Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

A federal jury found that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee improperly fired an employee for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and awarded her nearly $700,000.

The federal jury in the case, which was litigated in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, found that the insurance company owes the plaintiff, Tanja Benton, $687,240 in backpay and damages after she was let go in 2022.

The judgment order in the case said Benton proved by a preponderance of the evidence that her refusal to receive the COVID vaccination was based upon a sincerely held religious belief.

At the height of the pandemic and subsequent rollout of vaccines, both the government and federal companies struggled with how to handle workers who refused to be vaccinated for various reasons, chief among them being concerns about the long-term effects of the new inoculations and religious reasons.

Benton had worked at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee primarily as a biostatistical research scientist from 2005 through November 2022 before being let go for the refusal, according to WTVC.

As part of the lawsuit, Benton argued she didnt have a very public-facing job with the insurance company and had a portfolio of a dozen or fewer clients per year. She said interactions with those clients were infrequent and not always in person.

In the lawsuit, Benton said taking the vaccine would anger and dishonor God and that she firmly believes, based upon personal research, that all COVID-19 vaccines are derived from aborted fetus cell lines.

After BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee mandated the vaccine, Benton filed a religious exemption request, which was denied. Once she appealed, she was told there were no exceptions for someone in her role as a biostatistical research scientist, and a company representative encouraged her to try for a different job.

She was then fired and filed the lawsuit in question.

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In the end, Benton prevailed, and the jury awarded her over $177,000 in back pay, $10,000 in compensatory damages, and $500,000 in punitive damages.

The Washington Examiner reached out to BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee for comment.

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BlueCross BlueShield told to pay former employee $700,000 - Washington Examiner

In 2021, anecdotal reports about changes in menstrual cycles following COVID-19 vaccination appeared on social media and in the news. To understand if and how COVID-19 vaccination affected menstruation, NIH prioritized research on this topic. Findings from NIH-funded research include the following:

Although the vaccine is safe for menstruating people to receive, research showed that the COVID-19 vaccine may cause minor, temporary changes in cycle length and bleeding level/flow.

The changes did not require additional health or medical care, and they went away on their own one or two cycles after vaccination.

Most people experienced no changes in any aspect of their menstrual cycle.

Cycle length is the number of days from the first day of bleeding in one menstrual period, to the first day of bleeding in the next menstrual period.

Source: Study confirms link between COVID-19 vaccination and temporary increase in menstrual cycle length

Bleeding level or flow refers to how much a person bleeds during the menstrual period. Typically, heavy describes days with more bleeding, and light describes days with less bleeding.

Source: Science Update: Women report small, temporary increase in menstrual flow after COVID-19 vaccination, NIH-funded study suggests

Infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may affect menstruation in ways similar to the vaccine. Studies showed that some menstruating people who got COVID-19 experienced a slight increase in cycle length and heavy flow. Again, these changes were minor and temporary.

Source: Science Update: Slight menstrual cycle length increase seen with SARS-CoV-2 infection, NIH-funded study suggests

Research showed that mRNA vaccines and traditional vaccines affected menstrual cycles similarly. Some people who got the vaccineregardless of the kind of vaccinereported minor, temporary changes in cycle length and flow.

There were no reports of changes to cycle regularity, number of bleeding days, or menstrual pain among those who received any kind of COVID-19 vaccine.

Source: Science Update: NIH-funded study finds no effects of COVID-19 vaccine on menstrual cycle regularity, bleed length, or menstrual pain

Research on vaccination timing and menstrual cycle changes is limited to one study, which found that receiving the vaccine during the first half of the cycle (sometimes called the Follicular Phase) was associated with minor, temporary changes in menstrual cycle length.

Vaccination during the second half of the cycle (called the Luteal Phase) was not associated with changes in cycle length.

This study also found that other menstrual changes, such as number of bleeding days or flow, were unlikely to be associated with timing of the vaccine during the menstrual cycle.

Source: COVID-19 vaccination and menstrual cycle length in the Apple Womens Health Study

One study showed that people with a history of endometriosis experienced similar menstrual changes after COVID-19 vaccination as people without endometriosis.

Another study showed that people with a history of endometriosis were at greater risk for Long COVID following COVID-19 illness.

Because of this connection, people with a history of endometriosis may want to consider the benefits of preventive measures, such as COVID-19 vaccination.

Source: Association of laparoscopically-confirmed endometriosis with long COVID-19: a prospective cohort study

Studies on the effects of COVID-19 vaccination on menstrual cycles are primarily focused on adult biologically female persons of reproductive age.

Understanding the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine in subpopulations, including teenagers or people using hormonal birth control methods, requires further research. At this time, we do not know if certain groups of menstruating people are more or less likely to experience menstrual changes after vaccination.

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COVID-19 Vaccines and Menstruation | NICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human ... - National Institute of Child...

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A House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday addressing the "politicization" of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the pandemic exposed how the Biden administration allegedly pressured medical professionals to expedite the COVID-19 vaccine for children before enough testing was completed to confirm or deny its safety.

At the onset of the subcommittee hearing, "Follow the Science?: Oversight of the Biden COVID-19 Administrative State Response,"Chairman Thomas Massie, R-Ky., read from past testimony of Dr. Marion Gruber, the former director of the FDAs vaccine office, regarding conversations she had with Dr. Peter Marks, the agencys top vaccine regulator, about the efficacy of the COVID vaccine in children. Massie said Gruber expressed a need for more trial testing in the pediatric population, specifically among males ages 12 to 17, but Marks allegedly pushed to further compress the schedule to license the vaccines so they could be mandated.

"Right when they were getting the warnings that myocarditis and pericarditis are real and serious side effects to the vaccine, the top scientists at FDA had already agreed to compress the schedule as much as possible, right when they got the message that there were serious side effects," Massie said. "And Peter Marks, instead of telling them, 'Were going to give you more time to study this,' he told them to compress the schedule even more.

"And when they said that compressing the schedule was not possible, he fired them. He took them off the job, he assigned them to other duties. The top vaccine officials who had been there for 30 years, taken off the job because they wanted more time to study the effects of the vaccines. And they were told they needed to do this quickly because they needed to be mandated.

COVID VACCINE COMPANIES TOLD TO FOCUS ON KP.2 VARIANT FOR FALL SHOTS, PER FDA ANNOUNCEMENT

Chairman Thomas Massie, R-Ky., delivers his opening statement before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (Handout)

"The Biden administration was mandating the vaccine on the military and young people going to school despite a lack of testing and data, despite growing reports of vaccine injuries. This kind of decision made by the administrative state is concerning. The FDA should not have approved a vaccine for children, EOA or otherwise, without proper testing. Injury from COVID vaccination is real."

During a separate line of questioning, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked the witnesses, "Would you agree that the biggest reason for vaccine hesitancy is because of what the United States government told us about COVID and about the vaccine itself?"

"I agree," Dr. Jordan Vaughn, an internist at a private practice in Birmingham, Alabama, said. "They were told one thing and, fairly, most people, once the opposite happens, usually start to question whoever told them that."

"The cause of vaccine hesitancy, the reason this got so political, in my judgment, is because our government told us time and time again things that were not accurate," Jordan said.

Vaughn testified earlier in the hearing that, since 2022, he has treated more than 2,000 "unique patients" with complications from the COVID-19 vaccination, including more than 30 service members.

He provided six specific examples of otherwise healthy members of the military who, upon receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and mandated booster shots, were suddenly hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, chest pain or shortness or breath. Some needed emergency surgery to remove a pancreas, some became too weak to walk or were eventually discharged after being deemed no longer physically fit enough to serve. In one case, one man had a cardiac arrest and died on his bathroom floor.

A nurse practitioner holds a COVID-19 vaccine card at a New York Health and Hospitals vaccine clinic in the Brooklyn borough of New York Jan. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

"Especially in those with vaccine injury, their faith in medicine and public health is shattered. Many of those patients were holdouts from getting vaccinated because they either knew their own immune systems' sensitivities or already had a prior infection of COVID-19," Vaughn said in his opening statement.

"However, it was under the August 2021 military service member, federal employee and OSHA mandate these individuals faced a decision to either vaccinate against their conscience and common sense or lose a career and gainful employment. Disabled from the adverse effects of these mandated injections, the profession they once held dear is an afterthought to just hoping for a diagnosis and possible treatment. Among the most egregious is our service members needlessly harmed through the mandate.

"Knowing the emerging data in the spring of 2021 around the hearts of young athletic individuals and myocarditis from the mod mRNA COVID-19 injections," Vaughn said, "the FDA and the Biden administration sought to speed up approval and mandate it to the military in the name of military preparedness."

Witnesses are sworn into the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing June 26, 2024. (Handout)

CDC WARNS OF DUAL MUTANT FLU STRAIN THAT COULD EVADE ANTIVIRAL DRUGS: NEED TO CLOSELY MONITOR

Later, Jordan told Vaughn, "Tell me about that relationship, and how politics played into the relationship thats supposed to exist between the doctor and their patient."

"I think the biggest trust was lost when they were mandated to get something against their conscience, and I think that is one of the things that needs to be especially when you talk about a physician who knows his patient there are certain patients that dont need to have their immune system, in a sense, poked," said Vaughn, also the founder of the Microvascular Research Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding treatments for vaccine injury and long COVID.

"That knowledge is what a physician and their patient have and the relationship that exists. It is not something that is found in a parking lot when you roll down your window."

Among the witnesses was Aaron Siri, a vaccine litigation expert handling lawsuits over COVID-19 vaccine injury.

Dr. Jordan Vaughn testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust June 26, 2024. (Handout)

He told Jordan "billions of dollars were on the line for these pharmaceutical companies, and that really affected the way that these vaccines were rolled out. Thats a financial conflict of interest, especially when they didnt have to pay for any injuries, and they knew it beforehand because the federal government contractually agreed that immunity applied to every single vaccine that was rolled out."

Along with Gruber, his former boss, Dr. Philip Krause, former Deputy Director, FDA Office of Vaccines Research & Review, testified before the hearing Wednesday that he quit the FDA after 30 years of employment in various roles within the agency in protest over political pressure from the Biden administration to authorize vaccine boosters in young people in 2021.

"The rapid move to mandates, which was foreshadowed by other Biden administration comments, suggested that the rapid review of the vaccine was motivated more by a desire to mandate vaccine than by other public health considerations," Krause said in his opening statement.

A nurse prepares a COVID vaccine. (Getty Images)

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"It would be unrealistic to assume that politicians would have no interest in vaccine policy in the middle of a pandemic," he added. "Of course, they might hope to influence decision-making in a way that might increase their political capital. But every time this happens, there is collateral damage to trust. Now, if politicians were to own their decisions and state that they were responsible for them, that would at least be transparent and wouldnt affect the trust in the public health agencies.

"But if politically appointed and Senate-confirmed agency heads announce these decisions as though they were the result of the normal processes, it becomes almost impossible for the public or for physicians to figure out which decisions are public health based and which are politically motivated."

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House hearing exposes Biden FDA 'politicization,' fallout of rushed COVID vaccine approval for kids, military - Fox News

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

A study by the Kinder Institute at Rice University shows that Asians and Latinos are the most supportive of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Partnering with UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, Rice surveyed 900 participants in the fall of 2021. As residents of the San Antonio region waited in line to get the vaccine, each participant was asked if they would support a vaccine mandate.

"When we asked the question, we found out that not everybody would support a vaccine mandate, which was interesting. We found that 59% of participants thought that it was a positive thing. But, when we started digging a little more into the data, we found that there were important racial and ethnic differences that we needed to start looking at and learning more about that, said Luz Garcini, Assistant Professor and Interim Director at Rice Kinder Institute. She also co-authored the study. 80% of the people of Asian background reported the potential support of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, compared to other ethnic groups. The next one to follow were the people of Latino origin."

She said to better understand the responses of specific communities to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to consider the context in which the responses occurred. She says the Asian and Latino cultures tend to be high in collectivistic values.

"Your own behavior has implications for the people around you and you are always looking for the common good. So, if we start thinking in the collectivistic approach, it will also make sense if they believed the vaccination is the way to go, regardless of their opinion, they would be supportive of that," Garcini said.

The survey also showed groups between 16 to 25 years old and those older than 55 were also more likely to support vaccine mandates. She explained, likely because younger people want to be social, and the older group is concerned about the risk of getting COVID-19 with pre-existing conditions. The report also showed single participants as compared to married participants showed more support for the vaccine mandate, Garcini said also likely due to the social aspect. Less significant differences were documented between individuals with varying education levels. 66% of the respondents with an education level of high school or below supported mandates compared to 59% of individuals with any kind of higher education (including trade school).

"Sometimes I say knowledge can be a curse, the more you know, the more you start asking questions. You start evaluating alternatives, she said. The data does not tell us the whole story. I think the bigger message here, is the importance of listening to people's stories, understanding what influences their decisions and their behaviors, so that we can be prepared, God forbid, in case of future emergencies."

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Study: Asians and Latinos are most supportive of COVID vaccine mandates - Houston Public Media

More than 4m people have now received their spring COVID-19 booster from the NHS just 10 weeks after bookings officially opened as part of the latest vaccination campaign.

Around 7m people are eligible for a spring COVID-19 jab this year, including those aged 75 and over, those with a weakened immune system and older adult care home residents, and the latest stats published today show 4,042,920 vaccines have been delivered by the NHS.

The vaccine offer formally opened to everyone outside of a care home on 22 April, but NHS staff have been going into older adult care homes since 15 April, with nearly two thirds of care home residents having received their protection.

With just one week left of this years spring COVID-19 vaccine programme, the NHS is urging all eligible people who havent yet had their top-up to come forward and get protected before 30 June 2024.

Dr Alex Degan, a GP in Devon and primary care medical director at NHS Devon, said: It is fantastic that 10 weeks since the launch of the spring COVID-19 vaccination campaign, so many vulnerable people have already come forward to receive their vital protection, with NHS staff also having vaccinated nearly two thirds of care home residents.

COVID-19 can still be dangerous for those most vulnerable, so it is vital people come forward for a top up jab if eligible the NHS is making it easier than ever to get vaccinated with the new joint booking option, and its not too late. You can still book in through the NHS App, by calling 119, or by visiting the NHS website where there is a list of walk-in sites across the country that you can go to without an appointment.

Vaccination sites in Devon includeGreendale near Exeter,Home Park in Plymouth, some community pharmacies and GP practices.

For the first time, joint bookings can be made for those who use the online booking system or NHS 119 to get their jab. By selecting ajoint booking, two eligible people aged 18 and over can get the COVID-19 vaccine in the same location at the same time, making it easier than ever to get protected.

Depending on the vaccination site,those who have booked a joint appointmentmay be vaccinated at the same time or may have back-to-back vaccination slots.

Statistics from the UK Health Security Agency on last years spring covid-19 vaccination programme showed that those who received a vaccine were up to 50% less likely to be admitted to hospital with covid-19 for three to four months after vaccination, compared to those who did not receive one.

More details on people eligible for covid-19 vaccines and how to book a jab are available atnhs.uk/conditions/covid-19/covid-19-vaccination/getting-a-covid-19-vaccine

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It's not too late to get your spring COVID-19 vaccine - DevonAir Radio

DEAR ABBY: Several months ago, I let the 49-year-old son of a dear friend move into my basement.

Jason pays me rent plus utilities.

Last week, he informed me that he is not vaccinated for COVID. He was drinking at the time. Since my husband passed away with COVID in his system two years ago, I told Jason he would need to get vaccinated or find another place to live, but now Im not sure he remembers the conversation.

How should I handle this? I dont want to alienate his mother (or him, whom I love like a son) over this? -- HEALTH-CONSCIOUS IN COLORADO

DEAR HEALTH-CONSCIOUS: Ask Jason if he remembers the conversation you had in which he mentioned that he has not been vaccinated for COVID. If he doesnt recall having made the statement, remind him.

Then tell him that when your husband passed, he had COVID in his system, that you do NOT want to risk being exposed to COVID and that if he wishes to continue living with you, he will have to stay current on his vaccines. This need not be a confrontation if you approach the subject calmly.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at http://www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

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Dear Abby: I cant have my friends son live in my basement unless he gets a COVID vaccine - OregonLive

Key Takeaways

Less than a week after telling COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to target the JN.1 variant this fall, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reversed course.

The FDA is now asking vaccine manufacturers Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax to target an offshoot of JN.1, called KP.2, insteadif feasible. The shift comes six days after the agency took the advice of its advisory panel and announced early fall vaccines should target JN.1.

While that advisory committee did discuss the emergence of KP.2 before the initial FDA decision to target JN.1, it concluded that the JN.1 vaccines already in development should be sufficient. That was in part to accommodate Novavax, who indicated it wouldnt be able to pivot to KP.2 for an early fall vaccine rollout. Experts like epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, believe a vaccine option like Novavax, which doesnt use mRNA technology like Pfizer and Moderna, is important to offer alongside mRNA vaccines for better uptake. Thats because some people are wary of the newness of mRNA technology. Plus, unlike the mRNA vaccines, the Novavax vaccine does not include an ingredient called PEG, which a small number of people are allergic to.

Moderna and Pfizer told Verywell in emails that they would be able to comply with the newest FDA request. In a statement, Novavax implied their planned JN.1 vaccine should still do the trick, indicating its not possible to update the vaccine platform in time: Novavax's JN.1 vaccine has demonstrated broad cross-neutralizing antibodies against multiple variant strains, including KP.2

Even if Pfizer and Moderna produce KP.2 vaccines in the coming months, that doesnt guarantee the vaccine will keep pace with COVID, which is constantly mutating. The FDA said that the agency will continue to monitor the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.

If a markedly more virulent variant occurs that results in more morbidity or mortality, the agency could consider recommending a change in vaccine composition at any time, an FDA spokesperson told Verywell. Although it is true that protein-based vaccines [such as Novavax] currently take longer to manufacture, most COVID-19 vaccines administered in the U.S. have been mRNA-based, and these products could potentially be manufactured relatively quickly.

An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will determine who should actually get an updated COVID vaccine late next week. While COVID doesnt have a typical season like flu does, it still tends to mutate and spread easily when people are in close quarters during the winter. Therefore, the CDC has begun recommending an annually-updated vaccine, especially for people at risk of severe COVID, each fall.

Once the CDC makes its recommendations, people who are eligible for another shot should ask their doctors or pharmacists about which vaccine brand is best for them.

Amesh Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, suspects a Novavax vaccine that lags behind other options will have the lowest uptake, even though targeting JN.1 still offers cross-protection, because these variants are all very similar.

No matter what you choose, though, when it comes to protection against severe disease, any of the vaccines, including ones against outdated variants, confer that protection, he added. It will be important to look at the actual efficacy numbers [for Novavax], but I suspect that it would probably be much better than not getting an updated vaccine if youre in a high-risk group.

A CDC advisory committee will meet next week to determine who should get the vaccine. Your doctor or pharmacist can tell you whether an updated COVID vaccineand which oneis recommended for you.

The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit ourcoronavirus news page.

By Fran Kritz Kritz is a healthcare reporter with a focus on health policy. She is a former staff writer for Forbes Magazine and U.S. News and World Report.

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The FDA Now Wants Fall COVID Vaccines to Target KP.2But Not All Manufacturers Can Pivot - Verywell Health

Gaithersburg-based Emergent BioSolutions is officially leaving Baltimore after a tumultuous stretch that began when it was forced to ditch hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine over questionable quality standards.

The company had already laid off hundreds of workers and shuttered the Bayview plant in East Baltimore where those bulk doses were produced. And Emergent said Thursday that it would sell its other major Baltimore plant, located in the Carroll-Camden industrial area, to an affiliate of Bora Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.

That plant was a fill center where it packaged drugs and therapeutics for market. Officials said all of Emergents 350 workers are expected to join Bora under the $30 million deal.

The decision to sell our Camden manufacturing facility is aligned with our multi-year plan to create a customer focused, leaner and more flexible organization, while we improve overall profitability and raise capital to reduce our debt, Joe Papa, Emergents president and CEO, said in a statement.

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We are working to ensure a smooth transition to Bora, especially for our Camden team and valued customers, over the coming weeks and months.

The company has been laying off workers and fending off lawsuits from shareholders since its COVID-19 vaccine debacle years ago. The suits claimed the company inflated its stock price while hiding manufacturing problems.

Emergent also faced an inquiry by the Congress Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that showed its problems were deeper than initially disclosed. In all, about 525 million Emergent vaccine doses made had to be discarded, according to the congressional report.

The Biden administration had already canceled the federal contract, signed during the Trump administration, with Emergent to make the COVID vaccine, but the congressional panel said its finding confirmed the decision.

Federal inspectors found the company had insufficient processes and record keeping to ensure that vaccines were being made properly. Officials said at the time that the massive deals to make two kinds of vaccines at once, those developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, ended up being unrealistic.

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Johnson & Johnsons vaccine never caught on, and AstraZenecas was largely used overseas.

The company continues to employ workers elsewhere across the U.S., including in Maryland, and Canada, although other Emergent facilities have laid off hundreds of workers in recent years. That includes some 300 layoffs earlier this year when it said it would shutter the Bayview plant and another one based in Rockville. Last year, Emergent laid off about 230 workers in Maryland.

Emergents biggest product continues to be Narcan nasal spray, used to reverse opioid overdoses. It also has government contracts to produce smallpox and anthrax vaccines for the national stockpile.

The Camden deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024.

In May, the company reported first quarter income of $9 million on about $300.4 million in revenue.

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The companys stock price, which peaked at $133 a share in 2020, was at about $6.38 in morning trading.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the number of Emergents layoffs from earlier this year.

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Emergent, once giant in the COVID vaccine business, exits Baltimore - The Baltimore Banner

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Originally posted here:

Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against severe COVID-19 among patients with cancer in Catalonia, Spain - Nature.com

A new intranasal COVID-19 vaccine from the University of Georgia is heading to clinical trials. The company responsible for the vaccine is the UGA-based startup, CyanVac LLC, founded by Dr. Biao He, Fred C. Davison Distinguished University Chair in Veterinary Medicine and a faculty member in UGAs College of Veterinary Medicine.

CyanVac, which specializes in developing nasal, non-needle vaccines, will sponsor a randomized, double-blind Phase 2b study beginning this fall with 10,000 participants to compare the efficacy and safety of the intranasal vaccine against an FDA-approved mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine.

We are very excited about this opportunity to test a novel intranasal COVID vaccine whose technology platform has been developed at UGA, He said in a press release. The name of our vaccineCVXGAis a tribute to UGA and CVM whose support over the years made this possible.

The vaccine is sponsored through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Servicess Project NextGen, a federal initiative to advance new, innovative vaccines and therapeutics that provide longer lasting and more durable protection against COVID-19.

See more here:

Intranasal COVID-19 vaccine from UGA heads to clinical trials - Red and Black