Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Researchers find the right dosing of an old anti-tuberculosis drug

A considerably higher dose of the anti-tuberculosis drug rifampicin is safe and can also lead to a shorter treatment for tuberculosis and less resistance.

22 Mar 2021

AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine protects against symptomatic disease

Results from a large clinical trial in the United States and South America indicate that AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222, is well-tolerated and protects against symptomatic COVID-19 disease, including severe disease or hospitalization.

22 Mar 2021

Some dream — others scheme — to find a vaccine before spring break

Hawaii, Florida, Seattle and the South of France are on the minds of New York City college students. Those are some of the destinations that undergrads mentioned when asked where they'd go for spring break, if they weren't grounded by Covid-19.

22 Mar 2021

In America, Covid vaccine eligibility is a ‘crazy quilt’ of state rules

In North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, any adult who has smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime can now be vaccinated against Covid.

22 Mar 2021

Could nanoparticle vaccines offer broad protection against sarbecoviruses?

To understand the ability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-elicited antibodies to neutralize and protect against emerging variants (that are pathogenic) and other sarbecoviruses, a large team of researchers studied immunity by receptor-binding domain nanoparticle vaccines. They showed that a clinical-stage multivalent SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain nanoparticle vaccine (SARS-CoV-2 RBD-NP) protected mice from the SARS-CoV-2-induced disease.

22 Mar 2021

Preventing future pandemics by ending the wildlife trade

In this News-Medical interview, we spoke to Professor Diana Bell about the illegal wildlife trade and how we could prevent future pandemics by stopping it.

22 Mar 2021

Vaccine passports raise questions of equity, security, and privacy

Vaccine passports raise questions of equity, security, privacy, argues Crispin Maslog. China, where the COVID-19 pandemic began a long year ago, has now become the first country in the world to issue a vaccine passport to promote world economic recovery and facilitate cross-border travel.

22 Mar 2021

Circular RNA vaccine shows neutralizing activity against B.1.351 variant

New preclinical research led by Wensheng Wei from Peking University in China has proposed the development of a circular RNA vaccine. Their findings showed the circular RNA vaccine creates neutralizing antibodies and strong T-cell responses against the receptor-binding domain of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein.

21 Mar 2021

Research suggests SARS-CoV-2 vaccine distribution strategy focusing on where virus spreads more easily

The United States is a few days from reaching President Biden's goal of vaccinating 100 million people 100 days since he took office. While the United States leads the world in both the number of COVID-19 cases at over 29.7 million and deaths reaching past 539,000, it has stepped up as a leader in vaccinating its population.

21 Mar 2021

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 offers less protection against South African SARS-CoV-2 variant

The results of a double-blind, randomized, multisite placebo-controlled trial that was conducted in South Africa show that Oxford’s ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine has no efficacy against the B.1.351 variant in preventing mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and shows reduced neutralization properties of developed antibodies. The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

21 Mar 2021

Study: 8 out of 10 Spanish health professionals are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19

Approximately 8 out of every 10 health professionals in Spain are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a study led by researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

20 Mar 2021

COVID-19 patients have higher risk of stroke, finds study

New research found patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had a higher risk of stroke, compared with patients who had similar infectious conditions such as influenza and sepsis in prior studies.

19 Mar 2021

Blue Shield spent years cultivating a relationship with Newsom. It got the state vaccine contract.

Gavin Newsom was just making a name for himself as mayor of San Francisco in 2005 when Blue Shield of California wrote him its first major check.

19 Mar 2021

Developing a COVID-19 vaccine using inactivated E. coli

A team of researchers inactivated whole-cell E.coli with a reduced genome and utilized this to express coronavirus-specific fusion peptides, demonstrating a potent anamnestic response.

19 Mar 2021

How effective has rapid COVID-19 vaccination been in Israel?

Despite high vaccination rates, analysis shows a definite positive impact, but patience is needed to see the real-world impacts in Israel, a pattern that may hold true in other countries also.

19 Mar 2021

The case for donating US Covid vaccines overseas

A Senate committee grilled federal officials about the shortage of vaccines to protect Americans against a pandemic virus. Two months later, the U.S. public had lost interest in the virus, and millions of vaccines were sitting in warehouses — although poor countries still needed them.

19 Mar 2021