“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”
— William Wilberforce
Health experts now say that PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus associated with the illness COVID-19, is too sensitive and needs to be adjusted to rule out people who have insignificant amounts of the virus in their system.1 The test’s threshold is so high that it detects people with the live virus as well as […]
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that a new poliovirus outbreak in Sudan is linked to an ongoing string of vaccine strain polio outbreaks in Africa caused by continued use of the live attenuated oral polio vaccine (OPV).1 On Aug. 9, 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health in Sudan notified the WHO of the […]
Story Highlights More adults in the U.S. are expressing doubts about the safety of a newly licensed COVID-19 vaccine that might become available this year. The number of poll respondents planning on getting a new coronavirus vaccine as soon as it is FDA approved has fallen from a reported high of 50 to 60 percent […]
The government of Canada has signed deals to purchase COVID-19 vaccines from four pharmaceutical companies when their vaccines are approved to be given to the public. According to Canada’s Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand, the Canadian government has contracts with Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson), Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer […]
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new updates for influenza vaccines for 2020–2021 “flu season,” primarily for Fluzone and Fluad vaccines. In November 2019, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed inactivated injectable Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent (HD-IIV4) for use in persons aged […]
On Aug. 19, 2020, Massachusetts public health officials announced that all children six months of age and older who are attending child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12 and colleges and universities in Massachusetts will be required to get the influenza vaccine “to reduce flu-related illness and the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.”1 […]
Virginia’s Commissioner of Health Dr. Norman Oliver, MD said on Aug. 21, 2020 that he intends to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all residents of Virginia as soon as a vaccine is available. “[Coronavirus] is killing people now, we don’t have a treatment for it and if we develop a vaccine that can prevent it from […]
Under an amendment to the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP), pharmacists and pharmacy interns in the United States are now permitted to administer vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to children over three years of age.1 Currently, there are 28 states that allow pharmacists to administer vaccinations to […]
Story Highlights Even before a vaccine against COVID-19 has been introduced to the public in the U.S., expectations for it are low. Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that a COVID-19 vaccine is not expected to be either long-lasting or more than 50 to 60 percent effective. Citing experience with other vaccines, a COVID-19 vaccine is not […]
Opinion | When your body is infected with a disease-causing virus such as influenza, the virus is “shed” into the environment, via your saliva and other bodily fluids and skin lesions. If someone comes in contact with that shed virus, it’s possible that they, too, will become infected with the virus. There’s still a lot of […]