“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”
— William Wilberforce
In early January 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended against pregnant women receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine due to insufficient scientific data for that vulnerable population.1 On Jan. 26, the WHO recommended against pregnant women receiving the Moderna experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, with WHO director of immunization Kate O’Brien being quoted by […]
On Dec. 10, 2020, American biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., which is pioneering the development of experimental messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, gave a 12-year old a dose of the company’s mRNA-1273 vaccine in a Phase 2/3 study of the new vaccine. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said, “Our goal is to generate data in the […]
Story Highlights The World Health Organization issued a Jan. 26, 2021 statement recommending that pregnant women should not be vaccinated with Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, approved for use under emergency authorization, citing a lack of data in pregnancy. Previously, most countries were in agreement with that opinion, but Israel is now recommending that pregnant women should […]
When baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron was given a COVID-19 vaccination at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia on Jan. 5, 2021, it came across as an event meant to encourage other people, particularly African-Americans, to also get vaccinated. Shortly after getting Moderna’s experimental mRNA-1273 vaccine, Aaron told The Associated Press, “[Getting vaccinated] […]
A 64-year-old man from Placer County, California died on Jan. 21, 2021 approximately three hours after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. It was unclear whether the man, a health care worker at a senior living facility, had been given the Pfizer/BioNTech’s BNT162b2 vaccine or Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine. The only two experimental COVID-19 vaccines that have been […]
On Nov. 26, 2020, when I raised questions1 about the results of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trials, all that was in the public domain were the study protocols2 and a few press releases.3 Now, two journal publications4 and around 400 pages of summary data are available in the form of multiple reports presented by and to the U.S. Food and Drug […]
Austin Beutner, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in California said the district would require its students to get a COVID-19 vaccine once it is available for school-aged children.1 Two experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,, Pfizer/BioNTech’s BNT162b2 and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccines, have been granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food […]
Story Highlights A highly transmissible new strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been identified in South Africa and has now spread to at least eight other countries including the U.K., Switzerland, Finland, Japan, Australia, Zambia, France and South Korea. The mutations of the new strain represent significant changes to key structures involved […]
Only two weeks after the first experimental biologic for SARS-CoV-2 became available, the U.S. was more than 16 millions doses behind Operation Warp Speed’s goal of giving COVID-19 vaccines to 20 million people by the end of 2020.1 Responding to the slow rollout, Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui, MD proposed giving half-doses to […]
Gregory Michael, MD, an obstetrician in private practice at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach received a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 18 and died 16 days later of a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke).1 Within three days of taking the shot, he developed symptoms of a severe autoimmune bleeding […]