Even as the pandemic derailed some of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s biggest health care proposals, such as lowering prescription drug costs, it crystallized another: the pressing need to address California’s rapidly aging population. Already nine months into their work when Newsom issued the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order last March, members of a state task force […]
Chancellor Angela Merkel and German state governors were planning to talk Monday with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry on ways to beef up the country’s sluggish vaccination campaign. Monday’s videoconference, which also will involve the European Union’s Executive Commission, comes as finger-pointing in the bloc’s most populous country mounts over who is to blame for […]
More than 100 million COVID-19 cases have now been recorded worldwide, according to an AFP tally on Tuesday, as newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden pledged to ramp up the United States’s struggling vaccine program. The number of cases, compiled from data provided by national health agencies, represents just a fraction of the real infections as the […]
Pfizer now says it is developing booster shots amid fears its COVID-19 vaccine is less effective against the highly-infectious variants from Brazil and South Africa Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday his firm will develop booster shots ‘every time’ a variant makes its shot less effective Last week, lab tests suggested Pfizer’s current shot worked […]
As states await the promise of a renewed federal pandemic response and expand the number of Americans who qualify for a shot, some governors are trying to scale up their covid vaccine operations — and smooth out the kinks — with the help of the private sector. In Washington state, Starbucks, Microsoft and Costco are […]
On December 22nd, I watched along with the rest of the country as Dr. Anthony Fauci received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC. Years ago, I was an intern at the NIH, and as an Italian American in medicine, I have greatly admired Dr. Fauci’s intelligence, level-headedness and […]
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep much of the population in their homes for most of the day, it’s taking a toll on our collective mental health. In Baltimore, calls to the city’s crisis hotline have doubled during the pandemic and Sheppard Pratt Health System, one of the nation’s leading mental health care providers, […]
Coronavirus vaccines were supposed to be “the light at the end of the tunnel” for the ongoing global pandemic—a sign that, finally, the virus was going to be beaten back. That was the feeling when Pfizer received approval for its vaccine, with the pharmaceutical giant it would deploy nearly three million doses in states around […]
Up to now, a 14-day quarantine has been the conventional standard for stopping COVID-19 transmission in its tracks. In a new study from Yale School of Public Health that has been published in pre-print, researchers suggest a week-long waiting period could prove just as effective—if it is coupled with a negative RT-PCR test on exit […]
The head of British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca said on Thursday further research was needed on its COVID-19 vaccine after questions emerged over the protection it offers, but the additional testing is unlikely to affect regulatory approval in Europe. AstraZeneca and its partner, the University of Oxford, announced on Monday that it was seeking regulatory approval […]
