An “all-in-one” vaccine currently in development could protect people from future Covid-19 variants, as well as SARS, MERS and new strains of other coronaviruses from other animals, a study by researchers at the California Institute of Technology found.

Read more at Forbes.

The latest omicron subvariants — including the BA.4 and BA.5 forms causing new surges in infections in the United States — are even better at eluding vaccines and most antibody treatments than previous variants, finds a study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The study, led by David D. Ho, MD, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Clyde’56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, was published July 5 in Nature.

Read more at Science Daily.

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have begun testing an experimental universal flu vaccine.
• A universal vaccine would be more effective and not require yearly shots.
• Scientists hope the vaccine can be delivered nasally, blocking infections and reducing transmission to other people.

“Influenza can be considered a ‘continuously emerging’ infectious disease, and the diverse and rapidly evolving influenza viruses are a significant public health threat,” Dr. Jeffery K. Taubenberger, senior investigator for the NIH, told Medical News Today.

Read more at Medical News Today.

Clinics nationwide will begin offering vaccinations against monkeypox to anyone who may have been exposed to the virus, federal health officials announced on Tuesday.

Until now, immunizations were offered only to people with a known exposure.

States will receive doses of a safer and newer monkeypox vaccine called Jynneos from the federal stockpile, based on the number of cases and the proportion of the state’s population at risk for severe disease, the officials said at a news briefing.

Read more at The New York Times.

Meetings of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee are never dull affairs. Drenched in data, maybe, but never dull.

And Tuesday’s meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee promises to hew to that tradition as the independent vaccine experts are asked to debate whether it is time to update Covid-19 vaccines.

It seems pretty evident the FDA wants to hear “Yes” when the committee is asked to conduct its sole vote on the question: Does the committee recommend inclusion of a SARS-CoV-2 Omicron component for Covid-19 booster vaccines in the United States?

Read more at STAT News.

In a recent study published in The Lancet journal, researchers at Imperial College London quantified the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programs in 185 countries and territories between December 8, 2020, and December 8, 2021.

Read more at News Medical.

After a very long wait, babies, toddlers and preschoolers can now get COVID-19 shots.

Many parents may feel relief, but some may also have questions. Dr. Jessica Ericson, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Pa., offers some answers to help parents weigh the benefits of vaccinating kids who are 6 months of age and older.

Read more at U.S. News.

Parents of kids under 5 will start getting messages today from the state health department, urging them to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19 before preschools are back in session.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that children between six months and 5 years receive either three doses of the Pfizer vaccine or two of the Moderna shot. Both contain the same ingredients as the shots given to adults and older kids, but in smaller doses.

Read more at The Denver Post.

DENVER — State health officials gave an update on COVID-19 in Colorado on Thursday morning, as case counts from the current wave decline statewide and the vaccine became available to children 6 months old to 5 years old.

Read more at KUSA 9 News.

Pharmacy team members are an integral part of vaccination efforts in the United States. According to the CDC, as of May 11, 2022, more than 248 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in pharmacies across the United States.¹ This includes more than 8 million doses that pharmacists administered at long-term care facilities in 2021 to some of the most vulnerable patients in the nation. Pharmacists, student pharmacist interns, and pharmacy technicians, however, have given substantially more immunizations than those documented by the CDC for COVID-19 vaccines. They also administer seasonal influenza (flu) vaccines and routine adult and pediatric vaccines. Even before the pandemic, pharmacy team members played a major role in immunizations. During the 2020-2021 influenza season, more than 47 million doses of flu vaccine were administered to adults in US pharmacies, compared with 32 million doses administered in physician offices.²

Read more at Pharmacy Times.