In a study published last month, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed safety data from the first 13.7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses given to Americans. Among the side effects reported to the agency, 79.1 percent came from women, even though only 61.2 percent of the vaccines had been administered to women.
Nearly all of the rare anaphylactic reactions to Covid-19 vaccines have occurred among women, too. C.D.C. researchers reported that all 19 of the individuals who had experienced such a reaction to the Moderna vaccine have been female, and that women made up 44 of the 47 who have had anaphylactic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine.
In a 2013 study, scientists with the C.D.C. and other institutions found that four times as many women as men between the ages of 20 and 59 reported allergic reactions after receiving the 2009 pandemic flu vaccine, even though more men than women got those shots. Another study found that between 1990 and 2016, women accounted for 80 percent of all adult anaphylactic reactions to vaccines.
Research has shown that, compared with their male counterparts, women and girls produce more — sometimes twice as many — infection-fighting antibodies in response to the vaccines for influenza, M.M.R., yellow fever, rabies, and hepatitis A and B. They often mount stronger responses from immune fighters called T cells, too, Ms. Gee noted. These differences are often most robust among younger adults, which “suggests a biological effect, possibly associated with reproductive hormones,” she said.
Also: testosterone is immunosuppressive, and strong immune responses in women help explain why 80% of autoimmune diseases afflict women.
All living former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and their respective former first ladies -- with the exception of the Trumps -- are part of a newly released ad campaign urging Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine when it is their turn, a push that is aimed squarely at combating vaccine skepticism.
The ad campaign reunites almost every member of the so-called President's Club, the group of living former commanders in chief. Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump are not featured in either ad, the only living president and first lady to not participate. CNN has previously reported that both received the coronavirus vaccine in January at the White House but did not publicize the fact until weeks after they had left Washington. On Wednesday, before the ad was published, Trump put out a statement claiming credit for the vaccine, but he was not included in the ad promoting it to the American people.
There are two ads in the campaign: a minute-long, more personal spot that shows the four former presidents and former first ladies receiving their vaccines, and another that features Clinton, Bush and Obama standing together to urge Americans to step up and get vaccinated.
With vaccines becoming more widely available in cities and states across the country, those in charge of getting vaccines in the arms of Americans are eager to use the influence of people such as the former presidents to push people to get their shots. Vaccine hesitancy remains an issue, even as the number of people hesitant to get the vaccine has been dropping rapidly.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- Novavax, a biotechnology company developing a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, has released its product's efficacy.
The vaccine provides 100% protection against severe disease resulting in hospitalization and death and has 96.4% efficacy against the original virus strain. It's also effective against the U.K. and South African coronavirus variants, the company said in a news release Thursday.
"We are very encouraged by the data showing that NVX-CoV2373 not only provided complete protection against the most severe forms of disease, but also dramatically reduced mild and moderate disease across both trials. Importantly, both studies confirmed efficacy against the variant strains," said Stanley C. Erck, president and CEO of Novavax.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
Foster Highlights President Obama’s Contribution to Rapid Vaccine Development in Hearing with Dr. Fauci
Washington, DC – Today, at a hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) highlighted the work done and investments made during the Obama administration that are directly responsible for the successes of current vaccines in development. Specifically, Foster pointed to President Obama’s decision to invest in mRNA vaccine research, which is one platform being used to develop potential vaccines in record time.
Foster said, “Heeding the advice of his scientific panel, in 2013 the Obama Administration invested $25 million through DARPA for research into the mRNA platform for pandemic response. This was followed by a $125 million investment by BARDA in 2015, so that by the end of the Obama administration, mRNA vaccines and therapeutics were being tested in both animals and humans.
“The reasons the Obama administration prioritized mRNA vaccines and therapeutics were speed of manufacture, and potency. Without those kinds of investments, “Project Warp Speed” and current efforts to produce an effective COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible would not be finding success.”
Drew Armstrong
@ArmstrongDrew
SyringeVACCINE DATA UPDATE (March 13)Syringe
Police cars revolving lightRecord day of reported vaccinations, with 4.6M. 50% higher than past 2.9M record. Looking into why (data dump/lag, +capacity, etc.)
Bar chart4.6M doses today; 7-day avg=2.54M/day
Flag of United StatesUS: 106M doses total
Hawaii data today - 31% of population had at least 1 shot. Vax can now be scheduled for people 65+. That's in addition to first responders, essential workers, school personnel, long term care people, and 70+.
J&J vaccination will be available this coming week. In most areas, you will be able to pick which vaccine you want - they are being provided at different locations. The idea is that reluctant people will be more likely to get vaccinated if they feel like they have a choice. We'll see if that happens.
US military and family members 18 and over are now being vaccinated as well.
You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
Plenty of Vaccines, but Not Enough Arms: A Warning Sign in Cherokee Nation
The tribe in Oklahoma is facing a problem that is likely to become more commonplace across the country: how to vaccinate everyone not eagerly lining up for a shot.
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — As people across the United States jockey and wait to get vaccinated, a surprising problem is unfolding in the Cherokee Nation: plenty of shots, but not enough arms.
“We’re running out of people to vaccinate,” said Brian Hail, who helps oversee the tribe’s vaccination efforts. He winced as he pulled up the day’s schedule one recent morning: Vaccinations were open to basically everyone across the reservation, but 823 appointments sat unclaimed.
It is a side effect of early success, tribal health officials said. With many enthusiastic patients inoculated and new coronavirus infections at an ebb, the urgency for vaccines has gone distressingly quiet.
Now, the tribe is confronting what looms as a major hurdle for the entire country as vaccine supplies swell to meet demand: how to vaccinate everyone not eagerly lined up for a shot.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Children have now received their first doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, as the company studies the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for kids ages 6 months to less than 12 years old.
In the study, researchers will give two injections 28 days apart of either the Moderna vaccine or a saline placebo to children. Kids who get the vaccine will receive one of three possible doses, from 25 micrograms up to 100 micrograms — the same dose that received an emergency authorization for use in adults from the Food and Drug Administration.
Moderna plans to enroll roughly 6,750 children in the U.S. and Canada for the study, which is taking place at sites in at least eight states, from Arizona and California to South Carolina and Texas.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
Arianna Eisenberg endured long-haul covid-19 for eight months, a recurring nightmare of soaking sweats, crushing fatigue, insomnia, brain fog and muscle pain.
But Eisenberg’s tale has a happy ending that neither she nor current medical science can explain. Thirty-six hours after her second shot of coronavirus vaccine last month, her symptoms were gone, and they haven’t returned.
“I really felt back to myself,” the 34-year-old Brooklyn therapist said, “to a way that I didn’t think was possible when I was really sick.”
Some people who have spent months suffering from long-haul covid-19 are taking to social media to report their delight at seeing their symptoms disappear after their vaccinations, leaving experts chasing yet another puzzling clinical development surrounding the disease caused by the coronavirus.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
If this is true, and they can find out the mechanism, I wonder if scientists will be able to come up with real treatment for some of the other post-viral syndromes out there. The ones that medical science pretty much ignores because they mainly happen to women, they don't have well-defined clinical tests, and they are so intractable to treat.
Avatar was a photo I took by Killary Fjord in 2005. Killary Fjord is in Northern Connemara, Ireland.
FiveAcres wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:28 am
If this is true, and they can find out the mechanism, I wonder if scientists will be able to come up with real treatment for some of the other post-viral syndromes out there. The ones that medical science pretty much ignores because they mainly happen to women, they don't have well-defined clinical tests, and they are so intractable to treat.
I hope so. I've had epstein-barr twice and then fibromyalsgia. It's been a challenge. When I was dx'd with fibro, I was told it was it was a daddy problem and needed a psychiatrist. Covid is differently experienced by males and females, and hopefully we will understand the post-viral syndromes better going forward.
You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
A woman in south Florida who had received one dose of coronavirus vaccine while pregnant recently gave birth to the first known baby born with Covid-19 antibodies “after maternal vaccination”, two pediatricians claimed.
The doctors presented their finding in a preprint article, meaning this claim has yet to be peer-reviewed.
Drs Paul Gilbert and Chad Rudnick said the mother, a frontline healthcare worker, received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine in January, at 36 weeks pregnant.
The woman gave birth to a “vigorous, healthy” girl three weeks later. Researchers analyzed blood from the baby’s umbilical cord and antibodies “were detected … at time of delivery”, their paper said. “Thus, there is potential for protection and infection risk reduction from Sars-CoV-2 with maternal vaccination.”
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
The decision this week by more than 20 European countries to temporarily stop using AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine has opened a rift between vaccine safety experts, who say the cases of serious clotting and bleeding that triggered the pause are alarming and unusual, and public health officials concerned that the immunization pause on a continent in the grip of the pandemic’s third wave could take a heavy toll.
“The harm caused by depriving people of access to a vaccine will likely vastly outweigh even the worst case scenario if any link to the clotting disorders is eventually found,” University of Leeds virologist Stephen Griffin told the United Kingdom’s Science Media Centre. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the World Health Organization have recommended that countries continue immunizations while they investigate the reports.
Scientists don’t know whether the vaccine causes the syndrome, and if so, what the mechanism is. But vaccine safety officials say they did not take the decision lightly, and that symptoms seen in at least 13 patients, all between ages 20 and 50 and previously healthy, in at least five countries are more frequent than would be expected by chance. The patients, at least seven of whom have died, suffer from widespread blood clots, low platelet counts, and internal bleeding—not typical strokes or blood clots. “It’s a very special picture” of symptoms, says Steinar Madsen, medical director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency. “Our leading hematologist said he had never seen anything quite like it.”
A somewhat similar blood disorder, called immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), has been seen in at least 36 people in the United States who had received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against COVID-19, The New York Times recently reported. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating these cases, but also said the syndrome did not appear to be more common in vaccinated people, and immunizations in the United States have continued. But Madsen says the cases seen in Europe in recent weeks are distinct from ITP, which lacks the widespread blood clots seen in the European patients.
In a statement released Sunday, AstraZeneca said there is no indication in the company's safety data that the vaccine is associated with an increased risk of blood clots. It said there have been 37 reported cases of blood clots out of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the U.K. Fifteen of the reported cases were of deep vein thrombosis, and 22 were pulmonary embolisms, according to AstraZeneca.
"This is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines," the company said in its statement.
Can it be that the vaccine is actually PROTECTING from these kind of blood clots?
I wasn't very concerned about the number people who experienced the clots until I read this (above post).
Scientists don’t know whether the vaccine causes the syndrome, and if so, what the mechanism is. But vaccine safety officials say they did not take the decision lightly, and that symptoms seen in at least 13 patients, all between ages 20 and 50 and previously healthy, in at least five countries are more frequent than would be expected by chance. The patients, at least seven of whom have died, suffer from widespread blood clots, low platelet counts, and internal bleeding—not typical strokes or blood clots. “It’s a very special picture” of symptoms, says Steinar Madsen, medical director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency. “Our leading hematologist said he had never seen anything quite like it.”
I'm glad it's being investigated.
You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
Britain's decision to vaccinate as people as possible and defer the 2nd shots until later seems to be working out well. 38% of the population has received at least one vaccination, and new cases and deaths have declined dramatically.
As Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco, has written, “According to most vaccine experts, delaying shot #2 by a few months is unlikely to materially diminish the ultimate effectiveness of two shots.”
In Britain, the daily number of new Covid cases has fallen by more than 90 percent since peaking in early January. The decline is larger than in virtually any other country. (In the U.S., new cases have fallen 79 percent since January.) Given that the contagious B.1.1.7 variant was first discovered in Britain and is now the country’s dominant virus form, “Britain’s free-fall in cases is all the more impressive,” Wachter told me. “Clearly their vaccination strategy has been highly effective.”
From a NYT morning newsletter summary, so no link.
You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
‘It Hit Me Hard': Northbrook Mom Gets COVID After Second Vaccine Dose
People can still catch the coronavirus more than two weeks after the second dose, but being fully vaccinated limits severe illness, according to the CDC.
By Chris Coffey • Published March 18, 2021 • Updated on March 18, 2021 at 6:15 pm https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/i ... e/2465900/
The Illinois Department of Public Health told NBC 5 it is tracking cases of individuals who have been vaccinated and test positive for COVID-19. According to IDPH, of the more than 1.6 million people who are fully vaccinated, 217 reported a positive test more than two weeks after their last vaccine dose.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the vaccine will help you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID.
“We shouldn’t be surprised about some people still getting infected, especially if they have high risk exposures, like a household exposure, but what we shouldn’t expect are severe infections because we know the vaccines were highly protective against from any hospitalizations,” said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, a medical director and infectious disease control and prevention specialist at Edward Hospital.
Silver said she and her daughters are back to feeling normal.
She said she fully supports people getting vaccinated and wants to spread awareness that what happened to her can happen to other people.
“I could only imagine not having the vaccine and getting COVID and how much worse it would be,” Silver said. “I do feel like it protected me against hospitalization and God forbid, death.”
One of the questions I've had is How safe am I after my first vaccination? I know my body is making antibodies, I just don't know at what rate. I was especially curious after my sister-in-law invited me to spend Easter with them (Yay!). On Easter, I'll be 4½ weeks after my first Moderna jab, and 3 days after my second. So I was excited to see this article:
Using the data from the published study of the Pfizer vaccine, Public Health England determined that vaccine efficacy was 89% for 15-21 days after dose 1 – and before dose 2 on day 21. The range was between 52% and 97%. For days 15-28, or up to the first week after the second dose, protection from the first dose was estimated at 91%. The range for this was between 74% and 97%. A second dose would not be expected to confer immunity within that time.
Researchers at the Greifswald teaching hospital in northern Germany said on Friday that they had discovered the cause of the unusual blood clotting found in some recipients of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) reported.
The investigation showed how the vaccine caused rare thrombosis in the brain in a small number of patients.
The discovery means that targeted treatment can be offered to those who suffer similar clotting, using a very common medication.
The success was a result of cooperation between the Greifswald hospital, state health regulator the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), as well as doctors in Austria — a nurse there died from thrombosis in the brain after being vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab.
The researchers emphasized that treatment would only be possible in patients where blood clots appear, rather than as a preventative treatment.
The information has been shared with hospitals around Europe.
LONDON — Oxford University and AstraZeneca reported on Monday that their coronavirus "vaccine for the world" was safe and 79 percent effective overall, according to data from a long-awaited clinical trial in the United States, alongside other studies in Chile and Peru. The two-shot regimen was completely effective at preventing severe cases of illness.
In a news release, the Oxford researchers, who developed the easily transported $4 shot for the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, said their coronavirus vaccine is “safe and highly effective, adding to previous trial data from the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa, as well as real-world impact data from the United Kingdom.”
The scientists said the data show the vaccine is 79 percent effective against symptomatic covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 100 percent effective against severe illness. There were five cases of severe illness in the trial, all of them in the group that received a placebo.
Some people in the United Arab Emirates are being invited to receive a third shot of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine after antibody tests indicated they did not have a sufficient immune response following two doses of the Chinese-made shot. There has been a similar report out of China as well.
And, as noted somewhere here recently, China isn't allowing anyone who has been vaccinated in unless it's a Chinese-made vaccine. What could possibly go wrong?
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
J&J Partner Catalent Gets Key U.S. Clearance to Make Vaccine
Millions more doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine are expected to be released after U.S. regulators cleared the way for contract manufacturer Catalent Inc. to help produce them.
The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency-use authorization to Catalent’s facility in Bloomington, Indiana, to make the single-dose vaccine’s active ingredient and ship the filled and finished product, according to the contract manufacturer. Bloomberg was first to report the regulatory clearance before the announcement.
"The jungle is no place for a cellist."
From "Take the Money and Run"
In an unusual statement released early Tuesday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the independent board that reviews data from multiple Covid-19 vaccine candidates has raised concerns about AstraZeneca's announcement of efficacy data from its vaccine trial.
"The DSMB expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data," said the NIAID statement released early Tuesday.
"We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible."
You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
Covid is differently experienced by males and females, and hopefully we will understand the post-viral syndromes better going forward.
