Tag: vaccines

Germany recommends AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot only for under 65s

“There are currently insufficient data available to assess the vaccine efficacy from 65 years of age,” the committee, also known as Stiko, said in a draft resolution made available by the German health ministry on Thursday.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine, unlike the mRNA vaccines, should only be offered to people aged 18-64 years at each stage,” it added.

Stiko’s assessment was based on the same trial data published by medical journal The Lancet on Dec 8.

The European Union approved a vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in late December, and gave the green light to a shot made by Moderna in early January.

AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Norway May Refine Vaccine Strategy After Elderly Deaths, PM Says

The Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, says her country may fine-tune the vaccination of its oldest, sickest citizens as it tries to make sense of a recent spate of deaths.

Having weathered the pandemic better than most, Norway suddenly made international headlines this month after revealing that more than 30 people — all over 70 and all already sick — died not long after being vaccinated against Covid-19. Solberg says the intense global interest in the news was “exaggerated” as she tries to ensure the development doesn’t put people off inoculation.

“We don’t believe there’s any problem with the safety of the vaccines,” Solberg said in an interview with Bloomberg Live that aired on Tuesday. “But we will maybe not give them to the most vulnerable of the elderly, because that might speed up a process where they were what we would say at the end of life phase anyway,” so, “that probably is not what we will continue to do.”

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39-year-old nurse aide dies ‘within 48 hours’ of receiving mandated COVID-19 shot

A 39-year-old woman with no known comorbidities died unexpectedly in northern Ohio within 48 hours of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, which was reportedly required by her employer.

Janet L. Moore, a nurse aide at Admirals Pointe Nursing Home (APNH) in Huron, was found unresponsive in her car outside her apartment complex on December 31 around 8:00 p.m., her brother Jacob Gregory told LifeSiteNews.

“She was coming home from work and as soon as she drove into her parking lot she passed away,” he said. “According to her neighbors she wasn’t feeling good directly after the vaccine, and then ever since the vaccine she was actually feeling nauseated, she’d have like migraines and stuff like that. And then, within 48 hours, she ended up passing away.”

When asked if he knew the brand of the vaccine, Gregory, who lives in Akron, said, “According to my brother, it was by Pfizer, but I’m not absolutely sure on that.”

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Pfizer wants India to order COVID-19 vaccine before pursuing approval

Pfizer was the first company to seek emergency-use authorisation (EUA) for a COVID-19 vaccine in India, but the government this month approved two much cheaper shots – one from Oxford University/AstraZeneca and another developed at home by Bharat Biotech with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) says Pfizer officials failed to turn up to meetings after the company’s application was made in early December. The regulator has also declined to accept the company’s request for approval without a small local trial on the vaccine’s safety and immunogenicity for Indians, Reuters has reported.

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Biden signs executive order seeking the feasibility of implementing ‘certificates of vaccination’ for international travel

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Thursday which may be the precursor to requiring proof of vaccination for air travel.

The executive order was entitled “Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel.” Section 5 ‘International Travel’ subsection ‘e’ the order read:

“International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis.  Consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of HHS, and the Secretary of Homeland Security (including through the Administrator of the TSA), in coordination with any relevant international organizations, shall assess the feasibility of linking COVID-19 vaccination to International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) and producing electronic versions of ICVPs.”

The order also called for “agencies may impose additional public health measures for domestic travel.”

The order also mandates masks on airplanes, trains, ferries, ships, bus services and inside airports.

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California halts injections of Moderna Covid vaccine batch due to ‘higher-than-usual number of adverse events’

California health officials are asking vaccine providers to stop administering a batch of Moderna’s Covid-19 jab, after an unusually high number of adverse reactions were linked to the drug.

Doses from Moderna Lot 041L20A are suspected of causing a “higher-than-usual number of adverse events” and should be shelved until a proper investigation can be conducted, the California Department of Public Health said on Sunday. 

State epidemiologist Dr. Erica S. Pan said in a statement that “fewer than 10 individuals” suffered “a possible severe allergic reaction” and required medical attention over the past 24 hours after being injected with the specific batch of vaccine. All of the incidents appear to have occurred at a single community clinic that was administering the lot. The site reportedly closed for several hours after the string of adverse reactions occurred, before switching to a different batch of the drug.

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The Risks of Rushing a COVID-19 Vaccine

Telescoping testing timelines and approvals may expose all of us to unnecessary dangers related to the vaccine. While preclinical trials to evaluate the potential safety and efficacy of vaccine candidates are likely to include tens of thousands of patients, it is still unclear whether that number will be large enough and a trial will last long enough to evaluate safety for a drug that would be administered to so many. The US alone plans to vaccinate hundreds of millions of people with the first successful candidate. One serious adverse event per thousand of a vaccine given to 100 million people means harm to 100,000 otherwise healthy people.

Aside from questions of safety that attend any vaccine, there are good reasons to be especially cautious for COVID-19. Some vaccines worsen the consequences of infection rather than protect, a phenomenon called antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). ADE has been observed in previous attempts to develop coronavirus vaccines. To add to the concern, antibodies typical of ADE are present in the blood of some COVID-19 patients. Such concerns are real. As recently as 2016, Dengavxia, intended to protect children from the dengue virus, increased hospitalizations for children who received the vaccine.

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