Covid News Watch
About 3 in 4 Pregnant Women in U.S. Unvaccinated Against COVID + More
About 3 in 4 Pregnant Women in US Unvaccinated Against COVID-19
Most pregnant women in the U.S. have yet to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the latest data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of Aug. 21, about 3 in 4 pregnant women aged 18-49 were unvaccinated, or in other words, 23.9% overall received at least one dose, per data from the agency’s Vaccine Safety Datalink. Vaccination coverage was reported lowest among Hispanic/Latina (19.2%) and Black pregnant women (11.7%), with higher coverage reported among Asian (35.2%) and White pregnant women (26.6%).
“Vaccination among pregnant people remains low,” the health agency wrote in part in the COVID Data Tracker weekly update on Aug. 20. “This low uptake persists despite recent increases in COVID-19 cases in pregnant people.”
Not Vaccinated Against COVID? It’s About to Get Very Expensive
“People can get enormous bills for this and it is going to wreak havoc on the health systems trying to collect that money,” said Ray Berry, founder and CEO of Health Business Solutions, a consulting group that works with hospitals and insurance companies.
“Anyone who has gotten COVID up until this point will not have paid, anything but that will sure change in the next month or two. I believe it will change quicker than some people might think.”
Having SARS-CoV-2 Once Confers Much Greater Immunity Than a Vaccine — but no Infection Parties, Please
The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study that some scientists wish came with a “Don’t try this at home” label. The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.
The study demonstrates the power of the human immune system, but infectious disease experts emphasized that this vaccine and others for COVID-19 nonetheless remain highly protective against severe disease and death. And they caution that intentional infection among unvaccinated people would be extremely risky. “What we don’t want people to say is: ‘All right, I should go out and get infected, I should have an infection party.’” says Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University who researches the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and was not involved in the study. “Because somebody could die.”
Virus Symptoms Can Last a Year, Study Finds
One year after becoming ill with the coronavirus, nearly half of patients in a large new study were still experiencing at least one lingering health symptom, adding to evidence that recovery from COVID-19 can be arduous and that the multifaceted condition known as “long COVID” can last for months.
The study, published Thursday in the journal The Lancet, is believed to be the largest to date in which patients were evaluated one year after being hospitalized for COVID. It involved 1,276 patients admitted to Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan, China, who were discharged between Jan. 7 and May 29, 2020.
Going Against FDA Warnings, Arkansas Physician Gives Anti-Parasite Drug to Jail Inmates With COVID-19
A detention center in Washington County, Arkansas, has been using the anti-parasite drug ivermectin to treat inmates who have COVID-19, local officials say, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has specifically warned against it. The FDA says the drug, which is frequently used as a dewormer in animals, is not an approved or recommended treatment for COVID-19, and “can cause serious harm.”
Eva Madison, a county elected official, raised the issue during a finance and budget committee meeting Tuesday night. Jail officials were presenting their 2022 budget, which included the jail’s physician, Dr. Rob Karas, asking for a 10% increase in the medical services contract.
Madison informed committee members and the jail officials that a county employee, who has opted to stay anonymous to the public, told her that he had been sent to the jail’s clinic to get tested for COVID-19. When the person tested negative, they were given a $76 prescription for ivermectin. He was concerned about the prescription and asked his primary care physician about it, and the physician told him to “throw that in the trash,” Madison said.
Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray Reduces COVID-19 Viral Load by 95% Within 24 Hours: Study
A well known antimicrobial, Nitric Oxide, has been found to rapidly reduce SARS-CoV-2 viral load, knocking it down by 95% within 24 hours, and 99% within 72 hours, according to a recent study by researchers funded by England’s NHS foundation trust and SaNOtize Research & Development Corporation – a Canadian biotech company currently conducting Phase II trials of a nitric oxide nasal spray.
A group of 80 adults (18-70 years) with confirmed (Alpha strain) COVID-19 infections were divided into two groups, with half receiving nitric oxide nasal spray (NONS) that were self-administered 5-6 times daily for 9 days.
The goal of the nasal spray is to kill the virus present in the upper airways — preventing it from incubating and making its way to the lungs.
Washington Jail Offers Inmates Ramen Noodles for Vaccines
Staff at a jail in south-central Washington state have come up with an inexpensive, but effective, way to encourage inmates to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Since the first of the month the Benton County Jail has been giving away one of its most popular commissary items to inmates who sign up for their first COVID shot — ramen noodles, the Olympian reported.
By Monday, the jail will have given out 900 packets of noodle soup to 90 inmates, said Scott Souza, chief of corrections for the Benton County Corrections Department.
It’s advertised to inmates around the jail with fliers featuring a larger-than-life photo of the seasoned, wavy noodles and a headline that says SOUPS FOR SHOTS.
White House Says ‘Nothing Has Changed’ About 8-month Timeline For COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shots
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that “nothing has changed” about the federal government’s decision to recommend COVID-19 booster shots to eligible Americans eight months after they are fully vaccinated, after President Biden relayed that his administration was looking into whether to get booster shots in arms of Americans sooner than that.
“Well let me be very clear. The President would rely on any guidance by the CDC and the FDA and his health and medical experts. That guidance continues to be eight months. That has not changed. So I want to be very clear on that. If they were to change their guidance based on data for any particular group, he would, of course, abide by that. But for people watching from home, for you all who are reporting this, nothing has changed about the eight-month timeline as it relates to boosters,” Psaki said during the White House press briefing.
Biden Will Promote Boosters at 6 Months — Not 8, Report Says + More
Biden Will Promote Boosters at 6 Months — Not 8, Report Says
President Joe Biden’s administration is planning to issue updated guidance recommending a third dose of Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccine be given to Americans six months after their second dose instead of eight months, according to The Wall Street Journal, as most vaccinated Americans say they’re ready for the next shot …
Approval for a plan, which is also expected to include information on a Johnson & Johnson booster shot, is expected by mid-September, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Unraveling the Mystery of Why Children Are Better Protected from COVID Than Adults
The immune system uses a special mechanism to protect children from novel viruses — and it typically saves them from a severe course of COVID-19 in two different ways.
The immune system in the mucous membranes of their airways is much more active than that of adults. And in children, this system reacts much faster to viruses that it has never encountered, such as pandemic pathogens. At least, that is what a recent study by Irina Lehmann of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité and her colleagues suggests.
Pfizer/BioNTech Request Full FDA Approval of COVID-19 Booster Vaccine
Pfizer/BioNTech have initiated an application for full FDA approval of its COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for individuals aged 16 and up, the companies announced Wednesday, noting plans to complete the application later this week.
The request for the so-called supplemental biologics license application draws on Phase 3 clinical trial data among 306 participants aged 18 to 55 who received a third dose between 4.8-8 months following the initial two-dose series, with some 2.6 months of follow-up. The companies said levels of neutralizing antibodies were 3.3 times higher following the third dose, versus the second dose.
Kids 12 and up Can Get Free Limited Edition Copy of the Avengers at Three SOMOS Community Care Vaccination Sites
New York City kids ages 12 and up can get a free limited edition issue of Marvel’s The Avengers comic book if they get a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at three Somos Community Care vaccination sites, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.
“Captain America started out as a skinny kid from Brooklyn…you too can become a superhero if you get vaccinated,” Mayor Bill de Blasio joked during a press conference at Staten Island’s Borough Hall. “It makes you strong…it makes you able to fight back against evil, it makes you able to take on COVID.”
“COVID is like Thanos out to hurt millions of people around the globe,” de Blasio continued. In the Marvel comic book universe, Thanos is a warlord from the fictional planet Titan whose sole goal in life is to decimate the populations of different planets to save the universe from becoming overcrowded and succumbing to the sad fate of his own.
‘I’m Still Not Planning To Get It’: FDA Approval Not Swaying Some Vaccine Holdouts
For five months, Chris Brummett has ignored his wife’s pleas that he get a coronavirus vaccine. He cares even less that federal regulators finally issued a long-awaited approval for one of them.
“My wife is on me all the time to do it,” said Brummett, 43, from Jackson County, Ind., who followed news this week of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine. But Brummett, a libertarian critical of both the Biden and Trump administrations, said he’s struggling to trust any government messages about the virus. “I guess for now it’s a no for me.”
Tyler McCann, 24, of Augusta, Ga., also remains a skeptic, citing the low risk of complications for people his age. “If I get it,” McCann says of COVID-19, “I will blame myself entirely. It’ll be my fault. But until then … I don’t see the necessity, and with how politicized it’s been, I’m just annoyed with it.”
UK’s NHS Planning COVID Vaccines for Children From Age 12, Reports Say
NHS England has been told to prepare to administer COVID vaccinations to all children aged 12 and above, as vaccine advisers continue to consider whether to extend the programme, according to reports.
The planned extension to the vaccination programme would coincide with the start of the new school year. NHS trusts have been told to have plans prepared by 4pm on Friday, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Children aged 12-15 in the UK are currently offered coronavirus vaccines only if they have certain health conditions or live with vulnerable people, but distribution of the vaccines has already been extended to that age group by countries such as the U.S., Germany and Israel.
New WHO Group Aims to Improve Efforts to Find Pathogen Origins
This week, U.S. intelligence agencies delivered their highly anticipated assessment of the competing origin theories for SARS-CoV-2 to President Joe Biden, and media reports say it is inconclusive. Some unclassified details from the analysis may emerge this week, but the question of how exactly SARS-CoV-2 first infected humans remains a topic with a lot of speculation and few data …
Now, WHO is forming a Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). Its broad remit is to examine the emergence of any pathogens, but one of its jobs will be to take the reins of WHO’s effort to pinpoint the origins of COVID-19. ScienceInsider spoke about SAGO with Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for COVID-19 at WHO, which is now seeking nominations for the group. We have edited the interview for brevity and clarity.
Japan halts 1.6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine over contamination worries.
The Japanese health authorities on Thursday announced that they would halt the use of over 1.6 million doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine after some vaccination sites reported finding tainted vials.
The problem comes as Japan, which initially struggled to get its vaccination program into full gear, confronts its worst wave of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, raising concerns that medical systems in some parts of the country could be overwhelmed.
U.S. Intelligence Report on COVID Origins ‘Inconclusive’ + More
U.S. Intelligence Study Inconclusive on COVID Origins, According to Reports
A classified U.S. intelligence report delivered to the White House was inconclusive on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to a lack of information from China, according to U.S. media reports.
The assessment received on Tuesday, which was ordered by President Joe Biden 90 days ago, was unable to definitively conclude whether the virus that first emerged in central China had jumped to humans via animals or escaped a highly secure research facility in Wuhan, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told the Washington Post.
They said parts of the report could be declassified in the coming days.
Biden Receives Inconclusive Intelligence Report on COVID Origins
President Biden on Tuesday received a classified report from the intelligence community that was inconclusive about the origins of the novel coronavirus, including whether the pathogen jumped from an animal to a human as part of a natural process, or escaped from a lab in central China, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The intelligence community will seek within days to declassify elements of the report for potential public release, officials said.
… despite analyzing a raft of existing intelligence and searching for new clues, intelligence officials fell short of a consensus, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the report is not yet public.
As Delta Spread, COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Against Infection Fell From 90% To 66% in One Key Study
The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines at preventing infection fell in one study of U.S. frontline workers from roughly 90% to 66% as the Delta variant emerged and became dominant in the country, an updated report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Tuesday indicated.
The study, known as HEROES-RECOVER, includes more than 4,000 health care workers, first responders, and other frontline workers in eight locations across six states, all of whom have been tested weekly for infection with SARS-CoV-2. More than 4 in 5 were vaccinated, and the vast majority of them received the mRNA vaccines from either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.
Researchers had previously reported that from Dec. 14, 2020, when the vaccines started rolling out, to April 10, 2021, the vaccines were approximately 91% effective at preventing both symptomatic and asymptomatic infection from SARS-2. The finding underlined the ability of the vaccines to halt infection entirely and slash transmission; the clinical trials that led to the authorization of the vaccines had generally focused on their effectiveness at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 cases.
Even Mainstream Media Is Now Asking Big Questions About COVID Vaccines
Former Congressman Ron Paul has highlighted this week that a handful of mainstream media articles have actually begun to break ranks in terms of questioning key aspects of vaccine effectiveness and mandates, particularly when it comes to the controversial boosters now being widely proposed.
“Even mainstream media is now asking big questions about the vaccines” Wednesday’s Liberty Report featured. A couple of recent headlines in Bloomberg and BBC were unexpected in terms the criticism reflected and somewhat skeptical pushback against the ‘consensus narrative.’
Johnson & Johnson Touts Antibody Response for COVID-19 Booster 8 Months After Original Vaccination
Shortly after the U.S. telegraphed its booster plan for Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, Johnson & Johnson has rolled out trial results showing a follow-up dose of its vaccine boosts recipients’ antibody responses.
Armed with interim results from two phase 1/2a studies, Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday said a follow-up dose of its vaccine prompted a “rapid and robust” increase in spike-binding antibodies. The increase was more than nine times higher than results observed 28 days after primary vaccination, the company said in a release.
Investigators observed “significant” antibody boosts in patients between the ages of 18 to 55, as well as in patients ages 65 and up, the company said. For the study, investigators gave recipients boosters eight months after their original vaccination.
Global COVID-19 Cases Plateau After Nearly Two Months of Increase, WHO Reports
The number of new COVID-19 cases reported globally “seems to be plateauing” after increasing for nearly two months, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.
WHO reported more than 4.5 million new cases and 68,000 new deaths worldwide last week — only a slight increase from the more than 4.4 million cases and 66,000 deaths reported the prior week.
The cumulative global caseload now stands at more than 211 million, with the total death toll surpassing 4.4 million, according to WHO’s weekly epidemiological update.
The number of new global cases now appears to be stable, after increasing since mid-June, WHO noted in the report.
What Is the ‘COVID-22 Variant’ and Should Americans Be Worried?
On seeing the trending term, users responded with tweets and memes about what some perceived to be a whole new type of coronavirus.
Experts told Newsweek that the term is inaccurate and that “COVID-22” does not exist.
The term appears to have been coined by Sai Reddy, a professor of synthetic immunology at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Switzerland.
I Drove 8 Hours to (Maybe) Get My Baby the COVID Vaccine
The day my phone rang last week was unusual in that I had not yet Googled “when can kids get the COVID vaxx,” “pediatric vaccine timeline,” or some combination thereof, despite having been awake for hours. It hadn’t been necessary: Fellow despairing parents of those too young to be vaccinated had already filled my social-media feeds with the latest, grimmest headlines.
The nearly sevenfold increase in new COVID infections among children between the first week of July and the first week of August, and then the 48% rise in the week that followed; the pediatric ICUs at or near capacity in states with low vaccination rates; the desperate hope that the FDA providing full approval to Pfizer’s vaccine would allow pediatricians to prescribe it off-label to the under-12 set — 48 million people — for whom trials are still underway.
Next up for COVID Vaccines: Kids Under 12 + More
Next up for COVID Vaccines: Kids Under 12
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given full approval to Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for people age 16 and older. Approval for youths ages 12-15 is expected to follow soon.
“I don’t think it’ll be long before they extend it to 12 to 15 — maybe within a few weeks to a month or so,” said Dr. Bob Frenck, director of the Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Parents are already clamoring to hear more about approval or authorization for children under 12, however. Studies looking at that are underway.
NIH Director: Vaccine Approval for Kids Unlikely Before Late 2021
One of the federal government’s top public health experts on Tuesday predicted it is unlikely children under the age of 12 will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine before late 2021, contradicting the speedier timelines offered by other Biden administration officials.
Vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna are currently studying the shot’s safety and efficacy in younger children and infants, with Pfizer expected to deliver the results of its trials for 5-11-year-olds to the Food and Drug Administration sometime in September.
New CDC Studies Point to Waning Immunity From Vaccines
Two new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show fully vaccinated Americans’ immunity to COVID-19 is waning as the more-transmissible Delta variant continues to spread across the country.
One study, which focused on frontline health care workers, found that vaccine effectiveness declined by nearly thirty percentage points since the Delta variant became the dominant strain in the U.S. The analysis also concluded that the COVID-19 vaccines were 80% effective in preventing infection among the frontline health care workers.
Caught in the Crossfire Over COVID’s Origin
In the early days of the pandemic, scientists reported a reassuring trait in the new coronavirus: It appeared to be very stable. The virus was not mutating very rapidly, making it an easier target for treatments and vaccines.
At the time, the slow mutation rate struck one young scientist as odd. “That really made my ears perk up,” said Alina Chan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Chan wondered whether the new virus was somehow “pre-adapted” to thrive in humans, before the outbreak even started.
“By the time the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected in Wuhan in late 2019, it looked like it had already picked up the mutations it needed to be very good at spreading among humans,” Dr. Chan said. “It was already good to go.”
New Evidence Points to Antibodies as Reliable Indicator of Vaccine Protection
When Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke recently at a White House briefing about the need for COVID-19 booster shots, buried in his slideshow of charts and data points was a little-noticed scientific paper that offers evidence for a reliable way to predict how much protection a COVID-19 vaccine offers.
The study appeared on a preprint server earlier this month without much fanfare, but many interested in the future of COVID-19 vaccines had been eagerly awaiting the results.
The researchers were looking for markers in vaccinated patients’ blood that would indicate protection against COVID-19, what’s known as “correlates of immunity.” What the team of scientists found were neutralizing antibodies — proteins made by the immune system that are known to disarm the coronavirus.
Where Do Moderna and Johnson & Johnson Stand on Full FDA Approval?
While the FDA approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is welcome news for public health officials hoping it boosts vaccine uptake, it’s just one of the three COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. So far, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are still under Emergency Use Authorization.
Back in June, Moderna announced it would start “rolling submission” of data to the FDA for approval over the coming weeks. Moderna said it would request a Priority Review. This designation would call for the FDA to make a decision within six months rather than the typical 10-month waiting period.
Pfizer started that process in May and the FDA made a decision four months later. It means Moderna’s full FDA approval could come as early as next month.
Biden to Receive a Classified Report on The Origins of COVID-19
Leila Fadel, host:
Today marks 90 days since President Biden ordered a systematic review into the origins of the coronavirus. Many scientists believe that the virus likely came from nature. But an alternative view is that it leaked from a laboratory in China, a theory that had been dismissed by many as a conspiracy theory until recent months. Joining us to discuss what this report might say is NPR’s science and security correspondent Geoff Brumfiel.
The NFL’s COVID Reality: Unvaccinated Players Are a Liability
For months, the NFL’s vaccine stragglers have clung to the nebulous need for more. More data, more research, more approval.
Now they’ll need more excuses.
That’s what Monday’s biotech news brought, by way of the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine. It’s a development that is sure to be followed in the coming months by other approvals in the space, just as it’s sure to be blown off by some NFL players who refuse to get vaccinated. But this time around, players won’t be able to lean on the lack of an FDA approval, leaving some to continue grasping at their own nebulous concoction for why they refuse an added layer of protection from COVID-19.
Carnival Calls Circumstances of Passenger’s COVID-Related Death ‘Disinformation’
Carnival Cruise Line is calling the circumstances of a COVID-related death that occurred to a cruise passenger last month “disinformation” after suggestions were made that the passenger contracted the virus on board.
“Regrettably, there is a fair amount of disinformation about the circumstances of this matter,” Carnival said in a statement. “The guest almost certainly did not contract COVID on our ship, and she was assisted with expert medical care on board and was ultimately evacuated from Belize after we provided a resource to her family.”
