Government Proposes Making It Harder to Get Vaccine Injury Compensation
In July 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a notice of proposed rule making in the Federal Register1 that would remove shoulder injuries and vasovagal syncope from the Vaccine Injury Table used by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). The proposed rule making would also eliminate Item XVII, whereby […]
Brazil Halts and Re-Starts Phase 3 Clinical Trials of Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine
Brazil briefly stopped clinical trials of CoronaVac, the Chinese-made experimental vaccine for COVID-19, after a death among trial participants was reported on Nov 9, 2020. The Bhutantan Institute in San Paulo, Brazil had been conducting Phase 3 trials with more than 10,000 volunteers when the study was halted.1 However, within days, Bhutantan officials announced they […]
Pfizer’s Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine 90 Percent Effective?
The German biotech firm BioNTech SE issued a joint press release with its American partner Pfizer, Inc. on Nov. 9, 2020 to announce that interim analysis of a global Phase 3 study of their mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine appeared to demonstrate an efficacy rate “above 90%”measured seven days after the second dose.1 “This is really a […]
Another Shot at a Vaccine for Lyme Disease
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has provided the University of Maryland with a $3.5 million dollar grant to develop a vaccine for Lyme disease.1 Principal investigators Utal Pal, PhD, professor at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Matthias Schnell, PhD, director […]
Flu Shot Deaths in South Korea Said to Be “Coincidental”
Story Highlights More than 80 people have died in South Korea following influenza vaccination. After an investigation into the safety of the vaccines, South Korean health authorities ruled the deaths as “coincidental.” The public health agency in South Korea has decided to continue and promote its free influenza vaccine program despite public anxiety relating to […]
CureVac’s COVID-19 Vaccine Produces Grade 3 Adverse Events
Biopharmaceutical company CureVac NV of Tübingen, Germany has released the interim results of its Phase 1 clinical trial on its experimental CVnCoV vaccine COVID-19. The vaccine, which was given to more than 250 healthy adults 18 to 60 years of age, is based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology.1 2 Unlike traditional vaccines, mRNA vaccines […]