Category: Vaccine

Hundreds of parents across New York state who thought they got their kids' routine vaccinations are learning Thursday that may not be the case, a day after the health department announced a $300,000 penalty against a Nassau County midwife who officials say falsified immunization records.

According to the investigation, Jeanette Breen, a licensed midwife who operated Baldwin Midwifery in Nassau County, was found to have administered 12,449 fake immunizations to roughly 1,500 school-aged patients as pretext for submitting false information to the New York State Immunization Information System (NYSIIS), health officials said.

Those fake immunizations were administered before the COVID-19 pandemic so do not include vaccinations for that virus. They do, however, include fraudulent diphtheria, tetanus toxoid-containing and pertussis vaccines (DTaP or Tdap); hepatitis B vaccines; measles, mumps and rubella vaccines (MMR); polio vaccine; varicella (Chickenpox) vaccines; meningococcal conjugate vaccines (MenACWY); booster doses of MenACWY; and the Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccines (HiB) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV).

Some kids were given fake vaccines for flu and hepatitis A also, though those immunizations are not required for school attendance. See the immunization requirements for enrollment and attendance in Empire State schools here.

Students who thought they were getting vaccinated by Breen for the other illnesses now have their state immunization records voided, health officials say. The roughly 1,500 children affected across the state must be fully up-to-date with all age-appropriate immunizations or be in the process of getting their missed doses before they can return to school.

Most of the affected children are from Long Island, though the alleged scheme reached as far as Erie County, officials say. It began at the start of the 2019-2020 school year, three months after non-medical exemptions were eliminated for school immunizations. Breen gave the children a series of oral pellets marketed by an out-of-state homeopath in lieu of vaccination, the investigation found. The pellets are not authorized by the FDA, nor approved by the CDC or the state.

Suffolk County accounts for about 345 affected students, state health officials said. County officials say their health department was awaiting a list of impacted students. Families can call 631-854-0222 for assistance.

The state put Nassau County's total a bit higher. In New York City, Queens and Brooklyn each had more than 110 students affected, according to health data.

Here's a county-by-county breakdown of false vaccinations, according to the state health department:

"Misrepresenting or falsifying vaccine records puts lives in jeopardy and undermines the system that exists to protect public health," State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement. "Let it be clear, the New York State Department of Health takes this issue seriously and will investigate and use all enforcement tools at its disposal against those who have been found to have committed such violations."

Children attending daycare and pre-K through Grade 12 in New York state must receive all required doses of vaccines to attend or remain in school, whether public, private or religious. Only medical exemptions are permissible.

The agreed-upon settlement reached between the state and Breen is the first of its kind addressing a scheme to create false immunization records, authorities said. It includes a $300,000 monetary penalty and requires that Breen never again administer a vaccination that must be reported to the state's database. She is also permanently forbidden from accessing that database for any reason.

Breen declined to comment Thursday. Her attorney, David Eskew, said in a statement that his client "intends to fully comply with the requirements of the agreement." She had no additional comment regarding the settlement.

"Ms. Breen has provided excellent midwifery services for many years to many families, especially on Long Island," the attorney's statement read. "From her perspective, this matter is over, done with, and closed and she is now moving on with her life. She has no comment about the settlement or the conduct beyond what is contained in the settlement stipulation with the Department of Health."

As part of the settlement, Breen has paid $150,000 of the $300,000 penalty, with the remainder suspended contingent upon her complying with state health laws and never again administering any immunization that must be reported to the state, according to the health department. She's also permanently banned from accessing the state's immunization records system.

Erin Clary, a health department spokesperson, said Thursday that while parents and legal guardians had sought out and paid Breen for her services, they weren't the focus of the agencys investigation.

State health officials say they're now in the process of notifying hundreds of affected school districts.

The Nassau County Department of Health issued a bulletin to all school superintendents, nurses and health services staff Wednesday, after the state announced the settlement, to inform them students may be in noncompliance.

Records of vaccinations purportedly provided by Breen no longer qualify as valid proof. It has been reported that impacted schools will receive further notification from the state, and a list of students who may be affected.

In the meantime:

See the original post:

Long Island midwife faked nearly 12,500 vaccine doses and your kid's might be invalid - NBC New York

Seeing COVID rates hit another high, and vaccine uptake remain low, doctors don't have an antidote for something they see as an ongoing risk factor: the spread of misinformation, including on the presidential campaign trail.

This week, speaking before a crowd of Republicans in New Hampshire, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out another falsehood about COVID vaccines.

"Every booster you take, you're more likely to get COVID as a result of it," said DeSantis, one of several political leaders who have consistently and without evidence challenged the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

Public health experts and doctors are worried that this kind of misinformation is still shaping how people perceive the virus and tools designed to protect individuals and communities against COVID's worst outcomes. In recent weeks, U.S. wastewater surveillance data has shown that COVID cases have risen to second-highest levels since the pandemic began, fueled by a new dominant strain, an omicron subvariant called JN.1, that is not as well understood as past surges. According to the World Health Organization, around 10,000 people died from COVID in December and hospitalizations rose by more than 40 percent in the Americas and across Europe.

Just 17 percent of eligible U.S. adults and children have gotten the updated vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Misinformation and disinformation are fueling "a vaccine revolution right now" in ways that Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, has not seen in his 50 years of work as an epidemiologist.

'There is a complex interaction between trust and misinformation, and it creates a feedback loop that's very difficult to get out of.'

Up until the early 2000s, Osterholm said vaccines were "largely trusted" and "the public followed the recommendations of the public health community about what vaccines to get and when. Overall, safety was accepted." But for a small but growing segment of the population, maintaining public safety is no longer a driving concern, he said. "It's about, 'I don't want to be told what to do.' It's an area where we don't know how to respond to that. It's the fallout of the pandemic itself."

Even as we're in "a significant wave, and all the numbers are going in the wrong direction," the public is battle-weary with pandemic fatigue, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

"Everybody's sick of it," he said,

Misinformation plays "a major role in vaccine hesitancy and the extent to which people trust institutions and the media," while also shaping people's personal health decisions, said Sander van der Linden, a social psychologist who directs the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab at Cambridge University. A small group of social media superspreaders are generating much of the misinformation that infects people's understanding of the world around them, he added.

WATCH: Why experts are concerned about the JN.1 variant responsible for latest COVID wave

"There is a complex interaction between trust and misinformation, and it creates a feedback loop that's very difficult to get out of," said van der Linden, author of the book, Foolproof. "People are stuck in this loop."

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, mutates over time as it is transmitted from one person to another. So far, it has managed to stay one step ahead of public health efforts to contain it, and the virus is far from being a seasonal illness, Osterholm said. COVID is also surging in nations throughout the Southern Hemisphere where it is currently summer, he added.

"We have an ongoing evolutionary battle between the virus and us," Osterholm said. With the virus' ability to produce subvariants capable of evading immune systems, he said that humans may be vulnerable again every six to 12 months.

There is a silver lining: though the virus is widespread and worsening in communities nationwide, an immunity wall composed of millions of infections and vaccinations has led to fewer hospitalizations compared to last winter, said epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina. At the same time, some people who are initially sick with COVID are still developing long COVID symptoms.

When COVID vaccines first became available, the federal government had funded and given out doses through public health departments and health care providers. But this latest COVID vaccine has been the first to be distributed through commercial insurance. Now, most patients and providers have to work with insurance companies for reimbursement. The CDC has stood up programs nationwide to help uninsured or underinsured Americans access vaccines, but demand has been sluggish.

"A vaccine, until it's administered, is nothing," Osterholm said. "That's what we're looking at right now."

Public health officials are facing a different reality with this latest surge than with some that have come before it. Loss of funding with the end of the public health emergency has hampered data collection at local, state and national levels. At-home COVID tests can be quick and effective, but few people report positive cases to their public health departments.

'A vaccine, until it's administered, is nothing.'

"The issue we have right now is we have lots of infections," Osterholm said. "There's no way to know how much just because we've dismantled all of our surveillance systems, but everybody seems to know a lot of people who are infected right now."

Some health systems in the United States are again requiring masks to prevent spreading the virus to patients and staff within facilities, but the response is scattered and enforcement inconsistent.

Vaccines remain a safe and effective way to protect people against the worst outcomes of COVID. The risk for severe illness, including long COVID, and death is higher among unvaccinated people. In September, about half of U.S. adults said they would likely receive the updated COVID vaccine, according to a KFF survey. But current uptake of the latest vaccine is far off-course, compared to what people had once said. In the same survey, most parents said they did not intend to get their child the latest COVID vaccine. And parents overall had more confidence in the safety of the RSV and flu vaccines.

WATCH: Your questions answered about staying safe from COVID, RSV and flu this winter

Experts say some of the misinformation coming from social media and political leaders draws on rhetoric and fears long used by anti-vaccine advocates. Hotez said there have also been efforts "to rewrite history," including during recent Congressional hearings with Dr. Anthony Fauci, when part of the debate focused on the false idea that vaccines not the virus killed Americans.

According to the KFF survey from September, 57 percent of Americans said they were confident in the COVID vaccine's safety. While these vaccines have been administered billions of times worldwide and have been shown to be safe and effective, clear partisan divisions emerged with 84 percent of Democrats, 54 percent of independents and 36 percent of Republicans expressing confidence in the vaccines.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is calling for people to stop getting Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID vaccines over safety concerns that the shots could possibly deliver DNA contaminants into human cells. (Jose A Iglesias/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Researchers reviewing COVID-related deaths in Florida and Ohio found that excess deaths after vaccines were made available to all adults were higher among Republican voters than Democratic voters, as detailed in a July study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

"These findings suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been factors in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the U.S," the study said.

Van der Linden said Republicans continue to be the audience for anti-vaccination conspiracy theories. Some of those theories are amplified by political leaders, including on Dec. 6, when Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo made debunked claims about COVID vaccines and called for an end to their use. These messages follow a dangerous pattern, van der Linden said.

"Targeted misinformation can negatively impact communities that are repeatedly exposed to it," he said. With platforms, including X (formerly known as Twitter), allowing the return of superspreaders of misinformation, van der Linden said addressing and preventing the spread of misinformation has become more difficult.

'Targeted misinformation can negatively impact communities that are repeatedly exposed to it.'

The American public needs to hear from higher-ranking political officials, Hotez said. "Right now, we're not hearing from the White House," which can promote the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID and refute misinformation, Hotez said.

But as the 2024 campaign heats up, he expects to hear more political messages "weaponizing health and science communication that will work against public health," he said.

"After that," Hotez said, "I don't know what happens."

In Jackson, Alabama, Dr. Steven Furr has served generations of local residents as a family physician, answering questions, diagnosing illnesses, prescribing treatments and administering vaccines. Then, COVID came along.

Some unvaccinated patients are not hesitant about the science, but simply overwhelmed, said Furr, who also serves as president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. With vaccines available to prevent dire outcomes for COVID, flu and RSV, Furr said some patients have "just lost track" of what they have received.

READ MORE: How uninsured adults can still get vaccinated against COVID

But over the years, Furr has identified vaccine-hesitant patients. He said the best way to approach those patients about the latest COVID vaccine is to bring it up when they are in his office for something else, such as a wellness visit or if they need a check-up. For him, it has been important to keep the conversation going and to listen to the patient. He also tells them that he has taken the vaccine himself and administered it to his wife and his mother. That sometimes makes a difference, Furr said.

"The biggest thing is not to cut them off or get angry or frustrated," he said. "It's a chance for us to educate people. Now that they're asking questions, we shouldn't be afraid to deal with questions."

One of Furr's patients, Asbury Daffin III, age 67, said he and his wife got vaccinated against COVID as soon as possible, lining up in a drive-thru early in the pandemic to receive their first doses. But his children and grandchildren initially rejected the vaccines. "They thought it was something the government was trying to do to try to kill them" and that the government was specifically targeting Black people, Daffin said.

'Now that they're asking questions, we shouldn't be afraid to deal with questions.'

He said he disputed those claims and tried to assure his family. In the end, they got the vaccines, after seeing that he and his wife had no adverse effects, and aided in part by more fact-based information. He added that it was hard to counter posts his loved ones read or shared on social media, especially Facebook: "It don't take but one of them to say it, and all of them believe it."

"It's a new beginning," Daffin said. "It's a new way of living now."

Betty Bounds nearly lost her adult son to COVID in late 2020. After months of being careful, Bounds, a 78-year-old retired schoolteacher, said she heard people begin to dismiss the severity of COVID, comparing it to the flu. Soon, people returned to the pre-pandemic rhythms of life, including her son, who thought he was healthy and could take precautions later. But "COVID came before later," Bounds said.

For a week, her son was treated in an intensive care unit in Birmingham, more than 170 miles away. He was hospitalized for two weeks. Years later, Bounds said he still experiences brain fog and struggles to catch his breath when he walks outdoors.

The experience made most of her family recognize the importance of getting vaccinated and that COVID was not a "fly-by-night virus that was coming through," she said.

"We really thought we might lose him," Bounds said.

Read the original here:

As COVID cases rise, doctors worry about the consequences of misinformation - PBS NewsHour

'We're making history,' Asheville native being treated with 'promising' cancer vaccine

JAN. 16, 2024 - Asheville native Catie King, who is patient zero in a new cancer vaccine trial, and her husband, Jim. (Photo credit: Catie King)

GREENVILLE, S.C. (WLOS)

An individualized treatment for cancer?

'We're%20making%20history,'%20Asheville%20native%20being%20treated%20with%20'promising'%20cancer%20vaccine

Catie King, an Asheville native who is patient zero in a new cancer vaccine trial, was determined when she walked into Dr. Thaer Joudeh's office on Dec. 27, 2023.

It'd been six and a half years since she first was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and nearly two years since it reoccurred.

Joudeh drew four vials of blood to monitor King's response to the first round of a vaccine she received a month prior -- a vaccine to treat her cancer.

Theyre just looking for circulating tumor cells to see what her levels are, physician assistant Paulene Nichol said.

JAN.%2016,%202024%20-%20Dr.%20Thaer%20Joudeh%20draws%20blood%20to%20monitor%20Catie%20King's%20response%20to%20the%20first%20round%20of%20a%20vaccine%20she%20received%20to%20treat%20her%20cancer.%20(Photo%20credit:%20WLOS%20staff)%20

King is one of three patients participating in a basket trial designated for solid tumor cancers. The FDA defines a basket trial as a drug studied across multiple cancer populations.

The other patients, from Wisconsin and California, have brain and breast cancer, respectively.

King's involvement in the basket trial is one of happenstance.

Riley Polk is president of Orbis Health Solutions, the biotechnology company behind the vaccine King is receiving.

In 2017, Polk's 18-year-old daughter Carson and King were being treated at the same cancer facility.

Orbis founder Dr. Tom Wagner had spent the previous two decades developing cancer immunotherapies specifically for melanoma, but they were getting ready to expand the study.

At the time, they were thinking were just going to get into ovarian cancer vaccines, and thats when we all just went, 'Please keep Catie in mind when you get to that point.' And so now its great that its not just ovarian, its any kind, Catie's mom Leslie Green said. Its any solid tissue.

Polk did keep Catie in mind.

She's received the first two rounds of a vaccine made out of her cancer tissue.

JAN.%2016,%202024%20-%20Dr.%20Thaer%20Joudeh%20draws%20blood%20to%20monitor%20Catie%20King's%20response%20to%20the%20first%20round%20of%20a%20vaccine%20she%20received%20to%20treat%20her%20cancer.%20(Photo%20credit:%20WLOS%20staff)%20

"(I) felt great after the first round," King said. "Didnt have any issues. I saw where you had done the injection site, there was just a tiny little red bump for a couple of days and that went away.

Great, Joudeh said. Its a very safe vaccine. I mean, its created out of your tissue.

And no fever or temperature about 14 days in? Nichol asked.

No, nope, King replied.

King said with this vaccine she goes home and there is nothing that changes in her daily routine. She added there is nothing she can't do the same day.

This is an important change for her after undergoing low-dose chemotherapy, among other alternative therapies, during her initial diagnosis years ago because King and her husband, Jim, are in the farming business.

They run a pasture poultry operation, Fireside Farm, which in 2020 expanded to include grass-fed sheep and pasture piglets.

But King said it hasn't all been easy.

Hard days are more of that emotional side of things, and, with this vaccine, there havent been any hard days, she said.

It has been a difficult year for King and her family.

We lost our son unexpectedly six months ago," Green said. "So, this year has been very difficult for us.

The family has leaned on faith.

We can look back and see His faithfulness and knowing that in the midst of all our sadness and sorrow He will carry us through," Green said. "He will and He is. And so as hard as it is, were OK.

The support is not just coming from inside their family either. Jim said their friends have been "awe-inspiring."

Its evidence that theres still a lot to be thankful for and a lot to cling to, Jim said.

Look at where we are six years later, and she could potentially be one of the ones whos involved in something that saves not just a few lives, but hundreds, thousands, or more," Green said. "Thats the hope and the prayer.

King's appointment ended after an hour-long monitor period, but her story is nowhere close to being over.

I think Caties making history today," Joudeh said.

Were making history, yeah, King said.

King will receive the third round of injections later this month and then she'll get three booster shots at three-month intervals.

On Wednesday, News 13 sits down with the man behind the medicine, Dr. Tom Wagner, who got his first cancer grant during the Kennedy administration.

Load more...

Read this article:

'We're making history,' Asheville native being treated with 'promising' cancer vaccine - WLOS

Media Advisory

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Three different HIV antibodies each independently protected monkeys from acquiring simian-HIV (SHIV) in a placebo-controlled proof-of-concept study intended to inform development of a preventive HIV vaccine for people. The antibodiesa human broadly neutralizing antibody and two antibodies isolated from previously vaccinated monkeystarget the fusion peptide, a site on an HIV surface protein that helps the virus fuse with and enter cells. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, was led by the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Antibodies that target the fusion peptide can neutralize diverse strains of HIV in vitro, that is, in a test tube or culture dish outside of a living organism. The NIAID VRC isolated a fusion peptide-directed human antibody, called VRC34.01, from a person living with HIV who donated blood samples for research. They also isolated two antibodies from rhesus macaquesa species of monkey with immune systems like humanswho previously had received a vaccine regimen designed to generate fusion peptide-directed antibodies. Demonstrating that these antibodies protect animals would validate the fusion peptide as a target for human vaccine design. SHIV challengeadministering an infective dose of SHIVto rhesus macaques is a widely used animal model for assessing the performance of HIV antibodies and vaccines.

In this study, rhesus macaques in each of four groups received a single intravenous infusion of one type of antibodya 2.5 or 10 mg/kg of bodyweight dose of VRC34.01, or one of the two vaccine-elicited rhesus macaque antibodiesand other monkeys received a placebo infusion. To determine the protective effect of the antibodies, each monkey was challenged five days after infusion with a strain of SHIV known to be sensitive to fusion peptide-directed antibodies.

All monkeys that received a placebo infusion acquired SHIV following the challenge. Among monkeys that received VRC34.01 infusions, none receiving the 10 mg/kg dose and 25% of those receiving the 2.5 mg/kg dose acquired SHIV. Of those that received the vaccine-elicited rhesus macaque antibodies, no monkeys receiving the antibody called DFPH-a.15 acquired SHIV, and 25% of those receiving the antibody called DF1W-a.01 acquired SHIV. Over time, the concentration of antibodies in the blood of animals that received DFPH-a.15 declined. Those animals were re-challenged 30 days later to see if the lower concentration of antibodies had a decreased protective effect, and half of them acquired SHIV.

The three antibodies studied each provided statistically significant protection from SHIV, and the effect was dose dependent, that is, highest in monkeys with greater antibody concentrations in their blood.

According to the authors, these findings represent the proof-of-concept that fusion peptide-directed antibodies can provide protection against SHIV and help determine the concentration of antibodies a vaccine would need to generate to be protective. They suggest that their findings on vaccine-elicited antibodies in some animals support further work to design preventive HIV vaccine concepts targeting the fusion peptide. They conclude that an effective HIV vaccine targeting the HIV fusion peptide likely will need to expand upon the concepts used in this study, by generating multiple varieties of fusion peptide-directed antibodies. This would increase the likelihood that the vaccine could maintain a preventive effect across the vastly diverse HIV variants in circulation.

A Pegu et al. Antibodies targeting the fusion peptide on the HIV envelope provide protection to rhesus macaques against mucosal SHIV challenge. Science Translational Medicine DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adh9039 (2024)

Richard Koup, M.D., NIAID VRC Deputy Director and Immunology Section Chief, is available to discuss this research.

To schedule interviews, please contact the NIAID News & Science Writing Branch, (301) 402-1663, NIAIDNews@niaid.nih.gov.

NIAID conducts and supports researchat NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

###

Follow this link:

NIH-developed HIV antibodies protect animals in proof-of-concept study - nih.gov

The largest study of its kind ever carried out in the UK has found that 7,180 of the 40,393 hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 could have been avoided had the population been fully vaccinated.

The landmark study from Health Data Research (HDR) UK and the University of Edinburgh looked at the hospitalizations and deaths that occurred across the region England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from June 1 to September 30, 2022.

The extensive work saw researchers access secure, anonymized National Health Service (NHS) data for every individual over the age of five or some 67 million people. Addressing understandable concerns regarding dissemination of confidential health data, approved researchers only had access to de-identified information and could assess it under tight security controls.

After the data from the four nations was pooled and made uniform for analysis, the population was sorted into age groups, with vaccination status the variable, and mathematical modeling revealed how many serious and fatal illness could have been prevented over the four months.

In the UK, the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered in December 2020, but by 2022, the study revealed that, together, nearly 30.5 million people or 44.4% of the four nations had failed to get or keep up with doses. The researchers found that under-vaccination was associated with a higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes compared to full coverage.

We found that under-vaccination (receiving fewer than the recommended number of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses) was associated with increased risks of severe COVID-19 outcomes across all age groups studied, the researchers noted. This is the first epidemiological analysis using individual-level electronic health records covering the entire population of the UK.

The harmonized, or uniform, data of vaccinated/under-vaccinated people was assessed in the age groups of 5-11 years, 12-15 years, 16-74 years and 75 years and older. The researchers found that the highest rate of under-vaccination was among younger people, in males aged 5-74 years, and those in poorer socio-economic areas. And, not surprisingly, vaccine uptake was highest towards the start of the sampled data time frame, and tapered off significantly by the September 30 cut-off.

The data showed that under-vaccinated 5-15-year-olds were more than two times as likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19. Those aged 16-74 were about 50% more at risk, and older adults aged 75 and over were three times as likely to experience poor outcomes.

Younger age was strongly associated with under-vaccination, the researchers noted. The results in each country were broadly similar for the common and extended adjustment analyses.

While the vaccines were never designed to prevent infection, there is a growing body of robust scientific evidence that shows how effective they have been in shielding people from hospitalization and death. That is, for those who remained on top of their doses more than two years after the onset of the pandemic.

The research outcome is a powerful validation of the benefits of vaccination, said study co-author Alan Keys, a public contributor at the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre at HDR UK.

While this massive data set was only made possible due to developing the harmonized and anonymized analysis framework, scientists hope that it can be broadened to gain better insight into other serious healthcare concerns.

The infrastructure now exists to make full use of the potential of routinely collected data in the NHS across the four nations of the UK, said Cathie Sudlow, Chief Scientist at HDR. We believe that we could and should extend these approaches to many other areas of medicine, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes to search for better understanding, prevention and treatment of disease."

The UK reported that 90% of residents over the age of 12 years had received at least one vaccination by January 2022, however, uptakes of boosters, as the data reveals, has significantly slowed.

Large-scale data studies have been critical to pandemic management, allowing scientists to make policy-relevant findings at speed, said co-lead author Sir Aziz Sheikh, HDR UK Research Director. COVID-19 vaccines save lives. As new variants emerge, this study will help to pinpoint groups of our society and areas of the country where public health campaigns should be focused and tailored for those communities.

The research was published in the journal The Lancet.

Source: Health Data Research UK via EurekaAlert!

Read the original:

Lax vax resulted in thousands more COVID deaths, UK-wide study shows - New Atlas

University Products LLC, a pioneer in animal vaccine solutions, is helping to tackle the escalating threat of bovine anaplasmosis in South Dakota and beyond during recent unseasonable weather. The changing climate conditions have extended the lifespan of disease-spreading insects like ticks and biting flies, posing a significant risk to cattle herds. And a recent discovery of anaplasmosis near Woonsocket, South Dakota, highlights the urgent need to protect herds now from this costly endemic infection.

While ranchers across the U.S. face a variety of unprecedented challenges due to severe vector shifts, among the diseases posing the most serious threat to herds is bovine anaplasmosis, caused by the bacteria, Anaplasma marginale. The bacteria attack red blood cells, resulting in early signs such as fever, anemia, weakness, and loss of appetite.

As the disease progresses, it can lead to worse symptoms like jaundice, incoordination, and even death. Anaplasmosis can also increase the risk of abortions, while infecting whole herds.

Gene Luther, a researcher at University Products, emphasized the importance of intervention as key to winning the fight.

"Anaplasmosis devastates cattle herds quickly and quietly. Often, the disease spreads rapidly before ranchers are even aware, Luther says, adding that it is also sometimes challenging to diagnose, especially with other concurrent cattle diseases like Babesia, and Theileria, which share similar symptoms.

Ranchers must recognize anaplasmosis signs immediately and involve their veterinarians to stay ahead of this, he says.

Combatting the spread of anaplasmosis

According to researchers, transmission primarily occurs through ticks, biting flies, and contaminated equipment like shared vaccine or antibiotic needles. As such, producers have to implement effective preventive strategies early, with proper management and vaccination, to reduce the risk of anaplasmosis.

University Products vaccine is a well-tested tool, they note.

With limited treatment options available for anaplasmosis, pharmaceutical use remains another key issue especially with recent FDA crackdowns on the use of animal antibiotics. Researchers emphasize the need for responsible antimicrobial use, ensuring the long-term effectiveness of these products.

"Veterinarians tell ranchers this often, but it's absolutely worth repeating. You cannot rely on antibiotics over and over again to protect herds from these bacterial diseases. It just leads to more resistant strains down the road. And while judicious use of antimicrobials to combat active anaplasmosis outbreaks makes sense in the short term, prevention is much more cost effective overall."

The major message to cattle producers is clear: "Diligence and vigilance are our best defenses against anaplasmosis. By working closely with your vets, implementing biosecurity measures like fly and tick prevention programs, and vaccinating bulls as a preventative, ranchers can better protect from this persistent threat."

University Products currently produces the only vaccine (for experimental use) against anaplasmosis.

Based in Louisiana, the company specializes in bovine vaccines. Successfully deployed for over 20 years across the globe, University Products vaccines minimize clinical signs in at-risk animals and are safe to use during bovine pregnancy, requiring two initial doses plus annual boosters. The company is currently conducting R&D for vaccines against bovine babesiosis and theileriosis.

Read the original here:

University Products helping fight bovine anaplasmosis with vaccines - University Products helping fight bovine ... - Beef Magazine

The New Year brings a whole host of resolutions. If wellness and self-care were on your list, this is the right time to equip yourself with knowledge about cervical cancer: January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.

The facts first

Cervical cancer, which develops in a womans cervix (the entrance to the uterus from the vagina) is the second-most common cancer among women in India. It is caused by persistent infection by the human papillomavirus (HPV). Almost all sexually active people are infected by HPV at some point in their lives, but usually without symptoms, the World Health Organisation (WHO) states. In most people, the immune system clears up the virus. In some cases, certain high-risk strains of the virus persist in the body and could lead to cancer. India accounts for nearly a quarter of all cervical cancer deaths in the world. It is estimated that every year around 1.25 lakh women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and nearly 75,000 of them die.

In 2022, the WHO adopted a strategy aimed at eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem, worldwide. The strategy had three pillars 90% of girls fully vaccinated by 2030 with the HPV vaccine, this to be done by age 15; 70% of women screened with a high-performance test between 35 and 45 for early treatment of pre-cancerous lesions, and 90% of women identified with cervical disease, to receive treatment.

Though India is unlikely to meet the 2030 goals, thesilver lining, says Arvind Krishnamurthy, professor and head, surgical oncology, Cancer Institute, WIA, is a decline in incidence. Despite not having a robust national screening or vaccination programme as yet, the number of cases are decreasing. This could be attributable to a number of factors including sexual hygiene, age of pregnancy and number of children, use of contraception and the immune status of individuals, he said.

However, Dr Krishnamoorthy stressed the need for a combination of awareness programmes, a vaccination programme and regular screening to effectively prevent new cases and deaths. He also pointed to the need to eradicate stigma through education programmes .The goal should be to detect cases at the precancerous stage so that they do not progress to full-blown cancer. At that stage, it is 100% curable, he said.

Cervical cancer screening

Up until some years ago, the gold standard, world over, to screen for cervical cancer, used to be the pap smear, says Jaishree Gajaraj, former president of The Obstetric & Gynaecological Society of Southern India. The pap smear involves the scraping and brushing of cells from the cervix. These cells are then examined. The smear is recommended every three years, for women between the ages of 25 and 65, barring high-risk groups, for whom the recommendation is once a year, says Dr. Gajaraj.

The problem with the pap smear however is that it requires a cytologist to study the smear, and many places, especially in rural India, may not have access to the test itself, or to cytologists to study the samples. The second issue is that awareness continues to remain low, and even in urban areas where women come forward to do the test, it is difficult to get them to come back for follow-up screenings. Many women believe that if theyve taken the pap smear once, it is enough for a lifetime, but this is not the case, she says.

As of 2019, the WHO says, fewer than one in 10 women in India had been screened for cervical cancer in the previous five years.

Now, says Dr. Gajaraj, HPV DNA testing is the recommended method for screening for cervical cancer: this involves testing cells from the cervix for infections with any of the HPV types that could cause cancer. The WHO, too,recommends that HPV DNA testing be the first-choice screening method for cervical cancer prevention these tests are less prone to quality problems and human errors, it says.

Dr. Krishanmoorthy added that self sampling could offer an additional option for cervical cancer screening: Studies have shown that in the yield of results, samples taken by patients seem to be equivalent to physician-collected samples. Not all women may be able to do it or want to, but it would be useful for them to be given this option, he says.

The vaccine

There is some history to the HPV vaccine rollout in India: in 2010, a U.S.-based international non-profit PATH, which began a trial of the vaccine in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, faced major backlash after the deaths of seven girls. A Parliamentary Standing Committee that looked into the issue in 2013 strongly criticised both PATH and the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Department of Health Research, stating: The choice of countries and population groups; the monopolistic nature, at that point of time of the product being pushed; the unlimited market potential and opportunities in the universal immunization progammes of the respective countries are all pointers to a well planned scheme to commercially exploit a situation.

However, cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer if detected early and managed effectively. The WHOs Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) says that the HPV vaccine is highly effective for the prevention of HPV serotypes 16&18, which cause 70% of cervical cancers.

In a recommendation in April 2022, SAGE stated that its review concluded that even a single-dose of HPV vaccine delivers solid protection against HPV that is comparable to two-dose schedules. The new SAGE recommendation is underpinned by concerns over the slow introduction of the HPV vaccine into immunisation programs and overall low population coverage, especially in poorer countries, it stated.

What are the governments plans?

There are currently two vaccines available in India that protect against the disease: Mercks Gardasil and Serum Institute of Indias Cervavac, which was launched last year.

A Serum Institute of India spokesperson, in an email, said its vaccine, Cervavac, was priced at Rs. 2,000 per dose. The Institute has a production capacity of around 2-3 million doses of the vaccine, but it plans to expand this capacity, with a target of reaching 60 to 70 million doses.

In 2018 Sikkim became the first State in the country to introduce the vaccine. The vaccine (Gardasil) was provided free, under the State budget. All girls aged between 9 and 14 years were given two doses, separated by six months. Coverage of the first and second rounds was reported at over 95%.

In 2022, Indias National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) had recommended introducing the HPV vaccine in the countrys Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). A one-time catch-up vaccine was to be provided for 9 to 14-year-old adolescent girls, and subsequently, with a routine introduction at nine years.

Initially, reports had indicated that the Central government would roll out a vaccination programme in six states in June 2023, targeting girls between the ages of nine and 14, covering 2.55 crore girls. However, this did not materialise. This month, media reports suggested that the drive may be rolled out in the second quarter of this year, to be executed in three phases over three years. Despite these reports though, the Union Health Ministry, as of last week, has maintained that it is yet to take a decision on starting the HPV campaign.

Globally, 100 countries have introduced the HPV vaccine into their national schedule, but significantly, this covers only 30% of the global target population, as per the WHO.

Paediatricians are now recommending the vaccine routinely for girls from the ages of nine to 15, says R. Somasekar, a member of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics. Giving the dose early ensures the best efficacy and maximum protection, he says, pointing out that the vaccine can be given to adults as well, as it protects from ano-genital warts.The ideal age is about 10 to 12 as the vaccine offers the best and longest protection when taken early, but it can be given any time up to the age of 45, says Dr. Gajaraj.

On combating hesitation, doctors point out that communication is the key: explaining to patients how and why the vaccine is important goes a long way towards erasing anxieties and misinformation.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, in a statement on its website, said it marked Cervical Cancer Awareness Month this year by highlighting the work that remains to be done for the world to eliminate this disease by the end of this century, and by promoting the tools that are available to achieve this goal. It further said recent research by scientists from IARC and partner institutions suggests that the WHOs 2030 targets will be missed unless countries scale up screening programmes, improve coverage of HPV vaccination, and expand access to affordable treatment.

What can you do this month?

The WHOs message is clear: first, get informed read up about HPV and cervical cancer, and help educate other women in your life as well. Next, get screened if you havent done it before, talk to your healthcare provider about a cervical cancer screening. And finally, get vaccinated, of course.

(zubeda.h@thehindu.co.in)

See original here:

The importance of periodic testing for Human Pappilomavirus - The Hindu

NEW YORK (AP) A New York midwife who gave nearly 1,500 children homeopathic pellets instead of required vaccinations has been fined $300,000, the states health department announced this week.

Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email

Jeanette Breen, who operates Baldwin Midwifery on Long Island, administered the pellets as an alternative to vaccinations and then falsified their immunization records, the agency said Wednesday.

The scheme, which goes back least to the 2019-2020 school year, involved families throughout the state, but the majority reside on suburban Long Island. In 2019,New York endeda religious exemption to vaccine requirements for schoolchildren.

The health department said immunization records of the children who received the falsified records have been voided, and their families must now prove the students are up-to-date with their required shots or at least in the process of getting them before they can return to school.

Misrepresenting or falsifying vaccine records puts lives in jeopardy and undermines the system that exists to protect public health, State Health Commissioner James McDonald said in a statement.

Breen, a state-licensed healthcare provider, supplied patients with the Real Immunity Homeoprophylaxis Program, a series of oral pellets that are marketed as an alternative to vaccination but are not recognized or approved by state or federal regulators as valid immunizations, according to the health department.

She administered 12,449 of the fake immunizations to roughly 1,500 school-aged patients before submitting information to the states immunization database claiming the children had received their required vaccinations against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and a host of other diseases, the department said.

Breens lawyer said Thursday that his client cooperated with investigators, paid her fine and intends to comply with all other requirements of her agreement with health officials.

Suffice it to say, Ms. Breen has provided excellent midwifery services for many years to many families, especially on Long Island. She is now toward the end of her career, David Eskew wrote in an emailed statement. From her perspective, this matter is over, done with, and closed and she is now moving on with her life.

As part of the settlement, Breen has paid $150,000 of the $300,000 penalty, with the remainder suspended contingent upon her complying with state health laws and never again administering any immunization that must be reported to the state, according to the health department. Shes also permanently banned from accessing the states immunization records system.

Erin Clary, a health department spokesperson, said Thursday that while parents and legal guardians had sought out and paid Breen for her services, they werent the focus of the agencys investigation.

State health officials say theyre now in the process of notifying hundreds of affected school districts.

Read more from the original source:

NY Midwife Who Gave Kids Homeopathic Pellets Instead of Vaccines Fined $300K for Falsifying Records - VINNews

Cancer vaccine trial patient alive 22 years after being given 6 months to live

by Justin Berger

JAN. 18, 2024 - In 2001, Mary Carol Abercrombie was given just months to live after her cancer metastasized. Then she participated in a melanoma trial with Dr. Tom Wagner in Greenville, South Carolina, and has had no reoccurrence since. (Photo credit: WLOS staff)

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS)

It was Christmas 2001. Mary Carol Abercrombie had melanoma for a year and it was about to get worse.

My doctors called me and I was like, 'Ooh, this is really bad isnt it, this is not good,'" Abercrombie said. "Both of them said to me, Ill never forget this either, 'You just enjoy Christmas.' I guess that was the first time that I thought, OK, I might not be there to see my son get married. Im a very positive person and that was like the cold water in the face.

Abercrombie's year-long cycle of alpha interferon, a treatment for her melanoma, had just ended.

The side effects were horrendous," she said. "It was hell, actually. As soon as I got off of it, my cancer metastasized, and I found out about it two days before Christmas.

Her doctors told her she only had months left.

But at the time, her oncology surgeon was working on a melanoma trial vaccine with Dr. Tom Wagner in Greenville.

I went in to see him, and Ill never forget, he had a picture of Einstein over his desk. And I thought, Oh, no Im way in out of my league, Abercrombie said. What he told me was he hadnt had anybody survive yet, but the people that he had under his trial, they had lived longer and theyd lived without many side effects. And I was like, 'Sign me up,' because there wasnt anything out there.

Abercrombie was patient No. 3. She got a shot every other month for a year and a half.

Suddenly, her terminal timeline transformed.

With Dr. Wagners vaccine, I was able to go and do, just tired, that was it, Abercrombie said.

She said Wagner told her a story about when he spoke at a convention with other oncology doctors.

He asked his peers a question.

More than 20 years later, she's had no reoccurrences and was able to attend her son's wedding.

Now, she has four grandchildren. They call her Big.

Im called Mary Carol, MC and Big, and Big is definitely my favorite name, she said.

So, 22 Christmases after she was given three to six months to live, a grateful patient still exchanges Christmas cards with the man who changed her life.

Im still here, which is very humbling, to say the least," Abercrombie said. "Theres so much hope out there, and I do think that people like Dr. Wagner, that there is going to be a cure for cancer with early detection and with immunotherapy.

Abercrombie said during her first round of treatment she started viewing frogs as more than just an amphibian.

Frogs can only jump forward," she said. "They cant go backwards; they cant go to the side. They can only go forwards. And I was like, thats a direct message, thats going to be my thing, thats going to be my thing, Lord. Im just going to go forward, no matter whats happening. No matter whats happening, Im just going to take a step forward, a step forward, a step forward."

Then, she said a couple weeks later she went through her jewelry drawer looking for a pin.

There was one of those braided bracelets, like What Would Jesus Do, but it had F R O G, Fully Rely On God," Abercrombie said.

"FROG, I was like, 'Woah, woah and woah.'

In the hospital, without knowing, her friends brought her a stuffed frog.

And when she took the call about her cancer reoccurrence in 2001, it was on her daughter's Kermit the Frog phone.

Hes telling me this bad news, and Im on the phone going, like, this is OK, Im talking on a frog phone, its going to be OK, Abercrombie said.

Load more...

Read the original here:

Cancer vaccine trial patient alive 22 years after being given 6 months to live - WLOS

Despite having a very effective and easily available vaccine, measles outbreaks have continued to pop up in the United States over the last two decades.

Most recently, there have been eight cases confirmed in Philadelphia since December 2023, all among unvaccinated individuals. Additionally, a person with measles traveled through D.C.-area airports and cases have been identified in Delaware, New Jersey and Washington state, according to local reports.

In 2023, there were 41 confirmed cases of measles, according to incomplete data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While the number of measles cases in the past few years are not at record highs and the 2023 numbers are lower than recent years, the fact that outbreaks are still occurring is a trend that concerns health officials and experts.

Measles was declared eliminated in 2000 -- meaning the disease "is no longer constantly present in this country." However, the dip in routine childhood vaccinations in recent years as well as travelers bringing measles into the country has resulted in outbreaks.

"The fact that we're seeing sporadic measles cases, to me, says that we probably have pockets in the United States where we're not doing a good job vaccinating and I'm worried that this is a trend that's been getting worse over the years," Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, told ABC News.

A CDC report in November found that exemptions for routine childhood vaccination among U.S. kindergartners are at their highest levels ever.

About 93% of kindergarteners received select routine childhood vaccines, including the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, which protects against measles, for the 2022-23 school year, according to the CDC report.

This is about the same as the previous school year but lower than the 94% seen in 2020-21 school year and the 95% seen in the 2019-20, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latter percentage had been the standard for about 10 years.

Hotez said there may be areas of the U.S. where the vaccination exemption rates, both for medical and non-medical reasons, are higher.

"For instance, when we studied this in 2018, looking at the states that allow vaccine exemptions for non-medical reasons, we would find counties that maybe 10 to 20% of the kids were not getting their childhood immunizations and that's what measles exploits," Hotez said. "So, if were uniformly 93%, it's not ideal, but probably that wouldn't be enough to stimulate measles outbreaks."

About one in five people in the U.S. who get measles will be hospitalized. Measles can cause serious health complications especially in children younger than age 5 including ear infections, diarrhea, pneumonia, encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and even death, according to the CDC.

The first measles vaccine, a single-dose vaccine, was introduced in the U.S. in 1963. In the decade prior, there were three to four million cases annually, which led to 48,000 hospitalizations and 400 to 500 deaths.

The CDC recommends that people get two doses with the first dose at 12 to 15 months old and the second dose between ages 4 and 6. One dose is 93% effective and two doses are 97% effective.

Since then, hospitalizations and deaths have dropped dramatically. There were three deaths in the Americas in 2000 and just one in 2022, according to a November 2023 CDC report.

"We can prevent this, we can stop this. Parents should be scared of measles," Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News. "They should be scared of this virus as my parents were. The difference was [my parents] couldn't do anything about it."

"Now you can do something about it, which makes it all the more unconscionable when you see children come into our hospital who could have gotten vaccinated and didn't," he added.

There are a few reasons for a drop in vaccination rates, according to experts. One is a 1998 paper published in The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield claiming the MMR shot caused autism. The paper has since been debunked, subsequent studies have found no link and the journal retracted the paper, but fears still exist.

During an outbreak in Columbus, Ohio that lasted from November 2022 to February 2023, public health officials said many parents of the unvaccinated children infected with measles had chosen not to have their kids receive the MMR shot due to misconceptions that it causes autism.

"Ever since that Anfrew Wakefield article, people have developed important misconceptions from that misinformation and continuing disinformation about the MMR vaccine," Dr. Gregory Poland, head of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, told ABC News. "He claimed there was an association with autism. Some 24 studies have subsequently found none. Not one indicate a hint of autism risk."

"Once you scare people, it's hard to unscare them, so people then then sort of started to back away from that vaccine," Offit added. "So we saw cases again."

Experts said the COVID pandemic caused another problem, Firstly, during the early days of the pandemic, people were scared to go to doctor's' offices, which led to a delay in children being up to date on vaccinations.

Then, after COVID vaccines became politicized, this may have caused a decrease in confidence in vaccination overall.

There has been "an acceleration of anti-vaccine sentiments that we've seen during the COVID 19 pandemic," Hotez said, "And I think what we may be seeing also was a spillover that extended beyond COVID vaccines to all childhood immunizations."

"This rise in cases is a reminder of the ongoing challenges we face with vaccine hesitancy and the need for maintaining high vaccination coverage to achieve herd immunity. We need concerted efforts to address these issues and to ensure that our public health infrastructure is robust enough to handle such outbreaks," added Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hopsital and an ABC News contributor.

Another reason for the decline in vaccination rates may be that, because the diseases have been circulating at low rates due to vaccines, people have forgotten how serious they were before the advent of vaccines, according to the experts.

It's not just a problem in the U.S. Global cases of measles have been on the rise in recent years, increasing 18% from 2021 to 2022, following a drop in vaccinations over the past few years, according to a report from the WHO and CDC released last year.

Deaths also increased globally by 43% from during the same period with a total of 37 countries experiencing large outbreaks in 2022 compared to 22 countries in 2021.

Experts say they are continuing to educate parents about the safety of vaccines and even advocate for starting vaccine education in adolescence.

"It's a dangerous game we're playing by leaving a critical percentage of children unvaccinated," Offit said. "It is a dangerous and unnecessary game we're playing. This is a safe and effective vaccine. This is a virus that can cause considerable suffering and hospitalization and occasional death. Don't play around with this virus or we will pay an even bigger price than we're paying now."

Excerpt from:

Measles outbreaks are occurring in some pockets of the US. Here's why doctors are concerned - ABC News