Month: June 2021

Here’s what you need to know: Prepped Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at a pharmacy in Little Rock, Ark., in March.Credit...Rory Doyle for The New York Times The vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna set off a persistent immune reaction in the body that may protect against the coronavirus for years, scientists reported on Monday. The findings add to growing evidence that most people immunized with the mRNA vaccines may not need boosters, so long as the virus and its variants do not evolve much beyond their current forms — which is not guaranteed. People who recovered from Covid-19 before being vaccinated may not need boosters even if the virus does make a significant transformation. “It’s a good sign for how durable our immunity is from this vaccine,” said Ali Ellebedy, an immun...

Vaccines are working against Covid-19, including the highly contagious delta variant — but the challenge is in getting enough people inoculated, according to a professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. "Leaving it in the refrigerator doesn't help, that won't prevent disease. You have got to move that vaccine into arms," William Schaffner said on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Monday. Data collated by online scientific publication, Our World In Data, showed around 22.6% of the world's population have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine — but most of them are in high-income, wealthy countries in North America and Western Europe. Less than 1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. Covid boost...

Nearly 1,500km (932 miles) away, in the western city of Pune, Dr Aarti Kinikar, a paediatrician working in a government medical college and hospital, has seen 30 such cases since April. Thirteen of the sick children, aged four to 12 years, are still in hospital. Most of them have suffered from myocarditis, a disease marked by the inflammation of the heart muscle. "The numbers are too many after the second wave," Dr Kinikar said.

LaSalle Network CEO Tom Gimbel discusses companies requiring employees to get vaccinated before returning to the office. Make-A-Wish America President and CEO Richard Davis announced that the foundation will resume granting wishes involving large gatherings and air travel within the United States and federal territories for fully vaccinated children and their families beginning September 15. Make-A-Wish previously suspended air travel and large gathering-involved wishes following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.  "We’ve approached this responsibility with a focus and diligence for your family’s health and safety," Davis said in a video shared on Twitter Thursday, noting the decision was made in consultation with doctors and medical professionals throughout the Na...

A group of medics have penned an “urgent open letter” to Singapore’s Expert Committee on Covid-19 vaccination program, asking to stop vaccinating youths until the US CDC clarifies the reasons why a teenage jab recipient has died. Written on “on behalf of many concerned pediatricians, primary care physicians, specialists, surgeons and GPs” and signed by a number of Singaporean medical professionals, the letter was posted on Facebook on Saturday. Its authors urged the authorities to “consider a short delay” in vaccinating youths with messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) jabs in view of the recent incident in the US. Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have started an investigation into the death of a 13-year-old from Saginaw, Michigan, which...