The Delta variant of the coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe disease in children than earlier forms of the virus, a UK study suggests. Another study found that in Covid-19 survivors, important components of the body’s immune response called memory B cells continue to evolve and get stronger for at least several months, producing highly potent antibodies that can neutralize new variants of the virus.
AstraZeneca requested emergency use authorization from U.S. regulators for the company’s new treatment to prevent Covid-19 for people who respond poorly to vaccines because of a weakened immune system.
Johnson & Johnson is expected to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize a booster for the company’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine this week. In other news, President Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNBC that they expect the FDA to review data on Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ new oral antiviral against Covid-19 “as quickly as they possibly can.”
A World Health Organization (WHO) panel on Sept. 24 recommended the use of Regeneron and Roche’s Covid-19 antibody cocktail for patients at high risk of hospitalizations and those severely ill with no natural antibodies.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Sept. 16 it has revised the FDA’s emergency use authorization for Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 antibody cocktail to include for use in patients who have been exposed to the virus and are at high risk for progression to severe disease.
A study published in Nature Communications reveals that patients who had been hospitalized with severe Covid-19 might not be totally safe after recovery, as they are more likely to harbor self-attacking antibodies than those who did not have the virus.
Eli Lilly said on Sept. 15 the U.S. government bought 388,000 additional doses of the company’s Covid-19 antibody therapy and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said on Sept. 14 the U.S. government was buying 1.4 million additional doses of the Covid-19 antibody cocktail REGEN-COV., as infections surge due to the fast-spreading Delta variant.
A study of 614 fully vaccinated health workers in India found a “significant” drop in their Covid-fighting antibodies within four months of the first shot.
Data from Johns Hopkins University demonstrate that daily Covid-19 infections increased 316 percent from Labor Day 2020, or about four times more.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Belgium researchers comparing the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines found that the Moderna jabs generated twice the antibodies as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
