Army Admits Veteran Suffered COVID Vaccine Injury ‘in the Line of Duty’: Report
American Military News reported:
The U.S. Army reportedly admitted that a young veteran who suffered a vaccine injury was injured “in the line of duty.”
According to an interview conducted by investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, Karolina Stancik, 24, said she took two shots of the Moderna vaccine that caused debilitating injuries. Stancik was discharged as a result of her injuries, but the Army reportedly refused to pay for her medical treatment. Her injuries included complications involving her heart.
The veteran said the Army subsequently sent her a letter in which the service admitted her vaccine injury occurred “in the line of duty.” Since taking two doses of the Moderna vaccine, Stancik said she has suffered multiple heart attacks and a mini-stroke. She was also given a pacemaker to support her heart.
Herridge said documents show the U.S. Army admitted Stancik’s condition “is considered In Line of Duty by the preponderance of evidence in lieu of a Line of Duty Investigation.” Herridge said Stancik is now facing $70,000 in medical debt.
CDC Tells Docs to Be Alert for Dengue as Cases Ramp Up Worldwide — Even in the U.S., Local Mosquitoes Are a Growing Threat
The CDC on Tuesday warned doctors to be alert for dengue cases as the tropical disease breaks international records. The virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, has been surging worldwide, helped by climate change. In barely 6 months, countries in the Americas have already broken calendar-year records for dengue cases.
There is no widely available medicine for treating dengue infections. Vaccines have been tricky, because it’s been hard to develop a shot that protects against all four types of dengue. U.S. officials in 2021 recommended one vaccine, made by Sanofi Pasteur. The three-dose vaccine is built to protect against all four dengue types and is recommended only for children ages 9 to 16 who have laboratory evidence of an earlier dengue infection and who live in an area — like Puerto Rico — where dengue is common.
Given those restrictions and other issues, it hasn’t been widely used. As of late last month, only about 140 children had been vaccinated in Puerto Rico since shots became available there in 2022, and Sanofi Pasteur has told the CDC it is going to stop making the vaccine.
A different vaccine made by the Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company Takeda is not currently licensed in the U.S. Others are in development.
Moderna Says Its RSV Shot Is 50% Effective Across a Second Season
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) shot mRESVIA showed 50% efficacy in preventing RSV after 18 months, the drugmaker said on Wednesday.
In their clinical trials, GSK‘s RSV vaccine Arexvy was 78% effective in preventing severe RSV over a second year and Pfizer‘s was 78% effective midway through a second RSV season.
Moderna presented the data at a meeting of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The drugmaker has previously cautioned against comparing its vaccine to rivals, noting that the trials were not head-to-head and used different case definitions for RSV disease.
U.S. Advisers to Consider RSV Shots as GSK Looks to Keep Market Lead
A committee of outside experts to the U.S. CDC are set to vote on whether to expand the age group of adults who should receive respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines this year, as GSK (GSK.L) battles rival Pfizer (PFE.N) and new entrant Moderna (MRNA.O) to keep its top position in the market.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet on Wednesday through Friday to consider and recommend who should get RSV, influenza and COVID-19 vaccines and how strong to make those recommendations. Although the CDC generally follows the committee’s votes, the final decision rests with the agency’s director.
Last year, GSK’s Arexvy and Pfizer’s Abrysvo went head to head for adults over the age of 60. GSK won two-thirds of the market, mostly due to its contracts with retail pharmacies, including CVS (CVS.N). Moderna received approval for its shot, mRESVIA, for the same age group last month.
Headed into this autumn, GSK has FDA approval to expand use of its vaccine to adults ages 50 to 59, making it the first shot endorsed for that age group. Pfizer said it submitted data for its shot in adults aged 18 to 59 and hopes to get the expanded approval as early as the fourth quarter.
Combined revenue for the Pfizer and GSK shots in their first year of availability topped $2.4 billion. Analysts, on average, expect sales of $1.59 billion for GSK’s RSV shot, $1.47 billion for Pfizer’s and $370 million this year for Moderna.
Heavier Social Media Use Tied to More Frequent COVID, Flu Vaccination
A pair of new University of Pennsylvania studies describes the influences on the decision to vaccinate, with one tying greater adult social media use to keep current with recommended COVID-19 and flu vaccinations and one finding that parental attitudes and social norms influenced the decision to vaccinate children against COVID-19.
For the first study, researchers from the Annenberg Public Policy Center repeatedly surveyed a probability sample of 1,768 Republicans and Democrats on their social media use and influences on their vaccination decisions from December 2022 to September 2023. The research was published in Social Science & Medicine.
Heavier social media use correlated with more frequent vaccination (cross-lagged coefficients, 0.113 for COVID-19 and 0.123 for flu). But Democrats and Republicans reported following different influences behind their decisions, with Democratic heavy social media users saying that they were influenced by information on emerging pathogens and Republican heavy users citing the vaccination decisions of people close to them.
The second study, published in PLOS One, explored the psychosocial correlates of parents’ intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. The analysis showed that parental attitudes and subjective social norms predicted intent to vaccinate among parents of minority races, while only subjective norms had a significant effect on intention among White parents. Both attitudes and subjective norms influenced women, while neither had a significant effect on men. In general, racial-minority parents reported weaker vaccination intentions than their White peers.
Novo Nordisk Wins Approval in China for GLP-1 Obesity Drug Wegovy
On the market for three years in China, Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic (semaglutide) is racing toward blockbuster sales in the world’s second most populous country. With that success in place, the Danish company looks to double down with its obesity treatment Wegovy.
On Tuesday, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) blessed Wegovy with marketing approval to treat people with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30 or between 27 and 30 for those with one weight-related risk factor.
It will be marketed as NovoCare in China. The drug is the same compound, semaglitude, as that used in Ozempic. In response to the nod, Novo’s share price increased by 3%.
Biden Administration to Lower Costs for 64 Drugs Through Inflation Penalties on Drugmakers
The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will impose inflation penalties on 64 prescription drugs for the third quarter of this year, lowering costs for certain older Americans enrolled in Medicare.
President Joe Biden has made lowering U.S. drug prices a key pillar of his health-care agenda and reelection platform for 2024. A provision of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act requires drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare, the federal health program for Americans over age 65, if they hike the price of a medication faster than the rate of inflation.
It is separate from another provision under the law that allows Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices with manufacturers. On average, Americans pay two to three times more than patients in other developed nations for prescription drugs, according to the Biden administration.
