RSV Vaccine Approved by FDA for Adults 60 and Older

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a license for the world’s first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine to be given to people 60 years of age and older. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology company GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) has already begun manufacturing doses of the vaccine, which will be sold as early as this fall […]
“The Big Catch-Up”

In response to the marked decline in childhood vaccination rates around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic of the past three years, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and other organizations are partnering in […]
Government Buys 1.5 Million More Doses of Novavax’s COVID Vaccine

Biotechnology company Novavax announced that it has made a modification to an existing contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to provide up to 1.5 million more doses of its Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine (also known as “NVX-CoV2373” and “Covovax”), in addition to the 3.2 million […]
FDA Approves U.S. Babies and Young Children to Get Omicron COVID Booster Shots

In early December 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amended the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna/NIAID mRNA COVID-19 shots to include administration of the Omicron COVID booster shots to children as young as six months old. The action allows everyone over the age of six months to get the […]
Pfizer’s New RSV Vaccine for Pregnant Women on Fast Track

Amongst frantic media coverage of increases in cases of (RSV) among children, Pfizer has announced the development of an experimental bivalent RSV vaccine for pregnant mothers in an attempt to protect newborns from being infected with the virus. The pharmaceutical giant plans to submit the results of their RSV vaccine clinical trials to the U.S. […]
CDC May Bring Back Oral Polio Vaccine in U.S.

In response to the first confirmed case of polio in the United States since 2013 this past September and the subsequent detection of the polio virus in New York City wastewater, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now considering recommending a return to use of the live attenuated oral […]
Inhaled COVID Vaccines Approved in India and China

Regulatory agencies in India and China have approved two different spray vaccines for COVID-19 that are inhaled through the nose or mouth rather than injected into the body.1 Referred to as “mucosal” vaccines, the Chinese company CanSinoBIO and the Indian company Bharat Biotech hope the new COVID vaccines will provide “sterilizing immunity” and prevent infection […]
Mercury Project Funds Research to Convince More People to Get COVID Shots

The Mercury Project, a global consortium of researchers dedicated to “combating the impacts of mis- and disinformation on public health,” is being sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) of Brooklyn, New York. SSRC announced on Aug. 23, 2022 that it will provide $7.2 million in grant funding teams doing behavioral research aimed at […]
Most American Parents Rejecting COVID Vaccine for Young Children

Despite the recommendation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that young children between the ages of six months and four years get vaccinated for COVID-19, only four to five percent of children in this age group have received the controversial mRNA COVID vaccines distributed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna for administration to […]
FDA Grants EUA for Novavax’s COVID Vaccine

Opinion | On July 13, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to Novavax to distribute its experimental two-dose NVX-CoV2373 (also known as “Nuvaxovid” and “Covovax”) COVID-19 vaccine for use by adults. The decision was expected, given the favorable recommendation by the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory […]