Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Study shows disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Asian populations

Patients of Asian and black backgrounds suffered disproportionate rates of premature death from COVID-19, according to a study of 1,737 patients by Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust.

22 Jan 2021

NCCN provides new guidance for COVID-19 vaccinations in people with cancer

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network put out new information today to provide guidance for COVID-19 vaccinations in people with cancer.

22 Jan 2021

Novel neutralizing antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 N-terminal domain discovered

A new study by US-based researchers shows the presence of protective antibodies that target the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the spike instead of the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD).

22 Jan 2021

Study identifies a host of agents with anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential

A team of researchers at the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, in Taiwan, evaluated the efficacy of 2,855 agents against SARS-CoV-2.

22 Jan 2021

Accurate quantitative COVID-19 antibody test kit by EKF

EKF Diagnostics, the global in vitro diagnostics company, announces that it has introduced one of the first tests to precisely measure levels of COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies in individuals.

From EKF Diagnostics 22 Jan 2021

Vaccinating people over 60 is the most effective way to mitigate COVID-19 mortality

Vaccinating people over 60 is the most effective way to mitigate mortality from COVID-19, a new age-based modeling study suggests.

22 Jan 2021

Trial results support efficacy of incentivizing vaccine adherence

As the United States struggles to control record-breaking increases in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, the roll-out of two approved vaccines offers tremendous hope for saving lives and curbing the pandemic.

22 Jan 2021

Prioritizing older adults for COVID-19 vaccination will save more lives

Vaccinating older adults for COVID-19 first will save substantially more U.S. lives than prioritizing other age groups, and the slower the vaccine rollout and more widespread the virus, the more critical it is to bring them to the front of the line.

21 Jan 2021

New data on impact of spike mutations and B117 UK variant on neutralization by mAbs and sera

A recent paper by British and Dutch scientists, currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint server, shows that the neutralizing activity of monoclonal antibodies can be dramatically reduced by mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein – unlike polyclonal antibodies generated after natural infection that remain active regardless of any introduced amino acid changes.

21 Jan 2021

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shows reduced neutralization potential against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 spike variant

Researchers in the UK have conducted a study assessing the efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 against the new variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

21 Jan 2021

Positive messages could potentially increase mask usage during the pandemic

Many organizations are looking at effective ways to communicate the importance of wearing a mask, especially as highly transmissible new strains of coronavirus threaten to cause a surge in infections.

21 Jan 2021

COVID-19, influenza and suicide are responsible for deaths of ICE detainees

Thirty-five people have died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since April 2018, with a seven-fold increase in deaths even as the average daily population decreased by nearly a third between 2019 and 2020, a new USC study shows.

21 Jan 2021

SARS-CoV-2 suppresses host innate immunity

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, blocks the processes of innate immune activation that normally direct the production and/or signaling of type I interferon (IFN-I) by the infected cell and tissues.

21 Jan 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Biden health agenda

President Joe Biden wasted no time getting down to work. Among the raft of executive orders he signed on Inauguration Day were several aimed at curtailing the covid crisis, including one requiring mask-wearing by federal employees and anyone on federal property for the next 100 days.

21 Jan 2021

Researchers use SARS-CoV-2 to bioengineer universal vaccine platform

Using SARS-CoV-2, a team of scientists from the United States has recently developed a bioengineered bacteriophage T4 nanoparticle structure using CRISPR technology that can be used as a universal platform to produce vaccines.

21 Jan 2021

Prioritizing vaccination of high-risk individuals has only a marginal effect, study suggests

The World Health Organization reports that as of January 19, 2021, there are approximately 94 million cases of COVID-19 globally, with over 2 million deaths.

20 Jan 2021

COVID-19 has transformed the world of vaccines

Researchers at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Italy and Belgium say the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is transforming the world of vaccinology by accelerating vaccine development and the availability of powerful technologies.

20 Jan 2021

South African SARS-CoV-2 variant escapes antibody neutralization

Researchers in South Africa have conducted a study showing that the novel 501Y.V2 variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has emerged in the country is able to escape the neutralizing antibodies that are elicited by previously circulating strains of the virus.

20 Jan 2021

Biden takes the reins, calls for a united front against covid and other threats

Joe Biden on Wednesday took the oath to become the 46th president of the United States, vowing to bring the nation together in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that has claimed more than 400,000 lives, enormous economic dislocation and civil unrest so serious that the U.S. Capitol steps where he took his oath were surrounded not by cheering crowds, but by tens of thousands of armed police and National Guard troops.

20 Jan 2021

Biden’s covid challenge: 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days. It won’t be easy.

It's in the nature of presidential candidates and new presidents to promise big things. Just months after his 1961 inauguration, President John F. Kennedy vowed to send a man to the moon by the end of the decade.

20 Jan 2021