As the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to evolve, drugmakers are racing to adapt their vaccines to the changes in the virus’ genetic code that appear to help it escape our immune defenses. Of the three “variants of concern” recognized by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control […]
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added several new medical conditions to its list of those that predispose adults to more severe COVID-19 illness. Conditions that had previously been categorized as “might be” placing individuals at increased risk — but now are listed as high risk — […]
The most probable origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was an intermediary animal host, states a joint report from the World Health Organization and experts from China and 10 other countries. They said intermediary hosts were “likely to very likely” to have transmitted the virus to humans. Similar viruses have been […]
Most of the coronavirus-related deaths in the US were avoidable, Deborah Birx, MD, the coronavirus response coordinator under former President Donald Trump, told CNN. Birx and several doctors who ran the pandemic response spoke with Sanjay Gupta, MD, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, for a documentary called “COVID WAR: The Pandemic […]
Phase III clinical trials show that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is 100% effective in protecting children 12-15 years old from infection, the company said in a news release. The study enrolled 2,260 adolescents ages 12-15. No infections were reported in the group given the vaccine produced by Pfizer and its European […]
Summary What is already known about this topic? During 2020, approximately 375,000 U.S. deaths were attributed to COVID-19. What is added by this report? Among 378,048 death certificates from 2020 listing COVID-19, 5.5% listed COVID-19 without codes for any other conditions. Among 357,133 death certificates with at least one other […]
Are SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern behind the recent jump in COVID-19 cases in states such as Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York? Does the relaxation of public health protection measures play a role as well? It depends on whom you ask. Anthony Fauci, MD, cautioned that the recent rise […]
Post-hoc analysis of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine efficacy against B.1.1.7 variant shows reduced neutralisation activity compared with a non-B.1.1.7 variant in vitro, but supports ongoing use of the vaccine in vaccination programmes given degree of efficacy. Read https://hubs.li/H0KdKSs0 In a linked Comment, Rogier Sanders and Menno de Jong suggest the early […]
Canada paused use of the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine on Monday for people under age 55 after concerns linked to rare blood clots, according to The Associated Press. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization, the vaccine advisory group in Canada, recommended the pause for safety reasons. “There is substantial […]
People previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed higher antibody and T-cell responses after one dose of Pfizer’s BNT162b2 messenger (mRNA) vaccine compared with people who had a first dose without previously contracting the virus, according to research led by the universities of Sheffield and Oxford. The early findings from the Protective […]
