Author:

By Alistair Smout LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has signed deals to secure 90 million doses of two possible COVID-19 vaccines from an alliance of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, and French group Valneva, the business ministry said on Monday. Britain secured 30 million doses of the experimental BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, and a deal in principle for 60 million doses of the Valneva vaccine, with an option of 40 million more doses if it was proven to be safe, effective and suitable, the ministry said. With no working vaccine against COVID-19 yet developed, Britain now has three different types of vaccine under order and a total of 230 million doses potentially available. "This new partnership with some of the world's foremost pharmaceutical and vaccine companies will ensure the UK has the best chance pos...

The coronavirus pandemic is still rapidly spreading across the globe, infecting more than 14.44 million people. With more than 188 countries and territories affected, scientists are racing to develop a vaccine against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). One of the forerunners in this vaccine race is an adenovirus-vectored vaccine from the University of Oxford, in partnership with AstraZeneca, which started its human trials in May. In June, the research team reported trial results that revealed a single dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) induced antigen-specific antibody and T cells responses against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in animal models....

"Which I do not recommend because we do not know about safety or effectiveness. But I admire their creativity and devotion to using a barrier!" she added with emphasis. Grubb hears such stories from teens in her practice at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, she says, because adolescents "aren't really thinking too far ahead" about the consequences of their actions. "Adolescents are spontaneous and impulsive, and they take risks," Grubb said. "I've heard so many teens tell me that they don't need contraception or they don't need condoms because they don't plan on being sexually active. And then a couple weeks later they're back in the office and we're running a pregnancy test or we're testing for sexually transmitted infections." High rate of teen STI and HIV cases Recent rates of sexually t...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Colorado has reached a new milestone in the coronavirus pandemic. There are now more than 40,000 confirmed cases statewide. Sunday, Governor Jared Polis discussed the state’s response to the July surge on ABC’s “This Week.” Polis talked with host Martha Raddatz about his decision to issue a statewide mask mandate after showing hesitation about enforcement at first. “We simply found that they work,” said Polis. “The areas that had mask requirements in our state had 15 percent to 20 percent more mask usage and lower spread of the virus. So, looking at that data, with the desire to keep the economy open, to maximize the ability to return to school in as safe a way as possible for teachers and for students, the mask mandate was really an easy decision, after...

DUBLIN, Ireland -- A doctor based in Dublin, Ireland, has debunked the idea that a face mask lowers oxygen levels. In fact, he's shown that even wearing several has no effect. This video shows Maitiu O Tuathail putting six masks on his face while recording his blood oxygen saturation levels. As he puts on mask after mask, the meter shows a steady, and healthy, 98-99 percent. READ ALSO: New video studies COVID-19 spread with and without face coverings O Tuathail posted the video on Twitter to address the misconception that face masks negatively affect oxygen levels. He said he was being asked this regularly by patients, who were citing misinformation they had found on social media. READ ALSO: MASK TEST: Which masks protect those around you best? Researchers weigh in ...