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More Than 1,000 New Brunswickers Report Adverse Reactions to COVID Vaccines
More than 1,000 New Brunswickers have had an adverse reaction after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, and more than a quarter of them were considered “serious,” according to the Department of Health.
Spokesperson Adam Bowie did not provide any information about the nature of the reactions, but the Public Health Agency of Canada defines an adverse event as “any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunization.” It isn’t necessarily causally related to the vaccine.
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported a possible link between ischemic strokes in people aged 65 and older and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 bivalent vaccine, which is designed to target the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
Novavax Jumps After Pledging to Update Its COVID Shot; Pfizer, Moderna Slip
Investor’s Business Daily reported:
Novavax (NVAX) plans to update its COVID shot for new variants, and NVAX stock outperformed its vaccine rivals on Friday.
The decision follows an advisory committee meeting at the Food and Drug Administration. A panel of independent experts voted unanimously in support of yearly COVID booster shots. They also voted to harmonize strain selection among vaccine makers. This would put Pfizer (PFE) with partner BioNTech (BNTX), Moderna (MRNA) and Novavax on the same page when it comes to selecting the right targets for their updated boosters.
The panelists favored an aggressive timeline for strain selection to booster launch. Experts would pick the strain target in May or June with the goal of launching the updated boosters in September. “These timelines favor mRNA (messenger RNA) manufacturers, given their speed advantage,” SVB Securities analyst Daina Graybosch said in a note to clients.
Pfizer Denies Conducting COVID Gain-of-Function Research in Delayed Response to Veritas Video
Pfizer denied it conducts gain-of-function research on COVID-19 in a long-awaited but indirect response to a bombshell Project Veritas hidden camera sting that captured a company official describing either proposed or ongoing experiments by the pharmaceutical firm.
The company statement, released late Friday, did not mention the Project Veritas video, which was posted Wednesday evening and has received over 20 million views despite being banned from YouTube. In that video, a man identified as Jordon Walker, Pfizer’s director of research and development, strategic operations-mRNA scientific planner, divulges that the company has considered mutating COVID-19 through “directed evolution” in monkeys to develop new vaccines.
Pfizer’s statement goes on to describe the research it acknowledges conducting. Pfizer said the research usually involves only computer simulations, but added that “in a limited number of cases when a full virus does not contain any known gain-of-function mutations, such virus may be engineered to enable the assessment of antiviral activity in cells.”
Critics accused Pfizer of dissembling and said that what the company acknowledged in its statement is effectively gain-of-function research.
Plan for More Oversight of Pathogen-Related Research Passes Hurdle — Proposed Recommendations Approved by Federal Advisors, to Head to NIH for Review
On Friday, federal advisors endorsed new recommendations for improving the biosecurity oversight of scientific research involving potential pandemic-causing pathogens.
The board of directors of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) voted to approve a proposed framework requiring federal departments to review any research that could potentially enhance the transmissibility or virulence of a pathogen.
To accomplish this, the committees that drafted the report suggested expanding the definition of potential pandemic pathogens (PPP) to include any moderately or highly transmissible or virulent pathogen capable of spreading uncontrollably in human populations or causing significant morbidity or mortality in humans.
Sen. Ron Johnson Questions FAA Over COVID ‘Vaccine Adverse Events’ Among Pilots
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday asking if the agency would investigate reports from pilots who have claimed they had an adverse response to COVID vaccination.
Johnson, a strong opponent of vaccine mandates, asked in the letter for more information about recent medical testing decisions from the FAA and if it was aware of any adverse events related to COVID vaccination. The letter was sent to Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen and Federal Air Surgeon Susan Northrup.
“The vaccine injured deserve to be seen, heard & believed,” Johnson said on Twitter. “@FAANews — are you aware of the COVID-19 vaccine injuries in the aviation industry?”
Johnson’s letter also included a list of five pilots who he said had adverse events related to COVID vaccination. The reported reactions of the pilots included erratic heart rate, chest pain and high blood pressure.
How COVID May Have Enhanced the Status of Preprint Studies
COVID-19 changed the way public policy experts, the healthcare industry and journalists covering the pandemic weighed the value of clinical studies that had not yet been peer-reviewed, a new analysis found.
The peer-review process used by major publications like the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association takes “a median time of 186 days from preprint to publication,” according to a study published today in JAMA Network that examines the reliability of preprint studies.
That’s more than half a year. For a COVID-19 variant, six months is a lifetime, or at least it’s a span in which a virus variant can go from being dominant to being usurped by another iteration.
Many peer-reviewed studies about Delta came out when Omicron began taking over. Then came the sub-subvariants of Omicron, a list that keeps growing.
Long COVID Might Teach Us How to Prevent Alzheimer’s
Science is starting to uncover an unnerving fact about viruses: Some might affect our brains over the long haul. It came as a shock that SARS-CoV-2 can lead to lingering neurological problems — a post-viral syndrome we call long COVID. But the phenomenon might not be unique to this virus.
Scientists are finding links between common viruses such as influenza and brain diseases like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and ALS. Researchers are hoping that identifying a viral link might finally allow scientists to figure out what causes these mysterious, deadly ailments and develop new treatments.
China Approves Two Domestically Developed COVID Drugs
China has approved two domestically developed oral medicines for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms, the National Medical Products Administration said on Sunday.
The drugs, used for treating adult patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections, have been developed by Simcere Pharmaceutical Group <2096. HK> and a unit of Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co Ltd (688180.SS), the administration said in a statement on its website.
