Respiratory Infections News

As the COVID-19 situation in India continues to grow more dire, countries around the world are pledging help — including the United States, which has promised to send raw materials required to make coronavirus vaccines and other supplies.

The CDC and FDA on Friday lifted a recommended pause on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the United States after a panel of experts encouraged its use despite a small number of clotting events linked to the shot.

The risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in long-stay nursing home residents is related to the county and facility of residence, according to study results published in JAMA Network Open.

As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues worldwide, WHO marked World Immunization Week with the theme “vaccines bring us closer.”

On Friday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend resuming the use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in Americans aged 18 years and older.

In a recent Infectious Diseases Society of America press briefing, Amesh A. Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said most vaccine hesitancy is a result of misinformation.

Media reports have recently raised the issue of vaccine passports, which would allow people to prove their immunization status against COVID-19.

Data suggest that the messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna provide protection from infection for at least 6 months.

Few patients at one Chicago institution who originally tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 tested positive the second time around, according to recent data.

Researchers identified an unvaccinated, symptomatic health care worker as the index patient in a COVID-19 outbreak at a skilled nursing facility in Kentucky that totaled 46 cases, many of them among fully vaccinated residents and staff.