increase protection against death from the Omicron variant to 95% in people aged 50 or over, the UK Health Security Agency said on Thursday. The UKHSA said that around six months after the second dose of any of the COVID-19 vaccines, protection against death with Omicron was around 60% in those aged 50 and over. However, this increased to around 95% two weeks after receiving a booster vaccine dose.

China's Walvax says has most participants for large mRNA COVID vaccine trial

China's Walvax Biotechnology has recruited most of the 28,000 participants needed for a large clinical trial of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate, a senior company official said on Thursday. China has yet to approve a Chinese vaccine of the novel messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and has yet to import a foreign mRNA vaccine.

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