A second dose of Johnson and Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine appears to increase protection from moderate to severe COVID-19, the company said Tuesday after months of questions on how well the efficacy of its single-shot regimen would hold up over time. Summary results from an international Phase 3 trial run by J&J showed an additional shot, given eight weeks after the first, resulted […]
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Pfizer and BioNTech on Monday said their coronavirus vaccine Comirnaty is safe and spurred virus-fighting antibodies in children between 5 and 11 years old, a crucial finding that could pave the way for regulatory clearance and an immunization campaign in that age group within months. The results, announced by press release on Monday, come from a group of young trial volunteers […]
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The Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech covid-19 vaccines have been approved as safe and effective for use as a third shot by UK regulator the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). But a general booster campaign has not yet been recommended by the body that advises the UK government on who should receive vaccines, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). “This is an […]
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Study of 6.2 million patients by Kaiser Permanente and CDC researchers will continue for 2 years. Federal and Kaiser Permanente researchers combing the health records of 6.2 million patients found no serious health effects that could be linked to the 2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The study published September 2 in JAMA reports the first comprehensive findings of the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), which studies […]
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Dive Brief: AstraZeneca will fulfill its contract to deliver 300 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria to European nations by March 2022, nine months later than planned, under a settlement announced today with the European Commission. The agreement ends a breach-of-contract lawsuit the commission filed. The UK-based drugmaker had signed an advance purchase agreement with the European Union in August 2020 under which […]
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Adults who have received a double vaccination are 49% less likely to have Long COVID should they contract a COVID-19 infection, a new study finds. Researchers at King’s College London analysed data from participants logging their symptoms, tests and vaccines on the UK ZOE COVID Symptom Study app between 8th December 2020 and 4 July 2021, including 1,240,009 (first dose) […]
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COVID-19 Antibody Study Shows Downside of Not Receiving Second Shot A new study shows that two months after the second Pfizer/Moderna vaccination, antibody response decreases 20% in adults with prior cases of COVID-19. The study also tests how well current vaccines resist emerging variants. The Northwestern University study underscores the importance of receiving a second dose of vaccine, not only because it is […]
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Trial also will test pausing immunosuppressive medication to improve antibody response. The National Institutes of Health has begun a clinical trial to assess the antibody response to an extra dose of an authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine in people with autoimmune disease who did not respond to an original COVID-19 vaccine regimen. The trial also will investigate whether pausing immunosuppressive therapy for […]
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Post-COVID-19 vaccine immunity seems to be waning, according to a report published yesterday (August 24) in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The study followed more than 4,000 healthcare workers and other frontline essential workers across six states for 35 weeks, testing study participants weekly for SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to STAT. The majority of the participants […]
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University of Chicago Assoc. Prof. Emily Landon answers common questions about additional vaccine doses. Increasingly, research shows many people who have weakened immune systems haven’t been able to receive full protection from their COVID-19 vaccines. Unlike healthy people who’ve been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, immunocompromised people’s bodies may not produce enough protective antibodies after two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. […]
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