PERTH, Australia – The University of Queensland (UQ) and CSL Ltd. are abandoning their trials of an Australian COVID-19 vaccine after recipients generated HIV antibodies during phase I trials. The response means the antibodies produced by the vaccine can interfere with HIV diagnostic tests. However, there was no possibility the vaccine caused infection, and routine follow-up tests confirmed no HIV virus was present, the partners said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has done little to encourage bipartisan comity in Washington, and the Oct. 2 hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis reflected that partisan tension. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar noted, however, that the department is doing its best to cooperate with oversight of the vaccine program by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), but that the nearly three dozen GAO requests for oversight have come at a difficult time.

The issue of the U.S. federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was revisited yet again in a hearing in the House of Representatives. While partisanship was on full display, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the prospects for a vaccine and that the development of candidates has not compromised scientific principles.

LONDON – Pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers working on COVID-19 vaccines are being targeted by Russian state-sponsored hackers, according to the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The U.K. view is endorsed by the U.S. National Security Agency and Canada’s Communications Security Establishment, and the three agencies have issued a joint statement advising companies how to protect against these attacks.