Category: Vaccine Headlines
Do China’s COVID vaccines do the job?
(NPR) As COVID spreads rapidly through China, rumors circulate about the effectiveness and safety of the Chinese-manufactured vaccines. But what does the scientific data actually say about these shots? China is in the midst of a huge COVID surge. The country rolled back COVID restrictions last month. Now scientists estimate China could be facing more […]
Jan 3, 2023
Cancer Patients Particularly Vulnerable to Lack of COVID Vax Response
(MedPageToday) Cancer patients vaccinated against COVID-19 had a significantly higher rate of negative antibody tests as compared with a vaccinated control population, greatly increasing the odds for breakthrough infection and hospitalization, a large British study showed. Among people who had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, 4.68% of 4,249 tests for patients with cancer had […]
Jan 3, 2023
The Magic of mRNA Will Push Medical Advances for Everyone
(Wired) mRNA is one of the first molecules of life. While identified six decades ago as the carrier of the blueprint for proteins in living cells, its pharmaceutical potential was long underestimated. mRNA appeared unpromising—too unstable, too weak in potency, and too inflammatory. The successful development of the first mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 in 2020 was an […]
Dec 30, 2022
Uganda receives second batch of Ebola vaccines
(Pulse) The World Health Organisation (WHO) explains that there are currently no licensed vaccines for the Sudan strain of the virus that caused the infections in Uganda, adding that the trial is to determine whether any of the vaccines are effective in combating the Sudan strain.
Dec 27, 2022
COVID-19 vaccine patent battles continue into 2023
(Reuters) A tangle of high-stakes U.S. patent disputes over COVID-19 vaccines could be tamed by court rulings or grow even more complex next year. In the headlining fight, Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech in August, accusing them of infringing three patents on mRNA-related innovations Moderna said it developed before the COVID-19 pandemic. Pfizer and BioNTech responded earlier this month […]
Dec 27, 2022
As Covid Deaths Climb, Even Seniors Skip the Latest Booster
(NYT) Nearly all Americans over 65 got their initial Covid vaccines. But that immunity is waning, and this time, the government is offering far less support for new shots.
Dec 27, 2022
Vaccination rates are falling, and it’s not just the COVID-19 vaccine that people are refusing
(Nature) Vaccines offer a potent armour against infectious diseases that once carried a heavy toll of mortality and morbidity, particularly among children. Gaps were already forming in that armour in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. But amid stagnating vaccination rates, the pandemic acted like a shotgun, punching many more holes in humanity’s defences against […]
Dec 20, 2022
Coronavirus boosters cut hospitalization risk by at least 50%, CDC data shows
(Washington Post) Adults who received the updated coronavirus booster shots are better protected against severe disease than those who haven’t, cutting their risk of having to visit an emergency room or being hospitalized with covid-19 by 50 percent or more,according to new federal data. Two reports released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention give […]
Dec 20, 2022
We’ve run out of cholera vaccines, WHO official says as disease surges
(Reuters) The global stockpile of cholera vaccines the World Health Organization helps manage is “currently empty or extremely low”, a WHO official said on Friday amid a resurgence of the disease around the world. The U.N. health agency says global fatality rates are rising and there are around 30 countries around the world that have […]
Dec 16, 2022
Two Years of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccines Have Prevented Millions of Hospitalizations and Deaths
(Commonwealth Fund) It has been two years since the first COVID-19 vaccine was given to a patient in the United States. Since then, the U.S. has administered more than 655 million doses — 80 percent of the population has received at least one dose — with the cumulative effect of preventing more than 18 million […]
Dec 13, 2022