Pfizer COVID vaccine

Most US parents of children under 5 are hesitant on COVID-19 vaccines for the age group, a new poll found. Some said there's not enough information on ...

Hospitalizations trended upwards by 18.5% as of April 26 compared to the week before. Currently, a third dose of Pfizer is authorized for immunocompromised children in that age group. Of those interviewed, 181 were parents of a child under 5. The Pfizer vaccine is approved for those 5 and older. Meanwhile, the Moderna shot is authorized for individuals 18 years old and older. This article has Unlimited Access. For more coverage, sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter.

Use of the J&J shot has been weak in high-income countries, hurt by reports of rare, potentially deadly blood clots.

The FDA on Thursday said the risk of TTS warranted limiting the use of the single-dose shot after it conducted investigation of reported cases. The U.S. health regulator said on Thursday it was limiting the use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine for adults due to the risk of a rare blood clotting syndrome, the latest setback to the shot that has been eclipsed by rivals. The vaccine maker said it has updated the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine fact sheet to warn about the risk of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), a rare but potentially life-threatening condition.

First analyses of two Chinese-made vaccines in young children show that the shots do provide 60–65% effectiveness against hospitalization.

Study co-author Rafael Araos, a physician and epidemiologist at the University for Development in Santiago, says that children have a very low risk of ending up in hospital when infected, making it difficult to observe an effect of the vaccines. A study 2 from Argentina, posted on 19 April, observed similar results with Sinopharm’s vaccine in a cohort of 1.5 million children, which included a subset aged 3–11 who had received the vaccine. The results are the first for the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in this age group. But others note that severe disease and death due to COVID-19 are rare in kids, and the vaccines do not offer impressive protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection or mild disease. The findings prompt some scientists to say that the two vaccines should be used to protect children, especially because inactivated-virus technology has a long safety record in common vaccines given to infants for polio and influenza. Three new studies offer a first look at how well some of the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines protect young children from the coronavirus 1– 3.

FRIDAY, May 6, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity can complicate the course of COVID-19. Now, a new study says it can also reduce the effectiveness of COVID ...

Among those who'd previously been infected and received either Pfizer/BioNTech or CoronaVac, antibody levels were similar in both severely obese and normal weight people, according to the study. In addition, their infection history was checked, and 70 were found to have previously been infected with COVID-19. They found, too, that prior infection had an impact.

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has ...

"The high level of antibodies formed after the COVID-19 vaccination is often interpreted as the effectiveness of a vaccine. "Especially as immunity wanes, unvaccinated individuals post-Omicron infection are likely to have poor cross-protection against existing and possibly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants," they said. In unvaccinated people, an Omicron infection provides only "limited" protection against reinfection, they reported on Friday in Nature. In 39 patients who had Omicron infections - including 15 who had been immunized with vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) - the researchers measured the ability of immune cells to neutralize not only Omicron but also earlier variants. The gap in immunity between unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals "is concerning," the researchers said. Among those in the study without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection who had received the Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech vaccine, patients with severe obesity had antibody levels more than three times lower than normal-weight individuals. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Severe obesity may weaken the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in those who have never been infected with the coronavirus, according to a small Turkish ...

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After review of rare cases of blood clots, the FDA limits the parameters for who can get Johnson & Johnson's one-dose shot to adults who cannot get either ...

While some 18.7 million doses of J&J’s vaccine have been administered to U.S. adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 31 million doses have been delivered to vaccine sites, suggesting a surplus of unused shots. The agency decided to limit the authorized use of J&J’s shot after conducting an investigation and analysis of reported cases of blood clots in combination with low levels of blood platelets, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS, that occurred one to two weeks following administration of the shot. Uptake of the J&J vaccine has paled in comparison to those made by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., which require two doses for a full regimen. U.S. authorities for months have recommended that Americans get Pfizer or Moderna shots instead of J&J’s vaccine. The decision comes after the agency completed an updated risk analysis of developing thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS, a rare and possibly fatal combination of blood clots and low platelet counts one to two weeks after receiving the vaccine, the agency said Thursday. (Foley and Gardner, 5/5) The vaccine is made by J&J’s vaccines division, Janssen. (Branswell, 5/5)

The FDA recommends the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines over Johnson & Johnson's due to a life-threatening side effect. Learn more about this condition.

The vast majority of vaccinated Americans have been inoculated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which studies show are more effective against COVID-19 and have not been linked to TTS. But only 18.7 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S., compared with 340.9 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 217.7 million of Moderna, CDC data shows. More analysis led the FDA to restrict who is eligible to receive the J&J vaccine. The J&J vaccine was authorized in February 2021. About 3.23 cases of TTS have been reported per 1 million J&J doses; some have been fatal. Health officials have since been monitoring and investigating all cases of TTS, which develops when blood clots form and an individual also has low levels of blood platelets.

The FDA is limiting who can receive the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine because of concerns about the risk of a rare blood clotting condition.

The FDA said the decision was made after more information was shared about the occurrence of a rare blood clotting condition, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), 1 or 2 weeks after people received the J&J vaccine. But the “known and potential benefits of the vaccine” outweigh the risks for those people now allowed to receive it, the FDA said. People 18 and older can also get the J&J vaccine if they choose to because they wouldn’t otherwise receive any vaccine, the FDA said.

The Food and Drug Administration has determined that the risk of a rare, but serious, clotting syndrome tied to Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine ...

The presence of other options appeared to play a large role in the FDA's decision to further limit J&J's use. There are other options in the U.S., however, and even before the latest announcement, relatively few people were receiving J&J's shot. The condition, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS, was first identified in people who’d received a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford that uses similar technology. CDC advisers first decided that updated labeling would be sufficient to alert doctors and the public. Even before the vaccine was launched in the U.S., regulators were already keeping an eye on a rare syndrome characterized by an unusual combination of blood clots and low platelet counts. - That investigation has uncovered 60 known cases of the side effect, nine of which were fatal.