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Covid vaccines more and more obligatory at schools this fall

Covid vaccines increasingly mandatory at colleges this fall

The number of colleges and universities where students have to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is suddenly increasing.

In the past few days, Duke University, Brown, Northeastern University, University of Notre Dame, Syracuse University and Ithaca College announced that students returning to campus this fall must be fully vaccinated before the first day of class.

Cornell University, Rutgers University, Nova Southeastern University, Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas have also announced vaccinations for autumn 2021 will be mandatory.

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More institutions are likely to follow, according to Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

“Medical and religious exceptions are taken into account, but our locations and classrooms are expected to be predominantly vaccinated, which greatly reduces the risk of infection for everyone,” Cornell President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement.

Across the country, campuses struggled to stay open last year as fraternities, sororities, and off-campus parties suddenly spiked coronavirus cases among students. Meanwhile, students overwhelmingly declared distance learning to be a mediocre substitute for teaching.

As eligibility for Covid vaccines expands to include people 16 and older, schools need to consider how a vaccine mandate can help keep higher education back on track, Pasquerella said.

For those enrolled in school, there are already many vaccination requirements in place to help prevent the spread of diseases such as polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough.

All 50 states have at least some immunization mandates for children who attend public schools and even children who attend private schools and daycare. In each case there are medical exceptions, and in some cases there are also religious or philosophical exceptions.

“Adding Covid-19 vaccination to our student vaccination requirements will help provide our students with a safer, more robust college experience,” said Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers, in a statement.

At Rutgers, students can apply for a vaccination waiver for medical or religious reasons, and students participating in completely remote programs do not need to be vaccinated.

Still, the hesitation of the vaccine remains a powerful force, especially among parents.

According to a poll by ParentsTogether, a national advocacy group, in March, only 58% of parents or caregivers said they would vaccinate their children against Covid, although 70% of parents said they would vaccinate themselves.

According to ParentsTogether, low-income households and minority groups were even less likely to vaccinate their children.

Other studies have shown that blacks and Latinos are more skeptical about vaccines than the entire US population due to historical abuse in medicine. Racial differences in vaccine distribution have also been observed in the US

“Colleges need to be one step ahead and think about how this will play out,” said Bethany Robertson, co-founder and co-director of ParentsTogether.

“We need to start the conversation with parents now to build trust and understanding of how vaccinating children against Covid-19 will protect their health, the health of their families and the health of our communities,” said Robertson.

However, in addition to students, parents, and community members, schools must also weigh the interests of faculty, staff, lawmakers, and trustees, Pasquerella said.

“It’s complicated,” she said. “No matter what decision you make, one group will ultimately be dissatisfied.”

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Muchos niños con síndrome inflamatorio grave tuvieron covid, pero no lo sabían

Many Children With Serious Inflammatory Syndrome Had No Covid Symptoms

There were 24 deaths recorded, across all age groups. In the study, there was no information on whether the patients had underlying illnesses, but the doctors and researchers reported that young people with MIS-C were generally healthy before and were much more likely to be healthy than the relatively small number of young people. who suffered from serious illnesses due to initial covidial infections.

Of the 1,075 patients for whom information about initial Covid disease was available, only 265 showed symptoms at this point. They were more likely to be older: their mean age was 11 years, while the mean age of patients with asymptomatic covid infections was 8 years. However, this could be because “younger children cannot express their concerns with the same efficiency,” said Blumenthal. who co-wrote an editorial about the study.

“In reality, we don’t know if there are actually fewer symptoms in the very young population,” he concluded.

It is also unclear why the study found that young people were more prone to some of the most serious cardiac complications in the first MIS-C wave from March 1 to July 1, 2020. DeBiasi said this was inconsistent with the experience at his hospital where “the children in the second wave were sick”.

The study documented two waves of MIS-C cases that followed an increase in total coronavirus cases for a month or more. “The third-to-last surge in the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be leading to yet another MIS-C surge that can involve both urban and rural communities,” the authors wrote.

The study found that most of the states with the highest MIS-C case rate per population were in the Northeast, where the first increase in cases occurred, and in the South. In contrast, most states with high rates of children with COVID-19 by population but low rates of MIS-C were in the Midwest and West. Although the concentration of cases spread from large cities to small towns over time, it was not as pronounced as the general trends in the pandemic, the authors said.

Blumenthal said the geographic pattern might reflect that “understanding of disease complications” was not widespread in all regions, or that many states with lower MIS-C rates have less ethnically diverse populations. “It could also have something to do with the Covid itself, although we don’t know,” he said. “At the moment we don’t know how the variants necessarily affect children.”

The study set only the strictest criteria for MIS-C, with the exception of approximately 350 reported cases that met the CDC definition of the syndrome but had a negative antibody test or had primarily respiratory symptoms. DeBiasi said there are also many likely cases of MIS-C that are not reported to the CDC because they do not meet all of the official criteria.

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CDC chief says vaccinating alone will not cease Michigan Covid surge

CDC chief says vaccinating alone won't stop Michigan Covid surge

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer receives a dose of Pfizer Covid vaccine at Ford Field during an event to encourage Michigan residents to receive the vaccine on April 6, 2021 in Detroit, Michigan.

Matthew Hatcher | Getty Images

A senior health official in the Biden government said Monday Michigan should “shut things down” as it grapples with a staggering increase in coronavirus cases.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said an increase in Covid-19 vaccinations alone is not the answer – even as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer urges the federal government to send her more vaccines.

“I think if we try to vaccinate our way out of what’s going on in Michigan, we’d be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work and actually have the effects,” Walensky said during a White House briefing the pandemic. It took several weeks for the vaccinations to kick in and the number of cases decreased, she noted.

The state’s best bet, Walensky said, “is to really close things up.”

Walensky urged Michigan to “go back to where we were last spring, last summer, and turn things off, smooth the curve, reduce contact with each other” and step up testing and contact tracking efforts. The number of cases in Michigan has risen dramatically in the past few weeks. For the past week, an average of 7,359 new cases per day have been recorded and, according to Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic cases were nearing Thanksgiving. Deaths are also increasing.

“What we really have to do in situations like this is turn things off,” said Walensky.

Whitmer, a Democrat in a politically violet state where shutdowns were particularly controversial, was reluctant to order new restrictions in response to the recent surge in cases.

Last week, she asked residents of her state to voluntarily restrict their activities and urged schools to temporarily stop personal learning. However, she stressed that “these are, to be very clear, not orders, mandates or requirements”.

No state has more daily infections per capita than Michigan, according to a CNBC analysis of the Johns Hopkins University data.

Much of the current surge comes from a highly infectious variant of Covid, B.1.1.7, the most common strain of virus in the United States today

Whitmer on Friday called on President Joe Biden’s administration to flood their state with vaccines and called on the government to “develop a vaccination program to help states like Michigan”. The government is reportedly ready to transfer some resources to the state, but not vaccines.

Without contacting Whitmer directly, Walensky pushed back calls for additional vaccines to be shipped to states with severe outbreaks.

“There are different tools that we can use for different periods of time,” Walensky said at the meeting on Monday.

“We know that if vaccines are in our arms today, we won’t see any effect from those vaccines for two to six weeks, depending on the vaccine,” she said. “So when you have an acute situation, an extraordinary number of cases like Michigan, the answer isn’t necessarily to give a vaccine. In fact, we know the vaccine will have a delayed response.”

“We also need this vaccine in other places,” said Walensky. “If we vaccinate today, we’ll have an impact in six weeks and we don’t know where the next place will be to increase.”

– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.

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Entertainment

They’re Sacred Areas for Spain’s Flamenco Scene. Many Gained’t Survive Covid.

They’re Sacred Spaces for Spain’s Flamenco Scene. Many Won’t Survive Covid.

MADRID – They are often in dark, cavern-like rooms with a stage between the tables and chairs of the guests. These little clubs, called tablaos, acted as stepping stones for generations of flamenco artists in Spain to launch professional careers, much like the way many jazz musicians first became aware of the public in clubs like New Orleans.

But this intimate setup, designed to bring the audience close to the stage, has resulted in most tablaos failing to reopen, even after Spain lifted its toughest pandemic lockdown restrictions last summer. The situation has created an existential struggle for these cherished institutions at the heart of a national art form.

Juan Manuel del Rey, president of the national association of tablaos, said that if the government does not step in with more financial support, “We are now on the path to extinction.”

“You cannot work economically when you have almost more employees and artists than spectators,” he said.

While many theaters in Spain have reopened since last summer with reduced audience capacity, social distancing and other rules, this approach for tablaos has not been financially viable. Since the pandemic began, 34 of the national association’s 93 tablaos have permanently closed their doors, del Rey said.

Their disappearance comes when flamenco experienced one of its brightest moments, thanks in part to a tourism boom in Spain in recent years. Before the pandemic, foreign visitors flocked to the tablaos to discover a Spanish tradition that UNESCO is celebrating in the world’s intangible cultural heritage. After seven years of growth, the number of foreign visitors to Spain fell to 19 million last year, from almost 84 million in 2019.

The Spanish government donated a group of tablaos worth € 232,000, about $ 275,000, last year as part of more than € 2 million in support of the flamenco sector during the pandemic – a move the Ministry of Culture in a Described email as an “extraordinary effort”. However, tablao managers say the spate of recent closings shows that support was too little and too late.

In recent years, tablaos have provided work for 95 percent of Spanish flamenco artists, said del Rey. And many artists say they appreciate the creative benefits of working in informal places where they can test new ideas in front of an audience as they work towards bigger production.

Performing in a tablao “is something very unique because it is a place where I can reconnect with my inner feelings and share those emotions directly with the public,” said 35-year-old Jesús Carmona, who last year prestigious national dance award of Spain won in an interview.

“It also feels like coming home,” said Carmona, who first appeared in a tablao at the age of 10 and has since brought flamenco to many of the world’s greatest stages. “I kind of grew up in tablaos and I believe that you should never turn your back on the people and places that have helped you advance.”

On Saturday he danced in front of only 32 people in the Corral de la Morería, one of the most famous flamenco clubs in Madrid. The director of the venue is del Rey, the president of the national association. The club was founded by his father in the 1950s when tablaos began to flourish in Madrid and other parts of Spain.

Although he hosted this one-off show for Carmona on Saturday, he has otherwise closed the house since March last year. Del Rey limited audience numbers for the performance to a quarter of the 120 people the tablao could fit in before the pandemic when it also held two performances a night.

In Las Tablas, another tablao in Madrid, the venue’s two managers said they could have reopened their venue in February by taking on much of the work previously done by five employees on leave.

“We now also had to become a cleaning lady and waitress,” said Antonia Moya, one of the managers who was once a flamenco dancer herself. “This situation is simply not sustainable, but I also cannot imagine my life without this tablao and this flamenco.”

Some overseas visitors have managed to find their way to the fighting tablaos despite pandemic restrictions.

Last week the German student Sabina Reiter and a British friend attended her first flamenco performance in Las Tablas. “I love all kinds of music and dance and it feels wonderful not only to be able to spend an evening with my boyfriend in Madrid, but also to discover flamenco up close and not just on television,” said Reiter.

It’s that kind of response that makes the small venues so important to the art of performing. Jesús Fernández, a flamenco dancer who appeared this month on a show he also directed at the Centro Cultural Flamenco Tablao in Madrid, said such venues are “the best place for a flamenco dancer to try things out and forge an identity because you can improvise and see the public react in ways that are simply impossible in the more rigid format of a theater show. “

However, the reality of the pandemic has been inevitable for many tablaos across Spain, including the famous Palacio del Flamenco of Barcelona, ​​which recently closed its doors for good.

In Madrid last month, an outdoor farewell performance was held at the centuries-old Villa Rosa, whose colorful tiled walls have been shown in films by Pedro Almodóvar and other Spanish directors, combined with a protest rally where participants placed flowers and candles at the entrance.

Such losses mean Spain is in danger of losing “the university of our flamenco,” said Rosana de Aza, a flamenco show producer who has run tablaos in Seville and Madrid. “In the tablao, our artists were able to put everything they learned into practice and turn their passion into a profession.”

With the remaining tablaos struggling to keep paying rent for their closed venues, some managers believe their survival relies on raising awareness of the importance of flamenco among locals, some of whom have avoided tablaos as tourist venues.

“Some people, especially younger ones, were not aware of the importance of flamenco and tablaos for our collective identity, and not just for tourists,” said Mimo Agüero. the director of the Tablao de Carmen in Barcelona.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “we sometimes only realize the importance of what we can lose when we have actually lost it.”

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Business

WHO says Covid pandemic is rising ‘exponentially’ at greater than 4.Four million new circumstances per week

WHO says Covid pandemic is growing 'exponentially' at more than 4.4 million new cases a week

Paramedics from Bochnia Hospital wear protective equipment when transporting a patient suffering from COVID-19 to a local hospital in Bochnia, Poland on March 17, 2021.

Omar Marques | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The World Health Organization said Monday that the coronavirus pandemic is now “growing exponentially.” More than 4.4 million new Covid-19 cases were reported in the past week.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the agency’s technical director for Covid-19, said “we are at a critical juncture in the pandemic” as some countries are easing restrictions, even if the number of new cases per week is more than eight times higher than before a year.

“This is not where we want to be in a pandemic 16 months from now, where we have demonstrated control measures. It is now the time when everyone has to take stock and do a reality check of what we have to do,” said she said during a press conference. “Vaccines and vaccinations are going online, but they are not yet available in all parts of the world.”

Covid-19 cases worldwide rose 9% last week – the seventh straight weekly increase – and the death toll rose 5%. She urged governments to help their citizens implement pandemic security measures.

Last month, WHO officials warned of a steady spike in cases and deaths in Covid-19, urging people to adhere to mask mandates and social distancing rules as the world enters a critical phase of the pandemic.

The virus is “stronger, it’s faster” as new varieties emerge that are easier to spread and more deadly than the original wild strain of the virus, said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO director of health emergencies, on March 31. “We all have problems” and fed up with restrictive bans, he said.

India overtook Brazil as the second worst infected country after the US after Covid-19 cases continued to rise across India, where a double mutant variant that researchers say may be more contagious has emerged and is spreading rapidly.

In the US, B.1.1.7, the highly contagious variant of coronavirus first identified in the UK is now the most common circulating strain, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last week.

Hospitals are also seeing an increase in admission for young people, she said.

Walensky said the US needs to speed up its vaccination efforts, which averaged 3.1 million shots a day. “We must continue to vaccinate as many Americans as possible every day,” Walensky said, adding that new cases and deaths will decline.

WHO urged the public and world leaders to continue to adopt safety measures, including social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding crowded rooms.

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Covid variant from South Africa was capable of ‘break by means of’ Pfizer vaccine in Israeli research

Israeli data suggest mass vaccinations led to drop in severe Covid cases, CDC study finds

An Israeli health worker from Maccabi Healthcare Services prepares to deliver a dose of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine in Tel Aviv on February 24, 2021.

Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images

The coronavirus variant, first discovered in South Africa, may evade some of the protection provided by the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, according to a new Israeli study that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Clalit, the largest health organization in Israel, examined nearly 400 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 after receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. They compared it to the same number of people who were infected and not vaccinated.

The researchers found that the prevalence of the South African variant known as B.1.351 was about eight times higher in patients who received two doses of the vaccine than in those who were not vaccinated. The data, released online over the weekend, suggest that B.1.351 may “break through” the vaccine’s protection better than the original strain, the researchers in the study wrote.

“Based on patterns in the general population, we would have expected only one case of the South African variant, but we saw eight,” Professor Adi Stern, who led the research, told The Times of Israel. “We can say it’s less effective, but more research is needed to see exactly how much.”

CNBC asked Pfizer to comment on the study.

The new data comes as public health officials are increasingly concerned that highly contagious variants, studies have shown can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, could slow global advances in the pandemic.

Last month, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky issued a terrible warning, telling reporters that she feared the United States was facing “impending doom” as variants spread and daily Covid-19 cases rise again, threatening to move more people to the US send hospital.

“I’m going to stop here, I’m going to lose the script, and I’m going to think about the recurring feeling I have before the impending doom,” she said on March 29, so much promise and potential where we are and so much reason to Hope, but right now I’m scared. “

Israel launched its national vaccination campaign in December, prioritizing people aged 60 and over, healthcare workers, and people with comorbid illnesses. By February, it was the world leader in vaccinations, vaccinating millions of its citizens against the virus.

In January, Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health signed a collaboration agreement to monitor the real effects of its vaccine.

The researchers found that the study’s main limitation was sample size. B.1,351 only made up about 1% of all Covid-19 cases, they said. B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in Great Britain, is more common.

As the variants spread, drug manufacturers tested whether a third dose would offer more protection.

In February, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they were testing a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.

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The Rising Politicization of Covid Vaccines

The Rising Politicization of Covid Vaccines

President Biden on Tuesday called on governors to allow coronavirus vaccinations for all adults within the next two weeks in an attempt to hasten a goal he had previously set for May 1.

However, recent polls and political tides, especially in red states, suggest that just making the vaccine available may not be enough if the country is to achieve herd immunity. Surveys show that a sizable minority of skeptics remain cautious about being vaccinated, with questions about the safety of the vaccine at the center of their doubts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said the country shouldn’t expect to achieve herd immunity – where a disease effectively stops moving freely between infected people – until at least 75 percent of Americans are vaccinated.

Some states and companies are starting to treat vaccination records as a kind of passport. For example, many cruise lines require proof of vaccination for passengers, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced last month the creation of the Excelsior Pass, which will allow citizens to easily show proof of vaccination using a smartphone. Proof of shooting is now required to enter some major venues as per current New York reopening guidelines.

But the political picture is different elsewhere. On Monday, Texas’s Greg Abbott, after Florida’s Ron DeSantis, became the second Republican governor to sign an executive order preventing state agencies and many companies from requiring consumers to be vaccinated.

Dr. Fauci made it clear yesterday that he and the Biden administration would likely stay away from it. “I doubt that the federal government will be the main driver for a vaccination pass concept,” he told the Politico Dispatch podcast. “You can make things fair and equitable, but I doubt the federal government will be the leading element of that.”

According to surveys, it could take a while to vaccinate the entire country.

Almost half of American adults said they received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to an Axios / Ipsos poll published Tuesday. However, there is reason to believe that the surge in vaccinations may soon wear off. Among those who did not get a shot, people were more likely to say they would wait a year or more (25 percent) than they would receive the vaccine within a few weeks of its availability (19 percent). Thirty-one percent of Republicans said they wouldn’t get the shot at all. Partly driving style that is deeply rooted among white evangelical Christians, a core part of the republican base. Surveys have shown that they are among the most anti-vaccine populations.

A separate survey published Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post found that more than a third of the country has little confidence that Covid-19 vaccines have been “properly tested for safety and effectiveness.” Concerning vaccine skepticism, health workers kept an even view of the rest of the population: thirty-six percent of them were not confident.

When it comes to trust, there is no greater measure than whether you would give something to your child. Dr. Fauci has made it clear that herd immunity is not possible for young people without widespread vaccination. Therefore, every destination for the country must include these as well. But nearly half of all parents interviewed by Axios / Ipsos said they probably wouldn’t come first to get their children a vaccine as soon as it becomes available.

Fifty-two percent of respondents with a child under 18 at home said they would likely use the vaccine once their child’s age group became an option, but 48 percent said they would not.

But even as some vaccine skepticism subsides, Americans report that they get together in far greater numbers. Fifty-five percent of the country said they had been with family or friends more than at any time in the past week. 45 percent said they had recently gone out to eat.

Thirty-six percent said they had not practiced social distancing at all in the past week.

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Analysts level to promising pipeline regardless of Covid vaccine jitters

AstraZeneca issues updated phase three trial data

A healthcare worker prepares to inject a vaccine against AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Eloisa Lopez

The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine controversy has sparked some investor concerns about its stock, according to Jefferies – but it’s not all bad news for the UK pharmaceutical company.

Australia, the Philippines and the African Union have either contained or abandoned proposed Oxford-AstraZeneca University coronavirus purchases due to possible links to blood clots.

This came after UK health and vaccine regulators issued a change to guidelines on Wednesday on who should get the shot, suggesting that those under 30 should be given an alternative vaccine. Both UK and European Medicines Regulators (MHRA and EMA, respectively) have stressed that the benefits of the sting still outweigh the risks, but EU leaders have yet to agree on a common policy on the shots.

In a research report earlier this week, Jefferies Research Analyst Peter Welford said he received a pushback from customers because he recently decided to buy AstraZeneca’s shares to buy based on the “noise” about the vaccine .

This is despite the fact that the company has promised that the vaccine will be non-profit making for the “duration of the pandemic” and that it will be offered to low- and middle-income countries on a permanent basis.

The overall risk of blood clots has been estimated at around one in 250,000 and British policymakers and health experts have rushed to defend the vaccine in recent days.

Welford noted that, despite the company’s “notable successes” in gaining regulatory approval and accelerating the manufacture of its profitable vaccine, safety concerns expressed in Europe “are of paramount concern to many generalists.”

“We see FDA emergency use approval and UK / EU dose distribution agreements as key to moving the debate beyond the COVID-19 vaccine, despite concerns that it will be a distraction for management,” he explained.

The vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, Europe and other countries, and hundreds of millions of doses have been ordered from countries around the world. However, no emergency permit has yet been issued in the United States

Jefferies thought outside the box and upgraded AstraZeneca to buy in mid-March. He noted its “compelling growth profile within the EU pharmaceuticals industry” and its relative discount based on the expected strategic benefits of the $ 37 billion acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter.

Welford defended the move by highlighting that 15 times the company’s estimated price-earnings ratio by 2022 – a mechanism for determining whether a company’s stock is fairly valued – is similar to its peers despite its “leading growth profile” .

Promising pipeline

AstraZeneca was trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday at £ 7,337 a share and Jefferies has set a price target of £ 8,850. In Wednesday’s research note, Welford again pointed to several catalysts in the pipeline that could drive stocks higher in the coming months.

The phase 3 study data for the breast cancer treatment enhertu is expected to be available in the second half of 2021, along with possible approvals for the anifrolumab drug for the treatment of lupus. Jefferies is also anticipating approvals for the asthma drug tezepelumab in the first half of 2022 after “impressive” phase three data and a long delayed approval for the anemia candidate Roxadustat in the second half of 2021. Updated first and second phase data from Lung cancer datopotamab is also expected soon.

In a recent announcement, Damien Conover, Director of Healthcare Equity Research at Morningstar, said of AstraZeneca, “The strong overall innovation that has come from the vaccine and pipeline strengthens our beliefs in the company’s vast moat.”

He added that AstraZeneca had “made progress in addressing areas of unmet medical need” and forecast that data from the company’s Phase 3 trial of Farxiga treatment for conserved heart failure would likely lead to approval of the drug.

Conover rated anifrolumab as a “higher regulatory risk”, while roxadustat was rated as a “medium risk” and tezepelumab as a “lower risk”.

“In the longer term, we are encouraged by the robustness of the early-stage pipeline and the opportunities to develop combinations with Farxiga appear well-positioned to address several major cardiometabolic indications where unmet medical needs remain high,” said Conover. He added that Morningstar also remains bullish on AstraZeneca’s cancer drugs pipeline.

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Are you able to combine and match Covid vaccines? Here is what we all know up to now

Can you mix and match Covid vaccines? Here's what we know so far

With new guidelines following reports of rare blood clots, the global medical community is evaluating whether it is possible and safe to give two different vaccine candidates to the same person.

This week, the European Medicines Agency and the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency found a possible link between the AstraZeneca University Oxford vaccine and very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low platelets.

Neither the European nor the UK health authorities recommended age restrictions on the use of the vaccine. However, the UK regulator noted that the data suggests a slightly higher incidence is reported in the younger age groups of adults, so recommends that these evolving findings be taken into account when using the vaccine.

The EMA also reiterated that the vaccine is safe and effective, but noted that the use of the vaccine at national level will also take into account the pandemic situation and availability of vaccines in each country.

As a result, the UK, various EU countries and other governments around the world have recommended the use of alternative vaccines for younger people.

With the change in guidelines, younger people are now asking, if I’ve already had one dose of the vaccine, should I come back for the second?

Governments have different answers to this question. Health professionals generally agree that mixing and matching vaccines should be safe. However, clinical studies are still ongoing.

Instructions vary

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization advises: “Anyone who has received a first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of age, should continue to be offered a second dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The second dose will be important for longer lasting protection against COVID-19. “

In contrast, the French health authority recommends that people under the age of 55 who received their first dose of AstraZeneca should be given Pfizer or Moderna for their second shot. In these cases, a break of 12 weeks between these first and second recordings is recommended. The regulator stated that if you had the first AstraZeneca burst and then switched to an mRNA burst for the second, there was no reason to fear certain adverse events.

Germany followed a similar path. The German vaccine committee recommended people under 60 who had received a shot of AstraZeneca jab to opt for a different vaccine for their second dose.

The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann (R), will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine against the novel corona virus in Stuttgart on March 19, 2021.

MARIJAN MURAT | AFP | Getty Images

Try running

“The guidelines are the guidelines. But, as a basic immunologist, can I see an argument as to why it would be unsafe or bad to mix and match vaccines? No, I can’t see any at all. It would still produce great immunity. None Problem with that, “Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told CNBC’s” Squawk Box Europe “on Friday.

Andrew Freedman, an infectious disease reader at Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, told CNBC, “Studies are currently underway to examine the concept of mix and match. There is no theoretical reason why this should not be feasible or safe, but we have to wait for these studies. “

Regarding a possible booster dose that might be needed in the fall or winter, he added, “I don’t think there is any real concern that you would not be able to take two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with either of the others administer messenger RNA vaccines. ”

Meanwhile, Franz-Werner Haas, CEO of vaccine maker CureVac, told CNBC this week, “The good news is that all of these vaccines code for the same spike protein, so there are clinical trials and data that you mix and match mix can fit these different vaccine platforms. ”

“In that regard, I have high hopes that this will work out quite well,” he added.

CureVac’s own candidate is still in clinical trials. The data read is on track for the second quarter of this year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claim that the safety and effectiveness of a mixed line of products have not been rated.

Several studies are examining the effects of mixing vaccines. The UK started a study in February that specifically mixed the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine with the Pfizer BioNtech shot. The results are not expected to be available until summer. Independently of this, studies are carried out in which a combination of the vaccines AstraZeneca-Oxford and Russian Sputnik V is examined.

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How Covid protected bubble could be created on cruises

How Covid safe bubble can be created on cruises

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who advised cruise lines on Covid protocols, told CNBC on Friday that he believed a safe environment could be created on the ships.

Gottlieb’s comments came a day after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and demanded that the public health agency see cruise ships leave US ports immediately allowed to sail.

Gottlieb, co-chair of an advisory board for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean, told Squawk Box that companies have reasonable guidelines to prepare for when to cease operations after a Covid hiatus that is longer than longer allowed to record one year.

“They are committed to things like mandatory screening of passengers. Norwegian Cruise Line recently announced that they will require vaccination of all of their passengers,” said Gottlieb, who served as the US Food and Drug Administration representative from 2017-2019 – The state was active in the Trump Administration.

Gottlieb also noted that social distancing was possible on the ships, saying “these cruises will not be operated at full capacity.”

“When you start implementing all of these public health recommendations, you start creating an environment that could be pretty safe,” he explained. “I believe you can create a safe bubble around this experience, especially if you compare it to other vacation experiences where you have no control over the surroundings,” he added.

Cruise ships were a hotspot for Covid outbreaks in the early days of the global health crisis last year, leading the CDC to issue their no-sail order in mid-March 2020. While the CDC has issued some guidelines for cruise lines as part of its conditional sailing to help achieve this, the agency has not yet set a date when operators can resume voyage from U.S. ports.

In response to a request from CNBC to comment on Gottlieb’s comments, the CDC said via email that it “has an obligation to work with the cruise industry and seaport partners to continue the cruise on the phased approach set out in the conditional sailing order This goal is in line with the desire for resumption of passenger operations in the United States, expressed by many of the major cruise lines and travelers, hopefully by midsummer. “

However, the cruise industry is growing impatient after companies borrowed billions in debt and issued new shares to fund operations while sailing revenues dried up. Late last month, a trade group asked the CDC to allow a gradual restart in early July. Operators have stated that they are seeing strong demand for bookings, suggesting that people are starting to feel comfortable returning to cruises.

In a CNBC interview on Wednesday, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald pointed out differences between restrictions in America and other countries around the world where cruises have resumed in some locations.

“A person can fly from the US to another country today. Get on a cruise ship and then return to the US, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not,” Donald said at Closing Bell. “But here in the US at the time, even if you were vaccinated, you couldn’t get on a cruise ship.”

Donald commended the Biden government for their work in distributing Covid vaccinations in the US, where approximately 20% of the population is fully vaccinated. He believes the cruise industry and CDC can work together to reach an agreement on sailing.

“The government has made great strides on vaccinations and has taken command of this matter,” said Donald. “We are confident that we can work together and come up with something that would be a workable solution and hope we have some more sailing out of the US this summer.”

Richard Fain, CEO of Royal Caribbean, told CBS This Morning on Thursday that he would like the cruise industry to be treated “very much like the airlines” that have been allowed to fly. However, Fain is optimistic about the possible resumption of U.S. crossings in the second half of this year, citing President Joe Biden’s goal of getting society back to normal by July 4th.

– CNBC’s Katie Tsai contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion Inc., and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.