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Texas Family Waits for Recourse After 21-Year-Old’s Rare, Severe Reaction to COVID Vaccine
Corpus Christi Caller Times reported:
A Texas family has been in limbo for six months since seeking help from a government program to cover medical bills for a 21-year-old man who suffered a rare, severe reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine. Kartik Bhakta’s reaction to the vaccine, the ensuing medical bills and the family’s long wait for some recourse have been “like a hell,” his father Mukesh Bhakta said.
Nausea and vomiting set in two hours after Kartik received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on April 19, 2021. He’d been in good health the day before; he had no other medical conditions and had not been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Next came back pain and a severe rash. A couple of days after taking the shot, Kartik had blood in his urine. He was admitted to the hospital — and would stay there for 3 months. He developed cataracts and tinnitus in both ears that progressed to deafness; his kidney failure grew worse. He then developed neuropathy, which his doctors said might have been induced by steroids.
Moderna Expects at Least $19 Billion in COVID Vaccine Sales in 2022, Reports Big Fourth-Quarter Earnings Beat
Moderna on Thursday said it expects to sell at least $19 billion of its COVID-19 vaccine this year, after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that blew out analysts’ earnings and revenue estimates.
Moderna stock rose 11.4% in morning trading. The company’s 2022 forecast for vaccine sales was $2 billion higher than its previous expectation. Moderna previously said it expected $17 billion in vaccine sales this year.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told analysts on an earnings call Thursday morning that the $19 billion only reflects signed purchase agreements and doesn’t count its potential U.S. sales yet since the federal government hasn’t signed advanced purchase agreements for 2022.
The Time to Address the Student Mental Health Crisis Is Now
One of the most damaging impacts of the pandemic is the toll it has taken on our nation’s students — many of whom are struggling with feelings of grief, anxiety, isolation and depression brought on by the enormous difficulties of this pandemic.
COVID-19 has only exacerbated the numerous challenges that our students have faced over the past few years.
Nationally, nearly two out of every three young people have expressed feeling down or depressed during the pandemic. In 2020, in Nevada’s Clark County School District alone students died by suicide at a rate twice that of the year prior. These are not just statistics; these are 20 children — from fourth grade up through high school — who will never get to live out their futures, and families and communities devastated with unimaginable pain and grief.
CDC Right to Withhold COVID Data to Prevent Misinformation, Scientists Say
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made headlines this week after a report highlighted that it does not always publish all the COVID data it collects from states.
One particular dataset that had not been made public related to the effectiveness of booster vaccines in 18- to 49-year-olds, which is the group least likely to benefit from them, according to the paper. That data was later published after multiple inquiries.
Multiple outside experts have told Newsweek that it is important for the CDC to ensure that the data it collects is complete, interpreted and properly representative of reality before it’s published — otherwise it risks breeding misinformation.
EMA Backs Pfizer COVID Booster for Teens, Moderna Shot for Ages 6 to 11
The European Union’s health regulator on Thursday backed giving a booster shot of Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents aged 12 and over, as well as the expanded use of Moderna‘s (MRNA.O) shot in children ages 6 to 11.
The recommendations by the European Medicine Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use will be followed by final decisions by the European Commission.
The moves come after several EU countries already started to offer booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to teens.
17,000 Physicians and Medical Scientists Declare ‘COVID National Emergency Over’ and Call on Congress to Restore Constitutional Democracy by Ending Emergency Powers
After two years of scientific research, clinical data and evidence from frontline medical professionals treating hundreds of thousands of patients, the international alliance of more than 17,000 physicians and medical scientists have concluded that the highly treatable COVID-19 illness, which is better addressed with natural immunity and proven medication, no longer requires national emergency status.
Vaccines have failed to reduce spread of COVID-19 and pose several health risks, while natural immunity for children and healthy adults has proven more effective. Moreover, treatment protocols that use well-studied, FDA approved medications are now proven to be effective in preventing severe illness and death from COVID-19.
With the success of treatments and broad natural immunity amidst waning strength of COVID-19 variants, there is no longer a credible need for a national emergency in the U.S.
Moderna Says COVID Is Entering an Endemic Phase, but Annual Vaccines Will Be Needed
Senior executives at Moderna on Thursday said COVID-19 is shifting from a pandemic to an endemic phase in some parts of the world, with regions in the Northern Hemisphere hopefully entering a period of relative stability.
North America, Europe, most of Asia and much of Africa are in the Northern Hemisphere. However, Burton said Moderna is closely monitoring the trajectory of the virus in the Southern Hemisphere, which includes large nations such as Brazil and South Africa, as winter approaches there.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC on Thursday that although COVID is entering an endemic phase in some parts of the world, people will need another booster shot in the fall. This is particularly true for individuals over 50 and those who are at high risk due to underlying health conditions, he said.
German Health Insurer Reveals ‘Alarming’ Underreporting of Vaccine Side Effects
A large German health insurance provider revealed on Wednesday that COVID-19 vaccine side effects are vastly underreported, according to Welt.
BKK ProVita board member Andreas Schöfbeck called the data an “alarm signal,” adding that “the numbers determined are significant and urgently need to be checked for plausibility.”
“The data available to our company gives us reason to believe that there is a very considerable under-recording of suspected cases of vaccination side effects after they received the [COVID-19] vaccine.”
“If these figures are applied to the year as a whole and to” the entire population of Germany, Schöfbeck estimated, then “probably 2.5 to 3 million people in Germany have been under medical treatment because of vaccination side effects after [COVID-19] vaccination.”
COVID Shots, Drugs Position U.S. to Ease Limits, Fauci Says
COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests are putting the U.S. in an improved position to pull back on restrictions such as masking that were enacted to limit the spread of the virus, White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said.
COVID drugs like Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid that keep high-risk patients from hospitalization and death are becoming plentiful as production ramps up, Fauci said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “The Close.”
Many states have already dropped rules for mask-wearing, and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are poised to update federal masking guidelines as cases driven by the omicron variant plummet across the country.
122 Countries on Track to Miss COVID Vaccine Goal
According to latest estimates by Our World in Data, large parts of the world are likely to fall short of the WHO’s vaccination target.
Looking at current coverage and the rate of new vaccinations over the past 14 days, the researchers find that 122 countries are currently on a trajectory to miss the 70% vaccination goal by the end of June 2022, while 34 countries are on track to meet the target.
U.S. FDA Limits Use of GlaxoSmithKline-Vir COVID Drug
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and Vir Biotech’s (VIR.O) COVID-19 antibody treatment should not be used in places with circulation of variants that are not susceptible to the drug.
Vir has said the drug, sotrovimab, retains neutralizing activity against the emerging BA.2 form of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
However, other recent research suggests that the variant showed resistance to nearly all of the monoclonal antibodies they tested, including sotrovimab.
J&J Says It Nears Vaccine Licensing Deal With S. Africa’s Aspen
U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) is close to a vaccine licensing deal with South African group Aspen Pharmacare (APNJ.J), a senior J&J executive told a conference in Nigeria on Wednesday.
In November, Aspen signed non-binding terms with subsidiaries of J&J, saying this was a step towards a licensing deal for Aspen to package and sell J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine in Africa.
