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New York Times Issues Massive Correction After Overstating COVID Hospitalizations Among Children

Fox News reported:

The New York Times issued a massive correction Thursday after the liberal newspaper severely misreported the number of COVID hospitalizations among children in the United States by more than 800,000.

A report headlined “A New Vaccine Strategy for Children: Just One Dose, for Now,” by science and health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli, was peppered with errors before major changes were made to the story.

The Times initially reported “nearly 900,000 children have been hospitalized” with COVID since the pandemic began, when the factual data in the now-corrected version is that “more than 63,000 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 from August 2020 to October 2021.”

Millions of Kids’ Coronavirus Shots ‘Ready’ to Go; Initial Doses to Be Shared on a Population Basis

The Washington Post via MSN reported:

Within days of regulators clearing the nation’s first vaccine for younger children, federal officials say they will begin pushing out as many as 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine to inoculate school-age kids across America in a bid to control the coronavirus pandemic.

The kickoff of the long-awaited children’s vaccination campaign could begin as soon as early November. And this time round, the government has purchased enough doses to give two shots to all 28 million eligible children, ages 5 to 11.

Pfizer Requests FDA Nod for COVID Shot in Kids 5 to 11, but Convincing Parents Might Be a Tough Sell

Fierce Pharma reported:

Even while pediatric COVID-19 cases remain high in the United States, there remains significant resistance by parents to vaccinate their children. Amid this reluctance, Pfizer and BioNTech have asked the FDA to authorize their vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, the companies revealed on Thursday.

An FDA advisory committee has scheduled a meeting on Oct. 26 to discuss authorization. The submission potentially sets up the vaccine for emergency use approval late October or early November, but the companies may face a tough sell trying to convince parents that the shot is safe.

Last month, only 34% of parents in the U.S. with children ages 5 to 11 said they would vaccinate them “right away,” according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.  The survey was taken after Pfizer and BioNTech revealed that their vaccine was safe and effective in children of this age group.

Factbox: Countries Respond to Heart Inflammation Risk From MRNA Shots

Reuters reported:

Some countries have halted altogether or are giving only one dose of COVID shots based on so-called mRNA technology to teens following reports of possible rare cardiovascular side effects.

Europe’s drug regulator said in July it had found a possible link between a very rare inflammatory heart condition and COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna (MRNA.O). read more

237 Fully Vaccinated Oregon Residents Died of COVID; 28,075 Breakthrough Cases Recorded

International Business reported:

More than 200 fully vaccinated residents in Oregon have died of COVID-19, according to the state’s breakthrough cases report.

As of Thursday, at least 237 fully vaccinated people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic, accounting for 0.8% of the state’s vaccinated population.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Oregon has also recorded 28,075 breakthrough COVID-19 infections, a large majority of which occurred in people between the ages of 30 to 39.

Two Indian Drugmakers to End Trials of Generic Merck Pill for Moderate COVID

Reuters reported:

Two Indian drugmakers have requested permission to end late-stage trials of their generic versions of Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) oral antiviral drug molnupiravir for moderate COVID-19, raising questions about how effective the experimental medicine is for that group of patients.

The Indian drug regulator’s internal expert committee disclosed on its website that Aurobindo Pharma Ltd (ARBN.NS) and MSN Laboratories had presented interim clinical trial data for this group of patients and asked to end the trials.

Texas Struggled to Teach Students Learning English Before COVID. The Pandemic Made It Worse.

The Texas Tribune reported:

Each year, more people of color, especially Hispanics, come to Texas, with nearly 2 million additional Hispanic people calling Texas home over the last decade, according to the 2020 census. Texans of color as a whole accounted for 95% of the state’s population growth.

So the importance of teaching non-English-speaking children has never been higher.

But the pandemic is threatening what was a fragile area of education to begin with. A recent pre-pandemic study from Rice University suggests that Texas is getting worse at teaching students English, which impacts both their academic success and potential lifetime income.

Denmark Says Moderna Vaccine Remains Available to Under-18s

Reuters reported:

The Danish Health Agency said on Friday that it was continuing to offer Moderna‘s (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine to under-18s, and that a statement on Wednesday suggesting a suspension had in fact been a miscommunication.

“The Danish recommendations have not been changed,” the agency said.

Georgia Won’t Buy, Receive AstraZeneca Coronavirus Vaccine

Agenda Ge reported:

Georgia will neither buy, nor receive from donors the British AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine ‘as the demand for the vaccine is very low in the country,’ head of Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze stated earlier today.

AstraZeneca was the first coronavirus vaccine Georgia received in March 2021.

However, the death of a nurse in eastern Georgia after receiving the vaccine the same month hampered the vaccination process.