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Patients Launch Legal Action Against AstraZeneca Over Its COVID Vaccine
Dozens of patients and families are launching legal action against AstraZeneca over a rare side effect of its COVID-19 vaccine. Lawyers have sent the company pre-action protocol letters, the first step in a legal claim on behalf of around 75 claimants. Some have lost relatives and some have survived with catastrophic injuries following blood clots.
Peter Todd, a consultant solicitor with Scott-Moncrieff & Associates, one of two lawyers handling claims, told The BMJ that the complications included stroke, heart failure and leg amputations. He said the technology involved in the AstraZeneca vaccine was “risky.”
Even though the legal claim is against AstraZeneca, the U.K. taxpayer will have to pay any compensation awarded, under a legal indemnity that the government gave the company early in the pandemic.
In response to a freedom of information request, NHS Business Services, which operates the vaccine damage scheme, revealed that by March 6, 2023, the scheme had received 4,017 claims relating to a COVID-19 vaccine. Of those which had been dealt with, 622 concerned the AstraZeneca vaccine, 348 the Pfizer, and 43 the Moderna vaccine. Of the 4,017 claims, 334 were for death.
WHO Revises COVID Vaccine Recommendations for Omicron-Era
The World Health Organization has tailored its COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for a new phase of the pandemic, suggesting that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a shot but older, high-risk groups should get a booster between 6 to 12 months after their last vaccine.
The U.N. agency said the aim was to focus efforts on vaccinating those facing the greatest threat of severe disease and death from COVID-19, considering the high-level population immunity worldwide due to widespread infection and vaccination.
The health agency defined high-risk populations as older adults, as well as younger people with other significant risk factors. For this group, the agency recommends an additional shot of the vaccine either 6 or 12 months after the latest dose, based on factors such as age and immunocompromising conditions.
Meanwhile, it said healthy children and adolescents were “low priority” for COVID-19 vaccination, and urged countries to consider factors like disease burden before recommending the vaccination of this group. It said the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters were safe for all ages, but the recommendations took into account other factors like cost-effectiveness.
BioNTech Shares Slip on Gloomy COVID Vaccine Sales Outlook
Shares of BioNTech on Monday slid by more than 6% in morning trading after the German drugmaker shared a gloomy 2023 sales outlook for its COVID vaccine jointly developed with Pfizer.
BioNTech delivered solid quarterly earnings earlier in the morning that beat expectations but said revenue fell slightly from a year ago due to lower demand for the company’s COVID vaccine, which is its only marketed product. The drugmaker expects that demand to fall further this year, forecasting COVID vaccine revenue to hit 5 billion euros, or $5.4 billion. That’s a steep decline from the 17.3 billion euros, or more than $18 billion, in 2022.
BioNTech is the latest company to forecast a slump in demand for COVID products as the world emerges from the pandemic. Its partner Pfizer told investors in January that it expects COVID vaccine sales to plummet by 64% this year and sales of its COVID antiviral treatment Paxlovid to drop by 58%.
Functional Neurological Disorder Emerges After COVID Infection, Vaccines — Long COVID Functional Manifestations Differ From Post-Vaccine Effects
Patients with functional neurologic disorder (FND) after SARS-CoV-2 infection had different symptoms than people with FND after COVID vaccines, retrospective data showed. Patients with post-COVID FND tended to be older, had more insidious onset and had a higher disability, according to Araceli Alonso-Canovas, MD, Ph.D., of Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal in Madrid, and co-authors.
Those with FND after COVID vaccination more closely resembled classic FND: they were younger, had an acute onset and tremor was the most common phenotype, the researchers reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
FND refers to disorders caused by an abnormality in brain signaling with no significant structural brain damage. It occurs in an estimated four to 12 people per 100,000 per year and accounts for about 6% of outpatient neurology visits.
Vaccinations can trigger FND, as can other stressors including infections. While experts maintain some people with FND might be long COVID patients, little research has been conducted to evaluate this.
Local Caregivers See Lingering Effects of Pandemic on Kids
The full effects of the global pandemic might not be known for decades to come, but a medical clinic on the front lines of caring for the Hudson Valley’s most vulnerable is reporting that incidents of child abuse and neglect are on the rise in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
“The parent, after being out of work for months during the height of the pandemic, had started a new job, a minimum wage job without a lot of support, and she had to make a decision about going to work or staying home to take care of her child and potentially losing her job,” Lindsay Neptune, a nurse practitioner and Director of School-Based Health Clinical Services at Open Door Family Medical Center in Port Chester and Ossining, explained. “She ended up leaving the child at home.”
According to Open Door, this type of “unintentional” child neglect and abuse, often a result of increased caregiver stress and isolation, has contributed to a troubling spike in cases in New York since the start of the pandemic.
While Neptune says she doesn’t often see the more obvious signs of child abuse or neglect, like bruises, shabby clothing and poor personal hygiene, she does see some of its mental health manifestations, like anxiety and depression.
Walgreens Profit Slides as COVID Vaccinations Fade in Q2
A decline in COVID-19 vaccinations cut into Walgreens’ second-quarter earnings, but the drugstore chain still delivered better-than-expected results.
Walgreens said Tuesday the number of vaccines it administered in the quarter tumbled 80% to 2.4 million compared to last year’s quarter. COVID-19 testing also fell more than 90% and sales of at-home tests dropped as well.
Walgreens also booked in the recently completed second quarter a $306 million pretax charge for opioid claims and some expenses tied to cost-cutting and an acquisition.
The chain also saw prescriptions grow more than 3%, excluding immunizations, in its biggest business segment, U.S. drugstores.
Two-Thirds of U.K. Workers With Long COVID Have Faced Unfair Treatment, Says Report
U.K. ministers should act to ensure long COVID sufferers receive the support they need from employers, with as many as two-thirds claiming they have been unfairly treated at work, a report argues.
The report, from the TUC and the charity Long COVID Support, warns that failing to accommodate the 2 million people who, according to ONS data, may be suffering from long COVID in the U.K. will create, “new, long-lasting inequalities”.
The analysis is based on responses from more than 3,000 long COVID sufferers who agreed to share their experiences.
Two-thirds said they had experienced some form of unfair treatment at work, ranging from harassment to being disbelieved about their symptoms or threatened with disciplinary action. One in seven said they had lost their job.
