Coronavirus Live Updates: Vaccine Tests Show Early Promise, Drug Maker Says, Rallying Wall Street

Coronavirus Live Updates: Vaccine Tests Show Early Promise, Drug Maker Says, Rallying Wall Street

President Xi Jinping of China defended his country’s handling of the outbreak. Monday is the deadline for public companies in the U.S. to decide whether to return P.P.P. loans. Researchers in California have rolled out their own testing efforts.

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If current trends hold, New York City is expected to meet the state’s criteria to begin reopening in the first half of June, the mayor said.

Stocks climbed after encouraging data about the first coronavirus vaccine tested in people.

The drug maker Moderna said Monday that the first coronavirus vaccine to be tested in people appears to be safe and able to stimulate an immune response against the virus.

The findings, which helped prompt a rally on Wall Street, are based on results from the first eight people who each received two doses of the experimental vaccine, starting in March.

Those people, healthy volunteers, made antibodies that were then tested in human cells in the lab, and were able to stop the virus from replicating — the key requirement for an effective vaccine. The levels of those so-called neutralizing antibodies matched the levels found in patients who had recovered after contracting the virus in the community.

Limited data from the early phase,however leaves much uncertainty around the vaccine’s potential success

Moderna’s announcement came just a few days after President Trump named leaders for the federal government’s effort to speed up development of a vaccine, and the company has said that it is proceeding on an accelerated timetable, with the second phase involving 600 people to begin soon, and a third phase to begin in July involving thousands of healthy people. The Food and Drug Administration gave Moderna the go-ahead for the second phase earlier this month.

If those trials go well, a vaccine could become available for widespread use by the end of this year or early 2021, Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer, said in an interview. How many doses might be ready is not clear, but Dr. Zaks said, “We’re doing our best to make it as many millions as possible.”

Despite the uncertainties, the company’s announcement rapidly encouraged investors, who also welcomed a pledge from Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, that there was “really no limit” to what the central bank could do with its emergency lending facilities.

The S&P 500 rose more than 3 percent by early Monday afternoon, and Moderna’s shares surged more than 25 percent.Monday’s rally had all the characteristics of one focused on the prospects for a return to normal. Travel stocks, like United Airlines, Expedia Group and Marriott International, were among the best performers in the S&P 500.

Oil prices also moved higher, with West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. standard crude, rising above $30 a barrel for the first time since March, and government bond prices fell.

VACCINE PROGRESS

If the trials go well, a vaccine could become available for widespread use by the end of this year or early 2021, Moderna’s chief medical officer said.

Sourch by New york Times.