Month: May 2021

DEAR DR. ROACH: My wife and I are grateful to have recently received our second Moderna vaccine. When the crush relents, would you see any difficulty in adding the J&J vaccine at my own expense? It seems that the different vaccines vary in how they protect against different strains, and I’d like to double up (or even more) if there are no major risks. -- F.M. ANSWER: The Moderna vaccine appears to be nearly 95% effective in preventing COVID-19, and probably even more effective in preventing severe COVID-19 resulting in hospitalization or death. I do not know whether giving a second course of a different vaccine will lead to an even higher degree of protection, nor whether it might lead to worse side effects. What is most critical right now is to get the vaccine administered to as m...

"Over this pandemic and through a many-decade career she's made significant contributions, and she leaves behind a strong force of leadership and courage in all that she has done," Walensky said during a press conference Friday. Messonnier will join the Skoll Foundation on June 1, as the executive director for Pandemics and Health Systems, the foundation confirmed to POLITICO. She will lead the organization's work on Covid-19 and preparedness for future infectious disease outbreaks. The Washington Post first reported Messonnier's resignation Friday morning. Messonnier had spent more than 20 years at the CDC as a prominent respiratory disease expert. She became a central figure in the Trump administration’s chaotic early coronavirus response last February, when she told reporters...

A horizontal line across the nail could be a sign of a previous COVID-19. If "COVID nails" were an infection marker it could be as useful as an antibody test, Prof Spector said.  The lines can happen on the fingers or toes and are harmless. See more stories on Insider's business page. Odd-looking nails could be a sign of previous coronavirus infection, a top UK scientist has said. Horizontal lines across the nail that appear several months after catching coronavirus can happen in both fingers and toes, Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College, told Insider. Spector, who leads the world's largest coronav...

National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Nancy Messonnier speaks during a press conference today at the Department of Health and Human Services on the coordinated public health response to the 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV), January 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. Samuel Corum Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the health expert who was among the first to sound alarms about the threat posed to the U.S. by the coronavirus, is resigning from her role at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency's director confirmed Friday. Messonnier "leaves behind a strong force of leadership and courage in all that she's done," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing. "I want to wish her the best in her future endeavors." Walensky did ...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday told reporters the U.K. was "looking carefully" at a circulating coronavirus variant first detected in India, as public health officials work to better characterize the strain. A reporter questioned Johnson over the variant, given news Public Health England (PHE) Friday escalated the strain to a "variant of concern" following an uptick in cases and "evidence of community transmission." COLORADO IDENTIFIES INDIAN CORONAVIRUS VARIANT IN AT LEAST 5 RESIDENTS "What we’re doing there is making sure that we are absolutely ruthless in the surge testing, in the door-to-door tracking of any contacts," Johnson said. "At the moment we’re looking carefully at the way the Indian variant seems to function. We don’t see any evidence that it is resistan...