A fourth COVID-19 booster mRNA vaccine has proven ineffective against Omicron infection, according to preliminary research from Israel released on Monday. “Despite a significant increase in antibodies after the fourth vaccine, this protection is only partially effective against the Omicron strain, which is relatively resistant to the vaccine,” lead researcher Prof Gili Regev-Yochay, told a […] Continue reading ->
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, monitoring sewage for evidence of disease – in this case COVID-19 – may be on the verge of becoming mainstream. At least that is what some trend-setting researchers are hoping to detect rising SARS-CoV2 infections early and set policies based on data even before swab testing can provide it. […] Continue reading ->
Two new treatments for COVID-19 were recommended on Thursday by the World Health Organization’s Guideline Development Group of international experts – one for severely ill patients and the other for those patients who are not severely ill but most likely to develop severe disease. The recommendations were announced Friday morning in the BMJ. Both drugs, […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – A locally produced COVID-19 rapid antigen test that was recently approved by South Africa’s medicines regulator is able to detect Omicron, according to its developer. This follows some controversy about whether antigen tests were able to detect Omicron, and suggestions that throat swabs might be more effective than nasal swabs as Omicron […] Continue reading ->
Women who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 had a slight but not clinically significant change in the length of their menstrual cycles compared to unvaccinated women, according to a new study published by researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Specifically, vaccinated women experienced a less than one-day (0.71-day) […] Continue reading ->
Mass Omicron infection could lead to the formation of new and potentially even more dangerous coronavirus variants, officials from the World Health Organization warned on Thursday. That is despite the fact that the Omicron variant is proving less lethal than its SARS-CoV2 predecessors, such as Alpha, Beta and Delta – which swept through India and […] Continue reading ->
A fourth shot of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine administered to individuals who received their third shot nearly five months ago produces a five-fold increase in antibodies, according to preliminary results of a first-in-the-world trial being conducted in Israel. The news comes on the same day that the country announced it would launch a trial to […] Continue reading ->
The world’s first case of “flurona” – a co-infection with both seasonal influenza and COVID-19 was reported in Israel last week, as the Omicron variant sweeps across the world. Since then, small numbers of people co-infected with both viruses have been identified in other European countries as well, a World Health Organization official in the […] Continue reading ->
A new South African study shows that a second Johnson & Johnson dose, administered 6-9 months after the initial single-dose vaccine provided 84% protection against hospitalization from the Omicron SARS-CoV2 variant – results that even outperformed those of an earlier South African study looking at effectiveness of the two-dose Pfizer regime in the face of […] Continue reading ->
Vaccine equity advocates see huge potential in India’s decision to grant an emergency use license to CORBEVAX™, an open-license vaccine dubbed “The World’s COVID-19 Vaccine” by its developers at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. The protein sub-unit vaccine, engineered at Baylor’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) […] Continue reading ->