There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on January 18.
Merck & Co. Inc. and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP said on January 18 they had signed an agreement with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to supply up to 3 million courses of their COVID-19 antiviral pill.
Moderna Inc.’s vaccine candidate against the Omicron coronavirus variant will enter clinical development in the next few weeks and the company expects to be able to share data with regulators around March, CEO Stephane Bancel said on Jan. 17.
Speaking with French newspaper Le Figaro, Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said he believes the world will “return to normal life” sometime during the spring of 2022.
A fourth shot of COVID-19 vaccine boosts antibodies to even higher levels than the third jab but it is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, according to a preliminary study in Israel.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 14 revised the CDC’s guidance for Americans on wearing masks to protect against COVID-19, recommending donning “the most protective mask you can” while stopping short of advocating nationwide usage of N95 respirators.
The COVAX global vaccine-sharing program has delivered 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, one of the organizations which manages it said on January 15.
After a five-day quarantine, about a third of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 might still be infectious, according to new data. In other news, according to research published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, e-cigarette users infected with the coronavirus may be more likely than infected non-vapers to experience COVID-19 symptoms
A Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine booster shot is 85 percent effective in protecting against being hospitalized by the Omicron variant for 1-2 months after the shot is received, the head of South Africa’s Medical Research Council (SAMRC) said on January 14.
Poorer nations during December 2021 rejected more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the global program COVAX, mainly due to their rapid expiration date, a UNICEF official said on January 13.