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Moderna’s COVID Vaccine for Teens Awaits OK as Regulators Review Heart Inflammation Risk
For months, the authorization of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for teenagers has been on hold as the Food and Drug Administration reviews the risk of a rare but serious form of heart inflammation that’s affected mostly young men who got the company or Pfizer’s shots.
Moderna applied for emergency approval of its COVID vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds in June, but the FDA told the company in October that its review of the vaccine for kids wouldn’t be finished before January.
The agency said it needed more time to examine the risk of myocarditis in vaccines based on mRNA technology, which is used in both company’s shots.
The FDA granted full approval for Moderna’s two-dose vaccine for adults on Monday and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to soon give its final OK. Its committee of vaccine experts is meeting Friday to review the latest data on myocarditis in teens and adults.
Expert Panel Backs Moderna Shots After Full U.S. Approval
A federal advisory panel voted unanimously Friday to continue to endorse Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for adults, now that U.S. regulators have given the shots their full approval.
The decision has little practical effect. Tens of millions of Americans have already gotten Moderna shots, following its emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration more than a year ago.
Earlier this week, the FDA gave the product full licensure, following the kind of rigorous, time-consuming review given to other vaccines.
GOP Bills Aimed at Unproven Treatments for COVID
Doctors and hospital leaders are pushing back against a package of Republican bills that seek to bar healthcare providers from withholding unproven treatments for COVID-19.
The three bills released this week would prevent health systems and medical credentialing boards from disciplining doctors for ordering or advocating for therapies or medicine for patients that go against medical opinions held by their employers or regulators.
The legislation would force pharmacists to fill all prescriptions ordered by doctors except in rare circumstances, the Journal Sentinel reported.
The legislation allows doctors and pharmacists to provide COVID-19 patients with drugs that have not been proven to be safe treatments for such infections, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
It’s Time to ‘Move on’ From the Pandemic, Says Harvard Medical Professor
It’s time to let the young, healthy and “anyone who wants to move on” from the pandemic do so, said Dr. Stefanos Kales, a professor at Harvard Medical School.
In a paper posted on LinkedIn last month, Kales said that for the majority of children and adults, “COVID-19 is not a serious threat, only a nuisance that impedes schooling, work and travel.”
“Once Omicron peaks, subsequent variants are likely to be even more mild,” he said. “We badly need to allow the general public, particularly the young, to get back to normal life.” He said he favors focusing COVID-19 efforts on “the vulnerable” rather than the population as a whole.
Paul Promises Investigation of Fauci if Republicans Take Senate
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he plans to subpoena Anthony Fauci‘s records if Republicans retake the Senate in November’s midterm elections and he becomes chairman of a committee.
“If we win in November, if I’m chairman of a committee, if I have subpoena power, we’ll go after every one of [Fauci‘s] records,” Paul said during an interview with conservative podcast host Lisa Boothe. “We’ll have an investigator go through this piece-by-piece because we don’t need this to happen again.”
During congressional hearings, Paul, a libertarian ophthalmologist, has repeatedly antagonized the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor over the benefits of masks, vaccinations and the origins of COVID-19.
CDC to Unveil Its Latest Weapon in COVID Detection: Wastewater
Alexandria Boehm, a professor of civil engineering at Stanford University, read about the usual pattern of mutations in the yet-to-be-named variant and sprang into action.
For more than a year, Boehm and her team of 45 people at the Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network, or SCAN, have been collecting and testing daily sludge samples from wastewater processing plants across Northern California, hunting for fragments of the new coronavirus.
For the first time, the CDC will publish data that looks at how much coronavirus is turning up in the country’s wastewater. It will add this testing data to its COVID-19 dashboard.
British Columbia Court Rules Mother Can Decide if Child Gets COVID Vaccine, Despite Dad’s Objections
A British.Columbia judge has ruled that a 10-year-old girl can be vaccinated against COVID-19 despite her father’s objections
In a ruling posted online, the mother, known only as R.S.L to protect the child’s identity, wanted her daughter to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on the advice of her family doctor. However, the girl’s father, known as A.C.L. objected to the vaccine on the grounds that he said it is unsafe. The parents share custody of the child.
Honourable Judge Ted Gouge ordered that the mother make the decision about whether, how and when the daughter is to be vaccinated.
Social Workers Warn of Rise in Mental Health Problems Among Children
Social workers are warning of a rise in the number of children with mental health problems since the start of the pandemic, with official figures recording a 25% increase as successive lockdowns and school closures take a toll.
Councils said they have “grave concerns” over the growing demand for help, with nearly 1,500 children a week presenting with mental health problems — an increase that could cost councils an extra £600m a year.
There were 77,390 children who had been assessed as having a mental health need by councils on 31 March 2021, an increase of 25% on the 61,830 seen two years earlier, according to statistics from the Department for Education.
How Denmark Decided COVID Isn’t a Critical Threat to Society
On February 1, Denmark became the first country in the European Union to lift all pandemic restrictions. Indoor mask mandates? Gone. Vaccine passports at bars, restaurants, and stadiums? See ya. Mandatory isolation for infected individuals? Farvel.
Reading this news, you might assume that Denmark succeeded in eliminating COVID. But its infection rate is currently higher than every other country’s in the world — except one: the South Pacific archipelago nation of Palau.
Michael Bang Petersen, a Danish researcher who led a global survey of COVID attitudes and advises the Danish government, defends the decision. Because of falling ICU admissions and shorter hospital stays, he said, COVID is no longer a socially critical sickness in Denmark.
Iowa Announces Upcoming End to COVID as a Public Health Emergency
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) announced on Thursday that the state’s public health emergency proclamation for COVID-19 will end in February.
“We cannot continue to suspend duly enacted laws and treat COVID-19 as a public health emergency indefinitely. After two years, it’s no longer feasible or necessary. The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly,” Reynolds said in a statement.
Merck Expecting up to $6 Billion in Sales of COVID Pill This Year
Merck said on Thursday that it had sold $952 million of its antiviral COVID-19 pill and was on track to sell another $5 billion to $6 billion for the year.
The company has already delivered its product to 25 countries and has agreements with over 30 countries, Robert Davis, Merck’s CEO, said on CNBC on Thursday.
UK Scientists Look to Repurpose Existing Antiviral Drugs for COVID
British researchers want to repurpose existing antiviral therapies to treat COVID-19, the University of Oxford said on Friday, in an attempt to sidestep lengthy development processes through readily available drugs.
Scientists will initially screen 138 drugs with known antiviral activity against the COVID-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus to study and identify potent combinations, the university said in a statement on Friday.
Scott Morrison’s Cliched Myths About Australian Resilience Won’t Drown out the National Cry of Anguish
Perhaps the greatest myth some of our political leaders are intent on weaving about the pandemic’s profound emotional impact is that Australians are uniquely, interminably resilient.
Because when we look at friends (on screen), family (ditto), wander about the neighbourhood and listen to experiences from across the country, what we hear is fear, weariness and acute sadness. People are saying, “I’ve had enough – I can’t cope with it any more. I’m beyond my breaking point. I am done.”
The overdemand on mental health services points to a society on a psychological precipice. Yet, perplexingly, we are told on one hand it’s OK to be not OK, to be at the end of our coping capacities and to ask for help, while on the other assured of our resilience.
