Articles Tagged With: immunity
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As Predicted, Measles Returns in Unvaccinated
As this report was filed, a measles outbreak was underway at a Florida elementary school, prompting a bizarre letter to parents and guardians by the state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD. Ladapo has a history of taking antivaccine positions.
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Vaccine Second Shot, Boosters Kick in Protective Effect
A study of healthcare and other frontline workers with COVID-19 showed a history of two or three mRNA vaccine doses significantly reduced the severity of illness. Workers who received two or three doses of vaccine reported less fever and chills, less need for medical care, and lower viral load than in the non-vaccinated cohort.
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COVID-19 Vaccine Protects Mothers, Newborns
COVID-19 vaccination and pregnancy issues have been clouded by misinformation, leading women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant to decline immunization. The accumulating evidence strongly suggests vaccination safeguards pregnant women against severe infection and also confers protective immunity to the newborn baby.
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Urgent Need for ‘Universal’ Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2
There is an emerging consensus in the scientific community that is two-fold: COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon, and continuous vaccine boosters eventually could yield diminishing returns. What is needed are new, second-generation vaccines that confer broader immunity against both circulating variants and mutations yet to arise.
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Omicron ‘Milder’ Infection View Skewed by Prior Immunity
The COVID-19 omicron variant has been widely observed to cause “milder” disease, but this appears largely to be an illusion caused by the level of immunity via prior infection or vaccination that now exists in the human population.
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Vaccines Saved 1 Million Lives in 2021
COVID-19 vaccines prevented an estimated 1 million deaths and 10 million hospitalizations in the United States in 2021, according to a new modeling study by the Commonwealth Fund.
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Evolving Variants, New Vaccines: IPs Must Be Steadfast in Pandemic
Three SARS-CoV-2 variants of global concern now are in the United States, threatening to erode vaccine efficacy, undermine treatment, and increase both hospitalizations and deaths. With vaccine supply limited, masking, social distancing, and hand hygiene will be critical over the next few months.
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Emerging Coronavirus Variants Narrow the Margin for Error
A highly transmissible variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus originally from the United Kingdom is emerging rapidly in the United States, with 76 cases detected in 12 states when this report was filed.
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Emerging Coronavirus Variants Are Highly Transmissible
More transmissible variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are emerging globally and had been detected in three U.S. states as this report was filed. The mutated strains do not appear more virulent, but the enhanced transmission narrows the margin of error for breaks in personal protective equipment and other exposures as healthcare workers begin to take their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.
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FDA Approves Pfizer Vaccine for COVID-19
The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee has approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. (NYC) and BioNTech (Mainz, DEU) in the United States for those ages 16 years and older. The first doses will go to healthcare workers and long-term care residents.