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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.”
