Flu season is upon us, we are hearing of flu outbreaks around the country and that the virus is somewhat more virulent this year! The CDC recommends that adults over the age of 18 receive a COVID-19 booster ALONG WITH their annual flu vaccine. Makes sense, right? A one-stop-shop, a poke in each arm and you are armed to fight …
Flu and You
Ugh, the flu season, its back, and predicted to be a more difficult year due to last year being relatively mild. If you have never had the flu, trust me, you don’t want to experience it. The body aches, fever, chills, sore throat, cough, difficulty breathing, oh and don’t forget the possible GI symptoms some people experience! Sounds great, doesn’t …
ACIP Altered Immunocompetence Guidelines for Immunizations
This section incorporates general content from the Infectious Diseases Society of America policy statement, 2013 IDSA Clinical Practice Guideline for Vaccination of the Immunocompromised Host (1), to which CDC provided input in November 2011. The evidence supporting this guidance is based on expert opinion and arrived at by consensus. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-recs/immunocompetence.html
CDC: Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines in Preventing Hospitalization Among Adults Aged ≥65 Years
Clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized for emergency use in the United States (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Janssen [Johnson & Johnson]) have shown high efficacy in preventing symptomatic (including moderate to severe) COVID-19. Read more on the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e3.htm
Influenza Vaccine – Risk of COVID-19
Early evidence suggests that COVID-19 patients with positive influenza A immunoglobulin M (IgM) had a lower risk of mortality and severe COVID-19 illness compared with those who showed a negative IgM status. It has also been reported that influenza vaccination is negatively associated with COVID-19 mortality in older adults; in Brazil, a patient registry showed that patients who recently received …
Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines
Effective vaccines against COVID-19 are urgently needed to control the global pandemic. More than 280 candidate vaccines are in development worldwide, 23 of which are already in phase 3 trials using different platforms. In this phase 3 randomized trial in adults, 2 whole-virus inactivated vaccines showed efficacy of 72.8% and 78.1% against symptomatic COVID-19 cases. The 2 vaccines had rare …
The Fat Lady Sings
In an article published in Forbes magazine, three companies are currently leading the way to develop a vaccine that will be effective against all variants of COVID-19. The goal of this research is to possibly prevent a future pandemic from variants of the COVID-19 virus. The current providers of COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna and J&J) are focusing their attention on …
COVID-19 Vaccine – Nasal?
There is a ton of research going on today regarding not only the current process for vaccines to be administered via muscular injection, but new ideas too and to date, the information is promising! Think about having a COVID-19 vaccine in a nasal application versus injected. That is what the scientists are studying today. The science behind it is pretty …