Month: April 2021

Boxes containing vials of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine are stored at the Kedren Community Health Center on January 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine can remain stable at temperatures found in refrigerators for 3 months, the company said Thursday, citing new data. The mRNA vaccine is currently approved to be stored in the refrigerator between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 30 days and up to seven months in the freezer at minus 4 Fahrenheit, according to the company. But Moderna said Thursday it now has data that could support a three-month refrigerated shelf life for the vaccine. If authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, the new storage temperature could "facilitate easie...

Press release from the Humboldt County Joint Information Center: Fifteen additional cases of COVID-19 were reported in Humboldt County today, bringing the total number of county residents who have tested positive to 3,814.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidance Tuesday for fully vaccinated people to state they no longer need to wear a mask outdoors, except in certain crowded settings and venues. These recommendations are from the federal government. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) stated its initial support for the guidance and that it would have more information in the days to come.   Read the full CDC guidance here: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html.   Many appointments for the Pfizer v...

'We're in a sprint here': Analysts are updating forecast for reaching herd immunity in Dallas County. PCCI believes slowing vaccination trends will lead to delays. DALLAS — The lines for COVID-19 vaccine remain busy at the Fair Park hub, though demand for doses is on a downward trend. That reality is affecting projections for reaching herd immunity in Dallas County. There was a steady flow of vehicles filing in and out of the Fair Park vaccination hub on Wednesday afternoon. ”The process was quick. It was fast,” Jorge Perez said as he waited after receiving his first dose of the vaccine. ...

But many Americans don't want to get vaccinated as myths and misunderstandings spread. "Facebook runs a survey every day ... and that's shown that vaccine confidence in the US has been slowly but steadily going down since February," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. "We were at 75% of adults saying they wanted the vaccine. Now we're down to, in those surveys, about 67%." -- Health experts say we need at least 70-85% of the US population immunized to reach herd immunity. -- The longer people stay unvaccinated, the more chances a virus has to develop mutations. And if the mutations are significant, they could lead to more troubling strains that might evade vaccines. -- ' Long Covid' is real. Young...

The Conversation Scarred by Zika and fearing new COVID-19 variants, Brazilian women say no to another pandemic pregnancy A field hospital in São Paulo state, Brazil, on March 26, 2021. Brazil keeps setting new COVID-19 records, with up to 4,000 people dying daily. Miguel Schincariol/AFP via Getty Images“We have to avoid a pregnancy,” said Rosa, about the possibility of getting pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. “My feeling is that I don’t want to have a baby. What I went through in 2017 when I had Raíssa, God forbid.” Rosa lives in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. Her first child, Raíssa, was born during the epidemic of Zika – a mosquito-borne disease that caused severe birth defects if contracted during pregnancy, among other effects. Between 2015 and 2017, some 3,700 babies in Bra...