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FDA Sets June Meetings on COVID Vaccines for Youngest Kids
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday set tentative dates in June to publicly review COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest American children, typically the final step before authorizing the shots.
The meeting announcement follows months of frustration from families impatient for a chance to vaccinate their little children, along with complaints from politicians bemoaning the slow pace of the process.
The FDA said it plans to convene its outside panel of vaccine experts on June 8, 21 and 22 to review applications from Moderna and Pfizer for child vaccines. The dates are not final and the FDA said it will provide additional details as each company completes their application.
The VP Has COVID. Fauci Is Staying Away. But Biden Is Still Going to the White House Correspondents Dinner in a Basement Ballroom With 2,600 People.
Vice President Kamala Harris is out sick with COVID. Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical advisor, just dropped out of a glitzy media, politician and celebrity “nerd prom” for fear of exposure.
Yet President Joe Biden has still RSVP’d yes to the black-tie gala, formally known as the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. In just two days, he’ll get roasted by comedian Trevor Noah and deliver his own zingers to more than 2,620 attendees in the Washington Hilton’s basement-level ballroom.
The situation has many — including some in the Washington press corp — wondering: Why isn’t the 79-year-old president being more careful in the days ahead?
Moderna Asks Canada for Extension of COVID Vaccine to Young Children
Canada is reviewing a request by Moderna (MRNA.O) to approve its COVID-19 vaccine for pediatric use in children aged 6 months to 5 years, the government and the company said on Friday.
Moderna’s Canada General Manager Patricia Gauthier said at a news conference the request was filed with Canada Health on Thursday night.
Canada Health posted the application on its website on Friday and said it was under review.
Drug Overdose Deaths Among Adolescents on the Rise
The number of teens and adolescents dying from drug overdoses has increased dramatically over the past two years.
Ranee Crest’s daughter Lydia was an unfortunate victim. Crest said her daughter struggled with addiction but had been sober and in recovery for over a year. “We were in the pandemic, and isolation, I think, had a big factor,” she said.
According to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, deadly overdoses among adolescents nearly doubled from 492 in 2019 to 954 in 2020. They jumped another 20% in 2021.
George Youngblood, who has worked with Teen and Family Services in Houston, said the COVID-19 pandemic affected hundreds of children across the country in the same way that it did Lydia.
L.A. Coronavirus Cases up 40% in One Week; Hospitalizations Rising, Too
Los Angeles Times via MSN reported:
Coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County rose by 40% over the past week and hospitalizations have started to creep up as well, underscoring how important it is for people to be up-to-date on their vaccines and boosters, as well as wear masks in indoor public settings, officials said.
Although neither the number of infections nor the patient census is setting off alarm bells just yet, the trendlines illustrate that the county is contending with reinvigorated coronavirus transmission. And for county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, who called the increase in cases “pretty significant,” they reinforce the importance of taking individual actions to thwart the spread.
BA.2.12.1 Subvariant: Concerning, but No Need to Panic Just yet — a Number of Factors Are Contributing to the Omicron Subvariant’s Rise
A new Omicron subvariant is rapidly gaining steam in New York and other parts of the Northeast. Experts are urging caution in the face of BA.2.12.1, and say a number of factors are contributing to its rise. But they’re also warning against panic.
As of April 20, BA.2.12.1 accounted for more than 75% of sequenced cases in Central New York — a region that has seen a dramatic uptick in the subvariant’s presence since it was first detected there in February — according to the state Department of Health. And, across New York, it accounts for about 42% of cases.
When asked about the transmissibility and severity of BA.2.12.1, the department pointed MedPage Today to its prior statement that, while currently “there is no evidence of increased disease severity by these subvariants,” it is “closely monitoring for any changes.”
The department has also stated that, when comparing BA.2.12 against BA.2.12.1, the latter “has been noted to be of higher concern, given additional mutations.”
Employers Must Act Now to Help Reverse the Impacts of the Pandemic on Women’s Careers
Last year Deloitte launched a new survey to better understand women’s experiences in the workplace, and how those impacted their engagement and progression. The findings from our 2021 Women @ Work: A Global Outlook survey painted a bleak picture of working women coming under increased pressure as the COVID-19 pandemic imposed new daily challenges on them.
Highlighting a series of negative impacts on women’s well-being and career aspirations, the report called for bold action by employers to better support their female employees and mitigate threats to gender equality after years of slow but vital progress.
One year on from our 2021 research, as many COVID-related restrictions have gradually lifted and a “new normal” emerges, our 2022 survey reveals some lasting impacts negatively affecting women’s career and life choices, and exposes the exclusion risks women face as they navigate a new world of work.
Patients Hospitalized With COVID Face Similar Risks, Regardless of Variant
U.S. News & World Report reported:
If you’re unlucky enough to need hospitalization for COVID-19, it won’t really matter which variant you’re infected with: The same level of care is required for patients with either Delta or Omicron, a new study reveals.
This is true even though people infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are much less likely to be hospitalized than those with the Delta variant, the study authors said.
“It’s true that patients with Omicron were significantly less likely to be admitted to the hospital than patients with Delta. But Omicron patients who did need hospitalization faced a risk of severe disease compared to those hospitalized with Delta,” said lead study author Heba Mostafa. She is an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore.
We’ll Likely Deal With More Pandemics as Earth Heats Up
As climate change permanently alters our environment, the world is increasingly opening up to new viruses — with potentially deadly consequences for us humans.
A study published Thursday in Nature finds that as climate change is forcing animals to move habitats, they will increasingly come into contact with humans, and with each other, creating more and more opportunities for deadly viruses to mutate and spill over to people.
The study uses a huge amount of data — on viruses and host mammals as well as on climate change and animal habitats — to create an enormous map of how the habitats of more than 3,100 mammal species might change over the coming decades. As habitats shift, chances increase that different species will cross paths more with each other and with us, and viruses and other pathogens will be along for the ride.
External Blood Oxygenation Saved Hundreds of COVID Sufferers — Study
Scores of severely ill COVID-19 sufferers survived because they were given the NHS’s highest form of intensive care in which an artificial lung breathes for them, a study has found.
Patients in the UK who underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) were more likely to survive than those who did not have the treatment, according to the research. People whose breathing capacity had collapsed were more likely to stay alive if they had ECMO rather than only a spell on a mechanical ventilator.
