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Fauci Expected COVID to Be ‘Behind Us’ After Biden’s First Year + More
Fauci Expected COVID to Be ‘Behind Us’ After Biden’s First Year
White House Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci expected the U.S. would have moved past the COVID-19 pandemic after the first year of the Biden administration, but the disruption from the virus has lingered longer than the infectious disease expert anticipated.
“I thought after yet again another year we would have COVID behind us, but as it turns out that’s not the case,” he said in a taped interview that will appear at noon New York time on Bloomberg Television and Radio’s “Balance of Power” with David Westin.
The U.S. needs to learn the lessons of COVID to be ready for future outbreaks, he said, calling the culture at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “not optimal” for responding to a global pandemic. “The good news is they now realize that,” he said.
Moderna Sues Pfizer, BioNTech Over COVID Vaccine Patents
COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna is suing Pfizer and the German drugmaker BioNTech, accusing its main competitors of copying Moderna’s technology in order to make their own vaccine.
Moderna said Friday that Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine Comirnaty infringes on patents Moderna filed several years ago protecting the technology behind its preventive shot, Spikevax. The company filed patent infringement lawsuits in both U.S. federal court and a German court.
Moderna and Pfizer’s two-shot vaccines both use mRNA technology to help patients fight the coronavirus.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a prepared statement that the vaccine developer pioneered that technology and invested billions of dollars in creating it. The company said it believes its rivals’ vaccine infringes on patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016.
Britain Approves Novavax COVID Shot for 12-17 Year-Olds
Britain’s medicines regulator on Friday approved Novavax‘s (NVAX.O) COVID-19 vaccine for children aged between 12 and 17 years.
The mRNA vaccines made by Moderna as well as the partnership between Pfizer-BioNTech are also cleared for use by this age group, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said.
Britain in February cleared Novavax’s two-dose vaccine, Nuvaxovid, for use in adults.
Pfizer’s Paxlovid COVID Pill Showed No Measurable Benefit in Adults 40 to 65: Study
Researchers in the Israel-based study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, examined over 109,000 patients between Jan. 9 and March 31 of this year.
Among the 109,254 patients in the study 3,902 (4 percent) received at least one dose of nirmatrelvir during the study period, including 2,484 of 42,821 patients (6 percent) who were 65 years of age or older and deemed high risk and 1,418 of 66,433 patients (2 percent) who were 40 to 64 years of age.
People between the ages of 40 and 64 who were at high risk saw no measurable benefit, according to the analysis of medical records.
Among the 66,433 patients who were 40 to 64 years of age, hospitalization due to COVID-19 occurred in 7 treated patients (15.2 cases per 100,000 person-days) and in 327 untreated patients (15.8 cases per 100,000 person-days), which is not such a significant difference. Among those patients, death due to COVID-19 occurred in 1 of 1,418 treated patients and in 16 of 65,015 untreated patients.
COVID Revealed the Tragic Truth About Student Reading
Millions of American students fell far behind in their education during the past two pandemic years. But many of the problems affecting U.S. public education predated COVID-19 and are largely self-inflicted.
The biggest problem is that many students can’t read.
This catastrophe cannot be remedied so long as the education establishment remains in denial — or, more to the point, remains complicit. Many of today’s public school students can’t read because their teachers aren’t given the proper training or an effective curriculum.
Teaching reading successfully is a straightforward, well-documented process, and most children, with proper instruction, should be successful readers by the end of kindergarten.
Exclusive: Pfizer Vaccine Whistleblower Responds to Motion to Dismiss False Claims Suit
Pfizer cannot use the government as a shield from liability for making false claims about its COVID-19 vaccine, lawyers for a whistleblower argued in response to Pfizer’s motion to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit.
“Respondents claim fraudulent certifications, false statements, doctored data, contaminated clinical trials and firing of whistleblowers can be ignored based on the theory that they contracted their way around the fraud,” lawyers for Brook Jackson, who worked as regional director at one of the clinical trials used to develop the Pfizer vaccine, wrote in their Aug. 22 response.
“A drug company cannot induce the taxpayers to pay billions of dollars for a product,” they countered, “that honest data would show poses more risks than benefits, and that ignores the actual contract and the law itself.”
Jackson’s lawsuit alleges that Pfizer and two of its subcontractors violated the False Claims Act by providing bogus clinical trial results to garner the FDA approval of its COVID-19 vaccine.
One of Jackson’s attorneys, Warner Mendenhall, told The Epoch Times that the payout could be as much as $3.3 trillion. “It would be enough to bankrupt Pfizer,” Mendenhall said.
Unraveling the Interplay of Omicron, Reinfections and Long COVID
The latest COVID-19 surge, caused by a shifting mix of quickly evolving Omicron subvariants, appears to be waning, with cases and hospitalizations beginning to fall.
Like past COVID waves, this one will leave a lingering imprint in the form of long COVID, an ill-defined catchall term for a set of symptoms that can include debilitating fatigue, difficulty breathing, chest pain and brain fog.
Although Omicron infections are proving milder overall than those caused by last summer’s Delta variant, Omicron has also proved capable of triggering long-term symptoms and organ damage. But whether Omicron causes long COVID symptoms as often — and as severe — as previous variants is a matter of heated study.
Scientists have just begun to compare variants head to head, with varying results. While one recent study in The Lancet suggests that Omicron is less likely to cause long COVID, another found the same rate of neurological problems after Omicron and Delta infections.
‘We’re Losing Our People’: COVID Ravaged Indigenous Tribes in New Mexico. Did Uranium Mining Set the Stage?
As a young girl, Arlene Juanico would rush to gather the laundry before the explosions started. When the alarms sounded, Juanico would hustle to grab the clean garments off the clothesline before she was enveloped by dust clouds. But Juanico’s little legs usually couldn’t get her back to shelter in time.
That’s when the yellow-flecked dust — emerging from detonations in the sacred mesa the Laguna tribe knows as Squirrel Mountain — would catch up to her. That’s when it would enter Juanico’s throat, burrowing deep into her lungs.
And it’s the dust that would persist in her lungs, kidneys and bones. There, hidden in the dark recesses of her chest, the particles lay until one day decades later a CT scan would show Juanico and people like her why they hadn’t been able to take a full breath in decades. They’d get a similar diagnosis — idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — one mangled lung at a time.
As a result, when COVID-19 struck in 2020, the Laguna, already afflicted by diseases that made it hard to walk, speak or breathe, was set up for severe COVID-19, said Loretta Anderson, a home health aide who is Laguna. So many of her people succumbed during the pandemic that the tribe enlarged its graveyard.
Thai King’s Medical Firm Reports Record Profit After Vaccine Deal With AstraZeneca
Thai drugmaker Siam Bioscience, owned by the country’s king, reported a near 50-fold increase in annual profit in 2021 when it began producing AstraZeneca Plc’s (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine, government data shows.
The company is part of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s vast fortune, which includes land and property estimated at between $30 billion and $60 billion. Its business improved sharply last year, as it began manufacturing vaccines for the first time.
Profit soared a whopping 4,650% to 1.69 billion baht and revenues increased by 1,500% to a record 4.9 billion baht, aided by its contract to manufacture 200 million doses of the Anglo-Swedish firm’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The deal came under fire from a prominent Thai opposition politician who questioned why the contract went to a company that was owned by the king and had never made vaccines before. He now faces up to 20 years in prison following his indictment earlier this year for insulting the king and violating a cyber law.
Fauci Compares Monkeypox Outbreak to HIV Epidemic, Advises Against Making the Same Assumptions
The White House’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci advised against making the same assumptions about the current monkeypox outbreak that were made during the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Fauci and H. Clifford Lane, deputy director for clinical research and special projects at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), published a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday in which they reflected on the similarities between the monkeypox outbreak and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which both men spent much of their careers studying.
The two researchers noted the obvious similarities, namely that most monkeypox cases have so far been detected among men who have sex with men. While the main mode of transmission for monkeypox is believed to be through prolonged skin-to-skin contact, they observed that some early data has suggested sexual transmission may play a role in the spread of the virus.
Pfizer COVID Pill Showed No Benefit in Younger Adults + More
Study: Pfizer COVID Pill Showed No Benefit in Younger Adults
Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill appears to provide little or no benefit for younger adults, while still reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk seniors, according to a large study published Wednesday.
The results from a 109,000-patient Israeli study are likely to renew questions about the U.S. government’s use of Paxlovid, which has become the go-to treatment for COVID-19 due to its at-home convenience. The Biden administration has spent more than $10 billion purchasing the drug and making it available at thousands of pharmacies through its test-and-treat initiative.
The study has limitations due to its design, which compiled data from a large Israeli health system rather than enrolling patients in a randomized study with a control group — the gold standard for medical research.
Pfizer Taps Company Coming off FDA Ban for Paxlovid Production in China
Pfizer has perhaps opened itself up to scrutiny with its selection of a manufacturing partner in China for its COVID oral antiviral Paxlovid.
Pfizer will team with Zhejiang Huahai for five years. The Chinese firm will produce and sell Paxlovid exclusively in China. The company drew the ire of the FDA in 2018 when the agency investigated the company for the presence of a suspected carcinogen in a blood pressure medicine it produced.
After a global recall of blood pressure medicines produced by Huahai and several other companies, the FDA banned drugs produced at Huahai’s factory in Chuannan. Last year, after Huahai addressed the compliance issues, the FDA lifted its ban.
Questioned about potential scrutiny it might be under, Pfizer offered only a bare-bones statement, confirming the manufacturing agreement. While Huahai announced the partnership on Aug. 17, Pfizer did not reciprocate.
Whistleblower Disputes Data Glitch Explanation Behind Drastic Increase in Non-Infectious Diseases in Military
A medical Army officer who discovered a sudden increase in disease coinciding with reports of side effects alongside COVID-19 vaccines — which the Army has dismissed as a data glitch — said he faces involuntary separation after being convicted but not punished for disobeying COVID-19 protocol.
In January 2022, First Lt. Mark Bashaw, a preventive medicine officer at the Army, started noticing some “alarming signals” within the defense epidemiological database.
The Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED), which tracks disease and injuries of 1.3 million active component service members, showed during the pandemic a significant increase in reports of cancers, myocarditis and pericarditis; as well as some other diseases like male infertility, tumors, a lung disease caused by blood clots and HIV, Bashaw said.
All these illnesses are listed in FDA documentation as potential adverse reactions associated with COVID-19 vaccines, Bashaw told EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program in an interview on Aug. 1.
Coronavirus Cases and Deaths Drop Worldwide, Though WHO Warns That Could Be Due to Surveillance Decline
Confirmed coronavirus cases fell by 15% worldwide over the past week and new infections declined by 9%, the World Health Organization said Wednesday in its weekly assessment of the state of the pandemic.
Though it looked like an improvement on its face, WHO said it was impossible to know the degree to which drops in testing and other surveillance had influenced those numbers. The public health body has warned that we are in essence flying blind by not testing.
Long COVID Is Keeping 2 to 4 Million Americans out of Workforce, Report Says
About 16 million working-age Americans have long-term COVID and 2-4 million are out of work because of its ill effects, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution.
Employers have complained of labor shortages throughout the pandemic, and the analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, which collects data from Americans through a survey on education, employment, health and housing, suggests one possible reason for the lack of workers.
The report found that about 16 million Americans between 18 and 65 have long COVID. Of these people, who are considered of working age, they estimate that 2 to 4 million are out of work because of their symptoms.
NHS and Care Homes in England to Pause Routine COVID Testing
Most hospital patients and care home residents in England will no longer be tested for COVID unless they have symptoms, the government has said.
From Aug. 31, NHS and social care staff will also not be offered lateral flow tests unless they fall sick. Free testing for the general public ended in April in England but continued in some high-risk settings.
The government said U.K. COVID rates have fallen, meaning most testing could be paused.
White House Strategy for Monkeypox Vaccines Causing ‘Chaos out in the Field’
The Biden administration’s strategy for stretching scarce monkeypox shots is instead leading to fewer vaccinations and could worsen racial health disparities.
The federal government last week slashed the number of vials states received in anticipation of each being able to vaccinate up to five people per vial instead of one.
But health officials in half a dozen states told POLITICO that they are routinely able to extract only three or four doses per vial, meaning they were able to vaccinate fewer people last week than if the federal government had made no changes at all because of the drastically reduced allocations.
WHO: Monkeypox Cases Drop 21%, Reversing Month-Long Increase
The number of monkeypox cases reported globally dropped by 21% in the last week, reversing a month-long trend of rising infections and a possible signal the outbreak in Europe may be starting to decline, according to a World Health Organization report issued Thursday.
British health authorities said last week after seeing a decline in the number of new cases getting reported daily that there were “early signs” the country’s monkeypox outbreak was slowing.
Trump White House Exerted Pressure on FDA for COVID Emergency Use Authorizations, House Report Finds + More
Trump White House Exerted Pressure on FDA for COVID Emergency Use Authorizations, House Report Finds
The Trump administration pressured the Food and Drug Administration, including former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, to authorize unproven treatments for COVID-19 and the first COVID-19 vaccines on an accelerated timeline, according to a report released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
Senior Trump administration officials fought for the reauthorization of hydroxychloroquine, a drug normally used to treat malaria and lupus, after the FDA revoked its emergency clearance of the drug because data showed it was ineffective against COVID-19 and could lead to potentially dangerous side effects, the report found.
The Democrats’ investigation also documents potential influence from former White House officials regarding the FDA’s decision to authorize convalescent plasma, and White House attempts to block the FDA from collecting additional safety data on COVID-19 vaccines in order to get them to the public before the 2020 presidential election.
What a Joke: Fauci Says He Never Flip-Flopped, It Was Just ‘the Evolution of the Science’
Outgoing Dr. Anthony Fauci was against masking before he was for it. He calls flip-flops like that the “evolution of the science.” He seems to think that anybody who questions his comments simply must not understand how the scientific theory works — but conservatives aren’t letting him get away with that sleight of hand.
On Monday night, Fauci told MSNBC, “With COVID, I mean, the things that we thought we knew in the beginning turned out, as the months went by, to not be the case, which really forced us to adapt and to change some of our policies and recommendations.”
“That was interpreted by many as flip-flopping, or not really knowing what’s going on,” he added. “When it really was the evolution of the science.”
“His falsehoods were used to fire people — including veterans — from their jobs. He’s the disgusting villain of COVID,” said Buck Sexton, co-host of Clay & Buck. Cultural critic Chef Andrew Gruel also argued, “If science is always evolving, every aspect of COVID policy should have been treated with an open mind, but instead it was mandate, mandate, mandate; ban those who ask questions.”
Exclusive: Vaccinated Making up Higher Proportion of COVID Metrics in U.S.
Vaccinated people are more likely than the unvaccinated in recent months to be a COVID-19 case, hospitalization or death in 25 states, according to an Epoch Times investigation.
In Kentucky in June, for example, 67% of the deaths were among the vaccinated, according to data obtained by The Epoch Times. That same month, the vaccinated made up 65% of COVID-19 cases, 64% of COVID-19 hospitalizations, and 66% of COVID-19 deaths in Wisconsin. The numbers are a drastic change from 2021.
The statistics underline how vaccines have increasingly performed worse as newer virus variants emerged, according to some experts.
They are “clear evidence that the vaccines are not working to prevent disease and death,” Dr. Robert Malone, who helped invent the messenger RNA utilized in the two most widely-administered vaccines, told The Epoch Times.
Moderna Seeks FDA OK for Updated COVID Booster
Moderna on Tuesday said it submitted a request for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize an updated version of its COVID-19 vaccine targeting the latest Omicron subvariants.
The application comes ahead of a fall booster shot campaign. Assuming the FDA signs off, the company said its shots will be ready to ship in September. The application, per instructions previously given by the FDA, is for a “bivalent” vaccine that targets the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron currently circulating, as well as the original form of the virus.
Moderna’s vaccine is intended for adults aged 18 and older. Pfizer’s vaccine will be for adults and adolescents aged 12 and older. Pfizer submitted its request for FDA authorization on Monday.
First Lady Jill Biden Tests Positive for COVID Again in Rebound Case
First Lady Jill Biden has caught a rebound case of COVID-19, just three days after leaving quarantine.
Biden tested positive again Wednesday, her office announced, but she’s not showing any symptoms. She will stay in Delaware in isolation until she clears protocols again.
The first lady, who is double-vaccinated and received two boosters, first tested positive last week when she began experiencing mild “cold-like” symptoms, according to her spokeswoman. She was treated with Paxlovid and isolated for five days before testing negative on two tests Sunday.
FDA Plans to Authorize Bivalent Boosters by Labor Day, Sources Say
The Food and Drug Administration plans to authorize updated versions of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s COVID boosters around Labor Day, said two people familiar with the discussions.
The Biden administration is preparing to distribute the updated booster shots to teenagers and adults as part of its fall booster campaign.
Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s so-called bivalent vaccines target the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, in addition to the original coronavirus strain in a single shot. BA.5 is responsible for nearly 90% of all new COVID cases in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pfizer is seeking authorization for people 12 and older, while Moderna is seeking authorization for all adults.
Exclusive: AstraZeneca May Not Stay in Vaccines, but CEO Has No COVID Regrets
AstraZeneca (AZN.L) may not stay in the vaccine business in the long run, its CEO told Reuters on Tuesday, showing how quickly fortunes have changed for the drugmaker that produced one of the first COVID-19 shots but has since lost out to rivals.
Production delays, probes by regulators following rare cases of severe side effects, and concerns about its relatively short shelf life compared with other shots have stymied the adoption of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Now, in the third year of the pandemic amid a global vaccine supply glut, its use has diminished in much of the developed world as countries have inoculated large numbers of people and prefer Pfizer and Moderna‘s mRNA vaccines as boosters.
AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine has still not won U.S. approval.
SARS-CoV-2 Has Evolved an Incubation Time More Like Seasonal Coronaviruses
The incubation period for COVID-19 — the time between when SARS-CoV-2 first infects a person and when resulting COVID-19 symptoms first appear — has gradually shortened as the pandemic has stretched on and the virus has mutated. That’s according to a new meta-analysis published this week in JAMA Network Openby researchers in Beijing, who harvested data on over 8,000 patients from 142 COVID-19 studies.
When the original version of the novel virus mushroomed out of Wuhan, China, the mean incubation period was 6.65 days, according to pooled data from 119 studies. But then, the incubation period got shorter as the variants evolved. The Alpha variant had a mean incubation of 5 days, according to one study; Beta, 4.5 days, according to another; Delta had a mean of 4.41 days, according to pooled data from six studies; and now with Omicron, the incubation period has shrunk to 3.42 days, according to data from five studies.
The current shortened incubation period now puts SARS-CoV-2 more in line with commonplace respiratory viruses, including the four human coronaviruses that circulate seasonally and cause mild infections similar to the common cold.
What Should Schools Do About Monkeypox? New CDC Guidelines Weigh in
Schools and child care centers generally do not need to take extra steps to curb the spread of monkeypox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. It advises that they can rely on “their everyday operational guidance” to do things like ensure handwashing and clean surfaces, which help reduce the risk of potential cases from the outbreak this fall.
The agency’s new recommendations were published in a series of Frequently Asked Questions on the CDC’s website, and come as local health departments across the country are issuing their own recommendations for schools as students return to the classroom.
“At this time, the risk of monkeypox to children and adolescents in the United States is low,” the CDC’s guidance says.
Knowles Hits Fauci for ‘History of Lying’ + More
Knowles Hits Fauci for ‘History of Lying’
Following Dr. Anthony Fauci announcing his retirement Monday as the president’s top medical adviser and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in December, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles had a few thoughts to share about the so-called expert on “science.”
Knowles, who has notoriously been an outspoken critic of Fauci, pointed out during his show Monday that in the 40 years the infection disease czar has spent in office advising U.S. presidents while pocketing the most money out of any other federal employee, his record is “one of absolute failure.”
“Deception, intentional lies, incompetence, screw-ups going all the way back to AIDS — all the way up through the 90s — especially right after the war on terror,” Knowles said.
“We haven’t even gotten to COVID yet,” Knowles said, adding a list of “lies” about where Fauci was during the origins, funding and the gain of function of COVID-19.
U.S. CDC Recommends Use of Novavax’s COVID Shot for Adolescents
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday signed off on the use of Novavax Inc.’s (NVAX.O) COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12 through 17.
The recommendation follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration‘s authorization for the vaccine for the age group last week.
The protein-based vaccine received emergency use authorization in July for use among adults in the United States, with health officials hoping it would drive uptake among those skeptical of messenger RNA shots from Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O) and Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N).
However, Novavax earlier this month halved its full-year revenue forecast, saying it does not expect further sales of its COVID-19 shot in the United States this year.
Fauci on COVID Conspiracy Theories: ‘What We’re Dealing With Now Is Just a Distortion of Reality’
Anthony Fauci, who on Monday announced that he is leaving the Biden administration, pushed back on conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic hours later, calling the claims “a distortion of reality.”
False claims and criticisms, particularly about the origins of the COVID-19 virus, Fauci said on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show., “impeded a proper response to a public health challenge” and continue to interfere with addressing public health issues.
During the MSNBC interview, he pushed back on the theories and the personal attacks against him.
Fauci also told Maddow that community input and pressure were constructive as the government dealt with HIV/AIDS, but that current COVID-19 criticisms are counterproductive.
Regular Exercise Slashes Risk of COVID, Study Suggests
Regular exercise can reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 or developing severe disease, according to a large study published Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, backing a wealth of research underscoring the numerous health benefits of physical activity as the world looks ahead for ways to live with COVID.
Including regular physical activity in weekly routines helps protect people against COVID-19, according to the peer-reviewed analysis of 16 global studies that included more than 1.8 million adults.
Racking up 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, offered the best protection against COVID infection and severe disease, the researchers found.
The researchers said it wasn’t clear how exercise reduces the risk of COVID-19. It is likely to be a combination of environmental and metabolic factors, they said. Physical activity is well known to have a positive effect on immunity, the researchers noted, and offers a likely explanation for protection against COVID.
It is known to boost the immune system and the body’s anti-inflammatory responses, for example, as well as mitigate the negative effects of stress on immunity. The higher level of cardiovascular and muscular fitness in people who exercise regularly could also help explain why it protects against severe disease, hospitalization and death from COVID, the researchers added.
Taiwan Study: Phellinus Linteus Fungus Used in TCM Prevents COVID
A research team led by Jaung-Geng Lin, a fellow of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, found that the ingredients of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Phellinus linteus, a fungus, can effectively prevent the CCP virus (SARS-CoV-2) from entering cells and reduce the risk of infection. The research report has been published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.
The CCP virus infects human cells by combining with ACE2 on the cell membrane, and TMPRSS2, another protein, can accelerate the entry of the virus into cells.
The study found that the hispidin and 3,4-dihydroxy benzal acetone, components in Phellinus linteus, can inhibit cell production of ACE2 and TMPRSS2, thereby preventing the virus from infecting cells.
Moreover, Phellinus linteus has no cytotoxicity and will not damage organs.
Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine 73.2% Effective in Kids Under 5 — New Data Shows
Pfizer Inc.’s (PFE.N) COVID-19 vaccine was 73.2% effective in children aged between 6 months and 4 years, the company’s data showed on Tuesday, two months after the U.S. rollout of the shots began for that age group.
Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine was authorized for children under 5 years of age in June, based on data that showed the vaccine generated a similar immune response to those seen in older age groups.
An early analysis based on 10 symptomatic COVID-19 cases in the study had suggested a vaccine efficacy of 80.3%. But experts had warned that the data was preliminary due to a low number of symptomatic cases.
Moderna to Supply 12 Million Doses of Omicron-Targeted COVID Shot to Canada
Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O) will supply 12 million doses of its COVID-19 shot adapted to target the Omicron variant of the coronavirus to Canada, the company said on Monday.
The Canadian government had entered into a supply deal with the company last year for the supply of its COVID vaccine for 2022 and 2023, with the contract allowing access to new vaccine adaptations.
Moderna and Canada have agreed to convert six million doses of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, which targets the original virus, to an Omicron-containing bivalent vaccine.
British Scientists Behind Key COVID Trial Launch Study to Test Monkeypox Treatment
The British scientists behind one of the major therapeutic COVID-19 trials have turned their focus to treatments for monkeypox, a viral disease that has been labeled a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The team from Oxford University behind the so-called RECOVERY trial — which honed in on four effective COVID treatments — on Tuesday unveiled a new trial, dubbed PLATINUM, to confirm whether SIGA Technologies’ (SIGA.O) tecovirimat is an effective treatment for monkeypox.
Monkeypox Projections Reveal Future of Virus in U.S.
Monkeypox projections suggest cases of the virus will continue to climb in the U.S. over the next few months before they start to level off.
As of Aug. 17, the U.S. had 34% of all worldwide cases. Other countries that have been hit hard by the latest outbreak, such as the U.K. and Spain, have begun to see the curve of cases fall. But this is not yet the situation in the U.S., where case numbers continue to climb.
On Aug. 23, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 42,954 cases of monkeypox worldwide, the vast majority of which are in countries and regions where monkeypox is not endemic. The U.S. has 15,432 cases.
According to disease spread modeling data scientist @JPWeiland, the U.S.’s total proportion of monkeypox cases is likely to rise more, before leveling out. Weiland’s models show that the growth rate of monkeypox cases has decreased from 9% per day in early June to 5.9%.
Polio in U.S., U.K. and Israel Reveals Rare Risk of Oral Vaccine
For years, global health officials have used billions of drops of an oral vaccine in a remarkably effective campaign aimed at wiping out polio in its last remaining strongholds — typically, poor, politically unstable corners of the world.
Now, in a surprising twist in the decades-long effort to eradicate the virus, authorities in Jerusalem, New York and London have discovered evidence that polio is spreading there.
The original source of the virus? The oral vaccine itself.