Coronavirus vaccines are known to be less protective in people with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, such as former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died on Oct. 18 of complications from Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Additionally, in a paper in the journal Stem Cell Reports, researchers said numerous businesses have made unsubstantiated and inaccurate claims about supposed stem cell products to treat Covid-19.
Valneva SE on Oct. 18 said the company’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated efficacy “at least as good, if not better” than AstraZeneca’s shot in a late-stage trial comparing the two, with significantly fewer adverse side effects.
Outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Oct. 15 unanimously recommended the regulatory agency authorize a second shot of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine for all recipients of the one-dose inoculation.
A panel of expert advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unanimously voted on Oct. 14 to recommend booster shots of Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness or occupational exposure to the virus.
People who got Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine as a first shot had a stronger immune response when boosted with vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna, a study run by the National Institutes of Health showed on Oct. 13.
People who received Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine will have a stronger neutralizing antibody response if they get an mRNA shot as the second dose, Axios reported on Oct. 12, citing a person who has seen data collected by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Russia will test a nasal spray form of the Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 among adult volunteers, according to a state document published on Oct. 12, as the country struggles to rein in rising numbers of infections and deaths.
Scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Oct. 12 that Moderna Inc. had not met all of the regulatory agency’s criteria to support use of booster doses of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, possibly because the efficacy of the shot’s first two doses has remained strong.
CureVac NV said on Oct. 12 the company will give up on the biotechnology firm’s first-generation Covid-19 vaccine candidate and instead focus on collaborating with GSK to develop improved mRNA vaccine technology.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the preferred Covid-19 shot globally is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
