Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

Why pregnant women need clearer messaging on Covid vaccine safety

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Analysis: early uncertainty around vaccination advice for expectant mothers has left them confused and hesitant

In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, there was uncertainty around almost everything, from who was more adversely affected by Covid-19 to who should get vaccinated first – or at all.

But as awareness about the illness and vaccine safety has grown, one group in particular remains confused and torn about the risk of immunisation: expectant mothers.

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Covid live: UK records 40,954 new cases; Belgium brings back restrictions weeks after ending curbs

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UK also reports 263 further deaths; Belgium reinstates curbs after 75% jump in daily cases in a week

Headteachers have described the “sinister” intimidation tactics being used by protesters against the vaccination against Covid of teenagers in schools.

“It started with a few emails from a group calling itself Lawyers for Freedom,” the Guardian was told by the headteacher of one of a number of Liverpool schools that have come under pressure from anti-vaccine activists. “An email is relatively easy to ignore.”

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Australian business groups lament ‘nightmare’ of states’ differing Covid vaccine mandates

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As states reopen, a national, uniform approach would ‘make everything we do in life easier’, employers say

Business groups are pushing for a uniform approach to Covid-19 vaccination mandates as states and territories forge ahead with their reopening roadmaps.

Council of Small Business Organisation Australia (COSBOA) CEO, Alexi Boyd, said a national standardised approach to vaccination mandates would offer the “clarity and certainty” small businesses had been lacking.

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Why people believe Covid conspiracy theories: could folklore hold the answer?

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Researchers use AI – and witchcraft folklore – to map the coronavirus conspiracy theories that have sprung up

Researchers have mapped the web of connections underpinning coronavirus conspiracy theories, opening a new way of understanding and challenging them.

Using Danish witchcraft folklore as a model, the researchers from UCLA and Berkeley analysed thousands of social media posts with an artificial intelligence tool and extracted the key people, things and relationships.

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Experts frustrated as German footballer says he has not had Covid jab

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Immunologists say Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich is mistaken and vaccine misunderstandings persist

German immunologists have warned that fundamental misunderstandings about the way vaccines work persist among the population, after the Bayern Munich and Germany footballer Joshua Kimmich confirmed over the weekend that he had declined to receive a Covid jab due to concerns over long-term side-effects.

“I have concerns about the lack of long-term studies,” the 26-year-old told Sky Sport. “I am of course aware of my responsibility. I follow all hygiene measures and get tested every two to three days. Everyone should make the decision for themselves.”

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Coronavirus live: European Medical Agency approves Moderna booster; UK records 36,567 new cases

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The EU’s medical body has approved booster doses of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for all adults; UK also reports 38 further Covid-related deaths

Just back on those school anti-vaccine protests for a moment, my colleague Sarah Marsh has this report: Keir Starmer calls for schools to be protected from anti-vaccine protests

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) revealed this month that most of the schools surveyed by the union (79%) had been targeted by anti-vaxxers. This had mainly been through emails threatening legal action, but the ASCL said in some cases staff had been threatened with physical harm and some protesters have gained access to school sites.

Starmer said: “It is sickening that anti-vax protesters are spreading dangerous misinformation to children in protests outside of schools. The uptake of vaccines among children is far too low and the government’s rollout is painfully slow. Everything must be done to get those eligible jabbed as quickly as possible in this public health emergency.

“Labour believes the law around public spaces protection orders (PSPOs) urgently needs to be updated so that local authorities can rapidly create exclusion zones for anti-vax protests outside of schools.”

PSPOs can be used to disperse people from a public area and have previously been used to move on protesters outside abortion clinics or to allow police to confiscate alcohol in certain spaces.

But gaining permission to impose one takes significant consultation, and Labour is calling for an expedited process in cases of preventing harassment and intimidation of children outside schools if agreed to by the school, the leader of the local council, and the local police chief constable.

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Fauci predicts Covid shots for kids five to 11 will be available by early November

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Government’s chief medical adviser makes prediction after FDA review panel finds that benefits for group outweighs risks

Vaccines to protect children ages five to 11 from Covid-19 will be available in the US in early to mid-November, Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s chief medical adviser, predicted on Sunday.

A review panel of the US food and drug administration (FDA) found last week that the benefits of Pfizer-BioNTech shots for the younger age group outweighed the risks, setting up an advisory meeting on Tuesday of outside FDA experts who are expected to recommend emergency use authorization.

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UK falling behind most G7 countries in sharing Covid vaccines, figures show

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Campaigners call for action after analysis finds only third of jabs pledged to poorer countries this year have so far been delivered

The UK is lagging behind other G7 countries in sharing surplus Covid vaccines with poorer countries, according to newly published figures.

The advocacy organisation One, which is campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030, described it as shaming for the UK government.

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Which protects you more against Covid – vaccination or prior infection? | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

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For the Delta variant at least, the latest analysis suggests they are roughly equivalent

In the United States, the issue of whether “natural immunity” from prior infection is as good as vaccination is becoming politicised.

Fortunately, the Office for National Statistics has released results from a sophisticated analysis of its Covid-19 infection survey that address this issue. Helped by test-and-trace data, it identified respondents’ “infection episodes” and used other data to infer whether participants were previously vaccinated, had a previous infection or neither.

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Australia Covid live updates: Victoria to have freedom of movement from Friday as state records 1,935 cases; 296 cases in NSW

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Victoria may reach jab milestone allowing greater freedoms this week, while figures show worrying number of school closures from outbreaks

The full rundown on Covid in NSW today, brought to you by AAP:

NSW has added a further 296 locally acquired infections to its Covid caseload along with four more deaths.

Some 480 people with the virus remain in hospitals across the state, 119 of them in intensive care.

Meanwhile, Halloween enthusiasts are being warned to keep trick-or-treating Covid-safe.

“If you and your family are planning to celebrate Halloween this year ... aim to keep the celebrations outside, provide closed packaging for treats and instead of communal lolly bowls consider other ways to distribute your treats,” NSW Health’s Jeremy McAnulty advised on Saturday.

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‘Nervous giddy excitement’: relieved Melbourne residents enjoy weekend out of lockdown

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The world’s lockdown capital emerges for its first Friday night of freedom, but not everyone joined the party

From St Kilda to Coburg the traffic is heavy in Melbourne for the first time in months. The bars are filling up and friends are having long hugs as the world’s lockdown capital sheds its Covid restrictions and opens up.

“Melbourne is back!” yells one man out of his car window on Lygon Street in the inner-city suburb of Carlton.

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‘I need to work’: Italy’s green pass rule triggers rise in Covid jab uptake

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Rule that pass must be presented to access workplaces forces hand of many vaccine-hesitant Italians

At the vaccination hub outside Termini train station in Rome, a steady flow of people have been turning up for their first Covid vaccine dose in recent days. The mood is begrudging. “If I didn’t have to do it, I wouldn’t,” said Rosanna Barbuto, a supermarket worker. Catalin, 41, who works in a factory, said: “I’m taking it because I need to work.”

They are among the vaccine-hesitant who caved in after Italy made it mandatory for all workers to present a so-called green pass to access their workplaces. The rules are the strictest in Europe and require workers to present proof of vaccination, immunity or of a negative test taken within the previous 48 hours. Some see Italy’s cautious approach as the key to its current low infection rate.

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FDA backs Moderna and J&J boosters as it OKs mixing Covid vaccines

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CDC will consult panel this week before finalizing recommendations for who should get boosters and when

US regulators on Wednesday signed off on extending Covid-19 boosters to Americans who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine and said anyone eligible for an extra dose can get a brand different from the one they received initially.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decisions mark a big step toward expanding the US booster campaign, which began with extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine last month.

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Deaths among the double vaccinated: what is behind the Australian statistics?

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A small number of people become severely unwell with Covid even if they are fully vaccinated, but the data suggests they mostly suffer from other conditions as well

On Tuesday, there were 356 Covid-19 patients being treated in intensive care wards throughout Australia. Of those, 25 were fully vaccinated.

While the data points to the extraordinary efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines in preventing people from becoming severely unwell, being hospitalised and dying, it does raise the question: why do a small number of people become seriously ill and, in rare cases, die, despite being fully vaccinated?

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Without Covid-19 jab, ‘reinfection may occur every 16 months’

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Reports grow of repeat infection as experts warn prevalence among school pupils puts older people at risk

As Covid-19 infections surge in England, people are increasingly reporting catching Sars-CoV-2 for a second or even third time.

New analysis has suggested that unvaccinated individuals should expect to be reinfected with Covid-19 every 16 months, on average.

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Covid live: no contingency measures for UK despite high deaths; Pfizer jab 93% effective in keeping children out of hospital

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UK reports further 223 deaths but UK government says no to plan B for now; US study shows success in preventing hospitalisation of 12- to 18-year-olds

The Czech Republic is embroiled in a political crisis with the ill-health of far-right president Miloš Zeman coinciding with a general election, and it is also seeing rising Covid numbers.

Robert Muller reports from Prague for Reuters that the Czech Republic detected 2,521 new cases of Covid yesterday, the highest daily tally since late April.

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Offshoot of Covid Delta variant on the rise in England

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UK Health Security Agency monitoring AY.4.2 as daily cases at highest level since late July

A newly detected coronavirus variant is on the rise in England, with the virus believed to be an offshoot of Delta.

According to a briefing from the UK Health Security Agency, released on Friday, “a Delta sublineage newly designated as AY.4.2 is noted to be expanding in England”, with the body adding that the variant is being monitored and assessed.

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Religious exemptions threaten to undermine US Covid vaccine mandates

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In California hundreds of public employees, including police and firefighters, are claiming ‘sincerely held’ objections to the vaccine

This month, California became the first state to require Covid-19 vaccines for all schoolchildren but the provision came with a loophole: students will be granted religious exemptions.

California, which currently has the lowest coronavirus case rate in the US, has been issuing a series of sweeping mandates, requiring that healthcare workers, state employees, care workers and schoolteachers staff all get the vaccine. But in each case, Californians are able to ask for personal belief exemptions – and they are doing so in droves.

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Afghanistan to restart polio vaccination programme with Taliban support

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The WHO and Unicef campaign will restart after three years, and the hardliners say they will assist and allow frontline female staff

Afghanistan will restart nationwide polio vaccinations after more than three years, as the new Taliban government agreed to assist the campaign and to allow women to participate as frontline workers, the UN said on Monday.

The World Health Organization and Unicef said the vaccination drive would begin on 8 November with Taliban support.

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Valneva Covid vaccine could be as effective as Oxford jab, study suggests

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Vaccine produced by French company uses inactivated Sars-CoV-2 virus and can be stored in fridge

A coronavirus jab based on traditional vaccine technology might be as effective as the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, data suggests, offering new hope for global vaccination efforts.

Vaccines currently approved for use in the UK deliver instructions for producing the coronavirus “spike” protein to cells in order, which triggers an immune response. However, the jab produced by the French pharmaceutical company Valneva involves delivering the whole – but inactivated – Sars-CoV-2 virus.

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