Vaccine Safety, Efficacy & Contrasts

A vaccinology expert explains why the number of breakthrough cases in Nova Scotia is a sign of just how effective COVID-19 vaccines are.

Concerns over waning immunity and SARS-CoV-2 variants have convinced some countries to deploy extra vaccine doses — but it’s not clear to scientists whether most people need them.

Massive UK study of COVID-19 cases shows that people who are jabbed have good immunity at first, but quickly become more vulnerable to the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.

Recipients of jab while pregnant recall confusing advice and ‘vicious’ social media comments

COVID-19 vaccines show excellent efficacy in clinical trials and effectiveness in real-world data, but some people still become infected with SARS-CoV-2 after vaccination. This study aimed to identify risk factors for post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 ...

Vaccines safe and immunogenic in most people with cancer.

It has not been shown that COVID-19 vaccines cause or accelerate cancer. Yet opponents of the vaccines say a new review article “has found that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could aid cancer development.” The review conclusions are mainly based on the misinterpretation of a study on mRNA cancer vaccines in mice.

A new analysis from Oxford Population Health has found that pregnant women that are 30 years old or more, overweight, of mixed ethnicity or have gestational diabetes have a greater risk of

Objectives This study aimed to investigate the impact of pregnancy and pre-existing comorbidities on COVID-19 infections and associated complications of hospitalisation and mortality in women of reproductive age (WRA). The study also compared the risk of severe COVID-19 complications between pregnant women (PW) and non-pregnant women (NPW) with and without pre-existing comorbidities. Special focus was placed on some understudied comorbidities of immunosuppression, chronic renal disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods The study utilized anonymized patient-related information for a population of 7,342,869 WRA from the Mexican Ministry of Health data repository on COVID-19. Descriptive variables were characterized using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) were used to assess the associations between risk factors and outcomes of hospitalisation and mortality. The study covered the entire COVID-19 pandemic period from January 30, 2020, to May 5, 2023. Results The findings revealed that PW were not more likely to get COVID-19 infections than NPW. PW with COVID-19 infections were more likely to require hospital admission, intubation treatments, and ICU admission compared to NPW with COVID-19. PW with immunosuppression had an increased odds ratio (aOR) of getting COVID-19 infections compared to NPW (PW: aOR = 1.0396; NPW: aOR = 0.8373). NPW with immunosuppression had higher risk of mortality (all-cause death: aOR = 1.7084; COVID-19-associated death: aOR = 1.4079) and hospitalisation (all-cause hospitalisation: aOR = 4.1328; COVID-19-associated hospitalisation: aOR = 3.0451) than NPW without immunosuppression. Renal disease was identified as a concerning pre-existing condition that increased the risks of COVID-19 associated mortality/hospitalizations and all-cause mortality/hospitalizations for both PW and NPW. NPW with renal disease had much higher odds ratio (aOR) of either COVID-19-associated-hospitalisations (NPW: aOR = 8.639; PW: aOR = 1.7603) or all-cause hospitalisations (NPW: aOR = 8.8594; PW: aOR = 1.786) than PW with renal disease. Conclusions This study provides valuable insights into the impact of pregnancy and pre-existing comorbidities on COVID-19 outcomes in WRA. The findings underscore the importance of considering demographic factors and pre-existing comorbidities in the management of PW with COVID-19. The study also highlights the need for further research to understand the unique impacts of different comorbidities, particularly immunosuppression and renal disease, on COVID-19 outcomes in WRA.

Canadian data suggests people who are pregnant face significantly higher risks of serious COVID-19 requiring hospitalization, ICU admission, or life support — a particular concern because pregnant people tend to have lower rates of vaccination.

Since first being identified in December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as an etiological agent behind Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), has caused three waves of a global pandemic, with a fourth in progress. ...

Officials said 3.9 per cent of the 400,413 COVID-19 cases between Dec. 14 and June 26 involved partially vaccinated individuals and 0.4 per cent were in those fully immunized.

Studies of a ‘future-proof’ vaccine candidate have shown that just one antigen can be modified to provide a broadly protective immune response in animals. The

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology say the “mosaic-8” vaccine could protect people from other coronaviruses, including SARS and MERS.

Bridge Consulting examines the opportunities and challenges ahead for China’s mRNA vaccine industry in the post-COVID era. Having eschewed foreign-made mRNA products from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna during the peak of the pandemic in the hope of securing domestic alternatives, China and its sizeable biopharma industry now face a challenging path ahead to catch up to…

China's labs have spent years trying to create an mRNA vaccine - its own shots were less effective.

Having access to an mRNA vaccine will be critical to China’s ongoing COVID response.

Beijing approves the first vaccine of its kind as it looks to jumpstart its flailing economy

TORONTO - Canada's gynecologists say COVID-19 vaccination "remains safe and strongly recommended" during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Recent research provides evidence to back the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women.

Pregnant people with COVID-19 are at increased risk of severe illness and death compared with non-pregnant females of reproductive age (aged 15–49 years).1 Additionally, COVID-19 during pregnancy is associated with increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth and stillbirth.1 When mRNA COVID-19 vaccines first became available in December, 2020, safety data in pregnancy were limited because pregnant people were excluded from pre-authorisation clinical trials.2 Lack of data and safety concerns contributed to initially low uptake among pregnant people, which continues to be lower than uptake among non-pregnant females of reproductive age.

Rare serious complications have been documented after COVID-19 vaccination as clinical research proceeded and new target populations, such as children and ‎pregnant women, were included. In this study, we attempted to review the literature relevant ...

Existing evidence on the safety and efficacy of getting a COVID vaccine in pregnancy all points the same way: the shot is important for maternal and fetal health.

Pregnant people experienced lower rates of side-effects from the COVID-19 vaccine than their counterparts who weren't pregnant, a new Canadian study suggests.

This article from the FDA compares broad U.S. recommendations on Covid vaccination with those from other countries and announces the adoption of an evidence-based approach to such recommendations.

A new South African study finds that the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is 70 percent effective at preventing hospitalizations due to the omicron variant.The research publ…

npj Vaccines - Comparing Moderna’s mRNA-1083 and Pfizer’s dual-target mRNA vaccines for influenza and COVID-19

Infectious disease experts say mRNA vaccines have been studied for decades, they are safe and effective, and were instrumental in saving lives during the COVID pandemic.