Category: AMERICA

Pentagon Tightening COVID-19 Restrictions After Secretary Austin Tests Positive

The Department of Defense (DOD) on Friday tightened its COVID-19 restrictions in the midst of a rise in cases nationwide and days after Secretary Lloyd Austin tested positive for the virus. Starting Jan. 10 at 5:00 a.m., the Pentagon will reduce its occupancy limit to 25 percent or fewer, while social distancing will stay at…


FDA Shortens Time for Moderna’s COVID-19 Booster Dose

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday revised the emergency use authorization for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine by shortening the period of time between receiving the initial two-dose vaccination and the booster shot by one month. For those aged 18 and older, the FDA now recommends that people receive the booster dose five months, instead…


Johnson & Johnson Says Single Vaccine Dose Protects Against ‘Breakthrough’ COVID-19 for 6 Months

Johnson & Johnson said its single-dose vaccine protects against breakthrough COVID-19 for up to six months. Citing a study that it sponsored, Johnson & Johnson said in a release Thursday that protection against infection from its single-dose vaccine starts to wane only from the fourth month compared to the second month in the case of two-dose vaccines…


Moderna CEO Claims People May Need 4th COVID-19 Shot in the Fall

Moderna’s Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel said on Thursday that people may need a fourth COVID-19 shot in the fall of 2022 due to the efficacy of third shots likely declining in the next several months. “I still believe we’re going to need boosters in the fall of ’22 and forward,” Bancel said at a…


Focus on the Family Imposes COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate, Leaving Staff and Donors Dismayed

A large Christian organization told employees this week that they must soon reveal whether they’ve gotten a COVID-19 vaccine, upsetting some staff members and donors. Focus on the Family’s President Jim Daly emailed staff members on Jan. 3 to say the company must request and receive each worker’s vaccination status by Jan. 9. Daly cited…


All Vaccinated People With Severe COVID-19 Had at Least 1 Risk Factor: CDC Study

Further research published by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Jan. 7 reiterated that the COVID-19 vaccines protect recipients, while serious outcomes associated with the shots were seen in individuals who had risk factors. Every vaccinated individual who suffered serious outcomes as part of a study of more than 1.2 million people had at…


Vaccinated People Who Had Severe COVID-19 Outcomes Had at Least One Risk Factor, Study Suggests

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a study on Jan. 7 which found that every one of the 189 vaccinated people who experienced a severe outcome after contracting COVID-19 had at least one risk factor, like being 65 or older. Scientists affiliated with the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute…


Supplies Still Limited More Than a Year After Monoclonal Antibodies Authorized for Treating COVID-19

Despite being the only authorized outpatient medical therapy for preventing the worsening of COVID-19 symptoms in high-risk patients, there remains no steady supply of monoclonal antibodies from the federal government a year after its approval for use by medical regulators. Rolled out in the same month as the COVID-19 vaccines, monoclonal antibody therapies have not…


Judge Gives FDA Just Over 8 Months to Produce Pfizer’s Safety Data

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. Food and Drug administration to produce the documents it’s relied on to license the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, at a rate of 55,000 pages a month. The rate of 55,000 pages a month would mean the FDA has just over eight months to fully produce all of Pfizer’s pre-licensure safety…


NY Hospitals Asked to Make Clear Whether ‘COVID Patients’ Are Actually Hospitalized Because of COVID

Some 700 years ago, human civilization was facing a pandemic: The Black Death (or the Plague) killed somewhere between 75 million and 200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa. But there was a secondary disaster to the plague that also had a massive death toll, and that modern society would do well to take…