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Fauci Says FDA Could Authorize Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5 in the Next Month
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said the Food and Drug Administration could approve Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine for children under 5 years old in the next month.
Fauci said younger children will likely need three doses, because two shots did not induce an adequate immune response in 2 to 4 year olds in Pfizer’s clinical trials.
Pfizer plans to submit data to the Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2022 if the three-dose study proves successful, the company announced in December.
Pfizer said it did not identify any safety concerns with the 3-microgram vaccine doses in children 6 months to 4 years old.
Current Vaccines ‘Not Good Enough’ to End Pandemic — Infectious Disease Research Institute
The current generation of COVID vaccines is “not good enough” at blocking viral transmission to bring an end to the pandemic, Dr. Corey Casper, the chief executive officer of the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), said. The IDRI is a biotech non-profit based in Seattle that’s working on creating new treatments for infectious diseases, including COVID vaccines.
“They are having to be re-administered now in the United States every five months, so this is not a vaccine program that is going to get us out of this pandemic,” Casper said.
Scientists are now looking into developing T-cell vaccines, which intend to significantly reduce transmission of the virus as well as severe illness. A January study by Imperial College London found that those with higher numbers of T-cells were less likely to get COVID.
It’s a Terrible Idea to Deny Medical Care to Unvaccinated People
Matt Wynia, a doctor and ethicist at the University of Colorado, told me, “We don’t use the medical-care system as a way of meting out justice. We don’t use it to punish people for their social choices.”
The matter “is pretty cut-and-dry,” Sara Murray, a hospitalist at UC San Francisco, added. “We have an ethical obligation to provide care for people regardless of the choices they made, and that stands true for our unvaccinated patients.”
Unlike vaccine mandates, which limit the jobs unvaccinated people can hold or the spaces they can enter, withholding medical care would be a matter of life or death. And in such matters, medical care should be offered according to the urgency of a patient’s need, not the circumstances leading up to that need.
Aiming to Make CDC Nimble, Agency Director Has Rankled Many
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top U.S. public health agency has been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information.
Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast.
One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s tenure as director, her bid to make the CDC more agile is being challenged by political pressures, vocal scientists and the changing virus itself. In its haste, some experts say, the agency has repeatedly stumbled — moving too quickly, before the science was clear, and then failing to communicate clearly with local health officials and the public.
New Jobless Claims Keep Unexpectedly Spiking as Omicron Surge ‘Taints’ Economic Recovery
The number of new unemployment claims unexpectedly jumped for the third week in a row this month, adding to evidence suggesting the record wave of coronavirus cases this month — spurred by the rapidly spreading Omicron variant — has stunted the economic recovery.
“The future path of the pandemic remains highly uncertain, but the underlying job market narrative overall continues to be one of scarcity of available applicants and workers,” Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said last week.
“The latest wrinkle — the high level of individuals testing positive, becoming ill or staying away from work — has added to supply-chain disruptions with inflation already running red-hot.”
Majority of Americans Think COVID Situation Is Getting Worse: Gallup
A majority of Americans say they feel that the COVID-19 pandemic is getting worse, according to a new Gallup poll released on Thursday.
According to the January Gallup poll, 58% of respondents said they felt the pandemic was getting a little or a lot worse, while just 20% said they felt the pandemic was improving and 22% said they thought the situation had stayed the same.
The level of pessimism surrounding the pandemic saw a sharp increase from when the poll was conducted in October, when 18% said they felt it was getting worse and 51% said it was getting better.
New Mexico Asks National Guard to Teach as COVID Shuts Schools
New Mexico on Wednesday asked National Guard members and state employees to volunteer as substitute teachers to keep schools and daycare centers open during a surge in COVID-19 infections.
State employees and Guard members who take up the call to teach will get their usual pay and be considered on administrative leave or active duty, respectively, according to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Some 60 schools in New Mexico have gone into remote learning since the winter break and 75 child daycare centers partially or completely closed as staff tested positive for COVID-19 or quarantined, according to a statement from the governor.
Europe Considers New COVID Strategy: Accepting the Virus
When the coronavirus pandemic was first declared, Spaniards were ordered to stay home for more than three months. For weeks, they were not allowed outside even for exercise. Children were banned from playgrounds, and the economy virtually stopped.
But officials credited the draconian measures with preventing a full collapse of the health system. Lives were saved, they argued.
Now, almost two years later, Spain is preparing to adopt a different COVID-19 playbook. Similar steps are under consideration in neighboring Portugal and in Britain. The idea is to move from crisis mode to control mode, approaching the virus in much the same way countries deal with flu or measles.
Valneva Says Early Studies Show COVID Vaccine Effective Against Omicron
French biotech firm Valneva (VLS.PA) said on Wednesday that preliminary studies showed that three doses of its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate neutralised the Omicron variant of the disease.
All of the serum samples tested presented neutralizing antibodies against the ancestral virus and Delta variant, it said, while 87% of samples did so against the Omicron variant.
Merck’s COVID Pill to Be Produced by More Than Two Dozen Drugmakers
Medicines Patent Pool, an organization supported by the U.N., announced on Thursday that over two dozen generic drug makers will soon begin producing Merck’s COVID-19 pill to make the treatment more accessible in developing countries.
The organization said that 27 generic drug makers would produce the pill for 105 developing countries. Specifically, agreements the companies signed allow them to make both molnupiravir’s raw ingredients as well as the final product.
