Evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine booster effectiveness is essential as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge. Data support the effectiveness of booster doses in preventing severe disease and hospitalization; however, the association with reducing incident SARS-CoV-2 infections is not clear.1-3 We compared the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in players and staff of the […]
Read More
Omicron is mutating in giant leaps, with scientists racing to keep up. Its diversity is challenging vaccine efficacy and complicating treatment. But this fall, broad spectrum bivalent vaccines may help mitigate the seemingly never ending spread of COVID-19. In this Q&A, adapted from the June 6 episode of Public Health On Call, Stephanie […]
Read More
A new Omicron subvariant on the radar of the World Health Organization—one some experts say could be the most immune-evasive yet—has been identified in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Fortune on Thursday. There have been two cases of BA.2.75, dubbed “Centaurus,” detected in the U.S., with the […]
Read More
It only took about a month for BA.2.12.1, an Omicron subvariant, to cause most of the new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. since scientists first spotted it in the country. But even newer iterations of the Omicron variant are spreading rapidly through the U.S. and are poised to outcompete past versions […]
Read More
The B.1.1.529 (omicron) variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a shorter incubation period and a higher transmission rate than previous variants.1,2 Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended shortening the strict isolation period for infected persons in non–health care settings from 10 days to 5 […]
Read More
On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s independent experts on the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met to publicly discuss whether a change to the current vaccine strain composition of COVID-19 vaccines for booster doses is necessary for the 2022 fall and winter seasons. The COVID-19 vaccines […]
Read More
Abstract BACKGROUND Limited evidence is available on the real-world effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and specifically against infection with the omicron variant among children 5 to 11 years of age. METHODS Using data from the largest health care organization in Israel, we identified a cohort […]
Read More
Coronavirus reinfections will likely increase throughout the summer as two Omicron subvariants — BA.4 and BA.5 — become dominant in the U.S. The subvariants appear to be escaping immunity from vaccines and previous infections — even other Omicron infections — and have been causing hundreds of thousands of new COVID-19 […]
Read More
