SARS-Cov-2

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients responded well to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a single-center study, with 83% having an antibody response after two doses, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open.

Inhaled budesonide twice daily administered early in the course of COVID-19 reduced the need for urgent medical care, according to results of the STOIC trial presented at the virtual European Respiratory Society International Congress.

A second dose of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine given 2 months after the initial shot boosted protection to 94% among people enrolled in a phase 3 trial in the United States, the company said Tuesday.

Beginning in November, the Biden administration will loosen travel restrictions for people arriving from other countries who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a White House advisor told reporters Monday.

The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, voted 16-2 on Friday afternoon not to recommend a booster dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine to Americans aged 16 years and older.

Vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 hospitalization among U.S. adults without immunocompromising conditions was highest for the Moderna vaccine compared with the other two available COVID-19 vaccines, researchers reported in MMWR.

The NIH has allocated nearly $470 million to fund large-scale national studies of long COVID that it said could involve tens of thousands of patients.

President Joe Biden announced a six-pronged plan last week to combat a national rise in COVID-19 cases brought on by the delta variant.

COVID-19 mortality was not increased in patients on immunosuppressive biologics, according to a study.

The United States still plans to offer COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to the general public beginning Sept. 20, pending FDA approval and CDC recommendations.