Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

The FDA recently extended the shelf life of 20 different tests you could receive in the mail.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. July 6 was a date that had Linda Wood doing a double take.

My first reaction was what am I going to do? I guess I have to throw these away, said Linda Wood, an Albuquerque resident.

It was the expiration date on the COVID-19 test she got from the federal government in October.

Which was confusing to me, because I knew I had ordered it after that, said Wood.

When she couldnt get into her doctors office and learned an urgent care Rapid Test could cost her $70 she called the company on the box.

They said that theyre extending it for nine months, Wood said.

The FDA recently extended the shelf life of 20 different tests you could receive in the mail.

What happened, in order to get these tests out quickly, they didnt have a year or two years to kind of test and see whether they still worked. So they kind of short-dated them, put six months on, that allowed us to get tests in peoples hands quickly, said NMDOH Chief Medical Officer Mirando Durham.

Behind the scenes, they were working on a more accurate expiration timeline.

Durham says at the very least you can use an expired test as a start while you wait for a new one.

Officially, we shouldnt be using expired tests. But if its been well-kept and preserved, its probably OK as a starter to check, said Durham. If its been sitting in your car and getting to 100 degrees in the summer, and you know, down to freezing in the winter, like that test isnt going to be as reliable, whether its expired or not.

Durham says an expired test could produce a false negative or positive in some cases.

Meanwhile, Wood adds this to her ever-growing list of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19:

They should have really broadcasted that you can continue to use these for nine months. They really should have made a bigger point about that. Because I didnt know, and I dont know that many people do, said Wood.

Department of Health leaders are reminding New Mexicans its the perfect time to get a COVID-19 booster.

They say across the board vaccination numbers for the newest booster are low, while flu and RSV cases are starting to rise.

For a list of extended expiration date test brands, click here.

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What to do with expired COVID-19 tests - KOB 4

Less than 10% of US interventional COVID-19 trials in the first 3 years of the pandemic included children, and only 1.6% enrolled them exclusively, despite this age-group accounting for 18% of infections, Harvard and Boston Children's Hospital researchers report today in JAMA Health Forum.

The team identified all COVID-19 trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov from January 2020 to December 2022. They noted that children have been underrepresented in clinical research owing to ethical, logistical, and financial reasons.

"The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a rapid investment in research activities to identify prevention measures and develop therapeutic interventions," they wrote. "While children were eventually determined to have a milder disease course compared with adults, studying children was critical to elucidate transmission patterns and identify treatments for pediatric patients with severe disease, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome."

Of 1,216 trials, 20 (1.6%) enrolled only children, while 120 (9.9%) included only children or both children and adults, and 1,096 (90.1%) enrolled only adults. The percentage of trials enrolling children rose from 45 (7.1%) in 2020 to 27 (15.7%) in 2022.

Relative to adult-only studies, those including children were less likely to focus on COVID-19 treatments (48.3% vs 69.8%) or on testing medications, biologics, or devices (48.3% vs 64.6%). Rather, they tended to focus on prevention (47.5% vs 23.0%), behavior (25.8% vs 16.8%), and vaccines (14.2% vs 5.8%).

Recent methodologic advancements in pediatric extrapolation, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling, and adaptive trial designs, can be applied to support earlier initiation.

Fewer drug studies enrolling children were phase 1 or 2 (42.0% vs 70.4%) or were randomized (69.2% vs 79.3%). Most studies including children (71 [59.2%]) focused on those older than 2 years, with only 49 (40.9%) open to younger kids.

The researchers said that low rates of inclusion of children probably reflect the tradition of delaying interventional trials in children until after adults have been studied.

But more attention is now being paid to the advantages of early pediatric trials. "Recent methodologic advancements in pediatric extrapolation, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling, and adaptive trial designs, can be applied to support earlier initiation," they wrote.

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Malaria vaccine shipments in Africa signal shift to broader, routine use - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

New research suggests drinking coffee can reduce COVID-19 infection.

Daily coffee drinking can reduce the infection risk of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to new research from Taiwan.

After conducting in vitro lab testing of human cells, as well as a human trial involving 64 participants given a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, the research team concluded that drinking coffee every day might be a useful dietary tool in preventing infection in individuals. It may also reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections, the researchers said.

The results were consistent for different coffee types ground and instant, caffeinated and decaffeinated as well as for the most common recent COVID-19 variants, such as Delta and Omicron.

Interestingly, no matter what kind of coffee or adding additional intergrading (sugar or milk), it has the capability to reduce SARS-CoV-2 entering into host cells, the researchers wrote. Our research supported drinking coffee is related to reducing COVID-19 infection, which is consistent with the opinion of meta-analyses that reported coffee consumption related to a lower COVID-19 positive probability.

The full study was published last week in the journalCell & Bioscience, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal, and the official journal of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America. The journal is part of the Springer academic publishing network. Lead authorsMien-Chie Hung, Chen-Shiou Wu, Yi-Chuan Li and Shin-Lei Peng are all affiliated with the China Medical University in Taichung, Taiwan. None of the authors declared any affiliations or funding associations with the coffee sector.

The study builds upon a 2021 study from researchers in the United States that found that people who drank one or more cups of coffee per day were at 10% lower risk of developing COVID-19 than people who drank less than one cup. Another study involving a human trial of adults aged 75-90 in Spain found that the severity of COVID-19 infections was significantly reduced among coffee drinkers.

Additional research has shown that immune-boosting factors such as exercise and a healthy diet including consuming polyphenols, naturally occurring plant chemical compounds that are abundant in coffee might lower the risks of COVID-19 infection and severity.

The research team in Taiwan set out to discover the potential human cellular mechanisms that can explain such results.

Our results demonstrated that coffee, a beverage readily available, can be a new strategy to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection via blocking spike protein ACE2 interaction, inhibiting TMPRSS2 and CTSL activity, and diminishing the protein level of TMPRSS2 and ACE2, respectively, they wrote.

The authors further suggest that because governments have lifted many of the individual safety requirements regarding the spread of SARS-CoV-2 such as masking or social distancing that prevention measures such as diet should be explored further.

Regular dietary behavior to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection becomes an interesting issue, they wrote. In particular, coffee is one of the most common beverages people consume. The results from the current study may provide the scientific basis for the public to prevent from infection of SARS-CoV-2 by drinking coffee.

Does your coffee business have news to share? Let DCNs editors know here.

Nick Brown Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.

Tags: Chen-Shiou Wu, China Medical University, COVID-19, health, Mien-Chie Hung, Polyphenol, polyphenols, research, SARS-CoV-2, science, Shin-Lei Peng, Taichung, Taiwan, Yi-Chuan Li

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Study: Regularly Drinking Coffee Reduces COVID-19 Infection ... - Daily Coffee News

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Dozens of current and former city of Los Angeles workers are seeking damages in a lawsuit alleging that the FDA's emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines allows individuals to refuse the shot without facing penalties from employers.

The group of plaintiffs, who held a news conference Tuesday on the steps of City Hall, say they were terminated from their jobs when they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

"In the city of Los Angeles, our workers worked and our workers kept the city working," said attorney Jennifer Kennedy.

City employees were mandated to be vaccinated by Dec. 18, 2021.

There are more than 50 plaintiffs in this lawsuit, including Michael McMahon, who served as a Los Angeles police officer for 14 years.

"I refused to wear a mask, I refused to test or take the EUA shots. I was suspended without pay," McMahon said.

Michael Parks worked for the LAPD for 16 years. According to Parks, he was about to be promoted but instead was terminated after he decided not to get the vaccine.

"I thought that what they were doing was wrong. I thought that people should have the ability to make their own choice as far as what they put in their body," Parks said.

On the fence about the new COVID shot? Survey reveals what it will take to persuade Americans

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have received vaccines.

ABC7 reached out to Mayor Karen Bass' office for a statement about the lawsuit but did not hear back.

Link:

Dozens of current and former LA city employees sue over vaccine mandate - KABC-TV

Early in the COVID-19 outbreak, some people dismissed the new respiratory virus as like the flu. It isnt, of course; but for the purposes of vaccination, it would be nice if people acted that way.

About 51% of Hawaiis population got the flu vaccine during the 2022-23 season, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. As of last week, only about 7.6% have received the d COVID vaccine, the one that targets the latest omicron variant, according to the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH).

DOH and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the COVID shot for anyone 6 months or older, unless health conditions prevent it. Good idea, with the holidays now upon us.

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Off The News: A COVID-19 shot for the holidays - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Health Minister Mark Butler on Monday said the government had accepted and approved the use of the new monovalent vaccines, which have been targeted at sub-variants of the Omicron strain.

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. AP

The new XBB.1.5 vaccines have modest improved protection against the COVID-19 strains currently circulating the community, according to a government statement, which said that all available vaccines still continued to provide strong protection against serious disease.

The latest monovalent Omicron vaccines have been approved as both primary and additional doses, with Pfizers version approved for eligible people over five years old, and Modernas for those over 12-years-old.

All currently available COVID-19 vaccines are anticipated to provide benefit to eligible people, however the monovalent Omicron XBB.1.5 vaccines are preferred over other vaccines, the ATAGI advice said.

Most Omicron subvariants currently circulating in Australia are sub-lineages of XBB.1, with BA.2.8 representing a small but growing proportion Available data suggests monovalent XBB vaccines provide modestly enhanced protection from severe disease compared to older vaccines.

It did not recommend extra doses of the new jab for people who already had their recommended 2023 dose of a COVID vaccine.

But it encouraged recommended groups those over 75, and younger people with medical comorbidities who had not been vaccinated this year to receive one as soon as possible, given there had been an increase in COVID cases across Australia this month.

There were about 160 people in hospital with COVID at the beginning of November the highest number since June, but fewer than the 430 who were hospitalised at the start of this year.

The latest data from November shows just 27 per cent of people aged 75 or over have received their booster in the last six months.

Only 20 per cent of 65- to 74-year-olds and 5.5 per cent of adults under 65 have had their top-up, although they are not in the priority age group.

Coalition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said she was concerned there had been no media campaign or public press conferences with the chief medical officer to improve awareness in the Australian community.

At a time when hospitals are dealing with historic ramping, bulk billing rates continue to plummet, and it is harder and more expensive to see a GP, the government must explain why they have failed to act quicker and protect particularly vulnerable Australians, she said.

The federal government said providers could order the new vaccine and doses should be delivered by December 11.

Butler said it demonstrated his government was committed to providing the latest and most effective vaccines.

While we are no longer in the emergency phase of this pandemic, COVID-19 is still present, and people should continue to follow the advice of the experts from ATAGI, including getting vaccines as required, Butler said.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter .

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Australians to receive new COVID vaccines targeting Omicron sub-variants - Sydney Morning Herald

As the COVID virus continues to evolve, so does our vaccine response. From December 11, Australians will have access to new vaccines that offer better protection.

These monovalent booster vaccines are expected to be a better match for currently circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.

Pfizers monovalent vaccine will be available to eligible people aged five years and older. The Moderna monovalent vaccine can be used for those aged 12 years and older.

Who is eligible for these new boosters? How do they differ from earlier ones? Do they work? Are they safe?

Read more: We're in a new COVID wave. What can we expect this time?

The federal government has accepted the Australian Technical Advisory Group (ATAGI) recommendation to use the new vaccines, after Australias regulator approved their use last month. However, vaccine eligibility has remained the same since September.

ATAGI recommends Australians aged over 75 get vaccinated if it has been six months or more since their last dose.

People aged 65 to 74 are recommended to have a 2023 booster if they havent already had one.

Adults aged 18 to 64 with underlying risk factors that increase their risk of severe COVID are also recommended to have a 2023 booster if they havent had one yet. And if theyve already had a 2023 booster, they can consider an additional dose.

For adults aged 18 to 64 without underlying risk factors who have already received a 2023 booster, an additional dose isnt recommended. But if youre aged 18 to 64 and havent had a booster in 2023, you can consider an additional dose.

Additional doses arent recommended for children without underlying conditions that increase their risk of severe COVID. A primary course is not recommended for children aged six months to five years without additional risk factors.

From monovalent

The initial COVID vaccines were monovalent. They had one target the original viral strain.

But as the virus mutated, we assigned new letters of the Greek alphabet to each variant. This brings us to Omicron. With this significant change, we saw immune evasion. The virus had changed so much the original vaccines didnt provide sufficient immunity.

To bivalent

So vaccines were updated to target an early Omicron subvariant, BA.1, plus the original ancestral strain. With two targets, these were the first of the bivalent vaccines, which were approved in Australia in 2022.

Omicron continued to evolve, leading to more immune escape, contributing to repeated waves of transmission.

The vaccines were updated again in early 2023. These newer bivalent vaccines target two strains the ancestral strain plus the subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Read more: A COVID inquiry has been announced. But is COVID still a thing? Do I need a booster?

Back to monovalent

Further changes in the virus have meant our boosters needed to be updated again. This takes us to the recent announcement.

This time the booster targets another subvariant of Omicron known as XBB.1.5 (sometimes known as Kraken).

This vaccine is monovalent once more, meaning it has only one target. The target against the original viral strain has been removed.

According to advice given to the World Health Organization in May, this is largely because immunity to this original strain is no longer required (its no longer infecting humans). Raising immunity to the original strain may also hamper the immune response to the newer component, but were not sure if this is occurring or how important this is.

The United States approved XBB.1.5-specific vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna in mid-September. These updated vaccines have also been approved in places including Europe, Canada, Japan and Singapore.

In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved them in October.

Read more: Beyond COVID vaccines: what else could mRNA technology do for our health?

Evidence for the efficacy of these new monovalent vaccines comes from the results of research Pfizer and Moderna submitted to the TGA.

Evidence also comes from a preprint (preliminary research available online that has yet to be independently reviewed) and an update Pfizer presented to the US Centers for Disease Control.

Taken together, the available evidence shows the updated vaccines produce good levels of antibodies in laboratory studies, in humans and mice when compared to previous vaccines and when looking at multiple emerging variants, including EG.5 (sometimes known as Eris). This variant is the one causing high numbers of cases around the world currently, including in Australia. It is very similar to the XBB version contained in the updated booster.

The updated vaccines should also cover BA.2.86 or Pirola, according to early results from clinical trials and the US Centers for Disease Control. This variant is responsible for a rapidly increasing proportion of cases, with case numbers growing in Australia.

Its clear the virus is going to continue to evolve. So performance of these vaccines against new variants will continue to be closely monitored.

Read more: How evasive and transmissible is the newest omicron offshoot, BA.2.86, that causes COVID-19? 4 questions answered

The safety of the updated vaccines has also been shown to be similar to previous versions. Studies comparing them found no significant difference in terms of the adverse events reported.

Given the availability of the updated vaccines, some countries have removed their approval for earlier versions. This is because newer versions are a closer match to currently circulating strains, rather than any safety issue with the older vaccines.

Read more: Do COVID boosters cause more or fewer side effects? How quickly does protection wane? Your questions answered

The availability of updated vaccines is a welcome development, however this is not the end of the story. We need to make sure eligible people get vaccinated.

We also need to acknowledge that vaccination should form part of a comprehensive strategy to limit the impact of COVID from now on. That includes measures such as mask wearing, social distancing, focusing on ventilation and air quality, and to a lesser degree hand hygiene. Rapidly accessing antivirals if eligible is also still important, as is keeping away from others if you are infected.

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What are the new COVID booster vaccines? Can I get one? Do they work? Are they safe? - The Conversation

LONDON -- LONDON (AP) Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, struggled to come to grips with much of the science during the coronavirus pandemic, his chief scientific adviser said Monday.

In keenly awaited testimony to the countrys public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick Vallance said he and others faced repeated problems getting Johnson to understand the science and that he changed his mind on numerous occasions.

I think Im right in saying that the prime minister gave up science at 15," he said. I think hed be the first to admit it wasnt his forte and that he struggled with the concepts and we did need to repeat them often.

Extracts from Vallace's mostly contemporaneous diary of the time were relayed to the inquiry. In them, he wrote that Johnson was often bamboozled by the graphs and data and that watching him get his head round stats is awful."

During the pandemic, Vallance was a highly visible presence in the U.K. He and the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, regularly flanked Johnson at the daily COVID-19 press briefings given from the prime minister's offices on Downing Street.

Vallance, who stepped down from his role as the British government's chief scientific adviser earlier this year, said Johnson's struggles were not unique and that many leaders had problems in understanding the scientific evidence and advice, especially in the first stages of the pandemic in early 2020.

He recalled a meeting of European scientific advisers where one country leader was said to have problems with exponential curves and the telephone call burst into laughter, because it was true in every country.

Johnson was hospitalized with the virus in April 2020 less than two weeks after he put the country into lockdown for the first time. Vallance conceded the prime minister was unable to concentrate on things when he was really unwell but that after his recuperation there was no obvious change between him and what he was like beforehand.

The U.K. has one of the highest COVID-19 death tolls in Europe, with the virus recorded as a cause of death for more than 232,000 people.

Johnson, who was forced to step down as prime minister in September 2022 following revelations of lockdown rule-breaking parties at his Downing Street residence during the pandemic, is due to address the inquiry before Christmas.

The probe, led by retired Judge Heather Hallett, is expected to take three years to complete, though interim assessments are set to be published. Johnson agreed in late 2021 to hold a public inquiry after heavy pressure from bereaved families, who have hit out at the evidence emerging about his actions.

The inquiry is divided into four so-called modules, with the current phase focusing on political decision-making around major developments, such as the timing of lockdowns. The first stage, which concluded in July, looked at the countrys preparedness for the pandemic.

The inquiry is set to hear from current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was Johnson's Treasury chief at the time and as such had a particular focus on the economic impacts of Britain's lockdowns.

When he does appear at the inquiry, Sunak is likely to face questioning about his Eat Out to Help Out initiative, which sought to encourage nervous customers back to restaurants in August 2020 as the first set of lockdown restrictions were being eased and before subsequent lockdowns were enacted.

Vallance said scientists weren't aware of the restaurant program until it was announced and that the messaging around it ran opposite to the need to limit mixing between households.

I think it would have been very obvious to anyone that this inevitably would cause an increase in transmission risk," Vallance said.

Soon after, positive cases started rising and the government came under huge pressure to institute a second national lockdown, something Johnson eventually announced at the end of October 2020.

The inquiry was shown a diary entry Vallance wrote before that lockdown and which referred to Dominic Cummings, Johnson's chief political adviser at the time, saying that Sunak thinks just let people die and thats OK."

When asked about the diary entry, the prime minister's spokesman, Max Blain, said Sunak would set out his position when he gives evidence to the inquiry.

Im sure the public will understand the importance of listening to all the evidence of the inquiry before coming to a conclusion," Blain said.

___

Associated Press journalist Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

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Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson 'bamboozled' by science, COVID-19 inquiry told - ABC News

Americans can order four free COVID-19 tests again online

By

AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press

November 20, 2023, 7:47 AM ET

2 min read

WASHINGTON -- Americans can order more free COVID-19 tests online for home delivery.

The U.S. government is offering to send another round of four at-home virus tests ahead of the typical surge in cases during the winter holiday season.

Anyone who did not order a batch of four COVID-19 tests in September can secure up to eight of them this time around starting Monday at COVIDtests.gov. The U.S. Postal Service will deliver them for free.

The government is mailing out the coronavirus tests as the the flu season kicks off and a spike in RSV cases has been reported in some spots around the country. Hospitalizations for COVID-19, which has killed more than 1 million people in the United States, were on the rise this fall but have stayed steady in recent weeks. Immunity from previous vaccinations and infections has kept case counts lower compared with other years.

The new release of free COVID-19 nasal swab tests also comes ahead of the first winter since the pandemic started that insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of them. On average, at-home tests now cost $11 out of pocket, according to an analysis by the nonprofit health research firm KFF.

The Food and Drug Administration also approved updated COVID-19 vaccines in September in the hopes of revving up protection for Americans this winter. The shots target an omicron descendant named XBB.1.5, replacing older vaccines that targeted the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron version. Shots are recommended for everyone age 6 months or older, but uptake has been slow.

U.S. taxpayers have spent tens of billions of dollars to develop COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatments in the three years since the pandemic started.

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More free COVID-19 tests from the government are available for home delivery through the mail - ABC News

People 65 and older constituted nearly 63 percent of U.S. hospitalizations for covid-19, with the rate increasing with age, through the first eight months of 2023, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC found that people in that age group also represented more than half of the admissions to intensive care units in that period and nearly 90 percent of deaths among those hospitalized because of covid.

The hospitalization number reflects an increase from preceding months (March 2020 through December 2022), when about 46 percent of those hospitalized because of covid were 65 or older.

The report found that most older people hospitalized from January through August this year had at least one underlying health condition, and most had two or more. Most common were diabetes, kidney disorders, coronary artery disease, heart failure and obesity.

The report also noted that more than 75 percent of older adults who had been hospitalized with covid this year had not gotten the bivalent vaccine, which protects against the original coronavirus as well as subsequent variants and had been recommended last year for everyone 5 and older. This year, everyone 6 months and older is being urged to keep their coronavirus vaccinations up to date because the virus that causes covid-19 changes frequently.

The risk of contracting covid has been shown to increase with age, which has made older people with covid more likely to get very sick, need a ventilator to breathe and require hospitalization, often in an ICU.

Health experts stress that vaccination reduces the odds of hospitalization, long covid (symptoms or conditions that develop or linger after the initial infection) and dying. But it also protects others by limiting spread of the disease.

This article is part of The Posts Big Number series, which takes a brief look at the statistical aspect of health issues. Additional information and relevant research are available through the hyperlinks.

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Seniors made up 63 percent of covid hospitalizations earlier this year - The Washington Post