Miss a day, miss a lot. Subscribe to The Defender's Top News of the Day. It's free.

COVID Vaccine Prompts Strong Immune Response in Younger Children, Pfizer Says

The New York Times reported:

The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be safe and highly effective in young children aged 5 to 11 years, the companies announced early Monday morning. The news should help ease months of anxiety among parents and teachers about when children, and their close contacts, might be shielded from the coronavirus.

The need is urgent: Children now account for more than one in five new cases, and the highly contagious Delta variant has sent more children into hospitals and intensive care units in the past few weeks than at any other time in the pandemic.

Pfizer and BioNTech plan to apply to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the month for authorization to use the vaccine in these children. If the regulatory review goes as smoothly as it did for older children and adults, millions of elementary school students could be inoculated before Halloween.

Vaccinate Teens Without Parental Consent, City Child Welfare Agency Says

The City reported:

The city’s child welfare agency has given the green light to administer COVID-19 vaccines to more than 600 minors living in certain juvenile detention and foster homes, including when their parents say no.

The Administration for Children’s Services told partner nonprofit groups earlier this month that they are free to get 16- and 17-year-olds inoculated with the vaccine — “even if a parent cannot be located or affirmatively objects.”

ACS is lumping the Pfizer shot under “routine medical care” that many parents have already given blanket consent to, and clearing care providers to proceed with the shots even in the absence of overall consent.

Key Data on U.S. J&J, Moderna COVID Boosters Weeks Away, Fauci Says

Reuters reported:

Data needed to determine the advisability of booster shots of the Moderna Inc (MRNA.O)and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) COVID-19 vaccines is just weeks away, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.

Health officials signaled they expected boosters would ultimately be recommended for a broad swath of the population, but urged Americans not to seek booster doses until they have FDA approval.

COVID Origins Probe: The Lancet Does U-Turn Over Lab-Leak Theory

Economic Times reported:

After facing backlash for its coverage of origins of the COVID pandemic, the much acclaimed scientific journal —  The Lancet has now published an ‘alternative view’ from 16 scientists.

The international team of health experts, in the open letter, make an appeal for “objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2”.

COVID: Vaccine Volunteers Sought for Children’s Second Dose Study

BBC News reported:

A trial to test how well second doses of different coronavirus vaccines work in children is looking for volunteers.

Scientists want to see if giving two doses of different vaccines gives as good an immune response as two doses of the same vaccine.

The study, running at University Hospital Southampton, is looking for 360 volunteers aged 12-16 to take part.

Former FDA Commissioner Said the 6-Feet Social Distancing Rule Is ‘Arbitrary’ and ‘Nobody Knows Where It Came From’

Insider reported:

During a September 19 “Face the Nation” appearance, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb made some claims regarding the CDC guidelines that we all stand six feet apart to prevent the spread of COVID-19 via social distancing.

“The six feet rule was arbitrary in and of itself,” he told interviewer Margaret Brennan. “Nobody knows where it came from. Most people assume that the six feet of distance, the recommendation for keeping six feet apart, comes out of some old studies related to flu, where droplets don’t travel more than six feet,” he added.

COVID: First 12- to 15-Year-Olds to Get Jabbed and Booster Invites Sent Out

Sky News reported:

The coronavirus vaccine programme is stepping up with jabs being offered to children aged between 12 and 15 and booster invites sent to around 1.5 million people in England.

Three million youngsters are eligible across the U.K. with vaccines being delivered primarily within schools.

AstraZeneca Vaccine Highly Likely Triggered Fatal Thrombosis Case

RTL Today reported:

The death of a woman in mid-April who suffered from thrombosis after receiving the first dose of an AstraZeneca vaccine was most likely triggered by the vaccine, the public prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

On the night of 9 to 10 April, the 74-year-old woman passed away, two weeks after being vaccinated with AstraZeneca. A causal link is now considered highly probable.

At the time there was only word of a possible relationship between the woman’s death and the vaccine. But the official autopsy carried out by the National Health Laboratory and the Universitätsmedizin Greifswald in Germany concluded that it was highly likely the vaccine triggered the case of thrombosis.

New York City Public Schools to Increase COVID Testing, Relax Quarantine Rules

CBS New York reported:

New York City is ramping up COVID testing at schools and relaxing quarantining rules. This comes after the first school had to close for a week due to a cluster of cases among staff.

Students from Public School 79 in East Harlem were asked to stay home this week after nearly 20 cases were confirmed. The Department of Education said all of the cases occurred within staff members.