Endo International agreed to pay up to $65 million to resolve claims by the state of Florida and local governments that the drugmaker helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.
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.
U.S. households can order four free at-home COVID-19 tests from the website COVIDTests.gov starting on Jan. 19 with shipping expected within seven to 12 days of ordering, the White House said on Jan. 14.
Johnson & Johnson on January 14 said the company agreed to pay $44 million to resolve claims that it fueled the opioid epidemic in New Mexico, a state which originally opted against participating in a nationwide settlement resolving thousands of similar cases.
President Joe Biden on January 13 said he will deploy more military health workers to six U.S. states beginning next week, and give Americans free masks and more free tests to tackle the fast-spreading Omicron variant around the country.
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.
A record 14.1 million Americans signed up for health insurance since the start of the 2022 open enrollment period in November 2021, the U.S. health department said on January 13.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration added another warning to the regulatory agency’s fact sheet for Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. In other news, as the Omicron variant rips through the United States, top health officials have noted that the variant is so contagious that if you come into contact with it, you are likely to catch it.
The spread of COVID-19 in the Americas driven by the Omicron variant of the virus reached levels of transmission never before seen during the pandemic, with cases doubling to 6.1 million over the past week, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on January 12.
