Latest COVID Shots Protect Against Serious Outcomes
The recently updated COVID vaccines showed protection against serious virus-related outcomes in immunocompetent adults, data from the CDC’s IVY and VISION networks showed. From September 2023 to January 2024, vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-related emergency department or urgent care encounters landed at 47% (95% CI 44-50), while protection against hospitalizations associated with the coronavirus ranged […]
COVID-19 Booster Shots Can Wait
Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are proving quite safe and highly effective in the prevention of COVID-19, especially severe and/or fatal disease. Over half of the U.S. population has initiated immunization and more than three out of four people in the U.S. over the age of 65 have completed vaccination. The promising vaccine roll-out and reductions in […]
CDC: Flu Shots Working Moderately Well This Season
Early estimates suggest flu shots are performing OK in the current U.S. winter flu season. The vaccines were around 40% effective in preventing adults from getting sick enough from the flu that they had to go to a doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital, health officials said during a CDC vaccines meeting Wednesday. Children who were […]
Bivalent Vax Protected Kids From Symptomatic COVID
During the 2022-2023 respiratory season, the bivalent COVID vaccines had an effectiveness of 54% against infection and 49% against symptomatic COVID in children and adolescents ages 5 to 17 years, a new study in JAMA showed. In this interview, Melissa Briggs Hagen, MD, MPH, of the CDC’s Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, discusses the […]
‘End of This Phase’: Trial Halts Testing of HIV Vaccine Candidates
The PrEPVacc trial has stopped administering two investigational HIV vaccines that showed no efficacy in preventing infection, investigators announced on Wednesday during the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa in Zimbabwe. “Vaccinations to PrEPVacc trial participants have been stopped because an analysis of the data collected so far by our Independent Data Monitoring […]
New COVID Shots Are Coming. Here’s What They Do And Who’s Eligible.
aire images via Getty Images “The vaccines are our single best method to protect ourselves from COVID, to protect our friends, family, loved ones, classmates, co-workers, etcetera, from COVID,” said Dr. S. Wesley Long. This week, updated COVID-19 booster shots — one shot by Pfizer and one shot by Moderna — were approved by the […]
Next COVID Vaccine Should Only Target XBB Strains, FDA Staff Says
The next COVID vaccines should exclude the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and exclusively target the Omicron XBB subvariants, according to FDA staff members. They unveiled their recommendation in a briefing document ahead of Thursday’s meeting of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), stating that “the totality of available evidence suggests that […]
Reclaiming the Health Misinformation Spiral on Social Media
As medical students and future pediatricians, we recognize that childhood vaccines are one of the single greatest public health achievements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Yet, for one of us, a pregnant cousin announced over the Thanksgiving dinner table that she wasn’t going to vaccinate her unborn child. No matter the facts, research, or […]
COVID Risk Up to 50% Higher for Nursing Home Residents Behind on Vaccination
Nursing home residents who were not up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines had a 30% to 50% higher risk of getting infected compared with those who were up to date, CDC researchers said. From Oct. 10, 2022 to Jan. 8, 2023, weekly COVID incidence rates ranged from 7.2 to 15.6 per 1,000 nursing home […]
More And More People Have ‘Lifestyle Fatigue.’ Maybe You Do, Too.
Even though we’re armed with COVID-19 vaccines and updated booster shots, the world is still largely in a different (and oft-worried) place compared with before the pandemic. This, experts say, can lead to a feeling of malaise — or “lifestyle fatigue,” in the words of Sean Grover, a psychotherapist who writes for Psychology Today. Lifestyle […]