Vaccines

This designation of the company’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate, PF-06928316, will help to expedite its development and review.

The findings are significant given that a second booster dose may soon be recommended.

COVID-19 vaccines were less protective against symptomatic infection from the Omicron COVID-19 variant than the Delta variant.

Recent booster shots of mRNA vaccines prevented severe infection, hospitalization and death during the Omicron wave of the pandemic, despite a higher rate of breakthrough infections than was seen during the Delta wave, a new study found.

Check out these important stories we covered this past week.

The submission is for a fourth dose of its Spikevax (mRNA-1273) vaccine in adults 18 years of age and older.

A study of over 8 million participants found no correlation between COVID-19 vaccination and developing neurological conditions. However, a risk of some neurological conditions was increased after COVID-19 infection.

A recent JAMA article discussed the role of caregiver vaccination status in pediatric hospitals and ethics of exclusion.

Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill Paxlovid, which includes nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 89% among adults at high risk for severe disease, recently published phase 2/3 trial data show.

The application is based on 2 Israeli studies for the additional shot for people 65 years and older.

In children and adolescents, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was only mildly effective against symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 infections. Broken down by variant, Omicron infections were more likely to occur and more likely to be asymptomatic.

This study comes just weeks after the company announced another HIV vaccine trial.

With 3 vaccine candidates, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is launching one of the first trials to examine the safety and efficacy of mRNA technology in HIV vaccination.

In a nationally televised interview, Pfizer Albert Bourla said it is necessary to fend off waning protection.

The first study of COVID-19 vaccination status among romantic couples found 15.63% were in disagreement over whether to receive the vaccine.

A large surveillance study of 2 symptom-reporting databases found side effects after Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination were frequently nonserious and resolved within 1-2 days.

There is no vaccine to prevent or treat chikungunya virus. Valneva announced 98.9% of phase 3 trial participants achieved CHIKV neutralizing antibodies after a signle dose of their vaccine candidate, VLA1553.

Final analysis of phase 3, placebo-controlled trial confirms efficacy and safety of single-dose adenoviral vector vaccine against COVID-19.

Black Americans were more likely than White Americans to have a significant decrease in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy over time.

This week, one of the m-RNA COVID-19 vaccine’s effectiveness was shown to drop from 68% to 12% in children 5-11 years old within a month. This data raises concerns of what should be done to protect this pediatric population.

However, those that do have significant influence—and may have affected vaccination rates and treatment use, research suggests.

A single-dose injection of nirsevimab before RSV season was proven to reduce infants’ risk of lower respiratory tract infection by 74.5%.

“COVID-19 need no longer control our lives,” President Biden said, detailing a plan to immediately provide free antiviral pills to anyone who tests positive.

New research points to vaccine effectiveness against infection dropping from 68% to 12% in this pediatric population within a month.

Although it is possible, a small Danish study showed the majority of these cases were often mild and in unvaccinated individuals.