AC Milan Head Coach Stefano Pioli Signs 2-Year Extension Until 2022

Milan, July 22: AC Milan announced that coach Stefano Pioli has signed a two-year extension to his contract, keeping him at the club until June 2022.

Milan released a statement shortly after the team beat Sassuolo 2-1 in Serie A.

"I am happy and proud of the trust I have received from AC Milan," Pioli said. "As I have said many times, our future is today: We must be focused and determined, be united and play as one. "We are at the beginning of an extraordinary path. If we keep working this way, we will grow and be more and more competitive."

Milan had been in negotiations to replace Pioli with Ralf Rangnick but the German coach's representative released a statement earlier Tuesday saying they had jointly decided with the club not to move forward. Sassuolo 1-2 AC Milan, Serie A 2019-20 Match Result: Zlatan Ibrahimovic Double Helps Milan Register Another Win Away From Home.

Milan has seen a remarkable upturn in form and results since Serie A resumed following the pandemic-enforced shutdown. The Rossoneri have won seven of their nine league games since the restart, drawing the other two.

"Stefano has shown he can deliver the vision of football we have for our club — exciting, progressive and passionate," Milan CEO Ivan Gazidis said. "This is not a decision based on recent victories, but one based on how Stefano has built team spirit and unity of purpose, the way he has improved the performances of the individual players and the collective team, the way he has embraced our vision and the way he has represented himself and the club's values."

Pioli joined Milan in October as a replacement for the fired Marco Giampaolo, who had lost four of his seven matches in charge. After a difficult start, the 54-year-old Pioli has steered the team into fifth place in Serie A.

"Stefano stepped up to become coach at a very difficult time," sport director Paolo Maldini said. "We have always said it would take some time to see the results of his job and we have seen the evidence that quality and professionalism always pay off.

"Stefano is the right man to lead the team that we want: successful, young and hungry." (AP) ATK ATK 07220931 NNNN a statement. Researchers also found it promising that a booster dose of the vaccine in 10 of the trial's participants produced more immune response.

"Trial participants developed the all-important neutralising antibodies, in most cases after one shot, and in all cases after two shots," noted Ian Jones, professor of Virology at the University of Reading in the UK.

Satyajit Rath, an immunologist from the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, found it interesting and promising that the boost with the same vaccine candidate tended to increase antibody levels further despite pre-existing antibodies.

"The vaccine candidate shows no unexpected awful adverse effects," Rath told PTI, adding that the formal addition of paracetamol showing some relief from adverse effects without modifying immune responses is useful information too.

Commenting on the side effects of headache and fatigue reported by the participants in the study, experts said they are not a major concern and commonly observed in vaccines.

"Such side effects have been seen in other vaccines as well and these subside in a few days' time. So, as of now, I don't see these as major points of concern," Ray said.

The results show the desired and expected effects in terms of the immune response and “does not have serious adverse effects seen in the numbers recruited so far", said Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK.

While the study showed there was an immune response generated by the vaccine, scientists cautioned that direct evidence showing whether or not it would prevent or reduce actual novel coronavirus infection has not been documented yet.

"Generating immune response and providing immunological protection might not always run parallel," Ray said. "Hence, long term population-based studies where vaccinated people could be monitored for future infection/outbreak are important," the CSIR-IICB virologist added.

Pointing to the way forward, she said there should be elaborate trials in geographical locations where severities and mortality of COVID-19 are currently high. According to the virologist, another concern is monitoring long the immunity lasts in terms of antibodies being generated and also the T cell counts.

"We do not know yet if the currently observed levels are enough to protect against infection. The study needs to be run longer," Ray said. Rath agreed. "Data that T cell responses are occurring too are expected but still comforting to have, although they provide as yet no information about whether they are functionally relevant for providing protection," he said. "It is a comforting study in that there are no unpleasant surprises, and it allows this vaccine candidate to move on to actual efficacy trials," the immunologist noted.

Vaccine development is a multi-phase process. Phase 1 trials are small-scale, usually involving few participants, to assess whether the vaccine is safe for humans.  Phase 2 trials often involve several hundred subjects, and mainly evaluate the efficacy. The final phase involves thousands of people to further assess the efficacy of the vaccine over a defined period of time, and can last several months.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)