Close menu

Covid News Watch

May 06, 2022

Bill Allowing Preteen Vaccines Without Parental OK Advances + More

Bill Allowing Preteen Vaccines Without Parental OK Advances

Associated Press reported:

A California measure that would allow children age 12 and up to be vaccinated without their parents’ consent, including against the coronavirus, cleared its first legislative hurdle Thursday. If the proposal becomes law, California would allow the youngest age group of any state to be vaccinated without parental permission.

California state law already allows people 12 and older to consent to the Hepatitis B and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

​​The bill that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee would lift the parental requirement for that age group for any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FDA Severely Limits Use of J&J COVID Shot — Decision Comes More Than a Year After ‘Pause’ Over Rare Clotting Events

MedPage Today reported:

Use of Johnson and Johnson‘s (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine should only be limited to certain adults, the FDA said on Thursday.

Due to an updated analysis of the rare cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), which typically occur 1 to 2 weeks after vaccination, use of the J&J vaccine should be restricted to those for whom mRNA vaccines are “not accessible or clinically appropriate,” or who would not get vaccinated if not for the J&J vaccine, the agency said.

FDA and CDC initially paused the use of the vaccine in April 2021, following 15 cases of TTS. Through March 18 of this year, the agencies have confirmed 60 TTS cases and nine deaths.

The greatest risk is among women ages 30 to 49 years (about 8 cases per million doses).

Healthy Young People in U.K. May Never Be Offered Another COVID Jab, Says Expert

The Guardian reported:

Healthy younger people in the U.K. may never be offered another COVID jab, a leading expert has said, as a new wave of infections is expected to hit the country in the coming weeks.

Giving his personal expert opinion, Adam Finn, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Bristol and a member of the U.K.’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, suggested there was little point in offering a fourth jab to those yet to pass middle age, at least in the current landscape.

“You just don’t achieve anything very useful by [further] immunizing healthy young people with these vaccines because they rarely get sick — which the vaccines prevent,” he said, adding that vaccines offered poor and short-lived protection against mild infection and onwards transmission.

Transforming Mental Illness Into Mental Wellness

The Enquirer reported:

We are in a mental health crisis. Data continues to pour in that the pandemic has only made this crisis worse.

Locally, Prevention First recently reported that more than half of our middle and high school students say they have high levels of stress, with close to 40% saying they feel anxious or nervous most of the time.  A recent survey by Mason-based Myriad Genetics found only about half of parents believe their young adult children would be comfortable talking with them about their mental health struggles.

The Lindner Center of HOPE experiences this rise in community mental health needs every day in calls from individuals or their families, clinicians seeking referrals, and increasingly, inquiries from local companies looking for resources for their employees.

Demand for mental health services in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky far exceeds the capacity. How do we fix it? It starts by committing to transform mental illness into mental wellness. And it takes all of us to do so.

A Guide to Help You Keep up With the Omicron Subvariants

Kaiser Health News reported:

Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Americans can be forgiven if they’ve lost track of the latest variants circulating nationally and around the world. We’ve heard of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants, but a new Greek-letter variant hasn’t come onto the scene in almost half a year.

Instead, a seemingly endless stream of “subvariants” of Omicron, the most recent Greek-letter variant, has emerged in the past few months.

How different are these subvariants from one another? Can infection by one subvariant protect someone from infection by another subvariant? And how well are the existing coronavirus vaccines — which were developed before Omicron’s emergence — doing against the subvariants?

COVID Subvariant XE: What to Know

Fox News reported:

It’s nicknamed Frankenstein, but experts say that shouldn’t scare you.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued a preliminary report on the new COVID-19 “Frankenstein” subvariant called XE, which is a mix of the Omicron BA.1 variant and the “stealth” variant BA.2, with the agency declaring it’s still part of the Omicron variant, but not a variant of interest or concern yet, according to a recent Euronews report.

A “recombinant” strain is a type of variant that occurs when an individual becomes infected with two or more variants at the same time, and is assigned the letter “X” prefix to classify them as recombinant, said Dr. Stacia Wyman, senior genomics scientist at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley. Wyman noted the XE subvariant originated from someone who was infected with both the BA.1 and BA.2 variants.

White House Documents Detail a Looming Squeeze on COVID Boosters

STAT News reported:

The White House could run out of COVID-19 vaccines if it moves forward with plans to encourage all adults to get a second COVID-19 vaccine booster dose by roughly Sept. 1, according to a tranche of budget documents sent to Congress that have not previously been made public.

Although Food and Drug Administration officials have hinted that all American adults may be encouraged to get second boosters this fall, right now, second booster doses are only available to people over the age of 50.

The budget documents make it clear that if the administration does want to push second boosters, it will need more money to make it happen: it needs at least 87 million more vaccines for adult boosters and another 5 million more for first boosters for kids.

Evidence Mounts for Need to Study Pfizer’s Paxlovid for Long COVID — Researchers Say

Reuters reported:

Additional reports of patients with long COVID who were helped by Pfizer Inc.’s (PFE.N) oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid offer fresh impetus for conducting clinical trials to test the medicine for the debilitating condition, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Three new case studies follow earlier reports of long COVID patients who experienced relief of their symptoms after taking the treatment, which is currently only authorized for high-risk people early after the onset of COVID symptoms.

As many as 30% of people infected by the coronavirus are believed to develop long COVID, a condition that can last for several months with symptoms including fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, chronic pain, brain fog and muscle weakness. It affects people who have had both mild and severe COVID-19, including children, and can be severe enough to keep people out of work.

Early Promise for COVID Vaccine Taken as Pill

U.S. News & World Report reported:

An experimental COVID-19 vaccine in pill form could be a win-win, as it not only protects against infection but also limits the airborne spread of the virus, tests in lab animals show. The current vaccines reduce the risk of serious COVID-19 illness and hospitalization but aren’t foolproof armor against infection with SARS-CoV-2.

The findings were published on May 5 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The vaccine uses an adenovirus as a vector to express the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the study authors explained. Unlike vaccines injected into the muscle, the experimental vaccine seeks to neutralize the coronavirus by increasing the production of immunoglobulin A (IgA) — the immune system’s first line of defense against pathogens — in mucosal tissue in the nose and lungs.

Protecting these locations makes it less likely that vaccinated people will transmit the infectious virus during a sneeze or cough, according to the researchers.

May 05, 2022

Fauci Finally Exposed as the Hypocrite He Truly Is + More

CURL: Fauci Finally Exposed as the Hypocrite He Truly Is

The Daily Wire reported:

When COVID-19 first came ashore in America — long before scientists really knew anything about the coronavirus — the top brains said in one breathless voice: Wash your hands!

Everyone was saying everything all at the same time — and the mainstream media was laughing all the way to the bank. “It turns out the pandemic is a pretty big part of the news cycle and that’s not going away anytime soon,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said in March 2021. “It turns out it’s really good for ratings.”

But let’s get to the real Debbie Downer of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. immunologist. Back in March 2020, Fauci declared, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”

Now that we all know just what a hypocrite Fauci is, the question must be asked: When will he just go away? He’s 81, the highest-paid employee in the entire federal government (he gets more than the president), and he keeps getting everything wrong — and not practicing what he preaches, just like all Democrats have done from the beginning.

FDA: ‘No Evidence’ Second Pfizer COVID Pill Stops Repeat Symptoms, Contradicting CEO

Axios reported:

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official said Wednesday that there is “no evidence” that a second round of the Pfizer COVID pill Paxlovid will help patients who suffer a relapse in symptoms.

The FDA’s comments contradict Pfizer chief executive officer Albert Bourla, who said patients experiencing COVID-19 symptoms after their first treatment can take more of the pill.

“There is no evidence of benefit at this time for a longer course of treatment or repeating a treatment course of Paxlovid,” John Farley, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

Bourla told Bloomberg that Paxlovid “reduces the viral load” but doesn’t always clear the coronavirus out of people’s systems. When that happens, people should take more of the drug, he said.

CDC Lowers Threshold for Cruise Ships to Qualify as ‘Highly Vaccinated’ Against COVID

USA TODAY reported:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday it is lowering its threshold for cruise ships to meet a “highly vaccinated” status.

“CDC has reevaluated and lowered the cruise ship vaccination status thresholds from 95% of passengers to 90% of passengers under the COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships,” CDC spokesperson Tom Skinner said in an email.

That means that ships are now to be considered “highly vaccinated” if 90% of passengers and 95% of crew members who are eligible to receive the COVID vaccine are fully vaccinated with a “primary series,” or two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

WHO: COVID Continues to Decline, Except in Americas, Africa

Associated Press reported:

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of newly reported coronavirus cases and deaths globally continued to fall in the last week, continuing a decline that first began in March.

Still, the WHO noted that cases rose by about a third in Africa and 13% in the Americas. There was also a nearly 70% jump in deaths reported in India, although that was attributed to delayed reporting rather than a recent surge of disease.

Last week, authorities in South Africa said they had noted an uptick in COVID-19 cases attributable to the BA.4 mutant of Omicron, although they said it was too early to tell if that would result in a significant new wave of disease.

Although the BA.4 version of COVID-19′s Omicron variant appears more infectious than Omicron, the WHO said there was no evidence yet that it was leading to substantially higher rates of hospitalization or death.

Biden Is Rightsizing the COVID Crisis

The Atlantic reported:

This past weekend, Anthony Fauci bailed on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser concluded that the indoor event, though open only to vaccinated attendees who tested negative for COVID-19 the same day, was too risky for his own taste. Biden himself split the difference and showed up only for the speeches, not for the meal.

Asked to explain this turn of events, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “Every individual will make their own decisions about whether they attend this event, other events, whether they wear a mask at it or not.”

The underlying premise was that Fauci and Biden, like all other Americans, must reach their own conclusions about how to reduce their risk. Whether individuals party or don’t party is not a federal question. The implicit policy, in short, is: You do you.

New BA.2 COVID Subvariant Taking Hold in United States

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Yet another subvariant of the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly in the United States and is likely to become the dominant strain within weeks, experts say.

Early research suggests that BA.2.12.1 — a subvariant of the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant — is better able to evade the immune system than previous versions of the coronavirus, but it’s not clear yet if it causes more severe illness, The New York Times reported.

BA.2.12.1 was first detected in New York State in April, and it is spreading more rapidly than the first versions of Omicron.

COVID Transmission 1,000 Times More Likely From Air vs. Surfaces: Study

U.S. News & World Report reported:

If you’re still wiping down groceries, doorknobs and light switches in an attempt to thwart COVID-19, maybe you can relax a little: You’re 1,000 times more likely to get COVID from the air you breathe than from surfaces you touch, a new study suggests.

University of Michigan researchers tested air and surface samples around their campus and found odds are greater for inhaling virus particles than picking them up on your fingers.

“The overall risk of exposure to the virus was low at all of the locations we measured,” said study author Richard Neitzel, a professor of environmental health sciences and global public health. However, “our results suggest that there was a much higher risk of infection from inhalation than from contact with surfaces like door handles, drinking fountains, keyboards, desks, sinks and light switches,” he noted.

New COVID Vaccines From Canada, China Score in International Trials — but Does the World Even Need Any More, Experts Ask?

MedPage Today reported:

A plant-based vaccine developed in Canada and a protein subunit vaccine from China proved safe and effective against symptomatic COVID-19, a pair of phase III trials found.

But in an accompanying editorial, experts raised the question: “Does the world still need new COVID-19 vaccines?”

Hanna Nohynek, MD, Ph.D., of the University of Bern in Switzerland, and Annelies Wilder-Smith, MD, Ph.D., of the World Health Organization (WHO), pointed out that both trials included “mostly working-age adults,” so no vaccine efficacy data were available for older adults, and both lacked efficacy data against Omicron, “as well as data on the durability of protection and safety in subpopulations such as older persons, pregnant women and persons with immunosuppression.”

Novavax Files for Authorization of COVID Shot Among Adolescents in Britain

Reuters reported:

Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) said on Wednesday it had filed an application with Britain’s drugs regulator for the authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine among adolescents aged 12 and older. Britain had in February cleared the two-dose vaccine, Nuvaxovid, for use in adults amid a spike in cases fueled by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The drugmaker in late January filed for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 shot for adults in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to hold several meetings of its outside panel of experts in June to discuss authorization requests submitted by multiple COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers including Novavax.

Understanding How COVID Can Trigger Loss of Smell

U.S. News & World Report reported:

It has happened to millions during the pandemic: a sudden loss of smell that heralds the start of a COVID-19 infection. But scientists have been stumped as to why. Until now.

New research suggests the symptom is due to inflammation rather than directly caused by the coronavirus.

“As a neuropathologist, I wondered why smell loss is a very common symptom with COVID-19 but not with other respiratory diseases,” said study lead author Dr. Cheng-Ying Ho. She is an associate professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore.

“So, we decided to dig deeply into the mechanics of smell, to see what actually occurs at the cellular level when SARS-CoV-2 invades the body,” Ho said in a university news release.

COVID Coverage for All Dries up Even as Hospital Costs Rise

Associated Press reported:

For the first time, the U.S. came close to providing healthcare for all during the coronavirus pandemic — but for just one condition, COVID-19.

Now, things are reverting to the way they were as federal money for COVID care of the uninsured dries up, creating a potential barrier to timely access.

“We haven’t turned anybody away yet,” said Dr. Mark Loafman, chair of family and community medicine at Cook County Health in Chicago. “But I think it’s just a matter of time … People don’t get cancer treatment or blood pressure treatment every day in America because they can’t afford it.”

A $20 billion government COVID program covered testing, treatment and vaccine costs for uninsured people. But that’s been shut down. Special Medicaid COVID coverage for the uninsured in more than a dozen states also likely faces its last months.

May 04, 2022

Doctors Shrug off Patients With Rare Vaccine Disorders, Delaying Treatment + More

Doctors Shrug off Patients With Rare Vaccine Disorders, Delaying Treatment

Newsweek reported:

On November 4, 2020, Brianne Dressen walked into a clinic in West Jordan, Utah to take part in a clinical trial for AstraZeneca‘s COVID-19 vaccine. A few minutes after getting the shot, her arm began to tingle and her eyes felt “weird,” she says. Her symptoms soon got worse. She developed a fever and chills and her arm went numb. At one point she grew so sensitive to light and sound that she sought relief in a dark room wearing earmuffs.

By the time she got to the emergency room at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, the numbness had spread from her feet upward to her legs. She had lost the ability to walk and could no longer control her bladder and bowels. “It was really scary,” she says.

What followed was a long nightmare of seeking care for debilitating symptoms from doctors who, she says, were dismissive of her symptoms and dubious that a vaccine could be the cause. Although adverse effects from COVID-19 vaccines are rare, some of those who fall into that group say they have gotten short shrift by the medical establishment.

Many doctors, worried about spreading misinformation and contributing to vaccine hesitancy, have been reluctant to take complaints about severe vaccine side-effects seriously, according to some people who have suffered post-COVID-19 vaccine complications.

Fewer Than 1 in 5 U.S. Parents Say They’ll Get COVID Vaccines for Kids Under 5 as Soon as They Can, Survey Finds

CNN Health reported:

U.S. children under 5 are getting closer to authorized COVID-19 vaccines, but most parents may be reluctant to actually get them when they become available, a new survey found.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Vaccine Monitor survey, published Wednesday, only 18% of parents of children under 5 said they would vaccinate their child against COVID-19 as soon as a vaccine was available.

Nearly 40% of parents of young children said they would “wait and see” before vaccinating their child, 11% said they would get the vaccine only if required, and 27% said they would “definitely not” vaccinate their child against COVID-19.

More than half of parents in this age group said they “don’t have enough information about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for children in this age group,” compared with 34% of parents of children ages 5-11 and 25% of parents of children ages 12-17.

Moderna Q1 Profit Triples on Robust Vaccine Sales

Associated Press reported:

COVID-19 vaccine sales helped Moderna triple its net income in a better-than-expected first quarter. The vaccine maker said Wednesday that revenue from its coronavirus preventive shots jumped to $5.92 billion, from $1.73 billion in last year’s quarter, when the vaccines were debuting in most markets.

More than 217 million doses of Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine have been administered in the U.S., where it is one of three approved options for adults. Pfizer’s Comrinaty shots are the most commonly used, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A vaccine from Johnson & Johnson ranks third.

Moderna also is seeking authorization for its shots to be used in adolescents and children, something dozens of other countries have already granted.

FDA Officials Say Annual COVID Shots May Be Needed in the Future

CNN Health reported:

The United States might need to update its COVID-19 vaccines each year, according to a trio of top U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials, and “a new normal” may include an annual COVID-19 vaccine alongside a seasonal flu shot.

“Widespread vaccine- and infection-induced immunity, combined with the availability of effective therapeutics, could blunt the effects of future outbreaks. Nonetheless, it is time to accept that the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the new normal. It will likely circulate globally for the foreseeable future, taking its place alongside other common respiratory viruses such as influenza.

And it likely will require similar annual consideration for vaccine composition updates,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research; Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock; and new FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf wrote in a paper published in the medical journal JAMA on Monday.

Carnival Cruise Ship Passengers Say COVID Overwhelmed Ship

Associated Press reported:

Passengers on a Carnival Cruise Ship that docked Tuesday in Seattle say more than 100 people aboard the ship tested positive for COVID-19 and the ship was overwhelmed.

Multiple people say they’re in quarantine at Seattle-area hotels after testing positive or being exposed to someone with COVID-19. Carnival Cruise Line would not confirm how many people tested positive, but said there were a number of positive cases, KING5 reported.

Passengers tell KING 5 they waited hours for meals, weren’t properly isolated and couldn’t get ahold of medical staff. Carnival said there were no serious health issues. The company’s website says guests are required to be fully vaccinated and tested before a trip. Some exemptions are accommodated with proper testing.

COVID Worsens Asthma in Children; Booster After Infection Not as Beneficial vs. Omicron

Reuters reported:

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.

Asthma in children may worsen after infection with the coronavirus, doctors warn.

Among people who were previously infected with the coronavirus, a third dose of an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) or Moderna (MRNA.O) may not boost their protection against the Omicron variant of the virus, according to new data.

A separate study from Canada, also posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review, similarly found that more than two vaccine doses “may be of marginal incremental value” for protecting previously-infected individuals against Omicron.

New Coronavirus Variants Emerge: BA.4, BA.5 Likely Reinfecting Omicron Survivors

Los Angeles Times reported:

A pair of new Omicron subvariants has emerged, raising the possibility that survivors of earlier Omicron strains can get reinfected.

BA.4 and BA.5 have gained increasing attention in South Africa as weekly coronavirus cases tripled in the last two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The rapid growth of BA.4 and BA.5 in South Africa has implications for a potential future surge in California and the U.S.

Until now, scientists had been reassured that people who survived the first Omicron variant over the winter, BA.1, were unlikely to be reinfected by the even more infectious subvariant BA.2, which is now dominant nationwide.

Pfizer Says Patients Who Relapse After COVID Pill Can Repeat Treatment

Bloomberg reported:

Pfizer Inc. executives said patients who suffer a relapse in COVID-19 symptoms after taking a full course of Paxlovid should take more of the treatment, though current U.S. guidelines limit use to five consecutive days.

“Paxlovid does what it has to do: it reduces the viral load,” Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said in an interview. “Then your body is supposed to do the job.” But for unknown reasons, the CEO said, some patients aren’t able to clear the virus with the first course of treatment.

In cases where virus levels do rebound, Bourla said, “then you give a second course like you do with antibiotics, and that’s it.”

The Food and Drug Administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on how the antiviral should be prescribed to COVID-19 patients who experience a rebound in viral load. While Paxlovid is available under emergency use authorization, it hasn’t yet gained full approval. Prescribing directions suggest that the drug is “not authorized for use for longer than 5 consecutive days.”

Nose Spray Vaccines Could Quash COVID Virus Variants

Scientific American reported:

The relentless evolution of the COVID-causing coronavirus has taken a bit of the shine off the vaccines developed during the first year of the pandemic. Versions of the virus that now dominate circulationOmicron and its subvariants — are more transmissible and adept at evading the body’s immune defenses than their original form.

The current shots to the arm can still prevent serious illness, but their ability to ward off infection completely has been diminished. And part of the reason may be the location of the jabs, which some scientists now want to change.

To block infections entirely, scientists want to deliver inoculations to the site where the virus first makes contact: the nose. People could simply spray the vaccines up their nostrils at home, making the preparation much easier to administer.

After Another Strong Quarter, CVS Raises Outlook for 2022

Associated Press reported:

COVID-19 vaccines and tests for the virus continue to boost CVS Health and the healthcare giant raised its annual forecast after yet another strong quarter.

The company said Wednesday that it administered more than 8 million COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter. That represented a big drop from the over 20 million that it administered in the last quarter of 2021 when customers sought boosters and many children began getting shots.

CVS Health said it also administered more than six million tests in the first quarter, and its drugstores got a boost from customers buying additional test kits to take home as the Omicron surge of the virus peaked at the start of the quarter.

Hopes Rise for COVID Vaccine Patent Waiver After Key Countries Agree on Proposal

The Guardian reported:

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) most powerful members said on Tuesday that they had agreed on a proposed waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines in the hopes of speeding up rollouts worldwide.

The proposal from the so-called Quad (the European Union, India, South Africa and the United States) will still have to go to the full council, but China has indicated it is prepared to vote in favor. If passed, it could allow developing world countries to manufacture COVID vaccines without paying Pfizer, Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies licenses.

Valneva to Launch Trial for Booster Use of Its COVID Vaccine Candidate

Reuters reported:

French drugmaker Valneva (VLS.PA) said on Wednesday it will conduct a trial about the use of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA2001 as a booster jab following an mRNA vaccination or natural infection.

The trial will be conducted in the Netherlands and results are expected in the third quarter of 2022, the statement said.

The VLA2001-307 trial will be the company’s first clinical trial to provide booster data following primary vaccination with an mRNA vaccine or natural COVID-19 infection.

May 03, 2022

Pfizer Hopes to Submit Little-Kid Vaccine Data by Early June + More

Pfizer Hopes to Submit Little-Kid Vaccine Data by Early June

Associated Press reported:

Pfizer now hopes to tell U.S. regulators how well its COVID-19 vaccine works in the littlest kids by late May or early June.

Pfizer is testing three extra-small doses of its vaccine in children under 5 after two shots didn’t prove quite strong enough. Initial results had been expected last month but the company laid out the latest timeline Tuesday during its discussion of quarterly financial results.

Rival Moderna hopes to be the first to offer vaccinations for the youngest children. Last week, it filed with the Food and Drug Administration data it hopes will prove two of its low-dose shots work in children younger than 5. Moderna also has filed FDA applications for older kids, although the agency hasn’t ruled on them.

Pfizer Tops Q1 Expectations, Revises 2022 Forecast

Associated Press reported:

Sales of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and treatment pushed the drugmaker well past expectations in the first quarter, as profit grew 61%.

The coronavirus vaccine Comirnaty brought in more than $13 billion in sales, and the treatment Paxlovid added another $1.5 billion as company revenue swelled 77%, the company said Tuesday.

Pfizer posted adjusted earnings of $1.62 per share in the first quarter, on $25.66 billion in revenue. Analysts expected per-share earnings of $1.49 on about $24.1 billion in sales, according to FactSet.

A Major Threat to the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Hesitancy

NBC News reported:

In April, more than 1,000 vaccine experts gathered in Washington, DC, for the first time since the pandemic began. Over four days, scientists, doctors and drugmakers pored over cutting-edge research and tackled some of the most pressing questions in the world of vaccines.

Talk of COVID-19 vaccines was, of course, unavoidable. But high on the agenda at the World Vaccine Congress was a vaccine for another mysterious illness that could strike at any moment: Disease X.

Disease X is not any particular virus, bacteria or another germ, but a term used as a stand-in for whatever pathogen will sweep the globe in the next pandemic. And there will indeed be a next pandemic, experts say.

For the vaccine experts, one thing is clear: No matter the form Disease X takes, they’ll be called on to get to work and develop the vaccine. But — as has become evident more than a year and a half into the U.S. vaccination campaign — one essential piece of information is missing: How to convince hesitant people to be vaccinated.

It’s Time to Demand Timely Mental Health Reporting by Colleges and Universities

USA TODAY reported:

The top-ranked colleges and universities have poured millions of dollars into reporting campus rates of positive COVID-19 tests. Many of these colleges and universities also have invested heavily in mandatory regular asymptomatic testing, even in the spring of 2022, when hospitals have close to zero patients admitted due to COVID-19 infection.

Meanwhile, though death from COVID-19 is exceedingly rare among college students, it is well known from pre-pandemic data that approximately 100 U.S. college students die by suicide each month. According to more recent Centers for Disease and Control Prevention data, 1 in 4 adults ages 18-24 contemplated suicide in June 2020.

Rates of mental illness on campus are shocking: As many as 1 in 3 college students are suffering from depression (twice as many as in 2019), and even more have anxiety disorders (1.5 times as many as in 2019).

The dystopia that COVID-19 policies have created on campus has been well-described. University policies such as encouraging anonymous reporting hotlines for infractions (including walking to the shower without a mask) have generated fear and mistrust among classmates.

Pharmacies in Most States Can’t Administer COVID Vaccines to Babies and Toddlers

The Washington Post reported:

Physicians will play an even bigger role in the last phase of the country’s largest-ever vaccination campaign.

It’s been a difficult road to get coronavirus shots for children under 5, but a vaccine could become available next month. But unlike prior age groups, many kids likely won’t be receiving their vaccines in pharmacies.

That’s partly because the majority of states prohibit pharmacists from vaccinating children under 3. Even in areas where it’s allowed, pharmacies are wrestling with whether to administer shots to the youngest kids. Some may decide not to, depending on the comfort level of their staff, corporate rules and whether they have the space for such a setup.

NYC COVID Cases, Alert Level Rise

Fox News reported:

New York City’s COVID-19 alert level has been upgraded to “medium,” the second-lowest out of four levels.

According to the state’s health department, citing data as of April 29, there have been 209.02 new cases per 100,000 people in the city over the last seven days.

The percentage of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients is 2.89% and increasing, with new hospital admissions rising to 6.7 per 100,000 people in the last week.

Moderna Lawsuits Could Leave Taxpayers on the Hook After Company Made Billions

FOX Business reported:

Moderna’s lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine was produced with unprecedented speed, but the pharmaceutical firm now faces multiple lawsuits which could leave taxpayers paying the tab.

The lawsuits have focused on intellectual property rights and patents. In particular, a lawsuit from two biotech firms argued that the lipid technology used to develop the vaccine was the exact nature that biotech firm Arbutus had already developed. In response to another suit, Moderna disputed that three National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists played a role in developing the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA).

A federal loophole could get Moderna off the hook, and force taxpayers to foot the bill.

More Uniformly Infectious, More Treatable, More Genetically Predictable: How Coronavirus Is Getting Closer to Flu

STAT News reported:

SARS-CoV-2 remains a long way from being ordinary. It has not yet found seasonal cadence — take the recent surge in Europe and the U.K., which comes just weeks after the initial Omicron wave subsided — and it’s still capable of inflicting mass death and disability (see Hong Kong’s lethal last few months).

But there are signs that the virus — and our relationship to it — is shifting in subtle ways that make it more like seasonal flu than it was at the start of the pandemic.

One of the most intriguing shifts involves how COVID now spreads from person to person.

Studies in Norway and in the U.S. have shown that Omicron spreads much more easily in households, suggesting that superspreading events may be becoming less important as primary drivers of contagion chains.

New Omicron Subvariant Spreading in U.S. as Coronavirus Cases Increase

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. are ticking up as a new, highly transmissible subvariant of Omicron starts taking hold of the country.

Virtually every infection across the nation is from the Omicron coronavirus variant. There are several subvariants of Omicron, and BA.2 — sometimes referred to as “stealth Omicron” — has been the dominant strain circulating since March.

But another Omicron subvariant is quickly increasing, and experts believe it could be even more transmissible than BA.2. BA.2.12.1 was responsible for 29% of new coronavirus infections as of mid-April, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 19% of cases the week prior and 14% of infections the first week in April.

Some regions, like the Northeast, are seeing more cases of BA.2.12.1 than others. The New York State Department of Health first announced the emergence of the subvariant in the state mid-April. It was responsible for 41% of infections across the state as of April 23, according to the department.

Most Americans Have Now Had COVID — but Experts Are Predicting the Next Surge

CNN Politics reported:

While it’s tempting to say much of life is getting back to normal, it’s probably more accurate to say it feels more comfortable and normal living alongside COVID-19. For many of those who are vaccinated or were previously infected, learning of a close contact with the disease is less frightening than frustrating. Testing is more and more normal. Masks are less and less visible.

The warning from Dr. Deborah Birx — the White House Coronavirus Response Task Force coordinator during the Trump era, who is out with a new book — is that we can expect surges in cases in the South in the summer and in the North in the winter.

During an appearance on CBS News on Sunday, Birx pointed to a new rise in COVID-19 cases in South Africa. “Each of these surges is about four to six months apart. That tells me that natural immunity wanes enough in the general population after four to six months — that a significant surge is going to occur again,” Birx said.