Health

Fully vaccinated people were 11 times less likely to die of COVID-19 and 10 times less likely to be hospitalized since highly contagious Delta became the most common variant, US health authorities said Friday. The data came from one of three new papers published by the Centers for Disease Control …

Booster shots to extend the protection of COVID-19 vaccines may be unnecessary for many people, a leading scientist behind the AstraZeneca vaccine said on Friday. Oxford University Professor Sarah Gilbert told The Telegraph newspaper that immunity from the vaccine was holding up well — even against the delta variant. While …

The vaccine-sharing facility Covax said Wednesday it should be able to provide COVID jabs to no more than 20 percent of people in poorer countries this year, far fewer than anticipated. Covax acknowledged that it now expects to access just 1.425 billion vaccine doses this year – far short of …

The head of the World Health Organization is calling on rich countries with large supplies of coronavirus vaccines to refrain from offering booster shots through the end of the year, expanding a call that has largely fallen on deaf ears. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said on Wednesday he …

Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal that the US government-funded studies into coronavirus in bats in Wuhan long before the pandemic, with the proposal showing it was aware of the risk that researchers would be infected. More than 900 pages of material related to this research were published on the …

Washington and Beijing remain locked in a high-stakes battle to convince the world that the other was responsible for causing the global coronavirus pandemic, a calamity that has caused more than 4.5 million deaths, devastated economies around the planet, and led to severe restrictions in personal freedoms in some countries. …

By end of 2021, rich countries will have 1.2 billion doses of vaccine shots not earmarked for donations. Wealthy countries could potentially have a surplus of more than one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses available by the end of the year that is not designated as donations to poorer nations, according …

A 12-year-old boy has died in Kerala, India after being hospitalized for exhibiting symptoms of the Nipah virus, online news media The Indian Express reported on Sunday. He was first admitted to the hospital on Wednesday and his test samples were sent to the Pune National Institute of Virology. It …

New blood donor research suggests that more than 80 percent of American adults now have COVID-19 antibodies due to vaccinations or infections. Published in the open-access medical journal JAMA on Thursday, the study estimated that more than 80 percent of Americans above 16 years of age had COVID-19 antibodies as …

At least 400 people have been hospitalized with viral fever in an Indian city as a mystery illness that has killed more than 60 people in the space of a week continues to spread through the state of Uttar Pradesh. According to a report from the Daily News and Analysis …

Germany’s health minister has warned that Covid-19 is becoming the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as 90% of the country’s intensive care patients are those who refused a potentially life-saving shot. Speaking on Friday, Health Minister Jens Spahn said people who have not been vaccinated against the virus have a responsibility …

The European Commission and AstraZeneca said on Friday they had reached a settlement on delivering remaining COVID-19 vaccine doses by the British drugmaker and also ended pending litigation in Brussels. The settlement clears a major overhang for AstraZeneca, whose cheap and easily transportable vaccine has faced several setbacks, including the …

A new study of breakthrough Covid-19 infections finds that vaccines not only reduce the risk of severe disease and hospitalization, but can lower the odds of having long-term Covid-19 symptoms too. “We found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved …

An arrangement whereby Johnson & Johnson was shipping COVID-19 vaccine doses to Europe that had been packaged in South Africa has been suspended, African Union (AU) envoy Strive Masiyiwa said on Thursday. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last month he was “stunned” by the arrangement, since Europe has very …

The World Health Organisation recommends against using spare doses of COVID-19 vaccine to give booster shots to countries’ fully-vaccinated populations since the priority is to ensure the global population is vaccinated, the agency’s head said. Speaking in Berlin at the opening of a new epidemic intelligence hub, Director-General Tedros Adhanom …

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”. “Mu”, known scientifically as B.1.621, was classified by WHO as a “variant of interest” on Monday. “The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” WHO …

A potential shortage of medical-grade oxygen could hit parts of the US as COVID-19 cases continue to rise, according to local media reports citing US state health officials. A spike in COVID-19 cases, especially in Southern US states, has led to more demand for oxygen supply. Hospitals in the southern …

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday 70 percent of adults in the European Union were now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, reaching an end-of-summer target the bloc set for itself in January. “Today we reached an important milestone in our vaccination campaign. Seventy percent of adults in the …

Moderna Inc.‘s COVID-19 vaccine generated more than double the antibodies of a similar shot made by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE in research directly comparing immune responses to the inoculations. A study of almost 2,500 workers at a major Belgium hospital system found antibody levels among individuals who hadn’t been …

A US woman has won a court order for a hospital in Ohio to treat her husband, who is on a ventilator with COVID-19, with the antiparasitic medicine ivermectin, as demand surges for the unproven coronavirus treatment. The case is one of several nationwide where courts have sided with litigants …