Oxford Begins COVID-19 Vaccine Trials to Meet September Deadline

Oxford Begins COVID-19 Vaccine Trials to Meet September Deadline

On Mar. 17, 2020, European Commission (EC) president Ursula von der Leyen said she was hopeful a vaccine for COVID-19 could be available this September. Her view was based on conversations she had had with managers of German biotechnology firm CureVac AG which has developed an experimental messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine that it plans to […]

COVID-19 Meltdown and Pharma’s Big Money Win

COVID-19 Meltdown and Pharma’s Big Money Win

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told Americans on Apr. 1, 2020 that modeling reports suggested COVID-19 infections could eventually “kill 100,000 to 240,000 Americans,”1 2 3 which was considerably less than the worst case 1.7 million mortality figure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) […]

Mortality Rate for COVID-19 May Be Closer to Influenza

Mortality Rate for COVID-19 May Be Closer to Influenza

At a press briefing on Mar. 3, 2020, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said, “Globally, about 3.4 percent of reported COVID-19 cases have died.” On Mar. 13, The New York Times reported that modeling experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were estimating that if […]

HIV Vaccine Fails Clinical Trial in South Africa

HIV Vaccine Fails Clinical Trial in South Africa

Story Highlights Another attempt to create an effective vaccine against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has been stopped early because it was not found to prevent HIV infection. It is estimated that 1,000 people are newly infected every day in South Africa. HIV virus appears to evade and destroy cells of the immune system and […]

Fluzone Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine Approved by FDA for Elderly

Fluzone Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine Approved by FDA for Elderly

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental Biologics License Application (BLA) for the Fluzone high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine for use by adults 65 years of age and older. Fluzone is manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, Inc. of France.1 2 The Fluzone high-dose influenza vaccine was approved by the FDA in 2009 as […]

Intermittent Fasting to Curb Inflammation

Intermittent Fasting to Curb Inflammation

Story Highlights Unresolved inflammation is common to many chronic conditions and autoimmune disorders including cancer, diabetes type 2, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and digestive disorders, among many others. Intermittent fasting (IF), a nutrition plan in which food intake is severely curtailed either by certain days of the week or for specific hours of every day, […]

Quest for Universal Flu Vaccine Boosted by $200M NIH Grant to University of Maryland

Quest for Universal Flu Vaccine Boosted by $200M NIH Grant to University of Maryland

Story Highlights National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Maryland a contract for more than $200 million to develop a universal influenza vaccine. Currently, the influenza vaccine used around the world is developed every year by drug companies based on the “best guesses” made by public health officials at the World Health […]

NIH and Johnson & Johnson to Begin HIV Vaccine Trials on Humans

NIH and Johnson & Johnson to Begin HIV Vaccine Trials on Humans

Story Highlights NIH, in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, will begin HIV vaccine efficacy trials on humans in August 2019 in the U.S. Another HIV vaccine candidate, using a live attenuated herpes cytomegalovirus (CMV), is also nearing clinical trials in humans. There are serious safety concerns regarding live attenuated vaccines and numerous cases reported in […]

Artificial Intelligence Takes Over Vaccine Development

Artificial Intelligence Takes Over Vaccine Development

Story Highlights A computer with artificial intelligence (AI) has designed a new “turbocharged” flu vaccine without human help. A research team from Flinders University in Australia created the AI program, which they named SAM (Search Algorithm for Ligands). The AI vaccine research work is being funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Scientists in […]

America’s ‘Good Medicine’ Mindset

America’s ‘Good Medicine’ Mindset

The idea that you can give someone a disease, or something worse than that disease, by giving them a medicine designed to cure that disease or prevent the patient from contracting it and spreading it to others is so counter-intuitive, so unethical, so downright insane that it is unthinkable, unconscionable, unbelievable. After all, isn’t the first principle of medicine to “first, do no harm”? And yet… I think one of the greatest songs of all time is the one by…

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