Plans for the first test of whether Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill known as Paxlovid can alleviate Long Covid were unveiled last week, as organizers said they expect to begin recruiting 1700 volunteers in January 2023. Patient groups and researchers have long sought such a trial to study whether suppressing the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus can reduce Long COVID’s debilitating …
Pfizer set to test new COVID-19 pill on long-covid patients Read More »
BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are among the more than 300 sub-lineages of the Omicron variant circulating globally, 95 percent of which are direct descendants of BA.5, according to the WHO. In early July, BA.5 became the dominant subvariant of the coronavirus circulating in the United States, but in October it started giving way to BQ.1 and …
More than 300 Omicron variants in circulation globally Read More »
Despite the fact that they’re driving a spurt in COVID cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) says XBB and BQ.1 are not different enough from each other, or from other Omicron lineages, to warrant labelling them new variants of concern. Variants of concern are those that show increased transmissibility, virulence or change in clinical disease, …
WHO reluctant to label new Omicron strains as variants of concern Read More »
COVID, the new pandemic has made an old one worse. After many years of slow but steady decline, the number of deaths from tuberculosis (TB) is rising again. www.economist.com/international/2022/10/27/how-one-pandemic-made-another-one-worse? According to figures published on October 27 by the WHO’s Global TB Programme, the death toll from tuberculosis was 1.6m in 2021, a rise of 14 …
The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine last Wednesday in what appears to be a world first. www.pbs.org/newshour/world/china-begins-administering-inhalable-covid-19-vaccine-boosters? The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated people, according to an announcement on an official city social …
Wuhan, locked down one of its central districts after Covid cases were found, as China persists with a zero-tolerance approach to the virus almost three years since the pathogen first emerged in the city. The roughly 900,000 residents of Hanyang district were told to stay in their homes from Wednesday, a spokeswoman from the area’s …
Twitter exploded with outrage last week about a study in which scientists engineered the spike protein of Omicron—the fast-spreading but relatively mild variant of SARS-CoV-2 that’s now pervasive—into a deadlier strain of the coronavirus found in Washington state early in the pandemic. www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-climate-justice-ethical-mask-wearers-and-cdc-under-trump The objective was to learn whether the protein alone explains Omicron’s lower …
Moderna Inc. will provide as many as 100 million doses of COVID-19 shots that specifically target variants for vaccine alliance GAVI to distribute in lower-income countries in 2023. Under the agreement, Moderna will supply these mRNA variant-targeting shots for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, at the lowest of its tiered prices. The shots will then be …
Moderna will provide 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Gavi Read More »
Independent advisers of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted 15-0 last Thursday to add most COVID-19 vaccines offered in the US to the childhood, adolescent and adult immunization schedules. www.politico.com/news/2022/10/20/cdc-advisers-recommend-adding-covid-shots-to-routine-schedules-for-kids-adults-00062739? The immunization schedules, which are updated every autumn before going into effect the following year, consolidate all of the CDC’s vaccine …
CDC votes to add COVID-19 vaccines to child immunisation schedules Read More »
Chinese President Xi Jinping touted his country’s “zero-COVID” strategy at the just concluded Communist Party’s National Congress, dashing any hopes that China’s rigid regime of quarantines, mass testing, and lockdowns may soon come to an end. www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-climate-justice-ethical-mask-wearers-and-cdc-under-trump The strategy has crimped the economy, and public health experts say the obstacles to lifting it are now …
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