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 ->
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 ->
As the world marks two years since the emergence of the first reports about a “novel coronavirus” circulating in Wuhan China, countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere are facing yet another “tsunami” of infections – this time driven by the highly-infectious Omicron variant, warned WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  He spoke at […] 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 ->
A global grassroots movement of scientists based on crowdsourcing ideas, expertise, and goodwill has already generated – and freely released – more than half of the known structural information on the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. Based on this, they are now on a quest for an open-source drug that can block the virus from replicating. […] Continue reading ->
WASHINGTON D.C. (ENDPOINTS News) – The FDA on Thursday authorized another new pill to treat the Omicron variant, this time from Merck. The FDA decision follows upon a decision Wednesday authorizing Pfizer’s Paxlovid oral treatment, which the company said had proved to reduce the relative risk of hospitalization or death by 89% (within three days […] Continue reading ->
WHO has issued new advice to countries supporting booster campaigns for “high risk groups” but still opposing “blanket” campaigns – or vaccines for children and adolescents under the age of 18. The latter, top WHO officials contend, could divert too many vaccines from low-and-middle member states that have low vaccination coverage rates – leading to […] Continue reading ->