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Experts Question Unusual Authorization Plan for COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5 + More
Experts Question Unusual Authorization Plan for COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5
The Food and Drug Administration’s willingness to consider authorizing a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for children under the age of 5 — without evidence yet that it would be protective — is raising concerns among some vaccine experts who fear the plan could backfire and undermine vaccine uptake in this group.
If the two-dose series is authorized by the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, potentially sometime this month, parents who want to vaccinate children under 5 could begin to do so before Pfizer has proven that the vaccine is protective for this entire age group — something that doesn’t normally happen.
The companies decided to test whether adding a third dose would raise antibody levels to required levels. But the data from the modified trial aren’t expected until late March and the FDA appears to be unwilling to wait until then. The agency’s independent vaccine expert panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, will meet Feb. 15 to review the data Pfizer is submitting with this application.
‘Decoy’ Protein Offers New Treatment Approach for COVID
The rise of immune-evasive variants like Omicron, and breakthrough infections along with it, has foregrounded the need for antiviral therapies. Particularly antiviral therapies that can stand up to multiple different variants without succumbing to resistance.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have just taken a step in that direction, developing and testing a “decoy” protein that tricks SARS-CoV-2 into binding to it instead of to host cells.
Lawsuit Accuses COVID Testing Company of Faking Results
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit against an Illinois-based COVID-19 testing company, accusing it of improperly handling tests and providing fake results.
The lawsuit announced Monday and filed in King County Superior Court said the Center for COVID Control “failed to deliver prompt, valid and accurate results,” made deceptive promises of results within 48 hours, and reportedly instructed its employees to “lie to patients on a daily basis,” The Seattle Times reported.
It describes how the company expanded to about 300 locations throughout the United States and collected tens of thousands of tests a day.
Race Alone Should Not Be Used to Allocate Scarce COVID Treatments
In hospitals and healthcare systems, life and death decisions are being made about who should get scarce antiviral medications from Pfizer and Merck and monoclonal antibodies from AstraZeneca and Vir/GSK. These medicines can keep people out of the hospital and save lives.
Given the limited supplies of these medicines, race — along with other variables — is being used to determine who gets them in many states battling the Omicron surge. Hospitals and healthcare workers are forced to make agonizing triage decisions tantamount to deciding who shall live or die.
Based in part on an ambiguous CDC guidance on allocation of scarce therapeutics, several states (New York, Minnesota, and Utah) and some health systems (the University of Utah hospital scoring system and the Wisconsin-based SSM health system) used race in making COVID treatment decisions.
Restaurant Recovery Is Hampered by Higher Costs, COVID Surges as 2022 Gets off to a ‘Pretty Sober Start’
Rising labor and food costs are chipping away at the restaurant industry’s hard-won gains and delaying recovery, according to the findings of a new report.
As the world enters the third year of the ongoing pandemic, restaurant operators are continuing to adapt to doing business in the face of an onslaught of challenges from labor to inflation and COVID variants.
While sales are rebounding, a report from the National Restaurant Association suggests it will be a year or more before conditions return to normal as tens of thousands of restaurants have shuttered — some permanently.
Stop Using These COVID Tests, FDA Warns. There’s a ‘Higher Risk’ of False Positives.
There’s a “serious” recall for some COVID-19 tests distributed with misleading labeling saying they’re authorized by the Food and Drug Administration when they’re not, the agency is warning.
The FDA is urging everyone to stop using two tests made by U.S. company Empowered Diagnostics — the CovClear COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test and ImmunoPass COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Rapid Test.
British COVID Trial Deliberately Infecting Young Adults Found to Be Safe
The world’s first “human challenge” trial in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to COVID-19 to advance research into the disease was found to be safe in healthy young adults, leaders of the study said on Wednesday.
The Imperial trial exposed 36 healthy male and female volunteers aged 18 to 29 years to the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of the virus and monitored them in a quarantined setting. They will be followed up for 12 months after discharge.
Pet Hamsters Are Being Set Free Ahead of Massive Cull to Stop COVID Spread
Hundreds of pet hamsters are being set free in Hong Kong following announcements that they would be culled to stop the spread of COVID-19.
On Jan. 18, the Hong Kong government announced that several small rodents had tested positive for COVID-19 at a pet shop. This followed an employee testing positive for the virus.
As of Jan. 22, a total of 2,581 animals, including 2,298 hamsters had been killed.
Now, the South China Morning Post has reported that more than 100 hamsters have been dumped by panicked owners. Animal welfare volunteers told the newspaper that dozens of hamsters have been left to die in the streets. The volunteers are attempting to rescue the abandoned pets in various public areas.
Australia’s COVID Hospital Admissions Fall to Lowest in Weeks
Australia’s COVID-19 hospitalisation rate fell to its lowest in nearly three weeks on Wednesday, while a steady rate of daily infections raised hopes the worst of an outbreak fueled by the Omicron coronavirus variant may have passed.
With COVID-19 hospitalizations stabilising, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had tasked health officials to check the impact on the health system before easing more border curbs. Morrison said last week he hoped international borders may fully reopen “before Easter.”
Pfizer Applies to FDA for Two-Shot COVID Vaccine for Children Under 5 + More
Pfizer Applies to FDA for a Two-Shot COVID Vaccine for Children Under 5, as Research Continues on a Third Shot
Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to authorize two doses of their coronavirus vaccine for children younger than five while the companies continue to research whether three doses would be more effective for that age group.
In a highly unusual move, federal regulators pressed the companies to submit a request for emergency authorization, people familiar with the situation said, even though two doses failed to produce the hoped-for immune response among children aged two to four in a clinical trial.
Only children between six months and two years old demonstrated an immune response comparable to that of older teenagers and young adults, the standard for a successful trial. The doses were one-tenth the strength of adult doses.
Why You May Need an Omicron-Specific Vaccine Even After This COVID Surge Ends, Moderna’s Top Doctor Says
An Omicron-specific vaccine is on the way — and according to Moderna’s top doctor, it’ll likely become the COVID immunization you get alongside your flu shot each year.
Both Moderna and Pfizer are in the midst of clinical trials for vaccines designed to combat COVID’s Omicron variant, less than two months after the first Omicron case hit the U.S. Last week, Moderna announced that it had entered Phase 2 of its trial, and had already given out its first dose to a human participant.
The Omicron-specific vaccines are meant as a long-term tool against COVID — because both Omicron and COVID’s Delta variant are likely to stick around for a while as endemic virus strains, Moderna chief medical officer Dr. Paul Burton tells CNBC Make It.
“In the fall of 2022, Delta is probably still going to be here, it’s very dangerous,” Burton says. And “Omicron is going to still be here, it’s dangerous because of the number of people it can infect.”
Medical Boards Get Pushback as They Try to Punish Doctors for COVID Misinformation
Medical boards and other regulators across the country are scrambling to penalize doctors who spread misinformation about vaccines or promote unproven cures for COVID-19. But they are unsure whether they’ll prevail over actions by state lawmakers who believe the boards are overreaching.
In Maui, the state medical board filed complaints against the state’s chief health officer and another physician after they supported COVID-19 treatments federal health officials warned against.
States like Tennessee and North Dakota, for example, have restricted state medical boards’ powers. And now legislators in 10 other states — including Florida and South Carolina — have introduced similar measures.
U.S. Military Data Reveals Skyrocketing Rate of mRNA Injection Injuries
A Bomb: Last week a lawyer for military personnel spoke about the extraordinary rise in medical conditions that occurred after vaccination against COVID.
This is one of the largest and best kept medical datasets in the world. The people in it are mostly young and healthy and the whistleblowers have signed legal declarations.
The military data suggests most national vaccination databases suffer from gross underreporting of adverse events. In the World-We-Thought-We-Lived-In, this would have been Frontpage news the next day. Calls should be coming in from all around to pause vaccinations immediately until it can be reviewed.
WHO Says the New Omicron Subvariant Doesn’t Appear to Be More Severe Than the Original
The World Health Organization on Tuesday said there’s no indication Omicron’s new sister variant, BA.2, causes more serious infections than the original version, though initial data shows it’s more transmissible.
The WHO and other researchers around the world have found that Omicron generally doesn’t make people as sick as the Delta variant, though it does spread faster than previous strains of the virus and can evade some of the immune protection provided by vaccines.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, indicated on Tuesday that those findings likely hold true for the Omicron sister variant, labelled BA.2 by scientists. Van Kerkhove said information is limited, but initial data indicates that BA.2 is “slightly” more transmissible than the original Omicron variant, what scientists formally refer to as BA.1, which is currently the dominant version worldwide.
Merck’s COVID Pill Is Last Choice for U.S. Patients, Global Use Varies
Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) new antiviral pill, molnupiravir, once touted as a potential game-changer for treating COVID-19, is the last choice among four available options for at-risk patients given its relatively low efficacy and potential safety issues, U.S. doctors, healthcare systems and pharmacies told Reuters.
A rival oral treatment from Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), Paxlovid, is in high demand, followed by an intravenous antibody therapy made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and Vir Biotechnology (VIR.O).
Molnupiravir introduces errors into the genetic code of the coronavirus and both men and women taking it are instructed to use effective birth control due to potential safety issues.
Cuba Leads the World in Vaccinating Children as Young as Two Against COVID
The Swedes have rejected it, Dr. Fauci says the U.S. may soon approve it, the Chinese have started, but the Cubans have already vaccinated almost all young children against COVID.
The island is the only country vaccinating toddlers as young as two against the disease, and more than 95% of two- to 18-year-olds have now been fully vaccinated, according to the ministry of public health.
Around the world, COVID vaccination ages are getting lower: the World Health Organization has recommended that if high levels of coverage have already been achieved in the adult population, countries should consider inoculating children as young as five with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Chile and the United Arab Emirates are now vaccinating three-year-olds.
South African Scientists Will Study Link Between COVID Variants and Untreated HIV
Leading South African scientists are set to investigate COVID-19 and HIV in tandem, amid mounting evidence that the collision of the two pandemics could be generating new coronavirus variants.
The team at the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), which first alerted the world to the COVID variant Omicron, said it was time for a “systematic” investigation of what happens when patients with untreated HIV get COVID-19.
A number of studies, including one published by the team last week, have found that people with weakened immune systems — such as patients with untreated HIV — can suffer from persistent coronavirus infections, often for months.
Huge Volumes of COVID Hospital Waste Threaten Health — WHO
Discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles from the COVID-19 pandemic have piled up to create tens of thousands of tons of medical waste, threatening human health and the environment, a World Health Organization report said on Tuesday.
The material potentially exposes health workers to burns, needle-stick injuries and disease-causing germs, the report said.
The biggest risk for affected communities was air pollution caused by burning waste at insufficiently high temperatures leading to the release of carcinogens, Maggie Montgomery, a WHO technical officer, told Geneva-based journalists.
Denmark Ends Most COVID Restrictions as ICUs Nearly Empty of Patients, Weighs 4th Shot
Denmark ended most of its COVID-19 restrictions on Tuesday, even as the country reported high levels of Omicron infections, but hospitalizations remained low. However, a fourth shot of the vaccine might be necessary down the road.
The Scandinavian country is now one of the first countries in the European Union to treat the pandemic as an endemic, even though cases are increasing from the Omicron variant.
AP reported that Danish Health Authority, Søren Brostrøm, told Danish broadcaster TV2 the number of ICU patients had “fallen and fallen and is incredibly low.”
U.S. Gives Full Approval to Moderna’s COVID Vaccine + More
U.S. Gives Full Approval to Moderna’s COVID Vaccine
U.S. health regulators on Monday granted full approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, a shot that’s already been given to tens of millions of Americans since its emergency authorization over a year ago.
The action by the Food and Drug Administration means the agency has completed the same rigorous, time-consuming review of Moderna’s shot as dozens of other long-established vaccines.
The decision was bolstered by real-world evidence from the more than 200 million doses administered in the U.S. since the FDA cleared the shot in December 2020. The FDA granted full approval of Pfizer’s vaccine last August.
Ivermectin Shows ‘Antiviral Effect’ Against COVID, Japanese Company Says
Japanese trading and pharmaceuticals company Kowa Co Ltd (7807.T) on Monday said that anti-parasite drug ivermectin showed an “antiviral effect” against Omicron and other coronavirus variants in joint non-clinical research.
The company, which has been working with Tokyo’s Kitasato University on testing the drug as a potential treatment for COVID-19, did not provide further details. Clinical trials are ongoing, but promotion of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment has generated controversy.
The use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 is currently being investigated in a UK trial run by the University of Oxford. The researchers said on Monday that it was still under way and they did not want to comment further until they have results to report.
Dr. Fauci and the Coronavirus Policy Blame Game
With millions of Americans getting infected and over 800,000 reported COVID-19 deaths, most people now realize that Washington’s pandemic policies failed. Lockdowns just postponed the inevitable while causing enormous collateral damage on cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, tuberculosis, mental health, education and much else.
So, the blame game is in full swing. At a recent Senate hearing, Dr. Anthony Fauci did not even attempt to defend his policies. Instead, he insisted that: “Everything that I have said has been in support of the CDC guidelines.”
Dr. Fauci, as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has worked closely with the two CDC directors, Drs. Robert Redfield and Rochelle Walensky, throughout the pandemic, but he is now laying the responsibility on them. He did the same with his former boss, shortly after Dr. Francis Collins resigned as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Novavax Asks FDA to Authorize Its COVID Vaccine
Novavax asked the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to authorize its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine for adults.
The vaccine is already available for use in at least 170 countries, but if cleared for emergency use in the U.S., it would provide an alternative to the popular mRNA-based shots from Pfizer and Moderna.
For certain groups of people — particularly young men — the mRNA vaccines carry a slightly elevated risk of a heart condition called myocarditis. Novavax’s vaccine has not been linked to myocarditis.
COVID Predictions? These Experts Are Done With Them
The emergence of the Omicron variant this fall, with an origin story that experts say remains shrouded in mystery, became the latest sharp turn for researchers trying to catch up with the virus and its variants.
Omicron, which has about 50 genetic mutations, developed outside of researchers’ view, with an evolutionary history far removed from the family tree of the once-dominant Delta. Instead, its roots are in an old version of the virus thought to have faded away months ago.
Scientists say they can outline scenarios for how the virus could evolve, but variants remain COVID’s unknowable wild card. In two years, they have rewritten the script so radically, many researchers are cautious to venture educated guesses of how COVID-19 will play out.
146 Research Studies Affirm Naturally Acquired Immunity to COVID
We should not force COVID vaccines on anyone when the evidence shows that naturally acquired immunity is equal to or more robust and superior to existing vaccines. Instead, we should respect the right of the bodily integrity of individuals to decide for themselves.
Public health officials and the medical establishment with the help of the politicized media are misleading the public with assertions that the COVID-19 shots provide greater protection than natural immunity.
Moreover, existing immunity should be assessed before any vaccination, via an accurate, dependable, and reliable antibody test (or T cell immunity test) or be based on documentation of prior infection (a previous positive PCR or antigen test). Such would be evidence of immunity that is equal to that of vaccination and the immunity should be provided the same societal status as any vaccine-induced immunity.
COVID May Have Seasons for Different Temperature Zones, Study Suggests
COVID-19 transmission may have seasonal spikes tied to temperature and humidity, increasing at different times of the year for different locations, a new study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene suggests.
Colder regions, such as the U.S. Northeast, may experience more cases during winter, while warmer regions, such as the southern United States, may see higher transmissions in the summer. More-temperate zones could experience two seasonal peaks.
In California Nursing Homes, Omicron Is Bad, but so Is the Isolation
Dina Halperin had been cooped up alone for three weeks in her nursing home room after her two unvaccinated roommates were moved out at the onset of the Omicron surge. “I’m frustrated,” she said, “and so many of the nursing staff are burned out or just plain tired.”
Over time, the Victorian Post Acute facility in San Francisco has gotten better at dealing with the virus, especially its milder Omicron form, which accounted for 31 cases as of Jan. 27 but not a single illness serious enough to cause hospitalization, said Dan Kramer, a spokesperson for Victorian Post Acute.
But the ongoing safety protocols at this and other nursing homes — including visitor restrictions and frequent testing of staff and residents — can be soul-killing. For the 1.4 million residents of the nation’s roughly 15,000 nursing homes, the rules have led to renewed isolation and separation.
New York City to Deliver COVID Antiviral Pills to Eligible Residents Free of Charge, Adams Says
New York City is making progress in the fight against the Omicron variant, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday. Adams said indicators show cases are rapidly declining, and hospitalizations and deaths are down, too.
Mayor Adams said the city will deliver COVID antiviral pills to eligible New Yorkers same day, free of charge.
“Oral antiviral pills, like Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, taken for five days help stop the virus from reproducing, which reduces the amount of virus in the body and prevents symptoms from getting worse,” Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi added.
Britain to Offer COVID Vaccinations to Vulnerable Children Aged 5 to 11
Britain will this week begin offering vaccinations to children aged between five and 11 who are most at risk from coronavirus, the state-run National Health Service said on Sunday.
Britain has been slower than some other countries in offering the shots to 5 to 11 year olds, and is not planning to vaccinate the age group more broadly unlike countries such as the United States and Israel.
NHS England said children in the cohort who were in a clinical risk group or who live with someone who is immunosuppressed would be able to get a first COVID-19 shot, in line with advice issued last month by the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation (JCVI)
Clinics in Moscow Now Offering Sputnik M Vaccines to 12 to 17s
The Russian capital on Monday has started offering a domestically developed coronavirus vaccine to children in the 12 to 17 age group amid the country’s biggest infection surge yet due to the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Free shots of Sputnik M — a version of the Sputnik V vaccine that contains a smaller dose — became available last week to 12 to 17s in a number of Russian regions spanning from the region surrounding Moscow to the Urals to Siberia and the far east, with the capital being the latest addition to the list.
Fauci Loses Trust With Americans as Confidence in CDC Plummets + More
Anthony Fauci Loses Trust With Americans as Confidence in CDC Plummets — Poll
The survey by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center found that trust in coronavirus information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dipped in January.
The poll of 1,656 adults between Jan. 11 and 17 is a follow-up to four previous surveys of the same respondents and had a 3.3% margin of error.
It found that confidence in whether Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), gave trustworthy pandemic advice, had fallen to 65% — down from 71% in April 2021, in what the poll described as a “statistically meaningful drop.”
More than one-third (35%) said they weren’t confident in Fauci, which was up from 29% over the same time frame. Meanwhile, confidence in the CDC dropped 5 percentage points over the last two months, to 72%.
Education Chief: ‘We Must Make up for Lost Time’ in Schools
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday that the nation’s schools must act more urgently to help millions of students who have fallen behind during the pandemic. “We must make up for lost time,” he said.
Striving to keep schools open is no longer enough, Cardona said in a speech laying out his priorities. He urged schools to use billions of dollars in federal aid to expand tutoring and mental health counseling, and to close achievement gaps that have worsened during the coronavirus pandemic.
20-Year-Old Woman With COVID to Lose Both Legs Amid Life-Threatening Infection
A 20-year-old woman battling a severe case of COVID-19 will lose both of her legs and friends are hoping to raise money for her, as she is facing a significantly different future when she’s released from the hospital than she once pictured.
Claire Bridges, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was born with a serious heart condition, according to the GoFundMe page that has been established for her, and she was quickly admitted to the intensive care unit after contracting COVID-19. While Bridges was on life support, she developed more complications and a life-threatening infection, so her best chance at survival is to amputate both of her legs.
Heather Valdes, Bridge’s roommate who started the GoFundMe, told WFLA that the 20-year-old was vaccinated against COVID-19.
A Federal Watchdog for Coronavirus Aid Warns Congress It Is Nearly out of Money
A federal watchdog overseeing billions of dollars in coronavirus aid told lawmakers late Thursday that it is now facing a “terminal budget crisis,” as its fast-dwindling funds in the face of congressional inaction threaten to shutter the office as soon as this summer.
The warning arrived from the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR), an oversight body chartered by Congress in 2020 to oversee a portion of the country’s first major stimulus package.
The leader of the office, Brian D. Miller, stressed that its coffers are at risk of running dry unless Democrats and Republicans fill them swiftly as part of an upcoming debate over government funding levels.
Merck’s COVID Pill Active Against Omicron in Lab Studies
Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said on Friday six lab studies showed their experimental oral COVID-19 drug molnupiravir was active against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
The data evaluated the antiviral activity of molnupiravir and other COVID-19 antiviral agents against COVID-19 variants of concern. Molnupiravir is yet to be studied against Omicron in human studies, the companies said.
Merck said earlier this month its pill has a mechanism that can work against Omicron and any other variant.
Paris Hospitals Chief Sparks Debate on Whether Unvaccinated Patients Should Pay for Treatment
The head of the Paris hospitals system has set off a fierce debate by questioning whether people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 should continue to have their treatment covered by public health insurance.
Under France’s universal healthcare system, all COVID-19 patients who end up in intensive care are fully covered for their treatment, which costs about 3,000 euros ($3,340) per day and typically lasts a week to 10 days.
U.S. Scientists Develop Cheap Smartphone-Based Test Kit for COVID
Scientists have developed a highly sensitive COVID test that relies only on low-tech kit and a smartphone, which could be used as a quicker, cheaper alternative to PCR testing.
The team behind the 25-minute saliva test say it provides a highly reliable platform for testing in the workplace or at home. It requires a basic lab kit that includes a cardboard box, a small hot plate and LED light that can be produced for less than £75.
The cost of running a test, including the reagents, is about a 10th of a PCR test and is also cheaper than a lateral flow test. The team’s findings are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Pfizer COVID Pill Gets Final Approval From European Commission
The European Commission on Friday approved Pfizer‘s (PFE.N) antiviral pill for COVID-19 a day after the region’s health regulator endorsed the tablet, a move that will ensure wide availability of the promising treatment to EU member states.
The final go-ahead by the executive body of the European Union (EU) was tweeted by EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides as the region is beefing up its defenses against the coronavirus amid the rapid spread of the new Omicron variant.
German Regulator Supports BioNTech/Pfizer’s U.S. Vaccine Trial
The head of Germany’s vaccines regulator said he supported the decision by BioNTech (22UAy.DE) Pfizer (PFE.N) to conduct pivotal tests on their adapted vaccine to target the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the United States.
“The companies have to carry out the clinical trials in a relevant setting. This is where the United States are quite suitable,” Klaus Cichutek, president of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, told Reuters TV.
The Paul Ehrlich Institute is contributing to the regulatory review to be done by the EU’s European Medicines Agency, or EMA, as part of the involvement of national bodies in EMA’s work.
CBD Research Suggests It Could Fight Coronavirus, but Clinical Trials Are Needed
New studies may suggest that cannabinoids, like cannabidiol or CBD, found in the cannabis plant have some properties that may help cells fight off coronavirus infection. Importantly, these studies have only tested the compounds on cells in a laboratory setting or in animals. It would take more research and clinical trials to show that this could happen in human bodies.
“These are the seeds of our knowledge related to how cannabinoids might interact with the SARS-Cov-2 virus,” says Ziva Cooper, who is the director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, to STAT. “We have a long way to go.”
Australia Suffers Deadliest Day of Pandemic, Expands Booster Eligibility
Australia suffered its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday with nearly 100 deaths, but several large states said they expect hospital admissions to fall amid hopes that the latest wave of infections would begin to subside.
Australia is among the most heavily vaccinated countries against COVID-19 with more than 93% of its adult population double-dosed and around two-thirds of eligible Australians having received a booster dose, according to official data.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the country’s drug regulator, on Friday expanded the eligibility for boosters to 16- and 17-year-olds, joining the United States, Israel and Britain.