COVID-19 Latest News

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African CDC Calls for Covid-19 Vaccine Doses with a Shelf life of 3 to 6 Months

Covid-19 Vaccines (Post ID: 1030)

In Africa .5% of delivered vaccines doses have expired according to Africa CDC.  Africa CDC renews calls for extended expiry dates for donated doses.

Last updated on 01/20/2022 03:03 PM

What We Actually Know About Waning Immunity Reports of vaccines’ decline have been greatly overstated.

Covid 19 (Post ID: 1029)

Vaccines don’t last forever. This is by design: Like many of the microbes they mimic, the contents of the shots stick around only as long as it takes the body to eliminate them, a tenure on the order of days, perhaps a few weeks.

What does have staying power, though, is the immunological impression that vaccines leave behind. Defensive cells study decoy pathogens even as they purge them; the recollections that they form can last for years or decades after an injection. The learned response becomes a reflex, ingrained and automatic, a “robust immune memory” that far outlives the shot itself, Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, told me. That’s what happens with the COVID-19 vaccines, and Ellebedy and others told me they expect the memory to remain with us for a while yet, staving off severe disease and death from the virus at extraordinary rates.  Full Story: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/09/waning-immunity-not-crisis-right-now/619965/

Last updated on 09/11/2021 03:13 PM

The Pfizer BioNTech (BNT162b2) COVID-19 vaccine: What you need to know

Covid-19 Vaccine (Post ID: 1028)

Updated 25 June 2021, pursuant to updated interim recommendations 

WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) has issued its policy recommendations for the rollout of  the first COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

According to SAGE, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is safe and effective. The priority is to start vaccinating health workers at high risk of exposure, followed by older adults, before immunizing the rest of the population. 

Full Article: https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-can-take-the-pfizer-biontech-covid-19--vaccine

Last updated on 08/22/2021 12:31 AM

Side Effects of COVID-19 Vaccines

Covid-19 Vaccine (Post ID: 1027)

This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines – from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access – in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.

 

COVID-19 vaccines are safe, and getting vaccinated will help protect you against developing severe COVID-19 disease and dying from COVID-19. You may experience some mild side effects after getting vaccinated, which are signs that your body is building protection.

Full Article:https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/side-effects-of-covid-19-vaccines

Last updated on 08/17/2021 08:28 PM

Vaccine efficacy, effectiveness and protection

Covid-19 Vaccine (Post ID: 1026)

This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines – from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access – in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.

COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be safe, effective and life-saving. Like all vaccines, they do not fully protect everyone who is vaccinated, and  we do not yet know how well they can prevent people from transmitting the virus to others. So as well as getting vaccinated, we must also continue with other measures to fight the pandemic.

Full Article: 

Last updated on 08/17/2021 08:25 PM

How do vaccines work?

Covid-19 Vaccine (Post ID: 1025)

This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines – from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access – in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.

Germs are all around us, both in our environment and in our bodies. When a person is susceptible and they encounter a harmful organism, it can lead to disease and death.

The body has many ways of defending itself against pathogens (disease-causing organisms). Skin, mucus, and cilia (microscopic hairs that move debris away from the lungs) all work as physical barriers to prevent pathogens from entering the body in the first place. 

When a pathogen does infect the body, our body’s defences, called the immune system, are triggered and the pathogen is attacked and destroyed or overcome.

Full Article: https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/how-do-vaccines-work

Last updated on 08/17/2021 08:16 PM

WHO says some Covid data may suggest increased risk of hospitalization from delta variant

Delta Variant (Post ID: 1024)

Last updated on 08/17/2021 08:12 PM

A new estimate of Covid-19 deaths in India could double 2021’s global toll

Covid-19 (Post ID: 1023)

If India was to accurately account for all the Covid-19 deaths in the country, it would likely double the confirmed global death toll for 2021.

The country may have undercounted its pandemic fatalities by seven or eight times, a new study conducted by researchers in India, Canada, and the US has found. This would take India’s Covid-19 mortality from the official 422,022 to between 3.1 and 3.4 million. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 4.18 million people have died of Covid-19, of which about 2 million were in 2021.  Full Story: https://qz.com/india/2039756/indias-actual-covid-19-death-toll-could-be-eight-times-higher/?utm_source=YPL

Last updated on 07/29/2021 08:27 PM

CDC head takes to the airwaves to sell change on face masks, as delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreads to 132 countries

Covid Infections Rise in United States (Post ID: 1022)

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took to the airwaves on Wednesday to explain her agency’s renewed recommendation for face masks as a protective measure against COVID-19 even among vaccinated people, and to again encourage unvaccinated Americans to get their shots. 

Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced Tuesday that the CDC is now recommending resuming the use of face masks in public settings in areas with high rates of transmission, after dropping that guideline back in May. 

Walensky said the decision was made after data showed that vaccinated people who suffer breakthrough infections have the same viral load as unvaccinated people: “And that is very much leading us to believe that it is probably the case that those vaccinated breakthrough infections rare as they might be, have the potential to infect others,” the CDC director told SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio Reports, one of several media outlets on which she featured.  Full Story: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cdc-head-explains-change-on-face-mask-policy-and-urges-unvaccinated-to-get-shots-as-delta-variant-of-covid-19-spreads-to-132-countries-11627482665

Last updated on 07/29/2021 08:24 PM

Infections rise in 42 states; Fauci says it's 'horrifying' to see people cheer lack of vaccinations: COVID-19 updates

Covid Infections Rise in United States (Post ID: 1021)

Forty-two states saw an increase in COVID-19 cases last week from the week before, a sign that the pandemic is not yet over in the United States.

Only Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and West Virginia saw a decline in cases over the seven-day period that ended Saturday from the previous week.

The rate of vaccinations has slowed in recent weeks, and less than half of all Americans, 47.9%, are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walinsky says more than 99% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. in June were among unvaccinated people. In addition, preliminary data indicates that over the past six months, nearly all of the COVID-19 deaths in various states have occurred in unvaccinated people, she said.

Full Story:    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/07/11/infections-up-42-states-cpac-attendees-cheer-low-vaccination-rate/7928562002/

Last updated on 07/11/2021 05:27 PM

WHO says delta is the fastest and fittest Covid variant and will ‘pick off’ most vulnerable

Covid Variants (Post ID: 1020)

Last updated on 06/21/2021 08:52 PM

U.S. to split 55 million Covid vaccine doses between Latin America, Asia and Africa

Covid-19 Vaccine (Post ID: 1019)

  • The Biden administration announced it will send 55 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa as the coronavirus continues to rapidly spread in low- and middle-income nations.
  • The 55 million vaccine doses are the remaining portion of 80 million shots President Joe Biden has committed to donating abroad.
  • Earlier this month, the administration said it would send the first 25 million doses to South and Central America, Asia, Africa, neighboring countries and U.S. allies.
  • Full Story: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/21/covid-vaccine-us-to-split-55-million-doses-between-latin-america-asia-and-africa-.html

Last updated on 06/21/2021 08:49 PM

U.S. official says Covid booster shots will also be free to the public

Covid-19 Vaccine (Post ID: 1018)

Last updated on 05/11/2021 08:29 PM

India Sees Deadliest Day Of Pandemic With COVID-19 Deaths Topping 4,000

Covid-19 (Post ID: 1017)

India reported its highest daily death toll — 4,187 people — on Saturday, weeks into the world's worst wave of coronavirus cases that's leaving people without lifesaving hospital beds, oxygen and drugs. 

In all, nearly 240,000 people in India are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, with reported infections topping 21 million.

Full Story: https://www.npr.org/2021/05/08/995021124/india-sees-deadliest-day-of-pandemic-with-covid-19-deaths-topping-4-000

Last updated on 05/09/2021 10:07 PM

U.S. to restrict travel from India effective May 4 amid massive Covid surge

Covid-19 (Post ID: 1016)

  • The Biden administration will restrict travel from India as that country grapples with a gigantic surge in coronavirus cases, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
  • The policy will take effect Tuesday, May 4, Psaki said.
  • The administration made the decision on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Psaki said.
  • Full Story:  U.S. to restrict travel from India effective May 4 amid massive Covid surge

Last updated on 04/30/2021 08:15 PM