Merck Enlists Celebrity Couple and Their Kids to Encourage Childhood Vaccines + More
Merck Enlists Celebrity Couple and Their Kids to Encourage Childhood Vaccines in Public Service Campaign
Not making the bed during the pandemic is fine. But skipping important vaccines for your kids is not, say actress Gabrielle Union-Wade and her husband, former NBA champion Dwyane Wade, in a new Merck & Co. public service announcement.
The celebrity parents and their children star in the new “Don’t Skip” campaign from Merck and non-profit organization Vaccinate Your Family.
In the PSA campaign, the couple appear with their children in lighthearted spots talking about how they decided as a family to skip some “old rules and routines” during the pandemic. They tell their teenaged daughter Zaya, who passes by as she’s taking selfies, that she can skip making her bed, for instance.
Reports of Injuries Among 12- to 17-Year-Olds Following COVID Vaccines More Than Triple in 1 Week, VAERS Latest Data Show
The number of reported adverse events following COVID vaccines continues to climb, according to data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data comes directly from reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed.
Every Friday, VAERS makes public all vaccine injury reports received as of a specified date, usually about a week prior to the release date. Today’s data show that between Dec. 14, 2020 and May 21, a total of 227,521 total adverse events were reported to VAERS, including 4,406 deaths — an increase of 205 over the previous week — and 21,537 serious injuries, up 3,009 since last week.
New York City Is Sending Vaccination Buses to Beaches and Parks This Memorial Day Weekend
New York City is posting buses at beaches and parks over the Memorial Day weekend offering free COVID-19 vaccinations, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
“We’re going to go the extra mile, whatever it takes,” said de Blasio. “You’re going to see our vaccine buses out all over New York City the next few days.”
He added, “Go, get vaccinated, hit the beach. Real simple.”
New Yorkers can expect to see buses at spots including Brighton Beach, the Rockaways, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Central Park and Governors Island, he said.
Woman Regrets Getting J&J Vaccine After Suffering Blood Clots, German Scientists Say They May Know What’s Causing Clots
An Oregon woman developed rare blood clots after receiving Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID vaccine earlier this month.
Barbara Buchanan chose J&J because it was a one-dose shot, and because experts declared the vaccine was safe after they lifted a 10-day pause, KGW8 reported. The pause in the U.S. was triggered by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigation into reports of rare blood clots.
Buchanan said she now regrets her decision. The 63-year-old first noticed symptoms six to eight days after her shot.
Henry Ford Health System Enrolling Children for Moderna COVID Vaccine Study
Henry Ford Health System is enrolling children for a Moderna vaccine study. Participation is open to children ages 6 months to 11 years old.
Henry Ford is the only enrollment site in Michigan for the vaccine study. The KidCOVE study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine in children.
These Florida Concert Tickets Are $18 if You’re Vaccinated, $1,000 if You’re Not
A concert promoter in Florida came up with a creative way to encourage his community to get vaccinated by offering $18 discounted tickets to an upcoming show for those who have been vaccinated — and charging $999.99 per ticket for those who have not.
Paul Williams of Leadfoot Promotions in Tampa Bay said he came up with the idea as vaccination appointments in his state opened up to all, and while trying to plan a concert that people could safely enjoy after over a year of living through a pandemic that shut down most live events with crowds.
“I also wanted it to be a vaccine drive to get the fence-sitters off the fence,” Williams told ABC News. “I wanted to get the kids that want to go to shows to go out and get their shots.”
Johnson & Johnson Single-Shot COVID Vaccine Approved for Use in UK
The UK’s medicines regulator has approved the use of a fourth COVID vaccine, as cases of the variant of concern first detected in India rise.
The jab from US-based pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson is considered a key tool in the global arsenal against COVID, given it is a one-dose regimen, unlike the the other three vaccines approved for UK use that require two shots to provide a high level of protection.
The vaccine is based on an approach J&J used successfully against Ebola. It is similar to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, but delivers a protein from the spike of the coronavirus through a human common cold instead of a chimp adenovirus.
FDA Official Says Heart Issue Possibly Linked to COVID Vaccines Is Rare, Would Inoculate Own Kids
A heart inflammation condition in adolescents and young adults who received COVID-19 vaccines appears to be very rare and it remains unclear if the issue is actually related to the shots, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator, Dr. Peter Marks, said Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine safety group said last week it was looking into a condition called myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle, in a “relatively few” people who received COVID vaccinations.
The U.S. May Never Hit the Herd Immunity Threshold. That’s OK.
Half of Americans have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and with children ages 12 to 15 now eligible for immunizations, the United States appears to be getting the coronavirus pandemic under control. But despite the tremendous progress, it’s still not clear that the nation will ever truly reach the herd immunity threshold — the point at which enough people in a population are immune to a pathogen to limit its spread.
More important, we may not need to achieve that goal in order to escape the pandemic.
Reaching the herd immunity threshold doesn’t guarantee that people cannot be infected by a pathogen. But the closer a community gets, the more transmission slows down, which benefits everyone. The current rate of new COVID-19 cases in the United States right now shows this phenomenon in action. Forty percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, and the number of new cases of COVID-19 reported each day is now one-tenth of what it was at the pandemic’s apex in January.
If COVID-19 Vaccines Are Free, Why Are Some People Getting Bills?
The U.S. federal government prepaid for enough vaccines to cover every American, regardless of whether they have insurance, but some people still are being charged. Why?
… Providers can seek reimbursement from a person’s health insurance for a “vaccine administration fee,” but individuals aren’t supposed to receive a bill.
“No one should be paying for the vaccine, but we are seeing a lot of inappropriate charges,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told ABC News.
Nearly Half of Unvaccinated Adults Worry About Missing Work Because of Side Effects
Nearly half of adults in the United States who have not received a coronavirus vaccine are concerned about missing work as a result of side effects from the shot, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released this month. The findings highlight a key obstacle to vaccination, particularly for the 25 percent of American workers who do not have any paid sick leave.
Economic stimulus legislation created tax credits that reimburse some employers for granting time off to get vaccinated or recover from side effects. But employers are not required to provide this leave. Although many employers are offering time off for employees to receive a vaccine, it’s the recovery that has workers more worried.
EU Regulator Endorses Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 Vaccine for Adolescents
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Europe’s medicines regulator on Friday backed the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 12, paving way for a broader roll-out in the region after similar clearances in the United States and Canada.
The European Medicines Agency’s endorsement comes weeks after it began evaluating extending use of the vaccine, developed with Germany’s BioNTech, to include 12- to 15-year olds. It is already being used in the European Union for those aged 16 and older.
Top 15 Highest-Paid Biopharma CEOs of 2020
For many pharma companies in 2020, the name of the game was COVID-19. Last year, the industry moved at breakneck speeds, forging unheard-of collaborations to deliver vaccines and therapeutics across the finish line.
More than a few of those pandemic players handed their chief executives some serious pay bumps for that work, but COVID-19 wasn’t all there was to 2020’s executive pay saga.
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