Additional Covid-19 vaccine booster shots are not needed for the general population, leading scientists including two departing senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials and several from the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an article published in a medical journal on Sept. 13.
What is the key to a robust immunity against SARS-CoV-2? According to a study recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine, it could be a previous SARS infection—more specifically, the one that spread across 29 countries between 2002 and 2004—plus vaccination.
In a summary of some recent studies on Covid-19, an arthritis drug cuts the death risk in high-risk patients and heart medications might help prevent Covid-19 blood clots.
A study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases found that the Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines resulted in a drop in “long-haul” Covid-19 by 50 percent. According to data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), more than 500,000 children tested positive in the United States for Covid-19 from August 5 to August 26.
The Covid-19 variant C.1.2., which was first detected in South Africa in May 2021, is causing public health experts worldwide to keep an eye out for its presence as it seems to be more infectious and even more resistant to vaccines than other variants.
The body of real-world evidence around Covid-19 continues to build, and a study released Aug. 26 in The Lancet points to concerning long-term effects for hospital survivors at the one-year mark.
In line with growing concerns that certain Covid-19 vaccines are causing unusual blood clotting problems, a group of scientists from the U.K. conducted a massive study on the link between vaccinations and dropping platelet counts and found that the problem lies more on the virus itself than on the medications.
Research published in Trends in Genetics by Dr. Leslie Lyons, Gilbreath-McLorn endowed professor of comparative medicine at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, could be instrumental to the development of personalized therapeutics for both two-legged and four-legged patients.
The Covid-19 vaccines available in the United States are still highly effective at preventing hospitalization but their effectiveness against new infections has decreased as the Delta variant spread, according to new studies published on Aug. 18 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. A different study suggests children’s noses may be better than adults’ at defending against infection because of “pre-activated” immunity against the coronavirus.
A study in Science shed new light on the global epidemic obesity by evaluating nearly 650,000 exomes from the United Kingdom, United States and Mexico and identifying those with strong implications for body mass or obesity.