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Mexico OKs Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine for Use in Kids 12 Years and Up

Reuters via Yahoo News reported:

Mexico’s health regulator has given approval to U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children 12 years old and older, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Twitter on Thursday.

“It’s the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized for adolescents in our country,” he said.

Who Urges Fully Vaccinated People to Continue to Wear Masks as Delta COVID Variant Spreads

CNBC reported:

The World Health Organization on Friday urged fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks, social distance and practice other COVID-19 pandemic safety measures as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the globe.

“People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said during a news briefing.

Delta Variant Outbreak in Israel Infects Some Vaccinated Adults

The Wall Street Journal reported:

About half of adults infected in an outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Israel were fully inoculated with the Pfizer Inc. vaccine, prompting the government to reimpose an indoor mask requirement and other measures to contain the highly transmissible strain.

The Delta variant, which first emerged in India in late 2020 and is also known as B.1.617.2, has now been detected in more than 70 countries. In the U.S., public-health experts expect it to soon become the dominant strain.

Latest CDC VAERS Data Show Reported Injuries Surpass 7,000 in Ages 12 to 17 Following COVID Vaccines

The Defender reported:

Data released today show that between Dec. 14, 2020 and June 18, 2021, a total of 387,087 total adverse events were reported to VAERS, including 6,113 deaths — an increase of 120 deaths over the previous week. There were 31,240 serious injury reports, up 1,369 compared with last week.

This week’s data for 12- to 17-year-olds show: 7,294 total adverse events, including 423 rated as serious and nine reported deaths among 12- to 17-year-olds. Four deaths (or 44%) were cardiac-related and three were sudden, unexplained deaths.

mRNA Vaccine-Makers’ Stocks Take a Hit Amid Possible Link to Rare Heart Conditions

Yahoo Finance reported:

The stocks of BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna, which make the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, fell amid news the jabs could be linked to rare heart inflammation in young people.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel said there is a “likely association” between adolescents getting the vaccines and cases of myocarditis and pericarditis, but it added that the benefits are still greater than the risks.

Some British Olympic Athletes Refusing to Have COVID Vaccine Over Side-Effect Fears

The Guardian reported:

The British athletes who do not want to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before the Tokyo Olympics are doing so over performance-related fears rather than an anti-vax stance, the Guardian understands.

The British Olympic Association remains confident that almost all its 370 or so Olympians will have two jabs before they fly to Japan, with only “a small handful” still remaining unconvinced.

Houston Hospital Employee Who Says She Was Fired for Not Getting Vaccine: ‘Don’t Take Away My Choice’

CNN reported:

An ultrasound technologist who says she was fired by a Houston hospital because she wouldn’t get vaccinated against the coronavirus told CNN on Wednesday, “I don’t want to work for people like that. Don’t take away my choice.”

LaTricia Blank worked at Houston Methodist hospital for eight and a half years. She loved her job, her patients and the people she worked with, she said.

But Houston Methodist on March 31 became the first major health care system in the country to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. More than 100 employees sued but a judge recently sided with the hospital system. The employees have appealed the judge’s decision.

Actor Lakis Lazopoulos Suffers Blood Clot After Getting 2nd Pfizer Vaccine

The MA News reported:

Famous Greekmactor Lakis Lazopoulos was rushed to the hospital with a blood clot a few days after he was administered the coronavirus vaccine.

Speaking to “Nea” newspaper, he revealed that last Saturday “I got up with a heavy feeling on my leg, making it difficult to move. I called my friend, doctor George Papatheou and told him to come and see me. He decided that I should go to hospital Ygeia. I went, got tested and it turned out I had a stroke. It was a small clot, but it dissipated at its origin.”

Biden Urges More People to Get the COVID Vaccine: ‘Get It Done.’

The News & Observer reported:

President Joe Biden visits a vaccination site in Raleigh, NC on June 24, 2021, to urge people to get the COVID vaccine. He met with front-line workers and volunteers at the Green Road Community Center.

Health Officials Worry Myocarditis Concerns Will Increase Vaccine Hesitancy

WBRC Channel 6 Birmingham reported:

Local health officials worry the CDC’s latest findings linking the COVID-19 vaccine to the rare heart condition, myocarditis, could increase vaccine hesitancy among parents.

The CDC reports there are 226 confirmed cases of the heart condition, myocarditis, linked to the COVID-19 vaccine. Officials said the concern is mainly in males under the age of 30, but local health officials said it is still extremely rare and shouldn’t deter parents from vaccinating their children.

COVID: German Scientists May Know How to Prevent Vaccine Blood Clots

KHMER Times reported:

Scientists in Germany believe they may have worked out a way to prevent vector-based vaccines from causing rare blood clots.

German scientists believe they have worked out why vector-based vaccines like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen cause a rare type of blood clot in some people. And they think they know how to adapt the vaccine to prevent the blood clots from occurring.

Delta Plus: As U.S. Grapples With Delta variant, India Raises Alarm Over a New COVID Strain Mutated From It

CBS News reported:

Doctors and epidemiologists are closely monitoring the rise of yet another coronavirus variant that has been detected in almost a dozen countries, including the U.S.  Concern that the so-called Delta Plus variant — a mutation of the now-widespread Delta strain first detected in India — could be more infectious and cause more significant health problems than other variants prompted Indian officials this week to label it a “variant of concern.”

But while the variant’s fast spread, and India’s painful experience with the original Delta strain, have raised alarm in the vast nation, epidemiologists there and abroad say much more data is needed before broader cautions are issued around the world about Delta Plus.

The Health 202: Don’t Expect Another Vaccine ‘Pause’ Over the Myocarditis Cases

The Washington Post via MSN reported:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a highly cautious approach to the coronavirus vaccines when it temporarily paused the Johnson & Johnson shots earlier this year.

But now, as the agency considers hundreds of reports of heart inflammation among young adults, there’s more will to push forward without modifying the official vaccine recommendations.

German Lab, J&J Still Hashing Out Details of COVID Vaccine Clot Collaboration

Reuters via MSN reported:

A scientist investigating rare blood clots possibly linked to AstraZeneca’s and Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines has yet to start a planned collaboration with the U.S. company, he said, as talks over their research pact continue.

Dr. Andreas Greinacher, a transfusion medicine expert at Germany’s Greifswald University, has been studying clotting with low blood platelets in people who got AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

In April, when clotting developed in a few people who got J&J’s shot, Greinacher announced his lab would work with the U.S. company to explore causes. J&J, whose shot relies on technology similar to AstraZeneca’s, confirmed it was “exploring a potential collaboration.”