January 6, 2022

The U.S. is among the countries projected to miss the WHO’s Covid vaccination target for 2022, researchers have said, alongside a host of other nations across Europe, Asia and Africa.

In October, the WHO set a target for countries to vaccinate 70% of their populations by mid-2022.

According to projections made by Our World in Data, last updated on Tuesday, more than 100 countries are not on track to meet that goal.

Our World in Data’s projections were compiled using official data, with the current vaccination rate for each country calculated as the average number of people who received their second vaccine dose within the past 14 days. Researchers then assumed these vaccination rates would remain constant through to the WHO target of mid-2022.

“By adding this expected share to the share of the population that have already been fully vaccinated, we project what share of people will be fully vaccinated July 1, 2022,” researchers said. “We exclude from our projections countries that have not reported figures for more than 30 days.”

They acknowledged that their method did not take variables like potential vaccine shortages, changes in vaccination rollout speeds or new government policies into account.

Read more at CNBC News.

January 2, 2022

Hundreds to thousands of calls come in to the Disability Information and Access Line (DIAL) each week from disabled people across the country with questions about COVID-19, vaccinations, testing spots and more.

As one of the first call centers to focus specifically on the needs of disabled people, the federally funded hotline continues to pick up speed, filling a service previously unmet, according to the line’s director Sara Clark. The more people know about it, she says, the more calls they’re fielding.

“It’s important for people with disabilities to know that they can turn to a trusted source for accurate information,” Clark said.

DIAL was created in May 2021 and serviced and supported by national disability advocacy groups.

The call center has since been inundated with requests to assist disabled people in getting vaccinated, finding vaccination sites, in-home vaccination availability, educating callers about vaccine information, and overcoming physical or systemic barriers to accessing the vaccine and booster shots.

“Now that the word about us, it’s showing us that there’s a lot more people that have needed this but didn’t necessarily know about it,” Clark said.

Read more at ABC News.

January 7, 2022

When my fellow baby boomers had children in elementary school, the classroom was often referred to as a petri dish where every known contagion was circulating. Kids brought it all home, and home became its own petri dish of contagious diseases. The adults took the contagions to work. Teachers encouraged parents to keep their sick children at home to protect their classmates and stop the spread. Employers urged the sick to protect their co-workers, take their sick leave and stay at home. The phenomenon of contagion seemed to be grasped by the vast majority.

What happened? How, in a substantial segment of society, did we lose our understanding of contagion? How, in a substantial segment of society, did the personal responsibility to protect others be replaced by the “freedom” to endanger others?

Voluntarily staying home — a matter of personal responsibility — was not the only mitigating measure. Schools remained open but only the vaccinated could attend, and the early years classroom became the gatekeeper for preventing disease spread. Smallpox vaccines were still given. Mandated polio, measles, mumps and rubella vaccines eliminated these terrible diseases. Without question, these were grand advances for the sciences and scientifically-informed public health policy.

Read more at the Kansas City Star.

January 5, 2022

More children are getting hospitalized with Covid-19 than ever before as the Omicron variant’s dominance intensifies.An average of 672 children were admitted to hospitals every day with Covid-19 during the week ending Sunday, the highest such number of the pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC will update its Covid-19 isolation guidance imminently, source saysIt follows a record-high number of new cases among children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

The US had more than 325,000 new cases among children during the week ending December 30, according to data published this week by the AAP, marking a 64% increase in new childhood cases compared to the previous week, the AAP said.

About 1,045 children under 18 have died from Covid-19, the CDC said.

And across all age groups, Covid-19 hospitalizations reached a new milestone.

Read more at CNN.

January 4, 2022

If you received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination, you can get a booster shot five months after your second dose, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday.

The federal government previously recommended a waiting period of six months between the first two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and the booster shot.

“As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue to update our recommendations to ensure the best possible protection for the American people,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.

“Today’s recommendations ensure people are able to get a boost of protection in the face of Omicron and increasing cases across the country,” she added.

Read more at NBC News.

January 5, 2022

“Flurona.”

The name conjures images of cheap cable horror flicks – think “Sharknado” – but flu-COVID dual infections are real. More cases are likely. And they’re not nearly as terrifying as flying sharks – especially for people who are vaccinated against one or both.

Texas Children’s Hospital announced this week that tests confirmed a child was infected with influenza A and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The patient was not hospitalized and is recovering at home, the hospital said. No other details were given.

“This is one confirmed case and, of course, we’ll be working with our colleagues across the country to see if there are more cases and whether we will see a distinct pattern in these cases,” Dr. Jim Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief and COVID-19 command center co-leader at the hospital, told reporters Monday.

Read more at USA Today.

January 7, 2022

WASHINGTON — Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed skeptical on Friday that the Biden administration has the legal power to mandate that the nation’s large employers require workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or to undergo frequent testing. A federal workplace safety law, they indicated during a two-hour argument, did not provide legal authority for the sweeping emergency measure.

The court seemed more likely to sustain a separate requirement that health care workers at facilities that receive federal money be vaccinated. That regulation, the subject of a second argument, was in keeping with other kinds of federal oversight and was supported by virtually the entire medical establishment, some justices noted.

The argument concerning large employers was more lopsided.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said the states and Congress, rather than a federal agency, were better situated to address the pandemic in the nation’s workplaces. Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the challenged regulation appeared to reach too broadly in covering all large employers.

Read more at The New York Times.

January 5, 2022

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its recommendations for the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine booster on Wednesday to include children as young as 12, at least five months after they finish the primary vaccine series.

On Monday, the FDA expanded the emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine boosters to children ages 12 to 15. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 13-1 earlier Wednesday in favor of recommending the expanded use of Covid-19 boosters for children in this age group.

The CDC had ​authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use as a booster in ages 16 and 17 in December.

“It is critical that we protect our children and teens from COVID-19 infection and the complications of severe disease,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a news release. “Today, I endorsed ACIP’s vote to expand eligibility and strengthen our recommendations for booster doses. We now recommend that all adolescents aged 12-17 years should receive a booster shot 5 months after their primary series. This booster dose will provide optimized protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. I encourage all parents to keep their children up to date with CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.”

Read more at CNN.

January 6, 2022

Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine won’t be available anytime soon for kids younger than 5.

In early tests, the lower dose given to 2- to 5-year-olds didn’t produce as much immune protection as did shots given to other age groups, a Pfizer scientist said at a federal advisory committee meeting Wednesday, expanding on information provided late last year. 

The company hopes a third dose of vaccine eight weeks after the first two shots will provide the desired effectiveness, Dr. Alejandra Gurtman, vice president of vaccine clinical research and development for Pfizer said at a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

But that means waiting until late March or early April for results, she said, allowing time for children in the trial to get a third shot and then have their immune responses tested.

Read more at USA Today.

January 5, 2022

A vaccine authorized in December for use in India may help solve one of the most vexing problems in global public health: How to supply lower-income countries with a COVID-19 vaccine that is safe, effective and affordable.

The vaccine is called CORBEVAX. It uses old but proven vaccine technology and can be manufactured far more easily than most, if not all, of the COVID-19 vaccines in use today.

“CORBEVAX is a game changer,” says Dr. Keith Martin, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Washington, D.C. “It’s going to enable countries around the world, particularly low-income countries, to be able to produce these vaccines and distribute them in a way that’s going to affordable, effective and safe.”

Read more at NPR.