Vaccination News

BOSTON — Two doses of an experimental live-attenuated intranasal COVID-19 vaccine generated a robust immune response in a phase 1 trial, researchers reported.

Pfizer’s maternal vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus could significantly decrease clinical visits among infants and save more than $800 million in overall costs, according to a study presented at IDWeek.

Maternal pertussis vaccination resulted in a 66% decrease in pertussis among infants through age 6 months and remained protective for up to 8 months, with no evidence it blunted response to further vaccination, an Australian study found.

Fewer old adults are hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus than COVID-19 or influenza, but those who are experience more serious outcomes than patients hospitalized with the other two illnesses, new CDC data show.

Moderna said Wednesday that its messenger RNA-based combination vaccine against influenza and COVID-19 elicited neutralizing antibody levels that were as high — or higher — than existing vaccines in a phase 1/2 trial.

The FDA on Tuesday authorized Novavax’s updated COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in adolescents and adults, giving the country a third vaccine option heading into the fall and winter respiratory diseases season.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó, PhD, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, for discoveries that were crucial in developing messenger RNA vaccines to combat the spread of COVID-19, according to a press release.

SARS-CoV-2 infection accounted for roughly one in six cases of sepsis at five Massachusetts hospitals during the first 33 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings from a large study of more than 430,000 patient encounters.

Despite experts warning of the dangers of influenza, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus and pneumococcal disease this fall and winter, survey data shows that many U.S. adults underestimate the seriousness of these infections.

The CDC last week recommended Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine for pregnant people to protect newborns from severe RSV illness.