Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Is one dose of Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 convalescents sufficient?

Researchers evaluated the immune response in a cohort of 1,089 healthcare workers who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Southern California.

26 Feb 2021

Biden’s straight-talking CDC director has long used data to save lives

In early December, Dr. Katy Stephenson was watching TV with her family and scrolling through Twitter when she saw a tweet that made her shout.

26 Feb 2021

As Covid surged, vaccines came too late for at least 400 medical workers

As health care workers in the U.S. began lining up for their first coronavirus vaccines on Dec. 14, Esmeralda Campos-Loredo was already fighting for oxygen.

26 Feb 2021

Researchers propose new mechanism to promote access to COVID-19 vaccines

Although the value of vaccines for COVID-19 may seem obvious, government action and investment in vaccines have not been commensurate with the enormous scale of benefits they offer, argue Juan Camilo Castillo and colleagues in this Policy Forum.

26 Feb 2021

FDA allows flexible storage and transportation conditions for Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 vaccine

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it is allowing undiluted frozen vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to be transported and stored at conventional temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers for a period of up to two weeks.

26 Feb 2021

Researchers examine effectiveness of Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19

A major study, conducted in collaboration with researchers from Harvard University, examined data on 600,000 vaccinated individuals in Israel, along with 600,000 matched unvaccinated controls.

26 Feb 2021

Study pinpoints potential transmission advantage of SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7

Researchers in the UK have shown that the increased transmissibility of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) lineage B.1.1.7 that emerged in the UK during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic does not appear to be the result of increased viral replication or immune escape.

25 Feb 2021

Study: Majority of COVID-19 hospitalizations attributable to four pre-existing conditions

A modeling study suggests a majority of adult COVID-19 hospitalizations nationwide are attributable to at least one of four pre-existing conditions: obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure, in that order.

25 Feb 2021

Have a case of a Covid variant? No one is going to tell you

Covid-19 infections from variant strains are quickly spreading across the U.S., but there's one big problem: Lab officials say they can't tell patients or their doctors whether someone has been infected by a variant.

25 Feb 2021

SNX-5422 could make an effective COVID-19 prophylactic, says study

SNX-5422 is a heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) inhibitor currently undergoing clinical trials as a cancer therapeutic. A recent study examines the applicability of repurposing the drug towards severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) replication inhibition.

25 Feb 2021

Covid vaccine websites violate disability laws, create inequity for the blind

Many Covid vaccination registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels violate disability rights laws, hindering the ability of blind people to sign up for a potentially lifesaving vaccine, a KHN investigation has found.

25 Feb 2021

International cooperation is key to get equal access to COVID-19 vaccines

Almost 130 countries are yet to receive a single COVID-19 vaccine dose, as ten high-income countries secure the majority.

25 Feb 2021

Research shows how antibodies attach to and block Zika virus

The Zika outbreak of 2015 and 2016 are having lasting impacts on children whose mothers became infected with the virus while they were pregnant.

25 Feb 2021

AI-mediated analysis of vaccinated patients affirms safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines

A new study provides a timely answer to many of these fears, by reporting on the results of an analysis of over 31,000 vaccine recipients with respect to immediate adverse effects, reported within 21 days, of the first and/or second doses of the vaccine.

25 Feb 2021

Study of children hospitalized with COVID-19 shows 2% mortality

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been observed to be less serious in infants and children. However, this age group is also subject to certain complications following infection. A new study describes the findings of an observational study of children hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection in several different hospitals across three countries.

25 Feb 2021

New vaccine, enhanced surveillance needed to combat childhood pneumonia

A rise in vaccine-resistant bacteria shows the need for a new vaccine to fight childhood empyema after a spike in hospitalisations, a new UNSW study reveals.

25 Feb 2021

Travel bans are effective only in the first phases of pandemic

Travel bans have been key to efforts by many countries to control the spread of COVID-19. But new research aimed at providing a decision support system to Italian policy makers, recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggests that reducing individual activity (i.e., social distancing, closure of non-essential business, etc.) is far superior in controlling the dissemination of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

25 Feb 2021

New approach can reduce unnecessary evaluations of swollen lymph nodes after COVID-19 vaccination

Swelling of lymph nodes in the armpit area is a normal response to COVID-19 vaccinations, but when they are seen on mammograms, they can be mistaken for nodes that are swollen because of cancer. In some cases, the nodes are biopsied to confirm they are not cancer.

25 Feb 2021

Lab study of South African SARS-CoV-2 variant and Moderna vaccine: reduced neutralization, but still protective

Researchers from the US recently compared antibody binding and viral neutralization against 2 SARS-CoV-2 variants that emerged in different parts of the world. The researchers used sera from spike mRNA vaccinated and naturally infected individuals against a circulating B.1 variant and the emerging B.1.351 variant. The study is published on the preprint server bioRxiv.

24 Feb 2021

Full characterization of mammalian-produced SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domains

A research paper recently uploaded to the preprint server bioRxiv by Dominguez-Vega et al. (23rd Feb, 2021) describes an in-depth structural analysis of the RBD of the spike protein expressed in mammalian Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells, providing a new understanding of protein structure and function.

24 Feb 2021