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Most Young People Aren’t Getting Latest COVID Booster, but They’re Not Filling Hospital Beds at Three Large Healthcare Systems

CNN Health reported:

As the U.S. mulls over its future COVID-19 vaccination plan, data from three large healthcare systems indicate that even though a small percentage of people under age 65 have gotten the new COVID-19 booster, people this age are not becoming severely ill and overwhelming hospitals.

“Even if they’re not getting boosted, young, healthy people are not getting super sick from this,” said Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, a senior vice president at Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York state. “We’re not seeing it. It’s not happening.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed a framework for annual COVID vaccinations for all Americans over the age of 6 months, but at a meeting with its vaccine advisers last month, it did not come up with a concrete plan. Vaccine advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet on February 24 to discuss the future of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program.

At Montefiore Medical Center, about 300 patients under age 65 were hospitalized for COVID-19. Among those, 32% were unvaccinated, 10% were partially vaccinated, and 58% were fully vaccinated; 82% also had underlying conditions, according to Dr. Inessa Gendlina, an infectious disease expert and assistant professor at Einstein Montefiore Department of Medicine.

Minnesotans Claiming COVID Vaccine Injuries Are Left in Limbo

Star Tribune reported:

The end of the COVID-19 emergency response in the United States might be a milestone this spring, but for St. Paul’s Suzanna Newell, it will feel like the nation is moving on without her. The 51-year-old mother and former bank executive believes a COVID vaccine reaction caused her disabling health problems, which have sent her across the country in search of treatments. She filed a claim with a federal program that compensates people for rare vaccine-related injuries, but that was 11 months ago.

Newell isn’t alone in her struggle to establish a vaccine connection to her disabilities and receive help with a mountain of medical bills. She learned that as volunteer treasurer of React19, an organization that has raised $700,000 to treat vaccine-related injuries.

The federal Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) has received 11,196 claims related to COVID, including 8,447 related to vaccines. Only 543 have been resolved. No payouts have been made, though 19 claims have been declared eligible.

“The sad reality is if something goes wrong, there is no safety net for you,” said Brianne Dressen, a former Utah school teacher who co-founded React19 and suffered health problems after her COVID vaccination in a clinical trial.

House GOP Demands Info From Fauci, Other Officials on COVID Origins

The Hill reported:

House Republicans are officially relaunching their investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic by calling for testimony and information from Anthony Fauci and other current and former Biden administration officials.

The 12-member coronavirus response subcommittee is charged with examining the origins of the pandemic, including federal funding of what’s known as gain-of-function research, or research that enhances a virus’s ability to cause an infection in order to predict pandemics and develop cures.

The examination of gain-of-function research is central to the claim the virus originated from a lab in Wuhan, China, potentially backed by funding from the U.S. government. Last year, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report concluding the pandemic began with a virus that escaped from the Wuhan lab.

Aside from Fauci’s testimony, the lawmakers are seeking phone records, official calendars and other communications from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) regarding the Wuhan Institute of Virology and any federal grants to EcoHealth Alliance.

U.S. Government to Buy 1.5 Million More Novavax COVID Vaccine Doses

Reuters reported:

The U.S. government has agreed to buy 1.5 million more doses of Novavax Inc.(NVAX.O) COVID-19 vaccine, the company said on Monday, adding that the modified agreement includes funds for the development of an updated vaccine by fall this year.

Sales of the company’s vaccine have been hurt by a global supply glut and waning demand, with Novavax cutting its full-year revenue forecast for the shots twice last year.

The protein-based vaccine was expected to convince those skeptical of the new mRNA-based vaccines against the virus from rivals such as Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O).

Novavax did not provide the financial details of the contract.

Pandemic Youth Mental Health Toll Unprecedented, Data Show

Associated Press reported:

The pandemic took a harsh toll on U.S. teen girls’ mental health, with almost 60% reporting feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness, according to a government survey released Monday that bolsters earlier data.

Sexual violence, suicidal thoughts, suicidal behavior and other mental health woes affected many teens regardless of race or ethnicity, but girls and LGBTQ youth fared the worst on most measures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. More than 17,000 U.S. high school students were surveyed in class in the fall of 2021.

In 30 years of collecting similar data, “we’ve never seen this kind of devastating, consistent findings,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s adolescent and school health division. “There’s no question young people are telling us they are in crisis. The data really call on us to act.”

House Readies First GOP-Led COVID Vaccine Probe

Axios reported:

Congress is venturing into unknown and potentially explosive territory with the first House GOP-led investigation into COVID-19 vaccines. Why it matters: It’s expected to be a showdown across the spectrum of views on vaccine safety and efficacy, from attempting to undermine public faith in them to trying to bolster confidence.

The details: The Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has been given a broad writ to investigate a wide array of topics from the virus’ origins to federal COVID restrictions to the pandemic’s economic impact.

The state of play: In interviews with Axios, Republicans expressed a wide range of views on how they want to approach the investigations into vaccines. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she wants to hold hearings with people who experienced side effects and look at VAERS reports — a public database of unverified reports of post-vaccination health effects often seized on by anti-vaccine groups.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), by contrast, said the goal shouldn’t necessarily be to dent public trust. “We should see if there’s any correlation between the vaccination and people dying,” she told Axios, “And if there isn’t … we should disprove it.”

Pfizer Launches New Branded Paxlovid Ad for COVID as It Continues Wait for FDA Approval

Fierce Pharma reported:

As Pfizer looks to shore up falling Paxlovid sales this year, it has launched its first commercial for the COVID therapy that goes hard on branding.“If it’s COVID, PAXLOVID,” is the repeated tagline in the new (and long) 1:30 ad spot, which sees people with underlying conditions talk about the need to be aware that their symptoms could get worse.

Pfizer clearly needs a marketing boost, because sales for Paxlovid are expected to plummet this year, and the New York company will want to do all it can to minimize the drop.

Last month, the Big Pharma said it saw Paxlovid revenue falling from the $18.9 billion it made in 2022 to just $8 billion this year, mirroring the type of sales decline analysts also expect for its COVID vaccine Comirnaty.

It also comes as Pfizer continues to wait for full FDA approval for Paxlovid. The antiviral was given an emergency use authorization (EUA) in December 2021, which allowed Pfizer to sell the drug to those who had moderate to severe COVID and were at risk for it to get worse.

CT Supreme Court Case to Test Limits of Hospital Immunity

The CT Mirror reported:

Cheryl Mills, a Colchester resident with a serious heart condition, had been in Hartford Hospital for five days when she died on the bathroom floor of her room in March 2020.

For four days, the 63-year-old had been waiting for the result of a COVID test so she could be cleared to enter the hospital’s special cardiac treatment area. The negative test result came through at 7:40 p.m. on March 24.

Her estate sued the hospital, but an executive order issued by Gov. Ned Lamont at the beginning of the pandemic granted hospitals and nursing homes legal immunity as they worked through the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Now, the circumstances of Mills’ case have become the center of a state Supreme Court legal battle over how far that immunity can be extended, and other cases involving Connecticut nursing homes could be affected by the outcome.

Australian Researchers Find Protein in Lung That Blocks COVID Infection

Axios reported:

Australian scientists announced Friday they’ve discovered a protein in the lung that sticks to the COVID-19 virus-like Velcro and forms a natural protective barrier in a person’s body to block infection.

Why it matters: The study, published in the journal PLOS Biology on Friday, “opens up an entirely new area of immunology research” around this receptor protein, LRRC15, and “offers a promising pathway to develop new drugs to prevent viral infection from coronaviruses like COVID-19 or deal with fibrosis in the lungs,” per a statement from the University of Sydney announcing their findings. It could also help explain why some people who contract COVID experience serious illness, while others never get sick.

What they did: study lead author Greg Neely, a professor of functional genomics at the University of Sydney, and his team screened human cells for genes and investigated the lungs of COVID patients using CRISPR technology.

What they found: The researchers discovered that LRRC15 binds to the virus. The bottom line: “For me, as an immunologist, the fact that there’s this natural immune receptor that we didn’t know about, that’s lining our lungs and blocks and controls virus, that’s crazy interesting,” Neely said.

New York Times Sues EU Over Von Der Leyen’s Pfizer Texts

Politico reported:

The New York Times is taking the European Commission to court over the executive institution’s failure to release text messages between its president Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

The newspaper will face off against EU lawyers in the bloc’s highest court, arguing that the Commission faces a legal obligation to release the messages, which could contain information on the bloc’s deals to purchase billions of euros worth of COVID-19 doses.

The case was lodged on January 25 and published on the European Court of Justice’s public register on Monday, but no detailed information is yet available online. Two people familiar with the matter confirmed the details of the case to POLITICO.

Germany’s Bild daily previously filed a series of lawsuits against the Commission seeking the disclosure of documents related to negotiations to buy the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca.