The anti-vaccine movement may have reached new heights during the coronavirus pandemic, but it isn’t anything new.

In fact, its origins can be traced back more than 150 years, when rebellions broke out over the decision to make smallpox vaccinations mandatory in the UK.

Here, i explores the history of anti-vax arguments – and how Governments have tried to tackle them.

Medical experts say the arguments used by anti-vaccination movements have remained largely unchanged since the 1800s.

Dr Paula Larrson, a researcher at the University of Oxford, found that anti-vaccine activists at the time sought to minimise the threat of smallpox, decried the vaccine as part of a wider conspiracy theory, and claimed inoculation causes other illnesses – all of which have been used in connection with Covid-19.

Read more at i News.

hen SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infiltrates the body, it typically enters through the nose or mouth, then takes root and begins replicating.

But what if it could never get a foothold in the upper airways? That’s the promise of nasal COVID-19 vaccines, which are meant to prevent infection by blocking the virus at its point of entry.

There is not yet a nasal COVID-19 vaccine available in the U.S.—and it’s not clear if or when there will be—but multiple research teams in the U.S., including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and abroad are working on them. Russian scientists are testing a nasal form of their Sputnik V vaccine in adult volunteers, and researchers in India have gotten approval for a Phase 3 trial.

Many researchers are excited about the prospect of nasal vaccines for COVID-19. “Yes with an exclamation point,” says Troy Randall, an immunologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, when asked if they’re worth exploring.

Read more at TIME.

Mothers who get vaccinated against COVID-19 while pregnant are likely to pass on protection against the virus to their newborn babies, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The public health agency recommended people who are pregnant, breastfeeding or looking to conceive get vaccinated.

Scientists studied 379 infants under the age of six months at 20 different children’s hospitals across 17 states from July 2021 to January 2022.

Of the 176 babies who were hospitalized with COVID-19, 84% of them were born to mothers who did not get vaccinated during their pregnancy, the study determined. Researchers also found that 88% of babies admitted to intensive care units with COVID-19 were born to mothers who were not vaccinated. The one infant who died during the study was born to an unvaccinated mother. 

Read more at CBS News.

A Kaiser Permanente study published today (February 14, 2022), in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas found that one month after a third dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness is higher for preventing infection and hospitalization than 2 doses of the vaccine after 1 month.

“When we looked at the effectiveness of the 2 doses of Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine versus 3 doses, we see a benefit with 3 doses that exceeds that achieved with 2 doses alone,” said Sara Y. Tartof, PhD, an epidemiologist with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation and a member of the faculty of the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, both in Pasadena.

This study assessed the primary series of two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness against infection, hospitalization, and death up to 8 months after vaccination, and also assessed the effectiveness of 3 doses of the vaccine up to 3 months after vaccination.

Read more at SciTech Daily.

By the thousands, Americans have been seeking religious exemptions in order to circumvent COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but generally they are doing so without the encouragement of major denominations and prominent religious leaders.

From the Vatican, Pope Francis has defended the vaccines as “the most reasonable solution to the pandemic.” The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America declared categorically that its followers would not be offered religious exemptions. Robert Jeffress, the conservative pastor of a Baptist megachurch in Dallas, voiced similar sentiments.

“Since there is no credible biblical argument against vaccines, we have refused to offer exemptions to the handful of people who have requested them,” Jeffress told The Associated Press via email. “People may have strong medical or political objections to government-mandated vaccines, but just because those objections are strongly felt does not elevate them to a religious belief that should be accommodated.”

Read more at ABC News.

Just over a year into vaccines being available, nearly 70 percent of Minnesotans age 5 and up have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

When it comes to the other 30 percent, there are a lot of reasons people have yet to get the vaccine: some just haven’t gotten around to it. Others face structural barriers that make it hard to access the shots. And some still have doubts about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

People’s doubts and fears vary in reason and origin. But some of them have been stoked — in good faith or bad — by people misinterpreting data coming from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, a federal database to which anyone can report their post-vaccine experiences.

It’s not just on social media where you find questions about vaccine side-effects linked to VAERS. Last week, Minnesota Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe), raised concerns he said he’d been hearing about COVID-19 vaccine safety in a state House Health Finance and Policy Committee.

Read more at MinnPost.

Exercise may not be the first thing most Americans want to do after getting a vaccine shot, but researchers have found that the immediate physical activity may provide a boost of antibodies. 

Researchers at Iowa State University published new research in ScienceDirect and found that 90 minutes of mild-to moderate-intensity exercise, like an outdoor walk or jog, after a flu or COVID-19 vaccine resulted in an extra immune boost. 

The study examined three different vaccines, one dose of a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine, a seasonal influenza vaccine and a H1N1 flu vaccine. For participants that exercised for 90-minutes in light-to moderate intensity exercise right after immunization, researchers noted a consistently increased serum antibody response to each vaccine four-weeks post-immunization. 

“Our preliminary results are the first to demonstrate a specific amount of time can enhance the body’s antibody response to the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine and two vaccines for influenza,” said Marian Kohut, lead author of the paper and a kinesiology professor at Iowa State University, in a statement. 

Read more at The Hill.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance on Friday for some people with weakened immune systems, recommending they get a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine three months after completing the initial series of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots, rather than the current interval of five months.

The guidance also said immunocompromised people who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine should get an additional dose. That means two doses, at least 28 days apart, followed by a booster dose of one of the mRNA vaccines.

“Although COVID-19 vaccines continue to work well to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death, we have seen reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” the agency said in a statement. “With the number of cases of COVID-19 still high across the United States and globally, this guidance helps to ensure that people have optimal protection against” the virus that causes the disease.

Read more at The Washington Post.

WASHINGTON — In a striking reversal, federal regulators said on Friday that they would wait for data on whether three doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine are effective in children younger than 5 before deciding whether to authorize a vaccine for the age group.

The Food and Drug Administration will postpone a meeting of outside experts that was scheduled for Tuesday; the experts were to weigh the evidence and make a recommendation on whether to authorize two doses of the vaccine in young children, as Pfizer had requested.

In a news release, Pfizer-BioNTech said that their three-dose trial for young children was moving briskly, and that the new timetable would allow the F.D.A. to get more data and thoroughly review it. Results are expected in early April.

Read more at The New York Times.

Vaccines were supposed to be a game changer for Covid-19 in schools. Back in the more innocent days of spring 2021, it seemed as though once the shots were approved for children, education could pretty much go back to normal — kids would get vaccinated, infections would drop, quarantines would become unnecessary, and teachers and families alike could settle into a new normal that looked a lot like the old one.

It didn’t happen exactly like that. Right now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone age 5 and older get vaccinated against Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration has given the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine full approval for people 16 and older, and emergency use authorization (a form of limited approval that still requires data showing a treatment is safe and effective) for children 5 to 15. However, families have been slow to vaccinate their kids; by early February, just 22 percent of 5- to 11-year-olds were fully vaccinated.

At the same time, the omicron variant has increased transmission, driven up cases, and forced closures of classrooms, schools, and even entire districts due to quarantines, staffing shortages, and labor disputes. The surge now appears to be easing, but it’s still far from normal out there.

Read more at Vox.