Ahead of the G7 summit next month in the United Kingdom, UNICEF today put out an urgent call for leaders to pool their excess COVID-19 vaccine capacity to make up for a 125-million-dose gap in the COVAX program. The plea, which comes as the B1617 and other variants are sparking fresh surges in several countries, …
UN agencies make urgent appeal for COVAX vaccine doses Read More »
Comorbidities, racial disparity found in homeless hospital COVID patients Almost two thirds of homeless patients hospitalized for COVID-19 were of non-White descent and more than 80% had at least one comorbidity, according to a descriptive study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases yesterday. The researchers analyzed 199 COVID-hospitalized adults who were experiencing homelessness out of …
Convalescent plasma given to hospitalized COVID-19 patients did not improve survival or rates of release from the hospital within 28 days, need for invasive mechanical ventilation, or death, according to the most recent findings of the Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial in the United Kingdom. The results, published late last week in The …
Plasma from recovered patients found not helpful for COVID hospital patients Read More »
While states continue to relax COVID-19 mitigation measures, concerns about vaccine uptake continue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) announcement that people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not have to use masks in most settings has prompted some states to drop mask mandates. Others, however, have said they need to take time to …
Mixed reactions to CDC’s revised COVID mask mandate Read More »
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines trigger an immune response in pregnant and breastfeeding women, and maternal antibodies transfer into infant cord blood and breast milk, a small descriptive study yesterday in JAMA finds. A team led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researchers in Boston assessed immune response in a convenience sample of 103 pregnant, lactating, and …
COVID mRNA vaccines induce immune response in pregnant, lactating women Read More »
Adults 50 and older who received doses of both the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines reported more mild and moderate side effects than those given only one type of two-dose vaccine, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet. The descriptive findings could help inform countries’ decisions about how to proceed with second doses after …
More side effects noted after using 2 different COVID vaccines Read More »
Most long-haul COVID-19 patients younger, healthier, Mayo Clinic says The inaugural cohort of Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation Program (CARP) for post–COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) were mostly women, younger, had few pre-existing comorbidities, and experienced milder forms of COVID-19, but only a third were able to return to full-time work. The descriptive study, published in Mayo …
Today during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) a group of independent experts voted 14-0 to recommend using Pfizer’s two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 12 to 15 years old. This was the last green-light needed for the vaccine, which can now be administered to all people 12 and up, …
CDC advisers green-light COVID vaccine in young teens Read More »
Eight of 10 hospitalized COVID-19 patients developed neurologic complications and were six times more likely than their peers to die, according to early results from a global study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. Many of the conditions were mild to moderate, but half of the patients had altered brain function or structure, and almost …
Study: 80% of hospital COVID-19 patients have neurologic complications Read More »
Postpartum depression associated with COVID-19 lockdown Twice as many mothers with babies 6 months or younger reported postpartum depression during the first UK COVID-19–related lockdown, according to a Frontiers in Psychology study yesterday. University College London (UCL) researchers surveyed 162 London mothers in May and June 2020 (about 1.5 to 3 months into the lockdown) …