LONDON – The latest data from the large-scale randomized U.K. COVID-19 infection survey confirm vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is now dominant across the U.S., Europe and elsewhere in the world.
The Biden administration’s rollout of a COVID-19 booster plan before the FDA has even approved a booster admittedly is a “judgment call,” U.S. health officials acknowledged Aug. 18. But rather than a judgment call, “the introduction of booster doses should be evidence-driven and targeted to the population groups in greatest need,” the World Health Organization advised in an interim statement issued a week before the White House COVID-19 Response Team’s announcement.
LONDON – The latest data from the large-scale randomized U.K. COVID-19 infection survey confirm vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is now dominant across the U.S., Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Plans for offering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in the U.S. took a big step forward Aug. 18, as Health and Human Services (HHS) public health and medical experts laid out their intention to offer booster shots across the country for people 18 and older beginning the week of Sept. 20 and starting eight months after an individual's second dose.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) deliberated the matter of third COVID-19 shots, with panel members voting whether to recommend “additional doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as part of a primary [two-shot] series” in certain immunocompromised patients. A work group set up by ACIP decided previously that the desirable consequences outweighed undesirable ones in such a population.
The FDA has made allowances for a third COVID-19 vaccine dose to protect certain adults with compromised immune systems. The amended emergency use authorization amendments allow for booster doses of mRNA vaccines from Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE and Moderna Inc.
According to the White House, the FDA is poised to allow COVID-19 booster shots from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., the two mRNA vaccines, but only for those people with compromised immune systems. The FDA announcement was anticipated to be as early as today, Aug. 12, and the boosters could be available as quickly as this coming weekend.
LONDON – Stopping people under 40 from receiving Astrazeneca plc’s COVID-19 vaccine has put an end to the serious blood-clotting syndrome associated with the product, with no new cases in the U.K. for the past four weeks, according to an expert panel of hematologists.
LONDON – The U.K. has set up the first randomized controlled trial of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant women, to assess different dosing schedules. The aim is to find the balance between longer intervals that are known to spur a greater immune response, against shorter intervals that provide faster protection.
PERTH, Australia – Australia was one of the first nations to slam its borders shut during the pandemic, praising its efforts in containing COVID-19 infections.
