Covid News Watch
Pfizer Vaccine Could Be Authorized for Kids Ages 5 to 11 in October + More
Pfizer Vaccine Could Be Authorized for Kids Ages 5 to 11 in October, Says Former FDA Head
The former head of the Food and Drug Administration said Sunday that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine could be approved for children ages 5 to 11 by the end of October.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who helmed the FDA under President Trump and serves on Pfizer’s board of directors, said the company should get information on its vaccines on young kids before the end of September — paving the way for approval for the next age group to get the jab.
“In a best-case scenario, given that timeline they’ve just laid out, you could potentially have a vaccine available to children aged 5 to 11 by Halloween,” Gottlieb said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
The FDA Again Warns Parents Not to Get Children Under 12 Vaccinated Yet
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is “working around the clock” to make COVID vaccines available to young children, it said in a statement on Friday. In the meantime, however, the agency urged parents not to seek out the shots for children who are under 12, and therefore not yet eligible for vaccination.
The agency said that it hoped vaccines would be available for young children “in the coming months,” but that it could not offer a more specific timeline. However, once it has applications from the vaccine manufacturers in hand, it will “be prepared to complete its review as quickly as possible, likely in a matter of weeks rather than months,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, and Dr. Peter Marks, of the agency’s Center for Biologics Research and Evaluation, said in the statement.
Poor Nutrition Plays Heavy Role in COVID-19 Death Toll, Studies Find
Even before COVID-19, America faced a crisis of poor nutrition aggravated by widespread food insecurity. Those underlying factors, researchers say, allowed the disease to decimate poor communities.
More than 42% of Americans are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly half of adults have hypertension, and heart disease contributes to 1 in every 4 deaths in the U.S.
When the pandemic was declared in March 2020, a population riddled with underlying conditions found itself unable to fend off the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The U.S. has recorded the most COVID-19 deaths in the world, with more than 652,000 and rising by more than 1,000 a day, the CDC says.
Single Jab Recommended for 12- to 15-Year-Olds by UK’s Top Doctors
Healthy children aged 12 to 15 should be offered one dose of a COVID vaccine, the UK’s chief medical officers say.
The CMOs said it would help reduce disruption to education.
It comes after the government’s vaccine committee said there was not enough benefit to warrant it on health grounds alone — but they said ministers could take into account other factors.
The CMOs concluded this tipped the balance given the virus was going to keep spreading over winter.
Boys More at Risk from Pfizer Jab Side-Effect Than COVID, Suggests Study
Healthy boys may be more likely to be admitted to hospital with a rare side-effect of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine that causes inflammation of the heart than with COVID itself, U.S. researchers claim.
Their analysis of medical data suggests that boys aged 12 to 15, with no underlying medical conditions, are four to six times more likely to be diagnosed with vaccine-related myocarditis than ending up in hospital with COVID over a four-month period.
Alabama Holds TikTok Contest to Encourage COVID Vaccines Among Young Adults
To encourage young people to get COVID-19 vaccinations amid the U.S. surge, Alabama health officials looked to one of the most popular social media platforms as a way to reach the audience, the Associated Press reported. The state held a contest through TikTok that promised a $250 award to the creators of the best video promoting vaccinations.
Rotimi Kuyoki, 17, one of the four winners, shared his video with his 18,000 followers, which he accumulated over a two-year period by making jokes on his account, AP reported.
“I showed the CDC explaining how the vaccine is safe, and how it’s effective, and then I linked resources for people to sign up to get the vaccine,” Rotimi said.
Australia Starts Vaccinating Children as Young as 12
Australia has opened up COVID-19 vaccinations to children as young as 12 as it races to inoculate the population amid an outbreak of the Delta variant.
Children ages 12 to 15 started receiving Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines on Monday. Appointments for the Moderna vaccine can be booked now for sessions starting next week.
Australia’s vaccine campaign is gaining speed after a sluggish first few months. Millions of doses that were ordered earlier this year are arriving, and the country will have enough supply by mid-October to vaccinate every eligible person, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last week.
Mu Variant, Which May Be Vaccine-Resistant, in All 50 States After Nebraska Case
According to Outbreak.Info, which uses data from the GISAID virus reporting network, 5,659 Mu variant sequences have been detected worldwide, as of September 4. Of those, 2,436 were detected in the U.S.
The variant, which first emerged in Columbia in January, remains relatively rare in the U.S. despite the presence of at least one case in each state and the District of Columbia. The strain is most common in Alaska, where it accounts for between 3 and 4 percent of COVID-19 cases, according to Outbreak.Info.
26 Out of the 27 Lancet Scientists Who Trashed Theory That COVID Leaked From a Chinese Lab Have Links to Wuhan Researchers
Of the 27 scientists who wrote a letter in The Lancet medical journal dismissing the possibility that COVID-19 originated from a Wuhan lab, 26 have links to its Chinese researchers, their colleagues or its benefactors, a new investigation has revealed.
On March 7 last year, the influential journal published the letter in which the 27 scientists said they ‘strongly condemned conspiracy theories’ surrounding the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that has impacted all corners of the world.
All debate into whether COVID-19 had man-made origins or leaked from the lab in Wuhan — the Chinese city that was ground-zero for the virus — was effectively shut down by the letter.
Fauci: ‘Vaccinate the Children,’ They Are ‘Vehicles of Spread’ + More
‘Vaccinate the Children’: Fauci Outlines the Case for Offering COVID Shots to Young People
Speaking to a U.K. audience at a lecture hosted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine earlier this week, the U.S.′ top infectious disease expert discussed the significance of “long COVID,” the benefits of a move to a three-dose vaccination drive and why he believes it is important to vaccinate children.
“I do believe … that we should vaccinate the children, and there are a number of reasons,” Fauci said on Wednesday.
Firstly, he described young people as “vehicles of spread” for the virus, noting that the transmissibility of the fast-spreading Delta variant continued to fuel a surge in cases as schools re-open for the fall.
Pfizer to Seek Approval for Vaccine in Children 5 and Over
Pfizer and BioNTech announced this week that it will soon seek approval from global regulators for use of its coronavirus vaccine in children ages 5 and over.
The vaccine makers said in an interview published on Friday that they are looking to produce smaller doses of the vaccine for younger children.
“We will be presenting the results from our study on 5- to 11-year-olds to authorities around the world in the coming weeks,” Ozlem Tureci, the co-founder of BioNTech and its chief medical officer, told German news outlet Der Spiegel.
Pfizer Accused of Holding Brazil ‘to Ransom’ Over Vaccine Contract Demands
Pfizer has been accused of holding Brazil “to ransom” over demands to shield itself from possible vaccine side-effect lawsuits in its contract to supply the country with 100m COVID jabs.
In its $1bn (£700m) deal with Pfizer Export BV, signed in March, despite its prior complaints, the Brazilian government agreed that “a liability waiver be signed for any possible side-effects of the vaccine, exempting Pfizer from any civil liability for serious side-effects arising from the use of the vaccine, indefinitely.”
Indemnity from compensation claims has been common in contracts between many countries and big pharma companies since the late 1980s.
EU Lists Rare Nerve Disorder as Possible Side-Effect of AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine
Europe’s medicines regulator has added an extremely rare nerve-damaging disorder, Guillain-Barré syndrome, as a possible side-effect of AstraZeneca’s (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine, regular safety updates from the watchdog showed on Wednesday.
The European Medicines Agency said a causal relationship between GBS and the AstraZeneca shot, known as Vaxzevria, was “at least a reasonable possibility” after 833 cases of GBS were reported out of 592 million doses of the vaccine given worldwide by July 31.
Germany Recommends COVID-19 Vaccinations for Pregnant Women
Germany’s vaccine oversight body on Friday recommended that women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should be vaccinated against COVID-19 with an mRNA-based shot.
The Permanent Vaccination Commission (STIKO) advises that women should receive two shots from the second trimester of pregnancy, according to guidance posted on the website of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
CDC Changes Definition of ‘Vaccine,’ Vindicates Alex Berenson
If you think that our establishment medical community is honest, think again. They are not. The litany of lies and deception grows with each passing day.
The latest victim of the new Orwellian world of redefining truth comes courtesy of the CDC.
They have changed the definition of “vaccine” and “vaccination” because so many vaccinated people are still being infected with a variant of COVID. This is good news for Alex Berenson, who is suing Twitter for defamation.
COVID Vaccine Creator Says Mass Boosters May Be Unnecessary
The Associated Press reported:
Booster shots to extend the protection of COVID-19 vaccines may be unnecessary for many people, a leading scientist behind the AstraZeneca vaccine said on Friday.
Oxford University Professor Sarah Gilbert told The Telegraph newspaper that immunity from the vaccine was holding up well — even against the Delta variant. While the elderly and those who are immune-compromised may need boosters, the standard two-dose regimen is providing lasting protection for most people, she said.
CNN’s Jake Tapper Complains Biden Isn’t Addressing COVID ‘Misinformation’: GOP Is Embracing ‘Anti-Science’
CNN anchor Jake Tapper expressed his frustration with President Biden following a White House address laying out his administration’s six-pronged plan to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
Among the takeaways from Biden’s speech was the Labor Department’s initiative to force businesses with over 100 employees to require vaccinations, which has already stirred questions over its constitutionality and backlash among critics.
After the address, Tapper seemed to suggest the actions that the Biden administration is taking don’t solve the real “problem.”
Vaccine for Kids Under Age 12? ‘Not a Good Idea,’ Say Pediatricians + More
Vaccine for Kids Under Age 12? ‘Not a Good Idea,’ Say Pediatricians
The combination of children being back in the classroom — and the Delta variant affecting children — has some parents so concerned that they’re reportedly asking doctors to make exceptions and vaccinate their children who are under the age of 12. Also, other parents are reportedly telling vaccinating clinicians their child is 12 when the child is not.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics both agree giving an adult dose of COVID-19 vaccine to children under 12 right now is not a good idea. They released a statement: “The dose may be very different for younger ages. The AAP recommends against giving the vaccine to any child under 12 years of age, until authorized by the FDA.”
COVID-19 Test Caused Man’s 9-Month-Long Brain Fluid Leak
A man’s persistently runny nose following a COVID-19 test wasn’t caused by allergies as he suspected, but rather cerebrospinal fluid leaking from his brain, according to a new report.
The man, who lives in the Czech Republic, received a COVID-19 nasal swab test in March 2020 after he had contact with a person infected with COVID-19, according to the report, published Thursday (Sept. 9) in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery …
A CT scan of his skull showed that the man had an injury to the cribriform plate, a spongy bone that separates the nose and the brain. He was diagnosed with a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, a rare but serious condition in which the clear fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord leaks through a defect in the skull and out through the nose, according to Johns Hopkins University.
RFK Jr.: Induced COVID-19 Fears Could Result in ‘Complete Obliteration of Critical Thinking’
Political activist Robert Kennedy Jr. warned that a “society in fear” due to the COVID-19 pandemic could result in the “complete obliteration of critical thinking.”
Kennedy who spoke at the Ron Paul Institute’s conference, noted that only a small fraction of the individuals comprising the CDC’s COVID-19 death total died primarily from COVID-19.
“Among 378,048 death certificates from 2020 listing COVID-19 as a cause of death, 5.5% listed COVID-19 without codes for any other conditions,” according to the CDC.
“The people who died, 96% of them, had almost 400 reasons that might have killed them,” Kennedy said during a session titled the Pandemic and the Road to Totalitarianism.
Despite 95% Vaccination Rate, Cornell Today Has Five Times More COVID Cases Than This Time Last Year
ANALYSIS: If the goal is to prevent infection, the 95 percent vaccination rate on Cornell’s campus has not accomplished that.
Cornell University has aggressively pushed its students to get vaccinated, announcing a vaccine mandate for the 2021-22 academic year in April, and frequently denying religious and medical exemptions.
As a result, 95 percent of the campus population, both students and faculty, is vaccinated.
Despite this, Cornell University has more than five times the amount of confirmed positive cases during its first week of this academic year than it did during its first week of the 2020-21 academic year, according to the Cornell COVID dashboard.
Children Could Override Parents’ Decision on Vaccines, Says Zahawi
Healthy 12- to 15-year-olds could override their parents’ decision on vaccination in the right circumstances, a minister has said, as the UK government prepares to overrule advice and extend jabs to younger teens.
Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, said parents of healthy 12- to 15-year-olds would be asked for consent if coronavirus jabs were approved for their children — expected to be pushed through by ministers this week.
But he added that children could override their parents’ wishes “if they’re deemed to be competent to make that decision, with all the information available.”
Pfizer Picked a COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Far Lower Than Moderna’s to Minimize Side Effects, Its Top Scientist Says
Pfizer’s top scientist defended the dose of the active ingredient in the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, which is lower than in Moderna’s vaccine.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has 30 micrograms of mRNA, while Moderna’s has 100 micrograms. Scientists have speculated that this could be a reason Pfizer’s shot produced a lower antibody response than Moderna’s in recent studies.
Philip Dormitzer, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, told the Financial Times on Wednesday that Pfizer and its codeveloper BioNTech “used the minimum dose level” to get an immune response that was stronger than catching COVID-19.
Covering Up Fauci’s Role in COVID Leak
Powerful people are going to a lot of effort to protect Dr. Anthony Fauci’s reputation, despite mounting evidence of his role in funding dangerous research on bat coronaviruses in the Chinese laboratory believed to be the most likely source of the pandemic.
It is clear that Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, misled Congress when he denied that U.S. money had paid for “gain-of-function” research in the Wuhan lab.
Grant documents published this week by The Intercept show that the organization Fauci heads, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, funded research in Wuhan on a number of novel (new) bat coronaviruses.
WHO Says COVID Will Mutate Like the Flu and Is Likely Here to Stay + More
WHO Says COVID Will Mutate Like the Flu and Is Likely Here to Stay
COVID-19 is likely “here to stay with us” as the virus continues to mutate in unvaccinated countries across the world and previous hopes of eradicating it diminish, global health officials said Tuesday.
“I think this virus is here to stay with us and it will evolve like influenza pandemic viruses, it will evolve to become one of the other viruses that affects us,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press briefing.
Joe Rogan Slams CNN Over Controversial Drug Ivermectin
Joe Rogan is considering suing CNN, specifically for what its White House correspondent Jim Acosta said in regards to the podcaster’s COVID-19 treatment.
As Changing America previously reported, Joe Rogan contracted the coronavirus on Sept. 1, and he has tried a multitude of medications and treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies, Ivermectin, the steroid prednisone, an antibiotic Z-Pak and a vitamin drip.
The controversy is that Ivermectin is used both in people for parasitic infections and, in typically higher doses, in animals such as horses and cows. The FDA has warned the public against using it to treat COVID-19, as it is not approved for that use.
The Pandemic Has Set Back the Fight Against HIV, TB and Malaria
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely set back the fight against other global scourges like H.I.V., tuberculosis and malaria, according to a sobering new report released on Tuesday.
Before the pandemic, the world had been making strides against these illnesses. Overall, deaths from those diseases have dropped by about half since 2004.
“The advent of a fourth pandemic, in COVID, puts these hard-fought gains in great jeopardy,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit organization promoting H.I.V. treatment worldwide.
Novavax Begins Early-Stage Trial for Combined Flu/COVID Vaccine
Vaccine developer Novavax said on Wednesday it has initiated an early-stage study to test its combined flu and COVID-19 vaccine.
The trial, to be conducted in Australia, will enroll 640 healthy adults between the ages of 50 and 70 years and who have either been previously infected with the coronavirus or given an authorized COVID-19 vaccine at least eight weeks prior to the study.
Participants will receive a combination of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, and its Influenza shot NanoFlu along with an adjuvant or vaccine booster.
WHO Extends Call for Moratorium on COVID Booster Doses Until End of Year
The World Health Organization has extended its call for a moratorium on COVID-19 booster doses until at least the end of the year.
The WHO previously urged world leaders to hold off on booster doses until the end of September.
“There has been little change in the global situation since then, so today I am calling for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40% of its population,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing Wednesday.
Pfizer Booster Likely to Be Ok’d by Sept. 20, But Moderna’s May Lag, Fauci Says
The Pfizer-BioNTech shot will likely be the only COVID-19 vaccine booster available by Sept. 20, the Biden administration’s target date to begin offering them, but Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that Moderna’s shot shouldn’t be too far behind.
Speaking Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Fauci, the White House’s top pandemic adviser, said Moderna’s MRNA, -2.44% booster might not have approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by that date.
“We were hoping that we would get both the candidates, both products, Moderna and Pfizer, rolled out by the week of the 20th. It is conceivable that we will only have one of them out, but the other would likely follow soon thereafter,” Fauci told host Weijia Jiang.
America Needs to Decide How Much COVID-19 Risk It Will Tolerate
More than a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, America still doesn’t agree on what it’s trying to accomplish.
Is the goal to completely eradicate COVID-19? Is it to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed? Is it hitting a certain vaccine threshold that mitigates the worst COVID-19 outcomes but doesn’t prevent all infections? Or is it something else entirely?
At the root of this confusion is a big question the U.S., including policymakers, experts, and the general public, has never been able to answer: How many COVID-19 deaths are too many?
