The pace of COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. continues to fall. Today, the U.S. administered about 600,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses, which is far fewer than two months ago. At the mid-April peak, healthcare workers administered more than 3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. The pace of vaccination fell steadily from that time to early June before…
Americans apparently trust healthcare professionals more than FDA, CDC
As the U.S. tries to reach a post-COVID-19 pandemic “normal,” Americans are placing more trust in nurses and doctors than agencies such as the CDC and FDA, according to a new survey from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The survey took place Feb. 11 – March 15,…
FDA, CDC lift pause on J&J COVID-19 vaccine
The FDA and CDC have lifted the pause placed on the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine after reports of blood clots caused concern. On April 13, the FDA and CDC issued a joint statement recommending the pause in the administration of the J&J (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine after, among 6.8 million doses delivered in the…
Pfizer to boost vaccine production for U.S. by 10%
Pfizer will deliver 10% more of its COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. by the end of May than originally planned, its CEO tweeted yesterday. The tweet follows the federal government’s decision to recommend a temporary halt in the distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, which has been tied to rare instances of blood clot…
Feds halt J&J COVID-19 vaccine due to blood clot concern
The FDA and CDC issued a joint statement today recommending the pause in the administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. As of yesterday, more than 6.8 million doses of the J&J single-dose vaccine had been administered in the U.S. Among recipients of those doses, six cases of a rare and severe type of blood…
Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines 90% effective in real-world study
A single dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine is about 80% effective at preventing COVID-19 infection at least two weeks after injection. The efficacy level rises to 90% two weeks after the second dose of either mRNA vaccine, according to a recent CDC study involving roughly 4,000 essential workers. In contrast to the Phase 3 trials from…
Is COVID-19 herd immunity elusive or within reach?
Last year, herd immunity seemed like a comforting promise as researchers worked on dozens of COVID-19 vaccine candidates and a silver-lining to the rampant spread of the virus — the more people who got infected, the more natural immunity that would develop over time. There are now dissenting opinions about how the term relates to…
Norway investigating deaths of 23 individuals who received COVID-19 vaccine
In Norway, authorities are investigating the deaths of nearly two dozen people who received the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX). To date, it has analyzed data from 13 of those individuals. The Norwegian Medicines Agency concluded that common adverse reactions to mRNA vaccines, including fever and nausea, could have contributed to deaths in elderly…
BREAKING: FDA authorizes Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine
The U.S. FDA tonight authorized the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX), providing a much-hoped-for tool to roll back the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The FDA authorization came a day after an advisory commission for the agency provided an upbeat assessment of the two companies’ vaccine. The agency is also coordinating with the CDC and the…
Plan to track COVID-19 vaccine side effects unites old and new strategies
In pharmacovigilance, detecting risks linked to new medicine can be a slow process. The typical procedures for doing so, known as signal detection and assessment, involves probing hypothetical risks tied to a medicine based on at least some degree of supporting evidence. The U.S. government aims to speed the process by combining routine signal detection…
CDC panel: Healthcare workers and nursing home residents should be among first to get COVID-19 vaccine
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel voted 13 to 1 to prioritize COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers and residents of long-term facilities after FDA authorizes their use. The panel’s recommendations include three-tiers — Phases 1A, 1B and 1C — for early vaccinations. Officials with the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed have…
Who should get COVID-19 vaccines first? CDC advisors have ideas
An estimated 21 million U.S. healthcare workers should be among the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a CDC advisory committee. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) within the CDC met yesterday to discuss how to best allocate COVID-19 vaccines. Members of the group will formalize their recommendations by voting after FDA…
Who would — and wouldn’t — line up for COVID-19 vaccines?
Once enough people receive effective vaccines against the novel coronavirus, experts say, the end of the pandemic may be in sight. But a new poll of older adults — one of the highest-priority groups for vaccination — suggests an uphill climb lies ahead to reach that goal. In all, 58% of adults aged 50 to…
U.S. should have enough COVID-19 vaccine by Q3 2021, CDC head tells Senate panel
CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield told a Senate panel today that the federal government should have enough coronavirus vaccine for Americans to resume “regular life” by the third quarter of 2021, according to a report by CNBC. Redfield said vaccinations could begin November or December of 2020 and that it could take 6 to 9…