Dear reader,
Vaccinology has come to the forefront of public interest in 2020, as the world has been experiencing the most severe and widespread epidemic in over 100 years: the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The best hope for timely protection of the global population, especially the most vulnerable groups of the elderly and patients with comorbidities such as diabetes and asthma, is the rapid development and deployment of a vaccine. Indeed, an unprecedented global effort has resulted in almost 50 vaccine candidates in clinical trials, ten of which are in Phase 3 (as of November 2020), less than one year from the emergence of the virus.
In this issue of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics we are happy to present a Special Focus entitled “SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19: Advances in Developing Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics” with Drs. Kuldeep Dhama, Yashpal Singh Malik, Ali Rabaan and Alfonso Rodriguez-Morales as Guest Editors. The Special Focus summarizes the progress made in the development of vaccines and immunotherapeutics during this extraordinary year and outlines key issues for research and implementation of lead products in the future. We invite you to read the Editorial (Dhama, p 2888), which provides more information on each article.
Among other topics in this issue are Licensed Vaccines with research articles on the impact of the live attenuated herpes zoster vaccine in an Australian national program (Litt, p 3081), otitis media incidence and nasopharyngeal carriage in Korean children (Lee, p 3090), characteristics of non-outbreak mumps cases in the U.S. (Zerbo, p 3098), decrease of circulating T cells in response to Yellow Fever vaccine (Bovay, p 3103), and a tool for estimating the cost of introducing cholera vaccine (Morgan, p 3111).
Three research articles on HPV highlight vaccine uptake among French men (Zeitoun, p 3098), factors affecting vaccine uptake among Chinese women (Li, p 3123), and an educational intervention on HPV knowledge in Native American healthcare workers (Salous, p 3131).
The Influenza section presents an evaluation of immune responses to an H7N7-H7N9 inactivated vaccine (El Sahly, p 3138) and preclinical efficacy of the cationic liposome formulation of the influenza split virus vaccine (Even-Orr, p 3146).
Two Acceptance studies investigate vaccine mistrust among healthcare workers in Turkey (Yoruk, p 3155) and determinants of hesitancy among Arab parents (Alsuwaidi, p 3163).
The Public Health section features a report on the impact of health center intervention on vaccine delays (Beauregard, p 3170) and a commentary on maternal immunization country readiness (Giles, p 3177).
Finally, we present a study of tumor membrane-based Immunotherapy in combination with CTLA-4 inhibitor for treatment of breast cancer (Pack, p 3184), assessment of antibody responses to a Novel Vaccine against Moraxella catarrhalis (Ren, p 3194), comparison of immunogenicity of one and two doses of the 13-valent Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Chapman, p 3201), and a commentary on barriers to acceptance of Meningococcal vaccine in older adolescents (Niccolai, p 3208).
Our monthly News, Policy and Profiles (NP&P) track offers a selection of the latest news in the field of vaccines and immunotherapeutics. In this section we also regularly publish opinion pieces on timely, interesting and controversial topics related to vaccines and immunotherapeutics, profiles of companies and organizations, as well as portraits of distinguished scientists in our field. Please contact Acquisitions Editor Adam Weiss ([email protected]) with your ideas for commentaries, opinion pieces, profiles and portraits. Your suggestions for and contributions to our N&P&P track are always welcome!
Sincerely,