Covid News

The FDA issued an EUA for the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted for the prevention of COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older.

Driven by Omicron sub-variants, country-level hotspots are now peppered across the globe. Yesterday, the WHO reported cases are on the rise in 110 countries, causing overall global cases to increase by 30% over the past two weeks. Of course, these numbers and country-level comparisons are only as accurate as testing and reporting.

Moderna said on Wednesday its bivalent Covid-19 vaccine booster that contained a vaccine targeting the Omicron variant showed a stronger immune response against the variant.

Agency urged to authorize fourth U.S. vaccine despite some concern about rare heart inflammation as a side effect

The global average of reported cases and deaths continue to decline across the world. There are a few exceptions, most notably in Taiwan, Portugal, Australia, and the United States. It’s not entirely clear if we can continue to judge the global situation by comparing per capita case rates across countries. Many countries are winding down systematic testing efforts and enormous country-to-country variability exists regarding at-home antigen testing, like availability, usage, and official reporting. The true story will soon (if not already) be inaccurately reflected in the case graphs that we’ve become so accustomed to following.

Objective To estimate associations between covid-19 vaccination and long covid symptoms in adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection before vaccination. Design Observational cohort study. Setting Community dwelling population, UK. Participants 28 356 participants in the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey aged 18-69 years who received at least one dose of an adenovirus vector or mRNA covid-19 vaccine after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Main outcome measure Presence of long covid symptoms at least 12 weeks after infection over the follow-up period 3 February to 5 September 2021. Results Mean age of participants was 46 years, 55.6% (n=15 760) were women, and 88.7% (n=25 141) were of white ethnicity. Median follow-up was 141 days from first vaccination (among all participants) and 67 days from second vaccination (83.8% of participants). 6729 participants (23.7%) reported long covid symptoms of any severity at least once during follow-up. A first vaccine dose was associated with an initial 12.8% decrease (95% confidence interval −18.6% to −6.6%, P<0.001) in the odds of long covid, with subsequent data compatible with both increases and decreases in the trajectory (0.3% per week, 95% confidence interval −0.6% to 1.2% per week, P=0.51). A second dose was associated with an initial 8.8% decrease (95% confidence interval −14.1% to −3.1%, P=0.003) in the odds of long covid, with a subsequent decrease by 0.8% per week (−1.2% to −0.4% per week, P<0.001). Heterogeneity was not found in associations between vaccination and long covid by sociodemographic characteristics, health status, hospital admission with acute covid-19, vaccine type (adenovirus vector or mRNA), or duration from SARS-CoV-2 infection to vaccination. Conclusions The likelihood of long covid symptoms was observed to decrease after covid-19 vaccination and evidence suggested sustained improvement after a second dose, at least over the median follow-up of 67 days. Vaccination may contribute to a reduction in the population health burden of long covid, although longer follow-up is needed. Deidentified study data are available to accredited researchers in the ONS Secure Research Service under part 5, chapter 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017. For further information about accreditation, contact research.support@ons.gov.uk or visit [ons.gov.uk/aboutus/whatwedo/statistics/requestingstatistics/approvedresearcherscheme][1]. [1]: http://ons.gov.uk/aboutus/whatwedo/statistics/requestingstatistics/approvedresearcherscheme

A sneaky provision in a licensure bill would stop pharmacists from consulting with patients about “safe and effective” use of the drug.

A comprehensive view of global deaths directly and indirectly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic with trends for regions and income groups.