#covid vaccination news

[toshootforthestars]

(source)

[reasonsforhope]

Article | Paywall Free

"The Food and Drug Administration approved new mRNA coronavirus vaccines Thursday [August 22, 2024], clearing the way for shots manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to start hitting pharmacy shelves and doctor’s offices within a week.

Health officials encourage annual vaccination against the coronavirus, similar to yearly flu shots. Everyone 6 months and older should receive a new vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.

The FDA has yet to approve an updated vaccine from Novavax, which uses a more conventional vaccine development method but has faced financial challenges.

Our scientific understanding of coronavirus vaccines has evolved since they debuted in late 2020. Here’s what to know about the new vaccines.

Why are there new vaccines?

The coronavirus keeps evolving to overcome our immune defenses, and the shield offered by vaccines weakens over time. That’s why federal health officials want people to get an annual updated coronavirus vaccine designed to target the latest variants. They approve them for release in late summer or early fall to coincide with flu shots that Americans are already used to getting.

The underlying vaccine technology and manufacturing process are the same, but components change to account for how the virus morphs. The new vaccines target the KP.2 variant because most recent covid cases are caused by that strain or closely related ones...

Do the vaccines prevent infection?

You probably know by now that vaccinated people can still get covid. But the shots do offer some protection against infection, just not the kind of protection you get from highly effective vaccines for other diseases such as measles.

The 2023-2024 vaccine provided 54 percent increased protection against symptomatic covid infections, according to a CDC study of people who tested for the coronavirus at pharmacies during the first four months after that year’s shot was released...

A nasal vaccine could be better at stopping infections outright by increasing immunity where they take hold, and one is being studied in a trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

If you really want to dodge covid, don’t rely on the vaccine alone and take other precautions such as masking or avoiding crowds...

Do the vaccines help prevent transmission?

You may remember from early coverage of coronavirus vaccines that it was unclear whether shots would reduce transmission. Now, scientists say the answer is yes — even if you’re actively shedding virus.

That’s because the vaccine creates antibodies that reduce the amount of virus entering your cells, limiting how much the virus can replicate and make you even sicker. When vaccination prevents symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, people expel fewer respiratory droplets carrying the virus. When it reduces the viral load in an infected person, people become less contagious.

That’s why Peter Hotez, a physician and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, said he feels more comfortable in a crowded medical conference, where attendees are probably up to date on their vaccines, than in a crowded airport.

“By having so many vaccinated people, it’s decreasing the number of days you are shedding virus if you get a breakthrough infection, and it decreases the amount of virus you are shedding,” Hotez said.

Do vaccines prevent long covid?

While the threat of acute serious respiratory covid disease has faded, developing the lingering symptoms of “long covid” remains a concern for people who have had even mild cases. The CDC says vaccination is the “best available tool” to reduce the risk of long covid in children and adults. The exact mechanism is unclear, but experts theorize that vaccines help by reducing the severity of illness, which is a major risk factor for long covid.

When is the best time to get a new coronavirus vaccine?

It depends on your circumstances, including risk factors for severe disease, when you were last infected or vaccinated, and plans for the months ahead. It’s best to talk these issues through with a doctor.

If you are at high risk and have not recently been vaccinated or infected, you may want to get a shot as soon as possible while cases remain high. The summer wave has shown signs of peaking, but cases can still be elevated and take weeks to return to low levels. It’s hard to predict when a winter wave will begin....

Where do I find vaccines?

CVS said its expects to start administering them within days, and Walgreens said that it would start scheduling appointments to receive shots after Sept. 6 and that customers can walk in before then.

Availability at doctor’s offices might take longer. Finding shots for infants and toddlers could be more difficult because many pharmacies do not administer them and not every pediatrician’s office will stock them given low demand and limited storage space.

This year’s updated coronavirus vaccines are supposed to have a longer shelf life, which eases the financial pressures of stocking them.

The CDC plans to relaunch its vaccine locator when the new vaccines are widely available, and similar services are offered by Moderna and Pfizer."

-via The Washington Post, August 22, 2024

[markfaustus]

[perfectlyasymmetrical]

The Pentagon ran an anti-vax psyop in the Philippines at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China (usatoday.com)

Please read this article. It makes me sick.

TLDR: The US is directly responsible for the over 60,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the Philippines since the summer of 2020. The pentagon made at least 300 fake social media accounts on twitter targeted at making Filipinos believe that the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine was dangerous. The Sinovac vaccine came out before any US-made vaccine and was widely available in the region before the smear campaign started. They used lies that the vaccine contained pork gelatin (which is considered haram to Muslims—Islam is the second largest religion in the Philippines). Their aim was to harm China's reputation and to sell more American-made vaccines in the developing world for high prices.

[halorvic]

[impishtubist]

So I know that James and Sirius's friendship is fundamental to Sirius's character, but bear with me: a universe where James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus never met. Maybe Remus was homeschooled, maybe Sirius went to another school, whatever. James and Lily still die, and Harry gets shipped off to the Dursleys with no godfather.

Years later, when he starts Hogwarts, he likes all his teachers, but he REALLY likes his DADA professor, Professor Black. Professor Black met his husband Remus after the war and they live in a cute little cottage in Hogsmeade, where Remus tends to their menagerie of frankly terrifying magical plants and creatures, and Professor Black teaches.

And Sirius is drawn to this scrawny, too-thin kid who very obviously does not have a good home life. He starts being friendly with Harry, inviting him to his office for tea, helping him with his assignments, probing a bit into his home life, but not too much, because he doesn't want Harry to shut down. Harry stays at Hogwarts over the holiday breaks, so Sirius stays too. He's really suspicious of the Dursleys, and keeps badgering McGonagall to let him take Harry for a break - maybe Easter, or a week in the summer. Harry gets to know his professor and Mr. Lupin really well, and always looks forward to seeing them/staying with them. Eventually, Remus clandestinely manages to gather enough evidence that the Dursleys are mistreating Harry, and Sirius makes a move for custody.

Basically, I love Sirius and Harry finding each other in every universe, even if Sirius doesn't know James or Lily 🥺

[queerism1969]

[relaxedstyles]

You know they're scared of the RFK nomination.

[milkweedman]

It is interesting how much math comes into even the most basic of like. Making things. Making almost anything. And often not numbers necessarily but proportions and geometry. I think all the time about how castles were built with geometry at the heart of it. And I use the same kind of proportional math to make socks fit. And none of my pieces are ever knit with a prime number of stitches--because you use factors to make neat colorwork and ribbing and different stitches. Idk ! I remember constantly thinking 'how the hell is THIS gonna come in useful ?' But it always does. Math is at the heart of everything, and knowing how to apply it is a tool of critical importance to Thinking Up A Shape And Making It.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

As the Alberta government comes under fire for failing to ship publicly funded vaccines to community medical clinics for the start of the fall immunization campaign, the health minister insists she's looking into the delay and working on a backup plan.  As CBC News reported last week, shipments of publicly funded vaccines to doctors' clinics and nurse practitioners' offices were halted in April when a distribution contract expired.  With no replacement distributor found, those health-care providers were warned they would not receive COVID-19 or flu vaccines for the Oct. 15 start of the autumn immunization program. A key step in the procurement process — a request for an expression of interest for vaccine distribution to these clinics — was posted Aug. 21, 2024, roughly four months after the distribution contract expired.

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @abpoli

[ben-lyintous]

so after a week of feeling like shit and experiencing some of the worst headaches i've ever had i just figured out i have completely lost my sense of smell too. do yourself a favor and go get your covid shot and your flu shot for the season if you can

[markfaustus]

[3-aem]

my annual battle with covid and flu vaxx combo leaving me wondering if immunity is worth it like at a certain point it feels like u just made me excruciatingly sick for a whole day rather than spread out over the course of a week or two

[pandemic-info]

FDA Authorizes Updated Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants | FDA

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-updated-novavax-covid-19-vaccine-better-protect-against-currently-circulating

For Immediate Release: August 30, 2024 Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for an updated version of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine that more closely targets currently circulating variants to provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death. The updated vaccine is authorized for use in individuals 12 years of age and older. It includes a monovalent (single) component that corresponds to the Omicron variant JN.1 strain of SARS-CoV-2.

[post-grammatic-stress]

Jan 2024 is going to be a very bad month for Covid infections - you haven't been taking precautions, you should start.

If you're thinking, "I've had covid and it was no big deal", please know your odds of having it turn into long covid go up every time you're infected.

I had no risk factors and was a marathon runner when I got Covid in July 2022. I'm disabled now. Still. I've spent thousands on medical treatments of varying efficacy, and I may never be the same person again.

Don't think it can't or won't happen to you. There's no reason it won't.

[long-anti-covid]

article date: July 26, 2024

"Historically, when we're talking about COVID vaccines, we're talking about boosters that would happen at some time post your previous vaccine," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor. "Now we're targeting annual vaccines for COVID-19 that is similar to flu. It's a reformulation based on what's circulating, and this is why we're talking about an annual campaign rather than a booster," he continued.