Vaccination and Immunization
David Kessler, Leader of Biden’s Covid Vaccine Effort, Is Stepping Down
WASHINGTON — Dr. David A. Kessler, who for the past two years has been the behind-the-scenes force driving a vast federal effort to develop and distribute coronavirus vaccines and treatments, is leaving the Biden administration — another sign that the pandemic is no longer front and center for the White House. As chief science officer […]
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No Increased Stroke Risk Linked to Pfizer’s Covid Boosters, Federal Officials Say
Fears that the Covid booster shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech may increase the risk of strokes in people aged 65 and older were not borne out by an intensive scientific investigation, federal officials said on Friday. “It is very unlikely” that the risk is real, the officials said. They urged Americans 6 months and older to […]
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F.D.A. Authorizes Updated Covid Shots for Children as Young as 6 Months
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded eligibility for the updated coronavirus shots to children as young as 6 months old, the latest step to make the retooled doses available to more Americans. The federal government rolled out the updated boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in September, though the public has shown […]
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‘Very Harmful’ Lack of Data Blunts U.S. Response to Outbreaks
ANCHORAGE — After a middle-aged woman tested positive for Covid-19 in January at her workplace in Fairbanks, public health workers sought answers to questions vital to understanding how the virus was spreading in Alaska’s rugged interior. The woman, they learned, had underlying conditions and had not been vaccinated. She had been hospitalized but had recovered. […]
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There’s Terrific News About the New Covid Boosters, but Few Are Hearing It
Many European countries and Canada, for example, did a better job of making sure more of their population got boosters. Their cumulative death and illness tolls from the Omicron wave are sharply lower than those of the United States, where only about a third of eligible adults had gotten boosters, compared with two-thirds of adults […]
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The Abysmal Covid Vaccination Rate for Toddlers Speaks Volumes
You would think that vaccination sites would have been swamped with parents rushing to vaccinate their young children against Covid after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccines for the under-5 age group in June. But as of early August, around 5 percent of eligible children under 5 had received the first dose of […]
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U.S. Moves to Stretch Out Monkeypox Vaccine Supply
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has decided to stretch out its limited supply of monkeypox vaccine by allowing a different method of injection that uses one-fifth as much per shot, according to people familiar with the discussions. In order for the Food and Drug Administration to authorize so-called intradermal injection, which would involve injecting one-fifth […]
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Officials Wrestle With Whether to Allow New Monkeypox Vaccination Strategy
WASHINGTON — It sounded like a simple solution to the shortage of monkeypox vaccine: Merely by changing the way doses are injected, the federal government could vaccinate five times as many people with the supply it has in hand. But the approach — injecting one-fifth of the current dose into the skin instead of a […]
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Why Monkeypox Vaccine Shortage May Threaten the Immunocompromised
The shortfall of monkeypox vaccine doses in the United States, expected to last for months, is raising urgent questions about how well and for how long a single shot may protect against the virus. The vaccine, called Jynneos, is approved as a two-dose regimen, but most people at risk of infection have been receiving one […]
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