Pharmacists, Pharmacy Interns Given Green Light to Vaccinate Children
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 […]
Public Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccine Faces Many Hurdles
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 […]
Flu Vaccination Associated With Increased Viral Shedding
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 […]
Vaccines Rely on Horseshoe Crab’s Blue Blood for Purity
Every spring, 500,000 Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs are collected by four biopharmaceutical companies as they crawl to the mid-Atlantic beaches to lay their eggs. The helmet-shaped arthropods are placed upside down on a rack, and a sterile needle is inserted near the heart to collect about 30 percent of their blood.1 2 The crabs are returned […]
Dangers of Methanol-Containing Hand Sanitizers
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials have maintained that people can use hand sanitizers as an alternative for hand washing to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infections. However, the widespread use of commercial disinfectant products is leading to another problem,1 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now warning consumers and health […]
How is Coronavirus Getting Into the Brain?
Recently, studies have been published suggesting a link between the SARS-CoV-2 virus, brain inflammation and neurological dysfunction. One study involving 60 patients who recovered from COVID-19, for example, found that 55 percent of them displayed “structural changes” in the brain that manifested with loss of memory and smell for three months. The study, published in The […]