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Pfizer CEO Pushes Yearly Shots for COVID. Not So Fast, Experts Say.
When Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said March 13 that all Americans would need a second booster shot, it struck many COVID experts as a self-serving remark without scientific merit. It also set off spasms of doubt over the country’s objectives in its fight against the coronavirus.
The decision on how often and widely to vaccinate against COVID-19 is part science, part policy, and part politics. Ultimately it depends on the goals of vaccination at a time when it’s becoming clear that neither vaccines nor other measures can entirely stop the viral spread.
The vaccines’ protection against COVID infection generally wanes within several months in all age groups. But experts disagree on whether frequent boosters, especially for younger people, can do anything about that. Two or three vaccinations protect most people from serious disease — but do relatively little to prevent infection, which is generally mild or asymptomatic, after three or four months.
Dr. Fauci Hints He May Retire Soon as Rand Paul Works to Get Him Fired
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious disease expert, says he “can’t stay at this job forever,” alluding to his retirement as he increasingly becomes the target of Republican lawmakers seeking to reduce his authority.
Fauci made the remarks Friday on ABC‘s Start Here podcast, signaling he was considering stepping down from the once relatively obscure position after becoming a household name during the COVID-19 pandemic. The doctor’s newfound notoriety came with conservative detractors who argue that pandemic restrictions advocated by Fauci have gone too far. Recently, they’ve intensified their attacks on Fauci.
Earlier this week Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced legislation that would divide Fauci’s position, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), into three separate jobs. Paul’s press release said his amendment would “ensure that ineffective, unscientific lockdowns and mandates are never foisted on the American people ever again.”
Judge Bars DC From Vaccinating Children Without Parental Consent
A federal judge barred the District of Columbia from enforcing a law that allowed minors to be vaccinated without their parents’ knowledge after parents said the legislation violates religious liberty.
In 2020, D.C. passed the Minor Consent to Vaccinations Amendments Act (MCA), which allows children as young as 11 to get vaccines without their parents’ knowledge if a doctor determines that they are capable of informed consent.
In July, two lawsuits took aim at the law. On Friday, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said he would grant preliminary injunctions in both cases blocking the law as he dismissed the city’s arguments defending it.
Where the U.S. Stands on COVID Vaccines for Children Under 5
A month after the US Food and Drug Administration delayed key steps toward authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5, many parents are more eager for the shots than ever. Dr. Daniel Leonard, a pediatric hospitalist who is working on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trial for these kids, said people are driving in from several states away to take part.
Experts say the wait for a vaccine may not be much longer.
Moderna has said that it expects to report trial data in children 2 to 5 years of age in March, and it may seek sign off from the FDA “if the data is supportive and subject to regulatory consultation.” Moderna‘s COVID-19 vaccine is currently authorized in the U.S. only for adults.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Sunday that he expects to have a vaccine for children 6 months to 4 years old “potentially in May, if it works.”
FDA Advisory Panel to Discuss Additional COVID Booster Shots in April
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel will meet April 6 to discuss COVID-19 vaccine booster doses, the agency announced Monday.
The meeting comes amid a renewed debate about who might need booster shots, and the broader goals of the U.S. vaccination campaign. There’s clear evidence that the vaccines’ protection against infection wanes after several months across all age groups. Still, many health experts have questioned the effectiveness of repeat booster shots in younger healthy people.
FDA said the advisory panel will not be discussing any specific applications and no vote is planned. The meeting is aimed at addressing the possibility of variant-specific vaccines, as well as the timing and populations for COVID-19 vaccine booster doses in the coming months.
Not Everyone Needs a Second COVID Booster — Fourth Doses Should Target Those at Risk for Severe Breakthrough Infections
Last week, both Pfizer and Moderna applied for emergency use authorization (EUA) of additional booster doses — in essence, fourth doses — of their COVID-19 vaccines. The companies cite waning protection and believe fourth doses are needed.
While Pfizer has asked for an EUA focused on those above 65 years old, Moderna is seeking one applicable to all adults. It is critical, as we debate COVID-19 vaccine clinical guidance, to be explicit about the goals we are trying to achieve.
Shifting the spectrum of illness to the mild side, to the outpatient side, has become an achievable goal with the medical countermeasures — antivirals, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines — we now have on hand.
With this endpoint in mind, it becomes clear that COVID-19 vaccine booster doses should be targeted to protect those at risk for severe breakthrough infections.
The COVID Vaccine Market Is Getting Crowded — as Demand Begins to Wane
With two new players — Novavax and a Sanofi-GSK partnership — making or about to make their way into the already crowded global COVID vaccine market, the prospects for those still struggling to prove their vaccines are protective are becoming ever slimmer.
It doesn’t help that demand is contracting.
“We think there’s likely going to be long-term ongoing demand for COVID vaccines, for boosters at least,” said Matt Linley, analytics director for Airfinity, a London-based health analytics company that has been closely tracking COVID vaccine development, regulation, sales and usage. “But it will be a lot smaller than it is. We believe it’s kind of peaked.”
Fauci Says U.S. Unlikely to See Surge From New COVID Variant
Chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that he does not think the U.S. will see another surge in COVID-19 cases due to the spread of a new Omicron variant, even though cases are rising in Europe and Asia due to the strain.
Fauci said while appearing on ABC’s “This Week” that the new Omicron strain is about 50 to 60 percent more transmissible than the first Omicron strain, adding that it could take over as the dominant strain in the U.S.
However, he noted that the strain does not appear to cause more severe illness or evade immune responses from vaccination or prior infection.
Workplaces Are in Denial Over How Much Americans Have Changed
Nearly six months before COVID-19, the Yale historian Frank Snowden wrote a book about epidemics and pandemics. What he found was that these periods of suffering reshape not just how societies function, but also how humans want to spend their limited time on Earth.
Two years and a pandemic later, Snowden said COVID-19 has challenged another set of beliefs: how America is supposed to work.
It’s clear that company leaders still want the old version of the all-American work ethic that was dependent on hustle culture and productivity. But I can’t help but wonder whether that’s incompatible with who we’ve become — and, more importantly, the realities of the world in which we live.
Many of us have drastically changed. It’s not just our attitudes toward work and life, but also that our bodies are reacting differently to trauma, stress and even love.
I’m a COVID Nurse. I’m Burned out, My Colleagues Are Coming in Sick, and Some Days, I Just Want to Quit.
I’m a second-year nurse at a Phoenix-area hospital, and I’m finishing my first year in the COVID-19 unit. Despite CDC guidelines advising COVID-positive individuals to quarantine for five days after a positive test, I’m seeing other nurses going back to work within just a few days. That means there are COVID-positive nurses taking care of COVID-positive patients.
My sick colleagues are coming back to work at different times depending on their situation. I was able to get time off specifically for COVID-19 when I was sick, but others weren’t given that option. Then, if they can’t use their paid time off or don’t know about the COVID-19 time off policy — like if one person is having a baby and they don’t want to use up their PTO — they’ll come back before day five.
AstraZeneca COVID Drug Neutralizes Omicron Sub-Variants in Lab Study
AstraZeneca (AZN.L) said on Monday its antibody-based cocktail to prevent and treat COVID-19 retained neutralizing activity against Omicron coronavirus variants, including the highly contagious BA.2 sub-variant, in an independent lab study.
This is the first data looking at the impact of AstraZeneca’s Evusheld treatment on “cousins” of the Omicron variant following a recent global spike in cases. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said in December that another lab study found that Evusheld retained neutralizing activity against Omicron.
Data from the latest study by Washington University in the United States showed the therapy reduced the amount of virus detected in samples — viral load — of all tested Omicron sub-variants in mice lungs, AstraZeneca said. The study has yet to be peer reviewed.
Doctors Finding Hurdles to Using Pills to Treat COVID
High-risk COVID-19 patients now have new treatments they can take at home to stay out of the hospital — if doctors get the pills to them fast enough. Health systems around the country are rushing out same-day prescription deliveries. Some clinics have started testing and treating patients in one visit, an initiative that President Joe Biden’s administration recently touted.
The goal is to get patients started on either Pfizer’s Paxlovid tablets or Merck’s molnupiravir capsules within five days of symptoms appearing. That can prevent people with big health risks from growing sicker and filling up hospitals if another surge develops.
But the tight deadline has highlighted several challenges. Some patients are delaying testing, thinking they just had a cold. Others have been unwilling or unable to try the new drugs.
In Five Days, 86,000 Children Given First Dose of Corbevax Jab in Maharashtra
Around 86,000 children from the 12 to 14 age group have received the first dose of the Corbevax vaccine so far in the state, CoWIN data showed on Sunday.
The Corbevax drive started five days ago, on Wednesday, March 16.
Suryakant Devkar, the chief immunisation officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), said Corbevax is currently being offered at some 30 vaccination sites in Pune city.
Corbevax is a two-dose vaccine schedule given 28 days apart.
