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Wood County Parents Sue Over Alleged Improper COVID Vaccine Dose
Two Davisville parents have filed a lawsuit alleging their teenage son suffered immediate and lasting side effects after receiving an improper dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a local pharmacy.
The complaint was filed June 24 in Wood County Circuit Court, one year after the plaintiffs say a student-employee at the Kroger pharmacy in south Parkersburg administered an undiluted dose of the vaccine to their 15-year-old child.
According to the complaint, filed on the behalf of John and Maria Louden by South Carolina attorney Brian J. Headley, Maria Louden was contacted by a pharmacist from the store the same day the shot was received. He said the CDC-recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine was 0.3 mL, but this dose had not been diluted, resulting in the teen receiving a dosage “more than five times the recommended amount.”
“Over the following two days, (their son) suffered from side effects of the overdose, including high fever, severe nausea, headaches, body aches and dizziness,” the complaint said. As time went on, it says, their son experienced “fatigue, frequent headaches and a general ‘brain fogginess.’” The complaint says he continues to struggle daily “with forgetfulness and difficulty focusing on tasks.”
COVID in Israel: Infants Aged 6 Months to 6 Years to Be Vaccinated
Babies from age six months through age five will soon be eligible for vaccination against COVID-19 following a decision by Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash to accept an enthusiastic recommendation of the team for the treatment of pandemics.
The ministry will check on vaccine availability in the health funds. Doses for this age group will be smaller than for older children, approved months ago.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, both approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for babies and small children, are recommended especially for children at risk of serious chronic diseases and those who are undergoing treatment that weakens the immune system. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommended giving the vaccines to this age group.
You Can Now Get COVID Again Within 4 Weeks Due to the New Omicron BA.5 Variant, Health Expert Says
Health experts in the U.S. and abroad have found that the coronavirus variant currently responsible for most infections in the U.S., Omicron BA.5, can quickly reinfect people who already have protection against the virus.
People who have been vaccinated, received antibody treatments or developed natural immunity from contracting the virus were previously thought to have a lower risk of getting COVID-19, at least in the months following exposure.
However, Chief Health Officer of Western Australia Andrew Robertson told news.com.au that he’s seeing people get reinfected with COVID-19 in a matter of weeks.
A recent study out of Columbia University that has not yet been peer-reviewed found that the recent BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are at least four times more resistant to protection against the virus compared with previous variants in the Omicron lineage.
Yale Researchers Predict COVID Endemic Phase Will Happen in 2024
When the COVID-19 pandemic first started, there were so many unanswered questions. Now more than two years in, there are still a lot of mysteries surrounding the ever-evolving virus.
With the virus evolving so quickly, and no more get-out-of-jail cards, COVID-19 will be with us for quite some time. According to a new study out of the Yale School of Medicine, an endemic phase is on the way, but probably not until 2024.
The researchers studied how a mild virus similar to COVID-19 impacts rats, then used models to create a timeline. The findings were published Tuesday in the journal PNAS Nexus.
“We used this model to predict many, many different scenarios, and ended up with a median of about two years from now that it will become endemic,” Dr. Caroline Zeiss, professor of Comparative Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, said.
Feds Want a Policy That Advocates Say Would Let Hospitals off the Hook for COVID-Era Lapses
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is responding to the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic by proposing to hide from the public a rating that lets consumers compare hospitals’ safety records and to waive approximately $350 million in financial penalties for roughly 750 hospitals with the worst patient-safety track records.
CMS’ chief medical officer, Dr. Lee Fleisher, said those safety metrics were not designed to properly account for how a pandemic, with its patient surges and workforce shortages, might affect hospital systems.
But patient safety advocates argue CMS is letting hospitals off the hook for their pandemic performances, and many decried the loss of transparency that suppression of such data would cause.
CMS wants to keep “patients, payers and insurers in the dark on what happened during the pandemic,” said Patricia Kelmar, director of healthcare campaigns for the nonprofit U.S. Public Interest Research Group. She added that without penalties, hospitals won’t be forced to change ahead of the next crisis that strains health systems.
New York City’s COVID Positivity Rate Tops 14% as Summer Wave Arrives
It just won’t leave us alone. As New York enters its third pandemic summer, the city has been caught in another COVID wave, with an explosively contagious Omicron strain pushing test positivity rates to steep heights.
On Wednesday, the weeklong positivity rate across the five boroughs had reached 14% and eclipsed 20% in parts of Staten Island, southern Brooklyn, Queens, upper Manhattan and the eastern Bronx, according to city data.
The city scrapped its color-coded COVID alert system last week, a tacit acknowledgment that New York has entered a different pandemic phase after Mayor Adams declined to observe the system’s recommendations when the alert level rose in May.
Monkeypox Vaccine Rollout Slammed as People Unable to Get Shot
A monkeypox vaccine rollout in New York City has been slammed, as people were unable to make appointments due to a technical glitch.
Monkeypox cases have risen in New York City in recent weeks, particularly among gay and bisexual men. As of July 6, NYC Health had recorded 119 positive cases of monkeypox.
New York City recently announced that it had received additional doses of the highly sought-after vaccine from the federal government and that walk-in clinic chain, MedRite, would be administering the rare supply.
An online booking system for the rollout was supposed to launch on the afternoon of July 6, Politico reported. However, some New Yorkers were able to book an appointment days before. NYC Health tweeted that it had been an “unfortunate glitch,” and that more appointments would be made available on the afternoon of July 6.
Newly Published Study Shows Cancer Drug Cuts Risk of Death for Hospitalized High-Risk COVID Patients
A drug initially developed in hopes of treating cancer patients could significantly cut the risk of death among hospitalized COVID-19 patients who are at high risk of severe disease, results published on Wednesday suggest.
The findings on the drug, called sabizabulin, were first announced in early April by drugmaker Veru, which submitted an emergency use authorization request last month. If the Food and Drug Administration signs off, it could add another option to the stable of drugs doctors turn to for treating hospitalized cases.
First discovered a decade ago by researchers at the University of Tennessee, the drug had initially been studied as a potential way to treat prostate and breast cancer.
Similar to the way it aims to curb the growth of tumors, Veru says sabizabulin could work also to disrupt the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the body as well as to help tame the sometimes-fatal immune response the virus can trigger.
FDA Allows Pharmacists to Prescribe COVID Drug Paxlovid
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Patients who test positive for COVID-19 can now get the antiviral pill Paxlovid directly from their pharmacists, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday. The action removes limits that had restricted prescribing authority to healthcare providers and Test-to-Treat sites.
The American Medical Association (AMA) expressed reservations about the broader prescribing authority.
AMA President Dr. Jack Resneck said in a statement issued Wednesday: “While the majority of COVID-19 positive patients will benefit from Paxlovid, it is not for everyone and prescribing it requires knowledge of a patient’s medical history, as well as clinical monitoring for side effects and follow-up care to determine whether a patient is improving — requirements far beyond a pharmacist’s scope and training.”
Europe Is at Center of New Wave of COVID Infections, WHO Says
Europe is at the center of a resurgence in COVID-19 infections as more people mix at large-scale events and travel, according to the World Health Organization.
“We are seeing a much more intense wave of the disease passing through Europe again,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said at a media briefing Wednesday. “And we will see it happen elsewhere — we are already seeing it in South East Asia and in the eastern Mediterranean region as well.”
Overall, the number of COVID infections rose 30% globally in the past two weeks, with the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 driving the increase in Europe and the U.S. The agency said it was also following a new sublineage of subvariant BA2.75 which had been detected in India.
The increase in cases in Europe during the summer — when transmission should be more difficult because people are outside — results from people swapping one kind of mixing for another, such as attending large concerts and traveling more, Ryan said.
Australia Expands Fourth COVID Dose Rollout Amid Fresh Omicron Threat
Australia said on Thursday it would expand the rollout of the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines from next week as it battles a steady rise in hospital admissions fuelled by the highly transmissible new Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5.
The new subvariants have now become the dominant coronavirus strains in several countries, with pandemic experts warning they could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths because they spread more quickly than other coronavirus variants.
From Monday, people aged above 30 will be eligible for the fourth dose, Health Minister Mark Butler said, after Australia’s immunization advisory group updated its recommendations.
The changes will make more than 7 million people eligible for their second booster shot. The vaccination has been restricted up to now to people above 65 or with serious illnesses.
