The Vaccine Mom Explains Natural vs. Vaccine Immunity: Which Is Better?

Jun 26 2020

The Vaccine Mom, a molecular biologist and mother of two, discusses the difference between natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity and why vaccination is the much safer choice for you and your family.

Source: Shot of Prevention

This Coronavirus Doesn't Change Quickly, And That's Good News For Vaccine Makers

Jun 26 2020

Scientists are monitoring the virus that causes COVID-19 for genetic changes that could make a vaccine ineffective. But so far, they're not seeing any. "There's nothing alarming about the way the coronavirus is mutating or the speed at which it's mutating," says Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. "We don't think this will be a problem [for vaccines] in the short term."

Source: NPR

Vaccine makers face biggest medical manufacturing challenge in history

Jun 24 2020

From deploying experts amid global travel restrictions to managing extreme storage conditions, and even inventing new kinds of vials and syringes for billions of doses, the path is strewn with formidable hurdles, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen vaccine developers and their backers. Any hitch in an untested supply chain - which could stretch from Pune in India to England’s Oxford and Baltimore in the United States - could torpedo or delay the complex process.

Source: Reuters

CDC and drugmakers boost flu vaccine doses amid fears of an unprecedented respiratory illness season

Jun 24 2020

Worried about a simultaneous assault of the novel coronavirus and seasonal influenza this winter, public health officials and vaccine manufacturers are making millions of extra flu vaccine doses to protect those most vulnerable to the pandemic and influenza, according to government and company officials. Even though flu season doesn’t begin until the fall, major flu vaccine manufacturers say they plan to boost production by about 10 percent, to about 189 million doses, up from 170 million doses last year, to ensure enough doses exist for an anticipated surge in people seeking flu shots.

Source: Washington Post

Decades-Old Soviet Studies Hint at Coronavirus Strategy

Jun 24 2020

MOSCOW — To the boys, it was just a sugary treat. To their parents, prominent medical researchers, what happened in their Moscow apartment that day in 1959 was a vital experiment with countless lives at stake — and their own children as guinea pigs. “We formed a kind of line,” Dr. Peter Chumakov, who was 7 at the time, recalled in an interview. Into each waiting mouth, a parent popped a sugar cube laced with weakened poliovirus — an early vaccine against a dreaded disease. “I was eating it from the hands of my mother.”

Source: New York Times

Covid-19 vaccine research must involve Black and Latinx participants. Here are 4 ways to make that happen

Jun 24 2020

The development of a Covid-19 vaccine is progressing at an incredible pace, breaking down barriers to the invention, manufacture, and testing of potential vaccine candidates. The Department of Health and Human Services says it aims to have “substantial quantities of a safe and effective vaccine available for Americans by January 2021.” To achieve this goal, each of the five leading Covid-19 vaccine candidates will need to be tested in approximately 30,000 people — a total of 150,000 research participants in the next six months. This will be a massive and unprecedented undertaking.

Source: Stat News

How anti-vaxxers are set to endanger public health again

Jun 24 2020

We’re merely halfway into the year, and yet 2020 has challenged us with a global plague, months of lockdown, economic devastation, the most dire unemployment since the Great Depression, the horrific death of George Floyd and civil rights protests in our cities. With so much strife occurring simultaneously, it’s only natural that many Americans — socially isolated and financially insecure — are more prone to embrace far-reaching conspiracy theories, seeing malice around every corner and advocating extreme measures.

Source: Daily News

Death threats, shoves, and throwing blood: Anti-vaxxers’ bullying of public health officials endangers our country

Jun 24 2020

False claims. Racist and violent memes. Threats. Physical attacks. Public health advocates across the country face these and more from anti-vaccine extremists when they try to enact policies to halt outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses such as measles and whooping cough. These extremists have now turned their focus on efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus — which has killed more than 125,000 Americans — and are using the same playbook of harassment and intimidation tactics against public health leaders charged with protecting our states and localities from Covid-19.

Source: Stat News

Englewood bicyclist with HPV-linked cancer using bicycling to encourage others to be vaccinated

Jun 24 2020

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — An avid Englewood biker, Jay Middleton did not plan on spending his summer in the doctor’s office. “What I’ve gone through is no fun,” he said. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.” Middleton was diagnosed with neck and oral cancer over the winter. It was the second year in a row that he had noticed a lump in his neck while battling a sinus infection. Only this time, it didn’t go away.

Source: The Denver Channel

All You Wanted To Know About Coronavirus Vaccine Science But Were Afraid To Ask

Jun 24 2020

Approximately 200 COVID-19 vaccines are being actively developed. All vaccines have one main goal: to prepare a person's immune system to fight off an invading organism should the body encounter it. To accomplish that, a vaccine presents the immune system with something that looks like the invader and is essentially harmless, but nonetheless tricks the body into developing an immune response that would fight off the real virus if it appeared. It's a bit like showing someone a picture and saying, "If this person shows up at your door, don't let them in."

Source: NPR