Covid News Watch
What Proportion of Doctors Are Vaccine Hesitant? Far Higher Than Expected, Survey Says + More
What Proportion of Doctors Are Vaccine Hesitant? — Researchers Conducting a New Survey Said the Answer Was Far Higher Than Expected
Levels of vaccine hesitancy among physicians may be higher than expected, with 1 in 10 primary care doctors not believing that vaccines are safe, according to a new survey.
Among 625 physicians, 10.1% did not agree that vaccines were safe; 9.3% did not agree that vaccines were effective; and 8.3% did not agree that they were important, Timothy Callaghan, PhD, of Texas A&M School of Public Health in College Station, and colleagues reported online in Vaccine.
The high proportion of hesitancy among primary care doctors “was certainly a surprise for us,” Callaghan told MedPage Today. “We thought it might be a very small proportion of physicians who hold hesitancy about vaccines given that we have lots of evidence of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. However, once we dug into the data, we found that concerns about vaccines, in general, were far more widespread in the physician population than we might have expected.”
Britain Approves Moderna’s COVID Shot for 6- to 11-Year-Olds
Britain’s medicines regulator on Thursday approved the use of Moderna‘s (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine in children between six and 11 years, as the country bolsters itself for fighting coronavirus infections amid the spread of new virus variants.
While most children develop mild or no symptoms with COVID-19, they could still spread the virus and some remain at risk of becoming seriously ill as new, highly contagious variants such as Omicron and its sub-variants are driving up cases.
Official data on Thursday showed that COVID-19 prevalence in England fell to 1 in 14 people in the week ending April 9, compared with a record high of 1 in 13 recorded in the previous two weeks.
UK Clears 6th COVID Shot Despite Canceling Deal for Doses
British authorities have authorized a coronavirus vaccine for adults made by French drugmaker Valneva, despite the government’s decision last year to cancel an order for at least 100 million doses.
The UK is the first country to authorize Valneva’s vaccine, which is also under review by the European Medicines Agency. Britain’s medicines regulator said Thursday that the two-dose vaccine is intended for adults ages 18 to 50, with the second dose given about a month after the first.
The Valneva vaccine is made with the decades-old technology used to manufacture shots for flu and polio. It is the sixth COVID-19 vaccine the U.K. has cleared and the only one that utilizes a “killed” virus; scientists grow the coronavirus in a lab and then inactivate the virus so it cannot replicate or infect cells.
The U.K. government scrapped an agreement with Valneva in September to purchase at least 100 million doses, saying at the time that British regulators probably would not clear the shot. Valneva said Britain canceled the deal because of supply concerns.
Pfizer to Seek COVID Booster for Healthy 5- to 11-Year-Olds
Pfizer said Thursday it wants to expand its COVID-19 booster shots to healthy elementary-age kids. Pfizer says new data shows healthy 5- to 11-year-olds could benefit from another kid-sized shot.
In a small study, 140 youngsters who’d already gotten two shots were given a booster six months later, and researchers found the extra shot generally revved up their immune response. But a closer look at 30 of the children found a 36-fold increase in virus-fighting antibodies, levels high enough to fight the super-contagious Omicron variant, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said in a press release.
U.S. COVID Cases on the Rise Again
After two months of plummeting COVID cases across the U.S., the virus is on the rise again, with the Northeast accounting for many of the new cases.
We knew this was coming. Now it’s just a matter of seeing how large an impact this surge of the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron has in the U.S.
“We’ve got to be careful, but I don’t think this is a moment where we need to be excessively concerned,” White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha told the Today show this week, pointing to low infection numbers and hospitalizations.
Homeschooling Surge Continues Despite Schools Reopening
The coronavirus pandemic ushered in what may be the most rapid rise in homeschooling the U.S. has ever seen. Two years later, even after schools reopened and vaccines became widely available, many parents have chosen to continue directing their children’s education themselves.
Families that may have turned to homeschooling as an alternative to hastily assembled remote learning plans have stuck with it — reasons include health concerns, disagreement with school policies and a desire to keep what has worked for their children.
In 18 states that shared data through the current school year, the number of homeschooling students increased by 63% in the 2020-2021 school year, then fell by only 17% in the 2021-2022 school year. Around 3% of U.S. students were homeschooled before the pandemic-induced surge, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
New Omicron Sub-Types BA.4 and BA.5 May Be More Able to Dodge Antibodies
Scientists are monitoring two newly characterized Omicron variant sub-types, BA.4 and BA.5, that have emerged in a few countries.
In recent weeks researchers have noted a small number of sequences of two new types of Omicron — now being referred to as BA.4 and BA.5 — so far detected in relatively few people. Both sub-variants have been detected in a few countries, including the UK, Denmark and Botswana, but have largely been present in South Africa.
BA.4 and BA.5 are both similar to BA.2 except with a few mutations that make them distinct. Both have additional mutations in their spike region — the part of the virus used to latch onto cells and cause illness.
U.S. FDA Delays Decision on Regeneron/Roche COVID Antibody Therapy
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has extended by three months its review of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc’s (REGN.O) application for the full approval of its COVID-19 antibody therapy, the U.S. drugmaker said on Thursday.
Before making its decision, the health agency wants to look at additional data submitted by Regeneron on using the antibody cocktail as a preventive treatment. The FDA has not asked for any extra studies to complete its review and will now decide on the drug by July 13, Regeneron said.
Regeneron’s “cocktail” of two monoclonal antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab, had received an emergency use authorization in the United States in late 2020 to treat patients who were 12 years and older with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
U.S. CDC to Shrink COVID Int’l Travel Avoidance List
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday it will revise its COVID-19 travel recommendations for international destinations and shrink the number of countries the government recommends avoiding.
About 90 countries and regions, including most of Europe, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel and Australia are currently rated by CDC as “Level 4: Very High” and the CDC recommends Americans, even if vaccinated, to avoid travel to those countries.
“This new system will reserve Level 4 travel health notices for special circumstances, such as rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts,” the CDC said in a statement, adding that it will be effective Monday.
New COVID Rapid Test Said to Be More Sensitive Than Any Other
COVID-19 rapid test that is said to be more sensitive than any other has been developed by scientists in the United Kingdom.
It detects temperature changes when the virus binds to nanoparticles molecularly impressed on a 3D printed device.
Antigen tests quickly and conveniently tell a person they are positive for COVID-19, but they fail to detect early infections with low viral loads. Corresponding author Dr. Marloes Peeters, of Newcastle University, said: “The new test is more sensitive and works under more extreme conditions than antibody-based tests.”
Poorer Nations Shun AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine — Document
Poorer nations have refused tens of millions of AstraZeneca (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccines from the global program COVAX, a document shows, the latest sign that its short shelf life is sapping demand for the shot.
COVAX is the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccine-sharing program. It has so far distributed 1.4 billion jabs to 144 countries and is co-managed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the vaccine alliance Gavi.
Countries declined to receive nearly 35 million AstraZeneca doses, opting to replace them with vaccines manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), Pfizer (PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O), the document says.
COVID Cases Down but Too Soon to Tell if UK Has Passed Peak, Say Experts
Coronavirus infections have fallen slightly in most of the UK, figures from the Office for National Statistics show, although experts analyzing the data say it is too soon to say whether infections have passed their peak.
“Across most parts of the UK infections have thankfully begun to decrease. It is too early to say if we have passed the peak of infections, and infections overall remain high,” said Sarah Crofts, the head of analytical outputs for the COVID-19 Infection Survey. “We will continue to carefully monitor the data moving forward.”
According to recent hospital data, the number of COVID patients in hospital and admissions appear to have reached a peak in the UK, with signs that both may now be falling.
WHO: COVID Cases, Deaths in Africa Drop to Lowest Levels Yet
The number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Africa have dropped to their lowest levels since the pandemic began, marking the longest decline yet seen in the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
“This low level of infection has not been seen since April 2020 in the early stages of the pandemic in Africa,” WHO said, noting that no country in the region is currently seeing an increase of COVID-19 cases.
The agency warned, however, that with winter approaching for Southern Hemisphere countries, “there is a high risk of another wave of new infections.” The coronavirus spreads more easily in cooler temperatures when people are more likely to gather in larger numbers indoors.
Pandemic Propels Global Effort to Study Rare Vaccine Side Effects + More
Pandemic Propels Global Effort to Study Rare Vaccine Side Effects
Scientists in more than 20 countries, on every continent save Antarctica, have started to gather data for the largest ever vaccine safety project. Members of the effort, called the Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN), fruitlessly sought funding after conceiving the project more than 10 years ago.
But the mass vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic breathed new life into the project. With the ability to draw on data from more than 250 million people, the network will investigate rare complications linked to COVID-19 vaccines in hopes of improving the prediction, treatment and potential prevention of these side effects.
“You really need global data in order to understand” rare vaccine side effects, says Gregory Poland, a vaccinologist at the Mayo Clinic. Poland, who’s not involved in GVDN, himself developed severe tinnitus about 90 minutes after his second vaccine dose, which he suspects is related to the shot. Studying potential vaccine complications “is a very neglected area,” he says.
U.S. Renews COVID Public Health Emergency
International Business Times reported:
The United States on Wednesday renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency, allowing millions of Americans to keep getting free tests, vaccines and treatments for at least three more months.
The public health emergency was initially declared in January 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began. It has been renewed each quarter since and was due to expire on April 16.
The public health emergency is one of four pandemic-related nationwide emergencies currently in effect, including a national emergency Biden renewed in March and a separate health emergency that allows the Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 treatments, tests and vaccines.
Bill Gates Says He Warned Us About the Pandemic in His 2015 TED Talk — but ‘90% of the Views Were After It Was Too Late’
Bill Gates gave a key note speech at the TED2022 conference on Tuesday, and referenced his 2015 talk in which he warned a pandemic was on the horizon, and we weren’t ready for it.
Today, Gates said he hoped the current COVID-19 crisis would spur his audience at TED2022 in Vancouver, Canada to pay closer attention to his advice about how to prevent another pandemic from wreaking similar havoc on society.
“When I was on this stage in 2015, I was one of many people who said we weren’t ready and we needed to get ready. We didn’t,” Gates said. “The speech actually was watched by a lot of people, but 90% of the views were after it was too late.”
In the 2015 talk, Gates said the world was “not ready for the next epidemic” and viruses pose the “greatest risk of global catastrophe” compared to other threats to humanity. A YouTube video of his 2015 presentation has garnered more than 36 million views so far.
The Public’s Business Ought to Be Public
Last November my organization, Empower Oversight, sued the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests related to the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around half a dozen other entities have also been forced to go to court to compel the NIH to make pandemic documents public.
Only after suing NIH did we receive any documents. In March, we released hundreds of emails in a report about the NIH deleting the sequences of viruses from a database they operate. These viruses are closely related to the COVID-19 virus. Experts say that analyzing them may help us understand how the pandemic began.
In the last 18 months, two news organizations have taken the NIH to court, where judges forced the agency to release public documents. In early June, Buzzfeed published emails sent and received by Dr. Fauci, who is now chief medical adviser to the president. The public has a right to understand how the government handled a pandemic that has killed so many Americans, but the agency only made the documents public after Buzzfeed sued.
Amid the Nation’s Mental Health Crisis, We Need More Psychiatrists Now
Every day, people call my office looking for help: A loved one has not left their bed in a week. A father is experiencing panic symptoms while preparing his children for school. A young woman is using substances in a way that feels dangerous to her.
Before the pandemic, I could almost always help. I would be able to find time to meet someone for a consultation or make a few calls to secure the right referral. But now, my every available hour — even those that jut into my ability to meet my obligations to my family — is full. My colleagues tell me the same. They are starting work earlier, working later, contending with long waitlists and their own limits. All the while, patients in crisis are going without psychiatric help.
In the most recent Household Pulse Survey, one-third of U.S. adults reported experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety. This comes on top of the burden experienced by the 40 million Americans living with substance use disorders and the 14 million who live with serious mental illnesses.
Omicron Subvariant Now Almost 90% of U.S. COVID Cases: CDC
Nearly 90% of new COVID-19 cases in the United States are now a more transmissible subvariant of Omicron known as BA.2, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The BA.2 variant is estimated to be about 30% more transmissible than the original Omicron variant, which already spread more easily than earlier variants. Importantly, though, there is not evidence that the BA.2 subvariant evades the vaccines to a greater extent or causes more severe disease.
WHO Says COVID Still a Global Public Health Emergency Even as Deaths Fall to Lowest Level in Two Years
The World Health Organization on Wednesday said COVID-19 remains a global public health emergency despite the fact that deaths from the virus have fallen to their lowest level since the early days of the pandemic.
The world recorded more than 22,000 deaths from COVID during the week ended April 10, the lowest level since March 30, 2020, according to WHO data. The organization first declared COVID a global health emergency on Jan. 30, 2020, just over a month after the virus emerged in Wuhan, China.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said declining COVID deaths is good news, but some countries are still experiencing a spike in cases. Tedros said a WHO committee this week unanimously agreed that COVID remains a public health emergency.
Meet This Year’s Healthcare Billionaires
There may be 87 fewer billionaires on Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s richest people this year, but healthcare leaders still managed to climb the list.
Thomas Frist Jr., MD, founder of the sprawling, publicly-traded health system Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), topped the U.S. healthcare billionaires on the list, followed by Carl Cook, CEO of the medical device manufacturer Cook Group and Li Ge, Ph.D., co-founder and chair of WuXi AppTec, the R&D and manufacturing services company.
Internationally, Frist was second to Cyrus Poonawalla, Ph.D., chair of the Poonawalla Group that includes the Serum Institute of India, the “world’s largest vaccine maker (by doses),” according to Forbes. Poonawalla ranked 56th on the overall list with a net worth of $24.3 billion.
Others in the vaccine market also did well, such as Jiang Rensheng of China, chair of Chongqing ZFSW Biological Products (net worth $17.7 billion) and twins Andreas and Thomas Struengmann, who were early backers of BioNTech that partnered with Pfizer on a COVID-19 vaccine (net worth $11.9 billion).
COVID Vaccines Didn’t Work for Many Cancer Patients — but Researchers Are Designing a New Shot for Them
Researchers at the University Hospital Tübingen are designing a vaccine to elicit a deeper T cell response than the currently approved vaccines by targeting several key points on viral proteins — epitopes — that are good at stirring up immune T cells.
The researchers, who presented Phase 1/2 clinical data at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on Tuesday, said they hoped their approach would protect immunocompromised patients from COVID, even if they still cannot make antibodies. Other experts said it was an intriguing idea, though whether it’ll actually protect against COVID has yet to be shown.
To create this vaccine, the investigators first scoured the coronavirus genome using an algorithm that would highlight any viral protein fragments or peptides that would cause a T cell to perk up, said Juliane Walz, the medical director of translational immunology at the University Hospital Tübingen and the lead author of the study.
Moderna Sets Sights on Flu Vaccine, Starts Giving Shots to Trial Participants
The Cambridge-based biotech giant that created one of the earliest and most effective COVID-19 vaccines is now looking to develop a flu shot.
Moderna on Monday announced that the first trial participants have been dosed in the Phase 1/2 study of the company’s seasonal influenza vaccine candidates. The biotech is applying its messenger RNA (mRNA) platform to the flu vax.
This Phase 1/2 randomized study will evaluate the safety and immune response of a single dose of mRNA-1020 or mRNA-1030 in healthy adults 18-plus in the U.S. The company intends to enroll about 560 participants in the study.
Coronavirus Pandemic Pushed 77 Million Into ‘Extreme Poverty’: UN
The coronavirus pandemic pushed 77 million people into extreme poverty last year, according to a new report from the United Nations (U.N.) released on Tuesday.
The 208-page report from the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs also says 1 in 5 developing countries will not see a gross domestic product return to 2019 levels within the next year.
Debt has also increased, and the poorest developing countries are paying about 14 percent of revenue on average to pay it off, compared to 3.5 percent for developed countries.
Shionogi to Not Recommend Use of Oral COVID Drug for Pregnant Women
Japanese pharmaceutical firm Shionogi & Co. is considering not recommending the use of its oral COVID-19 drug for pregnant women due to animal testing finding fetal abnormalities after it was administered, a source familiar with the matter told Kyodo News on Tuesday.
The Osaka-based drugmaker applied for approval of the drug with the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in February. But the finding may indicate a safety management system is needed to prevent pregnant women from taking the drug.
According to the source, the company found abnormalities in fetuses when pregnant rabbits were given the drug, which was higher in concentration compared with that taken by people during clinical trials.
The oral COVID-19 drug Molnupiravir developed by U.S. pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. and approved by the Japanese government last year is not to be administered to pregnant women.
Fauci Admits Defeat: COVID Here to Stay, People Need to ‘Calculate Individual Risk’ + More
Fauci Admits Defeat: Says COVID Here to Stay, People Need to ‘Calculate Individual Risk’
While President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to “shut down the virus, not the economy,” Dr. Anthony Fauci — the highest-paid employee in the U.S. government — was taking a much more cautious approach — suggesting that COVID might never go away.
And with Washington, DC, now a superspreader party town for the far-less deadly Omicron strain, Fauci has now explicitly thrown in the towel on trying to rid the world of COVID-19 — telling ABC’s “This Week” that the virus is here to stay, and people will just have to decide what level of risk they’re willing to take.
“This is not going to be eradicated and it’s not going to be eliminated,” Fauci told host Jonathan Karl. “What’s going to happen is that we’re going to see that each individual is going to have to make their calculation of the amount of risk that they want to take in going to indoor dinners and in going to functions, even within the realm of a green zone map of the country where you see everything looks green but it’s starting to tick up.”
“We’re going to have to live with some degree of virus in the community,” Fauci continued, adding that “the best way to mitigate that, Jon, is to get vaccinated.” Yes, a vaccine developed for a completely different strain that wanes in protection just six weeks after the receipt of a fourth dose, according to a recent Israeli study.
Visual Disturbances After Each COVID Shot? — Rare Sequence of Ischemic Optic Neuropathy in Both Eyes After First and Second Doses
A 53-year-old man presented to the hospital after losing vision in his left eye. He explained that he had been given his second dose of Pfizer‘s COVID vaccine (Comirnaty) 10 days previously. He said that he had experienced similar symptoms 7 days after he received his first dose of the vaccine.
Clinicians presenting this case (one of two originally published) of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy after receiving the Pfizer vaccine emphasized that the case “describes an association, not causation, between NA-AION and COVID-19 vaccination.”
However, they noted that “the timing between the vaccine and the development of the ischemic optic neuropathy,” in addition to the patient’s symptom onset “in one eye after the first dose and in the other eye after the second dose makes a potential role of the COVID-19 vaccines in the pathogenesis of this condition plausible in these two cases.”
How Can Schools Combat the COVID Slide? Bullying Prevention Is the Best Place to Start
Thus far, much of the discussion surrounding the pandemic‘s lingering impacts has centered on learning loss, which has resulted in testing declines of as much as six percentile points in reading and 12 percentile points in math in grades three through eight.
But the more important story might not be what’s down due to the pandemic but rather what’s up. Because as test scores drop, reports of mental health problems are on the rise — and you can’t address learning loss if students are overwhelmed by challenges outside the classroom.
Over the past two years, many schools have reported elevated levels of anxiety, stress and behavioral problems among students. Perhaps most troubling of all is an increase in reports of bullying as more kids take their anger and frustration out on peers and exacerbate a problem that was already reaching epidemic proportions before the pandemic. Just a few years ago, 90% of students in fourth through eighth grades had already reported being bullied or harassed. Of that overwhelming majority, 41% believed it would happen again.
Why White House COVID Czar Dr. Jha Says He’s ‘Not Overly Concerned’ About Rising BA.2 Cases
COVID-19 cases are rising again in the Northeast, due in part to the Omicron’s highly contagious BA.2 subvariant — but the White House’s new COVID czar isn’t too worried about it just yet.
On Monday, Dr. Ashish Jha acknowledged the growing number of COVID cases in parts of the country: 27 states, plus Washington DC, have experienced a jump in new cases over the past seven days, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
But, Jha said, the data doesn’t point toward another full-on COVID surge because hospitalizations are currently “the lowest they have been in the entire pandemic.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. is currently averaging just over 1,300 hospitalizations per day, which is indeed a pandemic-era low point.
Why the Latest Rise in COVID Cases Is Being Treated Differently
COVID-19 cases are showing signs of rising again, even as many Americans are eager to move on.
Washington, DC, has been hit with a string of high-profile cases in Congress and the administration, and cases in the city overall are on the rise. New York and other areas in the Northeast are also seeing increases, with Philadelphia announcing on Monday that it will reintroduce a requirement that people wear masks in indoor public places.
But there are important ways that any coming spike in COVID-19 cases, fueled by a subvariant of Omicron known as BA.2, is likely to be less damaging than previous surges, experts say. And that may lead the nation to treat a new rise in cases differently.
Axios-Ipsos Poll: Most Americans Say COVID Is No Longer a Crisis
Less than one in 10 Americans now describe COVID-19 as a crisis — with about three in four calling it a manageable problem and one in six saying it’s no problem at all — according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
These sentiments — and the public’s growing desire to be done with mask mandates and other restrictions — raise significant challenges for public health officials in managing new surges, and could create real political headwinds ahead of the midterms.
The latest wave of our national survey actually found a slight uptick in people’s perceptions of the risks of certain activities, including flying, attending sports events and returning to work. Yet it shows the highest share of Americans visiting friends and family members outside the home — and the lowest rate of social distancing — since the early part of last summer.
New Omicron XE COVID Variant First Detected in the UK Spreads to Japan as Cases Rise
Japan has reported its first case of Omicron XE — a new COVID-19 strain first detected in the U.K. — just as British cases of the subvariant rise.
The XE variant was found in a woman in her 30s who arrived at Narita International Airport from the U.S. on March 26. The woman, whose nationality was not immediately disclosed, was asymptomatic, Japan’s health ministry said Monday.
It comes as cases of the new strain have almost doubled in Britain, according to the latest statistics from the U.K. Health Security Agency.
XE has since been detected in Thailand, India and Israel. It is suspected that the latter Israeli cases may have developed independently. The U.S. has not yet reported any XE cases.
COVID Hospitalizations, Cases Continue to Rise in Most Provinces Amid 6th Wave
COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases are on the rise once again across Canada, according to public health data, as the reality of a sixth wave of the pandemic begin to take shape.
Although every province except Ontario and Quebec has moved from reporting COVID-19 data daily to now posting weekly updates, a majority of jurisdictions in Canada is seeing a rise compared to last month.
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam and her provincial counterparts have said an even more transmissible subvariant of Omicron, dubbed BA.2, is behind the current wave.
RedHill Pill Shows Promise Vs Omicron; mRNA Vaccines Appear Effective in Those With Well-Controlled HIV
An experimental drug being developed by RedHill Biopharma Ltd (RDHy.F) that improved outcomes in a randomized trial involving severely ill COVID-19 patients infected with earlier versions of the coronavirus is showing promise against the Omicron variant in test-tube experiments, researchers said.
The oral drug, opaganib, has dual anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects. When opaganib was added to treatment with Gilead Sciences’ (GILD.O) remdesivir and corticosteroids in hospitalized patients infected before Omicron was predominant, it improved the average time until patients no longer had detectable virus in their blood by four days, sped up recovery by 34%, and reduced mortality by 70%, compared to a placebo, according to data released previously by the company but not yet formally published.
Opaganib’s antiviral/anti-inflammatory mechanism “is expected to act independently of viral spike protein mutations and remain effective against Omicron subvariants BA.2, XE and other emerging and future variants,” the company said.
People living with well-controlled HIV infections are likely to have immune responses to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna (MRNA.O) and from Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) similar to those of otherwise healthy individuals, according to new data.
Pfizer Bids $100 Million for Brisbane App That Listens for COVID
ResApp, a Brisbane-based company that promises to diagnose COVID-19 through an app that listens to the sound of a cough, has agreed to a $100 million takeover by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
The ASX-listed company made headlines last month when it announced that it had developed an app that can screen for COVID-19 through a smartphone app.
The company claimed the app’s algorithm “exceeds the real-word measured sensitivity of rapid antigen tests”. ResApp said in the announcement that it was preparing to gain regulatory approval for the product.
The algorithm correctly detected COVID-19 in 92% of infected people in a pilot clinical trial of 741 patients in India and the U.S., ResApp said.
Germany Agrees to Deal With CureVac, GSK for mRNA Vaccines Until 2029
Germany has signed a contract with CureVac (5CV.DE) and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) for domestically produced mRNA vaccines to bolster supplies in case of public health emergencies, the German biotech firm said on Monday.
The five-year contract allows for the production of up to 80 million doses at short notice until 2029, CureVac said, adding that those doses could be for the remainder of the current pandemic or future outbreaks.
Suspended B.C. Doctor on Speaking Tour Warns Parents About Vaccinating Their Kids + More
COVID: Suspended B.C. Doctor on Speaking Tour Warns Parents About Vaccinating Their Kids
A doctor suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons for allegedly disseminating false narratives about COVID-19 is on a speaking tour of the B.C. Kootenays to warn parents about the risks of vaccinating kids.
Dr. Stephen Malthouse, a family practitioner on Denman Island, has joined a pair of other dissenting doctors in recent speaking engagements in Nelson, Castlegar and Trail to present data they say indicates the risk to children from COVID-19 is “statistically zero” and that vaccines are the bigger risk for that age group.
Malthouse and Drs. Sophia Bayfield and Kevin Sclater spoke over the weekend to what they said were full houses. Their “key message is that the risk to children under the age of 19 for the COVID-19 virus itself is statistically zero. Yet the dangers of the COVID-19 shot for the same age group are significant, including myocarditis, stroke, arrhythmias of the heart and even death.”
COVID-Cautious Freak out at CNN Medical Analyst for Urging Large Events to ‘Still Go on’
CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen said Thursday in a Washington Post column and corresponding Twitter thread that “our new normal” regarding COVID-19 should involve allowing individuals to assess their “own risks” and no longer canceling potential “superspreader” events.
Prominent Twitter users, including doctors and liberal journalists, accused Wen of “dangerous,” “repulsive” messaging that is “killing” people in response.
The controversy started with her article commenting on the recent Washington, DC, Gridiron Club dinner which led to an outbreak of COVID among D.C. politicians. Rather than admonish people who would dare attend large events like these during a pandemic, Wen, formerly the head of Planned Parenthood, explained that we’ve come to a “new normal” in which people should “be thoughtful about their own risks” and be allowed to make their own decisions.
She concluded her Twitter posts, stating, “accepting that #COVID19 infections will be part of our lives doesn’t mean that we are giving up. Rather, it means acknowledging that we finally have the tools to live with it, and that people will make different choices from our own.”
72 People at High-Profile DC Dinner Test Positive for COVID
Seventy-two people have tested positive for COVID-19 after having attended the Gridiron Dinner in Washington last weekend, including members of the Biden administration and reporters.
Gridiron Club President Tom DeFrank said Sunday that the group had reported 72 cases out of the hundreds of people who attended. New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was also at the dinner, tested positive Sunday. It was the first Gridiron Dinner since 2019, before the pandemic, and guests were required to show proof of vaccination, DeFrank said.
‘Get Used to It’: Outbreaks Give Taste of Living With Virus
The U.S. is getting a first glimpse of what it’s like to experience COVID-19 outbreaks during this new phase of living with the virus, and the roster of the newly infected is studded with stars.
Cabinet members, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Broadway actors and the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut have all tested positive. Outbreaks at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University are bringing back mask requirements to those campuses as officials seek out quarantine space.
Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, expects the high level of U.S. immunity built up from previous infections and vaccinations will protect the nation from a large surge. “We’re going to have some infections here and there, but it’s not going to shut down the country,” Mokdad said. “Life has to go on. We have to be vaccinated and boosted. We need to protect the vulnerable, but we have to get used to it.”
Ivermectin as Treatment for COVID May Become More Accessible in Tennessee
Tennessee may make ivermectin accessible without a prescription for treatment against COVID-19 if legislation that was approved in the Senate on April 6 is signed by Gov. Bill Lee.
“The bill would put it behind the counter with a consultation, which means you would explain your symptoms to the pharmacist, fill out a sheet listing your preexisting conditions and what other medication you’re on in order for the pharmacist to determine the right dosage,” Niceley said.
“Ivermectin is one of the many therapeutic options, like vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and anti-virals, that have proven to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19,” Republican state Sen. Rusty Crowe, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement.
“Ivermectin clearly works,” state Sen. Frank Niceley said. “We’ve had doctors in the Senate who prescribe it all the time. You’ve got to take it early. As with any disease, early treatment is better than late,” he said, adding that he took ivermectin when he tested positive for COVID-19.
The Next Leap in Coronavirus Vaccine Development Could Be a Nasal Spray
As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus moved lightning-fast around the world, it revealed an unsettling truth. The virus had gained a stunning ability to infect people, jumping from one person’s nose to the next. Cases soared this winter, even among vaccinated people.
That is leading scientists to rethink their strategy about the best way to fight future variants, by aiming for a higher level of protection: blocking infections altogether. If they succeed, the next vaccine could be a nasal spray.
A switch in the vaccine delivery route from a shot to a sniff could muster a wall of immunity right where viruses find their foothold and block the spread of the virus, preventing even mild infections.
WHO Says It Is Analyzing Two New Omicron COVID Sub-Variants
The World Health Organization said on Monday it is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible Omicron strain of the coronavirus to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous.
It has added BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 Omicron variant, to its list for monitoring. It is already tracking BA.1 and BA.2 — now globally dominant — as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.
The WHO said it had begun tracking them because of their “additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential.”
With COVID Mission Over, Pentagon Plans for Next Pandemic
One of the key lessons learned was the value of small military teams over mass movements of personnel and facilities in a crisis like the one wrought by COVID-19.
In the early days of the pandemic, the Pentagon steamed hospital ships to New York City and Los Angeles, and set up massive hospital facilities in convention centers and parking lots, in response to pleas from state government leaders. The idea was to use them to treat non-COVID-19 patients, allowing hospitals to focus on the more acute pandemic cases.
But while images of the military ships were powerful, too often many beds went unused. Fewer patients needed non-coronavirus care than expected, and hospitals were still overwhelmed by the pandemic. A more agile approach emerged: having military medical personnel step in for exhausted hospital staff members or work alongside them in additional treatment areas in unused spaces.
Your Next COVID Vaccine Will Be Different
After deploying four COVID-19 shots in a little more than two years, the nation is absorbing a troubling realization: That’s a pace that’s impossible to sustain.
This past week, experts began charting a path to a future that is less perfect – but more practical. It means building a vaccine that targets more than one strain of the virus. It would reduce severe disease and death, but not prevent every infection. If the design is changed, all vaccines will be updated. Manufacturers will likely offer the same vaccine formulation to everyone, rather than a mélange of different products for different people on different schedules.
And the goal is to have it ready by next fall when the risk of illness is likely to soar. That’s a very tight deadline.
“If we settle down to one shot per year that combines COVID and flu, I think that will be sustainable,” said UC San Francisco infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. “Nobody will want to get a vaccine every six months,” he said. “So we have to change the strategy.”
