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To Mask or Not to Mask? Biden Goes Both Ways After First Lady Tests Positive for COVID
President Joe Biden turned up in a mask for the first time in months on Tuesday, a day after his wife tested positive for COVID-19. But the president quickly ditched it during a ceremony honoring an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran, and the two unmasked octogenarians shared a hearty handshake before they parted.
The White House had said earlier that Biden, who had tested negative for the virus earlier in the day, would wear a mask indoors, but that he might remove it when standing at a distance from others.
Biden and Capt. Larry Taylor, who both took off their masks after entering the East Room, stood side by side as a commendation was read aloud, and then Biden reached around the vet’s body to place the medal around his neck. The two then stood face-to-face and shook hands heartily.
MSNBC Doctor Says Everyone Older Than 6 Months Needs COVID Booster
Public health commentator Vin Gupta recommended on Tuesday that everyone over six months of age get boosted against COVID. During an appearance on MSNBC, where he is a medical contributor, Dr. Gupta alluded to the emergence of new variants amid a reported uptick in cases across the country when asked who needs to get a booster and when.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does recommend that everyone in the United States six months and older get vaccinated against COVID and that people stay up to date.
Vaccine manufacturers Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax are expected to roll out new versions of the jab later this month after advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended revised shots that target Omicron spinoff XBB.1.5 for the fall.
Gupta faced a wave of backlash on social media as conservative media accounts shared a clip on X, with several commenters saying they had no intention of following his advice.
U.K. Regulator Approves Updated Pfizer-BioNTech COVID Vaccine
The U.K. drug regulator said on Tuesday it has approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNTech (22UAy.DE) that targets only the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant.
The vaccine, which like their other COVID shots will also be sold under brand Comirnaty, has been approved for use in individuals aged 6 months and above, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said. MHRA’s approval for the shot follows the European regulator’s clearance last week.
Besides Pfizer-BioNTech, other vaccine makers Moderna (MRNA.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O) have also created so-called monovalent versions of their shots that target only the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus.
While the U.S. expects to deploy all three vaccines in the fall season, the U.K. plans to deploy the mRNA vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for the autumn immunization campaign.
EXCLUSIVE: CDC Repeatedly Advised People With Post-Vaccination Conditions to Get More Doses
A network composed of experts from inside and outside the U.S. government repeatedly recommended that people who suffered adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination receive additional shots, even when the experts could not rule out the vaccines as the cause of the events, documents obtained by The Epoch Times show.
The network, the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Project, is run by a doctor who has received extensive funding from pharmaceutical giants, including the top two COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, according to other records.
In one example, CISA was presented with records showing a 63-year-old woman experienced chronic kidney disease, with symptoms including kidney swelling, after receiving a second dose of Pfizer‘s COVID-19 vaccine.
“Weighing the potential risks of COVID-19 vaccination and the benefits of preventing COVID-19, the SMEs provided their opinion that the patient should receive future COVID-19 vaccinations,” the Feb. 24, 2023, letter to the patient’s doctor stated.
Moderna Says Updated COVID Vaccine Is Effective Against Newer Variant
Moderna (MRNA.O) on Wednesday said clinical trial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine will likely be effective against the highly-mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus that has raised fears of a resurgence of infections.
The company said its shot generated an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies in humans against BA.2.86, which is being tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Moderna said it had shared the new finding on its vaccine with regulators and submitted it for peer review publication. The retooled shot has yet to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but is expected to be available later this month or in early October.
All Signs Point to a Rise in COVID
Signs in the U.S. continue to point to a rise in COVID activity as fall approaches.
While individual cases have become more difficult to track as states are no longer required to report numbers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at-home test use has increased, experts have turned to other tools to track the virus.
“We’re now only testing people who are symptomatic,” said Jodie Guest, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, who added that this makes it difficult to directly compare hospitalization numbers to what was seen previously in the pandemic. Current numbers may be missing asymptomatic cases and therefore be lower than earlier ones.
