Author: GHealth News

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking into reports that a very small number of teenagers and young adults vaccinated against the coronavirus may have experienced heart problems, according to the agency’s vaccine safety group. The group’s statement was sparse in details, saying only that there were “relatively few” cases and that they may be entirely unrelated to vaccination. The condition, called myocarditis, is an inflammation of the heart muscle, and can occur following certain infections. The C.D.C.’s review of the reports is in the early stages, and the agency has yet to determine whether there is any evidence that the vaccines caused the heart condition. The agency has posted guidance on its website urging doctors and clinicians to be alert to unusual he...

GHealth News - WHO listed the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving the green light for this vaccine to be rolled out globally. The Sinopharm vaccine is produced by Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd, subsidiary of China National Biotec Group (CNBG).  “The addition of this vaccine has the potential to rapidly accelerate COVID-19 vaccine access for countries seeking to protect health workers and populations at risk,” said Dr Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant-Director General for Access to Health Products. “We urge the manufacturer to participate in the COVAX Facility and contribute to the goal of more equitable vaccine distribution.” WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) is a prerequisite for COVAX Facility vaccine supply. It also allows countries to expedite...

By Laurie McGinley and Lenny Bernstein The announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday that people who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear masks in most places was hailed as the path to liberation for many who have endured through the strictures of the pandemic. But the new recommendations also raised an array of questions and complications for businesses, consumers and parents — and the answers might not be clear for some time. Does the new CDC recommendation mean that if I am vaccinated I no longer have to wear a mask anywhere? No. The CDC wants vaccinated people to wear masks in health-care settings and on planes, buses, trains and other public transportation. Also, everyone will have to abide b...

By Vikas Pandey - On Monday, a senior official from India's federal government told journalists that there was no shortage of oxygen in Delhi or anywhere else in the country. As he spoke, several small hospitals - only a few miles from where he stood in the capital - were sending out desperate messages about them running out of oxygen, putting patients' lives at risk. The chief doctor of one of the hospitals - a specialist paediatric facility - told the BBC that "our hearts were in our mouths" because of the risk of children dying. They got supplies just in time, after a local politician intervened. And yet, the federal government has repeatedly insisted that there was no shortage. "We are only facing problems in its transportation," Piyush Goyal, a senior official from India's ho...

CNBC- Pfizer’s experimental oral drug to treat COVID-19 at the first sign of illness could be available by the end of the year, CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC. The company, which developed the first authorized COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. with German drugmaker BioNTech, began in March an early stage clinical trial testing a new antiviral therapy for the disease. The drug is part of a class of medicines called protease inhibitors and works by inhibiting an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate in human cells. Protease inhibitors are used to treat other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C. If clinical trials go well and the Food and Drug Administration approves it, the drug could be distributed across the U.S. by the end of the year, Bourla told CNBC’s “Squawk...

by Michael Safi They will be remembered as India’s lost months: the stretch between September and February when Covid-19 cases in the country defied global trends, falling sharply throughout the coldest months of the year until they reached four-figure daily totals. It was inexplicable. Was it the Indian climate? A protection conferred by childhood immunisations? Some speculated India may have naturally reached herd immunity. It was a tantalising idea that took hold in India’s highest circles of policymaking, media and science – even a government-commissioned study suggested herd immunity may indeed have been achieved. It would prove one of the most fatal miscalculations of the Covid-19 pandemic so far. Now, with daily cases crossing 360,000, and recorded deaths beyond 3,200 per ...

By Sandee LaMotte Have you recently had the single-shot Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine? Get medical attention quickly if you suffer persistent, severe headaches, blurred vision, shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling, persistent abdominal pain or unusual bruising within three weeks of getting the J&J vaccine, the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control said Monday in a new posting on its website. Those could be signs of an extremely rare, severe blood clotting syndrome that may be linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The risk appears greatest for women under the age of 50, the CDC said. "This adverse event is rare, occurring at a rate of about 7 per 1 million vaccinated women between 18 and 49 years old," the CDC wrote. "For women 50 y...

Reuters- India ordered its armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections, as nations including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged urgent medical aid to try to contain an emergency overwhelming the country’s hospitals. The situation in the world’s second most populous country is “beyond heartbreaking”, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that WHO is sending extra staff and supplies including oxygen concentrator devices. In a meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be sent to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join COVID-19 health facilities. Where possible, military medical infrastructur...

By Heather Grey In December 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for two vaccines against COVID-19 — one produced by Pfizer and BioNTechTrusted Source, and one by ModernaTrusted Source. Now the FDA is reviewing another EUA request for a vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary company, Janssen Biotech. All these vaccines appear to have mostly mild side effects that over-the-counter pain relievers can treat. In rare cases, severe allergic reactions have been reported, but in all those cases, people were successfully treated. If the FDA finds that Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is safe and effective enough to distribute, that will drastically increase the stock of vaccine doses in the country. “We ...