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.

Vaccine uptake is fading, but doctors and health care workers are trying to reach the tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans — one conversation at a time.

The big picture: Persuading the remaining unvaccinated takes a lot more time and effort, and health care workers who have found success are not writing off holdouts as anti-vaxxers.

“You do need to meet people and individualize your approach,” said Odilichi Ezenwanne, a primary care physician at the Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services Center in Tunica, Mississippi, where just 50% of the county is fully vaccinated as of Feb. 9.

• “You have to understand their own reasons for restraint or hesitancy … that’s when they really open up to you.”

By the numbers: CDC data shows fewer than 100,000 people are getting their first COVID vaccine dose every day, the lowest daily average since the vaccines were available in late 2020.

Read more at AXIOS.

California would be the first state to impose Covid-19 vaccine mandates at all workplaces under sweeping new legislation to be unveiled Friday.

The bill from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to release a statewide pandemic exit strategy signaling the transition to an “endemic” phase of the public health crisis.

“The pathway to endemic, for us to get back to some sense of normalcy, is through vaccines,” Wicks told POLITICO in an exclusive interview. Wicks floated a similar proposal last year but didn’t introduce it.

Wicks is acting after the U.S. Supreme Court nullified the Biden administration’s employer vaccine mandate — a decision that, she said, opened the door for state lawmakers to take the lead on the issue.

Assembly Bill 1993, whichwould likely take effect next year and levy penalties on employersthat don’t comply, is likely to draw criticism from mandate foes — especially as infection and hospitalization rates driven by the Omicron variant continue to plummet.

Read more at POLITICO.

Truck drivers protesting vaccine mandates are parking their rigs in the middle of intersections in Canadian cities, blocking traffic and, in some places, bringing daily life and business to a standstill. Their goal is to force federal officials to roll back pandemic restrictions.

How did a handful of people turn a country whose constitution calls for “peace, order and good government” into an unlikely springboard for a budding global movement?

It began on Jan. 22, when convoys of truck drivers departed from British Columbia en route to Ottawa, Canada’s capital, to protest a vaccine mandate — imposed by the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — for truckers entering the country from the United States.

Mr. Trudeau initially dismissed the protesters as a “small fringe minority” — a majority of Canadians say they support public health measures intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus — but the protesters are having an outsize impact. The protests have spread to other cities, including Toronto, Quebec City and Calgary, as well as on the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit, a vital link for the automobile industry.

Read more at The New York Times.

More than 10 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have reportedly been administered across 184 countries.

In the United States, more than 543 million doses have been administered so far.

Despite the widespread use of the vaccines, some people with cancer question whether the shots are safe for them.

A group of researchers has published a study on Feb. 7 that may provide some reassurance.

The researchers report that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, such as those manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, are just as safe for people with cancer as they are for everyone else.

The Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers in Philadelphia tracked short-term side effects from more than 1,700 recipients of the Pfizer vaccine.

They said they found no other reactions for people undergoing active cancer treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or radiation therapy) or who had completed treatment.

Read more at Healthline.

Austria has become the first Western democracy to require vaccines for nearly all adults. Everyone who isn’t exempt will be required to show proof of vaccination during random checks by the police.

ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

Austria has become the first Western democracy to require vaccines for nearly all adults. People who are pregnant have medical conditions or have recently recovered from COVID-19 are exempt from the policy, while others will be required to show proof of vaccination during random checks by the police.

Listen at NPR.

Misinformation and access to care could sway a parent’s decision to get their newborn children vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research from Stony Brook University.

Stony Brook researcher Heidi Preis and her team looked at how pregnant mothers’ experiences influenced their decision to give their infants regular vaccinations, like those for measles, mumps and rubella. She said some parents face barriers to vaccination — access to care, health insurance and paid family leave.

“Poverty is related to less of a vaccine uptake in infants, and race and ethnicity, so that minoritized groups are less likely to have their infants vaccinated,” Preis said.

Parents who used telehealth and spent less time in the hospital were less likely to vaccinate their kids. Preis said that’s especially concerning during the pandemic. So is vaccine hesitancy, which could come from social media misinformation.

“And people wrongly think that there’s a lot of risk involved, and don’t understand the importance of having their infants vaccinated in a timely manner,” Preis said.

Read more at WSHU.