A large study into rare blood clots linked with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine found between just one and three cases per million, and only after the first dose, shedding fresh light on the side effects from the shot.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is under fire for failing to publish large swaths of hospitalization data related to the COVID-19 pandemic that the organization has collected but failed to make public.
Synairgen’s inhalable therapy failed in late-stage trial testing in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, wiping out over 85% of the British drugmaker’s stock value on February 21 after the blow to the development of the company’s key product.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lot of talk about the “new normal,” with most people wanting to get back to the “old normal.” Two-plus years into the pandemic, it’s obvious that COVID-19 is not going away, prompting discussion about what this “new normal” will actually look like.
Washington, D.C. will no longer require people show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter many businesses beginning on February 15, its mayor said, joining a slew of local leaders who are dialing back pandemic restrictions as the Omicron wave ebbs.
The immune response to COVID-19 helps protect against reinfection, but that protection is weaker against Omicron than it was against earlier variants of the coronavirus, according to new data. In other news, protection provided by booster shots of the mRNA vaccines from Moderna Inc. or Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE starts waning quickly, according to data published in Feb. 11th’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
China’s medical products regulator said on February 12 it has given conditional approval for Pfizer’s COVID-19 drug Paxlovid, the first oral pill specifically developed to treat the disease to be cleared in the country.
With COVID-19 cases still high nationwide, “now is not the moment” to drop mask mandates in schools and other public places, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Reuters on February 8.
A new study by the American Stroke Association found that the risk of stroke in adults with COVID-19 between the ages of 65 to 74 was highest the first three days after diagnosis. Additionally, investigators at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center ran tests on primates and found that updating COVID-19 vaccines to focus on the Omicron variant may not provide much benefit.
Eli Lilly said on Jan. 28 the company expects the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to decline the approval of expanded use of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant as a treatment for adults with moderate-to-severe eczema.
