COVID-19 Vaccines Not Linked to Trouble Conceiving
Couples who were vaccinated against COVID-19 did not have a lower likelihood of getting pregnant, but previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 could affect male fertility, according to a prospective study. Both female and male partners who had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose did not face lower chances of getting pregnant than unvaccinated patients (female fecundability…
Pfizer Vaccine Kept Teens Out of the Hospital for COVID
Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) protected adolescents from severe COVID-19 outcomes, with high effectiveness against hospitalization, ICU admission, and need for life support, a case-control study found. Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization among adolescents ages 12-18 was 94% (95% CI 90-96), and 98% against both ICU admission and the need for life support, reported Manisha Patel, MD,…
No, ‘Deltacron’ Is Probably Not Real
A scientist in an island country discovers that in dozens of COVID-19 patients, the Delta and Omicron viral variants have fused genetically to form a third variant, more powerful and deadly than any before. If it seems like science fiction, that’s because it probably is. Reports over the weekend set the internet abuzz with news…
Omicron is causing record hospitalizations among the young and elderly
The US continues to smash pandemic records as Omicron infection rates soar across the country. The seven-day average for COVID cases on January 9 was 677,243—almost triple that of the previous high of 250,512 on January 12, 2021. That peak came soon after the Delta variant was discovered, but months before it was widespread across…
Flurona Is a Great Example of How Misinformation Blooms
Earlier this week, Israeli media reported a person who was hospitalized with evidence of both seasonal flu and COVID at the same time. This unvaccinated and pregnant person had mild symptoms and was discharged without any complications. A person being infected with both the COVID-causing SARS-CoV2 virus and an influenza virus can happen; we just…
COVID Vaccine in Pregnancy Not Tied to Adverse Outcomes
Pregnant women who received a COVID-19 vaccine faced no additional risks of adverse birth outcomes compared to those who were not vaccinated, according to a retrospective cohort study. COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of preterm birth (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.91, 95% CI 0.82-1.01) or of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) at…
More Evidence Omicron May Be Weaker Than Prior Variants
A growing body of data further strengthened the case for Omicron being a less severe variant than Delta, said Anthony Fauci, MD, chief medical advisor to President Biden, during a White House COVID-19 Response Team phone briefing on Wednesday. Given certain caveats, “all indications point to a lesser severity of Omicron versus Delta,” Fauci said.…
Omicron isn’t overtaking Delta as quickly as the CDC thought—and that’s bad news
COVID-19 case rates in the US are swelling, and the highly infectious Omicron variant is raising alarms around the world. But the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now says that the number of infections caused by Omicron in the US were highly overestimated. The CDC previously reported that the Omicron variant was…
New study finds booster protection against Omicron drops at 10 weeks
Booster shot effectiveness against the Omicron coronavirus variant wanes faster than it does against Delta, according to new data collected in the United Kingdom. The data shows the booster vaccines’ protection against Omicron drops significantly after about 10 weeks. In a report published Thursday, the UK Health Security Agency released data on 147,597 Delta and…
Omicron’s Effect Won’t Be as Mild as Hoped
When news of the novel coronavirus’s Omicron variant first broke over the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., the sense of dread and fatigue was palpable. Just when the COVID pandemic’s outlook had started to improve, we were faced with a new arrival that was clearly more transmissible than previous variants—and likely able to significantly evade…
Remdesivir Cuts COVID Hospitalization Risk for Unvaccinated, But …
Remdesivir (Veklury) reduced serious outcomes among unvaccinated high-risk COVID-19 patients when given during the early symptomatic period outside the hospital, as published results from the PINETREE trial detailed. A 3-day course of the IV antiviral cut hospitalization for COVID-19 or death from any cause by a relative 87%, albeit based on just two cases versus…
We’ll Never Be Rid of COVID, Fauci Says
On the spectrum from active outbreak to eradication, control is the most likely path forward for COVID-19 in the U.S., NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, MD, said during a National Press Club briefing today. Fauci’s words served as a reality check for those holding out hope that COVID-19 one day might be as rare as measles…
Why the CDC now recommends mRNA COVID vaccines over J&J’s
The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccines are preferred over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in people 18 years of age and over, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says. The agency’s expert vaccine panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, voted unanimously on Thursday to change its official recommendations.…
The Risk of Vaccinated COVID Transmission Is Not Low
My two-year-old tested positive for COVID last month. My mind-numbing and costly project to keep him uninfected prior to his vaccinations had proven an abject failure. I was angry—and surprised. During the time he was likely infected, he had only been around vaccinated people when indoors. Although we know the absolute risk of serious illness…
NASA Spacecraft ‘Touches’ the Sun for the First Time Ever
A NASA spacecraft has entered a previously unexplored region of the Solar System—the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. The long-awaited milestone, which happened in April but was announced on 14 December, is a major accomplishment for the Parker Solar Probe, a craft that is flying closer to the Sun than any mission in history. “We…
Controversial Doc No Longer With One of Idaho’s Largest Health Networks
A controversial pathologist from Idaho who has been criticized for spreading false information about COVID-19 is leaving a health network that provides care to more than 160,000 people in the state, according to a report by the Idaho Capital Sun. Ryan Cole, MD, who has previously come under fire for prescribing ivermectin to COVID patients…
Moving CO2 from Air to Oceans May Be Necessary to Slow Warming
Climbing concentrations of carbon dioxide make it likely that humans will have to move some gases from the atmosphere into the oceans to prevent crippling effects of climate change, the National Academies said in a major report released yesterday. It came after months of deliberation among top U.S. scientists who concluded that global efforts to…
Omicron Variant a Cause for Concern, Not Panic, Says Biden
WASHINGTON — The newly discovered Omicron variant of COVID-19 is “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” President Biden said Monday. “We have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day,” Biden said during a speech in the Roosevelt Room of the…
Twitter’s fledgling misinformation tool is adding aliases
Twitter announced on Monday that its crowdsourced misinformation-fighting tool, Birdwatch, is introducing aliases for its contributors. Contributors will have one chance to pick from five randomized alias options (as opposed to using their actual usernames), which will be available through the Birdwatch link. “We want everyone to feel comfortable contributing to Birdwatch,” the Birdwatch account…
For the second time ever, someone was spontaneously cured of HIV
A second person with HIV seems to have cleared the infection without stem cell treatments, raising optimism for efforts to develop a cure or vaccine. Researchers could find no evidence of intact virus in the patient, a 30-year-old woman from Esperanza, Argentina who’d been diagnosed eight years prior. “Examples of such a cure that develops…