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FDA Authorizes Fourth Pfizer and Moderna COVID Vaccine Doses for 50 and Older + More
FDA Authorizes Fourth Pfizer and Moderna COVID Vaccine Doses for People Age 50 and Older
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized fourth Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccine doses for everyone age 50 and older, amid uncertainty over whether an even more contagious version of Omicron will cause another wave of infection in the U.S. as it has in Europe and China.
The FDA also said it authorized a second Pfizer booster shot for people age 12 and older who have compromised immune systems, and a second Moderna booster for adults ages 18 and older with compromised immune systems. The new boosters are administered at least fourth months after the last shot.
The FDA made the decision without a meeting of its vaccine advisory committee, a rare move the agency has made more frequently over the course of the pandemic to expand the uses of already-approved COVID vaccines.
Dr. Paul Offit, a committee member, criticized the drug regulator for moving forward without holding an open meeting where the American public can hear experts weigh the data and make a recommendation to the FDA about the best path forward. “It’s just sort of fait accompli,” Offit said of the FDA authorization. “So is this the way it works? We talk endlessly about how we follow the science — it doesn’t seem to work out that way.”
WHO Examining Potential Hearing Problems Linked to COVID Vaccines
The World Health Organization is examining rare reports of hearing loss and other auditory issues following COVID-19 vaccinations.
People who reported tinnitus ranged in ages from 19 to 91, and nearly three-quarters were women. The reports came from 27 countries, including Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. More than a third were reported among those working in the healthcare industry.
There is no known cause for tinnitus, and so far, there is no proof that the vaccines may cause any hearing problems, according to the WHO, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and companies that manufacture the vaccines.
A spokesperson from Pfizer later told NBC News that the company found “no causal association” between its COVID vaccine and reports of tinnitus.
Cruise Ship in San Francisco Docks With Multiple Passengers Testing Positive for COVID
A cruise ship that went to the Panama Canal returned to San Francisco on Sunday morning with multiple passengers who tested positive for COVID-19. The Ruby Princess returned to San Francisco from a 15-day trip to the Panama Canal, according to FOX San Francisco.
Vaccination rates between the crew and guests were at 100%, and a cruise spokesperson said that all COVID-19 cases from passengers were mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, according to the report.
Passengers who contracted COVID-19 and have not completed the quarantine period will get home through private transportation or are being provided with hotel rooms.
Majority of U.S. Population Has COVID Antibodies, CDC Says — Here’s What That Means for You
According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of blood donor samples, conducted in December and updated last month, an estimated 95% of Americans ages 16 and older have developed identifiable COVID antibodies. Those come from both vaccinations — roughly 77% of the U.S. population has received at least one COVID vaccine dose, according to the CDC — and prior COVID infections.
Antibodies from vaccinated individuals tend to decline after about four to six months post-shot, says Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. So if you got a booster dose in December, your antibody boost will probably wear off between April and June.
The data around so-called “natural immunity” is much more of a mixed bag.
According to an October 2021 study by the Yale School of Public Health, published in The Lancet Microbe, unvaccinated people could have immunity against reinfection for anywhere from three to 61 months after getting COVID.
How Do You Stop Fake News About COVID? Not by Silencing Scientists Who Ask Difficult Questions
Carl Heneghan is an epidemiologist first and foremost, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford, probably many other things — good citizen, well-liked family member — and then, way down the list, a person on Twitter.
In other words, he doesn’t create social media storms for fun, nor does he have any track record of contrarianism. So how does such a person get banned, as Heneghan was briefly last week, from a social media platform that, famously, has trouble keeping abreast of racial slurs and death threats?
Heneghan published a study that suggested the number of people who had died from COVID may have been exaggerated. His final conclusion was that we still had no idea how many people have died because UK health statistics agencies use inconsistent definitions. This was enough to mark him out, albeit briefly, as a COVID denier, which in turn put him in the same camp as anti-vaxxers.
World Moves From Shortages to Possible Glut of COVID Vaccines
After racing to build capacity and meet once seemingly insatiable orders for COVID-19 shots, the global vaccine industry is facing waning demand as many late-to-market producers fight over a slowing market.
The trend is poised to rein in the blockbuster sales that global pharmaceutical giants from Pfizer Inc. to AstraZeneca Plc saw at the peak of the pandemic. It also stands to create new problems for local manufacturers from India to Indonesia that built mammoth capacity to make shots but is now grappling with excess supply.
Even as boosters are likely to keep demand alive for COVID inoculations worldwide, the desperate shortages that existed for much of last year have waned. Instead, in a dramatic reversal, the possibility of a global glut is now looking more likely.
COVID Deaths at Lowest Point Since Last Summer
The lowest daily average total of deaths from COVID-19 has been recorded since before the Omicron variant swept the U.S. in the fall of 2021.
Fewer than 800 deaths per day due to the coronavirus are being reported on average, which is the lowest number since the middle of last August, The New York Times reports.
The new BA.2 Omicron subvariant, which is to blame for rising cases in Europe, currently accounts for 35 percent of infections in the United States, according to the Times. The newspaper notes that COVID-19 cases have started to rise once again in Kentucky, New York, Colorado and Texas during the past two weeks.
More Contagious Omicron BA.2 Subvariant Now Dominant in the U.S., CDC Says
The more contagious Omicron subvariant, BA.2, is now the dominant version of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.
The subvariant accounts for nearly 55% of COVID infection samples that have undergone genetic sequencing. Even so, the spread of a more contagious strain does not guarantee the U.S. will endure a new wave of cases.
The BA.2 subvariant spreads about 75% faster than the earlier version of Omicron, BA.1, according to the latest update from the U.K. Health Security Agency. BA.2 has caused a spike in infections in the U.K. and Germany in recent weeks, though cases have started to decline again there.
White House Turns to Air Quality in Latest Effort to Thwart Coronavirus
The White House is pivoting to emphasize that poorly ventilated indoor air poses the biggest risk for coronavirus infections, urging schools, businesses and homeowners to take steps to boost air quality — a move scientists say is long overdue and will help stave off future outbreaks.
“Let’s Clear the Air on COVID,” a virtual event hosted Tuesday by the White House science office, comes after President Biden’s coronavirus response team and other leaders have elevated warnings that airborne transmission is the primary conduit of coronavirus infections, a reversal of earlier federal guidance.
As state and local leaders roll back vaccination and mask mandates, experts say improving indoor air quality is increasingly essential as a tool to contain coronavirus risks.
Pfizer Tells Portage Workers to Refund Company After Hack Causes Some to Be Overpaid
Pfizer employees say they’re frustrated and angry over a payroll mistake that could force them to give back money some have already spent.
One employee provided News Channel 3 with a letter and documents received last week that showed Pfizer telling the employee they owed more than $800 in overpayment. Another employee said the issue is affecting hourly workers all across the company.
Pfizer said the overpayments happened following a ransomware attack on Ultimate Kronos Group in December 2021. Pfizer uses Kronos to track the hours that employees work and pay them. According to Pfizer’s letter, affected workers can choose to repay the money over one, three, or six months.
Pfizer, which produced one of the three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S., reported more than $80 billion in revenues for 2021 and 92% operational growth. It was also the first COVID-19 vaccine to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Biden Administration to Offer COVID Vaccines to Migrants
The Biden administration will offer COVID-19 vaccines to migrants taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two sources familiar with the planning, and confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, as officials prepare for an influx of migrants.
The plan, which had earlier been a source of tension at the White House, could extend to thousands of migrants encountered at the U.S. southern border.
The Department of Homeland Security will be able to initially provide up to 2,700 vaccines per day, it said in a notice to Congress obtained by CNN, increasing to 6,000 daily by the end of May.
Explainer: Why Are Shanghai’s COVID Infections Nearly All Asymptomatic?
Epidemiologists examining the biggest Chinese outbreak of COVID-19 in two years are trying to ascertain why the proportion of asymptomatic cases is so high, and what it could mean for China’s future containment strategy.
The number of new confirmed community transmitted cases in the major financial hub of Shanghai reached 4,477 on Tuesday, a record high, but only 2.1% showed symptoms. The share of symptomatic cases over the previous seven days was around 1.6%.
China is the only major country to do mass, untargeted surveillance testing, which is bound to uncover more asymptomatic cases, although it could also be expected to reveal more symptomatic cases.
UK Study to Test Pfizer’s COVID Pill in Hospitalized Patients
Pfizer‘s (PFE.N) oral COVID-19 therapy will be evaluated as a potential treatment for patients hospitalized with the illness in a major British trial, scientists said on Monday, as cases rise in some parts of the world.
The world’s largest randomized study of potential medicines for COVID-19, dubbed the RECOVERY trial, will assess Paxlovid across hospitals in Britain, which has already approved the drug for early-stage treatment.
The scientists said they aim to mainly find whether Pfizer’s Paxlovid reduces the risk of death among patients admitted to hospitals with COVID-19.
Biden Proposes $81.7 Billion in Spending to Prepare for Future Pandemics + More
Biden Proposes $81.7 Billion in Spending to Prepare for Future Pandemics
President Biden’s budget proposal released Monday calls for $81.7 billion over five years to prepare for future pandemics, in what would be a major investment in boosting the country’s readiness for future threats.
However, the president’s budget is only a proposal, and any new funding for pandemic preparedness would require congressional approval.
The president’s budget calls for $40 billion for the development and manufacturing of vaccines, treatments and tests aimed at future threats. Another $28 billion would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance, lab capacity and the public health workforce.
The National Institutes of Health would get $12.1 billion for research on vaccines and other measures, while the Food and Drug Administration would get $1.6 billion for its labs and information technology.
‘They Didn’t Die From COVID, but Because of COVID’: The Inseparable Couple Torn Apart by the Pandemic
Both of Alexa Every’s parents died in institutions during the pandemic — Kathleen on Mother’s Day 2020 after a short and distressing stint in an aged care facility, and John in hospital a year later, on Christmas Eve.
Her family wasn’t alone in this unnatural grieving process. Thousands went through what Every calls “COVID-adjacent deaths” — the experience of losing a loved one not from COVID, but wrapped up in the pandemic and its associated pains.
“They didn’t die directly from COVID, but I believe they both died because of COVID,” Every says.
Coping With Vaccine Side Effects
The vaccines promoted to protect against COVID-19 are described as safe. So why are there so many reports of adverse reactions? And just how much harm do these shots cause?
Compared to past VAERS reports, the numbers for the COVID-19 shot are off the charts, totaling more adverse events than all other vaccines combined. Last month, VAERS reported a total of more than 1 million adverse events following COVID injections from Dec. 14, 2020, to Jan. 28, 2022. Over 183,000 serious injuries were reported, and among them over 24,000 deaths.
Other eyes are watching for adverse events, however. Numerous videos shared and often banned on social media illustrate the tics, seizures and other debilitating effects that purportedly followed COVID-19 shots. Both the FDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are quietly studying reports of neurological issues linked to the vaccine. And hundreds of clinical studies also document the injuries and deaths correlated with these injections.
Omicron Deaths of Johnson & Johnson Recipients Were Double the Rate of Other Vaccinated Americans, New Data Show
For close to 17 million Americans vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson‘s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, new data from the Omicron variant wave is renewing questions over its effectiveness as federal officials weigh a new round of booster shots.
While offering less protection than the peaks reached by the widely-used mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna or Pfizer and BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson has long pointed to studies suggesting its vaccine offers more “durable” protection than its competitors.
Multiple outlets also pointed to data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from more than two dozen state health departments, which tallied lower rates of COVID-19 breakthrough cases for recipients of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine compared to the mRNA shots through January.
But recently published figures from the same CDC database now suggest that COVID-19 deaths among Johnson & Johnson recipients may have peaked at more than double the rate of other vaccinated Americans during the Omicron variant wave.
Officials Expected to Offer 2nd Booster Shot for Those Over 50 Years Old
As soon as Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could authorize COVID-19 booster shots for Americans over 50 years old, two officials familiar with the matter told ABC News, though the fourth shots are likely to be only offered and not formally recommended.
The officials stressed that the details are still under discussion and could change in the next few days.
After FDA’s expected authorization early this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will give guidance on how to implement it in pharmacies and doctors’ offices around the country, as the process has gone throughout the pandemic.
FDA’s panel of experts will convene on April 6 to discuss the broader population and what population will need booster shots next, as well as the need for a variant-specific booster.
Three-Quarters of Parents Worried About Impact COVID Has Had on Their Child’s Early Development
Three-quarters of parents are worried about the impact COVID has had on their child’s early development, leaving a third fearing their children have been held back.
A poll of 1,000 parents who have had a baby in the last five years found 26 percent are concerned about their little one’s speech as a result of the pandemic. Another 35 percent are worried about how their child’s emotional intelligence may have been impacted.
It also emerged 7 in 10 don’t completely understand what should be expected of their youngster at their age, as they’ve had less interaction with other parents and families themselves.
Fauci Says BA.2 Will Likely Be ‘Dominant, More Transmissible’ COVID Variant
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday that Omicron‘s subvariant BA.2 will likely be the “dominant” COVID variant, adding that it is more transmissible.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Wednesday that the BA.2 subvariant, also called the “stealth Omicron,” is leading the spread of the coronavirus variant worldwide. The subvariant now makes the majority of cases sequenced by experts.
When Fauci was asked, “should we worry about it?” he responded that BA.2 is already highly recognizable and that its characteristics need to be further examined to make that determination. But, he confirmed that BA.2 “does not appear to be any more serious when it comes to complications like the need for hospitalization.”
Three New Signs BA.2 Might Not Hit America as Hard as Europe
Is BA.2 about to surge in America the way it’s surging in Europe? There are already some clues that it might not — and the coming days could provide even more reason for cautious optimism.
Across the pond, the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron — which is at least 30% more transmissible than its sister lineage — has sent COVID-19 case counts soaring again at the very moment when most Western European countries seemed to be putting their massive winter waves behind them.
For Americans, the fear is that we’re next — that BA.2, which now accounts for 35% of infections nationwide, will inevitably do to us what it is doing to our European counterparts.
But a big U.S. BA.2 surge isn’t as inevitable as it seems. Here are three emerging signs of hope:
Study: Aspirin Early on Could Be Effective for COVID Patients
A single baby aspirin could be all the difference for someone hospitalized with COVID-19. Scientists from George Washington University looked at medical data of more than 110,000 U.S. patients from 64 hospitals.
Those with moderate symptoms, meaning not in the ICU or on a ventilator, who took aspirin in the first 24 hours, showed a lower risk of dying.
“This study is so exciting because this is really a medication that is available to everyone throughout the world,” said Dr. Jonathan Chow who led the study.
Officials Limit an Antibody Therapy, Saying It’s Ineffective Against BA.2 Variant of Omicron
U.S. health officials on Friday stopped the further deployment of the COVID-19 treatment sotrovimab to places where the BA.2 coronavirus variant is now causing the majority of infections, given laboratory studies showing the treatment likely doesn’t work against the variant.
States in New England, as well as New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, will no longer receive shipments of the monoclonal antibody therapy made by Vir Biotechnology and GSK, officials said.
This is not the first time that the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has undercut the power of certain antibody therapies, which have generally been designed to target the virus’ spike protein. When the Omicron family of viruses took off late last year, the government halted shipments of antibody therapies made by Lilly and Regeneron when it became clear that they would no longer work against the strains that were circulating.
Long COVID Symptoms May Depend on the Variant a Person Contracted
Different variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, may give rise to different long COVID symptoms, according to a study that will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2022) in Lisbon next month.
Italian researchers suggested that individuals who were infected with the Alpha variant of the virus displayed different emotional and neurological symptoms compared to those who were infected with the original form of SARS-CoV-2, an early release from the ECCMID regarding the study.
How COVID Brain Fog May Overlap With ‘Chemo Brain’ and Alzheimer’s
People with “chemo brain” and COVID brain fog could not seem more different: Those with “chemo brain” have a life-threatening disease for which they’ve taken toxic drugs or radiation. Many of those with COVID brain fog, in contrast, describe themselves as previously healthy people who have had a relatively mild infection that felt like a cold.
So when Stanford University neuroscientist Michelle Monje began studies on long COVID, she was fascinated to find similar changes among patients in both groups, in specialized brain cells that serve as the organ’s surveillance and defense system.
Monje’s project is part of a crucial and growing body of research that suggests similarities in the mechanisms of post-COVID cognitive changes and other long-studied brain conditions, including “chemo brain,” Alzheimer’s and other post-viral syndromes following infections with influenza, Epstein-Barr, HIV or Ebola.
Early Puberty Cases in Girls Have Surged During COVID, Doctors Say
Before the pandemic, Vaishakhi Rustagi, a Delhi-based pediatric endocrinologist, found that cases of early puberty were pretty uncommon, but not unheard of: In a typical year, she would see about 20 such patients.
Then the pandemic hit, and the cases started to pile up. Since June 2020, Rustagi has seen more than 300 girls experiencing early puberty, she said.
The phenomenon of increased cases during the pandemic hasn’t been restricted to India — pediatricians across the world, from Italy to Turkey to the United States — have reported increases in precocious puberty cases. Parents have, too.
For doctors to see such a spike — hundreds of patients in Rustagi’s case — is highly unusual, and a leading indicator of other mental and physical health problems.
HHS Sued for COVID Vaccine Side Effects Info: ‘Unlawful Stonewall’ + More
HHS Sued by Watchdog for Info on COVID Vaccine Side Effects: ‘Unlawful Stonewall’
Legal watchdog Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Thursday against the Department of Health and Human Services after the department did not provide requested information and communications about COVID-19 vaccine side effects.
The lawsuit comes after the Food and Drug Administration was unresponsive to Judicial Watch’s Aug. 30, 2021 FOIA request that asked for all emails “sent to and from members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee regarding adverse events, deaths and/or injuries caused by investigatory vaccines for the prevention or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and/or COVID-19 currently produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and/or Johnson & Johnson.”
The FDA never got back to the group with the requested records by the Oct. 18, 2021 deadline, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday.
The government accountability group said that, through their lawsuit, is aiming to “promote transparency, integrity, and accountability in government and fidelity to the rule of law” and provide more information to the American people on any other possible side effects of the vaccine.
Moderna Chief: Getting Children Under Five COVID Vaccines One of ‘Highest Priorities’
Moderna‘s chief medical officer is hopeful that parents will be able to vaccinate their children under six against COVID-19 at the latest by this summer.
“It’s really one of our highest priorities,” Paul Burton, chief medical officer, said, “We’re working around the clock and our teams are on it all the time.”
His comments came just one day after Moderna announced on Wednesday that it would seek emergency authorization of its coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 6, after preliminary data showed kids in that age group had a similar immune response to adolescents and young adults when given a smaller dose of the vaccine.
However, Moderna said the vaccine was only about 44 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection in children 6 months to 2 years old, and 37 percent effective in children aged 2 through 5.
Cornell University Reports Indications of ‘Substantial Prevalence’ of COVID on Campus
As new case totals begin to tick up in the state of New York, the campus is once again reporting a viral resurgence. This week, Cornell University elevated its COVID-19 alert system to “yellow,” indicating that transmission is rising, and prevalence of the virus is above predicted levels.
Between March 17 and March 23, Cornell recorded 515 positive COVID-19 infections among students, staff and faculty, according to data from the university.
Data shows 97% of the student population is vaccinated, while 92% of those eligible are boosted.
‘Forgotten’ Parents of Kids Under 5 Push FDA to Clear Moderna Shot
On Wednesday, Moderna said that two shots — each a quarter of the adult dose — produced a strong immune response in children under 6, according to preliminary results of a study of 6,700 young children. But efficacy in preventing symptomatic infection was underwhelming, ranging from 44% for the youngest kids down to 38% for those aged 2 to 5 years. Moderna shares closed down over 4% Wednesday.
In its statement, Moderna said that the trial data identified no new side effect concerns or other red flags. Fever occurred in fewer than 1 in 5 of the younger kids. The data hasn’t been published in a scientific journal or reviewed by outside experts, and Moderna didn’t release detailed efficacy or side effect results.
There were no severe COVID cases in Moderna’s trial, which means there is no information on the most important outcome: Whether the shot prevents hospitalization and death in the youngest cohort.
Moderna’s efficacy numbers are hardly spectacular, but Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a White House briefing Wednesday that 44% was not such bad news.
Drugmakers, Scientists Begin the Hunt for Long COVID Treatments
After producing vaccines and treatments for acute COVID-19 in record time, researchers and drugmakers are turning to finding a cure for long COVID, a more elusive target marked by hundreds of different symptoms afflicting millions of people.
Leading drugmakers, including those who have launched antiviral pills and monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19, are having early discussions with researchers about how to target the disease, five scientists in the United States and UK told Reuters.
Companies including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), Vir Biotechnology (VIR.O) and Humanigen (HGEN.O) confirmed they had spoken to researchers on trials using their current treatments against long COVID. Others including Pfizer (PFE.N) and Roche (ROG.S) said they are interested but would not elaborate on plans.
Novavax Announces Participation in Two Booster Studies Using Its COVID Vaccine
Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced that NVX-CoV2373, its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, is included in two trials now underway to evaluate its vaccine‘s safety, immunogenicity, and reactogenicity as a booster amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Both studies have initiated participant enrollment and will help to extend knowledge of how a range of vaccines, including Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine, can be used as boosters following primary immunization.
CDC Updates COVID Guidance to Allow Patients to Wear N95s
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday updated its guidance so that people visiting healthcare facilities are allowed to wear highly protective masks such as N95s.
The change comes after a POLITICO report last week found that hospitals around the country routinely ask patients and visitors to wear a surgical mask instead of their own N95.
The nation’s public health agency now says on its website that people should “use the most protective form” of masks. While facilities can continue to offer patients surgical masks, facilities “should allow the use of a clean mask or respirator with higher-level protection by people who chose that option based on their individual preference.”
Experts Worry About How U.S. Will See Next COVID Surge Coming
As coronavirus infections rise in some parts of the world, experts are watching for a potential new COVID-19 surge in the U.S. — and wondering how long it will take to detect.
Despite disease monitoring improvements over the last two years, they say, some recent developments don’t bode well:
As more people take rapid COVID-19 tests at home, fewer people are getting the gold-standard tests that the government relies on for case counts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon use fewer labs to look for new variants. Health officials are increasingly focusing on hospital admissions, which rise only after a surge has arrived. A wastewater surveillance program remains a patchwork that cannot yet be counted on for the data needed to understand coming surges.
How We Got Herd Immunity Wrong
Herd immunity was always our greatest asset for protecting vulnerable people, but public health failed to use it wisely. In March 2020, not long after COVID-19 was declared a global public health emergency, prominent experts predicted that the pandemic would eventually end via herd immunity.
Infectious disease epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who advised President Biden, opined in the Washington Post that even without a vaccine, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, would eventually “burn itself out as the spread of infection comes to confer a form of herd immunity.”
The best strategy, he reasoned, was to “gradually build up immunity” by letting “those at low risk for serious disease continue to work” while higher-risk people sheltered and scientists developed treatments and, hopefully, vaccines.
Early Research Suggests Your Risk of Getting COVID in the Next Wave Is Lower if You Already Had Omicron. Here’s Everything We Know About BA.2 Reinfections.
At this point, a whole lot of people have already experienced Omicron. Now BA.2, an extra contagious sub-variant of Omicron, is swiftly traveling the globe.
BA.2 has already taken over in both Europe and the northeastern U.S., exerting dominance over other versions of the Omicron variant (including BA.1, BA.1.1 and B.1.1.529).
Because COVID-19 infections are on an uptick right now, many who’ve been infected in recent months are wondering: could I get Omicron again? The short answer is: probably not. Here’s what we know so far:
Political Stalemate Could Push COVID Vaccines Onto the Private Markets
A Washington, DC, stalemate could push COVID-19 vaccines into the commercial markets in the U.S. earlier than expected, limiting access for the uninsured and throwing Moderna into private market competition for the first time in its history.
White House officials have issued increasingly dire warnings in recent days that the U.S. hasn’t bought enough vaccine doses for another booster round, and that Congress must authorize more spending in order to supply additional doses.
Up until this point, all COVID-19 vaccines distributed in the U.S. have been bought and paid for by the federal government. If the FDA does authorize a fourth dose, and if Congress chooses not to pay, the vaccines could move to the private market, where they would be bought and paid for like any other pharmaceutical.
“We were always planning that this will happen one day,” said Moderna’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel. “And so, the commercial team that we have been hiring over the last two years… is actually working assuming there is a scenario where there is no funding with the U.S. government.”
Many in Malaysia to Lose Fully Vaccinated Status if They Don’t Get COVID Booster
Some two million recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine by Sinovac are set to lose their fully vaccinated status if they do not receive their boosters by April 1, said Malaysia’s Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
“Based on the latest data, about 2.09 million recipients of the Sinovac vaccine for their primary series have yet to get their booster shots,” he told a press conference in Parliament on Thursday (March 24). “They will stand to lose their fully vaccinated status when the deadline ends.”
Mr. Khairy also said that those who had yet to get their Sinovac booster would be deemed “not fully vaccinated” by Singapore.
Australia to Roll out Fourth COVID Vaccine Shot Ahead of Winter
Australia will roll out a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines to its most vulnerable population starting next month, authorities said on Friday, as the country looks to limit fresh outbreaks ahead of winter.
A second booster shot will be offered from April 4 to people who had their previous booster shot at least four months ago and are over 65 years, Indigenous Australians over 50, people with disability or severely immunocompromised, Health Minister Greg Hunt said during a media briefing.
Why Don’t Kids Get COVID Badly? Scientists Are Unraveling One of the Pandemic’s Biggest Mysteries + More
Why Don’t Kids Get COVID Badly? Scientists Are Unraveling One of the Pandemic’s Biggest Mysteries
Scientists are still somewhat baffled as to why children are not badly affected by COVID, although studies are slowly shedding light on how, and why, children’s responses to COVID differ from those among adults.
“A number of theories have been suggested, including a more effective innate immune response, less risk of immune over-reaction as occurs in severe COVID, fewer underlying co-morbidities and possibly fewer ACE-2 receptors in the upper respiratory epithelium — the receptor to which SARS-CoV-2 [COVID] binds,” Dr. Andrew Freedman, an academic in infectious diseases at the U.K.’s Cardiff University Medical School, told CNBC in emailed comments, adding that nonetheless the phenomenon was not “fully understood.”
He noted more research will be required before we have a definitive answer but a body of evidence has already emerged showing that COVID poses a much smaller risk to kids, and why that might be.
Africa’s COVID Immunity Is a Medical Mystery as Mortality Rates Fall Below Early Pandemic Projections
Despite pessimistic projections that the coronavirus would cripple the African continent, it seems that wealthier and more well-equipped countries have higher death tolls and that the effect of COVID in Africa was comparatively minimal.
In Sierra Leone only 125 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported according to Reuters. And in Kamakwie, Sierra Leone in particular, the district’s COVID response center has registered a mere 11 cases since the beginning of the pandemic and no deaths, as reported by The New York Times.
And it’s not just Sierra Leone that has a low death toll. Ghana has reported 1,445 deaths since the pandemic started, according to Reuters. Some countries in Africa are reporting coronavirus-related deaths that don’t even reach the four-figure mark, like Tanzania which has reported 800 COVID-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, and Togo which has reported 272 total coronavirus-related deaths.
And one thing is for certain, the low COVID mortality rates in various African countries are not owed to incredibly widespread vaccine access. Liberia, for example, has administered about 1.2 million doses of the COVID vaccine which would amount to about 12.2% of the country being vaccinated and yet has only reported 294 total coronavirus-related deaths.
Dr. Fauci Just Issued a New Warning for Fully Vaccinated People
The U.S. is still experiencing a significant fall in COVID numbers following Omicron‘s disastrous winter surge. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infections have decreased by more than 16 percent in just the last week, with hospitalizations down by over 27 percent as well.
As another potential COVID wave looms on the horizon, top White House COVID adviser Anthony Fauci, MD, is urging people in the U.S. to get prepared for cases to start going back up soon. “I would not be surprised at all, if we do see somewhat of an uptick,” Fauci said during a March 22 Washington Post Live event.
To prevent that potential severity, Fauci warned that more fully vaccinated people need to be boosted. If you are vaccinated and eligible for a booster but have not gotten your additional dose yet, “please get yourself boosted,” Fauci said.
Variant Worse Than Omicron Could Emerge, Says Medical Advisor Chris Whitty
COVID variant that produces “worse problems” than Omicron could arise in the future, the U.K. government’s chief medical adviser has said.
Speaking to attendees at the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Public Health (LGA/ADPH) conference this week, top health expert Sir Chris Whitty warned that COVID is something that the world will have to live with for the foreseeable future after he was asked when the pandemic might shift to an endemic state.
Whitty said that the term “endemic” — which refers to a disease or condition being found regularly among particular people or in a certain area, rather than globally — is often misused. “The pandemic is going to become, over time, less dominant steadily, but we’re going to have a significant problem with it in multiple parts of the world for the rest of our lives,” Whitty said in the conference, U.K. newspaper The i reported. “Let’s have no illusions about that.”
How to Best Prepare for the Next Pandemic? Have Healthy People — David Aronoff, MD, Calls for Equitable Policies That Will Improve Overall Population Health
What we have in the United States is really quite a patchwork quilt of health policies and social determinants of health. All of that played an important role in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While there is some randomness to how sick someone gets with SARS-CoV-2, there’s also a lot of non-random effects on risk for getting sick, things like comorbid conditions, or the baseline health of people prior to getting infected, being obese, having underlying diabetes, having high blood pressure, or chronic organ diseases — affecting things like heart or the lungs or the kidneys — absolutely made it a much higher risk for people to have complications of COVID-19 or even to die of COVID-19.
It’s Time to Rethink Your COVID Risk Tolerance
The U.S. is taking a crash course in learning to “live with the virus.” Policymakers and health experts agree that we have migrated to a less-disruptive COVID-19 endemic phase. This has produced extensive commentary on what living with the virus, and achieving the “new normal” might look like — liberating some while confusing others.
Many people have spent two years avoiding and fearing the virus and are now being advised that it’s safe to unmask and to resume a normal social life. For them, this has not ushered in a comfortable sense of natural transition, but instead has caused a national emotional whiplash. Psychologists call this avoidance conflict.
In this era of cautious fraught optimism, few have grasped the stark reality that for the country to successfully navigate to a sustainable endemic phase, most of us must transition from avoiding to accepting transmission and infections.
Let’s sit with that for a second. This should be the center-point of our endemic-phase policies and practices. This is the seismic shift that will ultimately enable us to live in a sustainable new normal.
Moderna Wants to Give FDA ‘Flexibility’ in Deciding Eligibility for 4th Covid Shot, CEO Says
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC on Thursday the drugmaker wanted to provide U.S. regulators “flexibility” in determining eligibility for a fourth COVID vaccine dose.
Moderna submitted its application last week for a so-called second booster, asking the Food and Drug Administration to clear the additional shot for all Americans ages 18 and up. The biotech firm’s request was considerably more broad than competing mRNA vaccine maker Pfizer, whose fourth-dose application covered only people 65 and older.
“I think we wanted to give the regulators, the FDA and regulators in other countries, the flexibility,” Bancel said an interview on “Squawk Box.” “You have people that are younger adults that have comorbidity factors, and they might need [a] sooner fourth dose to protect them.”
AstraZeneca’s Preventative COVID Shot Set to Win EU Clearance This Week — Sources
Europe’s drug regulator is expected to give the go-ahead this week for AstraZeneca‘s (AZN.L) antibody-based injection for preventing COVID-19 infections, two people familiar with the review said, following U.S. and UK approvals.
The treatment is meant for adults whose immune system is too weak to respond to vaccines and offers a new tool to ease the pandemic burden on healthcare systems.
An EMA expert panel on drug assessment is due to discuss AstraZeneca’s Evusheld treatment this week, according an agenda posted on the EMA’s website.
Health Officials See Bright Future in Poop Surveillance
Across the country, academics, private companies, public health departments, and sewage plant operators have been working to hone a new public health tool, one with uses that could reach well beyond COVID.
Wastewater surveillance is not a new concept, but the scale and scope of the current pandemic have vaulted the technique over the narrow walls of academic research to broader public use as a crucial tool for community-level tracking of COVID surges and variants.
Sewage surveillance is proving so useful that many researchers and public health officials say it should become standard practice in tracking infectious diseases, as is already the case in many other countries.
COVID Pandemic Fueled 2021 Population Drop in 73% of U.S. Counties
The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic was reflected in a natural decrease last year in the population of nearly three-quarters of U.S. counties versus the two previous years, the census bureau said on Thursday.
More than 73% of U.S. counties experienced natural decrease, or an excess of deaths over births, up from 55.5% in 2020 and 45.5% in 2019, bureau data showed.
The U.S. population grew at a slower pace in 2021 than any other year on record as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the more subdued growth of recent years, the bureau has said.
How 10 Largest U.S. Metros Changed in COVID’s 1st Full Year
Here’s a look at how the 10 most populous metro areas in the U.S. changed during the first full year of the pandemic, from mid-2020 to mid-2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released Thursday.
The population estimates calculate births and deaths, as well as domestic and international migration.